I’ve finally gotten around to contacting someone about integrating The Spearhead’s CMS with the phpBB forum so that comments on our articles can go through the forum rather than the main site itself. Hopefully, we can get this out of the way quickly. I would have done it myself some time ago, but the DIY instructions are a bit too vague for an amateur programmer like me. Fortunately, WP-United is now offering installation assistance for a very reasonable fee, and I just requested a quote.
I’ve been getting occasional complaints from readers about the comments for some time. People have various issues with the comments (mainly I have received complaints about feminist commenters and such, but there have been a few other issues as well), and recently I’ve had to deal with a few rather vicious trolls. As The Spearhead grows in reach and influence I suspect this problem will grow along with it, and I don’t really have time to moderate every single comment — there are just too many.
So my plan is to beef up the forum by posting the magazine’s articles directly on it and letting people have at it there. For most of you, this shouldn’t change things much at all. If you haven’t registered on the forum already, it’s an easy thing to do, and when this job is complete you will be able to read and comment on all the posts there. Of course, the link to the forum will remain, so it’s just a click away from the main site.
For the magazine’s main site, we will publish selected emails as a weekly “letters to the editor” feature. Particularly insightful comments on our articles – both pro and con – will be selected for special consideration and published in a post along with some commentary. In the forums, however, we will maintain a laissez-faire policy regarding comments, only deleting those that are excessively disruptive, obscene and/or trollish. On the main site, commenting will be disabled, so if the free-for-all of the forum doesn’t appeal to you, it will be easy to avoid.
It shouldn’t take long to implement these changes, and until the integration is complete I’ll leave things as they are. However, the site may go offline temporarily this weekend while the upgrade is underway.
My hope is that this will satisfy the better part of our community while actually enhancing interactivity. Different people have different preferences, and I’m working on providing different options to suit them. Implementing WP-United is probably the best way to do that.
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{ 75 comments… read them below or add one }
I would like to see comments, and replies to comments, from all Spearhead authors and other selected people, continue to be posted below the main articles, in the magazine.
These comments are often as important and informative as the articles themselves.
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By the sound of it my commenting days appear to be over. I don’t think I am up to handling what you describe. I do think there are ‘problems’ with how the commenting has developed over time with lengthy internal discussions which at times are hardly intelligible. If these get pushed off into the long grass then that will be an improvement. I guess in future I will just be a reader.
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Internal discussions?
I’m not sure what you mean. Could you give an example?
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The only substantive change will be registration for commenting. WP-United offers a full integration of the main site and the forum.
This forum-based approach doesn’t sound like such a good idea to me. How about having a show / hide comments button on the articles, instead?
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Sorry if I haven’t been clear enough. The forum actually is integrated into the main site with this hack.
Welmer this is a great move. Basically the comments on this site are worth the post itself so its better to keep track of them in a forum based environnement so that recurring themes aren’t lost in the blog.
Also I have to plug this :
Patrick, 9, is busted for bringing 2-inch-long lego toy gun to school.
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2010/02/04/2010-02-04_big_trouble_over_this_tiny_toy_mom_fuming_at_a_lack_of_common_sense_as_son_buste.html
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Welmer don’t worry I am quite prepared to be just a reader. If the comment are put to one side and I no longer read them then on balance I don’t think I have lost much as long as the articles maintain their high quality.
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Cool… I did this sort of thing at my site, but with my own custom-built forums which I coded from scratch. In retrospect, going with a free forum platform is a much better idea than investing all the time it takes to make your own =P
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Welmer,
Since I don’t understand how “The forum actually is integrated into the main site with this hack” will appear, I don’t want to speculate on how it will affect your magazine.
My only two points are that:
I find the forum much less conducive to reading than the magazine itself.
Comments from respected individuals that clarify and extend the articles should be a direct and easily viewable part of the articles themselves, and not be hidden away in some comment directory structure.
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A much better solution is to ban users who derail the discussion into other tangents unrelated to feminism. B&G is the biggest perpetrator of this. Feminist users are not the problem, in fact., they are an asset because the users here get an insight into the way feminists twist and distort language and meaning to serve their own agenda.
Those people who send complaints about feminist posters are missing the forest for the trees. I have more respect for feminists, even the insane ones (all of them), than I do for posters who write irrelevant threads about religion and proselytizing designed to derail threads.
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The free and visible commenting is one of the best features on this site, it allows for near real-time discussions. Losing this would be losing a big competitive advantage the spearhead has over other like-minded sites.
