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[Feedback Thread] How can WE improve on the PD forum? Suggestions welcome!

Other areas of BL arent always so welcoming and friendly, so when someone chooses to ask a question here it feels rude to send them elsewhere when we could just answer it here.
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Thats true to an extent; but a lot of the threads Blowmonkey has highlighted aren't questions; just sort of observations or stories (such the icicle halo and tron etc.). Of course, when you use psychedelics, you start to realise that a whole heap of stuff IS psychedelic, but this forum should be for the actual drugs. I mean, if we had a thread about tie-dying, it would be interesting, but completely irrelevant. Irrelevance is very subjective, but I know- personally- that I hardly click on any threads here nowadays because a) they've been done before and/or b) they fall into the realm of simple, non-drug related observance.

I definitely don't want people turned away from PD, but being overly generous in regards to thread content has the same effect; sure, newcomers may feel welcome, but older members may feel dismissive and/or bored.

I think that- in general- PD is a lot better then it was about 5 years ago, but a bit worse then it was one year or two years ago. Signal to noise has increased dramatically.

Its natural to want to discuss ALL facets of the psychedelic experience, but in doing so we may as well simply talk about LIFE in general.

I don't think its rude to move a thread or close it if its not relevant. Its simply doing what moderators on all BB's have always done. I understand that, once a person is "psychedelified", that things such as rudeness, bluntness, following of guidelines can seem a bit icky, especially when one of the main things psychedelics can teach us is kindness and perspective, but, in moving or locking a thread, no-ones doing anything bad or cruel or unkind, just trying to impose order. Imposing order may be difficult too- it seems an egotistcal response- but we aren't isolating people or hurting anyone; its a very minor thing that a mod does (thread editing/closing/moving).

I am slightly worried about how trivial some of the threads here are; it makes me uncomfortable (for reasons solely of my own) that these drugs are seen as adjuncts to watching movies or other nebulous things, but each to their own. I just think that the forum needs some discipline, like it or not. And its not personal; moderating a forum should never be taken personally; if a thread is shut or whatnot, no dispersions are cast on the OP; simply the content. And if people get upset by such things, then perhaps they need thicker skin.

But yeah. I love the way the index is organised these days; great work from the various souls who did that; it makes PD easily navigable, but lets not forfeit that by including pointless stuff here. There are lots of forums on Bluelight, and lots of forums beyond bluelight for some discussion here.

Peace <3
 
I agree with you willow and others. The quality of PD posting has gone downhill in the last year or so, no doubt about it. I certainly put some of the blame on myself, as my life has increased dramatically in non-BL-related content, and I've often been neglecting my duties. I sometimes think about stepping down (more than sometimes), but quite honestly I feel like I don't want to let go of the position, not because of some sort of status or anything, but because I'm afraid no one else would step up to keep the organizational aspects going (even if I have been slacking in this regard lately). Of all the current mods, I've been one for by far the longest, and I don't think it's a good idea to leave the forum in less experienced hands. I'm super anal about the PD Index and organization of information, and I haven't encountered a PD mod in quite some time who I would trust to do it without me there to help. Most psychedelic users I've found aren't so much wired for that sort of computer-like thinking, but I am and I think the forum really needs some of that.

A year or two ago, we had several excellent mods who kept on top of things, and one (I miss you Solipsis!) who was amazing at organization. We have some great people modding now too, but I think everyone has been slacking, at different times, and it's really hard, almost impossible really, for a single mod to keep up with the intense flow of posting as PD's daily traffic continues to increase. And this neglect is compounding the problem because as more time goes by without any consistent enforcement of the rules regarding new thread posting, less and less new posters are even aware of the rules, or if they are, they see no reason to follow them. And this, of course, causes even more new threads to be posted.

