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CHAT Is Now A Private Area For Members (& Members' Eyes) Only

EnolaGaia

EnolaGaia

I knew the job was dangerous when I took it ...
(ACCOUNT RETIRED)
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The Chat section has been reconfigured to make it a private area restricted to currently active registered members only.

Guests, crawlers, bots, banned folks, and formerly active members with retired accounts will not be able to access the Chat section. Neither will they even see the Chat section listed among the forum's offerings.

This change is the result of a staff policy decision. It does not represent a response to any breach or technical / security incident.
 
I thought that was already the case.
 
EnolaGaia said:
The Chat section has been reconfigured to make it a private area restricted to currently active registered members only.

Guests, crawlers, bots, banned folks, and formerly active members with retired accounts will not be able to access the Chat section. Neither will they even see the Chat section listed among the forum's offerings.

This change is the result of a staff policy decision. It does not represent a response to any breach or technical / security incident.
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It always felt to me that as it was essentially non-Fortean banter among members it should have been private. A casual visitor looking for Fortean topics would probably find it incomprehensible.
 
Its a good idea, maybe a bit exclusive.

But, its not Fortean, and is probably not interesting/incomprehensible to the uninitiated.
 
Sounds eminently sensible - presumably without the bots my own stupid comments won't pop up now on Google when I do an internet search on a Fortean subject. Don't know what Chat section encompasses exactly, I spent a few minutes viewing threads and posts from 2001 onwards before hitting the What's new button. Seems that every film released has its own short-lived thread.
 
But good luck on hiding the inane chat and trying to create a semblance of cod scientific respectability or whatever above all the Cromer, imgur reposts and random knob gags. Of course, the problem is that the stupid imgur reposts, knob gags, memes, beefcake waiter pictures and crap cartoons aren’t necessarily only posted in chat.
 
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I realise this may hinder my prospects as becoming Mr. Forteana 2022 and I won’t get my pic on the beermat in the Troll’s Head, but it has to be said things are taking a downturn lately. The babble pushes important contributions back pages so the points become invisible to some who don’t scroll back enough. And why would they? How would they know a serious point has been made if there’s just poo jokes and other dumb down stupidity written all the way through a thread like a stick of candy rock?

And some of the humourists aren’t as funny as they think they are. But that is purely taste. (But I’m right).

Drop ‘likes’ and just get talking. We’re big enough to do away with likes, yes?
 
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On a slightly related note, is the WTF thread going to be opened again, or shall we just hold off on such material, at least for now?

Apologies if the question above seems critical or mocking; that's not my intent. I was just wondering, and humbly ask in all sincerity.
 
ChasFink said:
On a slightly related note, is the WTF thread going to be opened again, or shall we just hold off on such material, at least for now?

Apologies if the question above seems critical or mocking; that's not my intent. I was just wondering, and humbly ask in all sincerity.
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What The Fort????
 
ChasFink said:
On a slightly related note, is the WTF thread going to be opened again, or shall we just hold off on such material, at least for now?
Apologies if the question above seems critical or mocking; that's not my intent. I was just wondering, and humbly ask in all sincerity.
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The WTF thread is currently being stripped of outright gratuitous crap, and portions of it are being transferred to other relevant threads (e.g., Strange Crimes for weird crime stories).

This long-overdue overhaul will take as long as it takes.

If you have an odd story to post, consider using Mainstream News Stories, starting a new thread in a relevant section, and / or searching for an extant relevant thread to which you can add it.
 
escargot said:
Wouldn't they come under 'Guests'? Like any other unregistered visitor.
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No. Banned members are an entirely distinct category. If a banned former member arrives and is unrecognized as one of the banned he / she will be treated as an anonymous Guest.
 
ChasFink said:
Actually, with the WTF thread closed, I actually found a better place for my not entirely fortean item.
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A lot of the stuff that's accumulated within the WTF thread fits quite readily into other existing threads.
 
EnolaGaia said:
A lot of the stuff that's accumulated within the WTF thread fits quite readily into other existing threads.
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Hence my comment about the search function. I’ve tried to fit into relevant threads even with correct search terms and it’s a fail.
 
ChasFink said:
On a slightly related note, is the WTF thread going to be opened again, or shall we just hold off on such material, at least for now?

Apologies if the question above seems critical or mocking; that's not my intent. I was just wondering, and humbly ask in all sincerity.
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We're in no hurry with that one.

It generates too much trouble.

What was intended to be a 'Wow! Can You Believe This?' thread is filled with what I have come to think of as 'Culture Sneer' and inaccurate press reports:

"Nutty Professor Says White People Should Explode Or Sell Their Babies For Lesbian Luncheon Meat"

Genuine apologies if you're sitting on some lighthearted gems that do not fit this description.
 
