Please try to help out- this is a serious issue- Page 3

[iflitifloat]

Posted: 5/15/05 at 6:11pm

If this summer ends up being anything like last summer, it won't be much of an issue anymore by September. We lost a lot of "adult" posters last summer; some returned and some did not. I know this is coming across as age-ist, and truly, that is not how I mean it. But last summer, the board took on the look and feel of a teenage chat room...and there is nothing inherently wrong with that. Quite a few younger posters, home from school for the summer, were racking up hundreds of posts in a single day. ( And yes, there are adults who have done that, too.) It became so frustrating looking for a thread I might possibly be appropriate for or interested in, that I stopped logging in. And I wasn't alone. I'm not saying that threads started by people my age are better than threads started by people my kid's age. But I *am* saying that frequently, what happens to be of interest to one group, is not at all to the other. With school out for summer, the ratio of "student" threads to "adult" threads gets even more out of balance. When I would come home from work and find that the entire board filled with stuff I couldn't relate to, I wondered what the hell I was doing and logged off.

I don't know. The suggestion of a third board, as I see it, shouldn't be seen as an insult to anyone...just as another option.

And for what it's worth, Penguin, I DO see your point. I'm not sure what the answer is.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 5/15/05 at 6:36pm

i would like to speak on behalf of everyone on the board, except those who chose to post immediately after i post and deny their affiliation with my viewpoint and/or those who pm me to ask me to remove their names (which will not appear here or anywhere) from the all encompassing list of people whose views are represented here and perhaps those who would like to not be associated with my viewpoint but who are too weak willed to say so, when i say, luv you, mean it, namo, l-u-v, luv.

we now return you to your regularly scheduled pissing and moaning.

[smartpenguin78]

Posted: 5/15/05 at 6:48pm

I see your point as well ifiltifloat, I will be working all summer and not in much, but I can see it being discouraging to see the entire board filled with threads you have no interest in (like one of Namos bizzare thread attack days). Though I don't see this particular issue being solved by a "student board."
Maybe if regardless of age we had more restrictions on what can be posted at all? I don't like how that would change the dynamic of the board, but if large numbers of the members are indeed being driven away a non-agist solution like that would at least treat us all equally.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 5/15/05 at 6:51pm

equal schmequal, ban the brats...and beat on them with a baseball bat, oh yeah.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/15/05 at 6:56pm

"Although I suspect at this point I speak for many others when I say that, I won't say that I do. It's my own personal feeling. Mine alone. But probably not."

How unlike Rath to want to have it both ways! Ahahahahahaha! It goes without saying I think Rath is a bit dim. Oh look! I said it. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 5/15/05 at 7:02pm

Namo, I am beginning to be concerned for you. I'm not kidding. Your mental health is clearly deteriorating. No two ways about that.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/15/05 at 7:09pm

I'd take that under advisement if it were coming from somebody I respect in the least.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 5/15/05 at 7:11pm

Right back atcha about every piece of "advice" and "counsel" you've tried to throw at me.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/15/05 at 7:12pm

Come on. How hard is it to try to come up with something original? Even by your standards, which are pretty low, Right back atcha about every piece of "advice" and "counsel" you've tried to throw at me, is completely Rathetic.

[iflitifloat]

Posted: 5/15/05 at 7:14pm

Way to sink my poignant plea for a third board, guys...

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 5/15/05 at 7:14pm

Namo, what makes you think I give a crap about what you think of my posts? It's a freakin' MESSAGE BOARD. Get the f over it. Give us your opinions on the topics and don't spend so much damn time criticizing everyone's posting styles/topics/etc. Perhaps you should start your own board where you can make up all the rules.

Updated On: 5/15/05 at 07:14 PM

[smartpenguin78]

Posted: 5/15/05 at 7:16pm

Maybe a third board for those inclined to hurl childish insults at each other would solve All of the problems.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/15/05 at 7:19pm

Well, it just keeps going around in circles. People are worried that other people will feel that certain people are trying to completely exlude other people, not necessarily themselves, but some "other" people from some other "other" "other" people if there is another board introduced.

Although, people do often come to see what might be useful about it over time. As somebody like Emcee mentioned in this thread.

But speaking of cyclical, we can always count on Rath to come along a day late and a whole lot foolish later and comment after 50 posts about me personally. She probably thinks my cautionary tales about Scientology are another example of the way this board tilts so heavily to the opposite side of the politcial spectrum than she exists on that she's positively BURDENED by it.

