The a2k world is changing 1: more microcosms

littlek wrote:

Wow! Can you ignore a thread and then change your mind and read it again? Can you undo an ignore?

Yes, in fact ignoring it just collapses the post/thread and puts a small "view" link there. If you click it, you can see the post and if you don't want it hidden anymore vote it up and it won't collapse anymore.

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If I choose to ignore a particular member in one particular thread will this members posts show up in other threads?

Consider the first time poster. He/she has just discovered this forum for the first time. As voted by the current members the most popular topics show up in a more prominent manner somehow.

It seems to me that if this first time poster has eclectic or less mainstream tastes they have less chance of finding topics/posts that are of interest, thus reducing the chance of diversity.

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Will the old threads remain on the new site?????? please.

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Craven de Kere wrote:

Yes, in fact ignoring it just collapses the post/thread and puts a small "view" link there. If you click it, you can see the post and if you don't want it hidden anymore vote it up and it won't collapse anymore.

Like with comments on YouTube, basically? (If you mark a comment as spam or if you give it the thumb down, it disappears. And if others have marked it as spam it only appears in "collapsed" form in the first place, but you can still click view to see it.)

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Izzie wrote:

Will the old threads remain on the new site?????? please.

Yes. Some may not make it but it will affect few people.

As an example, we don't have any hidden forums so we aren't moving the moderator and administrator forums initially (but will do so once we have user groups).

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Phew phew phew... cool... thanku.

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Craven, Thanks for all this work; I know trying to satisfy everybody is an impossible task, but your development for self-control of posters and threads will add value to a2k.

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dadpad wrote:

If I choose to ignore a particular member in one particular thread will this members posts show up in other threads?

You can't ignore a specific member within a thread. You can ignore a user site wide or vote down a specific post (which will remove it from view).

Quote:

Consider the first time poster. He/she has just discovered this forum for the first time. As voted by the current members the most popular topics show up in a more prominent manner somehow.

It seems to me that if this first time poster has eclectic or less mainstream tastes they have less chance of finding topics/posts that are of interest, thus reducing the chance of diversity.

Most of them land on the specific topic page to find the site and go from there. More topic diversity means more member diversity.

The challenge you pose is unavoidable. The current demographics will shape the future demographics to some extent. That's not necessarily a bad thing (especially if you like the current culture) but either way we can't change it except by doing big things to bring in new demographics.

And we'll do that. We are going to purchase other forums and integrate them into this one. We'll have to do it carefully because dramatic changes to the demographic will cause culture clashes. In any case, I guess I don't see much of a problem with the current demographics shaping the future stuff because I like the current demographics.

For example, I like that the fact that most people here use full sentences and are adults means that those who don't and aren't are less likely to join than on a teeny bopper forum. Nothing against them but I like the more mature demographics and don't mind that to some degree the current demographics will shape the culture of the site.

Sure, you'll need critical mass before certain change can take place. For example most people would vote down the technical stuff that I personally would like to see more of on the site so there'd need to be critical mass in the niche for it to thrive as a sub culture.

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nimh wrote:

Like with comments on YouTube, basically? (If you mark a comment as spam or if you give it the thumb down, it disappears. And if others have marked it as spam it only appears in "collapsed" form in the first place, but you can still click view to see it.)

Very similar. Right now it's all just collapsed. Changing to not there at all in self-elected scenarios might be a tweak we need to make but is not how it works right now.

And hey, if you understand that can you help me explain it to the people who won't? I'm doing that post-real-fast thing and am sure I went over a lot of people's heads there.

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Oh. Re the techie stuff for example.

I'd never even thought of people voting down things that simply didn't interest them....purely stuff they found stupid or offensive and such.

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Ideally it would not necessarily be used that way but people are people so it will.

In another post I'll post my suggestions on how to use the tagging and voting features, but people will find other potentially less constructive uses and unless there is sock puppetry (users casting multiple votes) or other voting fraud we aren't going to try to force people to use it the way I want it to be used.

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Craven de Kere wrote:

Ideally it would not necessarily be used that way but people are people so it will.

In another post I'll post my suggestions on how to use the tagging and voting features, but people will find other potentially less constructive uses and unless there is sock puppetry (users casting multiple votes) or other voting fraud we aren't going to try to force people to use it the way I want it to be used.

Great re more info on tagging.

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I want to add something, a spillover from the other discussion but I think it needs to be plunked here, and recognize that this is partly vis a vis the current Moderator situation but also about the future. Consider it plunkerized.

To restate what I hope is painfully obvious: you all know (or should know) that the Moderators are volunteers. There aren't that many of us, and our number was recently decreased by one. There are sometimes issues that percolate for a while in Modland before something happens. But that does not mean that there are no standards being upheld.
We have learned from experience that any appearance of taking moderator actions based on complaints from the membership ends badly. This particular situation was being discussed before the H20 Man thread appeared. It is still being discussed. Action may be taken or not. Rest assured that whatever ends up happening would have happened anyway.
The Terms of Service are admittedly out of date. It's a major undertaking to get it current. The new A2K is around the corner. Under these circumstances, none of the current Mods want to take on the job of getting it up to date only to have it rendered moot in a matter of weeks.
The Mods have an internal system that's been working rather nicely for quite some time. It has been recently disrupted due to a) an increase in our own personal levels of busy-ness and b) general distress at Noddy's demise (hey, we're humans). Again, the team is on this situation, but hadn't come to a decision yet when this thread was started. A decision will be made. We are on it.
Closely related to #4 -- the internal system is the one you know. It has been in place without much revision for about a year. Some of it is obvious, some of it is judgment calls. It is in fact different from two years ago or even six years ago, but it is not something very recent either. Don't panic.
Chances are that you see very, very little of what the moderating team does. We continue to do a lot, though. We pull. We lock. We communicate via Help Desk. We suspend. We are here, and we are working. Are we perfect? Of course not. But we're doing our best, and will continue to do so. So again ... don't panic.

I apologize for public reprimanding. This is why, very often, you don't see me weigh in on topics where maybe you want me to weigh in the most, and why often actions are performed without public explanations that are perhaps craved by some members of the site.

Thank you.

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Dear Jespah

You seem tense

((((((((((((((((((((((((((((SOOTHING BEAR HUG))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

Regards

BPB

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Jes.... you guys do a fab job! Trust it.

If the mods are similar to our Noddy - then they were in the best company.

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Bi-Polar Bear wrote:

Dear Jespah

You seem tense

((((((((((((((((((((((((((((SOOTHING BEAR HUG))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

Regards

BPB

I'm always tense. No, it has nothing to do with my marriage.

Moderatin' ain't easy. Then again, I hear the same about pimping.

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Thanks Jes and thanks to the rest of the mod team. A task done with thought and consideration.

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jespah wrote:

Bi-Polar Bear wrote:
Dear Jespah

You seem tense

((((((((((((((((((((((((((((SOOTHING BEAR HUG))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

Regards

BPB

I'm always tense. No, it has nothing to do with my marriage.

Moderatin' ain't easy. Then again, I hear the same about pimping.

it's got it's ups and downs :wink:

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jespah wrote:

I
I apologize for public reprimanding. This is why, very often, you don't see me weigh in on topics where maybe you want me to weigh in the most, and why often actions are performed without public explanations that are perhaps craved by some members of the site.

IMO, ya'll should make your actions more public, not less.

But then, I'm sure ya'll always keep my opinions in mind... Wink

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Zhanks for the indos, Craven and jes.

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The a2k world is changing 1: more microcosms

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