• Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

    =====================
    Posted 08/15/2025
    =====================


    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

    =====================
    Addendum: 01/10/2026
    =====================


    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

Speaking of karma points

Wilomn said:
Though you have the smilie, we both, we ALL, know it could be far worse than it has ever been.

But hey, adventure is just that, adventure and I'm almost always up for adventure.

Yeah, you are probably right. If I was forced to state what I felt was my biggest personality flaw, I would have to say it is that I habitually tend to overestimate the actions of my fellow man. :D
 
Rich,

I like to think that I am the first to chastise criticism without a reasonable alternative being offered. With that in mind, a few thoughts on this:
Very good point. Which certainly means there will be a balancing act necessary in order to accomplish goals that may be a cross purposes. The trick will be to allow someone enough rope to allow them to show everyone that they NEED to get hanged BEFORE the posse takes them to the tree to help them along their way.

It is hard to qualify the plan without knowing the actual parameters, but with the above highlighted section, "everyone" would seem to be quantified as "enough to comprise the empowered lynch mob". If, on the other hand, the power rested with a process that had more merit, then a self-purging facility here might accomplish its goal. Without citing specific instances here, there have been Fauna "mob hits' that have harmed innocent folks in material ways. Some have been corrected with minimal damage, and some not. I would be glad to share a few examples with you in private.

I believe you are suggesting a means by which posters could be stifled, for good reason or otherwise. Whatever the final new criteria, you had posters here in the past who rightfully (by your criteria) earned a trip out the exit door, and yet you then decided to let them back in. To no one's surprise, the WWW got more WW_ .

It is no secret that the drama and scuffles create hits and traffic for the site. If this proposed change has traffic as a goal, or more of a goal than quality, then quantity may increase again, with quality taking the hit again. It may be an excellent business decision in many ways ....
Of course, if it proves to be the case that the greater majority of people forming the "mob" are the kind with just the detriment of this site at heart, maybe that will be rather instructive in itself. If the "good guys" here will allow that to happen, then who am I to intervene?
... depending on how one quantifies "the detriment of this site". Why not just empower the "good guys", as you acknowledge they exist :shrug01: Pick 10 of your best who seem to have always avoided being part of a mob, while still being active participants in the site. Just a possibility, but give them a "bomb" as suggested earlier, such that 3 or more of them can exercise collective power. Maybe 3 hits from them in a seven day period, and the poster is suspended from posting for 7 days. Here's some names, just as examples: Dan G., Mike G., John S., Laura F., Jim O., Seamus, Lucille, and there are more. I have tangled with every one of them, so I do not believe I am attempting to stack the deck except to say that these folks are fair. Obviously I have excluded some frequent posters who always seem to be part of the mobs. :D
 
Probably many people are wondering at my plans, I guess. Well I drop hints here and there. Some will be astute enough to figure it out before it is implemented.

But to your statement, Jim, it does have merits, and certainly some of which I have put into consideration with the new plan. Figuring out who is a "good guy" can be done in several ways, not all of which could be considered fair, objective, or completely accurate. Probably none of the ways could make that grade, because it would be me making that decision, and there are some who would balk at the plan just for that reason.

Obviously one of the real drawbacks I can see is that setting up a plan that is targeted at the TYPES of posting being done, could inhibit all posting in general. After all, posting then would open you up to being a target of opportunity. But I doubt it would be any worse than it already is. People are already abusing the karma system (yes, I can audit whatever is posted there), and it is extremely obvious that some people are targeting others with "karma bombs" for no other reason than they just have a vendetta against that person. But kids will be kids, I suppose.

There is no perfect way to run this site. So I have to make concessions to reality, and pick which compromises seem best at the time. And certainly the concessions and compromises will change as my opinion of what is most important (to me, or this site, hopefully both) changes based on feedback I get from the health of this site based on statistics and content.

One thing I have learned is that public opinion can really be no guide here. It is certainly possible for a majority to set the course on a path that is ill advised for one reason or another. So I have given up my prior tactics of stating what I plan to do, then judge the worthiness of it from the opinions rendered. Quite frankly, no one (meaning a member here that is likely to provide feedback) has done what I am trying to do here prior to my attempts. So all of the feedback is based merely on best guesses, which is the same that I am doing. And quite frankly, many people have gotten pissed in the past because my not choosing their method was taken as a personal slap to them. So it was a lose/lose situation for me.

