New features added - Let us know if they get wonky

[Amelia G]

half a billion posts by 'Contributor news' has really screwed up the New Posts lists today. Please say that was a one-off..

Yes, it is a one-off, although I suppose there could be similar sets of informational posts in the future and these will continue to update, on a smaller scale, on an ongoing basis, unless people really don't like them and it seems like it would be enjoyable to have more activity in that section.


Kind of thought they would import for the dates they were written on the Blue Blood Contributors Pages, but they all came in as the date they were imported instead. I think it is useful to let folks know about what Blue Blood Contributors are up to, in addition to what they do for Blue Blood. I hope you all will enjoy this feature on an ongoing basis.

[Morning Glory]

I'd like to see a longer edit window time for posts.

I agree with the notion that like IRL once you say something then it's out there and can't be taken back, but usually for me I keep thinking of things that I want to add and the edit time runs out so I just end up making four one-sentence posts in a row.

[incog]

Yes, it is a one-off, although I suppose there could be similar sets of informational posts in the future and these will continue to update, on a smaller scale, on an ongoing basis, unless people really don't like them and it seems like it would be enjoyable to have more activity in that section.


Kind of thought they would import for the dates they were written on the Blue Blood Contributors Pages, but they all came in as the date they were imported instead. I think it is useful to let folks know about what Blue Blood Contributors are up to, in addition to what they do for Blue Blood. I hope you all will enjoy this feature on an ongoing basis.

I really dig that you and Blue Blood support your contributors even when you are promoting projects which are not specifically Blue Blood ones. You really take the high road there and I respect that.

Who doesn't like free pics of naked chicks?

[incog]

Let us know if any community features have started acting weird. We're making some additions and changes,

Actually I do have one bug to report. Most of my information from my profile appears to have disappeared.

[Rockwulf]

Actually I do have one bug to report. Most of my information from my profile appears to have disappeared.

Go ahead, call me gay again. See what else happens...

[Amelia G]

Go ahead, call me gay again. See what else happens...

Are you trying to claim you hacked his account because he pointed out that you were complaining about free photos of hot naked people? Although I have seen the funny pictures thread, incog did not even mention you in this thread and you weren't the only person who kinda did seem like you were complaining about having too many photos of naked women thrust upon you at once.

I wouldn't chalk that up to sexual orientation, of course, just the weird syndrome where people take on a negative tone about any change to a site they frequent, whether it is a horrible change or an awesome change.

I have to say this makes it very difficult for someone who is trying to give people the best possible site experience. If a yay and a boo sound so similar, it is difficult to parse out which paths to continue down for members to really enjoy the site.

[Amelia G]

Actually I do have one bug to report. Most of my information from my profile appears to have disappeared.

When you look at your public profile now, it defaults to a place for people to tag your profile with messages or love notes or testimonials or whatever. If you click the About tab, you should see all your info still there.

[Rockwulf]

Yes, that's exactly what I was doing. I was hoping for a freakout but you had to go and ruin it...

And for the record I wasn't complaining. I was just saving a quality thread.

[Amelia G]

Yes, that's exactly what I was doing. I was hoping for a freakout but you had to go and ruin it...

And for the record I wasn't complaining. I was just saving a quality thread.

I totally understand bumping threads you've been participating. Obviously I suggested doing so, and I wouldn't have, if I thought it wasn't a good idea.

The thing that is difficult is that, although I totally understand that you weren't complaining, tonally a complaint and an observation on site upgrades often sound so similar that it is really taxing on someone like me, who is just trying to make something for cool people to enjoy. It just makes it much more difficult to parse whether people are or are not enjoying something.

I mean, if, even when mostly paired with free nude photos, there are many people here who really would prefer not to be informed about what projects the people who contribute to Blue Blood are involved in . . . well, that would be disappointing to me. But, regardless, it is very difficult to read the signs from what is pretty much normal online interaction today.

[Mindgames]

I have no objection to the auto-gen posts from Contributor and Newswire, provided they come in a trickle rather than a tidal wave - I know this place is free, and BB has a balance sheet to feed, but given the rapidly-depleting number of humans in here, the spam (even when it's self-referencing and for a good cause) is more and more prominent. I won't comment on the content as I never do, but I can see why it's there.

When I joined, "new posts" would throw up several pages a day, with 30-odd people regularly arguing (mostly over the pirate vs ninja question), so half a page of ads would have been neither here nor there. 14 pages, I'd still have noticed.

