Thanks for this Jonathan, important methinks. Great to see the expanding community, and more participation.

Recently I saw a comment that someone was having trouble getting spaces between their paragraphs, and I thought to remind folks of the tip I learned from you or someone in an earlier post:

1. Start your comment with just a few words, then click "Preview Comment"
2. In the next page, complete your comment, spacing, bolding, etc. inside your Preview field
3. Then click "Post Comment" when ready

Did I get that right?

 

Yes you did! Adam Elenbaas

Excellent guidelines, I occasionally offend even myself so if something truly annoying of mine slips by you I'll try to point it out when I come to my senses. *whistles theme to "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly"*

Oh no, it’s the police ! :)

About the formatting tip :

I've pointed this out in the past...

Perhaps it should be included in a message all new members get when they join?

Often comments appear in a single continuous block of text when people don't realise the bugginess of the software, or miss the preview,  and its unreadable.

 

I haven't played with drupal's commenting system much, so i don't know if it's the particular theme you guys are using or what, but it ain't that great for threaded discussions. . . i confess i rarely follow.

 

About the civility thang, it would be good to keep in mind the difference between dissing someone's ideas and dissing someone as a person.

PS delete away if you don't like, no problem with me! But when you lock a comment so it can’t be edited if I change my mind, that sucks, in a very patriarchal, unforgiving way. 

"The Thought Police (thinkpol in Newspeak) are the secret police of Oceania in George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.

 It is the job of the Thought Police to uncover and punish thoughtcrime and thought-criminals, using psychology and omnipresent surveillance from telescreens to find and eliminate members of society who were capable of the mere thought of challenging ruling authority.

The government attempts to control not only the speech and actions, but also the thoughts of its subjects, labeling unapproved thoughts with the term thoughtcrime, or, in Newspeak, crimethink.

It also had much to do with Orwell's own "power of facing unpleasant facts", as he called it, and his willingness to criticize prevailing ideas which brought him into conflict with others and their "smelly little orthodoxies".

The term "Thought Police", by extension, has come to refer to real or perceived enforcement of ideological correctness.

                                                        - Wikipedia

Its so easy to be all you claim to despise.

http://xanaduxero.blogspot.com

 *   *   *

PANARCHY!

It alllll has to go - even Anarchy.

duh, that's a rolling stones line, I'm getting old...

Commentary on Internet blogs and places like youtube is surely the modern day hi-tech equivalent of the inconsequential and basically moronic babble that ensues whenever human beings gather in large groups.

Everyone's got a voice and wants to be heard. . . And when the stuff is actually displayed on computer screens, YOUR stuff published for the Whole Wide World (ha) to marvel at your insightfulness and cutting edge understanding of Everything, it is irresistible.

This is why we don't have public registration enabled on our blog- and most posts have comments disabled, so not even registered members can waste bandwidth with redundant comments. We don't actually care what any random bored Internet person has to say about what we post there - or the onanistic discussions and one-upmanship that inevitably ensues between commenters, or the spam, link whoring , etc etc.

We really can't be bothered with all that- especially the smartasses (who are ivariably 15-year old geeks with no life) and the spam. Wht kind of people make money from spam, and what kind of people spend all their time commenting on other people's blogs instead of writing their own?

We really couldn’t care less.

We just put out what we think is cool, and if the Joes want to comment, they can go wank elsewhere. :D

If they want community, they'd better get off the computer and do it for real.

http://www.tranceparents.org

Heaven forbid! what if the dogs name is Toto, and it eats dinosaur eggs?

It's kind of interesting to me that these issues are coming up right now. I noticed a huge storm on Boing Boing in the last week over an editorial decision on someone's commenting.

Seems to prompt even more thought about online presence and communication style. Does the potential anonymity in this medium engender easier knee-jerk negativity?

I personally think editors have the right and obligation to set out their participation guidelines. It's their place. The guidelines above don't feel limiting to me.

Well-designed "Set & Setting" applies not only to entheogenic tryps, but also to baseline-state participation in environments like RS.

Dear Xanadu, calling "Orwell" on this?! Perhaps you're quoting tongue-in-cheek? Playing the trickster?!

