Be Excellent To Each Other

Pretending to do something pretend...

It was the "cost me £159.99" that got me.

Wow. That is sad.

Saying that though, the USB controller thingy is quite cool. You could use it to really-remotely control a proper remote control helicopter (with a web cam and wifi bolted on it) over the interweb or something. Maybe.

Or maybe not.

Even better, it should let you practice without trashing your highly-expensive and just-unwrapped model plane the first time you take it out.

They are actually quite useful for learning to fly RC devices.
They're not that expensive IIRC - £30 will get you a USB controller and there are a couple of free programs out there for the actual sim part.

[edit]So, what Kern said, then. What have you got, Kern?

My mate's dad has one of these, he recently went through hell on toast getting it to work under Vista. Like others have said, it's not at all nerdy -- it's for practice. Well, it's still nerdy, but not as much as it looks on first glance.

You'd have to buy me a drink first.

...

Oh. That. I don't have a model aeroplane,but remember seeing a kit like that in a shop and thinking it would be rather useful

What's the "icons icons" thing about?

Reminding people to choose a topic icon for their post.

Oh I see! D'oh.

Categorisation is fun. Fun fun.

Lots of fun.

Actually, arseholes to this. I think I'll duck out now before a compulsory uniform is introduced.

Phooey.

We've lost Dr A due to the silly icons.

Are you going to let Ashens get away with this markg?

The best moderation is that which is not noticed.

Best to keep it that way, eh?

Meh

Oh for fucks sake. Half of the board goes "there's too much stuff, we need catagories" and the other half goes "meh, catagories, I don't want that".
Can't we all just get along?

I think the problem was that forgetting to put on a category shouldn't have been complained about, but rather silently added.

Oh, fuck off. We're you not here last week? When I got a whole day's abuse for not saying anything?

Or, y'know, just let people either categorise their posts into one of the arbitrary categories provided, or let them not categorise it, because if they don't the world most definitely won't end and the forum won't collapse into unusable chaos.

Making shit like this compulsory is, frankly, ridiculous. As Dave says, moderation shouldn't be noticed. Modding people into complying with what icons they use or don't use is a giant step too far.

What happened to the light touch moderation? All of a sudden we've got presentational rules, for goodness' sake. "Be excellent to each other" was fine as the one and only rule, wasn't it? What next? Formatting and style rules?

Soz, like, but, puh-shaw.

Malc

Where the hell was all that when we discussed all this? I don't like having the icons - I don't think they suit the layout of the forum page and I've done a shit-BASTARD load of work getting them to filter by catagory you bunch of CUNTS.

Grim..., as I discovered recently, it's far easier to just sit back and simply bring down the gavel when the angry mob demands it, than actually care and try and remember, consider, and respond to people's voices concerned. Democracy just doesn't work, it has become sadly and increasingly apparent.

I wuv you Grim..., but people wanted the OPTION to use the icons, not to be edited into complying with them.

It was something people wanted, you implemented it, people were happy. You then modded people into using them, which wasn't something good as people don't want the admins descending from the heavens with the Valkyries of "YOU HAVEN'T ICONED YOUR THREAD, YOU CUNT"*. End of.

There's a simple solution here, which makes everyone happy.

*Poetic license taken here, obv.

Oh, and now I've missed the beginning of BSG. Nads.

Or allow people to have the options to do the things they want, not mod the whole forum into complying with it.

The issue here is the enforcement of blanket rules that no one actually asked for. People asked for functionality with the thread icons, not rules.

Sort of here, for one: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=471



It's nothing to do with the icons, it's buggering about un-necessarily with peoples' posts. No matter how inoffensive and helpful it might seem, it's actually a bit off-putting. A bit like if you go to someone's house and they follow you around with a bucket and mop in case you leave footprints, and continually check to make sure you shoelaces are tied and you put their CDs back in the right order. You'd soon tire of it and go back to your own scruffy pad. Well I would.

Sorry to be so direct but it does seem to be a bit of a recurring irritation, and has a very easy solution..

I don't think a whole forum has been modded into compliance, by a couple of tacit edits reminding people of icons. I haven't seen anything from Mr. Ashens before about icons. I wish he had previously voiced his opinion in a less combustible manner, and sooner, consequently.

Well CUS, it appears that the whole forum must now have thread icons, or they'll be added in, with an optional complimentary reminder. Which is, basically, being modded into compliance. Which some people don't really like. Kalmar has unleashed a suitable, if mundane, metaphor.

Would this be solved with a default topic icon, perhaps?

Yes - default to none.

Basically, mods should only ever be stepping in to edit posts or move things around where someone is being decidedly unexcellent to a fellow forum member or the forum as a whole.

All this moving off topic stuff to different posts and whatnot is just making people, I think, feel like they're spoiling the arrangement of the cushions in someone else's house.

No, I wasn't here last week.

Then those people who previously spoke loudly of how Stu Runs A Tighter Ship Than This with less Signal To Noise, have a lot to answer for. I wonder if perhaps they've all fucked off now or something in disgust at whatever. In which case, maybe we can all just come out and play again in the sun. This should be made a vote, perhaps.

Not everyone has the time to keep up to date with everything. I have found this site is far more active than WoS ever was and am having trouble keeping up, and we all know what my posting was like in the past.

People don't want their stuff messed with, no matter how trivial. When I was a mod on my website (comments only) the only thing I messed with were trolls. Even then, I was frowned at when I did that.

I don't think anyone begrudges what you have done Grim... I think what a lot of people want is what WoS was but without the censorship that Stu sometimes brought to bear/bare.

What a lot of people have seen here, is a lot of minor manipulation that's been done with good intentions, but could be seen as un-needed meddling.

Malc

Which is, basically, what we said we'd do from the beginning or a catagory system for the people moaning about the hassles of ignoring threads on their own wouldn't work.
However, I'm buggered if I'm going to finish that now, so feel free to set whatever icons you like.

Er...

You are excused.

what?

Malc

Happiest forum evar. Hoorah. And on the monkey thread day.

The icons were there for the people who didn't have the time to keep up to date with everything.

Also the new RSS feeds,I would wager.

:shrugs:

I only mean that RSS feeds, a recently provided choice, are a potential aid for keeping up to date. And they're optional.

Anyhoo - what's the film where the guy says "I am not having a good day!" and bangs the table on 'not'? I wanted to say it earlier but couldn't remember the name.

Hmm - it may have been in Red Dwarf, actually.

Thank you.

(For what it's worth, if you check the initial discussion, I was, and still am, all for the idea. But I don't think people should be complained at for not using it. Likewise, I can't see how anyone could complain about having a thread they'd posted categorised after posting - as some people do use it, so long as there's no implication that they're being naughty by not having done so in the first place, as that's just divisive.)

What Dave said, probably.

Wha'? I thought you didn't like them?
/cries

I agree with Mr Dave.

I'm not that sort of person. I like to read it all. If I can. My point was that if I was having trouble keeping up, then other people with less time than me would have even more trouble.

Malc

Yeah, but - the icons were there to help people who couldn't keep up. That's why we wanted everyone to use them (and took a guess at giving them one if they didn't).

Malc, that's partly where there has been urging for the Important threads to be kept as 'clear' as possible ,like the Bargains thead.

I don't, much, but I've been using them as I'm automatically set to default "do what Grim says". However, I don't think people should have to use them, and I don't think people's posts should be modded to tick them off for not using them. I'm ambivalent about mods adding topic icons if the poster doesn't, though. I can see why people may get annoyed by it, but I'm not too fussed. I generally ignore them anyway.