Like willow said, the forum needs discipline. We also need to sit down and work out a few things - there are certain types of threads that come up a lot, and some of them we may want to decide to disallow, because as Blowmonkey said, there IS Drug Culture. But it's become difficult to make these judgments because of the community we've built here. It may be encouraged for posters to branch out and use other forums, but a lot of people here don't know anyone in Drug Culture, for example, and they may not particularly like the atmosphere there. I take pride that PD is one of the friendliest places on the Internet (at least that I've been to), and I know the community here has become my friends (some in real life) and that we help each other through things. I'll fight to hold together the PD community as long as I'm here, just like I fought to help build it in years past. I don't want to see PD go back to the elitist repository of clinical discussion it was in the past because the world would be losing something special.

I've been sick as a dog for the past two weeks, along with holiday traveling, and today I finally feel better enough to do stuff. I didn't realize everyone would be gone at the same time, so the forum has particularly gotten out of control recently. I'm going to make an applications thread as soon as I finish this post. Blowmonkey, please apply. There are some things I don't necessarily agree with you on, but it takes all kinds and I know that you care about the forum, and I know you'd enforce the rules which is something that's really needed right now. :)
 
Blowmonkey said:
get a feel for the BL community as a whole, not the "PD community" alone. Now that is snooty.
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I don't actually think there's anything snooty about people wanting to stay in PD. I mean people in the real world tend to stick to their friends and family and others they know when they're looking for advice... it's natural I think, particularly when people feel part of a community. As long as it's on-topic for PD, I see nothing wrong with this. Of course, that's much of the issue being discussed here - whether or not it's on-topic.

All the "what should I do on", the "look at this cool stuff" or the many other types of topics that are more social and lighthearted in nature than anything else, they can drown out the more informative and insightful posts. I really don't see how it promotes harm discussion all that much.
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I agree, they drown out more on-topic discussion. I'm actually not a fan of the "what should I do on XXX" or "watching a movie on XXX" threads in PD. These are specifically what DC was created for, like you said, and if I was putting as much time as I should be into modding PD, I'd be moving them in the vast majority of cases. I think though that it might be a good idea to create a Big and Dandy for "Psychedelic Suggestions" or something like that, where people can post questions to PD about suggestions for trips and things of that sort. This would keep it all in one place and reduce a lot of the clutter.

the basic psychedelic questions seem to permanently stay in PD. Great they can be answered more quickly and accurately sometimes, but when they have been answered, move them to their respective forum, BDD. That would significantly clean up the forum as well. Basic questions are just that, basic, imo they have a place in BDD, not PD. Again, that's why that forum was created, to serve basic questions.
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I like the idea of moving them once answered. I don't like the closing or moving threads that are being asked by those who need the knowledge because, while sure, they maybe should have used the search engine or maybe it could be found in 30 seconds on Erowid, I feel like I can provide a quality, succinct answer with a minimum of effort, and it could really make a difference to someone. That's what harm reduction is all about, disseminating information. So if we answered questions like that and then moved them to BDD, we'd not only be providing information to someone seeking it, but we'd be enriching BDD with these answers, which would end up showing them to a whole additional group of information seekers and even people just shitting around in BDD.
 
I rather like the idea of moving basic question over to BDD once they've been answered... sort of. The question I would have would be "Why?" If a question has been answered then it has been answered. I recall discussions of basic psyche question posted in BDD and OD and how it would be best if they were moved to and answered in PD due to the specialist nature of psychedelics - it's not as simple as dosing benzos, opiates etc as the effects are so much more than simple physical ones. If you see some of the responses given to psychedelic questions that are posted in BDD and the like they can be downright dangerous on occasions, I always made an effort to check BDD and OD and try to answer such questions and provide links to relevant PD/B&D threads - would be great if more folks did the same rather than moving such questions from here to elsewhere, in my opinion.
 
What on earth is this?

http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/showthread.php?t=546386&page=2

http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/showthread.php?t=546386&page=3

I hate to say it, but this is some massive egoic/elititism happening right there. Purplepills asked a pretty young question; and the responses are really quite pitiful. Obviously, he/she asked this question in the wrong thread and wrong forum, but sanctimonious bullying is really NOT what this forum should be about.

