Important Going Forward

[Es Arcanum]

This board was formed around the core of members that left SB after it became a politically repressive leftist wokespace where 'posting whilst conservative' meant we all had a delayed permaban future anyway. The 'Vast Right Wing Conspiracy' PM group was heavily focussed on political and culture war matters but was also cosy enough for us all to talk the shit about whatever random crap came up. Something we couldn't do on the main boards because one of the aforementioned arseholes Scotty mentioned or just an arsehole mod would find some excuse to infract you. The fact that so many more have joined us since then just goes to show that our issues with wokespaces were hardly unique.

This new boards moderation is far far better and hands off and I don't really see a major problem with it.

Only issue I've really seen was the recent one with the politics sub-forum where the hot head members and site owners/admins were all over-reacting to shit and as a result the most popular topic in the most popular sub-forum was shut down at a point in time where the issue is perhaps the most interesting.

I don't really give a fuck what people left on SB think about stuff. Their opinions don't enter my thoughts at all the vast majority of the time. We've got our own forum now and its better than what the one we left became.

My suggestions for improving the site?

Trim down or eliminate the number of sticky threads. There are no less than NINE in the politics subforum. Retire or demote the default tribbles emojis and replace them with proper ones that actually look like they're supposed to. And I agree that the less spread out the forums are, the better.

 

[GoldRanger]

This board was formed around the core of members that left SB after it became a politically repressive leftist wokespace where 'posting whilst conservative' meant we all had a delayed permaban future anyway. The 'Vast Right Wing Conspiracy' PM group was heavily focussed on political and culture war matters but was also cosy enough for us all to talk the shit about whatever random crap came up. Something we couldn't do on the main boards because one of the aforementioned arseholes Scotty mentioned or just an arsehole mod would find some excuse to infract you. The fact that so many more have joined us since then just goes to show that our issues with wokespaces were hardly unique.

This new boards moderation is far far better and hands off and I don't really see a major problem with it.

Only issue I've really seen was the recent one with the politics sub-forum where the hot head members and site owners/admins were all over-reacting to shit and as a result the most popular topic in the most popular sub-forum was shut down at a point in time where the issue is perhaps the most interesting.

I don't really give a fuck what people left on SB think about stuff. Their opinions don't enter my thoughts at all the vast majority of the time. We've got our own forum now and its better than what the one we left became.

My suggestions for improving the site?

Trim down or eliminate the number of sticky threads. There are no less than NINE in the politics subforum. Retire or demote the default tribbles emojis and replace them with proper ones that actually look like they're supposed to. And I agree that the less spread out the forums are, the better.

I like the tribble emojis just fine, they help make this place feel more unique. I'd be happy with retiring the stupid elf character thing emoji that complete ruins the theme. Either stick with one theme, or don't.

 

[Terthna]

So; what's the timetable for re-opening the election threads?

 

[Guncannon]

So; what's the timetable for re-opening the election threads?

After they've reported everyone in those threads to the authorities of course.

 

[Free-Stater 101]

So; what's the timetable for re-opening the election threads?

As soon as the TOS can be changed probably.

 

[LordSunhawk]

I intend to reopen them but with very low tolerance for derails, trolling, and such after the New Years. Moderators at that time will be instructed to pay close attention, and I'll be personally monitoring the threads closely.

But that will be after New Years.

 

[Terthna]

I intend to reopen them but with very low tolerance for derails, trolling, and such after the New Years. Moderators at that time will be instructed to pay close attention, and I'll be personally monitoring the threads closely.

But that will be after New Years.

Why New Years? What's stopping you from reopening them now?

 

[Free-Stater 101]

Why New Years? What's stopping you from reopening them now?

Maybe the fact that it's the holidays and our new owner might want to spend time with his family rather than constantly monorting us to keep us from breaking the old TOS and getting Zoe in trouble?

(Sorry if I come across as patronizing Terntha, but let's not try and reignite controversy here or force our new owner to reopen politics just because we are getting impatient, although given that events will soon be speeding up I understand them.)

 

[LordSunhawk]

Why New Years? What's stopping you from reopening them now?

Mostly what Fallout said. it's the holidays, I'm spending time with family, dealing with the transition, etc. I briefly considered keeping them closed, but I want them open, I want discussion, but I want it civil and productive.

