Is the General Discussion sub-forum Forum a special breed of animal? Discuss and banter!

[Rowan Amore]

8 minutes ago, Seicher Rae said:

 

I understand there was a problem in readability now, and have corrected it. Thank you. But...

 

It's still hard to read in dark mode.  You have to go to the bottom of the post and Post as Plain text.  

Yours...https://gyazo.com/8f38cafa3ea84016d0b85c6fc3820700

Posted as Plain Text

https://gyazo.com/090ef062c958cfa5b6ac6ba13b24db66

 

"This post, including its title is a typical “Seicher” post, in that it is both deadly serious and goofy, tongue-in-cheek. I hope you will: Discuss. 

The serious bit: 

Is the General Discussion sub-forum Forum, different than the rest of the SL sponsored Forums? If so, how, in your opinion? 

My experience drives my opinion for this. I’ve been posting off and on in the GD Forum for over 12 years, almost as long as I’ve been in SL. I’ve dipped toes into other sub-forums, but when I post, it is usually here. There are others who have been here longer, but, 12 years has been long enough to go through a myriad of iterations. There have been educated trolls we’ve loved to hate and grudgingly hated to love at times. There have been crazy what-the-??? trolls, since... ever. We’ve had virtually no moderation, absent moderation, sporadic moderation, iron-fisted... There have been AR wars. Ther have been Great Alt Hunts, complete with forensic scrutiny of vocabulary. There has been more drama than you can shake a stick at. There have been epically long and torturous threads, the stuff of legends. There has been political speak from all corners of the weirdness. People riding in to save others, others saying “we don’t need no stinkin’ saving.” There has been warm camaraderie where people consoled others in need of a hug. In short, it has been a vibrant, weird, obnoxious, fun, entertaining, educational... community. 

I think in other parts of the Forum you will find community, in the photo threads for example, but in my experience, the rest of the place is for where you have questions about specific things in SL, they get talked about. Done. In the GDF, you get a group of people united by the strangeness that is SL, and you interact with the individuals and their quirks—both their RL and SL experiences. 

So, while I think that moderation is super important, believe me, having lived through some of the worst of this place, I’m a firm believer in “enough is enough” I think some special considerations need to be given to this sub-forum, based on what it is: A community to talk and banter and become friends (or hated enemies). That’s what this place has been to me. Granted, I’ve been gone for 2 years, only recently returned, but I returned for that. I’m seeing that threatened. 

The goofy side: 

Is the GDF its own special breed of “animal”? If so, what animal would it be? Photos! Why! Should we banter? Banter about banter! On topic general discussion banter! Does community banter include bounce? "

[Rowan Amore]

We use dark mode because the white background is hard on the eyes, making it more difficult to read for some.  I use dark mode on my Kindle as well for the same reason.

[Seicher Rae]

1 hour ago, ValKalAstra said:

To me, the general discussion forum reminds me of family dinners. You know most of the people there in passing. You've probably met them elsewhere (other subforums) and they were the sweetest and kindest people.

And so it comes to the family dinner and it starts well. People genuinely try to be nice and welcoming. That is until the creepy uncle/aunt figure speaks up. Almost immediately plates start flying, barbs and veiled attacks are flung back and forth. Some of the fights have got this musty old feel to them, like they're unresolved conflicts from years of family dinners.

Some people continue the dinner unfazed with this look on their face that says this is a regular occurrence. Sooner or later security shows up and pulls people apart because they've started tossing the sharp silver.

That's my perspective as an outsider. The general discussion forum is very much a community. However it's a storied one that lends itself to surprising volatility and outbursts. To me it feels very different from the other subforums. There's a culture and history here that is maybe lacking in the more specialised forums.

On target analogy there! Funny too. Now I'm wondering who to assign what family position to! Hm, so many choices for "creepy"

Of course, no surprise, I agree with your assessment that the community here feels very different from other subforums.

[Seicher Rae]

9 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

It's still hard to read in dark mode.  You have to go to the bottom of the post and Post as Plain text.  

Yours...https://gyazo.com/8f38cafa3ea84016d0b85c6fc3820700

Posted as Plain Text

https://gyazo.com/090ef062c958cfa5b6ac6ba13b24db66

URGH!!!! Sorry! I'm not sure there's anything I can do about it now, then. I'll try another wiping of it and cut and paste, in a different way. Good grief. I guess I should have toggled to dark mode to double check but I thought it was simple to just repaste it in plain text, which I did!

Once more into the breach!
 