It just doesn't make sense. This place did not used to be as judgmental as it is now.

Its quite sad, really. :(

"Judge not, lest YE be JUDGED"...

Sheesh. :|
 
Can I suggest the hyper-generalized "psychedeilc media" topic under Focus Forums/Psychedelic Drugs be split into

Psychedelic Images
Psychedelic Music
Psychedelic Movies Film/DVD
Psychedelic Television
Psychedelic Media - Other

I think that would be WAY more useful. All possible media is just too general.

These topics would appear in the Psychedelic Focus forums and be distinct from the even more general Bluelight media type threads by concentrating ONLY on these individual media posts that are stated to be of interest to psychedelic users or about psychedelics, either/or.
 
there is already a thread for psychedelic art (images) and one for music.
 
So "Media" then would be film/video/tv. Allright then.

So then my other suggestion #1 would be a way to make all megathreads easier to find. Have a box to click or a menu option to "Show All Megathreads In This Topic Area First"... kind an auto-sticky for those threads so you can see what's available all in a glance.

Suggestion#2 - allow Topics to have Sub-Topics... or at least enable Sub-Topic inside of Megathreads, so that a megathread would serve the purpose of keeping cluttering miscellaney out of the main topic area, but still allow a continuous threaded discussion to occur on individual topics. Like if I want to talk about a movie with a particular interest to psychedelic users, I have to post it in the Psychedelic Media thread but then all responses to that post get jumbled in with all other posts about all other topics FORCING USERS TO READ EVERY SINGLE POST to determine which topics are being discussed, Different movies are a VERY different kettle of fish from different aspects of, say, a particular substance (tried posting about one in regular area and it got stuck into Media... at which point, OF COURSE, PREDICTABLY, ALL DISCUSSION ABOUT IT CEASED... MOVING A NEW SPECIFIC TOPIC OUT OF GENERAL CIRCULATION INTO HYPER GENERALIZED "MEGA THREADS" SEEMS TO USUALLY KILL THEM.)

I have seen other forum software that allows a Topic to have ONE level of sub-topics... or its own posts if thats what people want to do. Like a Folder in an OS can have files (posts) or other folders (sub-threads) in it. I bet this software allows it to. Why not enable it? After all... this would allow users to organize their discussions however they wish... AND ISNT THE WHOLE PURPOSE OF A FORUM TO SERVE WHAT ITS USERS WISH TO DO, WITHIN THE CHARTER OF THE SITE, OF COURSE... in other words, the organization capabilities should be able to be used as the members wish to use them to organize their discussion.

IN SUMMARY: Without subtopics, Mega-Threads have reduced usefulness, since all responses to all previous posts on all other topics are just jumbled together into a random pile/sequence, inhibiting a continuous back and forth discussion, killing any existing discussion moved from its own topic into a mega-thread mash-up/blender/stew in which you are forced to read everything to find anything.

I am NOT just flapping my gums. I am a Senior Software Engineer by profession, with substantial experience also in User Interface design and human-factors/usability concerns.

Its a significant shortcoming with how this forum is organized & its moderation policies, with a negative impact on its usefulness to the user community.
 
Good suggestions Dwayne.
I think #1 is our PD Index, isnt it. The big flashy blue link at the top of the PD page.

And #2 im not sure if i understand.
I know a few of the megathreads have subthreads (ie The DXM thread and the LSD thread).

Some of the PD index needs updating though (6-APB thread link and adding MXE to the dissociatives section)
 
I have had many ideas about the underlying functionality of this forum... I'm also a programmer by profession. Unfortunately, only administrators have access to that code, and I'm not sure even they have access to the source code to the bulletin software (which is vBulletin). I'm not sure about what exactly they have access to, but I'm very interested in being able to program in features. Unfortunately I don't have the time nor the desire for the other duties of administrator, so that's that.

