Open Mic Thread: Tell us your likes and dislikes of P&N

[randomrogue]

idontcare might I suggest pulling a page from "How to catch a predator?" You should be able to clean out the really bad trolls and people who personally attack or spew gibberish in less than a week.

On a possibly more serious note how about a sticky outlining what a fallacy is and why we really don't want to see every thread use them.

 

[shiner]

Limit dmcowen674, Anarchist420, Patranus and Spidey to 1 thread each per day.

That should be a good start....

 

[randomrogue]

Limit dmcowen674, Anarchist420, Patranus and Spidey to 1 thread each per day.

That should be a good start....

http://forums.anandtech.com/profile.php?do=ignorelist

 

[Karl Agathon]

http://forums.anandtech.com/profile.php?do=ignorelist

I for one, hate to put anyone on an ignore list. Unfortunately, Sometimes its necessary, and actually a good thing to have available.

 

[Steeplerot]

from time to time the forum dusts off and trots out some persona's to bring it back to the left. But those incidents are few and short-lived. Once you recognize them for what they are, you can learn to live with them. After all, it's an internet forum - why so serious?

Since you called me out before on this lets squash it now,
I have consistently posted here for 10 years and lurked on a techies friends account since 99 or so. Trust me, a few mods have gone through a lot of hoops to get rid of my account, sometimes unfairly, sometimes I push my luck. If you notice my posting style high on edits you should have been able to pick this up.

Why must everything be some conspiracy to some people?

 

[Dr. Zaus]

ArsTechnica does PnN very well.

 

[Steeplerot]

My 2 cents on moderation here? Past few years it has gone to shit, personal attacks being banworthy used to be enforced (although its ALWAYS been blatently biased to let some get away with it. Whoever does the the double standard is still in effect or not dealt with at all, I dont know if its favortism or plain laziness..whatever its cliquey inner politics that go along with AT)

The lame part is this place has become the techie stormfront, muslims, minorities and women are open season, this to me excludes posters from joining in creating a hostile enviroment. A failed strategy for open debate. By letting haters have free reign here you are stifling more rational people you would want posting. In effect stifling actual free speech. Inclusiveness always wins out over a few showoff haters. But thats me.

The before mentioned logical fallacies be banworthy would be a dream come true. But I am not counting on it, mods are only human.

 

[shortylickens]

My 2 cents on moderation here? Past few years it has gone to shit, personal attacks being banworthy used to be enforced (although its ALWAYS been blatently biased to let some get away with it blatently. Whoever does the the double standard is still in effect or not dealt with at all, I dont know if its favortism or plain laziness..whatever its cliquey politics that go along with AT)

The lame part is this place has become the techie stormfront, muslims, minorities and women are open season, this to me excludes posters from joining in creating a hostile enviroment. A failed strategy for open debate. By letting haters have free reign here you are stifling more rational people you would wants actual free speech. To me inclusiveness always wins our over a few showoff haters. But thats me.

The before mentioned logical fallacies be banworthy would be a dream come true. But I am not counting on it, mods are only human.

Gee thats funny cuz from my perspective the mods are overly protective of minorities and women on this forum. You say something that an ultra-sensitive person might possibly take offense to and you can be assured of banning.

 

[randomrogue]

Can we all just agree that Shorty needs to change his avatar back?

 

[Steeplerot]

Gee thats funny cuz from my perspective the mods are overly protective of minorities and women on this forum. You say something that an ultra-sensitive person might possibly take offense to and you can be assured of banning.

Lot of other people notice it also, even in this thread. Personally I find people who use terms like "overly sensitive" to be suspect, since it is a obvious rationalization. Maybe the bar for you is set lower. Still does not change my opinion and others.