(and yeah, I understand why people use dark mode. I have done so too in the past. Right now "light" works better for me.)

Fuss and major bother.

[Love Zhaoying]

8 minutes ago, Seicher Rae said:

Hm, so many choices for "creepy"

Creepy Lion approves!

 

[Love Zhaoying]

12 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

We use dark mode because the white background is hard on the eyes, making it more difficult to read for some.  I use dark mode on my Kindle as well for the same reason.

At the eye specialist now, wish me luck!

[Seicher Rae]

I tried editing the OP while in Dark mode. Still nothing. When I wipe all of the text out, it STILL leaves me with a WHITE text box. I tried several options to try to get rid of that box and... nada. I'm open to suggestions.

[Rolig Loon]

You're doomed.  I don't think you can edit your way around it.  At least I haven't figured a way.  Some features are locked in as soon as you click the button to post your original text.

[kali Wylder]

11 hours ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Oh, I'm sorry! You're right. We did have some special moments here back in, oh, 2010 or so?

Remember dancing half naked around the bonfire, our spears tipped with fresh, smoking blood, yelling "KILL THE PIG! KILL THE PIG!"?

Good times, good times. 🙂

I do fondly remember a funny thread about a spanker and one about Tolya's balls. Then there was the photo of someone in a church that just about everyone in the forum added their face to. Good times. 

[Seicher Rae]

7 hours ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Yes, there are. Although most of them aren't here anymore.

It was the best of time, it was the worst of times . . .

One thing I do kind of miss that was a regular feature of earlier, less well-moderated versions of this forum, were the joke threads. The Undying Thread was one of those. So too were my Richard Parkes' threads, my "I want to be modal!" thread, and, of course, that infamous time when I discovered my boyfriend had been cheating on me with a bisexual furry skunk. They were all, essentially, tongue-in-cheek open narratives that everyone could contribute to, with just pure silliness and fun as their only function.

I don't think that kind of thread would fly anymore. I'm not sure the mods would tolerate it and . . . I'm not entirely sure that most of the people posting here now would be into it. Although I might be wrong. Maybe I should start one . . .

Oh. My. Gawwwwd. Yes! I had forgotten those weird story threads. You did them, I think a few others did, and I may have done one or two myself. But I remember the "I want to be a modal" one now.

You are far, far older in the forums than I, so some of this stuff is before my time. (evil innocent smile)

I, for one, would love to see more of these kinds of parody sketches, but I also agree that it is unclear and unknown if this newer GDF would get into the spirit, let alone what the mods would think. I suppose though, those ARE SL-only themes, so... yes? !

[Seicher Rae]

20 minutes ago, Rolig Loon said:

You're doomed.  I don't think you can edit your way around it.  At least I haven't figured a way.  Some features are locked in as soon as you click the button to post your original text.

Yup. I think you are correct. The only thing I could do was include a link to Rowan's copy (above) which is in the normal readability for those in Dark mode. I think I have a topic for the peeve thread.

[kali Wylder]

7 hours ago, Ceka Cianci said:

I just thought of something..

I made my forum avatar the color of the dark theme to make it invisible.. Then realized it will be the opposite in the normal theme.. hehehe

It was good while it lasted.

Oh, is that why you've a black hole instead of your picture?

[Nalates Urriah]

16 hours ago, Seicher Rae said:

ETA: I apologize to those using the Dark Mode here. I did a cut/paste of the original and so far I cannot get rid of the white background for you all. I'm working on it!  Meanwhile, Rowan kindly did a repost that is readable for those of you using the Dark mode   here

When you get formatting you don't want in a copy/paste process, in Windows open Notepad or any other PLAIN text editor, paste into it, copy that text, and then paste into the forum.

Also, the forum should popup the option to paste any formatted text as plain text. I have had some problems with that.

[Rolig Loon]

11 hours ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Thank you, Rolig, for the perspective and the hopeful prognosis.

Yeah, the "good old days" weren't really very "good" for a great many people, although I know there are some who feel regret at their passing. I fared reasonably well then, but it was not a very nice culture and I don't miss it at all.

Part of what I was getting at is that, on the whole, the forums have never been as well-behaved and generally collegial and civil as they are now -- which of course makes the new restrictions seem rather ironic.

I hope you're right, and that the new rules are not so inhibiting that they will extinguish what we have. We have very reasonable mods now, and good people here, so maybe there is cause to hope.

Sorry... I just finally woke up and started my new day and the thread has sailed on without me.  Pardon me while I loop back...

