Can we have a thread here to discuss the current lounge rules?

[zephyr]

implying other members are pedophiles

If this certain member is the certain member I think it is he himself implied it about himself a fair while ago in SLR. Cant for the life of me remember when exactly but it was back when 1234 was still a mod of Aussie, whenever that was.

 

[Beatlebot]

I hope you're not referring to me with that comment on quietly bitching there TLB. I've always been very vocal and straight-forward about problems I've had with any aspect of BL over the years :D I certainly don't have any hidden agenda.

zephyr: I was not referring to that incident. Someone wants to admit they're a pedophile then I assume that they are willing to deal with the consequences.

 

[zephyr]

^ yeah, just saying that its unlikely anyone would jump out of the blue and accuse another bluelighter of pedophilia without any prior admittance from that bluelighter.

 

[Beatlebot]

Yes, extremely unlikely.

 

[L2R]

Thanks liz for addressing your concerns in this manner. You've instigated some great discussion about the direction of the lounge and i appreciate it.

The lounge has been a danger ground for as long as i can remember, but the danger only lay only where people broke the unspoken rules and etiquette. Sure they were flamed to ridiculous proportions but there was always a reason.

Eventually the assrapes of perpetually increasing severity was questioned and this higher ups decided that we want to have a nicer bluelight. The staff were instructed to be a bit more lenient towards members.

Whilst this had much merit, it unfortunately resulted in a "boiling frog" effect, where the limits were constantly tested by the members. These limits stretched slowly over time to evetuate where they are now.

The water is about to boil and the lounge as well as bluelight as a whole will suffer the consequences of reduced readership if it's let to continue.


This crackdown is not above the law of reason
Nobody is going to get banned without being sufficently warned first. And each specific warning can be disputed.

I hope this statement, which is a concise version of what is in the rules, abates any concerns with recent staff decisions.

 

[plurMONSTER]

^
Very well said, L2R.

 

[randycaver]

The lounge has been a danger ground for as long as i can remember

Eventually the assrapes of perpetually increasing severity was questioned and this higher ups decided that we want to have a nicer bluelight. The staff were instructed to be a bit more lenient towards members.

imho -

danger zone? lol how is it a danger zone?

what assrapes of perpetually increasing severity? Examples?

i have felt that the presence of lounge mods is contrived. i don't feel much true participation since finder left. l2r, you were more enjoyable posting fun paint threads, etc. that's not a snarky insult - i just felt you were more involved and you actually liked the participants.. it just seems to me that all the lounge mods do anymore is restart threads.

i just don't feel the same camaraderie or fun.

'be the change you wish to see' i don't really see the lounge mods doing that.

it seems like the lounge has already suffered a reduced readership but i wouldn't entirely blame the users. i'd blame the mods. sometimes when people don't entirely like the current leadership, they do all they can to antagonize them. myself included. when i saw myself doing that more often - i've stopped posting. regardless of whether i'm missed or not, it doesn't matter to me, but it has lost the fun it once had.. it seems to only be entertaining to a select few.

your statement l2r about the members testing the limits - if it's what the members want, why not let them have it? why restrict it to what only 3 (now 4) people desire? that, or just relax a bit.

all this discussion makes the lounge *that* much more boring to me now. i've been around the lounge for 5+ years.. and that makes me sad. i'm no 'omg bl was better bak in da day' because i never relied on it for my ego, but i used to enjoy coming home from work/school and seeing what random thing happened in the lounge or what silly drama there was to indulge in. now that's not permitted. oh noes.

you can blame it on overplayed memes, but i think there's a lot more to it than that. i know how it is.. when you become a lounge mod you simply become a lot less fun. it's happened to all of you. no offense.

good luck fengtau.

 

[m885]

Eventually the assrapes of perpetually increasing severity was questioned and this higher ups decided that we want to have a nicer bluelight. The staff were instructed to be a bit more lenient towards members.

What increasing severity off assrapings? I always thought the post at your own risk theme worked. If you're offended, don't go in the forum- pretty simple stuff.

 

[L2R]

imho -

danger zone? lol how is it a danger zone?

what assrapes of perpetually increasing severity? Examples?

I was speaking in generalities which explain the "friendly" approach that was taken by the administration a while ago.

l2r, you were more enjoyable posting fun paint threads, etc. that's not a snarky insult - i just felt you were more involved and you actually liked the participants.. ....

i just don't feel the same camaraderie or fun.

Believe me, i know what you mean.

'be the change you wish to see' i don't really see the lounge mods doing that.

