Ignore a specific fourm?

[Ducimus]

In a smiliar manner to be able to ingore a specific user, Is it possible, or would it ever be possible to squelch out an entire forum thereby not seeing it, and subsquently not be tempted to respond to anything therein?

Sometimes you'll see topics in a certain Forum that you really don't want to get involved in, but like the person told to "don't look down" you do it anyway. If "temptation makes the theif" id like to remove the temptation from my sight.

[Gizzmoe]

No, it´s not possible and very likely will never be possible. The best way to ignore a certain forum is simply not to visit it! :)

[Ducimus]

Im bumpng this damn post, cause i'd still like the ablity to be able to not see the god damn general forum.

The general forum is full of religous and poltiical bull**** and a buttload of overactive people with their own little agenda's., That damn forum i's alot like a tragic car accident. You don't mean to slow down to look but you do it anyway. Everytime i visit that god damn forum, im angry for like 5 hours afterwords.

Throw me in the brig and suspend me for all i care at this point. That forums existance in it's current form sour's the whole damn place if you ask me. At the least, put all the poltiical bull**** in a subforum off the general forum so it's not out in the open where you'd be tempted to look at it.

[CCIP]

Come on man, you can be above that. I, too, am irritated by it (maybe as much as you are), but I think it's best not to go too far in your dislikes...

I hate to say it, also, but I hope Neal gives you a word of caution on your behaviour or something. I understand where you're coming from, but I think you're just way too confrontational on too many occasions. You've picked fights with some members where I think it was entirely avoidable if you just kept above it instead of getting aggressive. :-?

[GSpector]

Hello Ducimus,

I 2nd that motion of your. :up:

I have to try to avoid the General Forum as well.

The problem i have is that when I click on NEW POSTs, it throws them all together and sometimes I just click on the thread because it looks interesting and then I realive what I'm ready and I too get sucked it and then upset for a while.

I now try to make an effort to see who created the thread and if it's by certain people, I just pass it up no mater how interesting it is.

Since it can't be filtered, How about sorting them into the Groups. I have no problem with scrolling past a page of just General posts to get to something I want to read like SH3 & SHIV.:hmm:

Any chance of this happening?

[danlisa]

With a bit of self-restraint you can ignore a forum.

You must have noticed the 'arrow' button on the far right of the forum title, if you click this it will 'collaspe' the forum & sub forums so you don't see the new topics.

I do this with the DW, International & Special Projects forums purely because I have no need to post or know what's going on in there.

[Ducimus]

Right now im only of a few thoughts:

1.) That general forum to me taints the entire site. After looking at that forum, i just start automatically reading into everything presented on this site. The poltics seem to bleed over into other area's though little cracks here or there and its hard to not focus on them. "Jap" thread for example. Additiona thoguht here. After tonight, i honestly have little desire to visit this site anymore. The whole poltiical drama that eventually occurs here just puts me off to subsim, and SH3. Just playing SH3 reminds me of subsim.

2.) One thing i havent been able to understand is how come the general forum is allowed to run rampant the way it does. In most places ive seen, poltiics and religion is either not allowed or put off into its own little corner where people didnt have to have to look at it. I try my best to avoid it, hoping to find something else in there to read, but invariably things get political there. One thing that ive noticed is this whole "I will not submit" thing all over the place. While i havent cared to look into that, it reminds me alot of NOTW bumper stickers, only its of an anti islamic tilt. Im not overly enthused about world events either, but the whole I will not submit, strikes me as an open display of religious hatred - and this is displayed everywhere in every forum where various members post. Its ilke no matter where you go on subsim, theres a little piece of the general forum there.

3.) If you can't moderate/isoloate politics and relgion, then at least rename the damn general forum so people have an idea of what its REALLY about. I seriously suggest renaming it to "Opinion, Politic's and Religion". A little truth in advertising and the name is indigative of what one can expect there. The name of "general forum" is highly misleading.

4.) It's really hard to not take the **** that gets tossed in that forum personally. When people start tossing up there crap in my face, its really hard to not get very aggressive. Some people there have an amazing ablity fling their opinions in the most offensive, yet subtle manner possible. Subtely is what some people there are really good at. I for one, and not into subtley, i don't buy into subtely, and im not fooled by it either. I say what i mean, rather then tapdance around it in a fake facade of subtely.

[Konovalov]

I don't disagree with anything that Ducimus has said. For the last couple of years the General Topics forum has been dominated and overwhelmed by just a few topics which are repeated over and over again to the point of ad nauseam. Even in threads completely unrelated somehow certain members manage to get into it something about hating Bush, hating Democrats and liberals, hating Islam, hating Muslims, or ranting against America. I think that the General Topics forum should be either renamed or split up. Rename it to "Mini-me Jihadwatch/Islam is evil/Bush stinks/America sucks/Democrats are weak pansies". Or even better just make a seperate sub-forum for all this overly repetitive ranting/discussion.

