Transparency - changes to the BBS

[Israel_B]

@Donald_Petersen

The Lounge wasn’t meant to be a cliquish reward akin to the public space on Mercury in the Destiny videogame, accessible only to those who are truly elites at the game. And that’s not at all how it operated. It was a haven from trollishness, from noise, from the relative cacophony of the BBS at large.

The conclusion there represents an insider view however it should be equally obvious that those of us who have been around BoingBoing in various incarnations over a long time who did not achieve insider status see things differently and that from the outsider perspective, the insider view actually re-enforces the idea of “some are more equal than others”.

If indeed the goal is some kind of equality, “some more equal than others” would seem to be opposite to the goal.

@orenwolf

I’ve enjoyed to start personal relationships (and even marriages!) in my life, including the likes of IRC, online gaming, etc., are no longer true communities in the sense they once were. Their loss is our loss, and I sincerely hope that something will appear again to fill that void.

Having been online in some form or another for almost 4 decades now I completely understand what you mean. Really though these online scenes come and go, just like scenes offline.

Minor Threat - Salad Days

Life not being a fairy tale, online communities also dong get “happily ever after”. They come and go and for me, there’s value in the time they are there and that value will always be with me even after the scene changes.

@orenwolf

It was our mistake to fail to realize the effect that a private area would have.

If its not clear by now I have lots of respect for you coming so clean with this. Its damn hard as a community manager to make changes and to be so clear with members of the community, knowing that there will be a backlash. I’ve seen such change management handled in horrible ways IRL that resulted in years of venom and real life consequences by not being so clear and communicative.

@stinkinbadgers

I always thought using tiers to snipe at people behind their back was kind of a shitty thing

Its human nature that the in group will gossip about and look down upon the lessers.

@Donald_Petersen

Does anyone actually believe that Regular status has created any hostilities here?

As per my comments to you above and my comments to @stinkinbadgers right above, essentially my answer is a qualified “yes”. Even the best of people, once part of an in group, will celebrate their status over the common people. Maybe outright, maybe through dog whistling, code words or polite forms of gossip, but it happens.

@Medievalist

on at least three occasions people became “regular” and discovered that nasty dissections of their character had been going on behind the curtains.

This confirms what I suspected and affirms what I’ve been saying in this comment to @Donald_Petersen & @stinkinbadgers.

@Medievalist

Seriously. I’d rather be irregular (but only in the Baker Street sense, not the Raisin Bran sense).

If it werent for irregulars, we might not have a nation state called Italy

https://m.warhistoryonline.com/history/7-wars-irregular-forces-thwarted-professional-armies.html

@smulder

The word “community” is notoriously vague, but at the very least it means multiple people.

It probably should not be used to attribute a decision made by a single person.

In real life, communities are often affected by the decisions of a single person. However it looks as if @orenwolf was not a lone gunman in this case.

@anon61221983

I hate to say it, but this whole thing reminds me of what happened to my college’s radio station.

This is what cooperative ownership is a reaction to. Not that co-ops are perfect or immune to human nature, politicing and other foibles, but there in your example, and here in what we are discussing, non owners do not get a say in how the ship is run.

@Mister44

How many of you actually own swords?

Not legal here or I would.