Transparency - changes to the BBS

If we’re just making our fictional titles up now, I wanna be a DiskoPickle, for my own sense of non-intrusive nostalgia.

13 Likes

The timing is specifically what galls me. If the abolition of the lounge had not been so soon after all the bans and more time had been given to all to process, I wouldn’t have been terribly bothered.

19 Likes

I feel like I’m going to go to hell for liking this, but it did make me laugh. :smiling_imp:

19 Likes

But only for ten years.

21 Likes

So you think that you are worthy of diskopickle, eh?

5 Likes

16 Likes

What’s this about Modus?

1 Like

Assuming that you’re sincere, the short version:

About a week ago, jlw posted a topic about St. Elsewhere.

MO posted something typically MO.

jlw deleted it.

MO posted asking where that post had gone.

jlw deleted that.

Rinse and repeat a few times.

jlw posted a warning not to go off-topic again.

MO posted complaining about that warning.

MO got banned for two weeks.

And then things escalated from there, with several Regulars getting banned for much longer than two weeks, and others donning white/transparent/ghost avatars in protest of those bans.

If you want further details, PM me so that we don’t derail this topic.

25 Likes

Well. I go away for a day or two and find I have been re-accommodated. This is not a wonderful thing.

@orenwolf, thank you for engaging with us here and in the past. The role of flak-catcher is not one I envy. I assure you that anything I say here is not an attack on you.

That’s not what Jason said just the other day. According to him the BBS is solely a place to chat about the items posted by the authors on the front page.

That’s a bit like saying we should not have to lock our doors because the police will protect us, and if they can’t, society has failed. The mods can only act after the fact, and rely on the members to alert them. Even if they shut down trollies instantly, once a member has revealed anything personal it is out there permanently. It’s a tribute to the atmosphere of the Lounge that so many felt comfortable doing that.

[quote=“orenwolf, post:28, topic:99223”]
Ah, but there will still be Regular badges given out. Just now it’ll be a deliberate process…[/quote]
That sounds a lot like a board of mods deciding who is worthy. I don’t see how that is more democratic than the former method. Not that it matters. I really don’t need a kitten sticker in my colouring book.

[quote=“popobawa4u, post:60, topic:99223”]
I see the more egalitarian approach as having the same banquet - except that the kids are present.[/quote]

Not kids. Malignant trollies and the relentlessly negative jerks who keep showing up in the BBS.

Yes. If it was in my nature to share any issues, I would have met with a polite and supportive response in the Lounge. If I opened up in the public forums I could, at the very least, expect some combination of suckitupspecialsnowflakefirstworldproblems. And as a white male, I am far less vulnerable than many here. Others would get much worse.

No, you’re saying If you can’t shout it at the top of your lungs in the shopping mall on Saturday afternoon, you shouldn’t talk about it in a circle of close friends.

I was unaware of it until I found myself in it. But the regulars are by definition just people who read and post a lot, not some sort of snobbish elite, and there wasn’t any superior attitude in the Lounge (considering some of the members, that would have been hard to maintain :wink:). If you or anyone else had found your way there, you would have been greeted enthusiastically, because literally everyone was.

Full disclosure: I started the Hey, Rube! topic, and it was nothing like what @stinkinbadgers describes. I wish I could show you the initial post describing the purpose of the thread, but hey, it’s gone. It was a place to alert regulars to trollies in the BBS, and call for support in fighting them. When @orenwolf first visited, he actually was nice enough to remark that it was an extremely useful topic. If someone wasn’t a racist/misogynist trolley, they weren’t talked about, and in more than one case the consensus was to give the benefit of the doubt.

No, one of them was set up by me to spin a lot of angst away from the main Lounge thread, where the trolley discussions were threatening to swamp everything else. Since the Hey, Rube! topic had something over 5000 posts (maybe more, I can’t remember) in the few months it was in existence, I’d say it filled a need.

I, for one, am glad it’s you. (And I don’t say that to be cruel. :wink:).

The pedant’s pendant is still up for grabs, right? :grin:

36 Likes

I’m not a badge collector, but if they try to take away my Mostly Harmless badge, there’s going to be trouble.

12 Likes

Assuming that you’re sincere,

I was indeed being facetious. But I was wondering how it went down all the same, so thanks.

3 Likes

My statement was actually the opposite - I was responding to the idea that it was only “Personal” for the Regulars, when in fact, this has been a spirited discussion internally as well, one that went to the heart of what Boing Boing as a whole wants the BBS to be - and that is very personal to everyone, as you might expect.

I don’t believe myself above anyone, and I apologize if anything I said could have been construed that way, because then I failed in communicating my thoughts in the way I intended.

13 Likes

Would have been nice if this was posted in the Lounge as a proposal for how things might change in the near future, instead of being presented to us as an disciplinary ultimatum having immediate effect.

12 Likes

This is what I imagine taking place:

22 Likes

Again, from the “out group” perspective that can look like an elite group discussing what to do about the unwashed masses. I’d have been uncomfortable with that even had I been able to maintain status as a Regular.

Somehow I’m reminded here of all the discussions and venom theirin about the “1%” or corporate tax rates, any of the eat the rich threads. Someone else getting to decide their own fate is bad but when this elite may be subject to change, it must be good to self consult.

3 Likes

1 Like

Ha! :laughing:

This whole thing has been both so tragic and so farcical that I just don’t even know what to say…

I’m frankly surprised to discover how much I care. I’ve been here for a long time, but only recently stumbled into Regular status, a circumstance I blame entirely on Rob’s Safe Thread – it just sucked me in, and when I came out the other side I was a different person.

I was genuinely surprised to discover the hidden recesses of the BBS revealed only to regulars, but I don’t think it ever made me feel like I was missing out on something before that. On the other hand, it did ultimately make me feel more engaged with the site and the people of the BBS, so I can see how some might feel left out. I’m having a hard time imagining what I’d feel like if I’d learned of it only after the fact.

Either way, it seems clear that tomorrow will definitely be different than yesterday, so I guess all I can do is try to stay positive1 and see what happens next. I hate having my cheese moved as much as the next person, but that’s life, I suppose.

1 Which is a much more daunting proposition than you might at first imagine. I mean, have you guys been watching the news, lately? :wink:

23 Likes

At the risk of repeating what many here have already posted, I feel the need to say this now-- thank you so much for all your hard work and efforts on behalf of the bbs and its members. You’ve been incredibly patient and willing to hear us out. Considering all our griping and bruised egos (myself included), that can’t have been fun. You’ve been thoroughly transparent about the decisions you’ve made, and knowing the “whys” behind them has helped. And it’s true some of us still have concerns about the rapid changes to the board structure and the loss of treasured friends to site bans and/or discontent. But I must say, I have no issues with you. It seems like you’ve been on the boards constantly for the last 24 hours (please make sure you get some rest!) listening, asking us questions, and working to forge a more cohesive community. Don’t think for a moment we haven’t noticed or that we don’t appreciate you for it. I have, and I do. I don’t know how this is going to shake out in the long run, but I’m grateful for all your efforts.

38 Likes

I dont see the relationship.

The lounge was nothing like a circle of close friends, in my opinion. More like the Stonecutters lodge. :slight_smile:

I know I’ve vaguely alluded to mean-spiritedness in restricted threads so I feel like I should clarify that I appreciate the intent behind Hey, Rube and don’t mean to disparage it. There was some admirable tolerance in that particular thread, and some appropriate calls for community moderation, too. It was a generous attempt to help @falcor out using the flag mechanism.

5 Likes