Thank You, Abuzz

sozobe, I am hopeful the askme.com newbies will stir Abuzz and make it lively again.
The closedness, I insist, permitted the loonies to develop. Gave them space.

The other problem -and I think it was always in the software, which lets you invent a false email to have a new moniker- is the abundance of stalkers (and gnats). Of course, to stop them you need administrators-moderators surveying the system.

The email this is a big hole. It's very easy to plug. I think they are only using a javascript to ensure that the email provided contains a "@" and maybe a "." + toplevel domain.

But they should use email authentication. It's a very simple thing to code.

I believe the Abuzz program originally had E mail autorization because during the major crash over a year ago, I had to try and sign back in and I ran into an error screen when I made a mistake on the user name part of the address, not the @domain. There unwillingness to fix anything is indicative of their lack of concern about whether it survives or not. It's poorly designed software and outddated. It's too obviously the results of committee meeting design. Like the board meeting of a blender manufacturer deciding that had nothing to do so they come up with a new blender setting that is needless:

Thrash
Mutilate
Explode
Whittle

It's a case of trash everything a start over. This site is a much cleaner, easier to use and sensible design. You're always going to have room for improvement but making something more complicated and bureaucratic is certainly not the answer. Not that the moderator/editors don't have to have a plan -- it's the normal user who isn't exactly computer literate that one has to consider.

BTW -- I hated, hated, hated MSN groups' software -- what a joke that Microsoft designers are behind it. Gives you an example of what kind of quality you're paying for when you buy their OS. They survive by planned obsolesence (and monopoly).

Abuzz never used email authentication in the time I was there.

By that I mean when you join you shouldn't be able to log in till you check your email and click on a link to activate your account.

They do check to see if what you type looks like an email but don't check to see if it is a valid account that you use.

I recently enabled such verification here. Looking at the code suprised me at how simple of a feature it is.

BTW MSN groups have a huge hole that allows you to impersonate any member at will (you don't even need to be a member of MSN groups to do it, Abuzz has a similar hole).

By impersonate I don't mean use a similar name, I mean use their very account.

Some of the functions in the Abuzz software were done for reasons that never came about after their staffing collapsed. I know the e-mail verification issue had something to do with how they allowed their "affiliates" to tie into the main database because I discussed it with one of the programmers before they all got laid off. The e-mail verification would have messed up their "seemless" interface to the affiliate's site (or so they said..). A part of the long term problem is that Abuzz was never intendd to be what it became.

The people who worked at Abuzz corporate and drove the software design assumed that the affilate programs would be the main body of questions and people such as us would just be occassional users that would pop in. People like us showed up and sort of "took over" and changed the face of what Abuzz was. The software was never changed to reflect the differences in use.

I could have lived with all the software problems. The spitefulness of a handful of users is what drove me off. The occassional nutcase I could have dealt with but it seemed that things became factionalized and people who used to be civil don't seem to have that ability any more and things just snowballed..

To get email verification to work seamlessly with other layouts and even domains would only take a few more minutes of coding (around 5).

But what you said makes sense about another railed at hole: the multiple usernames.

Maybe the reason for this is that the user database would be kept separate from the rest. This would allow affiliates to keep the userdatabases they generate.

That makes sense as cross database functions would be a headache to code and affiliates would obviously have an interest in keeping their own user database.

But the verification thing is really a 5 min job. All it involves is a simple code to generate random urls, this can be done for whatever domain is using the software. Then they make the generated url finish off the activation part.

Hey, what's happened to your avatar, Craven? I hope it didn't have one cocktail too many and fall off the page...

I've become to regard Abuzz as a nuisance to post on -- too many of the valuable old members checked out long ago, especially on the movie threads (filmprof is sporadic and did post twice to my newer threads and only to have another member attack him with little substance to their reasoning). More times than not, those who attack don't give the benefit of the doubt that perhaps the poster didn't use their words quite right in communicating their idea. I know -- it's "A" personalities interacting with "B" personalities (although I notice the "B" personalities become more assertive on these forums!)

Yes, the software was devised at a time when it was perceived that the Interent was booming -- too much of it was silicone snake oil, of course.

