What Lies Beneath This Slippery Slope?

by Derrick 18 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Derrick

  Simon, thanks for recognizing the need to balance the needs of new visitors versus old timers by clamping down the thread. The topic locking mechanism is a good idea in lieu of the much maligned moderatorism approach.

  Also, to J.R., I hadn't noticed the date of the original post and thereby acknowledge it represented the state of affairs on this forum in ancient times (Feburary 2002). I do recognize that there is a move toward more productive discussions regarding the sad state of affairs in the organization as regards pedophilia and other social ills.

  Simon, you're doing an excellent job of presiding over this forum without having to deputize a small army of volunteers to patrol the streets! With a great sacrifice of your time and energy, there is no need for motorcycle cops handing out "tickets" for abuse of forum privileges. I dearly wish that I had the time so that H2O could have avoided the inevitable human problems that can arise from a site under the control of moderatorism.

  Do you suppose that one of these days you will feel drawn to succumb to recruiting a few volunteer "helpers" (carefully avoiding the descriptor "moderators" that triggers severe spasms in some people)? My dream once, Simon, back in the "good old days" of H2O moderatorist peristroika (as I nostalgically wave a red flag with hammer and sickle, LOL, just kidding), was to eventually phase out the need for human moderators. How so? By creating rule-based "bots".

  These intelligent little bots would contain rule based logic necessary to responsibly patrol the streets of H2O in a low-profile manner. Taking over much of the day-to-day dirty-but-necessary operations of the much maligned human "moddies" who each sacrificed their time to maintain site integrity, these little bots could enable everyone to ENJOY the forums -- and not get placed in the position of "Mr./Ms. Moddy Bad Guy." ;-)

  If you could create such bots with programming slight of hand, Simon, then you could take vacation away from this site for once! They could do all the unpopular but necessary "dirty work" in your absence. Just a thought.

  Derrick

  To see a World in a Grain of Sand
  And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
  Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
  And Eternity in an hour.

  -- William Blake (Auguries of Innocence)
• 

  Simon

  An army of bots ... that would be nice

  Mind you, I've just spent the last few weeks working on some code to parse HTML and eal with all of it's nuances so moving to something a little more unstructured like the english language may be beyond me I'm afraid. Well, for now at least ... I'm sure someone somewhere will come up with a component that will analyse some text and can give it a RASC rating.

  I guess no one really knows how difficult it is to keep a balance until they have done this sort of thing themselves?

  In the end, there are lots of different people who have their own standards and likes / dislikes which also change depending on the mood they are in (I'm as guilty of this as anyone) and so 'pleasing everyone' is never going to be easy. What tends to happen is that things lurch one way and then are corrected (possibly too much) in the other direction and so on.

  I think though, given the media exposure and the likelyhood of new JW visitors to the site that it would be better and do more good long term if we could be a bit more restrained in some of the language used at least for the time being. We may be free of the WTS 'control' and thinking but there are other that we would like to help who are not and seeing some posts like that could really put them off.

  My 2p
• 

  Eric

  What the hell Rick,

  H2O was what it was. The people who posted there made it what it was.

  Various moderators got too big for themselves, started to think that they made H2O what is was. Everybody left.

  It is no more complicated than that.

  Eric
• 

  BeautifulGarbage

  Hello Everyone,

  I believe the use of profanity is a double-edge sword. Some like it, some don't. When I started lurking, I remember reading a thread that was loaded with cuss words. I thought "wow" these are "regular" people. Well, as much as XJW's can be "regular".

  Now, I certainly don't think that people should lace their posts with profanity for no particular reason. It does have a tendency to distract from the message. However, I begin to roll my eyes whenever I read (and I paraphrase) "But, What will the newbies think"?! in protest to the sometimes strong language used in this forum.

  Witnesses that are turned away by the language are really looking for ANY reason to justify remaining within the Borg fold. If they are truly looking for information regarding the dirty underbelly of the WTS they can see through the language. Many of the witnesses I know, and knew, CUSS. And I'm not talking an occasional "damn". I'm talking the full line of "vile" profanity available.

  I certainly knowledge that a JW newbie would most likely find some of the language here, and particulary in that thread, shocking. I think the free nature of this forum, itself, is shocking to a witness. Especially after reading the WT mind rot for years and having to watch ones back in regards to everything they do and say. But, PLEASE, they hear profanity all the time! Was it just suddenly as XJW's some of us came into our swearing skills? Nah, they were honed with all the wonderful association of Jehovahs Witnesses, themselves. For me personally, my JW Father was a master, and as his daughter, I learned my lesson well.

  As for the particular thread noted here. It's intent was to be humorous. I thought it was hilarious! After what that disgusting cult, dressed up like religion, did to my family, quite frankly, I think it extremely appropriate the WTS have language inserted that expresses the true meaning of their sick, twisted, dogma. If laughter heals the soul, well, that thread was good medicine for me.

  Here's where I suck up to Simon:

  You have to be the most even tempered human on the planet(or you drink alot of beer) to keep such a level head when it comes to this forum. Thank you for all the excellent work you do running this place.

  Andee
• 

  Simon

  oh no, my secret is out ... more beer - I need MORE BEER !
• 

  simplesally

  Me too, I need more beer.
• 

  Schibolet

  To a certain horde of regulars, I'm appalled at your behavior considering the harsh criticism you have given to "Fred Hall" and "You Know" and other rogue JWs!

  I am very happy to see that apostates either get disfellowshipped, they disassociate themselves, or just leave. Apostates always complain that their is no real love between JWs. This is so false. They don't realize that after they leave, the congregation is again at peace and keep showing love to one another. The apostate is what cause divisions and lack of love in the congregations, that's why they complain, but they are the problem. This is the beauty of how Jehovah works, he cleanses his congregation from these pests.
• 

  SYN

  There would be no need for multiple robots. You would only need one. Simon, I'd be willing to work with you to develop a system that would parse and identify certain words and combinations of them and then use it to create a rating dynamically for a thread every time someone posted to it - sort of an ongoing rating system, clamped at a maximum level. Then the rating could be displayed next to the thread. The possibilities are endless

  "If men were like their personal ads, they wouldn't need personal ads."
• 

  Derrick

  An army of bots ... that would be nice

  Hi Simon,

  I was just curious if you've made any progress in putting an albeit rudimentary form of A.I. or artificial intelligence into the administration of problematic posts?

  After having rented the new DVD movie "Resident Evil" however, I realize that you can get carried away in turning the site's moderatorship to "an army of bots" (hehehe) since you don't want the kind of mishap that plagued Umbrella Corporation's computer-controlled "hive"!

  Ugh, NOT a pretty picture, but the movie will definitely provide spine-tingling thrills to Armageddon junkies like You Know! (It's even a good primer for those who think artificially intelligent computers and the networks tied to them will save us from the very techno terrors depicted in this classic technology horror flick.)

  Simon, if you like really scary movies that depict our world a few decades in the future, and you're NOT prone to nightmares, then go rent "Resident Evil" and let me know what you think. This film is every You Know's and every Armageddon junkies wet dream because it depicts an evil corporation like Enron screwing humanity.

  Derrick