Ideas for ILX

do spaces or carriage returns, or both, break "hidden text" tags?

Underworld - Classic or Dud?

(if it's possible to have returns, and a mod feels like fixing that, please do)

ah, I see the problem - will fix. (The search thing is more difficult)

this from KM looks like another carriage return / hidden tag problem, if it's helpful to have another example: “It’s a little too quiet” - US Politics February 2021

I had an idea, don't know if its been floated before.

But I have noticed that there is some interest and talk in perhaps getting new users to ILX, even reaching out to younger potential users and friends who might be interested, etc.

I think that one thing that might be helpful would be some sort of permanent, dedicated link to an "Introduce Yourself" thread or page. I've shared the site with some friends who seem like they would be into ILX, and at least two of them have wondered 'where to start.'

Feel free to shoot me down, but it was just a thought that occurred to me this morning

There's a FAQ but it's not easy to find https://www.ilxor.com/faq.html Looks like it needs a bit of an update.

I've shared the site with some friends who seem like they would be into ILX, and at least two of them have wondered 'where to start.'

There is no beginning (not sure about there being an end). You don't look for the start when you enter a pub and hear the ongoing conversations around you either. You just join in, or you don't?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Some people prefer to lurk a while, but many people like to be seen and welcomed. It reassures them that the natives are friendly.

LBI OTM

Introduce Yourselves!

(Last updated in 2013.)

(Last updated in 2013.)

Begun: January 29, 2001 (twenty years ago)

"It reassures them that the natives are friendly."

Are they?

Thanks, Aimless, for understanding the core of what I was getting at.

There is no beginning (not sure about there being an end). You don't look for the start when you enter a pub and hear the ongoing conversations around you either. You just join in, or you don't?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

― A Scampo Darkly (Le Bateau Ivre), Wednesday, February 24, 2021 10:53 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

A frankly dismissive and snotty response. Perhaps you don't care that many potential users turn right around after being confronted with this site that has an outdated FAQ, no path toward understanding what it's about or its history, and a current user base that skews toward people who've been on the site on-and-off for upwards of a decade, but I can imagine it might be a little alienating to potential new ilxors.

I'd like to see the user base expanded, and I don't think your response does much to help with that issue.

Snotty, really?! We'll have to agree to disagree. I didn't mean it in a dismissive or unhelpful way. But like every community, ilx has its own codes, ethics, language, history etc. It wouldn't hurt for a newcomer to dip their toes in that themselves instead of showing them "a path forward". We've all been there, we all found our way. I'm not opposed to an updated faq or introduction-thread or whatever, but ilx is ilx, a community is a community. Wouldn't hurt for people to find their own way; it makes for better users imo. But no harm meant.

I tell people I'm pitching ILX to to just lurk SNA and click on interesting threads to start with, but I do think we could use a better intro and FAQ

Faq #237: what is a sleep viking

#746: what does it mean to be sonned in a beef

#952: WHAT is so not gonna happen

#999: who is this brodie person?

hi my father very root with me what can i do?

Interestingly ilx is already question-based, so one fears that eventually the faq just becomes the site itself

77 of what?

Why is dave matthews band so bad&hated?

how is babby formed

#562 Why?

A: because she look intersting

New posters should have to pass an exam

Upon passing they will the stand accused of being an old poster under a new name

How nimbly they manouevre from there decides their fate

apprentice --> journeyman --> master poster

------> ??? mittel european puppetmaster hivemind ???

Like the last line of the end game script when you complete an NES adventure game

As a fairly new poster, I actually found the experience of joining to be pretty chill. I lurked for a little bit, posted some stuff, experienced the high of my very first otm (thanks, James Redd and the Blecchs!) and was hooked.

The trigger for me was having an obsession that I didn't want to bore my friends with.

Who were u before tho

Who were any of us before ilx?

belle

Lily Dale is purely on the up and up as ye well know

Thanks for being a character witness, Aimless, I appreciate it!

*notes: probable aimless sock*

Folks it's 10 pm ET time for weekly dn swap

Done

Who am I now, I’ll never tell!

Im gonna try keep posting in deems style and see how well i do

Guld nögle lukker alle Döre op uden Himlens.

Nu komt de aap uit de mouw

would things be different if the permanent username was first and the temporary dn was in parentheses?

Karl Malone (Zach_TBD)

just throwing out there. it might have changed things if it started out that way, butterfly effect style

yes imo

under the alternate system, i'd always think "sick, what sic's display name is". but right now, i think "whatever sic's display name is, sick."

i don't know if it's better or worse, but it's different

jol out

deems can I have my account back now?

sincerely though -- I think that so many of the existing "introduce yrself" threads are full of in jokes and trolling that if we were to have a sincere "welcome new users" thread, it would have to be new. I agree with table that having new users would be good, esp. friends of his.

Otm

"welcome new users thread - definitely not a prank this time"

but one question before you post: what do you think of "throw momma off the train"

I agree with table that having new users would be good, esp. friends of his.

cosign

we could actually have fun and nerdy discussions on the anarchism and activism threads ...

display names are for n00bs.

I agree with table that having new users would be good, esp. friends of his.

Oh, yeah, if there's one thing ILX definitely needs it's a flood of hair-trigger leftier-than-thou types.

When we could just have more pleasant people like you ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

I think the "here it is, figure it out" lol on-boarding process served us OK for a long time because it acted as a decent if exclusionary filter: if you were familiar enough with the forum/lists world of yore to figure the place out you were likely to be able to participate on its own terms and not just moan about avatars not working.

That world is far enough in the past now that it's too high a bar for a lot of potential posters, especially 20-somethings, to cross. Worse still if you're on mobile. We got an entertaining reason-for-registering from a new poster recently, which was "i like signing up to dead sites". And you can see how they get that impression, since the landing page is the Board list rather than SNA, and the aesthetic is hella win 3.1. The people most likely to be familiar enough to cross the bar now are redditors, and they already have reddit. Or, christ, channers.

I've been meaning to do something of a first-time-user tour/page/help thing for a while; I'll bump that up the list. Pinning threads is also on the list, and that would allow us to pin welcome-type threads for boards too.

"i like signing up to dead sites"

https://i.imgur.com/SFQtyFg.gif