Open Discussion suggestion - bluelight irc server

[tathra]

the smods/admins discussed this. i wanted to give the forum staff some time to weigh in too. i'll wrap up that discussion over the next couple of days and post some thoughts.

alasdair

So how are things looking?

 

[spacejunk]

Hey man.

There has been considerable discussion about this amongst various staff, and the consensus reached is that this is not viable for us to expand into this kind of venture at the moment.
We are not an emergency service, and can only be of extremely limited use there. If someone needs emergency medical treatment, contacting a forum like bluelight is potentially more of a distraction than a help.

There is also the issue that traffic is considerably down in the social forums anyway. How would a BL IRC channel affect this? Hard to say for sure, but i suspect it wouldn't increase traffic in forums like the lounge.

It takes a lot of work to moderate bluelight's forums, and we already have drama that spills over from various places off-site, so the idea (at least from my perspective and that of other staff also) is that it's not something we see the value in prioritising at the moment.

Having said that, if you want to start a BL-related IRC channel and take care of it, i certainly wouldn't discourage you from doing so.

 

[zephyr]

Why were staff not willing to discuss this here? Thats a problem you know. Its all well and good to have huge amounts of time discussing things in private but to an outsider that means nothing, like you couldnt care less, like no other input from anyone or offers/suggestions are valued at all. Which is particularly true really.

You staff have zero interest in engaging with members. That is a big mistake and hopefully you will rectify this in time (but will likely just deny it ).

Sad.

 

[thujone]

zeph, you were on staff when i trialled the irc server for staff, including the slick, easy web front-end (with built-in bouncer) that tathra mentions. out of 100+ on staff, only five people (including myself) even used it regularly. it wasn't enough to justify the effort of supporting it and adding features. literally only five non-staff members have bothered showing their support for it in this thread. not much point in spending too much time discussing a niche option that has no demand.

 

[zephyr]

I also have doubts that any kind of irc or tc channel would have much impact currently due to the decreasing usage of the social aspect of bl and most "emergency" threads end up with "go to the hospital".


Question is: it is a known fact the social and community area bl was well known for and seemed to value at one time is going downhill.

Is there any interest in rebuilding it at all?


The staff must lead the way in this.


Rebuild the community and then revisit this when the time is right.?

 

[alasdairm]

^ with all due respect, l, you recently stepped down from staff. if this was important to you and you feel it's important for staff to lead the way why did you never bring up the irc issue while on staff? why did you opt to step down rather than lead the way?

i'm not attacking you. please take these questions at face value - i am genuinely interested in the answers.

i'm choosing to not answer your other couple of questions on staff engagement as you've already made up your mind what the answer will be.

the issue of formal staff support for an irc channel was discussed in the staff forum because it was a bl staff discussion. if staff also want(ed) to discuss their reasoning in this thread, there's absolutely nothing stopping them from doing so.

you say yourself that you doubt the channel would have much impact so i'm struggling to navigate the mixed message here...

alasdair

 

[Tranced]

You staff have zero interest in engaging with members.

I engage with members of the website on a near enough daily basis, as does anybody else who is a regular user of bluelight. That's because I love using bluelight - much like you, ali, spacejunk and presumably anybody else who is a regular contributor. If I didn't want to engage with people, I wouldn't be here.

The reason I didn't post in this thread, was much the same reason as to why I don't respond to 99% of the threads. The reason I rarely post in the lounge is probably roughly the same reason(s) as to why you don't post in whichever sub-forums you don't frequently contribute to.

Everybody is different, and everybody has a different place; different likes, dislikes, friends, etc. It's no big deal, and there's no need to overanalyse it.

 

[zephyr]

I rarely post in subforums I am not interested in. Theres only so much that can be said about MDMA and drum n bass is KING, when there was active discussion about it I was there. I also do not actively participate in threads discussing the future of said sub forums either.

I know damn well you can not state the same.

Meh who gives a shit.

Bl is your problem, not mine.

 

[spacejunk]

I can only really speak for myself here, but the reason i discussed this proposal in the staff forum (and not here) is that i saw the staff discussion about this thread before i saw this thread.

Why did staff discuss it seperately? It's nothing deceptive; it's just a different coversation to discuss the practicality and merit of this from a staff point of view.

If we're being asked to implement something, it makes sense to discuss it frankly.
As i'm sure you know, people can be quite critical of staff decisions, so we have to watch what we say.

Also, if i or other senior staff reply in this thread, it tends to be read as an "official response", so we have to be mindful of that. It sometimes means being a bit guarded with what i say, for better or worse.

Of course we want the social subforums' traffic to pick up - but i don't know how to do that, but i do tend to think that starting a BL IRC channel could further reduce traffic in the lounge. I could be wrong, it's just a hunch.

 

[alasdairm]

^ indeed.

Meh who gives a shit.

i do. spacejunk does. all the smods do. about 65 other forum staff do.

i appreciate the feedback zephyr but suggesting that nobody gives a shit and nobody cares because things aren't going the way you want just turns people off and makes it hard to have a constructive dialog.

thanks.

alasdair

 

[Tranced]

I rarely post in subforums I am not interested in.

Yip, exactly - who would?

I rarely post in subforums I am not interested in. Theres only so much that can be said about MDMA and drum n bass is KING, when there was active discussion about it I was there. I also do not actively participate in threads discussing the future of said sub forums either.

I know damn well you can not state the same.