 

[spittledip]

My 2 cents on moderation here? Past few years it has gone to shit, personal attacks being banworthy used to be enforced (although its ALWAYS been blatently biased to let some get away with it. Whoever does the the double standard is still in effect or not dealt with at all, I dont know if its favortism or plain laziness..whatever its cliquey inner politics that go along with AT)

Yes, I have also noticed that banning for personal attacks has become lax since I first joined. People used to get busted for it. Now personal attacks are almost an expected part of dialogs in P&N. Sad.

 

[sandorski]

ArsTechnica does PnN very well.

Yup.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

I love this sub-forum. Personal attacks have always been common here (at least since 2004/2005) and limiting moderation to over-the-top offenses is the best way to ensure no one complains about bias or whatever. Interlacing posts with 'idiot', 'liar', etc gives this place so much flavor.

 

[etrigan420]

Can we all just agree that Shorty needs to change his avatar back?

Jesus yes.

I'm one of the "name calling" offenders. Not proud of it...but there it is. It's usually Ambien-induced, if that matters.

I'm actually kind of surprised that I haven't received a vacation for it.

I also tend to "work blue", for lack of a better term. It is what it is.

As far as moderation of this forum goes, I don't really think that you could do anything "better", per se. Some people can't see the forest for the trees, but no amount of moderation is going to solve that.

I can't remember seeing something in a post and saying to myself "That mother fucker (woops) needs some Moderation"

I'd say the mods are worth exactly what Anand is paying you. :awe:

 

[Whiskey16]

Gee thats funny cuz from my perspective the mods are overly protective of minorities and women on this forum.

No, certainly not upon generalised and far too regular condemnation through to calls for violence upon Muslims.

The Stormfront analogy is quite apt.

This is an overtly US-centric site, and may sadly reflect the common bigotry of the day in that society. Properly, threads/posts demeaning of blacks and Jews often get quickly handled by moderation, but similar or even more violent attacks upon Muslims/Arabs/Palestinians get a free pass and thereby encourage the proliferation of Anders Breivik type extremist views and manifesto.

As has been said, fairly intelligent and moderate lurkers see that refuse and correctly choose to disassociate participation with a forum society that operates at such an immorally low level.

 

[Dr. Zaus]

Can we all just agree that Shorty needs to change his avatar back?

Yes.


I'd like to note that I learned to interact in writing from this forum; This community, since 98, has helped me develop my writing and thinking abilities to the point that I've gone from not being able to communicate in writing to scoring in the 98th percentile on the verbal section of the GMAT and 5.5/6 in the essay section: despite having quoted the lyrics to the fresh-prince's opening song.

I had intense positions proffered by ridiculous false ideas. I defended my idiotic point of view to the hilt and I even posted a number of inflammatory self-aggrandizing (and insulting) threads. Despite this, I wasn't unreasonable: just lied to and un-wanting to change my thoughts.

I am much more moderate and thoughtful now; even if I fail to see every point. Some points are, in fact, idiotic: Like some dumb-shit that said she supported abortion because she thought animals >> people. Fuck her. (successive troll, i'm still talking about it) In cases like that: strong language and personal insults are just about the only thing that can make clear the intensity of the stupidity of the assumptions underlying the argument.

For the most part though I think that we'd see a lot less flaming if we could create a dynamic system of up-down votes that allows the user to choose whom they agree with when it comes to up-down votes and thus have a personal "cut off".

But i'm just rambling now; honestly: using the arstechnica model would be a fine move.

 

[Idontcare]

I'll pull together a pareto of the feedback in here.

I'm curious on thoughts about Paul Graham's hierarchy of disagreement.

From the feedback in this thread, it sounds like folks are happy with all tiers of disagreement, including the generally accepted as unproductive "DH0" tier.

 

[Lemon law]

I too am controversial and do not per say adhere to popular main stream Views. I don't post on P&N to win popularity contests, I post in the hope that can influence forum opinion, and failing that, at least be the voice of reason that is proved right in the end. Meanwhile, anyone in my position has to have a thick skin, if I whimper out anytime questioned my patriotism to my country which is the USA, for calling a spade a spade, I would be a basket case by now.

