PROTOCOLS OF THE ELDERS OF BG [Forum feedback, Auntie Isla Wants YOU, &c.]

[Tyche]

Since a number of people have mentioned a sports forum, can someone expand on that idea? What would that add in particular? I suppose what I'm asking is what would separating sports from GD do for sports threads that they don't have now, and what do sports threads do in GD that would be better served in a separate forum?

This gets brought up about every year (and it's always when football season starts). Most of the primary sports posters hate it, they think sub forums are where threads go to die (I think the political forums disproves this). People who hate sports want it. I don't really care, but without religion, politics, and sports, GDwill be reduced to random images and YouTube videos.

[AidenCarby]

Imagine a world where you don't have to scroll through a million shit threads "my gf left me i want to kill her and her new bf" "bg doctors halp my weiner won't work anymore" and more relationship advice threads, to find your beloved sports thread. That's the world I want to live in.

[Abandon]

haha. Funny, but he has a point. If I have to scroll past 10 more "halp, i fell off the top of my house which happens to be 4 stories; should i see a doctor" threads, some random japanese person is getting shanked.

[isladar]

Honestly it would be just for ease of access. We're all lazy. Scrolling is hard work. It's much more convenient for all the sports threads to be in one sub forum. The problem is that you remove the sports threads from GD and GD's activity will probably plummet a good amount.

This was the downside that I saw as well, unfortunately.

If we did make a sports forum, I would say to counterbalance the move we should reintegrate PP into GD, but with stringent enforcement of "you are being unhelpful to the conversation" infractions. As it stands right now I do everything I can to avoid looking at that forum to maintain the illusion that most of you are good people.

[Ksandra]

Is amending rules a valid suggestion for this thread? If so, i suggest amending rule XI about racial slurs and derogatory language to only apply when such words are specifically directed at another poster and they are done so with the obvious intent to harass. People who use racial slurs or derogatory language that is not directed at anyone in particular, especially if they're referring to its use by someone else, shouldn't be getting infractions. I realize people getting infractions for that is rare, but it always helps the reputation of a forum when it has specific rules rather than ambiguous ones.

Funny you mention it, this is something that has been in long talks in the mod section for awhile and this is the conclusion we have come to. This is what we've been doing for the past...2 months~ Though I consider any derogatory term towards another poster to be harassment, joking or not. Because you can't assume the other person is going to like said joke.

[Tyche]

If its an either/or, I'd rather have a politics forum. At the very least keep it separated throughout the election season.

[Ksandra]

I honestly would say make a sports subforum for a trial two week period and see how active general is. I mean, if you look at the front page of gd there is actually a tone of non-sports threads. It would be lower activity, yes, but I don't think it would be "dead."

[AidenCarby]

Then again I'd rather scroll through a hundred broke dick threads than to have political and religious dogshit clogging up the GD forums. What about a bg health section? Not just exercise, but nutrition and scientific breakthroughs and shit.

[Acevalefor]

A "no whining allowed" rule on the poopdeck. Something that will make people seriously think about why they are PMing their favorite mod or marking posts/users for abuse etc. Maybe that would increase the workload of the mods at first, but think of it as something that parents do with their kids....at least what I do with mine. If you are going to go tattle on your fellow BG member, you had better be an innocent party and they had better have done something egregious or you will both (or maybe just the tattle-tale) get popped with an infraction. Hurting your feelings and causing you to rage because you can't control yourself (see Celeste) is not a valid reason for whining to the mods.

Also, I would be interested in hearing Tyche's objection to whatever rule he is refering to.

On a technical note. Is there a way to code the hyperlink URL input box to include a title option? Like "Copy URL here", then a second box below "Optional URL Title here"? I know it can be done with php, but I am horrible at remembering how the hell to do that.

[Kuya]

I'm actually starting to like the politics subforum and the only issue i have with it is the stupid forum title that makes it seem like it's spam 2.0. I don't think there's anything wrong with GD being relegated to that place where we put everything that doesn't fit into politics/philosophy/sports/media.

In fact, i would even suggest a science forum, but i'm not so sure that would have enough activity.

[Brill Weave]

This gets brought up about every year (and it's always when football season starts). Most of the primary sports posters hate it, they think sub forums are where threads go to die (I think the political forums disproves this). People who hate sports want it. I don't really care, but without religion, politics, and sports, GDwill be reduced to random images and YouTube videos.