Alas Abuzz! Interested to see the comments here on this topic. Actually, I am glad to read the comments *here* and NOT on abuzz where so many meaningful threads get trashed. Roger 'saw' me there recently, as did jespah and others. I have made a point to just go where I've got threads posted and to the interactions I like. I only read on the web, since I am active online and would have waaaaay to much to wade through. Anything really great - I copy / paste to a Word document.

I am most surprised that the long-running thread "Fired Up" is still relatively-free of smut and disruptors. It's interesting to see that some long-time abuzzers that I have met and / or seen online have dropped in more often lately. It must be that same thing - looking for quality posts to interact with.

Have not had much concern at all over the issue of not getting email updates. I always log in and go to My Abuzz and start clicking on "Questions I Posted" or "Interactions I am Involved In" and "Responses for You". (Of course NEVER trust what the links 'say' - often there are updated posts and it's not even listed in My Abuzz for me...)

Right now there is a Cronefest gathering out East that would not have happened without the origin at abuzz. Nor could such a very unique group of women have gotten to know and stay in contact with each other if not for abuzz. Just last night I spoke to friends there by phone - we think that overall, more and more great abuzzers have gone the extra mile (literally!) and opened themselves to others. The rewards have been tremendous! I have met in these last two years some of the best friends I have ever had, and have significantly changed my life for the better because of it.

I left abuzz almost a year ago....many wierd things started to happen out there, wasn't able to load pages, posts lost.....I'm only glad to see that many people whose thoughts and opinions I liked are here, so it really doesn't matter to me is it abuzz or not....Btw, I prefer this one, more alive it seems to me, and I'm very glad to see you all.

Hugs and love to all abuzz friends, and all new I hope I'll find here

Alexandra

Abuzz didn't just shoot itself in the foot -- it shot both legs off and now is hobling along on bloody stumps (well, I know it's the day after Halloween so that metaphor is indicative of the day after -- I have a chocolate hangover as we didn't have enough trick or treaters with all the abduction scares here so I ended up with a pile of leftover candy. Anyone know if it makes good garden fertilizer before I eat it all).

Glad Alexandra is here as I told her we would love to have more members from the European community. I'm trying to get a movie buff from Spain who I E mail to as a member.

The Lightwizard,

what about some people from abuzz like C.D., Artunbound...they are Europeans too, and I really think they will be glad to join.

Alexandra

Absolutely and I've tried to get Florence Walton to join a start some of her rousing art discussions. J L Nobody would be great, too, but I don't have his E Mail. He is an artist and adds a lot to the discussions of the act of making art and art history.

... what about Jes' invite plan...?

Ok, The Lightwizard,

but there must be someone who has her e-mail address. What about Jespah?

And what about her inviting plan, sozobe? If you mean what I think, that is a great !!!!

Alexandra

Cobalt, what have you heard about a get together in Texas?

MA


Thanks.....

The lost item on Abuzz is the Updates. Would updates work here? Craven, how did Abuzz do this? The posters knew what responses were, hour by hour. It was instant messaging but on a forum-wide basis.

I am so ignorant of how this would or could be done here.

Kara if you mean email updates this function already exists here. Just click on watch this topic at the bottom of the topic and it will send you an email update when there is a new post. But it doesn't work the way abuzz does. It sends you one email that there is a new thread until you log in again. This way if a thread gets 100 posts while you are gone you only get 1 email.

You can also get email updates on forums here. But that isn't something I recommend due to the volume of email it gives.

Plus I need to improve on it to invite you by keywords etc.

I would just love to see c.d. here, Alexandra, and her address is on Jespah's master list. So far as I know, she has been very inactive for the past six months or so. Not just Abuzz, I mean. She also hasn't posted on Raven's Realm in eons.

I wonder too, sozobe. I have a list of people I'm champing at the bit to invite, and see a number of people coming in by way of invitations. It is a frustration, and with Abuzz not fixing the updates in 'new responses for you - see all' we may not even have Abuzz as a means to contact some whose email addresses are not known. Maybe the comment doesn't belong on a Thank You, Abuzz discussion, but I had to put it in some where.