Good Posting Practices

Mikefule said:
Although it is not always deliberate, "in jokes" are a form of shibboleth. They help to differentiate between those who are "in" and those who are not. If this place is to remain lively and entertaining, we need new people and fresh insights. Anything that tends to make new people feel like outsiders is a bad thing. Personally, I don't mind the Cromer jokes, but I can see that too many of them may be harmful to the interests of the forum.
Click to expand...
Why would it make anyone feel like an 'outsider' though? Everybody here was new at one time. Taking the p**s out of Cromer (or whatever) is hardly going to stop people wanting to join the forum.

You get to learn who's who and what their preferred threads are, what hobbies they like etc and anyway, if you really don't like what they say you can always just ignore it/them.

There's always going to be references to certain events that have been posted by certain members over the years and if you think that I'm going to let the 'upstairs understairs cupboard' thing go, you're very wrong young man.

Trev and the incident with the goat, no, that won't be mentioned again, granted.
 
Floyd1 said:
Why would it make anyone feel like an 'outsider' though? Everybody here was new at one time. Taking the p**s out of Cromer (or whatever) is hardly going to stop people wanting to join the forum.

You get to learn who's who and what their preferred threads are, what hobbies they like etc and anyway, if you really don't like what they say you can always just ignore it/them.

There's always going to be references to certain events that have been posted by certain members over the years and if you think that I'm going to let the 'upstairs understairs cupboard' thing go, you're very wrong young man.

Trev and the incident with the goat, no, that won't be mentioned again, granted.
Click to expand...
The in-joke/snubbing new members palaver is what ruined b3ta. Tedious.
 
escargot said:
The in-joke/snubbing new members palaver is what ruined b3ta. Tedious.
Click to expand...
I would never snub a new member. Unless it was Swifty, obviously.
Anyway, I consider myself still 'new'. Compared to you old gits longer serving members, I always will be too.
As for b3ta, I have no idea. Sounds like treason to me - Fortean or nothing. (Maybe a bit of the YouTube every now and then for some Lynyrd Skynyrd and the local fb page to check on potholes and how crap the council are, but that's it).
 
escargot said:
The in-joke/snubbing new members palaver is what ruined b3ta. Tedious.
Click to expand...
In-jokes are OK if a bit tedious but snubbing new members is a no-no which I don’t think goes on here - what’s the point? The FTMB is I think generally welcoming to new people until they show themselves to be twats/have an attitude/are full of shit etc. If they pass the relatively benign non-twattery level, they’re in.

[Edited]

[Grovel] The mods deserve a lot of credit in their efforts to keep things in order & stomping on trouble which sometimes flares up. [Grovel over].
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Yithian said:
Having spent a good while over the past few weeks 'patching up' old threads, we've found that this has become more and more noticeable among those threads that have been active from c. 2016 to the present. Where possible, dead video links (usually but not always YouTube ones) are replaced with active ones, but we're finding that a large proportion of those that no longer function are music--frequently because they have been removed for copyright infringement.

We'll leave YouTube to their own policing, but we're now asking for a cessation of the 'Every Thread Needs a Theme Tune' posts. If you've got an especially witty one for a CHAT thread, it's probably fair enough, but threads in the Fortean sub-fora are all the better for their absence. They're an irritation to remove or maintain, and of very negligible value in terms of furthering conversation. It's perfectly possible to mention the existence of a song and post the name of the artist and track without supplying a YouTube link to it--we all know how to find music online.

As ever, sorry if this makes us appear kill-joys; we're just trying to ensure that the machine runs smoothly, and we're unconvinced that there's all that much joy you're missing out on with this one.
Click to expand...

Bump to the above.

@Coal and others.

If you're wondering where the YouTube song you posted went, this is the explanation.

There are too many musical interludes on Fortean threads. A year after posting half of them are dead links without any clue what they once pointed at.

CHAT is different, but tangential music videos on Fortean threads are now being treated like spam.
 
Yithian said:
Bump to the above.

@Coal and others.

If you're wondering where the YouTube song you posted went, this is the explanation.

There are too many musical interludes on Fortean threads. A year after posting half of them are dead links without any clue what they once pointed at.

