Transparency - changes to the BBS

No need to put words in my mouth.

Fair cop. My bad.

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People are trying to make the Lounge area out to be some kind of Mean Girls high school clique, when my experiences are that it was anything but that. Ironically, or maybe not ironically, becoming a Regular through some kind of nomination process will create exactly that kind of atmosphere.

TL3 is explicitly Trust Level 3, meaning that if one were to stick around long enough, they would be granted more trust. Not as much trust as a TL4, and there was no clear way of getting from TL3 to TL4, but still some additional privileges earned through consistent good-faith participation. From what I remember, the requirements for TL3 were not that stringent, but required consistency. IME it was more like going through a probationary period than separating oneself from the “filthy casuals”.

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I’m really not a fan of what’s happening to Atlanta right now. It’s getting a little too gentrified for my tastes. I think I even prefer the Atlanta of ten years ago. A little dirtier, but more real, if that makes any sense.

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OK that hit home for me having had the experience of being a student DJ on my high school’s 10watt radio station.

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From the discourse meta page TL4 is a manual promotion. It does grant true super powers. I just looked and a lot of the mods/discourse staff that were there are gone. Also TL3 isn’t an option at all for BBS now.

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Heck, I got in, and I mostly lurk (present circumstances excluded).

If gated communities worked that way, anyone who consistently showed up at the gate, was generally polite, and helped to keep things nice for everyone would be given a free house of their own. And the world might be a better place for it, but that’s a different topic…

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I’m not surprised you were a student DJ in HS. You’re a pretty big music nerd. Probably one of the few things we have in common!

But it’s that, except it’s a 100,000 watt station that has a pretty big mindshare in local music. Another democratic institution in the city, gone.[quote=“LearnedCoward, post:676, topic:99223”]
I’m really not a fan of what’s happening to Atlanta right now.
[/quote]

Yeah. Lots of us aren’t, I think. It would be nice to revitalize the city and not kill it’s nature in the process.

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Manual promotion, meaning it’s at the whim of whomever decides to do the promotion, and not an automatic result of consistent good faith participation the way TL3 is.

Yep.

Speaking for myself, I don’t want or need those kinds of super powers, but I would like a private area for myself and for others who have proven themselves.

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I could be convinced either way on that. There isn’t a tidy “opposite” of business. Just because it isn’t business does not logically make it personal. It might be personal. It might be an oversight. It might be not considered a concern for whatever reason. Maybe it’s politics or legal. Who knows?

I wonder why it’s not a business decision to do something about the BBS to attempt to make it more in line with an overall mission of sustainability. I’m not talking massive profit. I mean, shouldn’t the thing somehow pay for itself? Only they can answer the question about how blog readership/ad clicks/store buys correlates with activity and membership on the BBS. And then the further question of whether having tiered BBS membership also supports that mission or detracts from it, or neither.

I owned another business for a while, with three other people as partners. It was never profitable. After a year, it became clear that my personal money was being used to support their fun, and their intent was never to achieve break-even or a modest profit. They were just having fun on my dime. I did give it the old pitch, “well, we really should be taking a good look at the long term here…” But it fell on deaf ears. So, I exited. They folded a few months later because they somehow never realized that being open for business (because I paid the rent) was not the same as shaping and growing the business into something that could sustain itself. I kick myself at that money lost because of my own bad choices in selecting those partners and going into that bad deal in the first place. But I learned. ( I hope, damn it!!! )

So, the reason I bring this up is that it really should be on the table. You don’t ever even have to tell any of us about it… but if the BBS is being financed out of the founders’ pockets… at some point doesn’t that get a whole lot less realistic when they one day realize they are financing other people’s fun and games and whining and bitching, and losing that money, never to be seen again?

I would personally be thinking about that. But hey: to each their own.

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Ugh, as long as you two aren’t the pretentious ex-College DJ my old boss was :wink:

OMG… I just… grrr. There are very few people who make my blood pressure rise thinking about them, he is one of them. I’m not even this way with my Ex.

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Just a casual note. When it comes to the BLOG and the BBS, they are clearly two different creatures. Other than maybe Rob and maybe Mark, I don’t think any of them ever bother to see what is going on in the BBS and have close to zero fucks about it.

I mean, they can’t be bothered to read their own blog most of the time, thus duplicates every single week. Not that I blame them TOO much, they are busy people. This is why the are successful go-getters and I am a corporate drone with ideas who will never see the light of day.

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You have just described me as well.

pat pat

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Gratuitous sexism and ageism for the win!

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I was with someone I was involved with at the time, and we used my credit card to buy it, but it was not mine to keep. So, no photos, and I don’t even know what store because I didn’t do the research to figure out where to go to buy it.

But sure, if you want to take me to Japan, I’m happy to go to any store you want!

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Of course! There’s always work at the post office."

:wink:

Don’t hold your breath Mr. P; that’s too much like “right.”

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Me three, but I am not giving up yet!!!

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“What’s up, Mr. 44?”

“My nipples. It’s freezing outside.”

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