Use PM groups for that. Nothing’s stopping you.
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What the Regular system did was winnow out asshats and trolls. Period. Any person who proved themselves worthy could read ALL the threads without having to get invited to a bajillion different ones. Sometimes threads took tangents, sure, but they remained more or less on track. Nobody wants to wake up to 540 DMs in a single group thread. If I wanted a group chat for friends only, I would be on farcebook and not wasting my time explaining to you why you are the single worst person to post in this thread today.
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This is basically it, in a nutshell. Well said.
Our online lives have taken on far too much significance for many people. Yes, this is judgmental. How does one define “too much”? Too much for one person could be far too little for someone else. But, you still have to greet the cashier when you’re buying groceries and you still have to talk to the cops not like an asshole if they pull you over. We’re still human and we still have to talk to people face to face. So, my opinion is that people who spend more time typing to people online than they do with their throat muscles in real life might be needing a swift kick in the ass. And that goes for myself, too, when I turtle up and go all netizen and don’t talk to anybody.
So, yeah. Sad that some people feel a loss. But there’s a great big old world out there and guess what? START YOUR OWN BBS IF YOU FEEL A DEEP SENSE OF LACK. Nobody is stopping you from that. Build a community of people if you need that and can’t seem to find them anywhere.
I think we spend way too much time beating each other up. Always looking for that soft place in other people’s arguments and logic so we can stick the knife in. That’s “community”? LOL, noooooo. That’s not community. That’s ridiculous.
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Uh, if happy mutants are made of tech, goofing off, etc., wouldn’t a conversation about “each other” still cover those topics?
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No, when cops pull you over, all you have to do is be white.
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Physician, heal thyself…
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Proportions, mayng. Right?
No. IANAL but that decision seemed to be about pre-moderation (holding comments for approval), which we do not do.
I am. Your analogy of a house party is a good one - we created a place anyone could visit, with the intention of freedom of discussion for all, but also kept a mostly-secret tally of guests and had a secret back room for the guests we deemed worthy. No one ever intended for us to create our own 1%.
If I had given advance notice, every post in there would have been downloaded and archived. Because we have smart, capable members. For the same reasons we would never transfer ownership of BBS to anyone else (thereby transferring your personal data), that outcome would have been unacceptable. These conversations were not “private”, but they were restricted, and that matters to me.
Just read some of the replies here to see how much that mattered to some other posters, as well.
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Try:
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Something about this has been weighing on me, and I think I know what it is now. Please don’t think I’m trying to pick on you @orenwolf, but you’re the only one talking to us.
This is the same mindset behind Libertarians. Somebody harms you? Take them to court and settle it there, no matter that damage is happening in real time. Share something human and somebody goes after it with a sexist or hateful remark? It will be addressed. In time. After you’ve already been attacked. Sure, the offending post will be removed, but the damage is already done.
bOINGbOING’s touted values have attracted a lot of people who are marginalized in meatspace, individuals who deserve someplace to interact with others while letting their guard down even just slightly more than they could elsewhere.
The failure was not in what you created, the failure is in how the staff have failed to see the value in it.
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While I agree that getting in a fight with the mods about other people being banned is generally not a good approach, @OtherMichael was legitimately worried about what he thought was the behavior that triggered the ban since it was a kind of behavior he engaged in. Could he have addressed the concerns better? Sure. Was a decade ban for trying to get that sorted out justifiable? Absolutely not. It’s horrifying that an abuse of authority that egregious could happen here and not be corrected, esp. when an active, engaged user who’s been a BB fan forever, and was a valuable member of the community was exiled for a decade for something so minor. I’m still in contact, and this was one of his favorite places to hang out on the net - that abusive moderation wasn’t just a harmless mistake, it was indifferent cruelty that’s made this place seem more alien and damaged to me.
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It wasn’t a “huge” area, just a handful of threads, and not every Regular found it the best part of BBS. Obviously for some it was what they needed, but for others tl3 was essentially meaningless if chattering in the lounge all day wasn’t your thing.
As for what if anything should replace the trust level system, in a recent Lounge trolley thread where someone proposed labelling trollies via voting committee, I had countered with a reputation score system of likes/posts, to zero enthusiasm. Whatever, trust level was meaningless outside in the lounge anyway. Not even every regular chose to be identified as such.
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I’m just going to assume you mean “sad” in the mocking, sneering, holier-than-thou, tweeting-on-the-shitter way that Trump uses the term, because that’s how your posts are coming off.
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Make whuffie great again.
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Oh, hey, is it working again (and likely to continue working)? And going to stay in one place?
I stopped using it when the issues with it started feeling almost like purposeful attempts to make the redesign “better” in comparison (not that I’m making that accusation(!), that’s just what it started to feel like on the outside).
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I find people spouting on and on about ‘trust’ to be the least trustworthy out of the lot, especially amongst geeks. Then again I also MUSH. Ask me the sort of cliquish selfish snotty people I’ve seen in that hobby sphere sometime (In PM.) #yaysarcasm.
… … … Wait we almost had the Wuffie implemented here and didn’t?
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No. I meant it in the empathic sense. Sad at the loss. But also, when you come up for air after this change in your reality, try to keep that loss in proportion to all the other stuff of your life.
None of this back and forth is making me feel the least bit welcome. I see a lot of protectionism and whining going on about the changes. I support the mod’s decision. It’ll be good. There was too much darkness here before. Maybe after this first round of bloodletting, it’ll clear up and we can get back to having group fun again in the proportion we used to have it.
Peace out, for today. Go ahead, beat on my posts some more… easy target. In any event, good for you @orenwolf for making this change, explaining yourself thoroughly and sticking to it. It’s the right decision.
Cheers.
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Dude, you need to dial it down a bit.
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That was never supposed to be a feature of the BBS. We don’t want that responsibility. That responsibility does not serve the broader group of Boing Boing commenters.
A community free of these people is the goal of the BBS-at-large.
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For as long as we can keep it there without breaking things, yes.
Same with /ascii (the only true way to read BB)
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