Home › Forums › Open Discussion › UPDATE: New forum features!!!!
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November 3, 2008 at 7:55 pm #645839
WSBKeymasterGlad the features are worthwhile! I won’t bore you all with the story of what it took to get the underpinnings of the site to a point where feature additions would be possible (and we are by no means done), but Patrick and I are content people, not tech people, and we were very lucky to be able to find and hire Ace Tech Person. (And thankful also to Stuart Maxwell, who helped us with the changes last year that made the WSB Forums possible in the first place, but is now swamped with other projects.)
More to come, stand by … TR
November 3, 2008 at 8:51 pm #645840
AnonymousInactiveHow personal is PM? Does the editor and tech person have access?
If you apply the ignore user feature, can that user send you unwanted PM’s?
Do forum rules apply to PM’s? Am I allowed to tell my dear friend NR that I think she’s Nucking Futs in a PM?
What procedure do I take if I feel I have received a threatening or offensive PM?
Not personally planning on these events, but they’re bound to occur to some of us at some point.
November 3, 2008 at 11:53 pm #645841
ellenaterMemberNovember 4, 2008 at 12:05 am #645842
AnonymousInactiveI know. Seriously.
November 4, 2008 at 12:50 am #645843
WSBKeymasterCouple answers.
Yes, editor/tech guy COULD find the PMs but NOT EASILY and it will not be something routinely reviewed. They will be in our database somewhere. (Same goes for that matter for passwords. I don’t frankly even know how to look for everyone’s log-in passwords in the database but certainly they’re in there somewhere – which is why, when people write us on occasion that they forgot theirs, we have to ask them to just set a new one, we can’t go fish it out.)
Re: whether an ignored user can send you a PM. Yes, the two features are not intertwined, sorry about that. Although at least if you see that’s who it’s from, you have the option of not opening it once you’re in the “mailbox.”
Re: the other questions, we are rewriting some rules and will make sure they are addressed. Like anything on the site, please flag us if there is abuse, insulting, etc. (Report This Post is still in the wings too, btw, so that it won’t require you to go into your e-mail program and get my e-mail address and send a note if something goes awry. Although in the short run if there’s anything you want to report, certainly you can PM me too!)
November 4, 2008 at 4:10 pm #645844
hopeyParticipant@ellenator: I couldn’t find the Giraffes skit on normal YouTube, but I did find it! http://ikbis.com/MeeZan/shot/143457
It made me LAUGH and LAUGH. Dunno how long the link will work, before the fine folks at NBC get it taken down.
November 4, 2008 at 4:16 pm #645845
hopeyParticipant@lowmanbeach: YAY, PMs! Any plans for PM notifications via the email address registered to the account? Since I read via RSS and only log in when I want to comment on something, PMs may languish in my mailbox for quite a while without “external” notification…
November 4, 2008 at 6:19 pm #645846
cruiserMemberYeah, and how about a free cheeseburger with every comment,none of those virtual things, I want dead cow on mine:)
November 4, 2008 at 7:34 pm #645847
katydidMembertesting, testing…to see if my avatar is working.
November 4, 2008 at 8:35 pm #645848
DianeParticipantcan someone please explain to me the appeal of these avatars; I don’t get it; to me they are distracting from easily reading the forum text and very annoying; I would enjoy more if they were actual photos of members (thanks HunterG)
November 4, 2008 at 11:04 pm #645849
AnonymousInactiveDiane, I agree that they are distracting. OTOH, you can’t change your name and I get mistaken for MrJT. Maybe this will help differentiate between some members.
