I believe many people who blog here feel that the forums are merely an extension of the blog-space of JU; I do, anyway. I don't make "forum posts" here, I make blog entries. They just happen to show up in the format of a forum for interface purposes...

That's the way I see it too, but in practice I don't think it's the reality. Take for instance the stated differences of criteria for moderating blogs versus moderating the forums. (?!) Also the no longer allowing anon commenting, something I feel is ridiculous for a blog site but supposedly done so we're not a "backdoor" to other Stardock forums. (?!?! I mean, fine, exclude those comments on the other sites -- not a great coding feat -- but keep in mind this is a freaking blog site! I've thought of several ways around it to give my anon users the ability to comment, but I think I'd get in a crap load of trouble, so I haven't.)

When I first came here, I didn't post to the forums at all. It didn't take long to realize that was the quick route to oblivion. (If they'd give me anon posting back, I'd do it anyway, but it's not an option.)

I'm not happy about the nature of it, but I already hitched my blogging wagon to the JU star. I hope it doesn't get SO schizoid I have to change that. (Though the anon posting thing made it pretty damn close.)

But I'm unconvinced that forum replies getting around a Blacklist is an intended feature of the forum layout.

You also can't set an article to "no comments" at the same time it's posted to the forums, people will be able to comment anyway. That's intentional, but there should be a warning, or the radio button not activated if "forums" is active, or something.

I have to say Gene, I miss the anon comments, they added a lot of spice to the blog site, opened the door for far more opinions, at the moment you read the same peoples opinions over and over.....bring back the anon commenting please.

No comments on the forums does not work, I did that before I was confined and I black listed individuals, none of it worked, they could still access from the forums and when you marked it so it was private, you get accused of deleting posts, so sometimes you just cannot win, it is a case of just grin bare it and shut up, zip the mouth closed and ignore.

As for Weeping going ape on your blog Pseudo - pay no mind, ignore or delete, that is what I have been told to do if I get into the same situation again.

Bring back the anon comments - yes I think we should start a petition blog hahaha who is up for that??????

(Does my third post in a row indicate how irked I am about this? Have I gone all BakerStreet, or what?)

(and sometimes other possibly reltated forums, to the consternation of those forums' regulars).

I'd be very happy NOT to have my articles syndicated to other forums. How about a radio button for THAT option? As it is I have to avoid posting in certain categories because I don't want my articles going to certain other systems (read "WhineCustomize"). It sure would be nice to be able to write on certain topics or to not have to post to inappropriate categories just to avoid a confederacy of dunces.

yes I think we should start a petition blog hahaha who is up for that??????

I follow the adage "When you're in someone else's ballpark you have to play by their rules." But that doesn't mean I don't occasionally grumble when the ump isn't looking.

Yep we eat the free ice cream then still have the audacity to moan about it! hahahah oh dear!

As I have said before though, JU is a shop front in some ways for Stardock, bloggers come here to blog & anons to read and comment - the anons see Stardock and follow the links and hey presto they may have another customer....so it follows that JU should be up and running bug free? This is my humble opinion of course.

Sometimes the moans and criticisms are meant well and not always just ungratefulness.

1. Blacklisting not functioning properly if posting via the forums is a bug, an unintended consequence of the forum system upgrades we've made in the past year. We know it's a bug, we're going to have someone working on JU issues in the next few months and this is one of the problems we hope to address.

2. Anonymous comments were largely dropped to eliminate spammers and people promoting piracy. The biggest issue, as stated was that people were using the JU forums that cross-post to multiple sites as a way to get that content to those sites that normally require a login. The cross-pollination of certain categories across the stardock sites is very intentional and it is more work to create exemptions for JoeUser originated posts than is reasonable for a site with no income of its own.

3. "Don't Post This to the Forums" is a feature that used to work as well, but again due to forum system upgrades, the feature was broken. Again, JU is getting some love in the coming months and this is something that will hopefully be addressed.

The trade-off however is that items not syndicated to the forums wouldn't show up in that "recent threads" list below newest articles. You'd lose a lot of exposure, which for some is fine, but if you're here because of the increased readership and comments, that would drastically drop off if you removed your articles from the forums.

