An open letter to ILX & mods re: an alternative to the current system

well he WAS a nazi, so

and anybody who thinks something wasn't needed in light of our trolls & really unpleasant unending clusterfucks is full of shit imo but that's where it comes down to the usual divide here -- people who favor a wild west "if you can't handle being abused, 'man up'" environment vs. people who hate that kind of attitude with a burning passion. I count myself among the latter number. this dispute won't ever be resolved to the satisfaction of either party. wherefore, if you have a better idea, volunteer & implement it, or be quiet, imo

personally I haven't seen ILX add any new functions so I don't see any flag system would ever happening on grounds that it would require programming

can i just say it's completely ridiculous to expect people to code a feature without an agreement from the community to adopt it

people who favor a wild west "if you can't handle being abused, 'man up'" environment vs. people who hate that kind of attitude with a burning passion

That's a false dichotomy tho, eh? I wouldn't put myself in either camp but somewhere in the "civility is in the frequently biased eye of the beholder" position.

REALLY looking forward to reading this GREAT looking thread

That's a false dichotomy tho, eh? I wouldn't put myself in either camp but somewhere in the "civility is in the frequently biased eye of the beholder" position.

SB'd with the fury of 51 socks

Do you know what beef is?

I don't know what language the board is coded in. I used to be reasonably fluent in SQL but it's quite rusty right not. That said, the idea that any mods would let me anywhere near the source code is pretty laughable. I am, however, a programmer, and I currently have fuckloads of free time at work.

As far as I understand it, SB's are already attached to posts - it might be just a case of adapting the existing code. Instead of the "confirm SB" page, insert a value (for reason, if we go with that, from a drop-down box) to the record. I'm guessing the SB record already has ID of the banned, ID of the banner, and the ID of the message it was referred from - because when you SB someone, the link on that post goes read, but the others stay unread, which makes me think that the message ID is passed through. (if the message ID wasn't important, it would be a default link that would be the same for all messages by a user.)

It would actually require a change in behaviour (and changing "suggest ban" to "flag post" on each post) of the users and the mods, more than actual coding, I think. Which might be harder to change, but it would be a better paradigm to build.

can i just say it's completely ridiculous to expect people to code a feature without an agreement from the community to adopt it

Why not? That's how SB got coded in to start with. I certainly never agreed to it.

poll

what would actually be helpful is if the mods or admins actually came out and said a) if they are open to a new feature and b) if they have time to code it or to get another coder started.

so i'm just gonna sit here and hold my breath for that

yeah cuz I have some great ideas for other features!

Do you know what beef is?

beef is when I SB you
guaranteed to number 52

Beef is when yr mods aren't safe up in the street

beef is when your socks roll several log-ins deep

beef is not what kate said to mods
beef is when the an ilxor can't find lolz

the

wat

I repeat: I DO NOT KNOW what I was SB'd for. If that makes me clueless, I'm clueless. Neither SB I've had came in the middle of a clusterfuck - in fact, one came while I was asleep. It could be for thinking Slowdive is worse than Hitler. I have no idea. I do know I have a reputation as "OMG, that girl that talks about feminism and rape culture all the time." I get a lot of shit for talking about gender issues.

this is the problem with your flagging suggestion...i'd guess* that most ppl who SB you do so because they generally dislike the sort of prolix clusterfucks that your posting style tends to lead to, rather than because of any individual posts you make. you're being disingenuous by positing that a large number of posters will want someone banned because they disagree over the relative merits of shoegaze bands.

* i tend to dislike the sb system, and as said before would rather you hadn't been banned.

ie i haven't SBd u.

wat

― aerosmith: the acid house years (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Sunday, November 21, 2010 4:33 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

"wat's beef," u mean

i sometimes SB people just coz i remember to at that moment, not because the specific post p'd me o

wat ttyler

lamb not beef people

Just add "disingenuous" to the long list of "clueless, socially retarded, etc." of things I'm supposed to be, because the SB system is so inherently flawed as to not tell people what they are being punished for.

