Heads Up and Member Feedback - Your opinions on the future of the site :)

I don't think there should be an IRC chat, would distract from the board it's self.
 
^ just cos you wouldn't use it? ;)

there are several chat options available to users at present, none of which 'detract' from the site. :)
 
TheSpade said:
I don't think there should be an IRC chat, would distract from the board it's self.
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Blasphemey! Off with his head!

B&!
 
I know I'm new and all, but maybe a new skin for this forum. I looked at all the other skins and they are just as bad. Do you think we could have a darker one, grays and blacks. The brights are killing my eyes, especially on opiates.
 
I'm about to quit Bluelight if you don't fucking fix the browser session timeout. I just typed a reply to a 'What's jail like?' thread, poured my heart out and told a dozen of my best jail stories. Fucking, hit post quick reply and it told me I had been logged out, I needed to enter my username and password. I do that, and it says "Invalid thread specified. Please contact the administrator". FUCK YOU. Why the fuck did I get logged out? Firefox/vBulletin erased the fucking input box when I hit back to go back to the thread, too, so I lost my 16 paragraphs of love and effort. Forever.
LFKJDFLKDJSFLGKDSJLKGFSJD
 
P.S. this happens a lot, but usually I only typed a few lines so I don't mind trying to remember what I said and re-type it. This is just fucked though, I want to punch a hole in the wall.

P.P.S. don't tell me to check Remember Me. It's hard to remember to do that.
 
^When you write a super long post like that, you should always copy, just to be safe. I've learned that the hard way as well.
 
felix said:
^ just cos you wouldn't use it? ;)

there are several chat options available to users at present, none of which 'detract' from the site. :)
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I may use it, I may not. We'll have to wait and see.
 
Thizzle, I get the feeling a lot of other people learn it the hard way. It's a major inconvenience, that can be solved by changing a SINGLE setting by the forum admins - the browser session cookie timeout value. It must be set to fucking 15 minutes or 30 minutes or something ridiculously low. Why not 12 hours?
 
i'd imagine it's set at a low value in order to protect people from being logged on when they've left the computer.

just tick the box already. ;)
 
Yea I wouldnt want it to keep me logged in for 12 hours. I think it is currently at 15 minutes, which is low. Maybe like an hour or something?

If it takes someone an hour to write a reply, I would hope they would copy it just to be on the safe side anyway, no matter if it keeps you logged in or not.
 
I think we need a forum in the focus forums about lightshows and such. To many of us it is an art. It relates to numerous drugs. Its just somewhere where we could post some of our favorite shows we have seen and maybe show off some of our own work. Just an idea. Food for thought.
 
FlowMotion said:
I think we need a forum in the focus forums about lightshows and such. To many of us it is an art. It relates to numerous drugs. Its just somewhere where we could post some of our favorite shows we have seen and maybe show off some of our own work. Just an idea. Food for thought.
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Not a bad idea. Why not call it 'Visuals' like Wikipedia does at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visuals and include room for VJs to talk about their art?
 
Last few posts moved here, to the discussion more related to the DD and FF forum groups (including OD).
 
- There is an effort to bridge the forums at the member level, to encourage more cross-forum interaction and get members spreading their wings to explore more parts of our site. A simple start to this would be travelling threads. For example, a GBL thread could spend a week each in EADD, AusDD, NADD, and the related FOCUS and DRUG forums. Likewise on the social side, a 'Pic from your window' could visit EADD, AusSoc, NAS, SO, etc.


Simply terrible idea. Absolutely terrible. I don't want to be going to other forums to talk about gbl, and i also dont want the input of non EADD members- in any of our threads.

Please please do not do this, i think I speak for everyone over in EADD by saying this.
 
What's so terrible about speaking to other members of the site that are located in different parts of the world?
 
