Day: April 22, 2021

Forum Feedback Discussion

Let me begin by thanking everybody who helped test out the forum, including a couple of “new” posters. I want to emphasize that the forum is going to be designed to bring more people to the discussion, which is basically designed to be like Twitter or Gab – talk about whatever.

I want to THANK Tonawanda for pushing this aspect IMMEDIATELY, because I want the forum to be a real forum. Patriots talking about WHATEVER. We will likely create subfora which may ask for either HIGHER levels of civility, or allow for LOWER levels of civility – basically being “The U Tree“, only not under the control of WordPressDotCom. We will leave The U Tree where it is, as a kind of lifeboat in case this whole site goes down, but otherwise, I want to move the “get a room” stuff back to this site – just in a back room.

Likewise, thank you to Bfly for BRINGING HOME THE BACON.

Our friend rayzorback also gets it. ANYTHING.

NOW – let’s get down to BUSINESS.

I want to start making this sucker more like what it’s supposed to be – to get it OUT of beta test mode – very quickly.

We have different formats – the default is THREADED, which is much like on our blog, with the wpDiscuz commenting system.

Threaded has INDENTATION of REPLIES to REPLIES.

Threaded ALSO seems to be the most popular of the formats:

Now that is SOMEWHAT not fair, because I put up a threaded forum first, and people gravitated to it. HOWEVER, I put up the other three formats fairly quickly, and they DID draw replies, but NOT new topics (or “posts” in some parlance), as the THREADED format did.

Based on my observations, the big hit was conservative cultural discussion using the threaded format.

The threaded format simply drew MORE participation.

The next most popular was PROBABLY the Simplified layout. This layout depends heavily on QUOTING. It’s linear with embedded quotes that refer back to prior replies. This is an older but very common style of layout.

The Extended layout is pretty much the same as simplified, only LOOOONGER. It also depends on quoting.

Finally, there is the Q&A layout, which is a bit like Reddit, and a bit like technical “questions answered” forums.

This one is weird and confusing, yet has strange charms. It’s easier to show you how it works. The most important principles are as follows.

(1) The title asks a question, which is fleshed out in a top-level “reply” which can be commented upon.

(2) Responses to the title question are also top-level “replies”, which are called “Answers”, which have changeable titles, and can be upvoted or downvoted, affecting their display order.

(3) All top-level replies, both the fleshed-out question AND the “answers”, can draw COMMENTS, which are next-level replies, to which one CANNOT reply or “like”.

NOW – with that understanding in mind, observe FOUR disjoint snippets from a single Q&A session, which illustrate all these features and limitations.

1

2

3

4

Now, there seems to be some love for the Q&A format, despite its weird limitations. But there is also a lot of HATE.

We are almost led to the idea – well – can we have MULTIPLE layouts?

The answer is technically YES. However, there are RISKS in breaking up the forum too much. But let’s set those risks aside, and assume we are smart and don’t succumb to the risks – that we can avoid them. Let’s assume we “break things up smartly”. The next question is – HOW can we do this?

What is technically possible in terms of mixing styles?

There IS some “hybridization” possible, where we BLEND into a single style. It is complicated and probably won’t be done right away. This involves taking features from one style and grafting them into others. The software is designed to allow this, but it’s not simple, and it’s LIMITED. Small features, yes. Big ones – only if possible, and probably not even THAT.

So let’s set THAT aside. What is still possible in terms of multiple styles?

It turns out that EVERY FORUM AND SUB-FORUMS of that forum must have the same style. In other words, if I set up a forum, any forums “within it” or “below it” must be of the same style. Basically, anything in a hierarchy obeys the layout above it.

I can have MULTIPLE forums, but whatever layout is used in the top-level forum, carries down to ALL subforums.

Thus, if we want a “Q&A” forum like on technical sites, where answers “compete”, which can also be viewed as a reddit-style forum, where trendy consensus moves to the top, then that forum has to be DISTINCT from the main “threaded” or “simplified” forum, which is more likely to be the consensus forum layout. Likewise, if we want BOTH threaded and (simplified and/or extended) forums, then they ALL have to be separate, parallel, forums.

NOW your are ready to see what we have – FOUR parallel top-level TEST forums.

This will all get modified when I take the FORUM (as a whole) out of “beta test” into production. I may keep these old forums and their contents for historical purposes, or change them into new ones, but this is where it starts.

SO – that is is.

What are your thoughts? SPEAK FREELY NOW!!!

W

Dear KAG: 20210422 Daily Open Thread

Since there don’t seem to be any good new mask burning parties this week, I would like to address something that came up in relation to the two teenage girls getting into a fight, and one having a knife ready to stab the other.

For those of us who live in close enough proximity to certain neighborhoods, such sights are not, shall we say, shocking. However, that does not mean that the culture itself doesn’t have some underpinnings that are, for all intents and purposes, less than wholesome.

Last week, I wrote about Edward Bernays, and the manipulation of American public opinion via propaganda as practiced using the mainstream media.

