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Jim's Lab Notes— Site News, Baseball Talk, and a Bunch of Other Stuff
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Off-Topics, Politics, and the Redesign
FYI, in the redesign I will restrict off-topic political discussions to a new politics off-topic blog that I am setting up for the purpose. By default, members will not see these discussions in their Hot Topics until they opt-in to see them. In the interim I will restrict off-topic political discussions to a dedicated monthly thread (similar to the football, basketball, and soccer threads), which will be tagged as “politics”, marked as “OT:Politics” in the title, and which will include a disclaimer about the nature and tone of the discussion. I will also begin closing the off-topic political discussions in other threads.
In the redesign I also will be moving the sports-related off-topic threads to their own dedicated area. Like the off-topic political threads these threads will only appear in Hot Topics when members opt-in to see them. When this change takes place members will be able to submit news links to basketball, football, soccer, and golf (whichever sports that generate interest) articles, which will appear in their appropriate off-topic micro.
So, in the redesign people who wish to discuss these topics will be able to do so easily while people who wish to ignore such topics will be able to do so easily as well.
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Jim Furtado
Posted: May 30, 2012 at 12:44 PM | 1369 comment(s)
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Priceless.
EDIT: Cokes.
Horseshit. As has been noted, the real problem is threads getting dominated by the same tedious people arguing the same tedious issues in the same tedious way.
Yes, and what makes us go from being merely tedious to downright offensive is that we're holding your mistress hostage in order to force you to read us, in defiance of your demand that we take your wife instead.
Actually, that's not it at all. I repeated a point made before because of your misrepresentation of it. I see the irony of the repetition, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. I should have known better; this is precisely the sort of thing that keeps me out of these threads.
Now, wait a minute --
I'd prefer to see how popular I am before deciding whether it's the first or last thing we need.
Actually, that's not it at all. I repeated a point made before because of your misrepresentation of it. I see the irony of the repetition, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. I should have known better; this is precisely the sort of thing that keeps me out of these threads.
Being as how your previous comment on the subject....
221. squatto Posted: May 31, 2012 at 03:03 PM (#4144362)
Some conversations attract. Some conversations repel. Some inspire indifference. I can't speak for Jim, but I think that the nth iteration of the same old argument made by the same old people fails to encourage others to participate, and may repel them. So those arguments can continue, but in a location that people have to go by making an affirmative choice.
...was made nearly 22 hours and two pages ago, you'll have to forgive my memory lapse. And of course I wasn't directing my comment to you, but to those like Joey who feign to be offended by the presence of political discussions on a baseball site.
To the sounds of one hand jerking.
Right ... you said something, got called on it, got the heat, and can't take the heat. That probably describes the vast majority of the "offense" described herein.
To keep this appropriately baseball-related, I'll note how fortuitous it is that they don't shut down the major leagues when guys like Ken Phelps, Roberto Petagiene, and Bryan LaHair struggle -- or let them say, "Hey, that 3-1 curve on the black offended me."
I am offended I will not be getting the full credit I deserve.
ETA: Also, this is post 415, yes? But Hot Topics shows the thread as having 416 posts...and yet my bookmarks shows this thread as having 417.
Maybe Bob Dernier Cri messed things up by trying to mark something funny and insightful.
The thought of Ken Phelps trying to hit a 3-1 curve on the black doesn't offend me as a Yankee fan, it offends me for trying to horn in on my territory as a comedian.
No, that's not it. Nice try, however.
I have that same problem. Now we have to worry about secret, stealth comment deletion? God Jim, when will the madness end?!
It boggles my mind that this thread was opened to discuss coming changes, a group of people commented that there are certain aspects of the site that they appreciate and value and hope that the essence of those things won't be diminished, and then some other people came in to simultaneously attack Group 1 and accuse them of being a bunch of negative, namecalling jerks.
Oh, this, this is a bad idea.
A terrible idea.
Don't do this.
FYI, the totals for comment clicked as insightful and funny will be included on the list pages and entry pages. For some of you, this will help you find the funniest threads. For others, it will be a way to avoid that confusing concept called humor.
That's not what it'll do at all. It'll just make people TRY to be funny.
And, no offense, but that's not something the people on this website are good at.
It seems like all the redesign does is make the site more like every other internet discussion board. This is a bad thing. Upvotes and downvotes? Popular posters? Great, we've turned into SBNation. If I wanted team-specific echo chambers with clean, uncontroversial circle-jerk comment sections, I could go to a half-dozen other sites - and going forward, I probably will.
I can understand why Jim might want to take a shot at stealing eyeballs from mainstream sites, because most of those sites are terrible, but I don't get why BBTF has to be decultured in the process.
Why would there be text rates on an Internet poll?
Sorry, I meant to say one of those YES network in-game polls. My bad.
Really?
I'm not worried about the flagging. That seems like a good idea, frankly.
It's the "funny" rankings. That's a bad idea.
I hate to say it, but my reaction to this is rather similar.
Baseball is a game. A fun game. This place needs more humor. In the earlier days, there was more of a mix between funny and serious conversations. There is enough space here for both.