I love the place and what you're doing to it, but a lot of 'corporate' boards have lost their welcoming, in-it-for-the-craic atmosphere because noticed they were always bushwhacking through ads and bots to find someone with a pulse - they leave, the ads become yet more dominant; it's a simple spiral. I don't know what the quorum for a forum has to be to keep the place feeling lived-in, but part of me is thinking we don't have it anymore, and that's a huge shame. Zillions of visits, quillions of members, but some days only 10 posts - one wonders why.

[ForrestBlack]

Ok look, this is starting to bother me. Upgrades to the functionality of this community allowed us, among many recent improvements, to import some news about the cool and interesting things people we work with do. This news was imported into a not particularly active sub-forum which it was wholly appropriate content for and that could really use some more activity. It was not disruptive to anyone unless you happen to look at new threads in one specific and unnecessary way. Nobody here was pretending to be a Nigerian Prince, nobody was saying your cock was too small and that you really should buy some more boner pills.

Amelia writes about interesting things in pop culture and you guys actually frequently complain about it. We add new features like user groups and YOU specifically set up the first user group essentially complain about communities adding features instead of deep conversation or whatever, oh and that the character limit wasn't high enough. I mean, I even agree with some of the points you made, but what the hell? PM me and say it should be higher. You know I'd fix it. This community has a much smaller problem with bots that pretty much any other forum I know of lately, and we've taken more steps to halt the flood affecting all community sites right now. Clearly someone should speak up and remind me that a few get through and survive for a couple of hours, because otherwise I've been sleeping at the switch and we're totally being overrun. Oh wait, not so much really. We hook up some news about sites people we work with are also on and people complain about that too?

There is pretty much nothing we can do that doesn't generate grousing from a handful of people I've never met, and if we don't add new stuff, you complain about that too.

Now honestly, I had kind of thought the posts would date themselves appropriately and not all come in in a block. Amelia saw that it did and suggested people bump the threads they may have been interested in that got displaced. Problem solved. BFD.

[Amelia G]

BB has a balance sheet to feed . . . I won't comment on the content as I never do, but I can see why it's there.

Yes, you got me. I promote other people's projects and I write about topics I care about because of Blue Blood's balance sheet. If you have no interest in any of the content or any of the people who contribute, uhm, what are you here for?

[Mindgames]

We add new features like user groups and YOU specifically set up the first user group essentially complain about communities adding features instead of deep conversation or whatever

Clearly the irony was wasted on you, as was the topic of the opening post. Are the new features fun? Yes. Are people using them? No. Will they eventually? Possibly, but only if there's a reason to, and I'm struggling to see one. BB has always vehemently attacked the corporate monsters like Myspce for making communities shallow, competitive and popularity-centric (and I agree with you) but then introduces a friends system and profile comments. I asked what they were meant to achieve; you didn't reply. We duly tried them out as requested, and now you complain that we did? Feel free to delete the group if you want; it's immaterial.

I like the idea of grouped-off conversations; that's how real life works after all, but you have to have groups to have conversations, and I just don't see enough people here anymore. Where and why they've gone, I have no idea, and I don't think it's the fault of BB or you two personally that it's quiet, but there's no point in turning up the music in an empty room.

Yes, you got me. I promote other people's projects and I write about topics I care about because of Blue Blood's balance sheet. If you have no interest in any of the content or any of the people who contribute, uhm, what are you here for?

Where precisely did I say I had no interest? I said I don't comment on promo content; I made no inference if I liked the photos or not. If you want to promote things, that's perfectly fine - but don't make out we're ever under the impression it's not done for commercial reasons. You promote someone; they promote you; memberships are sold; cash is made. You write about a movie release, people find it on Google, browse the site, click on links; memberships are sold; cash is made. Direct or indirect, it is what it is. We all do it and accept it, so why so tetchy?

I visit here to converse with people whose opinions interest me, be they in disagreement with mine or not. Some of them I consider friends, some bug the heck out of me, but I like the fact they're here in equal measure. I wish there were more of them, but I come back all the same. If you're intent on making out that we should really all be here for the free porn, I guess the definition of "community" needs revising.

[Amelia G]

Clearly the irony was wasted on you, as was the topic of the opening post. Are the new features fun? Yes. Are people using them? No. Will they eventually? Possibly, but only if there's a reason to, and I'm struggling to see one. BB has always vehemently attacked the corporate monsters like Myspce for making communities shallow, competitive and popularity-centric (and I agree with you) but then introduces a friends system and profile comments. I asked what they were meant to achieve; you didn't reply. We duly tried them out as requested, and now you complain that we did? Feel free to delete the group if you want; it's immaterial.

