The new amalgamated philosophy forum.

well, i'm definitely on a subpar level of discourse, but wait until i get my cute apple avatar back, you'll fall in love with me

You should consider that facetious smears of other people might not be well received by them. I know you don't know me and that this is abrupt but let's not just make up our own narratives about me here.

I bought PhilosophyForum because I thought it was a great community. It wasn't some great greedy transaction or anything, Justin needed to sell, close or monetize (not happening at the scale it was at) the site and I thought it was a very special community that would be a great addition to ours.

My motivation wasn't primarily financial (I bought it last year, and till it closed it had all ads/donation links that Justin had had) and my intentions weren't for it to be abrupt. Our company doesn't make our money on these sites (rather we make our money so we can work on them) and I needed to finish some big projects that pay our bills.

The plan was to finish that project and turn our attentions to Philforum and a2k. We were in the middle of launching the other project (about a week ago) and on Tuesday found out that Philforum was completely hacked again, with malicious code on the server calling out to a Russian server for instructions. That is a situation we have a responsibility to fix as soon as humanly possible and due to the resources and knowledge we had we chose a rushed termination of the hacked software rather than another attempt to patch it (remember, we'd been hacked through Philforum earlier in the year already, you guys might remember when I had to move servers, which was a partial response to it).

I fully intended to become a member in better standing with you guys, and to make these changes with more preparation, consensus and planning. It's object in particular to characterizations of this as a financially motivated business decision, forums are bad businesses. Philosophy forum is pretty much a $100-$200/month loss at its scale. But it has a lot of value in the community that I think it can contribute to A2K.

My motivations are that I like building community and like knowledge sharing, I think the communities together are stronger.

It seems cowardly behaviour to boo someone and not show your face.
It seems poor intelligence to boo something and not critique the work.
To on the sly.
I liked it when if someone thanked me for something I could see that and only have it taken away by the person who gave it to me.
This cancels out someones welcoming of you.
This unsettles me more than I thought it would.

Can someone boo you more than once?
I really would like an explanation of this.
This could easily be used as a bully tactic, bloody cowards.
Surly the only people who can delete thank s for you and from some else are those who participate in the topic.
I have found my first real hurdle here.
So just incase you did not get it, and I know this is probably opening me up for a whole load more of it, I really don' t like this at all.

I tried it the thumb thing out yesterday and erased 2 of Krumple's posts in their entirity (Sorry Krumple, I was just practicing). They've gone forever. So (and I have no idea why) if someone didn't like you Sun - They could erase everything you do...Ouch!
I'm saving my importants. Shine On, Sun.
Mark...

All forums are in financial trouble -- hardly any of them are really a wise investment. I believe that the members at PF at least were worthy of enough respect to where they should have been warned, and included in discussion, on any major forum change like this. Especially members (like myself) who had made (meager, but real) financial contributions to the site, and senior members/mods who had devoted a TON of their own time working on that site. Any new owner should have seen this, and to do otherwise shows a lack of respect to existing members. As for the security issues...perhaps if our new owner had actually logged on once in a while, or done necessary software updates and security checks, it wouldn't have been hacked. Who knows...

That's how I see it, and I don't need to bother saying more about it. As for this forum, it's nice if you like variety, but a PHILOSOPHY FORUM, it is not. This is no knock against members or the forum itself...but you call things what they are, and this thing is not that, etc.

To other refugees from PhilosophyForum.com:

PhilosophyChatforum.com appears to have many of the old features that PF members were used to -- chat room, photo albums, blogs, thread subscriptions, and other style features very similar to the vBulletin board style. The aesthetics are nice, the sections well-organized and concise. Now all it needs is an influx of new members to get things rolling...it's worth checking out, and spreading the word about!

I'll be signing out, and I wish no one any ill-feelings, but only good fortune for your future endeavors; hopefully we may meet at the other forum, if you decide to join. Peace!

The second half of the tutorial I am writing will cover most of your questions. Mind if I answer the questions once in the tutorial rather than several times in different threads?

I hope to have it completed by tomorrow at the latest, but I'm aiming for late this evening. (I do my best work at night.)

I wouldn't take the voting too personally, it's just collaborative moderation and usually corrects itself (e.g. if someone sees a post voted down that is not bad they vote it up).

no they aren't, they will be replaced by a tiny note that reads, Post voted down (view), click on view and they will come back, then if you vote them up, they will come back for good

they are only gone for you, not for others

I posted in the A2K tutorial topic a quick description and screen shot of how the thumbs up/down system works.

You can navigate to it here:

http://able2know.org/topic/152761-1#post-4168020

That's good! I'd hate to have messed someones posts up.
Thank you kindly,
And have a great day.
mark...

I take everything personally I have tried not to and it does not work.
So now on top of all my crap I have to come to work with armour on.
Crap.
I like who I am, I don't want to become cold.

I will say it again though for those who may not have heard,
those who use this button and hide themselves are unintelligent cowards.

Pangloss you need to put any address of where members will be in as many of the threads Philforum as possible.
We need to all know where to find each other should the need arise.

Oh, for Gosh's sake! Do you really think you have the power to erase someone's posts? After a very short delay, you can't even erase your own. Thumb something (post or entire thread) down and it is not gone forever. It is not gone at all. It is collapsed, and it is only collapased to you. Everyone else can view it till their heart is content.

Would you like to retreive Krumple's posts? Fine. Go to Krumple's profile, find the post you think you erased, and thumb it back up.

I happen to dislike crossword puzzle questions. I give them the thumb whenever I see them. I don't need them cluttering up my screen, so I get them off my screen. They are not being punished, and I don't have to look at them.

Thank you Roger, I have been informed of that now. Would you care to tell me which wood would be appropriate for lighting a fire in a humid canyon?
Thank you, and have a nice day.
Mark...

the driest you can get your hands on would be my suggestion

The lower branches of pines are often dead and nicely air dried. They make dandy kindling. Sometimes, you just gotta' go with what you got.

Even Goofy knows how to navigate the mechanisms of a simple internet forum

Hey, I just clicked your username and got sent to your profile. Did you know that could happen?

Fascinating....idn't it?

(I just removed your post...........forevah!)

And I just corrupted your avatar. Now it's just a big, green, splotchy looking thing.