Anyway, I'm actually surprised my programmer hasn't gotten this done yet. I thought it would be done by now........ :shrug01:
 
Karma?

Just a couple of questions:

1) Is there someplace easily accessable for new users or users who don't use Karma to teach them how?

2) What does Karma points have to do with "good guy" or "bad guy" based on the premise of misuse of the this system in the past?

3) Would ownership of the the Karma Posting lead to a little less misuse? Keep it from being anonymous and force people to put a name to it like a public post.

Just wondering.
 
My shot at answers:

1) I don't think there is any readily accessable explanation to the karma point system. Kind of trial and error and tidbits here and there.

2) That would be one of the "64 karma point questions" ! Abuse of any such system will exist, and Rich has implemented some means of control, but there is no absolute way. Just like trader ratings, etc, they are swapped, requested, etc.

3) Paid membership has its privileges. If you buy in at about the $20 level (not sure exactly), you then get to see who gave you what, with comments, in your use CP.

Like everything, it has its pros and cons.
 
Jim
Thanks, as I have stated in another post have never really looked at the Karma points. But one of the things that I noticed is those that take ownership of the point tend to be a little more level headed. You left me Karma a long time ago and put your name to it....only one other person has done so.(not that I have tons of karma) but especially on neg Karma I would think some of the crap would end if you had to own up to it.
 
Not for sure, but what may have happened is that I put my name in the comments, which you could see. At the higher paid levels, you'd have seen that I gave (or took) karma regardless. Just one more place to be called a $hithead :) ... at least that seems to be what I paid for .... LOL ... sorry.
 
Dragondad said:
Jim
Thanks, as I have stated in another post have never really looked at the Karma points. But one of the things that I noticed is those that take ownership of the point tend to be a little more level headed. You left me Karma a long time ago and put your name to it....only one other person has done so.(not that I have tons of karma) but especially on neg Karma I would think some of the crap would end if you had to own up to it.

Good points! :)
 
Well you did put you name in the comments, good or bad I appreciated that you did so. Actually it was pos Karma so.....

My point is have taken some hits and some of the hits didnt even leave a comment. Now if I pay then I can see...might have to consider that but my point is for the average joe out there who no longer pays to play would face less crap if the Karma had ownership.
 
Dan
Your original point I loved, didnt leave you karma tho LOL. If I agree with your post let you know in the thread. If I disagree the same thing, at least I am not hiding
 
Dragondad said:
Dan
Your original point I loved, didnt leave you karma tho LOL. If I agree with your post let you know in the thread. If I disagree the same thing, at least I am not hiding

Thanks! That's the way it has to be (at least IMHO). We agree or "we agree to disagree" openly and with civility.

Have a good one! :)
 
OK now, Dennis I looked at all the threads you listed, 6 of them. 5 pertain to reputation points, and one Karma points. Now are they the same thing? And where do trader points fit in to this mix?
 
The "Karma" system was originally called the "Reputation" system because that is the way it came packaged from JelSoft with this message board system. I felt that "Reputation" would be in conflict with the way other subsystems on this site are designed to operate. The "Karma" system is basically a rating system (with some previously noted forced limitations) for members to use to show their evaluation of a particular post you made.

And yes, each Karma assessment is tagged with the member who tagged you with a rating. I decided that I needed some perks to try to encourage members to become paid members here, so the ability to SEE who posted you Karma is limited to paid members only. So in effect, everyone posting Karma is actually held accountable by the recipient as to who actually posted it to them. It just requires the member to decide if becoming a paid member here is worth it to find out.

If I remember correctly, I also set it so that only paid members can assess NEGATIVE Karma, but all registered members can assess POSITIVE Karma. That was one of the steps I incorporated in order to try to keep some of the abuse down that past experiences showed to be a real problem around here.

Realistically, it's just a toy to play with. If your Karma rating concerns you, then it will likely cause you to give some thought as to the method in which you post here. Otherwise you can just ignore it and go about your business as if it didn't even exist.
 
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