This Place Has Become Boring

[Jersey Girl]

Why? Why PM him?

Because people are asking you nicely to help, and it would cost you less effort to PM Shades than to explain at length why you won't?

Maybe that?

I've already and repeatedly posted my position on the moderation thread and other threads. I prefer that type of commentary to be posted in public. If I or anyone else here were to tell Shades, listen, it's gotten to the point where I've got one foot out the door (which is entirely true) and I'm about to take the other foot out entirely, he'll come back with his well rehearsed flippant "See you tomorrow!"

Only there is no tomorrow now for me. Like I said, I've been in a couple of other online communities for a while now. In those places, they respect their community members (and themselves and their own goals) and boot trolls out immediately. It's the difference between day and night to what this place is now.

Shades clearly doesn't care any more, Chap. If he cared he would be monitoring the place and he is NOT. He doesn't understand the perspective of any given regular poster here because he is not a regular poster here himself.

[Jersey Girl]

I submit Shades' position on quote pyramids, smilies, and trolling from 2007. Bold emphasis mine.

It also gets annoying reading off topic half assed trollish remarks in these discussions that serve no earthly purpose other than to disrupt the thread and that is why some people use the quote boxes, to pick the dialogue back up.

That may be true, but most folks here have lots of experience with message boards and can keep all that stuff straight just by reading one quote immediately beforehand followed by your response.

If there was only one quote pyramid at the very end of the thread, then your point would be well-taken, but the problem is that failure to delete extraneous quoted material results in many, many quote pyramids. So your dialogue ends up getting picked back up not just once, but perhaps five, six, or even more times. Forgive me, but the instances when you and Polygamy Porter have a disagreement are perfect examples of that phenomenon.

Also, I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say that nobody reads the excess quoted material anyway. We all just scroll down for the most recent response is all.

At the very end of the day, however, quote pyramids are like smilies: They just make the board look trashy and unprofessional. Sorry, but that's just the way I see it.

So, once again, please delete extraneous quoted material.

posting.php?mode=quote&f=4&p=1548558

Shades gave a damn about stupid smilies (and quote pyramids that actually help us to follow exchanges) which he turned off for well over a year. Look at the board right now Does it look trashy and unprofessional to you and is that because of smilies or quote pyramids?

Shades is a blockhead who deals in minutia in lieu of the overall condition of the board from the inside. LDSFAQS was put on the queue for FAR less than what these guys are doing.

Shades is a blockhead. He's not protecting the right to free speech, he's protecting the rights of trolls to disrupt discussion on a discussion board that he himself created.

Go figure.

[Some Schmo]

I know that I went something like a week here of not posting. Did the same as you did. Looked in, logged out. I do it every day now and hardly post at all and when I do post it's usually to post an update on something. What is the point of engagement here now?

I agree with everything you've posted in this thread. What I quoted above particularly nails it.

Given the names I have on ignore, the vast majority of threads I do bother to look at these days are about 2/3rds blocked. It's pointless.

[Kishkumen]

You don't really have a choice there.

Maybe at some point I won't. I really don't NEED Spirit Paradise, personally. I come here to see what people are saying outside of discussions about Mormonism. On occasion there are interesting things said of a political-current events nature. For the most part I have always been a Terrestrial Forum poster.

In the past we always used to advocate putting people on ignore and ignoring threads that didn't interest us. Not sure why this is no longer something that works. It works for me, but evidently it is not working for others.

As for me, I am not all that put off by Cultellus, Atlanticmike, and whoever else is trolling the board. Moreover, I sometimes do get the feeling that people really hate having to read political opinions that differ too much from their own. I found it kind of refreshing to have other kinds of posters here, when the board did seem to be overwhelmingly progressive, which I have come to find boring and irksome.

[Jersey Girl]

I know that I went something like a week here of not posting. Did the same as you did. Looked in, logged out. I do it every day now and hardly post at all and when I do post it's usually to post an update on something. What is the point of engagement here now?

I agree with everything you've posted in this thread. What I quoted above particularly nails it.

Given the names I have on ignore, the vast majority of threads I do bother to look at these days are about 2/3rds blocked. It's pointless.

Yep. And the fact that others quote them in their responses (why give them oxygen?) and other posters have left and particularly those whom I consider intellectual heavy hitters who will go at an issue in opposition to each other or ALL of you from whom I learn.

I was a complete dunce about politics as much as 5-6 years ago because I never cared about it. I never had time to care about it. The lead up to the 2016 election happened. I still didn't care very much. When Trump started separating children and parents at the border THAT mattered to me.

Since then I cannot tell you how many posts from you guys I have read and tried to understand OR how many questions I have posed OR how many articles and websites and primary sources I've ferreted out in an effort to understand the world of politics which by it's very nature leads to researching US and world history. I have a window open on this computer right now about the Battle of Stalingrad for god sakes because I think it will help me to better understand the urban warfare that is expected in Ukraine.