I like the idea of grouped-off conversations; that's how real life works after all, but you have to have groups to have conversations, and I just don't see enough people here anymore. Where and why they've gone, I have no idea, and I don't think it's the fault of BB or you two personally that it's quiet, but there's no point in turning up the music in an empty room.



Where precisely did I say I had no interest? I said I don't comment on promo content; I made no inference if I liked the photos or not. If you want to promote things, that's perfectly fine - but don't make out we're ever under the impression it's not done for commercial reasons. You promote someone; they promote you; memberships are sold; cash is made. You write about a movie release, people find it on Google, browse the site, click on links; memberships are sold; cash is made. Direct or indirect, it is what it is. We all do it and accept it, so why so tetchy?

I visit here to converse with people whose opinions interest me, be they in disagreement with mine or not. Some of them I consider friends, some bug the heck out of me, but I like the fact they're here in equal measure. I wish there were more of them, but I come back all the same. If you're intent on making out that we should really all be here for the free porn, I guess the definition of "community" needs revising.

You did not say you do not comment on the "promo content"; you cited both the Newswire which comes from regular article content on this site and the Contributors content which promotes outside projects by Blue Blood contributors. That is pretty much all the content, not just "promo content".

No, in point of fact, I do not manage this site to commercial motivations. I'm not going to give you free business consulting by explaining all the ways in which you are wrong, but you are disturbingly wrong in your analysis, and perhaps your faulty viewpoint is what allows you to be so inconsiderately casually cruel in your response.

I did Blue Blood, at great personal hardship on funds from day jobs for nearly a decade, before the internet came along and created more of a business model. I literally went hungry to produce something which I felt was and is culturally important. Now that there is a viable business model, for things which look similar to what I've been doing since 1992, I keep hearing people talking bout commercial motivation and excusing deplorable things as "just business". It makes me sincerely ill.

If you don't get why I might be touchy about the commercial pollution and strip mining of my art and the scene my art was created to celebrate, then I am so appalled at your cynical confusion and alien worldview that I don't think I can explain it to you.

You talk about members working to make a forum better in your ironic group. Here is an assignment for you: Every time you feel cranky that you think there are fewer people here (there aren't), start ten threads about something interesting. See how it goes.

[Mindgames]

I said that I don't comment on the content of the auto-generated ad posts. I assumed that the significant volume of "the content" on here was the actually stuff posted by your forum members, but you discount that from your definition. Nice to feel appreciated.

It appears we'll have to disagree; but if you're adamant that there's no commercial driver behind BB.net, there would be no reason to use spookylinks to forward to the sites Contributor News is altruistically promoting. A loss-leader maybe, but if you're claiming BB.net is just a personal blog site unrelated to BB.com's income stream, it's not me who needs the 'free business consulting'. I realise that with the success of BB, you're forced to be part of the corporate media world that BB set out to rebel against; but that's fine with me - you're not flipping burgers to pay the rent, and good on you for it. Neither does Rupert Murdoch, and he's equally happy to say so. He did, last time we met.

[ForrestBlack]

I said that I don't comment on the content of the auto-generated ad posts. I assumed that the significant volume of "the content" on here was the actually stuff posted by your forum members, but you discount that from your definition. Nice to feel appreciated.

There are no 'auto generated ad posts.' Every story that is also posted in the community area for discussion was actually written by somebody here and is actually about something. If I post some cute sample shots from a shoot we did with someone who probably also participates here, it isn't an 'auto-generated ad post' at all. Posts Amelia, or anyone else from Blue Blood ,made to our contributor news section about what various contributors are up to lately and where you might be able to see more are also not 'auto-generated ad posts.' Treating them as such is where some of the offense was taken.

Blue Blood is and always has been a publishing company, so we consider 'content' that which is published by Blue Blood. Participation in the community is not discounted or invalidated, but it's just not what comes to my mind when I think of Blue Blood content. I know some UGC folks think of that differently, but maybe I'm old school. Articles and news items that are written and published by Blue Blood and are offered here in our community for comment are our work and it isn't unreasonable to be struck by someone stating that they studiedly don't want to comment on it, since it is the foundation for being here.