 

[bullethead]

I like the tribble emojis just fine, they help make this place feel more unique. I'd be happy with retiring the stupid elf character thing emoji that complete ruins the theme. Either stick with one theme, or don't.

Jha'dur is great though.

Not only is it a perfect emoji for "scheming," it's part of the board developing its own culture, thanks to Harlock's Babylon 5 fic.

It could probably use a remake to improve the art to the standard of the tribble emojis, but those were Discord imports, rather than home grown for The Sietch.

 

[Free-Stater 101]

It could probably use a remake to improve the art to the standard of the tribble emojis, but those were Discord imports, rather than home grown for The Sietch.

I actually like the tribble emoji's and I didnt even know what a tribble was until recently never mind that was what those were supposed to be.

 

[What's the sitch?]

Jha'dur is great though.

Not only is it a perfect emoji for "scheming," it's part of the board developing its own culture, thanks to Harlock's Babylon 5 fic.

See ,I know who jhadur is due to reading some babylon cross overs and some wiki reads but I thought it was meant to express extreme anger/rage/disagreement, or wanting death or sometimes genocide without actually saying it.(whether at the poster or what they are posting about can be confusing) Since isn't that what that character is most famous for in the setting? Being literal Nazis seeking their leibenstraum and killing off all other races because they are the chosen ones?

At the very least the jhadur emoji looks like its giving off an angry glare, not a "scheming look". but that may be due to the racial appearance

is this character consistently portrayed as a schemer in the episodes they are in? (I have never actually seen babylon 5)
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Jha'dur was a sociopath, brutal and ruthless, without conscience or remorse. Both a warlord and a brilliant scientist, she had no qualms with deploying weapons of mass destruction against civilian populations nor using people as fodder in her experiments. She advanced the cause of scientific progress on the bones of innocents. She was also sadistic and seemed to enjoy watching people suffer or squirm.


In 2230, the Dilgar openly assaulted sectors of space belonging to the League of Non-Aligned Worlds. Despite combining their forces, the League was fighting a losing battle as world after world succumbed to Dilgar conquest and experimentation. The Dilgar conquered sectors 24, 39, 43, 58, as the planet Balos.

Dilgar tactics in this war were ruthless, including the destruction of entire worlds and the use of conquered races as subjects in their biological experiments. The entire population of Latig IV was infected with Stafford's Plague just to determine how long it would take them all to die. In 2231, under the command of Jha'dur, was responsible for the destruction of the planets Tirolus, Comac IV, and Halax.

from The Babylon Project
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not trying to get into some derail but we started talking about emojis now

 

[GoldRanger]

Jha'dur is great though.

Not only is it a perfect emoji for "scheming," it's part of the board developing its own culture, thanks to Harlock's Babylon 5 fic.

It could probably use a remake to improve the art to the standard of the tribble emojis, but those were Discord imports, rather than home grown for The Sietch.

What do Star Trek tribbles have to do with a Babylon 5 character? And an extremely obscure one at that... I'm a fan of Babylon 5, watched all seasons, read the Psi Corps book trilogy, yet I never heard of this J'Hadur character and didn't even know the franchise ever explored the Dilgar war in any detail.

 

[ShieldWife]

I didn’t recognize the name Jha’dur, but after reading her description I remembered the episode she was in. I think it was one of the first episodes of the series and I remember it pissing me off with how they ended it. Jha’dur was this mass murdering scientist who, from experimenting on millions of innocent victims, developed a method of achieving immortality but it requires killing other people to maintain the immortality.

So they captured her and then there was this big moral debate about whether or not they should destroy all of her research or if they should keep it and try to use it for good. They finally decided that they would keep her research and try to use it for good, but after they did that, the Vorlona decided to come along and kill Jha’dur and destroy her research anyway, because they claimed they young races weren’t ready for it.

I remember the episode because it pissed me off that after all the agonizing and moral debates over her research, the Vorlons swooped in at the last minute and made it all irrelevant.

Sorry for that rant, that episode has bugged me for years though. Anyway, yeah, I had forgotten the name but remembered the character.

 

[Arch Dornan]

I intend to reopen them but with very low tolerance for derails, trolling, and such after the New Years. Moderators at that time will be instructed to pay close attention, and I'll be personally monitoring the threads closely.

But that will be after New Years.

When Biden's fully confirmed can I post my obligatory despair post? It won't take too long just one post where I post a half hearted nooooo before moving on with my life.