RE: formating: I've done some research recently on Drupal versus Joomla for a project. Heard lots of positive comments from experts that Drupal is an excellent platform and under constant development by a growing community. I'm sure a little patch will be developed soon, and it seems most users get the hang of the Preview field soon enough.

Digging the Ian Brown song on your site ecolocal.

 

{ { { + } } }

/a

No, Dear Andy. I haven't been a Trickster since I was ambitious, and wrote for movies and TV. I do remember a faked orgasm or two, but that was really more a matter of politesse.

http://xanaduxero.blogspot.com

*   *   * 

PANARCHY!

It alllll has to go - even Anarchy.

Wildly incorrect, Ms./Mr. Moore, if 'she' is me.  A different parallel.  Now I have to add that to the mix when I read your comments.

http://xanaduxero.blogspot.com

*     *     * 

PANARCHY!

It alllll has to go - even Anarchy.

Here's my beef  Panini - perhaps I've speared its pith. I am not saying the following is true, but it looks this way to me:

JP: "As Reality Sandwich readership increases, we're asking our community to help foster a fun, positive and inclusive environment when posting comments on the site."

You're obviously a smart guy, Jonathan - this doesn't strike you as a tad...Nurse Ratched? Stepford Shaman?

What you've said, Tony, is that The Boys intend to achieve a certain result, and if our behavior doesn't serve it you'll inch up, but go as far as necessary, to swat the mosquito.

How is that different from any other site which maintains its control with rigidity and censorship?

What it IS different from is the "vibration" this site is allegedly built on it seems.  And if not, how not?

So once 'manifested' here we must clap politely, beg faintly to differ or leave?

What if the thing itself strains to morph into something else, long discussions for instance, where people get to know each other without an added "social site."

If you said, "look, we've got kids, nothing that interests us has ever made us any cash, we struck a nerve with this site-geit, and we want to sell it for a shitload so we can go smoke dope in Costa Rica!  So ZIP IT!  That I could totally respect.

http://xanaduxero.blogspot.com

* * *

PANARCHY!

It alllll has to go - even Anarchy.

With respect to Respect, there is no question that we should all be very accepting of people's differing perspectives. If somebody is visiting sites like this one, then they're likely on a path of self discovery & seeking answers to big questions. Who among you haven't traveled under differing paradigms on your own personal journey through life? Maybe somebody says something today, that is positively obsolete to their understanding 12 months from now. Beating up on them will not be helpful to such a person if they've got it all wrong right now. And are you so positive that you are so right? You yourself, & your infallable knowledge could well be outmoded in due course as well. So, just keeping it all mutually exploratory & casual is for the benefit of all, if we all are to progress together somewhere, or here. Now, on the subject of staying on point, & remaining relevant to the topic under which a comment has been posited. Well, I for one have been known to drop a turd every now & then in the wrong bowl, but no fish ever died from it otherwise funkifying the water in which it was left. Who are any of you to be so sure that something that makes no relevant connection to the topic as you see it, may make somebody else think of something else entirely. Especially if you're all to ever have any fun here. I'm of course new to this community, & am not very familiar with the type of off topic banter you're seemingly having trouble with. I've spent a great deal of time over the past year or more at a little forum that also talks a great deal of all things consciousness expanding & reality shifting, etc. But the posts over there can sometimes make sense to some in a sort of Inside Joke kind of manner, which could be construed as irreverent. But over the whole project may make total sense & be just the right comment in exactly the proper topic, at just the right time. You know why too? I think a sign of a good forum is one in which the conversation stays cohesive, while the topics change. If enough people tune in on a regular basis, these people are in a sense hanging out together in that space, in time (while certainly down the road six months some random web surfer won't have a clue what something might mean or be otherwise relevant to if they stumble on a comment about one members Vegan Dog's eating habits, that may have been a carry over conversation from another topic, possibly even about Vegan lifestyles, etc.) or the poem that irks you because you don't get it, might be just the right thing that poster needed to post to feel right with the world, & maybe consequently another member might stumble across those embedded words and find meaning in them. even though they may not have fit within Your neat little packages. And boxes, all stored hermetically in neat little categories. I don't know. Maybe I went on too much about this already. It's probably not even that important, but I know I'd be pretty irritated if I received a Dear Mabus, We here at the REality Sandwich code enforcement department feel like you just aren't following what We're saying here. It's not that we don't respect you, or your opinion's, we'd just prefer if you found a more appropriate place to post them. Thank you, the Team. Would it go something like that? I apologize in advance if my paragraphs lump together. I think I saw something somewhere about there being a right way & a wrong way to post using the preview comment button first, & then doing something. but I don't know what that something was. Was it spin in a circle in the middle of your room three times & say, beetlejuice, beetlejuice, beetlejuice?