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The issue is registration. Those few extra steps of creating a user name, waiting for the email, dissuade people from posting short quick comments.
Over time those short quick comments become more substantial thoughtful comments.
By requiring registration for comments it dissuades people from becoming involved.
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I don’t much like the idea of relegating comments to a forum, either. But I might as well get with the program, so I registered, and it does have some nice features. I especially love the ability to edit my posts, because I really hate my typos.
I just hope this move won’t end the kind of discussions worth reading and contributing to.
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I would suggest allowing authors to include comments from readers (and their replies to those comments), at their discretion, below their articles in the magazine itself.
This would allow articles to grow and be enhanced, but would not constitute censorship, since all comments would be available in the linked (albeit less viewed) forum.
Also, would it be possible to enable searching by UserName for comments on articles, in the proposed forum? (I enjoy reading comments by specific people, and on some sites the implementation method for a linked forum for comments has resulted in a rats nest in which it is impossible to find anything.)
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This might be a good move.
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Registering for commenting will be a hassle for some, so the comments probably won’t come quite so thick and fast with your new system. However, this might be a good thing considering so many trolls use this site to spam their bullshit.
Same goes for the pathetic ”men” who care more about ”game” than the real issue at hand: men’s rights/the reduction of the totalitarian state.
When I hear these whingers harp on about ”game”, they come across as retarded 10-year-olds who just want to get laid. If they would focus on the political side more often, they’d find that taking away the totalitarian state stops women ”marrying” said institution. Take away that kind of power, and hey presto, women return to men and marriage will work out (especially if divorce is actually outlawed, which would be fantastic for all sane men).
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typo at 10-year-olds. That should be 20-year-olds. Though mentally, these asshats that talk about ”game” (and the idiots don’t even explain what it means properly lol) are about as intelligent as the average 10-year-old. Game is the talk of fools, period.
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Not all men can be totally celibate. So, while boycotting marriage and apart from prostitutes, how does such a man lay women(plural, not a numbers game, just to eliminate any pussy monopoly) with minimal time, money and energy?
Game.
First step to game is to stop seeing women as paragons of virtue or equals. They are just overgrown children, nothing more. Next, treat them accordingly, as children. The confidence will follow.
You say you don’t want to have sex? Game works for you too. At least on a mental level. You can use back handed compliments on bitches, and detect/pre-empt the inevitable shit-tests from a woman. Your confidence will also tell the females that you’re not a man to be trifled with. Perfect for getting an annoying female co-worker/female relative off your back.
Think this is all too much work, and you have better things to do? Excellent! Turn on the /ignore mode for women, go ghost, go your own way.
Always remember a woman is only good for that hole between her thighs, that’s the main honest reason why you want to fraternise with a woman in the first place. If you wanna fornicate, do it efficiently with maximum returns.
No marriage, no monogamous LTR, and keep your sperm guarded. Life is good this way.
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too long; didn’t register
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I predict commenting will eventually die off to only a few hardcore posters in an echo chamber, and the site popularity will plummet. Seen it happen several times before.
I, like most people, have better things to do than register and remember yet another fucking username/password just so I can post an occasional comment on some blog post. So while you may get rid of a few trolls you’ll also be getting rid of everyone else, especially new posters, thanks to the registration hurdle.
Really, the commenters who can’t handle a few trolls are just huge cunts anyway. Open debate, trolls included, is a big draw and great entertainment for most people. I generally avoid sites without it.
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Really, the commenters who can’t handle a few trolls are just huge cunts anyway. Open debate, trolls included, is a big draw and great entertainment for most people. I generally avoid sites without it.
^^^
This. Keep the status quo. I am getting traumatized with watching men set on fire, screaming and burning alive at sites like thenyc
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Note the game can save lives thread at roissy’s feminists came on going batshit with the shaming but we held the line and the bitches calmed down. Shit goes in cycles.
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An excellent feature and a good idea. Im really sick of Black&German, Lady Rain and Canadian girl posts. Their posts are like scattered fresh dog shit on a mostly clean footpath.
The Friends & Foes list function in the forum will take care of them.
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As a regular reader and occasional commenter, I’d prefer to be able to comment without having to register. However, I understand the problems with moderating comments on a popular site.
Would it be possible for Welmer to appoint moderators from the ranks of the regular contributors, while retaining administrative privileges for himself? If so, I think this could spread the workload and make it easier to run the blog as it is.
