[POLL] Abolish the "ignore" function.

[Cordelia]

if you don't like it, post your own wall of content

.

Seriously? That's your advice, as Moderator? That's how you want to see General Discussion?

This here represents a reading comprehension failure on your part. Try again.

Edit: LMFAO, I looked up some SLAD quotes to see if I was describing her stance accurately, and, well...it's usually phrased far less charitably. I guess I can see why you thought those were my words.

I'd like to see a General Discussion that's more interesting. All this politics shit is just Facebook noise. I'd like a more non-linear, less responsive/reactive General Discussion, break the yoke of the media cycle. I'd like to see people contributing their own ideas and writing more often, too. I'd like a lot of things, though.

[dada]

I believe there are more serious problems here that led to many posters leaving.

god yes. But about those problems too, no honest discussion is possible (much less welcome) here.

Let's do it. What are some of the more serious problems here that led to many posters leaving? I mean, unless that would take away from the ignore function discussion. I just figure instead of starting a new thread, and since it came up, we could get into it here, now.

I can't think of any off the top of my head. I just figure that either people change, and find they have nothing else to offer the board, or the board has nothing else to offer them.

Or not nothing, but not enough to keep hanging around. This board made a big big impression on me, helped my growing mind. I was here for a while. After some time, it felt like it wasn't helping me, or I was stagnating. So I didn't visit as often, just dropped in every once in a while. Now I'm sort of casting off all this karmic stuff, for lack of a better term. The things that have made the biggest big impressions on me, have now become some of the last 'knots to untie,' as it were. So I've found myself here again more often. Post once or twice a day on average, recently. I don't have lots of time, but even if I did, I don't know if I'd post much more. Probably not. So that's why I'm here. Untying knots.

Once the knots are all untied, I may stick around, I may not. I'm not deciding one way or the other, I'll be surprised. If I were a betting man, I'd put my money on "one day I'll wake up and look at the board, and shrug." No big drama goodbye, no big show. It won't be because the board drove me away out of frustration, or whatever. People change, people grow. That's a good thing, I think.

Maybe it's just natural cycles, ebb and flow? Am I a heretic for suggesting it? Am I a heretic for not pining for the virtual days when RI was a braintrust of highest psychic gravity? What? I'm the most serious problem that drives posters away? You really think so? I thought I was just being paranoid. Will I get voted off the island for my unmitigated cheek? Stay tuned...

I mean, what's my status? Maybe we should have badges under our avatars to show how serious we are, dedicated, loyal to the spirit of RI. The take things seriously badge. The stay on topic badge. The critical thinking badge. The lounge-o relax-o badge.

there is now no longer any distinction between GD and The Lounge. In 2017, Anything Goes, anywhere, all the time. It's all just grist to the shitmill, and nothing ever matters. QED.

Yeah, I've noticed that. Whose fault is that? It's hurting the integrity of the ladders and step-ladders.

[82_28]

One thing to bear in mind and this where I stand, is do not single any individual out. It is not fair. Do we think that people post here for their own good looks? Perhaps. However, everyone gotz their way, style etc. I ain't no maven of shit but we should not be talking about individuals period.

Also, the political turn is a large part due to me and all of my "seriously dangerous" OPs. For that I kinda apologize, but what else really was "big" in the preceding months? How could one not bring all that shit up and chat about it in even the living room where you live or on the Internet? It was big news, right? I happened to have called this trump bullshit before it even got off the ground, as it were. It just started as a prediction. I feel "safe" making predictions in these here parts where elsewhere I would not. So I say we continue to allow this joint be safe for everyone.

Whatever any of the above I just pecked out means.

[barracuda]

General Discussion snapshot right now:

Screen Shot 2017-04-12 at 6.43.45 PM.png

Ten threads with 7 or more pages, seven threads with 14 or more.

IMHO any thread that exceeds ten or fifteen pages should automatically be placed in the Data Dump forum. I don't care how topical it is, once it hits a certain point it all becomes research and posting of data. Should some startling epiphany arise from the analysis of these data swamps by their loyal followers and custodians, the new idea can always be brought to the front of GD with a new post positing the theory for discussion and linking to the DD threads that pertain. This might make the front page move in a better direction, I think, and maybe force it towards analysis and discussion. Threads without a thesis in the first post invite copy pasta.

I love me a meta-thread.

[Elihu]

how funny i just changed my sig line right before this thread came up. it's not a discussion, it's a club. just run down the last 15 or so people banned and you will see why it's become an echo chamber dominated by an autistic savant playing with his hitler figurines in his anti-fa sandbox. in the beginning the blog was somewhat of a history project and we all needed to be brought up to date. once done the author had to quit posting or be guilty of multiplying examples. much easier to retreat to twitting about liberal politics. truth is politics has $%*!-all to do with will of the people. that thing calling itself a government is a commercial for-profit slave management company.