But I won't presume to speak for her. I know nothing about her.


PS: "Namo, what makes you think I give a crap about what you think of my posts?" Your apoplectic responses, for one.

Updated On: 5/15/05 at 07:19 PM

[smartpenguin78]

Posted: 5/15/05 at 7:50pm

I completely understand your position on this Namo, and there are many reasons and levels on which I agree it is a good idea. I find myself having a hard time coming to support any type of segregation that is not based solely on information.
I am an "other other" a relatively old poster, who does not read or care for the "school" or "hugs" threads but will fight vigilantly for the rights of those who do post them.
and so the battle rages on. Even with that being said, I am not fighting you or the basic premise of a "student board."

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/15/05 at 8:14pm

I completely agree with people's rights to post anything they want. First Amendment absolutist that I am. But that influx of very young posters starting thread after thread and posting in them as if they were text messages that only each other could see really did create the phenomenon Iflit describes in her post last summer.

How about instead of a students board or a young people's board there's an "Old Fogeys Board," that would be based not on chronological Old Fogeyism but based on one's lack of tolerance for wading through the kinds of posts that Penguin describes?

[Ellie3]

Posted: 5/15/05 at 8:23pm

There are lots of threads that annoy me, and lots of posters I would love to throttle, but I just bite my knuckles and move on.
It is frustrating to hear about the innards of pet bunnies, and updates on the lives of dentists that your Mom once knew, but I guess you just have to wade through what you don't like to get to what you do.

Updated On: 5/15/05 at 08:23 PM

[smartpenguin78]

Posted: 5/15/05 at 9:07pm

Could there be a way (and this may be technologically imposible) to code the threads we see. So if Namo is coded to see {politics, weird random, and places to get blitzed) but I am coded to see all threads, where we actually seperate ourselves based on content. That seems very inarticulate, but maybe you get the idea.

[TGIF]

Posted: 5/15/05 at 9:32pm

I think the only way you could do that is by blocking certain things, the same way you might block a poster. I am not techinically savvy, but I think that would have to block the title of threads, and sometimes those are misleading.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/15/05 at 9:38pm

No, actually, I recommended to the webmaster here that one approach might be what Datalounge does. A person decides to start a new thread and when the form is filled in with the headline and the post, and the person hits "post," a drop-down menu comes down and the poster has to pick "gossip" or "politics" and click on the most appropriate heading that the new post belongs under.

This came about when gossip mavens complained about the influx of political topics during the reelection.

It's fairly simple and gives the poster a chance to think about what he or she is posting and where it most belongs.

[CostumeMistress]

Posted: 5/15/05 at 9:42pm

Consider how quickly threads get jacked, though... for example, someone makes a post which they don't intend to be political, someone makes a point about politics, the whole discussion turns to a political debate, as an example. Where, then, would that thread be placed? Categorizing threads would be very, VERY difficult, if even possible.

[TGIF]

Posted: 5/15/05 at 9:43pm

Ha, this thread is a great example of that.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/15/05 at 9:51pm

The system isn't perfect, but if the person who creates the thread has to be conscious of the placement, then that's a good start.

I'm gonna be honest, nine times out of 10 I find myself fairly uninterested in threads that begin with the review of the second alternate going on in the touring production of a certain musical I hated when the original poster's screen name is "Elphaba516" or "Galinda4eva!" And, it turns out, when they post threads that have less than revealing titles liked "Ugh!" or "Ahhhhhhh" or "I just can't stand..." it turns out that 9.5 times out of 10 I am even less interested in those posts.

So scanning by title and poster name is not foolproof, but a conscious choice of where such threads are posted can make it easier for people to find the posters and thread types they ARE interested in.

[smartpenguin78]

Posted: 5/15/05 at 9:57pm

I have to agree that it is an imperfect system but I like it better because a poster is proactivly deciding what they are going to read and what they are posting under. It seems some things may get lost but it does not seem as exclusionary as a student board.
What was the objection, or are they still considering that?
It sounds like a well formed compromise position.

[Ellie3]

Posted: 5/15/05 at 9:58pm

Sounds like a plan to me!

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/15/05 at 10:17pm

Actually, that is what I wrote in a suggestion to Rob and Craig at the beginning of May. I've spent a lot of time since then explaining again and again that I wasn't suggesting it as a means of segregration. I considered printing my note to them in the thread, but I didn't. Perhaps it would have made my intentions clearer then.

In any event, I am sure it would be more work to create that kind of a system, so I am sure it isn't an easy undertaking.