The trade-off however is that items not syndicated to the forums wouldn't show up in that "recent threads" list below newest articles. You'd lose a lot of exposure, which for some is fine, but if you're here because of the increased readership and comments, that would drastically drop off if you removed your articles from the forums.

Yes, I agree with Zooba here, there would be less exposure to your blog site. I found the anon users that were spammers annoying and sometimes they were very rude. One shouldn't be able to post and ridicule annonymously. I think it should continue to remain up to the blogger whether they choose to have their articles appear on the Forums or only their blog site. I don't believe this should be taken away. Yes, having your cake and eating it so to speak, but isn't that part of the reason we blog?

I for one like the fact that blacklisting doesn't work on articles posted to the forums, and I've never thought that an article posted to the public forum should be accepted with commenting disabled. If you neither want nor can handle comments, the article has no business on the forums in the first place.

For too many years a small handful of asshats have abused the blacklist feature, throwing stones at those who could not reply. This did more to fan flame wars than I think many people realize, because the only option then available if one wanted to respond to allegations, defend against attacks, offer clarification, or simply tell the attacker to piss off was to write an article in response.

This drew more people into conflicts that very well may have been contained to the thread that started it--because while we share many readers, each of us has a slightly different core. It's no secret that trudy and I dislike each other, for example, yet we each have a different set of 'regulars.' If she says something crappy about me on one of her threads, only her 'base' is going to see it. However, if I am unable to respond at the scene and start my own thread....well....now her readers AND mine are exposed to the unpleasantness.

Since many of my regulars are also victims of trudy's blacklist, some of them will then post their own thoughts on it...on THEIR blogs...and on it goes.

I'm sure jennifer could cite some examples too, just prior to her (temporary) exile, I think there were a good dozen threads active in regards to the situation--it was all over JU and few regulars managed to remain uninvolved. The fight might have been contained on a single thread if so many hadn't been blacklisted and unable to respond to that thread.

If we are tripping down JU Wish List Lane, I'd prefer to see the blacklist feature disabled on ALL forum posts...we seem to get along better as a whole and the fights that have occurred since the BL took a shit have been short-lived and pretty much confined to where they started, instead of spilling over onto unrelated, third-party threads or generating spin-off flames.

If you want to talk trash about someone where they CAN'T respond, those threads shouldn't be posted to the forums to begin with, and if confined to your own blog they won't get as much exposure--exposure they don't deserve in the first place.

On the other hand, if JU could just provide us with an 'ignore user' feature (like SO many other forum sites out there do) none of this would be an issue at all. I occasionally use voodoochat and they have a really cool feature in addition to 'ignore.' It's called 'shun' and it prevents the other user from seeing anything YOU post as well. That way, not only can you prevent their words from reaching you, you can make sure yours don't reach them, so they've got nothing to talk about.

Does it cause a little confusion for the shunned individual? Haha, yeah. So what. But what it really does is put every tool possible in the hands of the user, allowing them to remove annoying or infuriating individuals from their chat experience, and with the double-whammy of the 'shun' feature, it removes you from theirs, too, which eliminates 'stalking.'

The only way to 'shun' an individual presently involves setting up a 'custom audience' which is a royal pain in the ass if you only want to prevent 2 or 3 people from reading your blog. It should be set up the other way around, with some way to exclude a couple of people instead of building a custom audience of hundreds just to keep them out.

As far as the anon comments go, good riddance. JU is free and only takes a few minutes to join. If a person is too lazy or too busy or too stupid to figure that out, is their commentary really going to add that much in the first place? I've really enjoyed not being blindsided by regulars launching attacks as anons because they're huge pussies and wouldn't dare say the things they would as anons.

(above post by LW....and Gene, if you're reading this thread and still need a better computer, email me @ little_whip_@ hotmail.

Gideon has something for ya.

Reply By: Zoomba

Re: Blacklisting - at least the delete button works sometimes.

Re: Blacklisting - at least the delete button works sometimes

 

And I feel no compunction about using it for folks on the blacklist. Delete early and often.

and Gene, if you're reading this thread and still need a better computer, email me @ little_whip_@ hotmail. Gideon has something for ya.

Okay, I'll bite. (Not literally, of course.... I only nibble.)

E-mail coming.