WTF A2K?

I started a philosophy thread and someone added "Get A Life".
It is just silliness.

Let's ask em. Then we'll know how to do it too.

I don't know either of them well.
Osso has been very friendly to me, and I have had few interactions with Lustig (sp?) sorry if I'm butchering your handle Merry.

I am also a little tempted to get on my soap box regarding the tagging of a question by some young man who had a question about his sexuality. He used completely non-vulgar language, as did all of the respondents up till the last. The thread was tagged NSFW (not safe for work) causing it to have a default thumb score of zero. Along with the bold red NSFW tag.
What kind of message does this send to him?
http://able2know.org/topic/209333-1#post-5265084

it does indeed seem that A2K is increasingly populated by and geared towards the unformed. I think it all threads back to Robert changing the programming along with his repeated demonstrations of disdain for the community that had grown up around the old A2K. and lets be honest, this gadgetty A2K is simply too much work to use for most people, especially with the useless tagging

That NSFW tag is functional, or so I'm told. It gives you warning not to open the thread in a tightly controlled work environment. That's what they say, anyway. Notice that if it's red, it was added by moderators. Us normal people can't use color in the tag line.

I rarely post. I tend to post on the english questions the most now. At least most of the students are polite and generally quite thankful. I try my best to ignore the contention.
At times, I admit I've sunk to their levels. I'm easily prodded, unfortunately, but as of late, I'm so over the penis competitions. Especially over apostrophes or commas. Seriously. Done. I couldn't give a **** if people feel the need to edit my posts. Good on ya. I make mistakes. Big whoop.
I don't mind a good debate but the constant stomach punches get to be a bit much.
I find the old guard is just itching to jump on people. New people, old people.. I've been astounded by the viciousness I've seen on a pretty regular basis. And over what? A dumb question... an answer, a disagreement in taste, belief or historical understanding. Give your opinion and go. But no.. It's always the hammer. 78905343904569 replies later and the same point is either lost in the stench or beaten to death, usually with the same tired insults.
And it's the same culprits stirring the pot. One trick ponies. Nothing but debbie downers with the most negative views.
It gets old. Who cares. If you're not interested, why bother answering, unless you can help or it's funny. Why beat the crap out of a first timer? It doesn't really endure us to new people or the people who have been here for years.
I've got a few of people on ignore. I just couldn't stomach the bile. But I'm getting close to ignoring the whole place. It's just getting old. Old battles are constantly brought up, civility even in completely benign threads is disrupted with the constant bickering. Mexico City.. Anyone... Really. Beautiful Animals? Jesus. Is nothing is sacred or beyond childish tantrums. It's boring me to tears. It's like being stuck endlessly in Junior High, or elementary school.
I'm sick to death of American politics. And America is evil. Yup, got it. Seriously. It's the same damn argument. I'm completely uninterested in having a normal, heated is fine, conversation on guns anymore. It just isn't possible.
This site is stuck in a rut.
I used to like skipping through interesting topics, now.. nothing but repetition, rinse, lather and repeat.
Christ even BBB stopped posting articles hoping to draw a crowd.
So how do you attract new users without having the old guard kick the **** out of anyone who dares poke their head in, when they can't help but puke over anyone who dares to stick around and I shudder, dare to disagree. Beware of the A2K grudge match, where no slight goes unanswered. Ever. Forever. Amen.
Sadly, it seems the intelligent or interesting conversation that once were is but a memory.. New 'old' questions are directed to a library of old threads instead of engaging in new threads, why? Who cares. Is anyone really indexing this site? How many old timers go wading through old posts looking for obscure questions? I don't. Or when the grammar nazis show up. If ya don't understand something. Walk away. Don't engage the illiterate. It's that simple. They'll either conform or go away. No need to show them the door with a boot.
What happened to patience or being nice. K, spam is spam. Great! get rid of it, but....
The only topics that live on are a collection of nasty shots back and forth on rape, guns and other collections of hot headed blather. So many threads descend into a pissing contests in a barrel, some of our denizens must really like wallowing in the mud.
My answer is raise the dead. With no disrespect. Some of the most sterling conversationalists have died and left a bitter bunch behind.......
Cause other than that I don't see an end to the hate.

I can understand if it's function is to censor vulgarity.
I don't think there is anything vulgar about homosexuality.
I've noticed that threads about 19 year-old girls in relationships with 32 year old men are "safe for work".
I'm not claiming that the second shouldn't be but where exactly is this line drawn?
When the word "sex" is used?
I hope it wasn't when the word "gay" was used.

Thanks Ceili,
I can't disagree with most of that.
My perception (as a new person) has been that "the hammer" comes only from a few specific persons. To the credit of the community this was explained to me as it happened (via PMs). This was very helpful and instrumental in keeping me from hitting the door. I would recommend that strategy if you see new posters being bullied into submission.

That is kinda the point, it's not just new comers. And god knows it's hard to keep up with all the potential reasons why some people go off the rails and then give fair warning to the uninitiated...
It's valued long time members that are also taking the walk.
One by one, so many interesting people have left and the same people keep waving them off. We used to have a pretty vibrant community that welcomed new people, people who kept in touch and cared about each other. I find myself caring less and less.
I used to learn a lot coming here, recently its been reduced to not so clever insults.
C'est la vie.
I haven't completely given up. I guess I've just been a little gun shy lately.
There's always hope. lol

Thanks Ceili,
I for one hope to see the civility bar raised. I have seen some recent improvements in some of the discourse, even from the notorious. I don't know where your interests lie, but I would be happy to engage you in conversations.

Is this relating to a specific thread Boomer, or a general comment?

Ah...question answered.....it's general.

Fair enough.

We all learn the hard way. Some don't learn at all, so you're way ahead!

Oh dear. I keep on popping in and hoping for some interest and fun.

I also keep hoping for the feature that stops ignored people from seeing your posts....I have a number of topics I'd like to air, but I can't bear to see them degenerate into slag fests between the trolls and the (in effect if not in intent) trolls who hate the other trolls.

That feature, if it ever eventuates, should assist with some of the crap that is driving us all away.

bookmark

Anyone can change the tags on a topic. Tagging is crowd-based. Don't like the tags on a topic? Add your own. Enough people tag with a particular word or phrase, it'll stick. Simple majority rules. Mods don't have any more power in this than anyone else.

NSFW is used by the Mod team because there are advertising issues with some topics. You can vote up any topic you like. And, BTW, the NSFW indicator (it's not really a tag) does not automatically thumb down a topic.

But tagging (even nasty tagging) automatically votes a topic up.

PS I cannot give you exact, unwavering reasons why things are marked as NSFW, but for the topic you're thinking of, masturbation was mentioned in the opening post and we were uncertain of the direction that the topic was going to be taking. A lot of those have gone south rather quickly and so we were cautious. In any event, I don't generally get into explanations of such things on the public boards and would rather not do so.

Thanks.
So if you want to reinforce a tag, add a duplicate tag?
For instance in this thread if I want to make the "community" tag stick, then add my own version of the "community" label?

So the NSFW is used to prevent certain ad-sense results?
Can't ad-sense be filtered directly, I don't design websites but I would assume that ad-sense has some sort of (appropriateness settings).