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Chris Maunder said:[^]
Sorry guys, but there no longer seems to be any point to this forum.
Doesn't that rather raise the interesting question: Just what, exactly, was the point of the so-called Soapbox, after all?
If a few hours of "the community" getting a taste of their own medicine is enough to obviate the point of the so-called Soapbox, doesn't that fact tell us, or at least hint to us, what the point was all along?
Some may recall that I've long called it the Sandbox. Some may recall that I've long said that the point of the so-called Soapbox was to give 'atheists' and/or socialists a safe play area in which they could mock Christians and/or conservatives with no one being able to effectively call them on it.
Can anyone think of any other potential point to its existence which is compatible with what we now know (that being that it no longer has a point)?
modified on Sunday, March 1, 2009 12:27 AM
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 The Soapbox degenerated into a forum more or less dedicated to US politics and personal bandwagons. It was absolutely pointless to my goal of providing free resources to Software Developers.
However, removing it means that I no longer have a place to move inappropriate posts (I always prefer to move than delete) which means I'm going to be spending all my monitoring the lounge. I want to read and enjoy the lounge, not clean up everyone's mess.
So how about:
1. I create a new forum 'After 8 Lounge' or something. Anything not PG rated goes there. I do miss bad, politically incorrect jokes. Anything totally inappropriate in either of the lounges gets nuked, zero tolerance.
And...
2. I reopen the Soapbox and remove votes and remove the ability for casual members to vote messages off the island. There will be no exposure for the forum (no links from the homepage or menus). The current Soapbox crowd has a private place to vent their spleens. However since many of the members in there are in the US they understand more than anyone the issues of libel laws. We, as a site, cannot promote or implicitely allow anything that violates any of the hate-crime or libel laws. I simply will not allow the site to be legally exposed simply for the sake of a few.
So, in order to participate in the Soapbox you will have to agree, with each post, that you are not violating our Terms of Use. Go nuts, but stay within the ropes.
Further, I'll ask the Soapbox crowd to nominate a few members who will have the right to delete posts.
You guys will have your own self-policed protected corner in which to continue your fun and will yourselves be responsible for ensuring this behaviour is within reason, and that it doesn't spill out on to the rest of the site.
What is different about the so-called Soapbox between Friday and Saturday? What is different about the so-called Soapbox between Saturday and some suitable resurrection of it being sought?
What is different about the so-called Soapbox between Friday and Saturday is that on Friday any post I made vanished, sometimes within minutes, because a few (hell, for all I know, one or two) "community" members wished it so, and on Saturday, for a few hours, some of these same "community" members experienced the same.
What is different about the so-called Soapbox between Saturday and some suitable resurrection of it is an attempt to make it back into a Sandbox for certain posters and/or attitudes -- which is, after all, what it always was -- while trying to maintain the pretense that no one's fist is on the scale.
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The Soapbox doors are back open and I've snipped the right wire (the red one, not the blue one) to turn off voting.
There is no voting off messages. There are no reds and greys. There is only self policing until I cut a spare set of keys for some other moderators to come in and keep things reasonable.
I will, hopefully, get a chance to do some more updates tomorrow to finalise the changes needed.
Chris Maunder wrote: until I cut a spare set of keys for some other moderators to come in and keep things reasonable.
There is no need for that. And, in fact, that contributes to the problem.
edit:
Why don't you just let it be? Take your hand off the scale, it will take care of itself.
The problem is that certain persons believe -- and their experience supports the belief -- that they can behave however they wish, insult whomever they wish, then accuse their target of being "the problem," and that you will always be there to cover for them.
Just let it be. When they finally figure out that you're not going to cover for them anymore (and when they get bored with trying to insult others), they'll behave in a manner more appropriate to their age.
It's just human nature.
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This board is currently "moderated" by ... a liar[^].
How does someone who is proud of having no standards, able to have self respect ?
And the basis of Mr Graus' current disinformation campaign is in the following:
Christian Graus: If I agreed with the Pope on something, I'd say 'well, I'm not Catholic and the Papacy is a sham, BUT......'
Ilíon: But I'm not "liberal" ... so I don't need to do the shuck-and-jive.
Unlike, say, Edward Keenan (in the review I linked to above), I don't even need to point out that I'm not going to preface a point of agreement by noting my overall disagreement.
OK, so you're not 'liberal', so you don't care what people think about you because you have no standards to uphold ? Gotcha.
Yeah, something like that. Poor thing.
Yeah, having standards and values is a real burden.
And you know this, how?
What are you, 8 years old ? You're the one who said you had no standards.
To which the appropriate response was (and I, trying always to be appropriate, gave it):
Christian Graus: What are you, 8 years old ? You're the one who said you had no standards.
Ilíon: You're such a liar.
And so irrational -- you seem to imagine that I have some sort of duty to take you seriously.
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Have I not said, all along, that the *real* intention with the so-called SoapBox was to have an actual SandBox -- a protected play area where *certain* persons and *certain* opinions are privileged?
Rob has quit CP; I'm pretty close to walking; a number of folks have said that they don't come here any more because of the insane hatred of this forum by Heinze and Hailey, and the kind of response it garners from the rest of us.
I said once that I was considering starting another website called the Soapbox. And Rob just sent me an email suggesting I do so. If I did, it would be set up so anyone could read it, only members coud post; the terms of service would specifically ban being a link monkey and personal attacks, and Ilion and CSS would never be allowed to join.
Is there any interest in my doing this?
You can setup a group and have private discussion boards that only members of your group can post to. If you wish to have other features (ie anyone can read, only members can write) then I can add that fairly simply.
If you do decide to move this forum to another site let me know so I can turn off the lights.
Chris Maunder: If you do decide to move this forum to another site let me know so I can turn off the lights.
Oakman: I wondered if that might not be the case. I should've had the sense to ask
Chris Maunder: You can setup a group and have private discussion boards that only members of your group can post to. If you wish to have other features (ie anyone can read, only members can write) then I can add that fairly simply.
Oakman: As I said, I am not trying to put the Back Room out of business, but sometimes I've gotten the feeling you wish it would go away. The problem is, if BR closes down, the two trolls invade the lounge.
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About that "bug" in the forum software
Just because because certain persons are lying about me, either explicity[^] or by insinuation[^], does make the lies true.
You know that somewhat famous "bug" in the software that I am accused of "exploiting?" Do you know what my "exploit" consisted of? I click on the "Vote to Remove Message" link and the messages for which I did that became "Message Automatically Removed."
Think carefully about that.
modified on Tuesday, June 16, 2009 5:02 PM
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