 

 

 

 

Oh, crap. I think I figured it out. I'm not going to go back and figure out at this point where to put in the breaks.

 

sorry. I'll understand if you don't read that.

 

Even if I hadn't gone all clumpy words on you, I wouldn't blame you for not reading that rant.

 

OK bye now. Nice talking to myself.

Cheers, Mabus 

have tricky ways of addressing them, that's why i use poetic language in a lot of my comments, or mostly, because i learned a long time ago that it's more about the questions, then the answers, so if to the keep the doors of perception wide open, there is a better chance of something getting in through the opening that has been now placed in a few paragraphs or more.There is a tun of great sources out there, great books too numerous to count, many i have read, and yet intelligence may be on the rise, however new and interesting ways to encounter that, seem to be in the decline.I would hope RealitySandwich is a refuge for exploring all kinds of possible ways to continue the art and creative insight.People fear what they do not understand, language is not always simple to grok, but we need ways to adress complex issues and make it simple enought to keep the ball rolling.Evolving dialogue is a hip hop a skip and a jump through various modes of seeing into body politic and existentialist type of insight.Do you listen to Jazz, to Rap? do you get the lingo, and the drift, the rhythm that moves the street language? Do we need to place the street in the middle of the paradigm of the current environment of exchanges that sound out how relevant each exchange is? to the story under comment?

If, some people get stick with certain comments, that another confronts, who catched the flack? getting caught in the crossfire, and because you are not part of some cabal, or seem innocent bystander like, are there any innocent bystanders when the dialogue gets cooking? or are we just bystanders, that would fit some kind of nice neat prim and proper so-called relevance? really there is a need for passion, but obviously we don't need knee-jerk responses, to lofty issues.You think that people are afraid of talking about important issues, do we need to overcome, timidity in the arena of intense exchanges?

sure, i could give plenty examples, i could get down to the nitty gritty, i attempt to keep it flowing, and fun, and hopping.I experiment with the language, to accomplish this, its second-nature to me.

tl;dr is geek lingo for : too long; didn't read.

It's important to break up blocks of text with paragraphs in your comments to make it easy on the eyes.  Otherwise, it is much easier to just scroll past.

As for bo(r)ing bo(r)ing, who cares what a bunch of neo-yuppy kissers of corporate ass do ?  

PS I 'm actually impressed by the fact that I haven't been banned from here, even though I really won’t bother listening to young americans wearing cowboy hats and smug smiles ! 

 

And this place just wouldn't be the same without you!

[Preview Comment]

Insert lines where necessry 

Space my signature

[Post Comment]

 

 

"everything means something"

To most of the people upthread, I've recently been getting rather depressed and dispirited at what I perceive, rightly or wrongly, as the 'signal to noise' ratio on the comments section of a site I otherwise love. I've also been thinking of how to say what i'm trying to say without being a hypocrite or a fool. So far, using the anarcho-cybernetic terminology of the likes of Robert Anton Wilson and others I've realised that i'm not really frustrated that people aren't being 'nice' to each other more - it's that people aren't really communicating with each other enough (this includes me i'm sure but i've only posted 4-5 times ever), and that 'dissing people's ideas', being nasty, going off topic and writing huge screeds and screeds about oneself or one's theories, in ordinary prose or verse - are all things which reduce the amount of actual communication. It just seems so sadly predictable that the most prolific and (to me) most 'noisy' posters are the one's jumping right in trying to stir up a (to me) trivial rebellion and bringing in Orwellian overtones and making private jokes again. And i must add that when i sift through the 'noise' these same posters are often the most intelligent and interesting in other ways. The guidelines J has posted could be good or bad depending on how they are used, but either way the quality of the comments section on this site still depends on each individual person and her/his ability to regulate and be conscious of the nature of their output and their interaction with others. My rant over, please pick me apart with at least minimum respect for my squeamishness about direct confrontation. love to all.