Being optimistic is part of my nature. I can't help it. It's also firmly grounded in my experience of the world and, in this case, the forums.  This is a resilient community.  We are (mostly) smart, creative people with (mostly) good intentions and (almost universally) a good sense of humor.  As you observe, "the forums have never been as well-behaved and generally collegial and civil as they are now". We have a vested interest in keeping it that way, to the extent that most of us are walking on eggshells to be sure that we don't trip over some nuanced interpretation of the new guidelines.

I think that LL recognizes this too.  My best evidence is the rather prominent statement that threads in existence before last Friday will remain as long as they don't go off the rails.  We need the cat thread, the What Are You Listening To thread, the game threads, and all the others that have given us ways to relax and express our silly side.  The fact that LL is letting us keep them going tells me that they agree. They just don't want us to mess things up by sneaking in political arguments disguised as kitties, and they don't want us to create more new threads like them so that the GD forum loses what they want to be its primary focus -- Second Life.  I think we can live up to that kind of deal.  Again, as you said, @Scylla Rhiadra, "We have very reasonable mods now, and good people here, so maybe there is cause to hope." Hence my optimism.

Like a lot of the people who are regulars here, I can easily look back and cherry pick examples of how great things used to be (and counter examples too). As you can tell from my rez date (not my forum rez date -- the real one) and post count, I've seen at least as many versions of the forums as you have.  Together, we have survived upheavals.  We'll do it again.

 

Edited August 4, 2022 by Rolig Loon
typos. as always.

[Love Zhaoying]

3 minutes ago, Nalates Urriah said:

When you get formatting you don't want in a copy/paste process, in Windows open Notepad or any other PLAIN text editor, paste into it, copy that text, and then paste into the forum.

Also, the forum should popup the option to paste any formatted text as plain text. I have had some problems with that.

I get this (on mobile, at least):

 

[Luna Bliss]

Yes if i copy everything from the internet into notepad and then copy the text in notepad again and then paste here it seems to work.  Could be I just haven't encountered what's causing the problems though.

[Luna Bliss]

4 minutes ago, Rolig Loon said:

They just don't want us to mess things up by sneaking in political arguments disguised as kitties

Yes, I saw quite a lot of that, from one poster in particular. 

[Seicher Rae]

7 minutes ago, Nalates Urriah said:

When you get formatting you don't want in a copy/paste process, in Windows open Notepad or any other PLAIN text editor, paste into it, copy that text, and then paste into the forum.

Also, the forum should popup the option to paste any formatted text as plain text. I have had some problems with that.

I think I now have THE most edited OP in GDF history. Maybe. I have repasted as plain text a bazillion times with no luck. As Rolig opined, I'm **** out of luck on this one. I did put a note at the top for people in Dark mode with a link to Rowan's repaste, which does show up fine in Dark.

I haven't been back posting for long, didn't have a spell check working here (yet another tech issue I was clueless about, but got a quick fix to), and since it was a long post I wanted to spare you all my bad spelling and typing. I had no idea of the can of worms I was opening in just format!  I'm usually too lazy write in another program and paste, and with spell check it isn't needed. So... sigh. Who knew? Another reason I don't start OPs!

[Madelaine McMasters]

24 minutes ago, kali Wylder said:

Then there was the photo of someone in a church that just about everyone in the forum added their face to. Good times. 

[Seicher Rae]

@Ceka Cianci and @Scylla Rhiadra I'm soooo glad you included that discussion of the Undying thread. I have seen it, and who knows, years ago I may have even posted in it, but I certainly had no idea about its history and lore. (As I said in the OP, I've been around this block a while now, but I am by no means the longest participating forum member here.)

I did a search and found one locked version (sad) and one version still up and running in the "Friends" subforum of people and yay! It has been rekicked to rise in the listing. Great stuff. I'm getting nostalgic it seems, which is very OOC for me.

@Madelaine McMasters that church gif was hilarious and bitter sweet as I see folks no longer here. I don't see "me" there and I had to smile, I always "somehow" miss group photos, even in RL. I think I missed all but maybe one Hippiestock gathering photos (and I'm not even sure I went to that Hippiestock, I'm not sure I went to any).

And speaking of both the gif, Scylla's mention of parody threads (earlier), and how the "atmosphere" has changed, I pause and remember Ever.

This IS a different forum, good, bad or inbetween. That isn't a negative criticism, complaint or wistful utterance. It just is. This place has a different feel to the room now, but I still think it falls under its "own animal" of community.

Edited August 4, 2022 by Seicher Rae

[Madelaine McMasters]

4 minutes ago, Seicher Rae said:

I always "somehow" miss group photos, even in RL.