But when some unnamed poster questioned my ancestry and accused me of posting from my condominium in Gaza, on absolutely an imaginary basis, I would hope forum moderators do some fact checking. and expose those rather obvious and unfounded lies.

Meanwhile I keep on undeterred, like I say, you have to have thick skin to post on P&N. While I still hope forum moderators would act against those who tell total baseless lies.
We are all entitled to our own opinion but I would hope forum moderators would draw some lines at viscous posters who attack other posters character based totally on their imaginary baseless lies.

So let me go on record once again, I am a third generation American with almost pure Scandinavian ancestry, I do not have a drop of Palestinian blood in me, and no I don't own a condominium is Gaza. But after some un named posters has leveled that attack against me countless times, why should I not expect endless repeats that I can simply best ignore.

But we are talking about improving the quality of Anand tech here, and don't moderators have a role in stopping baseless and imaginary lies and character assignation acts that will marginally improve the quality of discourse on this forum.

 

[JEDIYoda]

No, certainly not upon generalised and far too regular condemnation through to calls for violence upon Muslims.

If you would open your mind and think about it...you would see that their is a very good reason most of us do NOT believe that they desire to get along with others and that they want to live in harmony obeying the rules and laws in the country that they are living in....

 

[randomrogue]

I don't think this is the right thread to be discussing your feelings about Muslims. You're also painting with a broad stroke brush.

Most people will probably accept differing view points if you just argue them correctly. Craig for example has some very strong opinions but he argues them intelligently. That's how it's done. You don't have to agree with everything he says but you can respect the way he comes at you with charts, links, and a head on his shoulders.

If you come at me with fallacies or just random predictions *cough* I am going to put you on ignore because all you do is make me stupid trying to debate with you.

Don't argue with idiots. They'll drag you down to their level and beat you...
...with experience.

 

[shortylickens]

Lot of other people notice it also, even in this thread. Personally I find people who use terms like "overly sensitive" to be suspect, since it is a obvious rationalization. Maybe the bar for you is set lower. Still does not change my opinion and others.

Nope, thats something you just wanna believe so you applied to me.
I am not rationalizing anything. I am speaking from observation, particularly the social forums, not from getting harassed or harassing anyone else.

 

[Steeplerot]

Troublemakers who cry racism are quite rare and easily spotted a mile away, racist folks who want to use such fallacies to act asses are a dime a dozen, it is poorly thought out south park logic and stinks of white (or status quo) privilege. I dont know you but hyper-defensive people about racism are generally defending the indefensable.

 

[Doppel]

I think moderation here works pretty well overall. It appears no topic cannot be discussed and most people are at least somewhat respectful of each other. In my estimation of regular posters here there are only 1-2 who should outright be forbid from interacting in P&N due to their injurious impact. Even among the others who typically encourage fury or debate with their threads, there can be some value to them.

My main complaint, which I've already brought to the mods, is that if an individual has a long history of trolling and/or lying, they should be held accountable for it. Giving them a pass on trolling/lying simply because there is a general consensus among moderators that such an individual's reality is so skewed they don't realize they are lying does not constitute effective policy.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

I think vague thread titles on current news items need to be at least a warnable offense or actively changed by mods. The obvious thing they lead to are reposts, but they also can result people missing relevant topics, which I think is kind of a big deal in a news-centric forum. I don't just use this forum to rant or argue, given the range of users it's a pretty good source of info from all over the spectrum.

 

[shortylickens]

I think vague thread titles on current news items need to be at least a warnable offense or actively changed by mods. The obvious thing they lead to are reposts, but they also can result people missing relevant topics, which I think is kind of a big deal in a news-centric forum. I don't just use this forum to rant or argue, given the range of users it's a pretty good source of info from all over the spectrum.

Read, dont post.
You'll get the full experience and not risk angering mods or other members.
Also, it saves time, and hair follicles.