Enough already!

Cloud · Post by **Cloud** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 9:41 pm

Does everyone learn to stay just on the outside surface so as to not let things that happen here bother him or her? I know what you mean, Keropi. I've been there.

Post by **magician** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 10:12 pm

If I may offer a solution.

There's a feature installed here called contact management. You can find it by clicking the link "buddylist" under the banner. Using this tool you can do one of three things:

1. Set another user as a "buddy". This will give you a little popup window when one of your buddies signs in. Adding someone to your buddy list will send a notification to that user so they know you added them. There is also a link to see who has made you a buddy.

2. Set another user to "ignore". This makes that particular user "disappear" from your view of Anime-Beta. You won't get PMs from that user. You won't see ANY posts from that user. Adding someone to your "ignore" list effectively deletes that user from your beta experience. And let me be clear about this feature....NO ONE WILL KNOW IF YOU ADD THEM TO YOUR IGNORE LIST. IT'S COMPLETELY PRIVATE"

3. Set another user to "disallow". This will prevent another user from being able to directly contact you. This is useful if you are getting harassed via PM. You will still see that user's posts, but they cannot make direct contact with you thru this forum. let me be clear about this feature also....NO ONE WILL KNOW IF YOU ADD THEM TO YOUR DISALLOW LIST. IT'S COMPLETELY PRIVATE"

I added this feature so that situations just like this one could be handled without confrontation, high blood pressure, or hurt feelings. Maybe this could ease some frustrations here.

-M

blueheaven · Post by **blueheaven** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 11:44 pm

Personally, what I hate is when people don't post items in the right forum. Take this thread for example, it belongs in the Speakeasy. If you are going to bash someone publicly, even if you don't refer to them by name, it should not be in this thread. This place is for gripes about the forum itself, and not its members. I am amazed that Kymaera has chosen to go after this one person, when there are so many more annoying offenders out there. Guess it pays to kiss his ass.

RoboFlonne · Post by **RoboFlonne** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 12:00 am

Can I have access to Speak Easy!? I totally agree that this post should be moved since the member who Kym-chan is refering too has already seen it. And has served its purpose!

Maiko · Post by **Maiko** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 3:56 am

blueheaven wrote:Personally, what I hate is when people don't post items in the right forum. Take this thread for example, it belongs in the Speakeasy.

What I can't figure out is why only certain people have access to the Speakeasy- so a certain group of people can talk crap about other users on the forum behind their backs?

Not jumping to conclusions, but I have heard of this 'Speakeasy' being brought up before. I don't know how long it has been around, but how can we scream at one person for openly bashing someone on the forums where there is a private forum that they can do it in, and that is somehow acceptable?

If Beta is a family as everyone keeps saying, how come some members are still kept on the outside?

RoboFlonne · Post by **RoboFlonne** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 4:17 am

The idea is that Speak Easy is a really stinky shoe... So it's soooo stinky that no one really needs to know about it unless they want to. Soo... You can't really see the shoe but you can smell it.

But if you really want to see the shoe... then you can pm DW for access... I don't think Speak Easy is for bad mouthing... I don't think that's acceptable. It's just for topics that don't fit in the regular forums.

p.s. Speak Easy is more of a recycling bin I think.

Post by **magician** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 4:56 am

The speakeasy is not an all-exclusive club, nor is it a forum for bashing people, and I wish questions about things/features/unknowns could be raised in a civil tone rather than crying foul.

the speakeasy is an unmoderated forum. No rules. No moderators. No restrictions. The masses demanded a place where inflamatory subjects or conversations could be held without fear of the thread being locked. This kind of forum is not in line with the family-friendly feel beta is generally known for so it was resisted for a long time.

The compromise is the speakeasy. It is not visible to the general masses by design. We decided to create a forum where anything goes to satisfy the demand for it, and we decided to hide it to satisfy the desire to keep beta friendly. It's not hard to get access to. Simply PM Deadly Whispers or Goldknight and ask to be added. No one gets denied. Everyone who has asked for access has been granted it immediately. Not everyone has it by default because not everyone wants to see potential flame wars or discussions of politically incorrect subjects. If you don't have access, it's because you have never ASKED for it.

Roboflonne, I don't appreciate the comment "The idea is that Speak Easy is a really stinky shoe", and I would ask that you leave questions that you don't know the answers to for a mod or admin to answer. Thank you.

-m

Cloud · Post by **Cloud** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 4:56 am

I will let you know if I do not.

Maiko · Post by **Maiko** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 5:04 am

magician wrote:...Speakeasy stuff respectfully snipped...
-m

Thank you for clearing that up. I was not crying foul, but this 'Speakeasy' seems to get brought up a lot in the general forums from time to time, and yet there never seemed to be any one post or section that actually explains the purpose of that forum or how to gain access to it. So I would hope you would see how that could cause confusion amongst myself and others who are not familiar with it.

I don't see exactly where in my post I was being uncivil. As as I said, almost everyone seemed of the opinion that this topic/thread was unfriendly/unacceptable for the most part, so when someone says, "Well, it, belongs in Speakeasy", it can easily make people assume one thing or another, especially since like I said, it is often brought up and yet, there seems to be no explanation of it's existence and/or purpose. I wouldn't know if I needed to PM someone and ask for access, if I hadn't been told before.