I really try.
The contest, the parody threads and the happiness poll have all been vein attempts to get quality participation.
Besides, the above being in the rules isn't about the mods. As a mod that is implied in our resposibilities. It's more of a reminder to the users to make the forum what they want.
But when a select few regular users piss on everything that is attempted, there is little motivating others to participate.

i'd blame the mods. sometimes when people don't entirely like the current leadership, they do all they can to antagonize them. myself included. when i saw myself doing that more often - i've stopped posting.

Got any suggestions?

your statement l2r about the members testing the limits - if it's what the members want, why not let them have it? why restrict it to what only 3 (now 4) people desire? that, or just relax a bit.

We have. And that is precisely the reason our readership is declined.

all this discussion makes the lounge *that* much more boring to me now. i've been around the lounge for 5+ years.. and that makes me sad. i'm no 'omg bl was better bak in da day' because i never relied on it for my ego, but i used to enjoy coming home from work/school and seeing what random thing happened in the lounge or what silly drama there was to indulge in. now that's not permitted. oh noes.

Not true at all. Drama is fine.

you can blame it on overplayed memes, but i think there's a lot more to it than that.

I really think it is. And many others have been complaining about them for months.

i know how it is.. when you become a lounge mod you simply become a lot less fun. it's happened to all of you. no offense.

no worries. thanks arsey.

 

[5-HT2]

IJ is also correct, in that the needs that the LOUNGE have met has been redefined over the years as serious subjects got split out and given their own forum. Keep taking the quality out and eventually you are left with the least desirable, least productive threads all in one place and it *does* give the forum a worse image. This, I think, has been an unintentional effect of splitting out the other material.

Quoted for emphasis; I was going to bring this up before IJ typed the words off my keyboard .

The effort at this point is to stop the hemmoraging of intellect, and start trying to push the content back into a friendlier and more stimulating place than it has become.

I think hemmorhaging of intellect is unavoidable when the number of community forums is steadily growing, as it has been for a while.

Defining that trolling, or unacceptable behaviour from a balance of 4 diverse perspectives, with additional input from Sr. Staff, in an effort to create consistency - wouldn't that be a good thing? Or is there a better answer?

It could be a good thing if done correctly. This is a hard problem, and I don't know what a good answer is.

Stronger leadership is the key, something that *has* been lacking over time in a lot of respects, but as it is coming forth now - would any of you support it? Criticize it and offer better or at least alternative suggestions? Or quietly bitch on the sidelines as many have done during the 'declining years'?

"Stronger" leadership does not mean that it must be ham-fisted. I feel that at times, some mods may have been overly confrontational in trying to make the Lounge a kinder, gentler place. Attacking people for "negativity" or for kicking a dead horse is not the most diplomatic route, nor does it enhance the credibility of a staff member who claims they just want to promote PLUR.

I have no real suggestions or anything to resolve any issues (not necessary anyway) but there has been past cases of singling out individuals who are maybe crossing the line as far as posting style is concerned who then become trolls and end up fucking up the place even further as "revenge for being treated unfairly/ harshly" ie GL, AF etc etc. I dont think the rules as they are stated will fix the issue, it might make things worse.

I 100% agree with everything Liz said in this comment, as I have repeatedly stated this point of view before.

I guess the population was big enough back then to not have the hassle of having to attract new members.

Hasn't the population been growing steadily? I wasn't aware of any decline in active membership on BL.

'The Lounge' - wouldn't you want to be comfortable there? Wouldn't a new member expect to make light social chatter and new friends?

Perhaps, if they didn't lurk first to check out the forum. Besides, it's a general cultural characteristic of most internet communities that n00bs who don't tread carefully may get bitten by more senior members.

the lounge as well as bluelight as a whole will suffer the consequences of reduced readership if it's let to continue.

I'm really tired of assertions implying that BL and its continuing health revolves around the social forums. There is a huge userbase who never or barely goes into the social forums, and really could care less about them. If the social forums disappeared tomorrow, the drug forums would still do fine. I also question the assertion that The Lounge is somehow essential in attracting new members. In general, I think that what most new BL members expect from BL is to get their questions about drugs answered and participate in educational discussion, not to do social networking. Thus, I doubt they would be driven away from BL by the harshness of the Lounge. Certainly the social forums play an important role in retaining members who may have gotten bored/jaded with the recurrent nature of topics in the drug forums (such as myself at one point), but any new member that is attracted to BL because of the Lounge probably, as Beatlebot said, doesn't have much to contribute to the other forums anyway.

 

[BA]

randycaver said a lot of the same things I feel - but just haven't said.