The *point* is that not telling people what they are being punished for leads to random paranoia and confusion, not to any kind of behavioural change.

i SB-ed you when you made a completely unwarranted attack on me.

i sometimes SB people just coz i remember to at that moment, not because the specific post p'd me o

― rip whiney g weingarten 03/11 never forget (history mayne), Sunday, November 21, 2010 2:37 PM (6 minutes ago)

this might be the most informative post on this whole thread, i was actually wondering about this tbh

I would support letting K8 code an alternate system an then trying it out for a period of time, if that was proposed - I don't know if it'd be better but I doubt it'd be a disaster and it'd be a cool experiment.

anyone know where the source is kept? i seem to remember it being called "messageboard" or something, but that's not the easiest thing to search for on code.google.com

can i vote that masonic boom not be let anywhere near the code of this board - or any other poster who isn't a mod, come to that

i mean didn't jon williams effectively get barred from ilx for tinkering with the board code???

Just add "disingenuous" to the long list of "clueless, socially retarded, etc." of things I'm supposed to be, because the SB system is so inherently flawed as to not tell people what they are being punished for.

The *point* is that not telling people what they are being punished for leads to random paranoia and confusion, not to any kind of behavioural change.

― Karen D. Tregaskin, Sunday, 21 November 2010 22:39 (4 minutes ago)

the general problem - and the wilful mischaracterization of others that has annoyed ppl itt is a symptom - is that the time you spend reading/understanding other posts seems miniscule compared to the time spent expounding yr own opinions, and the interpretative charity you demand of others is seldom displayed in your own posts.

anyone know where the source is kept? i seem to remember it being called "messageboard" or something, but that's not the easiest thing to search for on code.google.com

it's been taken down iirc

ah ok. see, was operating under the impression that the "do it yr dang self" crowd was suggesting that since the code is freely available for people to read and tinker with. soooooooo if it isn't, you do what? draft up an entirely new forum? i mean i just wanted to look at it and see if it even made sense to a guy that took a single programming course like 8 years ago.

yeah funny how that crowd doesn't seem to understand how things actually work

actually, my mistake -- it looks like it's still up, but you have to have a password.

http://conversationboard.googlecode.com/svn/trunk

that being said, kate seems to have volunteered herself and i think she should be given enough of the code to get started

yeah funny how that crowd doesn't seem to understand how things actually work

― questeon the answers (call all destroyer), Sunday, November 21, 2010 4:52 PM (36 seconds ago) Bookmark

not sure if i'm sposed to feel zinged here or not

fuck threads

no dude i'm zinging underrated aerosmith

i am over my obtuseness of earlier

*IF* it is in SQL, if it's in a flavour of SQL I recognise, if I can still remember how to code. I haven't written anything except a SELECT or DELETE statement in 2 years at this point. That's a lot of ifs.

(Wait, is it IIF(condition,return1,return2) or is it IF condition THEN return1 ELSE return2; - I can't remember which is MS and which is MySQL any more etc. etc.)

x-posts

I mean, this is the problem "CODE THE DAMN THING YOURSELF IF YOU WANT TO COMPLAIN!!!" vs. actually, no one is allowed to see the source code. Which is a bit of a catch 22.

yeah funny how that crowd doesn't seem to understand how things actually work

yeah it would be sisyphus rolling a rock up a fucking hill to start a thread saying "can somebody email me, a regular long-time poster, the code so I can play with it and maybe draft an alternative to a system I loathe" - impossible to imagine that working out in any way

I have two choices: I can try to change that which is making it so uncomfortable, or I can leave. This thread is an attempt at the former.

I did the latter for a while, not because I thought I was at risk of being SBed but because I didn't like using a forum that has a suggest ban link at the end of every post. It's overwhelmingly negative. It assumes that every post/poster is potentially bad and imo has tainted the whole site as a result.

I've slowly increased my usage of ilx in recent months because I really really like the site and the people (it's my favourite msg board of all time ffs) but this sb thing continues to bother me. It's heavy-handed lazy modding in response to a handful of destructive posters.

I know I just blew a lot of minds with that totally unimaginable suggestion tho so I'll allow some time for its revolutionary nature to sink in

yeah i'm just holding my breath waiting for our fearless leaders to sanction this, don't mind me

baffled by yr venom itt, aero.

btw I'm aware of the cockheadedness of complaining about a free service xp

i've only been posting for two years, but this thread sure seems to be covering the same exact ground as every other thread about sb's.

I'm pretty sure they're cool w/it

xpost to c.a.d.

again i must have missed all the angry demands that keith and stet get on this RIGHT NOW but i have trouble seeing people put time and effort into building a feature when there has been no official position on whether the feature might be adopted or not!

for christ's sakes the cart is way, way down the road and the horse is just standing here