Transparency - changes to the BBS

[Melizmatic]

Those are cute; where from?

[fiddlingfrog]

I can’t remember. The folder they’re in dates from six years ago.

[Haima]

Do you hear it? Can you? Already they begin to play again. Here, a blossom, a bloom, a forest. Seeds on the wind they are seeking and settling, new meadows flourish, may fade, seed again. Even this one, one day.

@Kitrini, Sister, you’ve pushed too far, and this beautiful body is finding balance.

[stinkinbadgers]

@orenwolf

the idea that online civil discourse in the modern era is a “radical idea”. More than anything, I want the BBS to be proof positive that there can be a public place online today

I recently went back to a forum I used to frequent around 10 years ago, that had its origins in splintering off from a blog comment section. It’s still going well, little to no forum drama that I can tell, its hardly moderated at all, but its main feature is that while it’s open to the public it is obscure enough that no one would have any reason to trolley there and any disagreements are between people who have been talking to each other for years. I’ve always felt that the extent to which people want to control what’s allowed here is not compatible with a public online place where people are constantly walking in off the street; in order to have a “safe space”, you have to have walls and a door. But clearly you feel otherwise and good luck with that.

[Nonentity]

@GinAndJuice

Am I dating myself?

Hey, we’re not going to judge your ideas of romance.

That does sound like a pretty interesting idea, though. For those games that go for a really retro look, that would really bump up the feeling a notch for mobile versions.

aaaand, I suppose if this went into a longer conversation it would be better as a separate thread

[FFabian]

@tinoesroho

What. Are you suggesting that regulars engaged in sockpuppeteering and brigrading? They did not. Even though I was a Regular but a short while, I read a lot of the posts and saw no such behavior.

Apparently you didn’t read enough posts then. Several other participants in this thread had the same impression. You don’t have to look far:

@anon3072533

organizing against some members

[tinoesroho]

I respectfully submit that the poster was mistaken.

While a consensus [about behaviors observed in posts linked to from Hey, Rube] formed that a few people (who later become Regulars) were acting in a trollish manner, there was no brigrading, doxxing, or harassment. “Hey, Rube!” was a place were snippets of potentially trollish posts were linked for examination and discussion. “Kvetching” was a thread mostly dealing with general behavioral patterns of people who had posts repeatedly showing up in “Hey, Rube!” (Hey, Rube is a circus term- a way of signaling that a performer is in danger without distressing the audience)

I am sorry that I am unable to submit those threads as evidence (they are locked to TL4), but from my own memory, I can safely assert that the alleged brigrading simply never happened. I am assuming good faith on part of the posters who feel brigrading occurred; if I am wrong about their good faith, well, them’s the grapes.

[orenwolf]

Te purpose of this topic is not to disparage the Regular community! As I mentioned above, the issue we had was community discussion and moderation discussion taking place in an area that wasn’t accessible to all users.

Users (including Regulars) are going to discuss other users amongst themselves, even outside the scope of the BBS. That’s not the issue. The issue is that a significant amount of discussion, including mod comments on moderation, were happening in an area only accessible to ~150 users. That fostered the Regular community, but it didn’t foster the overall BBS community as a whole or align with the aim of a public, equal BBS.

[tinoesroho]

Right. While I do think having an illumaniti of the dedicated members is not inherently a bad thing, the moderators and staff did not have a public topic about moderation decisions and actions. Which is what people mean when they want transparency; they want to know what actions are taken and what the reasoning behind those actions is.

I am done mourning the end of the lounge, myself.

Communities are like peanut butter. They can be spread wide (aim of BB is to foster conversations everyone can have a go at) or spread thick (aim of the offsite board, to foster personal conversations amongst longtimers). I recognize this and support the design decisions behind the move towards open conversations.

I apologize for any posts that are petty, whining, whinging, sniveling, snide, or downright snotty.

Lounge is dead. Long live the lounge!

[FFabian]

You’re aware that I was a regular too? You were wrong with the sock-puppeteering as ginandjuice told you in his/her now deleted reply and you’re wrong now. No one has access to those threads any longer so all is left are my statements and those of others who had a similar impression … but perhaps we’re all mistaken eh?

[orenwolf]

@FFabian

You’re aware that I was a regular too? You were wrong with the sock-puppeteering as ginandjuice told you in his/her now deleted reply and you’re wrong now. No one has access to those threads any longer so all is left are my statements and those of others who had a similar impression … but perhaps we’re all mistaken eh?

It’s not relevant to this discussion.

[orenwolf]

765 messages, I’m going to draw this conversation to a close. Everything’s been said at this point, and I don’t want this conversation to deteriorate into a side discussion that isn’t relevant to the point of this topic - we’ve made a change. We’ve given the reasons. We’re happy to discuss the finer points further if there’s still a need - please open a more narrowly-defined topic for that.

My sincere thanks to everyone who contributed their thoughts in this topic.