At least Ducimus has the balls (excuse my language) to speak up which he is fully entitled to do. If Ducimus is confrontational then I would love to know what some other members are. For me Ducimus has hit the nail on the head end of bloody story. Subsim is a great site as are the forums but the General Topics forum has changed in a major way. No way near as many people from the other forums on Subsim visit the general Topics anymore. The cross polination that once used to occur between forums no longer does and the General Topics is occupied by a small number of people talking always about the same stuff. More people from the other forums need to be encouraged to enter the Gneral Topics but as it stands now I am not surprised that they don't. :yep: Ducimus is spot on the mark.

[Onkel Neal]

Come on man, you can be above that. I, too, am irritated by it (maybe as much as you are), but I think it's best not to go too far in your dislikes...

I hate to say it, also, but I hope Neal gives you a word of caution on your behaviour or something. I understand where you're coming from, but I think you're just way too confrontational on too many occasions. You've picked fights with some members where I think it was entirely avoidable if you just kept above it instead of getting aggressive. :-?

I agree. Ducimus, you complain because people in the GT forum do not show restraint and here you are peppering a topic with cursing. You want me to control you so you do not see the GT forum because you cannot show self-control and not go in there. What's next? Do you want me to modify your browser so you do not see offending websites when you Google? I suppose I could make a usergroup, configure it so it does not see the GT forum, add a bunch of people to the group, set the permissions, and then add and remove people when they decide they want to see GT or not, when they change their minds, etc. It would be one more thing I can spend my evenings doing, in addition to all the other things that take up my spare time. How much time do you think I have to mess with this foolishness, when all you have to do is not click on it?

Konovalov, and others who are put off with the GT forum, I am receptive to what you are saying (as long as you're not throwing g-d curse words around like crazy :yep:) and there are times when I find some topics stupid and juvenile. I have tried to balance the forum with allowing different points of view but not letting any one POV dominate the forum. We will have an occasional anti-Muslim rant, or anti-US rant, but if it becomes epidemic, we apply the brakes. We will also hear people support Muslims or the US, in the middle of those rants, and often they make good points that could, possibly help people understand better.

We get 10~20 new forum members every day, we all know some percentage of them are going to be uneducated, ignorant, even morons. How can it be avoided? My stance has been that for the sake of freedom of speech, we, the senior members, should be calm and cool, explain to them that we run a relatively civil forum, and help them fit in. If, over time, they cannot restrain themselves, they cannot fit in, the constantly provoke a lot of other members, they are dismissed. But I feel it it is my duty to keep that at a minimum, not take the easy way and hammer people right and left. Because even though I am the admin of this forum, I am not anyone's boss or parent.

I would like to know how we can censor and control the discussions in the GT forum so everybody will be happy? Someone tell me how to do that. In the meantime, I'll be at the cleaners getting my brownshirt uniform. ;)

[Konovalov]

I understand and accept what you are saying Neal. Obviously at times I get frustrated and perhaps my ideals get ahead of the reality here. It is a very tough balancing act and I appreciate the work that the moderators and you do on this site. Perhaps in a year or two it will revert back to an earlier time. Who knows. In any case I thank you for taking the time to explain your position and I accept that. :yep:

[Gizzmoe]

The least invasive way to make GT a more inviting place for everyone would be to create subforums. A "Politics and Religion" subforum would be a good start.

[Konovalov]

The least invasive way to make GT a more inviting place for everyone would be to create subforums. A "Politics and Religion" subforum would be a good start.

Yes, that would be the best form of action to take. I worded it as split up but subforum more accurately describes what I feel is the better approach. :yep:

[Ducimus]

Do you want me to modify your browser so you do not see offending websites when you Google?

That line to me is rather funny, given what i do for a living and where i work.

I work at an internet filtering, monitoring, and security corporation. (im sure you have my IP's logged on your server where i post from, you can verify that if you wanted to, just keep that data private if you do,)

Regarding the internet, you name it, ive seen it, in just about any topic you can think of. I know more about hate on the internet then most people here would ever know about or want to know about. Want to have a headache? Go google "World church of the creator, " or "The 14 words". Thats just the crap thats on the surface. You can go much deeper down the rathole if you keep digging. (side note: This is why i laugh at people getting upset over the word "jap"... ppuullleeeasse, as if this is anywhere near real hatred out there).

Most idiot's on the net, you read their surmonizing garbage, and get a headache, end of story. But here, how now you got this pack that you end up interacting with, all of which looking for little strings to pull to get a rise out of you. Thats the general forum here.