OT: Gender quotas turn out to be bad for business and bad for women.
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I agree that you shouldn’t have to register to post comments. It’ll drive away a lot of people that would have otherwise posted something.
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Like barsin, I too have seen sites killed off by switching from open commenting to registered commenting. If/when you do go into a more forum-like commenting(I assume it’ll be integrated on the same page that the article is on?), I hope that you’ll leave a way to post comments without registering.
If you don’t do something like that, I guarantee you you’ll see a huge hit in discussion and total views in general.
I also agree with Evil Pundit that you should get moderators, if possible.
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I’d rather not see moderators other than Welmer so hopefully this registration process will make them unnecessary.
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Actually I’m sure whoever Welmer appoints as moderators/administrators will be as level-headed as he is.
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Vox Day migrated from Haloscan to co-comment.
As far as I can tell, it does inhibit new commenters from opining, and only the regulars stick around.
‘Fraid this will be the same way.
If Welmer wants to outsource / distribute moderating, I’m down with that as long as those tasked with moderating are consistent in their enforcement.
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What do you guys think about the idea that women are inherently sociopathic in nature?
http://dissention.wordpress.com/2010/02/05/altruism-adversarialism-and-women-02/
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What do you guys think about the idea that women are inherently sociopathic in nature?
I agree.
But I also state that “sociopathy” is a made up relative term. It is not some cosmic absolute occurring in nature.
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Have you considered the issue of a half dozen hard-core misogynists dominating all the comment threads ? These guys are way beyond the 3 Stooges “woman haters club”. These guys really mean it. If you really want to explore issues, you’re not going to do it with this zeitgeist in the comments threads. It drives out other points of view. I’m not talking about taking the side of feminism. I’m talking about driving off any views except non-stop rage.
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Bad move. Masterson’s site has been rendered irrelevant to anyone with half a brain.
No moderation= feminist trolls/attention whores destroying the place.
This site is great as it is. Leave it alone.
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Please leave it as it is.
And keep a few tame women around for amusement.
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Beta Fag:
before you throw out any more retarded declarations, try reading the actual comments.. or at least use SPECIFIC REFERENCES to make SPECIFIC POINTS about SPECIFIC ISSUES before you paint such a broad stroke of misogyny against Spearhead’s users.
The problem with the old men’s movements is spineless fucks like you who still believe in the equal rights and “men should be able to have babies if women can” notions of gender equality that only exist in Alice’s Wonderland.
If the men would just be reasonable with these women they would suddenly acquire male logic and compassion and abandon the entitlements that feminist society gives them… DELUSIONAL
You are clueless magnina. Let’s not go back to the old days of ineffective and spineless MRA leadership by listening to your disingenuous advice.
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And keep a few tame women around for amusement.
LOL @ David.
Would you like beer with your sandwich?
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Actually, I am not so sure now about keeping women around. They do tend to divide men. They change the dynamic of the discussion. Men show off and white-knight for them. I suspect I am somewhat guilty of this myself.
As I said before, I have had a woman kicked off another site because, although broadly sympathetic to the men’s aims, she started meddling.
Of course, there would be no way of policing this completely.
Some women want to break into men’s groups out of piqued interest and pride. A truly humble woman would probably not even try to join men’s councils. She would be off performing her feminine duties.
But it is not up to me.
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” A truly humble woman would probably not even try to join men’s councils. She would be off performing her feminine duties.”
But, what happens when her feminine duties are done David?
I suppose she could always watch those mindless soapies on the tele.
Or, maybe…. she could read and engage on sites like this one and learn something.
Like….
http://rlv.zcache.com/make_me_a_sandwich_tshirt-p235493375351595972trlf_400.jpg
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I’ve learned a lot on here that I wasn’t aware of before. I’d always thought the situation was pretty bad, but what I’ve read on here has been absolutely shocking at times. It’s a very good site for “getting the word out” about the problems, but there doesn’t seem to be much discussion of real, viable solutions. Waiting for civilization to collapse, or praying for WWIII or the sharia to arrive, don’t strike me as being an appropriate first step.
It is is true that we women divide the men a bit (it’s inevitable), and if you guys decide to ban us en masse then that’s fair enough. It’s your site, your rules. I’ll still come read here because I find it very interesting. But it doesn’t seem fair to pick and choose among the women, and only ban those who disagree with you.