CHAT is different, but tangential music videos on Fortean threads are now being treated like spam.
Click to expand...
Just a question. Do you prefer music videos with a song-title or piece title in the case of classical & singer or instrumentalist name afterwards (unless I give a good enough hint to that for people to know) typed in so people know what it was if taken down as well as a reason for sharing to just a music video? I'm asking so that I can bear it in mind before I share. (Help me to have fun with people while still helping you somewhere down the line.)
 
Horsa said:
Just a question. Do you prefer music videos with a song-title or piece title in the case of classical & singer or instrumentalist name afterwards (unless I give a good enough hint to that for people to know) typed in so people know what it was if taken down as well as a reason for sharing to just a music video? I'm asking so that I can bear it in mind before I share. (Help me to have fun with people while still helping you somewhere down the line.)
Click to expand...

Yes, please.

At least then we have the option of replacing it if the link dies.

More generally though, we'd prefer not to have song links posted just because a) someone posted a phrase that happens to appear in that song, or b) this discussion reminded you of it.

In CHAT those things are fine, of course.
 
Yithian said:
Yes, please.

At least then we have the option of replacing it if the link dies.

More generally though, we'd prefer not to have song links posted just because a) someone posted a phrase that happens to appear in that song, or b) this discussion reminded you of it.

In CHAT those things are fine, of course.
Click to expand...
O.K. Thank you very much for the information.
 
PLEASE format text your copy here.

This means:

1) Abbreviating (and ideally capitalising) long headlines if they are to be a thread title.

2) Ensuring paragraph breaks.

3) Stripping stock images and their captions.

4) Removing internal links.

5) Cutting adverts.

6) Ensuring the link is clean and free of referer references and redirects.

Copy+paste+post does not do the job.

@Floyd1 & @maximus otter take note.
 
Yithian said:
PLEASE format text your copy here.

This means:

1) Abbreviating (and ideally capitalising) long headlines if they are to be a thread title.

2) Ensuring paragraph breaks.

3) Stripping stock images and their captions.

4) Removing internal links.

5) Cutting adverts.

6) Ensuring the link is clean and free of referer references and redirects.

Copy+paste+post does not do the job.

@Floyd1 & @maximus otter take note.
Click to expand...

Tangential note: Despite your using the @ symbol before my user name, this message didn’t appear in my “Alert” feed; l stumbled on this post by accident.

Some error somewhere?

maximus otter
 
maximus otter said:
Tangential note: Despite your using the @ symbol before my user name, this message didn’t appear in my “Alert” feed; l stumbled on this post by accident.

Some error somewhere?

maximus otter
Click to expand...

My mistake.

I missed out the usenames and then edited them in.

The @ function is triggered when the post is first submitted and subsequent edits don't work.

I should have deleted and reposted.
 
Yithian said:
PLEASE format text your copy here.

This means:

1) Abbreviating (and ideally capitalising) long headlines if they are to be a thread title.

2) Ensuring paragraph breaks.

3) Stripping stock images and their captions.

4) Removing internal links.

5) Cutting adverts.

6) Ensuring the link is clean and free of referer references and redirects.

Copy+paste+post does not do the job.

@Floyd1 & @maximus otter take note.
Click to expand...
When I Copy+paste something I often paste into Windows Notepad - or TextEdit (Mac) - first, which strips the text I'm copying of any formatting (and everything else), and I can then tidy it up, copy it again and paste it where I want it knowing that it'll take on the default format (font and font size) that I have for the document (or forum post) I'm pasting into.
That would be one way to avoid the text you've pasted into the forum appearing in huge ugly letters.

The only thing is it also removes images and links in that text, but I guess they could be added afterwards if they're important.
 
Robin said:
When I Copy+paste something I often paste into Windows Notepad - or TextEdit (Mac) - first, which strips the text I'm copying of any formatting (and everything else), and I can then tidy it up, copy it again and paste it where I want it knowing that it'll take on the default format (font and font size) that I have for the document (or forum post) I'm pasting into.
Click to expand...
I do that too.
 
I usually 'paste as plain text' anything I copy from elsewhere. Which I find formats everything to whatever the default is here for font and text size etc, removing any links. Then it's a matter of abbreviating and 'parsing' to remove anything that doesn't make sense or is a numbered reference to (what has become) an obsolete reference.
 
pandacracker said:
By that, do you mean when an article has a word in blue that when clicked takes you to another site?
Click to expand...