It seems like a handful of people (non lounge mode) are running rough shot over the forum and it makes it un-enjoyable for so many. As it is now, probably about 3/4 of the "regulars" there are so obnoxious it makes me not even want to view the forum. I know for 98% of the people that's probably a good thing - but it's just not fun like it used to be.

I know what randycaver means about coming home from class and checking out the lounge to see what funny stuff was posted that day, or what drama was stirred. Now I rarely check it out because I already know it's going to be more stupid crap by the same annoying people.



(and this is not a shot at any of the lounge mods either. Actually, I dont even know who the lounge mods are these days and I had to go look them up.)

 

[L2R]

5-HT2, i take back that assertion.

RC & BA,
As previous long time lounge contributors, is the current problem any different to the many other periods when the mods at the time had difficulty handling the newer users and tightened their grips enough to make some users complain about how much better the lounge was previously? I really can't tell.

 

[BA]

I really don't remember it ever being this unappealing.

The mods can only carry a forum so far, it's the members who account for a lot of the posts.

 

[L2R]

i feel the same way.

tell you what. get as many people you know from the old lounge and bring em back. I call open season assrapings on all the current self redundant trolls.

come on BA, you could be a mighty cunt when you want to :D

 

[zephyr]

The mods used to be able to out cunt anyone who posted in the lounge. You are too nice. Stop it.

 

[SA]

Interesting thread. It was bound to spring up sooner rather than later.

I don't agree with all of L2R's (or the rest of the Lounge mod squad's) decisions or with the way he backs some posters' styles or content, but I just had to stop by and say that he does a fantastic job at a fantastic pace, IMHO.

Could part of the reason why the old guard does not frequent The Lounge any more be that they've grown out of it, literally?

Free advice for Lounge regulars follows:

The Lounge has a history of turning some posters into Mega Stars, shooting their popularity up, up and through the roof and eventually out of the building... permanently. In other words banned. So, word to the wise, keep your feet firmly planted, as well as your attitude.

Peace out.

 

[DarthMom]

old farts being rude to noobs is nothing new, it has been that way since i stepped in in 2003.

these complaints about the repeat pic posting are absurd. it doesn't flood the lounge, it doesn't affect the overall quality of the lounge. i am not sure what the problem is, nor do i understand why rules need to be put in place for this, i think it is extreme overreaction.

if you don't like the thread, click on another.

there are some really funny posters currently in there now, GM and 9mm make me laugh a hell of a lot more than any of you who are complaining about current "quality" ever have.

i see this all as really ridiculous. when you guys were cracking down on the pic threads it was totally just instigating things, and making it worse. shit dies down, just ignore it.

 

[randycaver]

yeah.. as Arnold would say - stop whining.

i don't see why the whiners always have to be catered to. why can't they be expected to help lead to the overall 'quality' of the lounge? if you can't beat em, join em.. I've always noticed that those who sit back and whine silently rarely even participate anymore so who cares about their opinion if they can't be bothered to even try?

throwing in more restrictions won't help. unless you ban all the naysayers or trolls, the perceived problem will just keep recurring. of course, that would be beyond ridiculous.

it's true that the lounge mods used to out cunt the posters. that (imo) makes it enjoyable.. like they're all part of it too instead of being there to close threads and edit. there are other ways to moderate than that, and modding the lounge is different. it always has been. it's not about being an asshole just to be an asshole, either. there's a difference between acting cunty and being a bitter, jaded jerk just because someone posted pictures too many times in a thread.

if you're anti lounge antics - don't be a lounge mod.

i would also suggest keeping the friendship out of the selection. when i was a co-mod with GL (who i hated) the lounge didn't suffer. i think it suffers with friends... for various reasons. While there is nothing wrong with supporting your fellow mod - i just feel that the dynamic is different with this current crew.

 

[5-HT2]

Honestly, when you account for the changes due to new community forums being created, I don't think the overall quality of the remaining types of content in the Lounge has changed that much over the years.

Perhaps over the past year the obnoxiousness factor has gone up as BA said, but if that is the case, I think that's not just due to trollish posters, but also due to posters who use the Lounge for other types of attention whoring and/or social climbing.

i see this all as really ridiculous. when you guys were cracking down on the pic threads it was totally just instigating things, and making it worse. shit dies down, just ignore it.

As I have said before, I agree with this assessment of the situation.

 

[L2R]

With the arguments and counter arguments being displayed in this thread, little is being said in relation to alternative means of approach.

We have taken a reluctant but firm step with this crackdown, and we will see it through. It's the best that we can do in the current climate. Hopefully it'll make a positive impact.