It's time to stand up and be counted!

[johnny]

I don't understand all the fuzz, if you don't like what you see, then don't read it. It's the same as reading a newspaper, some articles you read, some you don't.

[Melusine]

Originally posted by johnny: I don't understand all the fuzz, if you don't like what you see, then don't read it. It's the same as reading a newspaper, some articles you read, some you don't.

Absolutely true, that's a policy everybody has applied ever the Blue Board. However, it becomes an issue when the terms of service are breached. Spamming for ranks or excessive spamming is against the rules.

Oh and Neb, I did answer your question in PM. I think Donut was testing if people were actually agreeing with him or if he was alone in this. But like Davros said, you should ask him why he posted this thread.

[Davros]

Last post before sleepy bo-bo's .

Neb - your problem with the thread is..........? It certainly has attracted quite a few posts, and taken quite a bit of thought from many people - you think this thread has less (???) validity than some of the other "favourites"?

Johnny - your newspaper analogy is amusing because of local events where I live and work. Some of the utter trash being printed in my local paper (The West Australian) by a so called "award winning environmental journalist" makes me cringe, and rage at the manner in which his lawyers carefully edit his column to prevent law suits for defamation (A=B, C=D, totally unrelated statements, but hopefully readers make the connection that he wants, ie that A is equal to D). There is no real alternative to this rag, so like every Tom Dick and Harry over here, I buy the paper. If I feel strongly enough about a topic I can write a letter to the editor, but I will still by my daily paper.

This thread is a letter to the editor from Donut - a time honored method of expressing opinion - sure looks like it generated some interest . Bye for now.

[Attalus]

Neb. I'll take a swing at "why the thread?" Perhaps it's more like a petition, and to make clear that more than onemember is unhappy with the general direction that things have gone of late. I certainly agree that one can always just ignore the threads that one is not interested in, but there seems to have been so many of them of late.

[ 08-25-2002, 09:39 AM: Message edited by: Attalus ]

[Neb]

There aren't that many of them. Two or three of them on the main page at most. The problem with the thread is also that it's likely, like here, to attract what seems to be a good deal of hostility from both sides.

Maybe PM the mods first. And then if they felt that there was a problem with the spam they could post a poll whether people had a problem with it or not.

[Melusine]

Originally posted by Neb: There aren't that many of them. Two or three of them on the main page at most. The problem with the thread is also that it's likely, like here, to attract what seems to be a good deal of hostility from both sides.

True, so don't keep adding to it yourself might be of help.
I think this has gotten sadly out of hand, has gotten many people pissed off no end, and hasn't done any good at all either anyway.
I'm sorry for my part in it, and I'm sorry this thread was 1. a heartfelt necessity for some and 2. a thorn in the eye for others.
Let's just hope that either side will not go on baiting the other. I think all is said that needed saying, and doubt that with tempers as they are now, most of us could add something sensible (apart from Davros whom I dub Mr Calm Sensibility ).
Anyway, I guess what I wanted to say is that there HAVE been a lot of people spamming for ranks. Come on people, I have been around here for two years, and Donut for a similar period... you don't think this is the first time there have been similar threads right? The reason I spoke out now is not because I don't want people to have fun (ah heck, why do I bother - I know people already feel like that about me anyway... well call me a stubborn fool [img]tongue.gif[/img] ). I've seen tons of such threads come and pass, and YES I know where the back button of my browser is and I use it to great satisfaction. The reason I felt something needed to be said is because there HAS been an inordinate amount of spamming for ranks on IW lately. I'm not even talking about Member Auctions or whatever. I mean page upon page of people with nothing better to do that to post chat-wise, ALWAYS including very very long signatures. It would be an act of considerate politeness to at least switch off the sig. I've seen people post three times in a row with HUGE sigs when they only had ONE sentence in the actual post. That's against the TOS and that's what I had a problem with. Not with people having fun.

[Attalus]

Just speaking for myself, I wouldn't have wanted to bother the mods with something that wasn't clearly a breach of the TOS, but I felt free to agree with this thread's august originator. I was ignoring the whole thing until it spilled over into the Cafe. That is what irritated me, though Cloudy and Lioness put a quick stop to that. I did feel better knowing that there were those that I respected that agreed with me, that's the best thing about this thread.

[Sigmar]

Now thats an annoying comment Donut (very first post), I know of no people who seem to be interested in gaining ranks through posting useless posts, they do it to have fun and nothing else. In fact the only member that I ever knew who was interested (blatantly) in spamming in order to get a higher post count was Gwahanos/Tiamat.

Proof of this is found in the Ironworks chatroom where a group of regulars and myself mirror the zany antics occuring in the threads on Ironworks, fine that might not be all the people involved but it does include the main innovaters of the threads you mentioned.

Sure too much of a good thing can be a bad thing but thats never stopped people here before, jeez there was a time when the front page was dominated by repetetive posts on religion and politics, until finally Ziroc asked people to stop. Will the same occur in this situation?

Ideally we could have a mature discussion forum and a general discussion forum in which people who prefer either could go, besides it's not such a big deal IMO, but I suppose thats a bias opinion.

Besides the whole thing will come to pass, just like the fluffies,bunnies and past rebellions before this.... sorry about all that ranting. I do not agree, but I respect your opinion Donut.

[ 08-25-2002, 10:35 AM: Message edited by: Sigmar ]

[quote]Originally posted by Davros:

I don't think there are any winners or losers in the debate - just expressions of opinion.

You are quite right, Sultan.
I did not take any personal offense to this thread but in reading what has been posted since I initially expressed my opinion, I would like to clarify (in lieu of all the "finger pointing" remarks) that I did point out a thread as an example to back up my opinion with something more substantial than my own heresay.
Also, I meant no offense to the posters involved in my first post here where I stated "certain individuals". I was not singling any one or two people out as it looks like I may have been...there are many others, old-timers included who will take a thread's contents where they please with little-to-nothing to say remarks and small talk that deviate from the thread's original intentions. It just irks me when it downplays and replaces intelligent conversation in threads where semi-intelligent-to-intelligent conversation is intended.

[ 08-25-2002, 11:08 AM: Message edited by: Moni ]

[Leonis]

I hope this is a sensible addition...

First I dont think you were being ignored Neb - some people just aren't here all the time and will reply when they see it.

Secondly, (and cautiously), Ziroc's decisions on the board are absolute and the Mods reflect his decision process... but, if Z or the Mods were out of touch with the member's views on certain issues they would soon be hosting/modding a board for noone. I think a post like this is valid in this case where mods have said it's ok but other members aren't sure if that acurately reflects the majority.

Ziroc and the Mods have changed their minds before - noone is infallible. Also GD is not a place where people are free to talk about anything. An issue that concerns me greatly kept getting locked to the point where there is a moratorium on it now - in order to keep comming here I need to respect Z's decision that it's best for the board - and reflects the member's feelings.

This placed is named a Forum and Donut is treating it as such. So are most of the replying posters in this thread.