Yes, but only the ones that you don't know what they lead to, mainstream news sites are safe enough.

More important is a 'clean link', not one that goes via an index, a search engine or a social media site and is cluttered with information showing that—because such links are far more likely not to function in the future.
 
Robin said:
When I Copy+paste something I often paste into Windows Notepad - or TextEdit (Mac) - first, which strips the text I'm copying of any formatting (and everything else), and I can then tidy it up, copy it again and paste it where I want it knowing that it'll take on the default format (font and font size) that I have for the document (or forum post) I'm pasting into.
That would be one way to avoid the text you've pasted into the forum appearing in huge ugly letters.

The only thing is it also removes images and links in that text, but I guess they could be added afterwards if they're important.
Click to expand...
Mythopoeika said:
I do that too.
Click to expand...
Trevp666 said:
I usually 'paste as plain text' anything I copy from elsewhere. Which I find formats everything to whatever the default is here for font and text size etc, removing any links. Then it's a matter of abbreviating and 'parsing' to remove anything that doesn't make sense or is a numbered reference to (what has become) an obsolete reference.
Click to expand...

We do really appreciate it when people make an effort.

Individually it's a matter of thirty seconds to fix most problems, but those can add up to a hell of a lot of time in total.

We have a to-do list of many, many threads of broken links and weirdly formatted posts to rectify: whole posts in capital letters or bold font seems weirdly common, quite apart from broken quotations and spelling errors in thread titles that make them effectively search-proof.
 
Request to regular posters

The Fortean Headlines thread (in the Fortean News sub-forum) is properly intended only for headlines—almost invariably those that may be read as referring to bizarre events but actually turn out to be comparatively mundane.

Please do not post long extracts or full-article texts there (perhaps just a three-line 'reveal').

This is not a general thread for quirky news articles per se.

If you have a genuinely Fortean news story, please present it in its own thread in the Fortean News sub-forum with a full preview.

As ever, if in doubt, post away and one of us will do our best to arrange things nicely. It's just that there's a lot to do and many staff have off-board commitments of late.
 
We've had a quick conference and we think it's a good idea to ask members to refrain from posting ChatGPT responses on threads that have nothing to do with Artificial Intelligence.

We've already seen a handful of posts on various Fortean threads that say, in effect, 'Let's see what ChatGPT has to say!'

We all appreciate the novelty of the application, but the simple fact remains that this program offers no opinions: it regurgitates plausible chunks of language that blend fact and fiction without distinction.

We simply don't think it's desirable to risk adulterating content further in a field where dishonesty is already a common occurrence.

Comment on this matter is invited.

Edit: Any member who is interested in the limits and abilities of ChatGPT is welcome to start a single thread in CHAT on which to post and discuss examples
 
Yithian said:
We've had a quick conference and we think it's a good idea to ask members to refrain from posting ChatGPT responses on threads that have nothing to do with Artificial Intelligence.

We've already seen a handful of posts on various Fortean threads that say, in effect, 'Let's see what ChatGPT has to say!'

We all appreciate the novelty of the application, but the simple fact remains that this program offers no opinions: it regurgitates plausible chunks of language that blend fact and fiction without distinction.

We simply don't think it's desirable to risk adulterating content further in a field where dishonesty is already a common occurrence.

Comment on this matter is invited.

Edit: Any member who is interested in the limits and abilities of ChatGPT is welcome to start a single thread in CHAT on which to post and discuss examples
Click to expand...
(Not entirely sure what 'ChatGPT' stands for?) I don't think I've ever entered into any 'chat,' as such, as that's not really why I like to send in my own posts on this site. So, no personal opinion on it really for me.
 
Last edited:
IMO these 'chat AI' thingamabobs are all just a 'flavour of the month' and I fully expect they'll go the way of 'fidget spinners' and 'micro pigs'.
They're a novelty that seems interesting but as you say, they just regurgitate words in what they assess to be a sensible response to input.
"Garbage in, Garbage out"

I had a quick look at one of them, and after a few attempts at promoting some sort of skewed response (obviously, this is me we're talking about here after all) I managed to ask it the old 'family fortunes' favourite of 'Name a dangerous race?'. It went on to say that, being a 'chat AI' it could not differentiate between races and that it would be discrimination yadda yadda yadda.... I then clarified by stating that no, I meant 'race' as in 'horse racing, motor racing etc.
I've had my fun and all the responses are only what you would expect depending on what you ask, and how you ask it anyway.

