Question New Quote Boxes

I think that the new quote boxes look really cool. That is all.

Arcanist Lupus wrote:

I think that the new quote boxes look really cool. That is all.

I agree.

overall I think things are looking pretty good... the only issue I see is in the headers for each response in 'The "Dead"' thread... the quotes seem to throw it off and it doesn't know how to handle it...

Kristin Darken wrote: You can now follow us on twitter @WhateleyAcademy and maybe make those funkyhashtag marks too...? Guess not. Not completely set up right yet, I guess.

Hmm...this just MIGHT be enough to actually make me give Twitter a chance...

NeoMagus wrote:

Kristin Darken wrote: You can now follow us on twitter @WhateleyAcademy and maybe make those funkyhashtag marks too...? Guess not. Not completely set up right yet, I guess.

Hmm...this just MIGHT be enough to actually make me give Twitter a chance...

hissssssss!

twitter is evil, it's one of those anti-social media thingys.

I firmly believe in Twitters original sales slogan:

Twits sending twits to twits.

[ it is NOT called Tweeter so they are not tweets, it is called twitter so they are the ORIGINAL name, twits. ]

Dawnfyre wrote:

NeoMagus wrote:

Kristin Darken wrote: You can now follow us on twitter @WhateleyAcademy and maybe make those funkyhashtag marks too...? Guess not. Not completely set up right yet, I guess.

Hmm...this just MIGHT be enough to actually make me give Twitter a chance...

hissssssss!

twitter is evil, it's one of those anti-social media thingys.

I firmly believe in Twitters original sales slogan:

Twits sending twits to twits.

[ it is NOT called Tweeter so they are not tweets, it is called twitter so they are the ORIGINAL name, twits. ]

I don't personally use it, but I want to point out that although most people who use Twitter are idiots, that is not a causal relationship. It's just a consequence of the fact that most people are idiots . Twitter itself is just a tool, and a useful one at that. For example, say you're running a local event and not very technically competent. It's a lot easier to use Twitter to keep people updated than it is to set up a mailing list, website, or RSS feed.

Kettlekorn wrote:

Dawnfyre wrote:

NeoMagus wrote:

Kristin Darken wrote: You can now follow us on twitter @WhateleyAcademy and maybe make those funkyhashtag marks too...? Guess not. Not completely set up right yet, I guess.

Hmm...this just MIGHT be enough to actually make me give Twitter a chance...

hissssssss!

twitter is evil, it's one of those anti-social media thingys.

I firmly believe in Twitters original sales slogan:

Twits sending twits to twits.

[ it is NOT called Tweeter so they are not tweets, it is called twitter so they are the ORIGINAL name, twits. ]

I don't personally use it, but I want to point out that although most people who use Twitter are idiots, that is not a causal relationship. It's just a consequence of the fact that most people are idiots . Twitter itself is just a tool, and a useful one at that. For example, say you're running a local event and not very technically competent. It's a lot easier to use Twitter to keep people updated than it is to set up a mailing list, website, or RSS feed.

I never suggested anything about the intelligence of twitter users, that was the owners of twitter themselves. { though I suspect they didn't think of the negative connotations of twit when they coined the slogan. }

Actually, I think that any criticism about the average quality of Twitter content can be extended to any other social network -- or large unmoderated forum/community for that matter.

Any public forum suffers from a healthy tension between freedom of speech and self-control, and that self-control is amplified by the sense of 'shame' about doing or saying something attributable and highly embarrassing or offensive. As soon as you introduce anonymity, that self-control goes out the window. Add in a seemingly-total loss of shame in the west, and the on-line media have become havens for mean, angry, vicious, anonymous bullying. Any attempt at moderating these effects tend to shut out minority speech (heckler's veto), especially dissenting speech. Add in a seemingly insurmountable sense of fragile egos, and we end up with a vast horde of people who are terrified of any thoughts or ideas that they don't agree, with and feel a sense of entitlement to not be offended. Social media - the instant ability to find views consistent with one's own, seem to reinforce this fear of thoughtful discourse.

IMHO, social media are greatly contributing to inability to be sociable with others.

elrodw wrote: Any public forum suffers from a healthy tension between freedom of speech and self-control, and that self-control is amplified by the sense of 'shame' about doing or saying something attributable and highly embarrassing or offensive. As soon as you introduce anonymity, that self-control goes out the window. Add in a seemingly-total loss of shame in the west, and the on-line media have become havens for mean, angry, vicious, anonymous bullying. Any attempt at moderating these effects tend to shut out minority speech (heckler's veto), especially dissenting speech. Add in a seemingly insurmountable sense of fragile egos, and we end up with a vast horde of people who are terrified of any thoughts or ideas that they don't agree, with and feel a sense of entitlement to not be offended. Social media - the instant ability to find views consistent with one's own, seem to reinforce this fear of thoughtful discourse.