I certainly can say the same - I did not participate in the discussion regarding the future of the lounge last year, and nor have I done so since (or beforehand, for that matter). There were two fairly heated threads, and I was quite simply not involved. I did however post in a thread about the future of EADD - which makes sense, because that that is somewhere that I've always read/posted/made a lot of friends from.

Meh who gives a shit.

I think you give a shit, as do I, and pretty much anyone who posts here.

 

[zephyr]

I can only really speak for myself here, but the reason i discussed this proposal in the staff forum (and not here) is that i saw the staff discussion about this thread before i saw this thread.

Why did staff discuss it seperately? It's nothing deceptive; it's just a different coversation to discuss the practicality and merit of this from a staff point of view.

If we're being asked to implement something, it makes sense to discuss it frankly.
As i'm sure you know, people can be quite critical of staff decisions, so we have to watch what we say.

Also, if i or other senior staff reply in this thread, it tends to be read as an "official response", so we have to be mindful of that. It sometimes means being a bit guarded with what i say, for better or worse.

Of course we want the social subforums' traffic to pick up - but i don't know how to do that, but i do tend to think that starting a BL IRC channel could further reduce traffic in the lounge. I could be wrong, it's just a hunch.

Hi Ali Im not ignoring you and will respond when I have time, having a young kid fulltime work and gone back to study =busy .

As to this, sj there is no easy way to pick up the community.

Here are several things that can be done though but that is totally up to the individuals you choose to be on staff. You and Alasdairm that is. Maybe remove those who are not supportive of bl as ONE community?


Withdrawing into your private world and not engaging as a team is really not the way to show you are interested in any part of the community.

Its clear from Tranced's response that he isnt really interested in the health of bl as a whole. Hes not the only one on staff that thinks not beyond their own area. There are too many of you and it shows.

Things were never meant to be like that.

I suggest you have a good talk to your staff for a start and ee who is nore willing to be more visible across the board as that invites lurkers and members who dont have the impetus to visit their area to do so


I also suggest you remove the invisible mode from members and moderators so ppl can see who else is lurking.


I suggest you look at sj and ali and also cross post around because if you dont why should anyone else?


I suggest you clamp dowm on reddit bullshit here. Its been let go. How could you let that shit back in here? That thing has caused a lot of bullshit and sad to say there is no real way of getting away from it now except not allowing the fanning of the flames by thise who are encouraging ppl to go there and participate. Thise that do are just shit stirrers .

Ok out of time.

Im not an enemy guys, I am pissed off with you as a staff whole though and will try to be polite about it . Sorry for any bad feels.

 

[zephyr]

^ indeed.

i do. spacejunk does. all the smods do. about 65 other forum staff do.

i appreciate the feedback zephyr but suggesting that nobody gives a shit and nobody cares because things aren't going the way you want just turns people off and makes it hard to have a constructive dialog.

thanks.

alasdair

It's very hard to have a constructive dialogue with a group of people who won't engage.


Yourself and sj have been very active posters during your time here and that's not changed much regardless of what title you have. It's just the way you guys roll, it's fantastic to see and no doubt will continue.


I'm referring to the plethora of staff who contributed to decisions made about the lounge like they had an avid interest but never really did. You can tell easily who they are by comparing who contributes to staff discussions and their lack of interest in it in public. What other sub forum has been treated like that repeatedly ? I can't think of any other.

Maybe it's just the curse of nostalgia. Maybe having the lounge closure and continued complaints by other staff and members despite efforts made by lounge staff to maintain what you wanted...maybe just time to give in?

 

[sekio]

I'd hang out in BL IRC.

 

[zephyr]

^ Id hang out with you but m8 I cant make small talk with intellectual people can you come hang out with a simpleton plz?

 

[zephyr]

http://bluelight.org/vb/threads/492480-Changes-to-our-site-disciplinary-system/page3


Hi.

I was contacted by a fellow bluelighter and asked to point out one post in this thread in particular but its out of context read alone. I wish this person would speak up as im not a union rep.

I read the whole thing and its a good read and really hope all staff read it too.

The infraction system and how its changed over the years. Can you please review it and see if its working?


Also theres discussion of record keeping. While thats obviously helpful isnt a persons infraction record visible to mods anyway so is there need for a record as such ?

Id hope newer mods dont form preconceived opinions of people and not bother interacting with them or just focus on the bad.

Do you keep record of good contributions and members too?

That would be helpful to see a big picture but reality is, we are out here so its best spend time in person

Some would say yes and other no.

I would suggest this person please say what you have to say as its no big deal and Im kinda thinking Im just not getting anywhere alone.

 

[sekio]

Of course

 

[zephyr]

Thanks.

 

[zephyr]

I would appreciate constructive dialogue.


I feel that it is appropriate to discuss the current state of the lounge and the community based forums , if bl have concerns about itas there were members such as myself, Guido, Bella Figura and oast/current mods who did what they could to give you your communal area.

There have been outside bl factors that have plagued us, a lot of unrest and now a lot of "meh".

Been here for probably too many years. I was not one of the people who made fun of dead people, was not racist or homophobic. There were only a few idiots and some are still here.


I would hope that there is genuine interest in having that aforementioned community and this was not in vain.


I am beginning to think though it was


Thanks

 

[tathra]

Hopefully we can revisit this later on and get an official server and channel established once again in the future. In the meantime I'll set up on irc.tripsit.me in ##bluelight and hope that we can get enough people going there to show that having an official irc channel would be beneficial to bluelight and worth what little effort and resources it takes to establish and maintain it.

webchat link, just input ##bluelight as the channel to join.