November 4, 2008 at 11:05 pm #645850
JenVMemberI think this would fall under the “just for sh*ts and giggles” category. :P
November 5, 2008 at 7:25 am #645851
WSBKeymasterIt’s an almost universally accepted form of personalization for people who take the time and trouble to participate in forums. However, we did take care to be sure you had the option NOT to use one. If it were easy to make tech changes I would look into the option to not SEE them, but every change we have made here costs us money and we are trying to use it wisely. Speaking of which, Report This Post is now launched, if you haven’t noticed. If you click it, you will get a dialog box that asks you what you want investigated about the post – fill in some text, send it, and it’ll tell you thanks, then you go about your business and I get a note to look into it. — TR
November 5, 2008 at 7:06 pm #645852
DianeParticipantthanks for the explanation TR
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and thanks for answering my next question, before asked, about an “ignore” for avatars
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I’ve never participated in any other forum, and my interest in this one is getting to know my neighbors, share information, so personalization to me would be about revealing more of the real id of folks sharing on here; when it was just text, I would get a vision of what the writer was like based on what they wrote; now with some of the pics, it’s more like Halloween all the time, more of a mask; I prefer to get the know the “real” of people
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so, if I ever do put one up for myself, it will probably be a photo
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the only other social online sources I’ve used (meetup groups, Greendrinks) use mostly real person photos, which is fantastic, so when we do meet in person, it’s easier to identify, and I think makes for a richer online experience
November 5, 2008 at 7:37 pm #645853
JenVMemberDiane- I don’t do photos – never have and never will…but if it helps- I am short with dark hair…and look nothing at all like a rock and roll clown! ;)
November 5, 2008 at 8:55 pm #645854
hopeyParticipant@Diane: There are many people (the majority, in my experience) who choose not to associate their online identity with a true photograph from which they can be positively identified. There can be many reasons for this, whether because of an abusive partner, a snooping boss — you may not realize that people have lost their jobs and livelihoods because of comments they made online — or simply because they like to keep their “real” identity off the internet.
It is my personal opinion that people who use their full real name as their online handle and/or post identifying photos of themselves do not fully understand the risk they are taking by doing so. Yes, there is always the flip-side risk of being “duped” by someone, but that is always a risk on the internet, even when there is a photo and what looks like a real name. My avatar could be a photo of my supermodel-beautiful cousin, and you’d never know the difference until and unless you actually met me in person.
Take the avatars for what they are: an expression of that poster’s personality, or an example of something that’s important in their life.
November 5, 2008 at 10:10 pm #645855
DianeParticipantthanks hopey for the added perspective
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since this is the only forum I’ve ever had any interest in participating (peeked at a few over the years and totally turned off), guess I feel pretty safe here, and doubt I’ve ever said anything scandalous enough to put employment at risk
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really appreciate your explanation; more food for thought
November 6, 2008 at 4:47 am #645856
WSBKeymasterWe of course have photos on our “About” page – on Facebook, I have a pic on my “personal” page but a sunset shot on the WS Blog page and also as my Twitter icon. First place I ever really encountered the avatar concept was a travel website where I spent a lot of time back when we took a fair amount of trips … lots of avid participants but almost no one used a personal photo. The chosen images always gave a personality hint, though! The flush left thing, by the way, will be worked on as we work on some bigger and better design and information-organization things for next-gen WSB.
November 6, 2008 at 7:03 pm #645857
JenVMemberAnyone else notice any disappearing posts? I clicked on one, got a message page from bb press saying ‘topic not found’ and then it disappeared from the forum…then re-appeared. Haunted forum?
November 6, 2008 at 10:38 pm #645858
JoBParticipantI have been getting a
“this topic has been closed” box…
and not always on contentious threads.
Whazzup??
November 7, 2008 at 7:47 pm #645859
AnonymousInactivecheck
November 8, 2008 at 1:48 am #645860
TraciMemberI don’t like the “ignore” feature. It’s helpful in theory, but what’s really happening is people jumping into posts saying “oh I missed all that because I’m ignoring people! tee hee”
Is it unreasonable to say that it’s a little MEAN? Just an opinion.
Avatars whoo!
November 8, 2008 at 2:21 am #645861
AnonymousInactiveTraci – Being that I believe I am ignored by several on here, I thought I would respond to your post.
I actually don’t mind when people do that, make a point of stating that they are ignoring me. It doesn’t bother me. I’ve actually had worse things said. :)
I do think it’s a little high school (not so much activating the feature, but having to announce it). But, to each their own. I haven’t ignored anyone, I think it would be too confusing (and I’m confused enough most of the time anyways!).
November 10, 2008 at 7:01 pm #645862
JoBParticipantTR..
a serous question… it seems i am not the only one encountering the “this topc has been closed” or “this topic is unavailable” message.
at first i just assumed you had the topic offline working on cleaning up a thread..
but i find that others are unable to access topics that i have access to.
Will a thread be inaccessible to you if someone you have ignored is the last to post on it?
November 10, 2008 at 7:17 pm #645863
charlabobParticipantJoB–you figured it out (it took me a while). If someone you’ve ignored is last poster, there’s no way for you to see the thread until someone else posts. :-)
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