IMHO, social media are greatly contributing to inability to be sociable with others.

That's all wrong. And the grammar and spelling are atrocious. And he smells funny because he doesn't bathe often.

Valentine wrote: That's all wrong. And the grammar and spelling are atrocious. And he smells funny because he doesn't bathe often.

Darn, I forgot the Hitler/NAZI references.

elrodw wrote: IMHO, social media are greatly contributing to inability to be sociable with others.

A psychologist's statement I heard about:
Social media should be called anti-social media. People are so caught up in their devices they ignore those they are with in person.


which is why I call all of them anti-social media.
I figure if I'm having a coffee and visiting with someone, then we should be paying attention to each other. As soon as the 'smart' phone comes out for social media, end of visit and I'm gone.

Kristin Darken wrote: Consider that one of the most common themes among super hero (villain) stories is the idea that the mask hides identity and allows the paranormal to act without consequence.

yet in reality, with the root nameservers ( dns servers ) for the entire internet being controlled by the NSA, there is zero real anonymity online.
The NSA could easily put real names to every online post ( including twitter feeds )
because of financial regulations around billing, your ISP actually has to track everything you do and keep full records for 7 years or they are in violation of financial regulations.

Same goes for the telephone usage, both the NSA monitoring and the telco records because of financial regulations.
( digital phone calls just make the tapping of calls easier for the NSA, the actual calls are voip even for landlines. )


And these records apply globally for billing. Do you really think any government would not be monitoring all communication channels within their borders? So the whole government agency tapping online posts and phone calls also applies globally., the only reason to single out the USA is the nameservers allow them to monitor everything, not just those inside the US borders.

Do you blame Ford when somebody drives like an idiot? If somebody ignores you for social media, it's because they're a rude asshole, not because social media is evil. Misplacing the blame is not going to help the situation.

Kettlekorn wrote: Do you blame Ford when somebody drives like an idiot? If somebody ignores you for social media, it's because they're a rude asshole, not because social media is evil. Misplacing the blame is not going to help the situation.

The problem isn't that some people are rude - there have always been rude assholes. The problem is that social media is so easy and ubiquitous that it's easy to neglect learning and polishing interpersonal skills and actually taking the time to interact with people as opposed to getting an instant 'social media gratification' fix. I have read about some studies suggesting (at least suggesting - that's not my field) that getting 'likes' on social media platforms has the same effect on the brain as other addictive behaviors. That it shortens attention span. That staying in a 'selective' community of like-minded individuals damages the ability to deal with differing opinions.

For some old-timers perspective on online misbehavior, look up the meaning of "eternal september."

But, it's funny, I make my living in IT and I'm somewhat of a luddite regarding social media and intrusive phone stuff.
First thing I do with a new phone, is to uninstall/deactivate Facebook. It not only is intrusive and snoopy, it's also a storage hog. I hardly ever (maybe once a month) open the Twitter and GooglePlus apps. I don't even have Instagram, Pinterest or Snapchat accounts.
I loathe receiving business e-mails on my phone since before I actually had the capability. Back in the dark ages when Blackberrys were all the rage (except for me; I had a Nokia feature phone and a Palm PDA), it was fairly common for a customer to call me with some variation of this dialogue:
"Why didn't you answer my e-mail?"
"What e-mail?"
"The one I sent you three minutes ago."
"Sorry, I'm at another customer. Is it urgent? If it can wait, I'll look at it when I go back to the office."
"All right, I guess it can wait. But... don't you get e-mail on your phone?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"That's why."
In my experience, customers only send e-mails about stuff that's low priority. If it's urgent, they will call.
But since they are sitting at their desks and e-mail is easy to send, they somehow assume that I am sitting at my desk just waiting for their e-mail. So they start demanding instant response for trivial stuff -- unless you educate them with a clue-by-four. Back in prehistory, before cell phones became affordable, a friend of mine received an "URGENT CALL CUSTOMER X" message on his pager. He was driving on the fast lane of a thoroughfare. He had to leave the avenue, look for a payphone, park the car and call the guy to find out what was the emergency... only to find out that the guy wanted to know how to make text bold in Word.
When I got my first smartphone, I was pretty upfront that I would NOT receive business e-mails on that phone. I have several e-mail accounts for various purposes; the only one I use on my phone is a very low-traffic one which I give out only to family and close friends.
The only thing that maybe-sorta counts as a "social network" I use on my phone is WhatsApp.

Looks like the New Quote Boxes are gone... along with the Icons on the forum topics...

DanZilla wrote: Looks like the New Quote Boxes are gone... along with the Icons on the forum topics...

Looks like the icons are back... YAY... but the quote boxes we have now are a bit hard to parse when they're nested.

There's some instability going on. Possible a system upgrade that is only halfway done. I just had to force-reload to get a listing of the topics... and another user was complaining of some new pull-downs that nobody else was seeing.