Not to worry. At my age it's been quite some time since I sat on some lightheaded gems.

The post in question is at The Stalker / Cyberstalker Thread.
 
Analogue Boy said:
Of course, the problem is that the stupid imgur reposts, knob gags, memes, beefcake waiter pictures and crap cartoons aren’t necessarily only posted in chat.
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True, but we just delete such material from non-Chat threads. We've had a quiet - and not so quiet - word with some of the repeat offenders but in the absence of behavioural improvement we will be warning them. It irritates a lot of people, quite rightly.
Analogue Boy said:
The babble pushes important contributions back pages so the points become invisible to some who don’t scroll back enough. And why would they? How would they know a serious point has been made if there’s just poo jokes and other dumb down stupidity written all the way through a thread like a stick of candy rock?
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This is a very good point. We're in a similar position to where we were c2005, when the number of Chat threads/posts got to the point that they constituted over 40% of the entire board, and the scenario you describe happened regularly (plus long-time members will remember the board used to grind to a halt at midnight for a couple of hours as it tried to index itself) - so we pruned it, ruthlessly. Anything that hadn't had a reply for 90 days was deleted.

There was a lot of wailing, foot-stamping and threats to leave, but only from about a dozen very vocal posters who spent 90% of their time in Chat. In the end a couple did flounce but their absence was only noticeable because of the lack of noise.

We get that Chat is a valuable social setting for a lot of people, but if you liken this place to a museum, or possibly zoo, then it doesn't exist to service the cafe. The cafe services the museum, and the exhibits trump the espresso every time.

As a result, the now casually obscured Chat will be trimmed a bit in due course as well.
 
stu neville said:
True, but we just delete such material from non-Chat threads. We've had a quiet - and not so quiet - word with some of the repeat offenders but in the absence of behavioural improvement we will be warning them. It irritates a lot of people, quite rightly.

This is a very good point. We're in a similar position to where we were c2005, when the number of Chat threads/posts got to the point that they constituted over 40% of the entire board, and the scenario you describe happened regularly (plus long-time members will remember the board used to grind to a halt at midnight for a couple of hours as it tried to index itself) - so we pruned it, ruthlessly. Anything that hadn't had a reply for 90 days was deleted.

There was a lot of wailing, foot-stamping and threats to leave, but only from about a dozen very vocal posters who spent 90% of their time in Chat. In the end a couple did flounce but their absence was only noticeable because of the lack of noise.

We get that Chat is a valuable social setting for a lot of people, but if you liken this place to a museum, or possibly zoo, then it doesn't exist to service the cafe. The cafe services the museum, and the exhibits trump the espresso every time.

As a result, the now casually obscured Chat will be trimmed a bit in due course as well.
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Regarding the WTF thread and the people who are concerned that this forum is becoming too 'un-Fortean'; (although by the sounds of it, it is not a new problem) - would it be better to have a Fortean WTF and a Non-Fortean WTF?
Or, even lump a few threads together like that one, what you were doing 5 minutes ago, what have you done today, random stuff from your neck of the woods et al?
That way posters can come in and say ''I fell down an inspection chamber this morning'' or ''they cut a tree down today and it fell on my house'' or ''BT didn't turn up after I waited for 5 hours''..... or whatever, but all in one place so others can just avoid that thread and won't (hopefully) be as annoyed as they are now.
 
Floyd1 said:
Regarding the WTF thread and the people who are concerned that this forum is becoming too 'un-Fortean'; (although by the sounds of it, it is not a new problem) - would it be better to have a Fortean WTF and a Non-Fortean WTF?
Or, even lump a few threads together like that one, what you were doing 5 minutes ago, what have you done today, random stuff from your neck of the woods et al?
That way posters can come in and say ''I fell down an inspection chamber this morning'' or ''they cut a tree down today and it fell on my house'' or ''BT didn't turn up after I waited for 5 hours''..... or whatever, but all in one place so others can just avoid that thread and won't (hopefully) be as annoyed as they are now.
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Fortean WTF? Posts can be made on an appropriate thread. All the superflous junk about our lives can go as far as I'm concerned—I post too much of it and other people post far more.
 
Yithian said:
Fortean WTF? Posts can be made on an appropriate thread. All the superflous junk about our lives can go as far as I'm concerned—I post too much of it and other people post far more.
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Ok. But I thought the point was that some people are complaining that there's too many non-Fortean threads though?
 
Floyd1 said:
Ok. But I thought the point was that some people are complaining that there's too many non-Fortean threads though?
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Precisely.

So the non-Fortean ones can be drastically reduced in number.
 
Kondoru said:
Its a good idea, maybe a bit exclusive.

But, its not Fortean, and is probably not interesting/incomprehensible to the uninitiated.
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Now the Chat section is a sealed, exclusive section, we Forteans can really let our hair down...

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