Although I think there are some natural divisions among the men already. The idea that men are a monolithic group doesn’t seem to quite fit, any more than the idea that women are a monolithic group. The split seems to be traditional versus modernist/anarchist, rather than male/female.
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I usually don’t have so much free time. My husband’s been gone for weeks and we’ve been hit with one snow storm after another. Around here, everything shuts down when it snows and they often don’t even bother clearing the streets. I’ve got 3 feet piled in front of the door and it’s supposed to snow for another 13 hours. I really hate winter.
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1 – Forcing registration will cause a dramatic reduction in popularity. There are many test cases that bear this out on the internet, not just limited to gender relations blogs. Similarly, I cannot think of a single case where forcing registration increased popularity.
2 – I’m not a fan of no / minimal moderation in some cases; we do have a few posters who come in and tend to spam threads with comment after comment after comment and basically destroy discussions with their attempts to derail or extreme views (B&G, Globalman, etc.), plus flat out trolls (Lady Raine, the insane woman from Columbia who’s name I can never remember, etc.). Sometimes you do have to force people to play fair, or more likely, just take their gate pass away.
I do happen to think the quality of discussion could be improved with some intelligent moderation, but that takes time. So either don’t do it much at all (other than in truly egregious cases), or make sure you have enough hands on deck to do it properly. Don’t half-ass it with some weird forum / registration fix. Down that path lies irrelevance.
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The truth is, Reinholt, that most readers do not comment. Perhaps 5-10% of readers are regular commenters. And of those regular commenters, I think most will be OK with registration. The thing is that the comments on The Spearhead have already become a forum of sorts. When we regularly get 2-300 comment posts, the moderation starts to seriously eat into writing time. It isn’t only the trolls that cause trouble — I have to go through the spam to make sure that decent posts haven’t been filtered out.
I might be able to make it so that people don’t have to register to post in a certain forum, so maybe I’ll do that for the “discuss articles” forum and require registration for the rest.
Black&German February 6, 2010 at 05:2
but there doesn’t seem to be much discussion of real, viable solutions. Waiting for civilization to collapse, or praying for WWIII or the sharia to arrive, don’t strike me as being an appropriate first step.
———————————————————
we cannot stop a 40 year trend with some polite conversation. As far as the islamization of the west – I think it is inevitable because people are not having as many kids as they used to. The people that are having kids are the least fit. As the burden of taxation becomes unbearable, I think western nations will become much more lenient on who they let in the country simply because of demographic reasons.
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One of the things I like about this site is the comment set-up. Clean, big, and easy to read. When I read this article my heart sunk a bit. If the comments are relegated to a forum less people will comment, particularly drive-by posters who might have something quick and intelligent to add. I like the posters here, most add insightful stuff. There are a few bad apples but so what, nothing that seemed over the top (unless you’ve been getting rid of people behind the scenes that we don’t know about?).
There’s only one derailer currently that is annoying and that’s canada girl. I wouldn’t be surprised if it isn’t even a girl. I think it’s just a troll who purposely derails comments, and people keep falling for it.
It doesn’t bother me that girls comment here, but to be honest most of the posts from them I skip over. Not because I don’t have an open mind and don’t want an opposing point of view, but because I’ve already heard the female point of view for years now. Got it. I want to read what guys have to say, without feminist pc brainwashing that we usually get from the media.
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The comments will look the same. I’m going to have the guy integrate them into the posts. You’ll just have to register (once), which will be an easy process. As for the drive-by posters, you might be surprised by how many of those you never see because I have to delete them.
Truth be told, this is a necessary move due to the volume of commenting. We’re getting up to 400 comments per day. That’s just too much for me to handle, and it is starting to have an impact on the overall quality of the site. This is because a) I can’t screen them all well enough, and b) I don’t have enough time left over to create the content that draws people to the site in the first place.
I think all the articles are good. I don’t think all the comments are. On balance I think they are more likely alienate the casual reader than get him to come back. I write this as a regular commenter who probably won’t migrate to the forum even though I did register at one time. What I expect is that the comment section will becomes a battle ground with lots of in fighting and as such it is better pushed off into the long grass.
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Since my “extreme views” (being Christian and a marriage proponent) is so upsetting to the other posters, I’ll stop posting. I’ll keep blogging though.
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Welmer,
Throw me in with the guys who want to keep comments exactly as they currently are. I like the no holds barred commenting, the trolls, everything. Honestly it’s a big part of what keeps me coming back a few times per week. The comments are as awesome as the articles.