Another side note. Politics and Religion, (IE, the general forum) have something in common. That each one, what it's really about, is what a person beleives. You beleive so-n-so is good and so-n-so is bad, or in one diety and not the other. But they are all about beleif. Ever hear anyone say, something like , "the quickest way to make an enemy out of somebody is to try and change what they beleive in?" People hang on to there beleifs tenaciously, they will usually defend them zealously (i know i do), and they are not easily changed. Ultimatly, discussion about them, is a moot point.

Here's how this works:

Person 1: "Bark."
Person 2: "Roof."

Person 1: "Bark!"
Person 2: "Roof!"

Person 1: "Bark!" "Bark!"
Person 2: "Roof!" "Roof!"

Person 1: "Bark!" "Bark!" "Bark!"
Person 2: "Roof!" "Roof!" "Roof!"

Person 1: "Bark!" "Bark!" "Bark!" "Bark!" "Bark!" "Bark!"
Person 2: "Roof!" "Roof!" "Roof!" "Roof!" "Roof!" "Roof!"

Person 1: "Bark!!!!!!"
Person 2: "Roof!!!!"

That exactly how it works, and it accomplishes nothing except the little explantion points at the end. Yet Some people acutally like that crap, maybe it gives them a sense of importanice i dunno, but again, since your probably bound by limiations of the forum software, either give them their own subforum or rename the general forum to reflect its real content so average joe's can get it out of their head that it is not a place for normal dicussion. Please?

Oh, and can i take that "I will not submit" banner, put a big red X on it, and say, "Just say no to bigoted relgious hatred"? and use it in my sig? I wonder how well that would go over here. :rotfl:

EDIT:
Thanks, Konovalov for confirming those observations, ive noticed the exact same thing for the longest time. At least now i know havent totally gone off the deepend :lol:

[STEED]

As a member of many forums on other sites some of them make SubSim GT forum look very civilised and I'm not repeating some things I have seen else where, at the other end some of them censor so much it's makes you wonder is it worth posting.

The GT forum can get hot and some times I have been ticked off by some of the remarks but as the old saying goes if you can not take the heat stay out of the kitchen.

At the moment I am enjoying the Ashes thread which I started now open up to the world of cricket and having a good time and the odd laugh, the best thing if you do not like the look of a topic just do not read any further and do not post.

I feel Neal and the Moderator's have done a good job in keeping the balance in the GT forum, time to time some topics do get out of hand and they burn themselves out or a moderator will step in to close the thread.

[Gizzmoe]

Ducimus, you want some Valium? ;) Like already has been said, you don´t need to take part in such discussions, no-one forces you to read them, so what are you complaining about? If you were a moderator of GT you would probably die from an heart attack within days, we guys actually have to read all that stuff there and, even worse, we cannot vent our frustration about certain threads in public! :)

[Onkel Neal]

Yes. Whose finger clicks the mouse over the "General Topics forum" ?

That's who you need to talk to, the owner of the finger.

[Ducimus]

Yeah yeah, nevermind that you can see whats being discussed on main page on this forum. Like i said, again, and again, its like a tragic car accident. You don't mean to stop and rubberneck, but you end up doing it anyway.

It's obvious you guys don't give a ****. That's fine. I guess if you can't beat em, join right?
http://www.ducimus.net/sh3/iwillnotsubmit.jpg

Maybe ill make a poltiical and religious statement everytime i post too. Seems to be the norm around here for lots of people.

[Onkel Neal]

Actually, I do give a ***** I consider this forum a clubhouse. I don't see a problem with a few guys doing a little arguing in the clubhouse, but I do pay attention when one guy says he's going to come into the clubhouse with a stick and murder in his eye. You best stay out of GT if it's giving you this much grief.

[Ducimus]

You know it just occured to me, that if you just made a poltiical sub forum, you'd make EVERYBODY's life alot easier, and everybody would be happier.

- The religious and poltical debaters have a place to beat each other up tell their hearts content.

- Your job at moderating could become easier. With a dedicated sub forum to that stuff, you wouldnt have to watch the general forum (or even the poltiical forum) that much. If a thread in the general forum becomes to ploitical or religous, all you'd need to do is move it and its done with.

- and idiots like me woudlnt have to see it .

I dont see why thats so hard to do.

As for clubhouse, i have to wonder just how many users you get. Clubhouse is a term that brings to mind words like "small" and "exclusive". I dont know how many users you get, although im sure you do. My point is, if you get more and more users, the concept of "clubhouse" boarders on the realm of obsolecence. The more users you get, the less exclusive the club becomes. With the release of SH4, you may have a large influx of users and be forced to rexamine your policies. More people = more chances for things to escalate and blow up.

That i think is my final stance on this subject. I'm pretty sure you think im full of ****, and that's fine. You also wont have to worry about me with murder in my eye in your clubhouse. Frankly, with the crap that goes on in terms of open display of political and/or religious hatred, this isnt any kind of club id want to be in anyway, nor is it worth anymore of my time to try and fight it.