SME · Post by **SME** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 5:16 am

RoboFlonne wrote:The idea is that Speak Easy is a really stinky shoe... So it's soooo stinky that no one really needs to know about it unless they want to. Soo... You can't really see the shoe but you can smell it.

I can't believe you would say something about a thread that you haven't even accessed yet. So far, the Speakeasy (which I am a member of) has been very civil...so civil in fact, that I'm amazed that even with a wide range of ideas and beliefs, no one has "blatently told off one person or another" there. *sigh* Robo, you never cease to amuse me with your lack of respect for ideas and situations that you have no clue about. Unless you know for certain, it's best to not say anything, otherwise you look bad for it. That's why, if there is a problem, or something is awry, I always ask the person to PM, e-mail or IM me. I had a situation not too long ago that was finally resolved, after several e-mails, and the person and I came to a mutual agreement. Hiding behind your smileys in attempt to "pretend" to be the peacekeeper hasn't and still does not work.

Goldknight · Post by **Goldknight** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 5:25 am

Just a side note that there was a Global Announcement about the Speakeasy when it was created and why it was created. We left it up for several weeks to give everyone the option to join. Only three people asked initially. It was announced though and apparently needs to be mentioned again somewhere. Guess we'll take care of that.

Post by **magician** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 5:26 am

Maiko, that comment was not meant to be aimed directly at you so please don't take it as such.

Please understand that I work my ass off to build, move, and maintain this forum. I've put many hundreds of hours into writing and rewriting code here to build this place into what it is. I get very discouraged when things I put a lot of effort into are mis-represented, or ignored. The buddylist was an incredibly complex and difficult hack to put in place. The speakeasy was a decision put in place to try to please the maximum number of people here knowing full well I can't please them all. It is things like this that forced my decision to first step down as a moderating admin here, then later to step down altogether and hand Beta over to DW and Angela where I still believe it belongs. I am still the lone coder here and will continue to be so, but I honestly find it harder and harder to find time to add code when what I put in is misunderstood, misrepresented, or ignored. It frankly feels like a slap in the face a lot of the time.

As long as I'm on my soapbox, I would remind everyone that Beta is free. There's no cost to join. There's no advertising spam, advertising banners, pop-ups, junk mail, or any of that other polluting crap that saturates every corner of the web these days. I pay out of pocket to own and maintain 2 domains for this site, one of which is usually not in service. The webhosting is usually covered by generous donations, but quite often that has been out of pocket too. The Admins and Mods do not make any money off this site. I do not make any money off this site. Only Godaddy and the web host make money. The Mods and Admins here do what they do for free because they LOVE this site, and they LOVE it's members, and they LOVE anime. Not for any other reason. I know lately several of them have been very hurt recently because of their efforts here. They come back day after day out of a sense of duty now rather than for the fun of it and I don't think that's fair or right. Please try to remember that as you peruse the boards and post.

This site is special to me because it's the only tribute I can offer to David Pierpont who was the major force behind it's creation. It's a small tribute in the grand scheme of the cosmos, but it's all I have to give and I want more than anything to keep it as close to what he built as I can. Please don't let it devolve into something ugly and unpleasant.

-A

kittens · Post by **kittens** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 5:54 am

Sneaking in a bit

I know magician

how hard it is because my hubby is an admin for a forum and he maintains/codes for his forum without pop-up, adds, for free

In his forum sometimes there are some flights among members and sometimes he had to say "cut it off" (since his forum has more than 1500 members), and whenever he had to do he gets frustrated...... (he complains to me always

so I had to listen

)

So I know how hard it is (believe me

) and also I do always appreciate how much work you do (believe me

I just don't show enough usually

)

I only join beta and RS. That is all and I really appreciate that you set up the forum as it is

ok..... sneaking out

Cloud · Post by **Cloud** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 5:55 am

OK. What else do you want to talk about?

Maiko · Post by **Maiko** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 6:00 am

I know I am pretty much taking this whole thread off-topic now, but based on how this thread was going, a little positive side-stepping should be permissable, I would think.

Magician and all the Mods, it is hardly ever said and sometimes never shown, but all your hard work is appreciated. I am certain that the vast majority of us realize that you are not paid for what you do and you spend a lot of your ample spare time trying to make this place as fair, friendly, and running as smoothly as possible. It's not easy being in charge, and I'm sure it can get frustrating sometimes when you are faced with yet another situation where you can't make everyone happy. I would hope that not a single person would take for granted all the hard work you do. This forum is a great resource, and because of it, many of us have managed to expand our collections beyond our dreams through the connections through here alone, and have also made several accquaintances and good friends along the way.

In passing, have you ever thought of having some kind of donation drive? I know, as you said, that one of the best parts about Beta is that it is free to use, but I'm sure that there are several that would like to 'give back' by at least helping with bandwidth costs and etc; Or at the very least, have a link somewhere to an information page where if one felt inclined to donate, they could find the information they needed as to how to do so. ^_^x