If I say 'Hey cool, my friend Justine just had a sexy and well shot series of photos go up over on a fellow photographers site and here's a really hot image from the series I like.' Maybe you hear that differently than I mean it, but if you call me a spammer for it, I'm going to be offended. I also don't see mentioning that a friend of mine's band has a show people here might be interested in as spam. Maybe you see that as spam, it's up to you, but I'm telling you right now (again), it bothers me to be called names like that.

[ForrestBlack]

It appears we'll have to disagree; but if you're adamant that there's no commercial driver behind BB.net, there would be no reason to use spookylinks to forward to the sites Contributor News is altruistically promoting. A loss-leader maybe, but if you're claiming BB.net is just a personal blog site unrelated to BB.com's income stream, it's not me who needs the 'free business consulting'. I realise that with the success of BB, you're forced to be part of the corporate media world that BB set out to rebel against; but that's fine with me - you're not flipping burgers to pay the rent, and good on you for it. Neither does Rupert Murdoch, and he's equally happy to say so. He did, last time we met.

I can't speak for Amelia on this, but there is a long way between doing something primarily for the financial motivation and having no commercial drivers whatsoever. It's not an all or nothing concept. If you say we're doing it for the money, that's really kind of not true. If you say HA, Gotcha! Because something we link up might in some way have a commercial component, that's just silly. There are destructive market forces and non-destructive market forces. If the local punk rock record store actually sells albums, that is not intrinsically bad, in my view. Their motivation really probably wasn't 'oh boy, we're going to get crazy rich selling Left Wing Fascists LPs to the kids! Do they have distributors and employees to pay? Yes. Would it be cool if the band and the little label got some money too? Yes. But, If some mall chain contracts vastly inferior products for what they hope to be the same crowd and invest their venture capitol in undercutting and destroying the local punk rock store, that is bad. There is a huge difference between the two, but I feel like you are pointing at some financial concern and trying to make the point that they are actually kind of the same. Having some cash flow concerns and 'being in it for the money' are really different. To dismiss the overwhelmingly higher priority social and artistic motivations because you spied a financial concern is actually kind of rude, and shows what is to us a bit of an alien perspective.

But then again, I've never had a conversation with Rupert Murdoch, so what do I know. Heck, I'm not sharp enough to parse irony.

[Mindgames]

There are no 'auto generated ad posts.'

Newswire is a script. It takes the trail of an article posted on the home page and repeats it in the forum - the article is by a human, the re-post in here is not. Same for Contributor News - it pulled records from a database, which is why the posts "imported" with the same date by mistake. They were not individually typed in by hand. Maybe in future they will be, but not so far.

And no, I do not consider you a spammer - that implies you're posting to someone else's site - but I stand by my opinion that a photo in a post is a photo, but a photo accompanied by an affiliate link to paid content is by definition an advert, irrespective of who put it there. Sure you're sharing things you like because you created them, worked hard on them, and want us to see them - but Ford likes their new coupe, and wants you to see a photo of that too. Personally, I have issues with people "rating" someone based on how they look naked, hence I do not comment on the photos you or anyone else posts, either here or on other websites. It has no bearing on if I like them or not, simply that one model gets "nice!", another gets "yuck!", and IMO they're people, not products. Same reason why you and I agree this isn't the place for "what's your favorite model?" threads, and why I'm still looking for an explanation behind the friends system. If Myspce is so mainstream and shallow-minded, why copy it?

I can't speak for Amelia on this, but there is a long way between doing something primarily for the financial motivation and having no commercial drivers whatsoever. It's not an all or nothing concept.

I agree entirely - however Amelia seems determined to make out that it is indeed an all-or-nothing concept, with BB being a post-punk squatter firmly sat in the 'nothing' camp. Corporate websites = money-grabbing bastards = bad; BB = social experiment = no interest in making a bent cent = good. My point is that neither is true. Making money from something you happen to enjoy doing is perfectly acceptable, and often necessary - the creators of the genuine punk scene made millions - but purporting that the taster material on here is not in any way intended to deliver customers to paid content is insulting to our intelligence.

[ForrestBlack]

Newswire is a script. It takes the trail of an article posted on the home page and repeats it in the forum - the article is by a human, the re-post in here is not. Same for Contributor News - it pulled records from a database, which is why the posts "imported" with the same date by mistake. They were not individually typed in by hand. Maybe in future they will be, but not so far.