Toby- I even like the comments by Black and German, and other commentators you singled out. Maybe its frustrating to constantly respond to their comments and intrusions, but its very entertaining for people like me to read. I’m serious when I say I like the comments as much or more than the actual articles.
Those are my two cents. I don’t comment hardly at all, so maybe my opinion won’t carry as much weight. But there it is.
Jay B
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Actually Welmer, it sounds like you’re just tired of moderating the lame comments. I can respect that. What about a tip jar so we can pay someone in asia $5/hr to moderate the comments for you?
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You pretty much hit the nail on the head. Not only am I getting tired of dealing with lame comments — it also bothers me when said comments upset our readers, which has been happening increasingly frequently lately.
I really think the registration will fix this. I can have WP-United allow people to register and post comments directly on the posts, and it will look pretty much the same as it does now. The only difference will be registration, which isn’t that big of a deal for commenters, but will make a big difference in terms of how easy it is to handle spam, trolls, etc.
In fact, I can even enable a feature with WP-United where authors and commenters can start their own blogs through The Spearhead, which would be pretty cool. However, that might be starting out with a bit too much, so maybe I’ll hold off on that for now.
“People like Harry say that there is a men’s rights movement, but somehow he is actually proud that there is no visible evidence of their efforts.â€
Pardon?
“… somehow he is actually proud that there is no visible evidence of their efforts.â€
LIAR
@Welmer
Perhaps you could help the cause for men along the way by blocking devious toerags like Fifth who seem determined to undermine and belittle those of us who would like to see men’s issues taken more seriously by our societies.
I recall meeting this little twerp when he was going around telling everybody that MRAs were, basically, virgins and that, as such, they were not qualified to discuss issues relating to women.
There has been a lot of discussion (e.g. see Zed’s various screeds) about how a major problem in getting men’s issues taken seriously is that other men keep trying to undermine their efforts.
Fifth’s constant berating and belittling of the MRM is one classic example of this.
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Kathy and B&G
Stay and read of course. Perhaps say less.
Kathy, of course women have other things to do than their “feminine duties”, but there is an abundance of places where women can go, in real life or on the Internet, and talk to women only. I only know of two virtual places where men are expected to dominate the conversation, this being one of them.
If I were a genuine friend of men, and a woman, I would spend a bit of time educating the sisterhood. One thing that has genuinely puzzled me sociologically is why more people don’t make fun of feminists. They are so intrinsically ridiculous. Maybe men are frightened to, but women can always do it. Mrs Pilgrim and the Female Misogynist have done this brilliantly.
Men in general, and men here in particular, have probably had enough of advice from women.
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It’s perfectly fair.
This site is not the government, or a court of law. It is one man’s production, and whatever he chooses to do with it is ‘perfectly fair’. You are free to go and start your own blog or magazine any time you like. That’s fair.
I think the girls at feministing have a better grasp of free speech than most of us men.
Free speech is being able to start your own blog, say what you believe and not have the cops showing up at your door. One is not required to host the opinions of others, least of all those with whom one is in serious disagreement. Banning disruptive elements, even those you don’t like, is an exercise in freedom of speech, association and preservation of property value.
There is nothing stopping a banned party from starting their own blog and trying to attract an audience who can be bothered reading. That’s what freedom of speech means.
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A thought on preventing thread derailing and degeneration into personal arguments.
What makes derailment possible is the fact that the order of comments is preserved. If someone says something inflammatory, someone can respond, another can respond in turn, and the sequence of responses is maintained, allowing conversations between commenters to arise.
More often than not, the quality of running conversations is much lower than that of comments that can stand on their own without reference to others. These higher quality comments are also more likely to be on-topic.
So ending derailment is only a matter of breaking the sequence of comments, so that it becomes too difficult to recognize any conversation developing. Allowing commenters to rate comments, so that the best rise to the top has this effect.
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I like the above idea. Had never thought about comments that way.
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I would like to share my thoughts on this debate. The Spearhead is working and I would certainly give much thought before changing anything. A savvy businessman might look at this debate and say Welmer, there are good problems and bad problems, this is defiantly a good problem. A bad problem would be lack of traffic, no content, and no participation. The one thing I know for sure is that a single knee-jerk administrative move can destroy a web site rather quickly.