While that discussion focused mostly on politics, and the shaping of the political landscape, the entire culture, actually, is subject to such treatment, especially with the amount of time Americans consume mainstream media programming both of the political variety and entertainment.

That being the case, after decades of “programming” from the men in the smoky back room, the culture itself has been impacted by what they want us to be, and not necessarily for the better.

When reflecting on the headlines, and all the violence and just plain anti-social and uncivilized behavior going on, some passages in my favorite psycho-analysis of American culture popped into my head.

I’ve written about the book, The Culture Code by Clotaire Rapaille previously, and his methodology of getting to the reptilian emotions behind certain code words and phrases that represent a cross-section of American thinking on a sub-conscious level. There are those who will think that these code words and phrases are hokum, and perhaps some of them are for the people who frequent this page. However, not all of America does, and they consume a lot more propaganda than some of us, so are subject to manipulation.

What Rapaille outlines in the book is what is seen as an alien culture to others around the world, and one he describes as incredibly adolescent. What it screams to anyone with a 40,000 foot view is the American people have been manipulated into making America really sick, and brainwashed.

Without giving away the store, meaning all of the codes, and how he got to them, Rapaille equates cultural needs as such:

  • Cars = identity (this one is a no-brainer for Americans)
  • Seduction = manipulation
  • Sex = violence
  • Beauty = man’s salvation (yes, I’ve felt like an object when a man told me any man would be proud to have me on his arm, at which point, I was done)
  • Fat = checking out
  • Love = false expectations
  • Marriage = unrealistic expectations
  • Health and wellness = movement
  • Nurse = mother
  • Doctor = hero
  • Food = fuel

Of course, there are more. Shopping is considered to be “reconnecting with life” and never moreso than in the year of COVID, but the reader here gets the idea. This culture has been manipulated away from what America once was and what many patriots still believe it to be.

Essentially, America was hijacked, although not as completely as the powers that wannabe probably think.

There is still an underpinning of patriotism, and there are still many who do not subscribe to the wackiness inspired by what is truly demonic. In the end, that steadiness will right the ship, but it is going to take time, and a whole lot more people rejecting the world as the propagandists present it.

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Please review our HOST and site owner’s Guidelines for posting and discussion for this site. Wolf is kind enough to put up with *most* of us and our antics after thorough vetting. Violators of the baiting and deliberately attempting to divide the group rules WILL face consequences.

The discourse on this site is to be CIVIL – no name calling, baiting, or threatening others here is allowed. Company manners are appreciated. Those who are so inclined may visit Wolf’s other sanctuary, the U-Tree, to slog out discussions best saved for a wrestling mat. Say hi to anyone who is actually hanging out there for the rest of us. If, for some reason, this site is not available, head over to the UTree and visit the post at the top of the list.

This site is a celebration of the natural rights endowed to humans by our Creator as well as those enshrined in the Bill of Rights adopted in the founding documents of the United States of America. Within the limits of law, how we exercise these rights is part of the freedom of our discussion. THAT MEANS THAT ALL OF US HERE ARE ENTITLED TO OUR OPINIONS AND PREJUDICES, ETC., SO LONG AS THEY CAUSE NO PHYSICAL HARM TO OTHERS OR DOXX OUR FELLOW TREE DWELLERS.

All opinions here are valued for the diversity they bring to the issues, and the shaping of understanding regarding topics for which many of us do not have all information.

Be careful in expressing thoughts as we would all like to think well of the rest of the group, and ill-thought out comments have a way of wrecking that for everyone.

Fellow tree dweller Wheatie gave us some good reminders on the basics of civility in political discourse:

  1. No food fights
  2. No running with scissors
  3. If you bring snacks, be sure they are made with bacon

Auntie DePat’s requests as we are all supposedly adults and not perpetual high school sophomores or the back row of the soprano section in any big chorus:

If you see something has not been posted, do us all a favor, and post it. Please, do not complain that it has not been done yet.

The scroll wheel on your mouse can be your friend. As mature adults, please use it here in the same manner you would in avoiding online porn.

Thank you so much for any and all attention to such details. It is GREATLY appreciated by more than one party here.

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ACTS 8:26-40

26But an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert road. 27And he rose and went. And behold, an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a minister of the Can’dace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of all her treasure, had come to Jerusalem to worship 28and was returning; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go up and join this chariot.” 30So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31And he said, “How can I, unless some one guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32Now the passage of the scripture which he was reading was this: “As a sheep led to the slaughter or a lamb before its shearer is dumb, so he opens not his mouth. 33In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken up from the earth.” 34And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, pray, does the prophet say this, about himself or about some one else?” 35Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this scripture he told him the good news of Jesus. 36And as they went along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What is to prevent my being baptized?” 38And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. 39And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught up Philip; and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. 40But Philip was found at Azo’tus, and passing on he preached the gospel to all the towns till he came to Caesare’a.

Prayers for the nation, the salvation of humanity, and all of us here – lurkers and members – as well as our families, are welcome.

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