 

[Megadeath]

I intend to reopen them but with very low tolerance for derails, trolling, and such after the New Years. Moderators at that time will be instructed to pay close attention, and I'll be personally monitoring the threads closely.

But that will be after New Years.

At the risk of antagonising, I hope you'll be quite clear when setting the bar for what counts as trolling. I think a perennial issue I've observed on this site is that it tried to enshrine both freedom of speech, and civil discourse. Quite bluntly, you can't have both.

There's a reason why settings that require serious and civil discussion have more restrictions than just shooting the shit with a friend. A formalised debate setting, or parliamentary style discussion, has strict standards to avoid behaviour like trolling. Complete freedom of speech like is practised with friends at a bar has a very different set of rules, and if the acquaintance across the table wants to share their latest theory on the shape and direction of politics you can call them an idiot and laugh in their face when you think they're wrong.

So, what's the bar for trolling? Is it a post that doesn't come from an assumption of good faith? One that doesn't directly address the arguments responded to? Is it when a post reaches a certain threshold of insulting words or behaviours?

I don't expect some sort of definitive answer delineating all boundaries, but a general ruling on where the bar lies between permitting free speech and encouraging serious and civil discourse would be obviously useful.

 

[Zachowon]

At the risk of antagonising, I hope you'll be quite clear when setting the bar for what counts as trolling. I think a perennial issue I've observed on this site is that it tried to enshrine both freedom of speech, and civil discourse. Quite bluntly, you can't have both.

There's a reason why settings that require serious and civil discussion have more restrictions than just shooting the shit with a friend. A formalised debate setting, or parliamentary style discussion, has strict standards to avoid behaviour like trolling. Complete freedom of speech like is practised with friends at a bar has a very different set of rules, and if the acquaintance across the table wants to share their latest theory on the shape and direction of politics you can call them an idiot and laugh in their face when you think they're wrong.

So, what's the bar for trolling? Is it a post that doesn't come from an assumption of good faith? One that doesn't directly address the arguments responded to? Is it when a post reaches a certain threshold of insulting words or behaviours?

I don't expect some sort of definitive answer delineating all boundaries, but a general ruling on where the bar lies between permitting free speech and encouraging serious and civil discourse would be obviously useful.

I will give this a try.
You can have a civilised conversation and not have a formal type of debate, and you can have freedom of speech as well as civil dicourse.

One must know that you can speak your mind, but be ready to deal with the consequences.

Trolling I would think would be baiting and flaming, as well as strawmanning trying to get someone to do something out of line. Or like the Truth and constantly post conspiracy theories outside of the thread set for it.

That is just what I think

 

[GoldRanger]

I will give this a try.
You can have a civilised conversation and not have a formal type of debate, and you can have freedom of speech as well as civil dicourse.

One must know that you can speak your mind, but be ready to deal with the consequences.

Trolling I would think would be baiting and flaming, as well as strawmanning trying to get someone to do something out of line. Or like the Truth and constantly post conspiracy theories outside of the thread set for it.

That is just what I think

The last thing we need is that mods start enforcing pseudo-debating rules, like infracting people for "strawmanning". If someone is being strawmanned, or ad-hominem-ed, it's his/her/their/xirs responsibility to point that out. A mod shouldn't be a babysitter.

 

[Jormungandr]

My hopes? One day, through hard work and a growing community consisting of sane people with common sense, we'll grow as large as Spacebattles, which seems only to be attracting new members that produces interesting content in the CrWr forums due to its age and inertia, at this point (let's face it: the staff on there are as toxic as a rancor's butt-hole).

We've had a rough first year, no lie: some members have been problematic, but they were free to still express their views unless they did something illegal/horrific -- you can't say the same for Spacebattles or any of our sister sites, which would've had them infracted for "hate speech" sourced from the staff's only Left-leaning biases. Our previous administration had different ideas in mind when founding this site, but the site diverged from this founding idea as more members began to foster a board culture of their own. The attempts to "get back on course" to these founding ideas resulted in backlash that went against the developing board culture, which resulted in their selling the site. I personally do hope they stick around, however.

But despite our rough first year, there's still a lot of potential on this site -- still a chance for it to become another bastion of creativity, civility, and discussion with common sense and no fear of being punished for "wrong think".

Let's make 2021 great for the Sietch.

 

[Buba]

(let's face it: the staff on there are as toxic as a rancor's butt-hole).

What delicious imagery!
And how true!