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Grex > Coop > #278: Grex Town Hall -- How do we move forward? |  |
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| 25 new of 357 responses total. |
tsty
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response 27 of 357:
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Jun 17 06:01 UTC 2010 |
wb sholmes ... good #26 . bu ti;d limit the edit capability until there is
anohter repsonse following .... following resp might refer to prev and then
alowng edit of prev WoulD lead to endless confusion.
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richard
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response 28 of 357:
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Jun 17 07:04 UTC 2010 |
re #26 Yeah many boards that are out there let people edit posts for up
to an hour or two after the post was made. I know that when Backtalk
was first installed that Janc, who wrote it, said the edit function was
in the program, that he wanted to have it as a function, but that staff
objected to its use on grex just as they had objected years earlier to
having an edit function with picospan which clearly could have been
done. It seems the objection was that it would give too much power to
the trolls. If grex was like a newspaper, well once the newspaper is
printed you can't edit an article that is in it. When you hit 'enter'
you are in effect publishing your post just like an article. I think
giving posters a window of time to edit their posts is not going to
empower trolls.
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richard
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response 29 of 357:
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Jun 17 07:14 UTC 2010 |
Another thing that could be done to get more users to Grex is a
web-based party/chat program. I'm one of the few left on here who
remembers when the 'Party' program, Grex's chat program, was a vital
part of Grex. It used to be a place where people gathered day and night
to interact in real time. Unfortunately grex's party program is not
used anymore because it is only accessible via telnet or dial-in and
nobody telnets or dials in anymore. It is now a useless program. I
want to see a web based chat program.
This is nothing that hasn't been discussed before. One could have been
put in back when backtalk was installed as part of the programming. But
again then staff objected it would bring too much traffic to grex and
anybody who wanted to chat could telnet or dial in and use the old
program. Times have changed. You either take a chance on these things
or whats the point of continuing? I would love to see a web-based chat
service on Grex. I believe that when Party died on Grex it hastened the
dying of Grex altogether.
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lar
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response 30 of 357:
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Jun 17 13:56 UTC 2010 |
bellstar is a trip,I wish his ass would come back to m-net
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kentn
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response 31 of 357:
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Jun 17 14:10 UTC 2010 |
What I had suggested for editing was that a note could be added to the
post to show that it had been edited (e.g. when the last edit occurred,
as multiple edits would be possible in the time window). Thus the
objection to not knowing a post had been edited can be worked around.
Allowing a period of time for edits is also a reasonable idea. That
would allow people to take care of typos. Later the only choice would
be to delete the entire response. Or at least, that's one way we could
implement editing.
Encouraging trolls? How about encouraging participation? How about we
try some ideas and see how they work? Right now we're just coasting
along and griping.
Web-based chat sounds interesting to me, as well. I don't think we are
as bound by bandwidth or system resource issues as we were 10 years ago.
As always, aside from having a clear idea of how we'd want that to work,
we'd also need someone to implement it.
If we are fortunate enough to attract many new users, we can talk
about improving the hardware to support applications that are using
significant system resources.
Try to find ways to make things work. Don't try so hard to shoot down
ideas.
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lar
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response 32 of 357:
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Jun 17 14:14 UTC 2010 |
just need to a bbs that uses php...vbulletin or some shit like that
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kentn
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response 33 of 357:
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Jun 17 15:28 UTC 2010 |
There's modifying our current bbs and there's switching to something
else. Both should be considered, I think. In the short term we might
need to go with modifications to backtalk, but if we had someone with
the expertise to install and set up a new conferencing system, we'd have
a better chance of trying that out. Anyway, it sounds like something we
could experiment with, if only to see how it looks and operates, and how
much maintenance is involved.
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jgelinas
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response 34 of 357:
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Jun 17 19:56 UTC 2010 |
(NB: grex's users, not its staff, have objected to the editing of posts
and other 'improvements.')
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kentn
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response 35 of 357:
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Jun 17 21:43 UTC 2010 |
Users or members? And just objections or a member vote? How
many did not object?
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jgelinas
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response 36 of 357:
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Jun 19 18:10 UTC 2010 |
It was not a vote. There has been extensive discussion of the matter
over the years. Richard remembers "the staff" objecting, and I remember
just about everyone objecting.
No big deal. The question is, "What do people want to do _now_?"
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kentn
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response 37 of 357:
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Jun 19 21:06 UTC 2010 |
I have a feeling a lot of these improvements will not be as bad as some
people think, especially since we really don't have much participation
in the conferences and we're holding new users back with a validation
requirement (and probably chasing many away before they ever give Grex a
real try).
Something like editing responses could be implemented and tried out and
if it is a huge issue (which I doubt), it could be taken back out (or
turned off) later. It perhaps could be made optional in the user's
setup if they object to it so much. It says a lot about the Grex users
that they refuse to even try. This situation has chased more than one
user away.
If we decide to cater to a small group of vocal users who want to keep
things as they were in the past we potentially lose the opportunity to
gain new users looking for something other than a bbs from 20 years ago.