Aros2k said:
...i also dont want the input of non EADD members- in any of our threads.
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that is a sadly parochial view. whether a thread travels or remains in eadd, any member of bluelight is entitled to reply.

if you're not interested in the views of others, why should anybody listen to you?

:\

alasdair
 
Aros2k, thanks for the response - it always helps to know what our members want (at least those willing to speak up, so thank you). We like to keep our members wants and needs in mind when we try to go forward, but your response does reflect the isolationist view some members have with their forums.

You're right in that the 'traveling thread' concept as a tool to get people to spread their wings to other forums won't really ...errr...fly. Someone's not necessarily going to follow a thread simple because it was moved, and many will be like yourself and simply continue on with topics that remain in their 'home forum'. Would moving such a thread cause people to leave the site? Possibly. That's not what we'd be intending, but it is possible. Would some people follow it and participate more in other areas, either learning more or perhaps teaching others more? Possibly, and that was the intent with what you captured in your quote.

Both outcomes are possible, and I'd be willing to bet that a bit of both would occur. Not ideal, but the status quo isn't exactly what we want as a site, either. For some people, BL is only a few select forums, and the difference between logging into BL for those few vs logging into a separate site, on a separate server....at least for those people....is nil. So from the member perspective, there is the strong chance that such actions would degrade the enjoyment of 'their site'.


Taking a step back to the perspective of site management, there's a different perspective, one that has to be balanced with the 'member wants and needs'. Part of our intent is that BL is a very strong community with a drug education and HR theme - we're not just a reference book on a shelf, we are a mixture of diverse people and experiences, all of which sum together to make us much more than a separate site, on a separate server. Part of our intent is to leverage that diversity and depth of experience into building upon our strength for an even better site.

Yes, the 'dragging' of members to other forums is part of it, part of a harkening back to the feel of when we were a smaller community (similar to what some feel with the site when they ignore the other 45 forums), and trying to get that feel with a much larger population. But to a large degree, that 'wish' is unrealistic. We ARE a large population, and to think everyone would visit all, or even more than an handful of, forums is a bit naive. But we can try, and we're open to suggestions on how we can get people to willingly explore what else is on the site, what other people are on here, for whatever the individual's interests might be.

But what wasn't captured in your quote is the other part of the intent, the part of building our community database, or the collection of experiences of our widespread membership. The site began with a small community, relying on one another for information and building a database of realistic drug information and harm reduction as opposed to government propaganda or assuming individuals jumping into trouble on their own. We're a lot bigger now. A LOT bigger, and it only makes sense to use that bigger collection of minds and experiences to improve the information we have available to readers.

Some of that knowledge IS regional, like local laws and strains of whatever drug is floating around (the effects, the dangers, etc). But a lot of it isn't regional - a drug is a drug. Getting high on Heroin in the states is pretty close to what's in EU or AUS. Different grades, but people still shoot up, still purify, still need to know the danger signs of an overdose and what to do about it. These kinds of things, unfortunately, have gotten holed up in the corners of the site to where, for example, AUS and EADD each have their own awesome collection of GBL-GHB knowledge.....which is available to the members in that forum....but ought to be available to EVERYONE. And the information within them - if conflicting, ought to be hashed out; if agreeing, ought to be brought together to support one another. So that's another aspect of traveling threads - building the BEST collection of the information available on the site, generating awareness ACROSS multiple forums, making our main goal (HR, and also drug education) that much stronger of an offering to lurkers, media, and our members in general. Now, we need a better way of getting that information collected, corrected, and presented; but for now a traveling thread might be the best way anyone's come up with for accomplishing this. Still, we're always open to more ideas or suggestions. The one about 'leave it alone, I like it how it is' is good to know, but may not help us in trying to improve everything we're trying to address.....so we remain open for discussion on how to keep that 'homey feel' and still achieve the site goals. We're not (to quote a friend of mine) 'fucking rocket surgeons' and we realize we can't think of everything, so your (everyone's) thoughts and suggestions are wanted and appreciated.
 
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