I would also like to add that the most destructive element in any debate involving men’s issues is the presence of a woman. This is not speculation or conjecture, this is a fact. When I go to the men’s room to go to the bathroom, I’m not expecting, nor do I wish any women to be in there. The same thing applies to the discussion of men’s issues. This movement will go nowhere until this simple fact is understood.
The lunacy of coed MRA discussion is much like having three bathrooms labeled women, coed and men. The breakdown of discussion in the coed bathroom, much like what happens to MRA sites is rather predictable. Additionally, the type of man that prefers to go in the coed bathroom is not the type of man I want contributing to any discussion because his motives are dubious at best. The only room that provides a sanctuary for thought and open discussion is the men’s room.
I personally will not endorse, participate or sponsor any MRA that sets up shop in a coed environment. To my knowledge, there are no men only discussion sites. I find that very interesting.
N.
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Rating comments works.
So does staggering them, so replies to comments show clearly, and side threads veer to the right of the screen and eventually into oblivion; people skimming for the first layer of comments often skip them.
Some mechanism of that sort would be useful.
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I am on a small men-only discussion group. There are women who lurk, but they know their place and rarely comment.
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Having comments bubble up to the top based on ratings is an excellent idea.
Also, I think that the ratings should be weighted. The opinion of, for example, Fedrz, Angry Harry or any one of your authors should have an impact at least an order of magnitude above, for example, B&G or Canadian Girl.
This will reduce the visibility and negative impact of noise, while allowing specific posters to be found, if anyone is interested.
The men won’t have to scroll past comments about menstruation, but B&G will still be able to post essays that feel like warm molasses that is full of rodent droppings, and discuss them with her white knights.
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“So does staggering them, so replies to comments show clearly, and side threads veer to the right of the screen and eventually into oblivion; people skimming for the first layer of comments often skip them.”
Great idea, too!
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Why is it ‘inevitable’?
Disagree or derail?
On the changes in comments, I can see how the huge number of comments can be overwhelming. When I started reading about a month ago (I think), it was easy to follow the comments, now it’s much more difficult. There are just so many more. My time zone puts me +14 hours EST (US) I often return to sometimes find nearly 100 new posts on a given thread. To have to moderate them all is unimaginable to someone like me who has no time to blog…it’s the reason I don’t. I can see a blog easily eating up more and more of my time for other things. I think you have to do what will work best for you, Welmer.
Why is registration a problem? Just a pain, or are there other reasons? If I like a site enough I register, it’s a fair exchange for information that I deem important to me. I’ve seen people mention that site popularity drops when registration is required, I’m just curious as to why (never having had a site of my own).
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So far,so good with the new format.
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Yeah, it’s working OK. Once people register I think most regular commenters will like it better. It’s easier to do things like post images and smilies in the forum, and the BBCode is automatically parsed into html for the comments when they show up on the main site. The only front end issues I can see are a bug with the cache (comments take a while to show up on the main site), and something about the recent comments.
Check out what’s in the Weekly Standard today!
The New Dating Game
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This new commenting system is f*cked up and way more complicated than the old one.
Change it back.
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Wow –
67 comments
- on commenting
The irony is delicious
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The “Logging In” hurdle is a crotchy, girl-like thing to require.
Even lil’ ladies at GirlGame have the nads to let loose the dogs of war.
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Why is it that hard? If you allow cookies, firefox or I.E. will automatically log in for you once you’re done registering…
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You’re ordering someone around who provides you a free service?
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You guys are on this place for free?
Welmer, we need to talk about those monthly payments you talked me into!
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I just got sick of wasting time going through the spam folder to rescue posts and moderating flame wars and trolls (some people take stuff pretty seriously, it seems). The registration is a compromise between my time and commenters’ wishes. Another issue is that I get a number of emails complaining about certain comments and commenters. I have also had an entire comment thread stolen and posted elsewhere. The comments simply got to be too much of a hassle with the primitive WordPress moderation system. Once you get to a certain level of traffic, dealing with comments becomes a job in and of itself.
Just pointing out something missed in the transition. The “Recent Comments” widget in the left-most column only seems to include comments made on articles using the pre-transition commenting system (on older posts).
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Here here chopsmith. Sick of seeing Sarah-lynn’s attention whore flame war on my old thread getting all of the recent commentary notification.
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Why is sarah-lynn still allowed to post?
Non-censorship means allowing disagreement.
But it doesn’t mean, for example, allowing a child to dominate a formal dinner party with a non-stop screaming tantrum about not liking vegetables.
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