Quite often i am just commenting on the original post , the topic at hand, instead of the comments that follow it.

This is not necessarily because i despise the other commenters, but often because i just don't have the time to read everyone's comments (especially when badly written or not formatted) .

For example , i usually scroll past cjmoore's comments , because they are hard to read, and often off-topic tangential rambings, even though occasionally brilliant and interesting. 

The problem is the way the software presents the comments. A sub-threaded presentation wold be preferable, where replies to comments are initially collapsed and can be viewed by clicking on a button, so that it's easier to discern which comments refer to the topic and post at hand and which comments are follow-ups and responses to other comments....

An even more sophisticated system would allow us to customise how the blog is presented in our browser, and to  choose to block posts & comments from certain members from appearing on our screen.

Theres a similar communication issue  with phones and text messages. When someone doesn't respond to my text i sometimes find myself getting annoyed and feeling snubbed, when the reason is often not that the other doesn't want to know me , but that they're busy with something else .

On the whole, text messages online or via phone are a poor commnication medium and i try to keep it to a minimum.

Thanks for everyone's input on this important topic. I recognize many of your concerns.  These guidelines are pretty standard.  1. Don't attack people. 2. Don't curse. 3. And try to stay a little on topic. These are common guidelines that you'll find on many, many webzines and blogs, as they reserve the right to ensure a safe space for actual dialogue to happen. I think of Burning Man, one of the most incredible spaces for radical free expression in the world and they still have some basic guidelines to insure people can feel safe enough to express themselves (ie: no more guns at the festival).

Something that I know has been a concern to a number of readers on the site is that the writer's of articles will sometimes be personally attacked for voicing their stories, insights, and ideas. Their articles can be questioned and debated in plenty of ways without reducing the conversation to mean-spirited name-calling. Our intention with these guidelines is simply that you treat fellow RSers with respect, even if you don't agree with what they're saying. 

Burning Man: where people strain to practice what they preach for two weeks, lubed by nature and science (wink), what they are unable to achieve for the rest of the year.

Namaste.

http://xanaduxero.blogspot.com

*    *    * 

PANARCHY!

It alllll has to go - even Anarchy.

To Ecological - understood and fair point that many people can be just commenting on the article and topic and not focusing on conversation: but where does that lead? Is everyone just talking into a vacuum then? If we only wanted to engage the author we could just e-mail them - but no we're all posting on this public space which isn't a mini-blog for each of us, it's supposed to be 'feedback' space. Now software design and general humanness means yes, we can't all realistically talk to each other all at once and keep up on all threads of conversation - but what we can all do is be aware of what we're communicating, content and intention and tone. The problem with Cjmoore for example is the guy may have plenty to say, and he may be fascinating company in person, but his posting style to me is like grabbing a stranger in the street and talking non-stop very quickly straight into their face without 1st creating any rapport, any emotional connection, any atmosphere for communication. What he has to say may be golden - but most of the time i can't hear it. Intention, technique and tone are all very important to most of us.

 

To xanaduxero - the few posts i've seen from you seem very confrontational, and I just find it off-putting, which again means I have trouble hearing objectively what you're trying to say. The one-upwomanship of "panarchy over anarchy!" for example -what does that communicate? That those 'stuck' in what you've deemed are outmoded ideas aren't to be listened to? My dad despite much greater historical perspective than me still seems to believe in mainstream Politics as the only way to change things - I see him as terribly stuck in certain ideas but I can still relate to him and debate with him if I approach him in the right way -with respect, with awareness of my own weak areas and ignorance and capability for misapprehension.

 

Sorry I hope this doesn't come across as an 'attack', I'm just trying to put out there the general idea of the impact and importance of style, rapport, intention etc on the atmosphere created, relationships fostered and the knowledge gleaned from the comments pages. I repeat Bob Wilson's/Hagbard Celine's formula from Illuminatus - COMMUNICATION IS POSSIBLE ONLY BETWEEN EQUALS Do we see and treat each other as equals?