Complaints About Forum

Xandax · Post by **Xandax** » Tue Apr 10, 2001 10:39 am

I would just like to say that I genearlly like this new forum

It would just be nice if there was a line or extra space seperating the posts, is this possible??

Otherwise I have no problems at all, and here it seems to be a lot faster

Vroom · Post by **Vroom** » Tue Apr 10, 2001 3:40 pm

(...)Buck-This version is indeed quicker than the previous version.There was a bad slowdown last night though.IIRC the page doesn't show up and the loading progress bar is only 1/9th full when data transfer stops.However,going offline reveals the full page so I'm not quite sure what caused the page to not show up(...)

I have noticed this too. What sometimes happens to websites is that the loading of the ad-banner hangs. The banner gets loaded from a central banner server. If it doesn't respond, it can happen that your browser waits for the (banner server) connection to time out - which can take 30 secs or more.
/edit/ The browser displaying the page if you hit "abort" is actually a symtom of this. /edit/
If you take a look at the status bar of your browser, if it hangs, it does so while accessing "adtegrity.spinbox.net/something", so it might be a problem out of Buck's control...

Note: From the bits I have gathered, I realize gamebanshee can only operate through the sponsors. This is in no way meant as a call to ditch them... just a (possible) technical explanation.

[ 04-10-2001: Message edited by: Vroom ]

Flagg · Post by **Flagg** » Wed Apr 11, 2001 3:44 am

A minor note about the rating system. You will have one rating throughout the board. It can happen that you will see differences between threads, but that is because some threads might not have been updated. A post in this thread will also update your rating to what it is at that time.

A rating will only show, if it is above 3,5. At least this is my personal experience. Thus people with a rating lower than 3,5 will not see theirs listed on the forum itself. You will however be able to view your rating in your profile.

Xandax · Post by **Xandax** » Wed Apr 11, 2001 6:56 am

Question about this rating:
Why do some people have "full" stars while others like myself have "transparent" stars?

Gruntboy · Post by **Gruntboy** » Wed Apr 11, 2001 7:23 am

The "full" stars are bad.

Your rating is better than Flagg's for example...

(not dificult mind you...

)

Flagg · Post by **Flagg** » Wed Apr 11, 2001 7:27 am

Originally posted by Xandax:
<STRONG>Question about this rating:
Why do some people have "full" stars while others like myself have "transparent" stars?</STRONG>

Well blue stars are better than grey stars. So as Gruntboy so eloquently put it, your rating is better than mine. Another side note that is important that is useful to know is that a weighing mechanism is used to calculate your rating. A five has more influence than a one. In other words, it is harder to pull someone's rating down, while it is fairly easy to increase someone's rating.

Edwin · Post by **Edwin** » Thu Apr 12, 2001 1:33 pm

Well, no complaints here. Only a word for saying you guys are doing a really great job!!!! Here you can find pure fun, serious discussions and a great graphic....

What do you want more from a message board??
Well i just thought sometimes a good opinion helps doing your job.......

Anatres · Post by **Anatres** » Mon Apr 16, 2001 3:33 pm

Really like the new format! Thanks!

RudeDawg · Post by **RudeDawg** » Mon Apr 16, 2001 5:03 pm

Really enjoying the board ! I've been on a few other gaming forums, don't want to name names, and I REALLY enjoy this one !

Keep up the good work!

fable · Post by **fable** » Thu Apr 26, 2001 4:18 pm

Initially I didn't mind the idea of ratings, but I've since revised my opinion.

I certainly don't mind people contradicting me when I voice opinions--hell, that's how I've molded my own opinions, in part, over time: by being corrected, or at least by hearing the views of others who have different life experiences. I didn't even mind very much when someone accused me of trying to silence opposition in one topic, because I dared to disagree with the prevailing judgement on Tolkien--heh, this guy wanted to silence me.

What I dislike intensely is that I can spend a reasonable amount of time expressing a thoughtful opinion, only to have any Joe Anonymous take offense, and rate me down. It just happened again, today. Somebody knocked down my rating by something like .40 with a single vote. And by nature I'm not offensive, impolite, or rude; just someone who enjoys discussion, and likes putting facts out on the table for conversation.

But I made two mistakes in the BG2 forum. Here they are:

I wrote that Tolkien had virtually no influence on fantasy until roughly 1975 or so, and mentioned a lot of fantasy novels that demonstrated this. I didn't scream this, or vent sarcasm over it. But I stated it.

And I've been discussing and to an extent disagreeing with the concept that matriarchal societies always proceed patriarchal ones.

That's the extent of my sins. For that, my rating is somewhere around 3.8, and heading doooown.