Articles are frequently written before they are scheduled to post, so by that logic the cron makes articles 'script' driven and somehow less human. The same tech that posts the article in one place posts the thread in the community for the responses. If I type an article by hand and post it, it appears here. If I set it not to post here, it doesn't. But that doesn't make it an automated ad post. Newswire is what I decided to call it, but I could just as easily set it to post under the author's name. Either way, it's not created by some spam machine. Newswire posts and Contributor news posts are written by us, generally about topics we care about.

And no, I do not consider you a spammer - that implies you're posting to someone else's site - but I stand by my opinion that a photo in a post is a photo, but a photo accompanied by an affiliate link to paid content is by definition an advert, irrespective of who put it there.

In today's internet, all content is essentially an advert. Your party pics on Facebook drive advertising, and they wouldn't give you the spot to upload them if it wasn't. Even sites with no advertising like Twitter are trying to get market share that they hope to turn into an advertising vehicle at some point in the future, as YouTube is doing now. Show me a place where there are pics of naked girls that isn't trying to sell you something in some way. If I grabbed other people's pics of people we worked with and didn't link back to them to support what they do, I think that would be way more wrong. I also think it doesn't effect the end user. A pic with a link looks the same as a pic without a link. Why would it tax you in the slightest? Why would you throw around derogatory terminology over something so trivial?

Sure you're sharing things you like because you created them, worked hard on them, and want us to see them - but Ford likes their new coupe, and wants you to see a photo of that too. Personally, I have issues with people "rating" someone based on how they look naked, hence I do not comment on the photos you or anyone else posts, either here or on other websites. It has no bearing on if I like them or not, simply that one model gets "nice!", another gets "yuck!", and IMO they're people, not products. Same reason why you and I agree this isn't the place for "what's your favorite model?" threads, and why I'm still looking for an explanation behind the friends system. If Myspce is so mainstream and shallow-minded, why copy it?

I don't actually feel like I know every person that signs up for this community. I make an effort to know them, but naturally, there are some I have stronger connections with. Voltaire is my friend and I'm happy to have a spot on my profile for the group of contacts I'm likely to want to keep closer track of for personal reasons. I don't object to friends lists or contacts. I have contacts on several of the social networking sites, some are closer than others. I don't think you understand my objections and I feel like you are putting knee jerk common bullet point objections in my mouth, rather than understanding my views. I don't expect every list of contacts to be really really deep and meaningful. I don't like sites like MS that get a huge install base and then impose some sort of Victorian morality and threaten to take contact with all your friends away from you if you do something they deem unseemly. I've had a LOT of friends lose their profiles over some total BS and thus I am alarmed. It's a trust issue. I don't really care that it's shallow. I'm not deep all the time either.

I agree entirely - however Amelia seems determined to make out that it is indeed an all-or-nothing concept, with BB being a post-punk squatter firmly sat in the 'nothing' camp. Corporate websites = money-grabbing bastards = bad; BB = social experiment = no interest in making a bent cent = good. My point is that neither is true. Making money from something you happen to enjoy doing is perfectly acceptable, and often necessary - the creators of the genuine punk scene made millions - but purporting that the taster material on here is not in any way intended to deliver customers to paid content is insulting to our intelligence.

See, I think you are losing me in your exaggerations. Your summary of Amelia's opinion is overblown and incorrect. Blue Blood is not intrinsically anarcho-communist 'nothing' camp whatever. You don't have to be a living in a cave wearing vegetable socks to object to larger business interests destroying culture. If I say I feel that Hot Topic killed off the stores I loved and left garbage in their place, simply pointing out that I have a ref code on a free hot pic I showed folks here does not make me the same as them. You are redefining positions as absolutes when it happens to be convenient for you. Nobody said 'taster material on here is not in any way intended to deliver customers to paid content' but it still seems rude to me if you call it automated spam.

[Mr Karl]

what's wrong with the advertising anyway..........how else are people going to know what other people are up to?

[nathanmbailey]

I just realize this, but since the change, the location part of the member info on each post is going off the hometown field of the profile instead of current location.

[Rockwulf]

So when I just logged in there was a bold "1" up on the top right like there usually is for a PM. But the menu said I had a "Visitor Message" but it wouldn't let me open in and then it disappeared. What's that about?

[ForrestBlack]

So when I just logged in there was a bold "1" up on the top right like there usually is for a PM. But the menu said I had a "Visitor Message" but it wouldn't let me open in and then it disappeared. What's that about?

It means someone wrote you a note on your profile page.
http://www.blueblood.net/boards/member.php?u=1585

[Rockwulf]

Ah, I see. Thanks.