Isn't that kind of the point of GD though? Any topic etc. With the sports threads we know January 1st that each sport is going to end up having at least 3 separate 500+ page long threads throughout the year. The topics aren't random or generalized. There's the offseason/draft thread, regular season thread, playoff thread, and if enough interest is there the fantasy sports thread. My point is there is definitely enough content to warrant having a separate sports forum. The question is do you want GD to take the massive hit in traffic that will accompany splitting the two off?

[Churchill]

I wouldn't mind infraction related PM's being linked as well. Puts mods/posters on notice for general stupidity as it can be seen by everyone. Plus, the hilarious topics that can ensue are just tantalizing.

I've also been banned a few times where I'm completely unable to access my account/BG. There's really no recourse to say, "You misunderstood" or "My vagina was hurts plz unban me" or "fuck you you douche I will eat your soul". If you're unwilling to have soul-dinner party threats come at you then i don't know what to say. Most of us like to continue reading, even if we can't post.

Edit: *without having to clear cookies, etc.

[BadKarma]

Honestly it would be just for ease of access. We're all lazy. Scrolling is hard work. It's much more convenient for all the sports threads to be in one sub forum. The problem is that you remove the sports threads from GD and GD's activity will probably plummet a good amount.

Sub Forums

NHL Thread

NFL Thread

BEISBOL Thread

Soccer

MMA etc

[Seraph]

. Account settings adjustment - I primarily browse the site from work. I also post in Spam. So I keep all images, avatars, and sigs hidden. Is there a way to set up a work browsing setting and a home browsing setting? It's kind of ticky tacky but it would save people like me the time of having to go into acct settings and click the boxes to view images again if there was a little check box at the top of the page or something.

Brills idea is a pretty good one. I have to block almost everything on BG because of browsing at work, and it's too risky to turn that shit on in the settings at home because I might forget to turn it off before I finish. I honestly almost miss some of the terrible sigs and avatars here.

[AidenCarby]

We should be able to vote in/out good and shit mods also, install like a voting thing where every 2-3 months we get to vote for new mods, not for nothing but 90% of the mods(not admins) fucking suck.

[Tyche]

A "no whining allowed" rule on the poopdeck. Something that will make people seriously think about why they are PMing their favorite mod or marking posts/users for abuse etc. Maybe that would increase the workload of the mods at first, but think of it as something that parents do with their kids....at least what I do with mine. If you are going to go tattle on your fellow BG member, you had better be an innocent party and they had better have done something egregious or you will both (or maybe just the tattle-tale) get popped with an infraction. Hurting your feelings and causing you to rage because you can't control yourself (see Celeste) is not a valid reason for whining to the mods.

Also, I would be interested in hearing Tyche's objection to whatever rule he is refering to.

On a technical note. Is there a way to code the hyperlink URL input box to include a title option? Like "Copy URL here", then a second box below "Optional URL Title here"? I know it can be done with php, but I am horrible at remembering how the hell to do that.

My objection is with spoiler tags in bentertainment geekly. We have to spoiler tag a large percentage of posts to appease an incredibly small minority of people who click a thread that discusses a movie and whine when they read something about the movie. Movie/TV show spoiler tags piss me off to no end. I acknowledge I may be the minority, but I hate them with a vehement passion. I just feel a little pride in not being stupid enough to click a thread until I'm current. Now there's a two week wait period to open up discussion for TV shows. Problem with that? No one discusses two week old episodes and no one retroactively removes spoiler tags. That leaves you with nothing but a thread full of

Spoiler: show

this shit

[Abandon]

haha, was waiting for it

[Ksandra]

I've also been banned a few times where I'm completely unable to access my account/BG. There's really no recourse to say, "You misunderstood" or "My vagina was hurts plz unban me" or "fuck you you douche I will eat your soul". If you're unwilling to have soul-dinner party threats come at you then i don't know what to say. Most of us like to continue reading, even if we can't post.

Edit: *without having to clear cookies, etc.

that was fixed long ago. if you are on time out "stop posting" avatar, you can read pms/bg. If you are flat out banned "gigantic faggot" avatar, yu can't see anything. flat out bans are mostle perms, or banning pchan for years type deals

[Bregor]

Sports subforum would be nice. Also if I'm going to be making the NFL threads every week, let me lock the old ones.

[Brill Weave]

banning pchan for years type deals

I have another suggestion...