[TteFAboB]

Konovalov has been doing hard work in the political threads, keeping the low blows in check. I think if you open the last 5 or 10 political threads you'll find Konovalov in there making Subsim a better place.

The last thread on religion was a major step forward from everything else I've seen. Next time religion starts from scratch I'm linking to that thread and saying: "no, you cannot return back down and ignore this standard we've reached. You must walk from this point onwards, even if all you can do is walk sideways." There's always hope.
:up:

Lastly, I agree with STEED. This GT is alot more civilized than any other forum I know. On the same instant I realized I had my share of blame on the locking of a thread, I've sent a Private Message to the parts involved and was glad to be able to clarify and set things straight. Such a brief conversation was sufficient to solve the issue.

I think if we give the right example, Konovalov, Gizzmoe, etc., we can create an atmosphere welcoming to civilization and hostile to barbarism. In this regard, you will be missed Ducimus.

[Takeda Shingen]

Personally, I do not believe that sub-forums ever solve any problem. A political sub-forum will not alleviate the frequency and ferocity of any arguement. Rather, it only moves it from one place to another. I would have to moderate it whether it was either location, so the work load is not lessened. Ultimately, yes, it must fall on the individual user whether to read it or not. I know, Ducimus, that you do not like that particular answer, but it is, unfortunately, the only answer short of placing all of the offending political pundits on your ignore list.

I don't believe that anyone thinks that you are full of nonsense, nor do I feel that Neal has mocked you. I have known Mr. Stevens for a considerable length of time, and if he has been provocative or overtly hostile, this would be the first that I have heard of it. Rather, I believe that you are very passionate about your stance, and I appreciate it, as I know he does as well. Unfortunately, there is simply nothing that he can do.

[CCIP]

I'm all for a sub-forum, and I would actually name it "Current Issues" to avoid the polarizing language. It would not alleviate the problems, sure, nor make the debates less bitter (realistically speaking) - but I think it would adress Konovalov's concern about scaring away new members from GT as a whole.

Oh, and just so people know where I'm coming from... I'm a graduate student whose major focus area is critical discourse analysis (and who will probably be writing a thesis soon on some form of highly politicized discourse). Naturally I am both fascinated by some of these debates, and also sometimes rather irked by the weasely language used (by both sides of the spectrum by the way). Likewise, I think it's safe to say that I'm in a definite minority politically, being a self-proclaimed socialist (in a fairly strong sense of the word).

I like Neal's view of it as a clubhouse though. I think this is important to have, as long as it's fairly moderated and kept from becoming a bashing ground. Look at it the other way - I mean, I know what the other way is. I have been in a community which had a general forum and then closed it, and watched some (almost all) of the most interesting people in the community move away and leave altogether. Sure it got rid of the troublemakers, but with the troublemakers went some valuable members (some of them, ironically, troublemakers by default) and a general sense of community.

I keep wanting to make a nice, fuzzy thread about the things we probably share in common here, but I guess I haven't gotten around to it yet. Because I find that some of the people I strongly disagree with are also very productive community members and overall good folks who do good things. I certainly don't want to come off as an 'enemy' to them, even despite the ideological differences we might have.

Where I see the problem is in ideological attacks. We've established that personal attacks on the forum are off-limits, but the problem is that there are constant (and perhaps inevitable) ideological attacks taking place that get people going no less than a personal attack would, perhaps more because they're so seemingly subversive and indirect. I don't think there is really a solution to that, except asking everyone to behave in a civil manner about it.

But let's not be naive. This is a forum, a place to discuss, not a place for ideological transformation. Let's try not to take these debates too too seriously. Use the "two goats on two mountains" analogy or "bark bark - woof woof" analogy, the fact is that you're dealing with things that probably go deeper than a forum discussion can change. It's no secret that ideologies construe people's thinking and define the arguments which are acceptable to them. Ultimately, we can have our rhetorical clash here and there, but I really don't see the point in taking it too far: if you wish to engage in ideological struggle, I think there are far more relevant places to do it than Subsim's General Topics. At the very least, if you insist - keep a measure of respect. Again, this goes for everyone collectively.

[Ducimus]

That was a good post.

Honestly guys, ive burned my candle on both ends on this. Im' all burnt out on it. done. If i ever feel things get to an excessive level here, ill just leave. Cause it's just not worth my time.

Can't stand the heat stay out of the kitchen someone here said. That, generally was my idea and motivation. But its hard to not stick your head in the kitchen to see what's cooking when you can smell it coming out the door when walking by it. People keep missing that point.

Personnally, im tired of current events. I read about it every day, i see it in the news, and on TV, and i'ts not why i come to subsim. I acutally come here to get away from that stuff. Foolish of me i know.