I agree with Deacon on this one. If you dump the PENIS thread, you're going to have some (maybe even significant) reduction of users posting pictures of themselves. At least, I don't plan to start a thread about pictures of me. Maybe a few of the regular hams do, though, eh?

But, I mean, if that's the goal, then go for it.

Of all megathreads, I don't think it's PENIS that's necessarily causing distress. No one gets upset if you post in there and haven't read page 92 to make sure you didn't duplicate a pose.

I did say in the previous post that we could keep the megathread as well as encouraging photos in that area too. The megathread might get moved into arts and letters though (or whatever it ends up being named).

Deacon wrote:Whatever happens, this posting delay thing continues to chafe, and it gets more annoying as time progresses. Will the move to the new server fix that?

Code: Select all

<?php
    if($user_id == 2481)
        sleep(15);
?>

Deacon wrote:Megathreads do have a purpose, and I think it's not so much their existence but rather people being sticklers about using them and them only for any and all things vaguely related. <snip> Why not just go with the flow and let people post what they want? Why does it have to be so controlled either way?

It's funny that you should mention people being sticklers about posting in the megathreads. The problem is that the use of megathreads is controlled right now, just not by the staff. Too many people are afraid to create new threads because they're afraid of getting yelled at by other forumites. As I said in the first post, even Rors is afraid to make a new thread for fear of getting jumped on, and he lumps himself into the group of users that makes RLF less-than-friendly to newcomers. How should a relative newcomer feel about making new threads if someone who has been around for years is uncertain about it?

Everyone knows that I don't like megathreads, but some will stay, as there is some use to them. Some form of a graphics megathread will stick around, for example, though I think it should be used less and cycled more often. Such a thread is a useful place for people to post their new look in glasses or a different hairstyle, or perhaps show off a new car. At the same time, people should be encouraged to post more threads covering their personal topics. Some people may take an extended vacation and create a thread for that. New parents might wish to have a thread where they can post pictures of their children (and isn't A&L about creating new things anyway?). I'm all for moving those threads to Arts & Letters, and for giving Arts and Letters a new name, as well as bringing back captioning threads and other previously-regular fare.

Am I the only one who never noticed PENIS and VAGINA?

I am? Ok just checking.

Lizzegirle wrote:I did say in the previous post that we could keep the megathread as well as encouraging photos in that area too. The megathread might get moved into arts and letters though (or whatever it ends up being named).

Yeah, I don't get that either. A picture of me smiling with a friend isn't art, IMO, or a letter.

I could almost see it being in GTKY, but even that feels off. I think it was categorized properly the first time around.

Martin Blank wrote:Everyone knows that I don't like megathreads, but some will stay, as there is some use to them. Some form of a graphics megathread will stick around, for example, though I think it should be used less and cycled more often. Such a thread is a useful place for people to post their new look in glasses or a different hairstyle, or perhaps show off a new car. At the same time, people should be encouraged to post more threads covering their personal topics. Some people may take an extended vacation and create a thread for that. New parents might wish to have a thread where they can post pictures of their children (and isn't A&L about creating new things anyway?). I'm all for moving those threads to Arts & Letters, and for giving Arts and Letters a new name, as well as bringing back captioning threads and other previously-regular fare.

I FireAza, do hereby endorse the previous.

enisoc wrote:Am I the only one who never noticed PENIS and VAGINA?

I am? Ok just checking.

PENIS I've noticed, but WTF is VAGINA? Yeah, that sentence is gonna come back to haunt me, I just know it...

Put down the anime and get a girlfriend.

DAMMIT! Ninja'd by Lucksi. I need to be faster.

Yes, he posts with ruthless German efficiency.

A vagina is the thing wrapped around the tentacles, 'Aza.

FireAza wrote:PENIS I've noticed, but WTF is VAGINA? Yeah, that sentence is gonna come back to haunt me, I just know it...

JermCool wrote:Put down the anime and get a girlfriend.

Rorschach wrote:A vagina is the thing wrapped around the tentacles, 'Aza.

There we go

Martin Blank wrote:I would like to mention that, as soon as phpBB 3.0.6 comes out and there is code validation (and the forums move to their new destination server running PHP5), the Journals will be returning, albeit in a different form.