[Perelandra]

Still lovin you all.

[DrEvil]

I think the ignore function in its current form is useless. You can still see that $hate_object posted something and it's just one easy click on the 'show post' button to read it. The temptation is inhuman.

What I would like to see is some sort of archive function to show older versions of posts that have been edited. Way too many people edit their posts without saying why.

[stefano]

No.

I don't have a lot of time these days and want to pop in and be able to read what discussion there actually is, not walls of text from Anarchist Poseur Quarterly, Trump Loathing Daily or a story of how someone once met Hannibal off of A-Team.

Do you think moaning about shitposting is going to make it stop? Has that been working out well so far?

[MacCruiskeen]

if you don't like it, post your own wall of content

.

Seriously? That's your advice, as Moderator? That's how you want to see General Discussion?

This here represents a reading comprehension failure on your part. Try again.

Edit: LMFAO, I looked up some SLAD quotes to see if I was describing her stance accurately, and, well...it's usually phrased far less charitably. I guess I can see why you thought those were my words.

The "reading comprehension failure" is entirely yours, Wombat. They were your words. To wit:

No one else would get away with it.

That's just insane. SLAD gets away with it every day. And like she always says - if you don't like it, post your own wall of content.

Verbatim and uncut, emphasis added, link included. So please don't accuse me of lacking reading comprehension when you quote other people's advice at me, with approval and without qualification, and then deny having done so.

But like O'Brien always says, two plus two equals five. Who would venture to disagree, under the circumstances? The likely consequences just don't bear thinking about.

[MacCruiskeen]

I think the ignore function in its current form is useless. You can still see that $hate_object posted something and it's just one easy click on the 'show post' button to read it. The temptation is inhuman.

Yep. In fact it is considerably worse than useless. All it does is encourage and reward dishonesty and evasiveness. QED.

Apropos, one poster is very conspicuous by his absence here, although he has bumped at least one of his own Private Data Dumps since this thread reached page 4: I refer, of course, to the King of the ignore function, whom I will call Mexican Mirage, or The Great Untouchable. No doubt he's laying low in his privy chamber until I get suspended again for lèse-majesté. (It is of course beneath his royal dignity to attend to such petty tasks himself.)

[MacCruiskeen]

I'd like to see a General Discussion that's more interesting. All this politics shit is just Facebook noise. I'd like a more non-linear, less responsive/reactive General Discussion, break the yoke of the media cycle. I'd like to see people contributing their own ideas and writing more often, too. I'd like a lot of things, though.

Please tell me this is intended as satire or something -- all of it, but especially the italicised bits. You are the Moderator, are you not? You are the sole Moderator, are you not? You were capable of suspending me and Harvey and at least one other poster for over a fortnight for having had the temerity to complain about the abuse of this board by the notorious copy-and-paster American Dream, were you not? You do tolerate that Great Untouchable cramming General Discussion with his Private Data Dumps, do you not? The answer to all of these questions is yes, obviously.

Project Willow stepped down as the last Co-Moderator sometime in 2015. You and you alone have presided over this joint since her departure, so please stop pretending you have no agency, no influence, and no responsibility. It's your board now. You run it; only you.

Apropos moderation (and figleafs, and untruths): Why are Dr Volin and Jeff still listed as Moderators? I've asked this question several times now (the last time was yesterday), but you just keep putting it on ignore.

Dr Volin: Last visited: Sat Jan 04, 2014 9:27 am

memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=4180

Nearly two years ago I got a PM from an ex-Moderator who surmises that Dr Volin is probably deceased. (She too was baffled and disturbed by the state of this place, even back then.) Dr Volin was a nice guy, a very interesting poster and a very good Mod. But nothing has been heard from him here for over three years now. So it is, to put it mildly, not fair to him or to his memory to pretend that he is still an RI moderator and therefore co-responsible for the current state of this board. And as for Jeff, he has made it very obvious that he wants nothing more to do with the place. Neither of them have moderated here for years.

When such obvious and undeniable truths become unmentionable on pain of suspension, then the board name Rigorous Intuition becomes a very poor joke. It should be renamed Double Bind, or Don't Notice The Obvious.

I'd like to see people contributing their own ideas and writing more often, too.

I'm sorry, WR, but this is literally unbelievable. You suspend people who try, while simultaneously tolerating and encouraging the board's most notorious regurgitator, copy-and-paster and second-hand-thinker. You are American Dream's protector. You observe, mostly passively but sometimes jocularly, while a Discussion Board run by you alone turns into a spreading bunch of unregulated garbage heaps (and yes, that includes the 73 Trump Dumps you also actively tolerated here)... and then you blame the dwindling band of remaining active members for the dire state of the place. Is it any wonder so many people have just given up and left? No, it is not.