It's not the ratings in themselves that bother me, but the fact that anybody should take great enough offense at something I've written in a forum meant for discussion to actually give me a "1" or "2" star rating. That's the kind of thing I'd reserve for a person who jumps in out of nowhere and starts verbally abusing folks. Clearly, I've got different standards about what ratings mean, at least from some posters.

But other people, looking in, are going to see a 3 or 4 star rating on me and wonder, "What the hell is wrong with this guy?" And some folks are clearly using ratings to punish. Some joker even sent me email (with an address I couldn't trace) saying he belonged to a group of folks who hate longwinded posts by people who "thought they were better than everybody else cause they write good," and that I was going to get 1 star from all of 'em. Now, I've never criticized anybody for their use of language (which is bad form especially on an international board), but that kind of thing doesn't exactly make me feel that ratings work well.

Buck, this is a great board. But I have to say, I think ratings are not working out too well. Just my POV. And I'm seriously considering dropping all postings outside SYM (Speak Your own Mind) categories, just out of frustration.

[ 04-26-2001: Message edited by: fable ]

Weasel · Post by **Weasel** » Thu Apr 26, 2001 5:04 pm

@Fable...I know your post was meant for Buck , but I will say I hope people don't judge other's on their rating. I find your post to be great and I believe the other's here do too.

As for disabling the option....I don't care..do or don't. I judge people on how they act towards other's. There are ways of being civil and still disagreeing. It's just some don't know how to do this. I would hate to see you leave because of this..(If this is what you meant? I'm not quite sure if you meant quit posting here at GB or just in certain areas)

fable · Post by **fable** » Thu Apr 26, 2001 6:39 pm

@Weasel, I appreciate your response, having considerable respect for both you, and your posts. I'm not talking about leaving, but I'm considering stopping all posts in areas other than SYM. That, by the way, is *not* a threat. My statement of this is just meant as an illustration of how frustrating those ratings are.

I've turned 'em off, at least, for now. But I perceive the problem as being one that doesn't go away because of that.

Gruntboy · Post by **Gruntboy** » Fri Apr 27, 2001 3:31 am

That sucks fable. I'm sorry some jokers have behaved that way. I think a few of us have been hit by sad angry voters who we probably don't even realise we talked too.

You just have to rise above it.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Fri May 11, 2001 8:44 am

I'd like to add my two cents about the rating system. While in theory it does not seem like a bad idea, since it encourages self-monitoring (which I like when it comes to limiting excessive obscenity), but for the most part it bothers me. The reason is that if you post fairly controversial opinions people will often decide to vote you down instead of actually confronting you. This is cowardly. When I post something that has the potential to be contentious, I anticipate that it will ruffle a few feathers, that, after all, is the nature of debate. Further, I welcome the challenge, and I'm happy to rebut. But the rating system does not allow for that, instead those who disagree with your opinion will point and click at the rating icon, and then run away and hide. I don't mind having opponents, but I like knowing who they are so that I can counter them.

Xandax · Post by **Xandax** » Fri May 11, 2001 1:36 pm

Well there has been a lot of debate about this rating thingy, so I feel it is time that I state my point of view.

I have absolutly nothing against the rating system, for the simple fact that I don't care about it, and have only used it once. (FYI – I gave Buck a 5’er)
Of course, I also find it nice that people not agreeing with my points of view, will openly state it, but if they instead just give me a poor rating - well, then they are not worthy of my attention anyway.
Therefore I don't place anything into these ratings.
The fact that some newbees might look at a rating and try to figure out what kind of person, that has posted what, is - well I still don't see this as a problem. It might be possible for such a newbee to misinterpret another poster due to a bad rating, but I still don't think a long time will pass, before such a person will figure out if the person with the bad rating is to be trusted or not. We are after all thinking logical beings most of us, and if you can’t look past a couple of starts in the left of the screen, well …………

(IMHO)

Nightmare · Post by **Nightmare** » Fri May 11, 2001 2:06 pm

Just a comment on knowing who rated you bad; if someone did know, then they MIGHT give the other person a 1 and then flame all their posts. Now, not many people might do this, but there are some people who would.

Minerva · Post by **Minerva** » Tue Jun 26, 2001 12:13 pm

Dear Buck,

I don't know if this is related to the recent slow down, but the clock seemed to have stopped for a while. Now, it' about 35 minutes behind.

Could you fix this for us, please?

Thanks.
Minerva

Sabre · Post by **Sabre** » Fri Jun 29, 2001 6:11 am

Buck: The search function seems to only be able to find posts that were posted on the new server, not the old one. I tried searching for my post - Happy Script - and there was no matches.

Edit - it's working fine now, must be my ISP, sorry about that.

[ 06-29-2001: Message edited by: Sabre ]