I just wanted to make a quick update that I have not been idle on all of this. The phpBB team pulled a little bit of a surprise this week and released RC3 when I was fairly certain that a final release of 3.0.6 was imminent, a guess based on watching them set non-critical bugs to states of "Review Later." That slows down the validation of mod code, so that's why we haven't yet moved to the new server.

I will mention that I am looking at the possibility of maintaining both the Journals forum and implementing the User Blog Mod. I found a mod that allows only the poster to reply to a thread in a given forum, and that duplicates the code that we had before. I've seen a couple of others that I'm looking at, but don't want to discuss at this point because I'm not sure of the overall effect it will have here. I need to see more of how they work, but the end goal, as with all of the others, is to increase participation. I may be ready to talk about them more in a few days.

I don't come here like I used to so I missed this until now. Many of the things on this list led to me leaving. I hold no ill will to anyone. I just decided that it wasn't worth it to me to keep coming.

Martin Blank wrote:

• New users are chased away by their treatment, something that is especially inappropriate in GTKY.
• There's a clique into which it is nearly impossible to get. This clique has its own inside jokes, and has a habit of beating up on others, even when they're largely in agreement.
• Some users are able to get away with saying things that seem to be blatant rule violations.
• Users are reluctant to post new topics. This includes established veterans. Even Rorschach says that he avoids creating new threads because he feels that he'll have to justify it to everyone else. (Rors gave clearance to mention his name.)
• The community spirit is no longer there.
• Backseat moderating by some of the most common posters undermines management and makes others afraid to post.
• Nit-picking over grammar makes people afraid to post anything substantial.

I think this list sums up the issues I had when I left. Many of them have been going on for a very long time.

Martin Blank wrote:[*]Management (and in particular me) has for years been overbearing on the user community.

This is one thing that I have never had a problem with. I guess I played by the rules too well to need a warning from a mod.

I am a mod on a small forum now. I know how hard it can be to keep people happy. I will never know how MB does it with a forum that got as big as this one. At one time RLF was a home to me. I would check it several times a day. Sadly, I don't feel that way anymore. The good times I once had keep me coming back in the hopes that it could be once more.

Well, I did warn you all that it could happen suddenly. Right about 00:01 PST (08:01 UTC), I pulled down the forums for the migration. I think it went well enough, but it will take some time to tell for sure.

You probably noticed that the forum layout has been altered more or less as described a few pages back. Most notably, the Polls forum has been folded into the General forum, and you now have the ability to make your own polls here. In addition, I've added the ability to lock one's own thread to minimize the overhead for staff. I'll be expanding that to other forums over the next few days.

Because Acyd Burn just had to release phpBB 3.0.6 mid-week, it caught me a little off-guard. Some changes will appear more slowly over the next few days. In addition, some of the changes require alterations to the RLC template, so baghead will have to update it in order for them to take effect. Other changes, such as the ATOM feeds, simply require some time to review that I'm not willing to invest at just before 03:00 when the alarm goes off at 05:45. Most of the forum folding is done, though Health still needs attention. The advertising forums were removed, but if there is some thread that you'd like to get pulled from there and placed in another forum, please let me know. I did move one thread over to Arts & Letters because it was somewhat active for a bit recently.

I have removed the Journals forum temporarily to improve the look. There is code that I will be introducing for those who wish to resume use of them. I will also be adding the User Blog Mod, though, for those who wish additional flexibility. Since I have my Stage 2 checkride this weekend, though, my flight studies come first, and tonight's dent in my sleep totals isn't going to help that much. I am wanting to get that done as early as practical, though, and I expect that by the end of the Thanksgiving weekend, the forums will be up to where I want them in terms of features, if not traffic.

If you have comments about the changes, post them here. If you run into any problems, please post in the Support forum as I check that first, or send me an e-mail to martinblankrlf@gmail.com. Please use the e-mail if it's a truly critical issue, as I can see that at work, while accessing the forums from work carries some difficulties.

Thank you for your patience as construction continues.

Ahhhhhh everything changed!!!! (and I like it)

Good job Martin.

The "view active topics" button isn't working for me anymore. It is only giving me this thread. I had to go searching for the new posts. The "view new posts" button works, but that is only posts since the last time I visited and not the ones I decided to read today and not last night.

Do you think the function will work again like it did before?

The code upgrade was pretty big, and the database upgrade script may have reset some things. When I use them, I see only this thread for active, but I see about nine threads for new posts, which suggests that those items were reset. I'll look into it tonight.