I am absent in most of my extended family photos (many of which contain hundreds of people, peaking at over 400) for one simple reason.

I was the photographer.

6 minutes ago, Seicher Rae said:

I think I missed all but maybe one Hippiestock gathering photos (and I'm not even sure I went to that Hippiestock, I'm not sure I went to any).

Feel free to use the following photograph to "prove" you attended the first Hippiestock. You visited me at @Maryanne Solo's photobooth, where I took the shot that's been slipped into the image. That's how most of the people got into the picture, including Torley. You are reaching for Ags Falconer in the space between the left and center billboards. I clearly recall being captivated by whatever eyeballs you were wearing during that photoshoot.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

4 minutes ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

I am absent in most of my extended family photos (many of which contain hundreds of people, peaking at over 400) for one simple reason.

I was the photographer.

Feel free to use the following photograph to "prove" you attended the first Hippiestock. You visited me at @Maryanne Solo's photobooth, where I took the shot that's been slipped into the image. That's how most of the people got into the picture, including Torley. You are reaching for Ags Falconer in the space between the left and center billboards. I clearly recall being captivated by whatever eyeballs you were wearing during that photoshoot.

Must EVERY picture you post of me show me being embraced by my ex?

Honestly, Maddy . . . you'd have thought that after 12 years, you might have taken at least ONE photo of me that didn't make me cringe uncomfortably. (Not that there is anything wrong with Nat, but we've moved on ya know . . .)

Edited August 4, 2022 by Scylla Rhiadra

[Persephone Emerald]

17 hours ago, Seicher Rae said:

ETA: I apologize to those using the Dark Mode here. I did a cut/paste of the original and so far I cannot get rid of the white background for you all. I'm working on it!  Meanwhile, Rowan kindly did a repost that is readable for those of you using the Dark mode   here

 

 

This post, including its title is a typical “Seicher” post, in that it is both deadly serious and goofy, tongue-in-cheek. I hope you will: Discuss. 

The serious bit: 

Is the General Discussion sub-forum Forum, different than the rest of the SL sponsored Forums? If so, how, in your opinion? 

My experience drives my opinion for this. I’ve been posting off and on in the GD Forum for over 12 years, almost as long as I’ve been in SL. I’ve dipped toes into other sub-forums, but when I post, it is usually here. There are others who have been here longer, but, 12 years has been long enough to go through a myriad of iterations. There have been educated trolls we’ve loved to hate and grudgingly hated to love at times. There have been crazy what-the-??? trolls, since... ever. We’ve had virtually no moderation, absent moderation, sporadic moderation, iron-fisted... There have been AR wars. There have been Great Alt Hunts, complete with forensic scrutiny of vocabulary. There has been more drama than you can shake a stick at. There have been epically long and torturous threads, the stuff of legends. There has been political speak from all corners of the weirdness. People riding in to save others, others saying “we don’t need no stinkin’ saving.” There has been warm camaraderie where people consoled others in need of a hug. In short, it has been a vibrant, weird, obnoxious, fun, entertaining, educational... community. 

I think in other parts of the Forum you will find community, in the photo threads for example, but in my experience, the rest of the place is for where you have questions about specific things in SL, they get talked about. Done. In the GDF, you get a group of people united by the strangeness that is SL, and you interact with the individuals and their quirks—both their RL and SL experiences. 

So, while I think that moderation is super important, believe me, having lived through some of the worst of this place, I’m a firm believer in “enough is enough” I think some special considerations need to be given to this sub-forum, based on what it is: A community to talk and banter and become friends (or hated enemies). That’s what this place has been to me. Granted, I’ve been gone for 2 years, only recently returned, but I returned for that. I’m seeing that threatened. 

The goofy side: 

Is the GDF its own special breed of “animal”? If so, what animal would it be? Photos! Why! Should we banter? Banter about banter! On topic general discussion banter! Does community banter include bounce? "

Omg, now you're making the font so small that us old-folks can't read it! 

(No, I'm not really angry with you. I'm just being silly.)

[Madelaine McMasters]

1 minute ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Must EVERY picture you post of me show me being embraced by my ex?

Honestly, Maddy . . . you'd have thought that after 12 years, you might have taken at least ONE photo of me that didn't have me cringing uncomfortably. (Not that there is anything wrong with Nat, but we've moved on ya know . . .)

Are you happy now?

[Scylla Rhiadra]

Just now, Madelaine McMasters said:

Are you happy now?

Yes. 🙂