One option would be to present the old interface to those who want it
and a different interface to those who want something newer in terms of
features and appearance. I don't know how possible that is given our
current programming resources, but it's something to consider.
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mary
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response 38 of 357:
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Jun 20 02:21 UTC 2010 |
Or cyberspace communications could start a second (fresh) system for
conferencing. It would live in the cloud and not be encumbered by old
software and old rules. This version would remain and we could see how it
goes for both of them.
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slynne
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response 39 of 357:
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Jun 20 03:48 UTC 2010 |
resp:37 One thing I would ask for if responses are allowed to be edited
would be for the ability to use blockquote tags in order to quote things
I am responding to.
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lar
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response 40 of 357:
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Jun 20 04:45 UTC 2010 |
once this cirle jerk circus stops spinning then grex is dead. we have
the same people debating the same topic over and over. with no clear
winner.
I say offer some cool ass php games like facebook does. keep the shell
for those granfathered in and attact other users with the sort of games
facebook does.
80% of facebook revenue is either directly or indirectly connected to
games.
my first suggestion is "kill the neo-commies"
I can code it if you can support it.
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lar
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response 41 of 357:
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Jun 20 04:50 UTC 2010 |
This response has been erased.
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lar
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response 42 of 357:
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Jun 20 04:51 UTC 2010 |
This response has been erased.
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lar
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response 43 of 357:
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Jun 20 04:52 UTC 2010 |
level 1
outwit with the dull and slow faggot called richard
level 2
show slynne for the shallow thinker she is
level 3
make the neurotic sindi put you on her ignore list
level 4
make a jackass out of brooke
level 5
beat the one dimensional rcurl in a debate
level 6
make tod stop trolling for a second and get all serious and shit
level 7
fuck with bellstar
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lar
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response 44 of 357:
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Jun 20 04:57 UTC 2010 |
level 8
get the whole ann arbor circle jerk circus in an uproar
level 9
make marcvh do a google search
level 10
defend the hero cross against all comers
level 11
make nharmon address you personly
level 12
flame fatass steve and ugly glenda for never participating in a system
they desire to control
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lar
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response 45 of 357:
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Jun 20 04:58 UTC 2010 |
**BONUS LEVEL**
level 13
make the antigrex twinkie post in agora
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kentn
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response 46 of 357:
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Jun 20 15:47 UTC 2010 |
Re 38: If that would help Grex financially and in terms of its mission,
it'd be worth discussing. It sounds a lot like throwing in the towel on
the one community idea, though. Unfortunately, it may be the best way
to move Grex forward when significant change is required.
Re 39: That sounds reasonable to me. It would probably just be an
indent of the quoted text with a couple blank lines, but it would help a
lot to differentiate quote from response. A simple tag could indicate
start and end of the quote. Of course, once you add tags like that you
might as well just be running a more modern bbs which supports such
things, including editing.
Re 40: Debate is generally a good thing. But endless debate without
conclusion and not changing with changing times will kill Grex. Given
that a lot of people (as evidenced by Facebook) want to play games this
might be something we can do to gain users. For example, Grexburg!
We've always offered text-based games so it's not like games are
forbidden.
We still need to encourage communication and discussion as part of our
main mission. (It may be that some people who come here to play games
will become involved in other activities on on Grex.)
However, using a game to defame other users won't help Grex (legally or
otherwise) even if it is done humorously.
For those of you who are not members, but want Grex to do or not do
something, why are you not members? What would convince you to become a
member?
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marcvh
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response 47 of 357:
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Jun 20 15:55 UTC 2010 |
I don't have a strong view on things like games or editing responses,
although I can't really imagine us competing with Facebook in this area.
The reason I'm not a member is because I don't really see "lack of
money" as being one of Grex's main problems. Maybe I'm mistaken in that
belief, but there it is.
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jgelinas
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response 48 of 357:
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Jun 20 16:43 UTC 2010 |
And the financial aspect of membership is the least important.
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kentn
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response 49 of 357:
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Jun 20 18:39 UTC 2010 |
Right now, that may be true since we need members to help influence
policy and vote in board elections. But we didn't have enough members to
do that in the last election. We can't in good conscience continue to
avoid our by-laws in order to have elections. Yet, this does not seem to
be enough of a reason for people to become members.
And for those who see finance as the deciding reason not to become a
member, how small a bank balance is enough for you to become a member?
One point that should be obvious here is that we need members no matter
what our bank balance, so that's why it's important we know what will
increase our membership.
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jgelinas
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response 50 of 357:
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Jun 20 20:08 UTC 2010 |
Right; if we can't get members, then it becomes painfully obvious that
the membership can no longer support the corporation.
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richard
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response 51 of 357:
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Jun 20 23:04 UTC 2010 |
You've got to provide an organization that is worthy of buying
membership into and a product worth supporting. Right now Grex has
money but the board has shown an unwillingness, indeed a near total
apathy, towards the idea of investing those funds into a make or break
overhaul that would either work or not work.
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