The only problem with that is that while most of us are not going to be complaining that people we don't particularly like are "offensive"---I'm certainly not planning to complain---the people who take "offense" at people like Kevin and Retardo don't have any such qualms about pulling the "I'm offended" card. At the very least, I'd hope you'd consider the overall contributions (or lack of them) of the people making these "I'm offended" complaints and take them with the appropriate number of grains of salt. Giving a serial troll like Joey B even the tiniest amount of power over how another Primate is ranked is not going to be a positive contribution. If you have to go through with this dubious idea, at the very least the people making the complaints should be publicly identified. Letting them hide behind an anonymous rock only compounds the problem.
Of all the people complaining about the nastiness, he's the only one you should be concerned with.
(He also pointed out earlier that some people just want to play the martyr than to be constructive. Can you imagine?)
It amuses me that they just don't get it.
Of course there is. I'm just unclear on why you think telling people they're not funny is going to increase the amount of mirth, rather than making for jealous people peppering the site with unfunny one-liners in a desperate attempt to get recognition.
Mine's kind of twisty, though its never been laughed at. Do I qualify?
Retire the Primey for 352.
I would mark this post as "funny" but not "insightful."
It's been that way for years, and the beta seems to be even worse. On some threads the hot topics lists things from two months ago.
Geez, really?
Jim Dolan told me Isiah Thomas was a great basketball mind, too, and he was wrong.
The main participants in the threads don't think they're nasty, and the people complaining either don't have the juice to hang or can easily ignore the threads. If they like the baseball article/topic that prompted the thread that got "hijacked," they can go into the thread, click TFA, read down to where the baseball comments end, and move on. There's no "problem" that can't be avoided with a third of a second of effort.
But, no, like the biddies of the American Temperance Union and other uber-bores, they can't just leave other people alone to have fun; instead, they have to whine and #####.
The lounge has been downvoted loud and clear, as the stale last post dates plainly attest. Nobody goes there anymore, and not because it's too crowded.
Yeah, that's it.
Is there an icon for that?
You may gain power some day, but whatever the topic, airplane seats or Ozzie Guillen's underwear, I will never stop spreading the good word about grilled portobello mushrooms.
For him, the 400-post mark is a signal... to start carpet bombing.
I am a koala. And get the joke right.
People come here for the comments. If you were in charge there would be no comments, and the site would die.
I get that Jim is trying to find a way of satisfying everyone. Hopefully it will work. However, it should be repeated that this place is unique and that these reforms threaten the lifeblood of the site in response to a problem that aspires to the imaginary.
Just as if people don't like threads they can ignore them, if you don't like the site you can ignore it. Sounds like dzop will join you. Enjoy!
And menstrual blood.
God help me, I LOL'd.
I'm not convinced the funny/insightful thing will work out, but I'm willing to give it a go before declaring it awful. Also, the idea that adding a "funny" flag would encourage people here to try to be funny is, in itself, hilarious. Not a thread goes by that isn't at least 40% wisecracks in the early stages, and while that number goes down if a thread sticks around, it never gets anywhere near zero.
Hard to imagine MORE of that happening.
God, that's almost like a challenge.
You are misunderstanding, it is my way of fostering a community. I am offended.
Are you literally Chris Trager?
Taking in 20 kids and locking them in the basement to starve while you cash their support checks is not what we mean by "fostering."
Are you trying to tell us something about your past?
Only over the menstrual cycle of apples.
It's customary for at least one Lounger to go completely batshit insane over something, at least once a week.
One specific Lounger.
If I'm following it right you will get access to anything you are "in" for. So in your example the "in" for music overrides the "out" for politics.
Invitations to fellate those who disagree with you, not so rare.
Yeah, I thought about that right after I posted, but such is life.
I've poked my head into the Lounge a couple of times, but between the huge size of the posts and the sheer volume, I found it impossible to keep up with. If I saw something I wanted to respond to, by the time I responded it seemed like the thread had added another two pages and the topic had drifted wildly.
It's possible my memory is exaggerating the situation. Wouldn't be the first time.
But I can't hang out over there. It's not so much the format as that I work in a building with 100 English teachers, so if I want to have a totally random conversation I can easily just stick my head out my office door. On the Mainland there's a starting point for discussion, however tangential it becomes.
This is probably the biggest trick to decoding the Lounge for newbies. #### is totally random, and you make your bones by trampolining your own random ######## off of the last guy's reference. And mocking Perros.
Since they already have their own insular community, why do they want to trample a more vibrant and freewheeling conversation? Maybe I'm answering my own question here...
It's a pity there wont be flexibility to do boolean algebra, so you can specify:
(music AND (NOT politics)) OR (music AND condiments)
To see all music threads except the ones involving politics, unless there are condiments which will override the politics ban. I could see myself spending an evening fine-tuning a rule set for threads to show.
Well, how to say this? A significant plurality of the Lounge's collective identity is derived from hating you people.
We revitalize conversations all the time. I specialize in this.
I don't believe that the drunken frat house comment is fair.
I have no doubt that this is true but as one of the outsiders coming in it is VERY difficult to find a starting point.
Yes, but all of you weirdos stay away (kidding)
I enjoy the baseball discussion, but I like the off-topic threads about WWI or restaurants a lot more. Politics is really the only OT subject that gets nasty and objectionable...well that and Joe Posnanski.
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