Come on. Does that even SOUND like me from 6 years ago?

So you guys got me on the hook now. You got me invested. Current events has got me interested.

But I can NOT follow a thread here without it being disrupted by off topic straight up rock bottom anti-intellectual BS. And now posters who I rely on are gone and I KNEW you weren't posting on account of the mess here but I never contact people to ask...but I knew in my gut why you weren't posting.

I do not count myself an intellectual. I do know I'm an intelligent person who has the ability to learn.

What I've learned here lately is that I don't have the will nor the attention span to wait for board clean up so I can read through a thread.

Technically according to Shades is what they are doing 'legal'? Sure, I'd put it about half:half legal and illegal re: board rules.

But we don't use this board technically. We use it to communicate here in Paradise about current events and even visit to talk about in real life from time to time. We use it to post fundraisers for good causes and for each other. And use it to support each other if needed. The same posters who will slug it out in the arena, are the very selfsame posters who will offer a word of support to each other when times are tough.

When's the last time you saw me post a fundraiser? I could be posting about fundraisers for Ukraine and I would except for the real fact that trolls would come in and “F” them up and at this point, I doubt many here are really reading the threads any more...so why bother?

[drumdude]

It’s really sad how many great posters Atlantic idiot drove away.

He did his damage and now he doesn’t even bother to come back to meaningfully engage with the forum he spent so much time tearing down.

I get shades has a very hands off liaise-faire philosophy but it allowed a lot of posters to be driven off by someone that actively hates this board and it’s long time posters. Brings to mind Lincoln’s quote that “the constitution is not a suicide pact.”

[Jersey Girl]

You don't really have a choice there.

Maybe at some point I won't. I really don't NEED Spirit Paradise, personally. I come here to see what people are saying outside of discussions about Mormonism. On occasion there are interesting things said of a political-current events nature. For the most part I have always been a Terrestrial Forum poster.

In the past we always used to advocate putting people on ignore and ignoring threads that didn't interest us. Not sure why this is no longer something that works. It works for me, but evidently it is not working for others.

As for me, I am not all that put off by Cultellus, Atlanticmike, and whoever else is trolling the board. Moreover, I sometimes do get the feeling that people really hate having to read political opinions that differ too much from their own. I found it kind of refreshing to have other kinds of posters here, when the board did seem to be overwhelmingly progressive, which I have come to find boring and irksome.

Kish. Open the Prison forum and just cast your eyes down the index page. Flip the page and keep looking. There you will see why posters who typically post only in Paradise are having issues and have been having issues for several months now. And if/when you do look there, please note that what you see is the result of a new mod team and prior to that, nothing was being done at all about it because Shades wasn't moderating and Gad didn't sign on to moderate. Past experience tells me that Gad is one of the best moderators I've ever seen on these boards. But he didn't sign on for it here.

[Jersey Girl]

It’s really sad how many great posters Atlantic idiot drove away.

He did his damage and now he doesn’t even bother to come back to meaningfully engage with the forum he spent so much time tearing down.

Because his purpose is solely to disrupt= trolling.

I get shades has a very hands off liaise-faire philosophy but it allowed a lot of posters to be driven off by someone that actively hates this board and it’s long time posters. Brings to mind Lincoln’s quote that “the constitution is not a suicide pact.”

Yes, of course. I've been here since the first version. Got eternally banned for 2-3 years (?) then returned. I've been online all total going on 23 years. It never occurred to me to actually find other communities to post on except for the period when I was banned. But yes, I've gravitated to other places that have a zero tolerance policy for trolls.

People use these boards for a variety and often combined reasons. Some because the are disabled and this is their social time, because they like discussing issues they might not have anywhere else to actually discuss them, because they like going at issues with others from one side or another, and things like that. I do think that the now broken board served us all fairly well during the lock downs.

But here we have a brand new board. We have a full mod team that does a great job of moderating it. But whatever their personally held position on trolling may be, their hands are tied because some rulings are the work of Shades.

And Shades shows me not the remotest interest lately of doing his job. People can only cry out from the wilderness so many times with no response or when the response is jerking people around for what purpose I have no idea, before they freaking give up on it.

[Jersey Girl]

So...lessons learned in the trenches.

What makes this board look trashy and unprofessional are:

quote pyramids
smilies

and we used to yank off porn spammers on sight.

But intellectual porn spamming is okay.

K got it.

[Jersey Girl]

Oh and Schmo...if you think this place has become boring, be the change that you want to see on this board.


There. Now Shades doesn't have to say it himself since I've done his so-called work for him. Carry on, Shades.

Or not.