Truly, this board is now a microcosm of the USA. Unreality rules, and mentioning it is the only serious offence.

[Searcher08]

General Discussion snapshot right now:

Screen Shot 2017-04-12 at 6.43.45 PM.png

Ten threads with 7 or more pages, seven threads with 14 or more.

IMHO any thread that exceeds ten or fifteen pages should automatically be placed in the Data Dump forum. I don't care how topical it is, once it hits a certain point it all becomes research and posting of data. Should some startling epiphany arise from the analysis of these data swamps by their loyal followers and custodians, the new idea can always be brought to the front of GD with a new post positing the theory for discussion and linking to the DD threads that pertain. This might make the front page move in a better direction, I think, and maybe force it towards analysis and discussion. Threads without a thesis in the first post invite copy pasta.

I love me a meta-thread.

Hi Cuda

Good ideas, but no one here has the ability to move threads apart from Wombat and he aint gonna do it.
Neither AD nor SLAD will change what they are doing.

There has been a sea change here since the two biggest posters by post count have adopted CopyPasta-ing and thread proliferating, the belief that topics in GD are one's own Private Data Dumps. Neither has any interest in talking about this subject -
"If you dont like it, start your own"
is the standard response.


My suggestion: a 'hair of the dog' treatment is needed to break the model of
"Every Thread, My Little Data Dump"


There are an infinite number of connections between Trump and every aspect of his presidency, policies and personality
- and Artificial Intelligence.

Sadly there are no threads that have dealt with this important area.


Similarly between every aspect of Anarcho-intersectionalist TIDS Anarchoqueer transPoMo nihilist dangerous Putin Antifa Far Right theory - and Ancient Astronauts.

The lack of conversations about this have been truly problematic...

I did try Wombat's suggestion (which is also what I would like to see) of posting more of my own thoughts; the issue of the signal to noise is primary - spend an hour, write a couple of hundred words and have it buried unread (except for an apocoplectic , frothing JR) in cauldrons of Copy Pasta, is not a good use of time.


Another idea is to have a discussion only topic, where there is a single OP with an article and the poster's personal thoughts and the responses have NO links or articles.

[Blue]

I believe there are more serious problems here that led to many posters leaving.

god yes. But about those problems too, no honest discussion is possible (much less welcome) here.

Let's do it. What are some of the more serious problems here that led to many posters leaving? I mean, unless that would take away from the ignore function discussion. I just figure instead of starting a new thread, and since it came up, we could get into it here, now.

I can't think of any off the top of my head. I just figure that either people change, and find they have nothing else to offer the board, or the board has nothing else to offer them.

Or not nothing, but not enough to keep hanging around. This board made a big big impression on me, helped my growing mind. I was here for a while. After some time, it felt like it wasn't helping me, or I was stagnating. So I didn't visit as often, just dropped in every once in a while. Now I'm sort of casting off all this karmic stuff, for lack of a better term. The things that have made the biggest big impressions on me, have now become some of the last 'knots to untie,' as it were. So I've found myself here again more often. Post once or twice a day on average, recently. I don't have lots of time, but even if I did, I don't know if I'd post much more. Probably not. So that's why I'm here. Untying knots.

Yes, I agree that forums are fluid and people come and go for various reasons. But over the years I've observed that all of them devolve into hostile enclaves for the same few reasons. They become clubby whereby only a handful of posters control most of the discussions amongst themselves while ignoring and insulting those not in the club. (No, I'm not referring to AD here altho spamming is another means to disengage people.) The insults, personal attacks, harassments, juvenile nasty behavior is tolerated if not encouraged, especially gang bangs.

The guidelines for posting here are broken on a daily basis, lots of neo-Nazi defenders and sexist commentary. Obvious trolls are allowed to run amuck. The huge pendulum swing from mostly fringe topics to standard political board fare is, I would guess, another reason for departures.

Just a few off the top of my head.

This is an anti-fascist board. Propagation of fascist, neo-Nazi and "white pride" causes, including sympathetically linking to sites which advocate such, will not be permitted. This includes revisionist histories of the Holocaust.

This is an anti-sexist board. We correctly assume that women, as a group, have been and continue to be the object of oppression based upon their gender. It is expected that members will respect the rights of women to justice and equality in all spheres of life, and to a positive experience of RI. Contending that feminism is a "New World Order plot" will not be permitted.

Posts advocating violence, or espousing hatred of a people based upon race, religion, gender or sexuality, are not permitted.

The charge or insinuation of "disinfo agent" can almost never be proven, and poisons and often ends meaningful discussion. Therefore suggesting a poster is purposefully spreading disinformation is not permitted.

Please refrain from personal attacks, and keep arguments issue-based.

[MacCruiskeen]

Try it yourself, Blue. Seriously. And please report back here with the results.

Will do.

Did you get anywhere with that, Blue?

[Blue]

Not yet.