Transparency - changes to the BBS

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

I know Iā€™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 donā€™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.

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In the aftermath of world war ii, the labour government was often a little too keen to take revenge against the aristocracy. And when a large deposit of coal was found right outside the obscenely sized mansion of some rich noble, the opportunity presented itself.

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Interesting history lesson which seems to apply to the NIMBYism.

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Strip-mining was the only possible way to make that monstrous pile uglier than it already was!

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And with that I have yet another earworm to contend with

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somehow i know this is all my fault. mysteriously granted regular status, and bam regular status suddenly means nothing.

in a way, itā€™s good. all that pressure has suddenly evaporated. (yay!) tho i think i already miss the idea that i could dox myself a bit with other happy mutants in a way iā€™m not comfortable with in the searchable internet at large.

iā€™ve always appreciated that there are in-jokes ( that iā€™m not privy to ) and more generally that thereā€™s a group of people invested in making the comment threads great.

where else can you go that reading the comments not only doesnā€™t make you want to gouge your eyes out, but can actually improve your day?

i think the bbs structure has helped foster the ever improving quality of the site. the change, and itā€™s suddenness, worries me. iā€™ve grown to value visiting.

i get the argument behind the change, i just donā€™t know how much weight it holds in the drive by world of the internet. tiers, to me, seem bad only when theyā€™re capricious. maybe bbā€™s has been a bit more capricious than it needs to be - but real value seems to be being lostā€‹.

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Money? Am I missing a sarcasm tag here, again? O_o

Also, start-ups in a somewhat international community are a wee bit difficult. I suggest using the centroid of a polygon around our geocoded IP. Oh, wait, VPNs and TOR. Well, then around ā€œnext international airport, self-identifiedā€.

Bring on the elitist (and GIS) discussion!

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[quote=ā€œMrMonkey, post:624, topic:99223, full:trueā€]

I was genuinely surprised to discover the hidden recesses of the BBS revealed only to regulars, but I donā€™t think it ever made me feel like I was missing out on something before that.[/quote]

Never knew there was such a thing until I saw ghosts appear out of it, and asked them what was happening. Then it becameā€¦ more transparent

[quote=ā€œMrMonkey, post:624, topic:99223, full:trueā€]

[ā€¦] I mean, have you guys been watching the news, lately? :wink:

[\quote]

Not really. Working 14h/d, and just checking every now and then to see if I still should keep away from social networks and most major newsfeeds. Since brexitvote, news are something for those who are tougher than me.<\sub>

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Maybe we should make a thread about that.

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Oh dear god so many posts. I. Read. Them. All.
okay, I skimmed a bit

The thing is, Regulars do have worthy discussions on the public threads. It was just nice to also have a place to go where you knew you werenā€™t going to have to deal with random riled-up weirdos (just the ones you already knew). I was surprised and delighted when I reached Regular status, and Iā€™m pretty sure I spent even more time on the site after that.

The way this has happened makes me feel unwelcome, even though I personally have never had any disputes here. The BBS is a huge part of why I come here; I want to read the articles, but then I want to see what others have to say about them. Coming here doesnā€™t make me happy right now; it feels like somebody threw a bomb into the middle of it.

In closing, I know this mess is not your doing, and I appreciate the difficult work youā€™re doing. I hope itā€™s not for nothing.

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Iā€™ve had both perspectives, having gained, lost, and regained Regular status a few times due to irregular hours available to me for Boinging, thanks to work. As has been pointed out, new Regulars were always, without fail, greeted enthusiastically. Every Regular knew that every non-Regular could become a Regular without even trying to do so if they read and write and Liked enough. There was no insiderness to it; all a user had to do was use the BBS enough to be granted TL3. When it was first instituted, I wondered what I was missing. When I got in, I found out: not much of anything that I couldnā€™t get in the main BBS with one exception (which eventually proved to be vitally important): I knew every user there. Recognized them from their frequent posts in the BBS at large. Knew their reputations, recognized their thought processes and turns of phrase and senses of humor. All it was was a collection of the most familiar voices of the BBS, both friendly and querulous, without the presence of the newer noobs or the less familiar, less frequent posters. It wasnā€™t insidery at all. It was just familiar. Thereā€™s a power to that, reflected in the theme song of a particularly famous barroom sitcom.

And again, anyone could get in if they participated enough. Again, without consciously trying.

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Yā€™know, Iā€™d never thought of the Lounge as our Cheers, oddly enough; considering all the drinking.

But itā€™s true, anyone who stumbled down the steps and into the pub got a hearty welcome from the crowd;

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Yeah OK. But somehow I recognize the constant posters and ā€œknowā€ them (or at least can anticipate their reactions based on past behavior) in the regular threads as well.

True. Even I did at one point.

But none of this changes my mind on this matter. Especially in regards to a tiered community

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Ho-hummmā€¦

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The point is that being in a place ā€œwhere everybody knows your nameā€ and vice versa is a very different experience than being in a place where you recognize several facesā€¦ or none at all.

Iā€™m much more likely to drop my pants (in a conversational sense) in the former than in the latter. And sometimes itā€™s a profound relief to feel able to shed even one single thin layer of armor.

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Country clubs, gated communities, members only bars, etc.

Mrs Howell may have been something in her day but Maryann always seemed cooler to hang out with.

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Also because this has been stuck in my head all day:

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THANKS, GATTO.

This is why we canā€™t have nice things. :unamused:

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A substantial part of the reason why the BBS is more civilised than the internet average is because of the actions of the regulars. A substantial part of the reason why the regulars have this impact is due to the sense of community amongst them.

Kill the second, and you risk killing the first.

That sense of community wasnā€™t due to some meaningless badge graphics; it was about the people and the relationships between them.

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