The best thing I've worked with as a moderator to program in increased functionality is in Trip Reports. The system has fallen into disrepair lately but we "tag" threads there with special codes in a small font that is the same color as the background so you don't notice them. Then there's a stickied closed thread that contains links to search strings for specific substances as categories of reports, so the links will always bring up a current list of tagged reports matching. I started working on a Javascript/HTML interface to do full advanced searches, like all reports with 2C-B or LSD, while camping, for example. This, however, is extremely time-consuming and the entire Bluelight staff is volunteer, so it's hard to find people who even understand how to implement it, let alone are able to spend the time to keep it up.
 
How about 2 new stickies:

- one new Mod managed topic "Big Dandies" containing sub topics for all Big & Dandy topics in PD
- one new Mod managed topic "Mega Megas" same for all "Mega Threads" in PD

make them easier to find and browse all in one place without having to use search
 
You dont need to use search to find Big and Dandies or mega threads.
They are all organized in the PD index.

Are you suggesting making two different threads? 1 for mega and one for B+D.
What is the difference between the two? I always assumed the different name was due to whoever started the thread choosing to name it that way.
 
I only suggested 2 because I guessed PD staff might have some distinction in mind.

PD Index sucks because they do not highlight when a new post is made.

See this is the problem with "megathreads" They are really not useful because you cant have a true threaded discussion about one specific topic, are a pain in the ass to navigate, so essentially any topic that a USER of this forum wants to start that an overzealous mod does not like as its own topic then gets stuffed into a megathread where it is lost for all eternity in a giant festering pile, a needle in a galaxy sized haystack, essentially killing it... like the Arc of the Covenant was "lost" in the ginormous warehouse at the end of RotLA.

Yes I am kvetching about this again. But BL exists for us MEMBERS, right? It's a mod's lot in life to listen with equanimity to what members wish to say. So dont smack my knuckles with a ruler. You want users' thoughts opinions and complaints by definition, right? Well this is one of mine.

Oh well... so much for that... Cheers, mates!
 
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They are really not useful because you cant have a true threaded discussion about one specific topic
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The reason most of those posts get merged in with mega/B&D threads is because they're usually generic enough that it does not really warrant it's own topic. By merging them into one big thread it reduces clutter in the forum. It's also a lot handier to have information contained in one specific place instead of relevant information being scattered about in multiple threads. I do agree some if not all of the B&D's are hard to navigate due to their size and off-topic chatter, but that can be circumvented by periodically cleaning them up on the moderators part and using the search function within a thread on the users end. It's a double edged sword, with this being the best option, imo.

PD Index sucks because they do not highlight when a new post is made.
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Your suggestion doesn't either? You can subscribe to threads to see when new posts have been made, or you look on the front page, or you simply click on the hyperlink in the PD index to see when a new post has been added to the (B&D) topic you were searching for.

So dont smack my knuckles with a ruler.
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Reverse psychology eh? ;)

:smacks:
 
I think PD needs more comparison threads. Personally I find threads where different chemicals are compared to be very informative. They are quite often more useful then B&D's on single compounds, especially when you would like to decide which compound is better for you.

If we already have "The Main 2C-X Comparison Thread", "The Main Comparison of 4-HO/Aco- Tryptamines Thread", then why don't have "The Main 4-HO-MET and 4-AcO-DMT comparison thread", "The Main 5-MeO-MiPT and 5-MeO-DiPT comparison thread" - I just remembered recent threads, of course, there are some other chemicals which people tend to compare.
 
^Wouldn' that just be a pretty much infinite method though?
 
Well, I thought about it, but actually there are not really much such groups of chemicals. There already are(or were) comparison threads, I just suggest to take special care of them.
So, "2C-T-4 vs 4-HO-MPT vs Methylone" is useless, but "5-MeO-DiPT vs 5-MeO-MiPT" should be ok.
 
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