I won't be posting any grabs of text from any chatbots.
 
Great idea.

ChatGPT has caught out lots of people, including Techy.
He was outraged when he couldn't find two Guardian articles cited by ChatGPT and assumed they had been deleted without trace.

I reminded him that this was the Guardian, not some tinfoil-head's blog, and that spontaneously deleting articles would be against editorial policy.

Here's the Guardian's own take on it, from Chris Moran, the Guardian’s head of editorial innovation:

ChatGPT is making up fake Guardian articles. Here’s how we’re responding

Last month one of our journalists received an interesting email. A researcher had come across mention of a Guardian article, written by the journalist on a specific subject from a few years before. But the piece was proving elusive on our website and in search.

Had the headline perhaps been changed since it was launched? Had it been removed intentionally from the website because of a problem we’d identified? Or had we been forced to take it down by the subject of the piece through legal means?

The reporter couldn’t remember writing the specific piece, but the headline certainly sounded like something they would have written. It was a subject they were identified with and had a record of covering.

Worried that there may have been some mistake at our end, they asked colleagues to go back through our systems to track it down. Despite the detailed records we keep of all our content, and especially around deletions or legal issues, they could find no trace of its existence.
etc
Click to expand...
I showed Techy the article and he was astounded. He works in IT but had thought ChatGBT was like Google, collecting and sharing information.

Can remember when Bluetooth first came out and I read him a humorous Guardian article about 'toothing', where commuters were allegedly using Bluetooth to hook up with strangers in train toilets for anonymous sex.
He'd never heard of it and the article's author Andrew Brown suspected an April Fool story.

Here it is -
A worm's eye view

I looked around the carriage to try and spot the owners of all this gadgetry. Which bag held which phone? Then I remembered a "wacky Brit" story from Wired magazine, which claims that these Bluetooth connections are being used to set up random encounters of the type that excite mail filters.

There is a website dedicated to this practice of "toothing"; but, writing on April Fool's Day, I am more and more convinced that it's a myth like flying saucers, in which technology comes to dramatise emotional longings.
Click to expand...

'technology comes to dramatise emotional longings' - what a very shrewd observation.
 
Trevp666 said:
IMO these 'chat AI' thingamabobs are all just a 'flavour of the month' and I fully expect they'll go the way of 'fidget spinners' and 'micro pigs'.
They're a novelty that seems interesting but as you say, they just regurgitate words in what they assess to be a sensible response to input.
"Garbage in, Garbage out"
Click to expand...
The problem is that, as the Guardian found, ChatGPT fabricates articles that look like they've come from respectable sources and might be quoted as if they are real.
 
Sid said:
(Not entirely sure what 'ChatGPT' stands for?) I don't think I've ever entered into any 'chat,' as such, as that's not really why I like to send in my own posts on this site. So, no personal opinion on it really for me.
Click to expand...
"Ah, just found out what chatGPT stands for!" :conf2:
 
Yithian said:
We've had a quick conference and we think it's a good idea to ask members to refrain from posting ChatGPT responses on threads that have nothing to do with Artificial Intelligence.

We've already seen a handful of posts on various Fortean threads that say, in effect, 'Let's see what ChatGPT has to say!'

We all appreciate the novelty of the application, but the simple fact remains that this program offers no opinions: it regurgitates plausible chunks of language that blend fact and fiction without distinction.

We simply don't think it's desirable to risk adulterating content further in a field where dishonesty is already a common occurrence.

Comment on this matter is invited.

Edit: Any member who is interested in the limits and abilities of ChatGPT is welcome to start a single thread in CHAT on which to post and discuss examples
Click to expand...
I, personally, would like to know that any thoughts or ideas expressed here come from an actual person.
 
escargot said:
The problem is that, as the Guardian found, ChatGPT fabricates articles that look like they've come from respectable sources and might be quoted as if they are real.
Click to expand...
Most of the Guardian's articles are written that way, yes.
 
brownmane said:
[I, personally, would like to know that any thoughts or ideas expressed here come from an actual person.]
Click to expand...
Thingy.png
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top