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  1. #1
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    Default Subrscription Forums

    It is a bit of an understatement, but there have been a number of suggestions in WB lately that if someone is unhappy with the tone of a thread in the "Subscription Forums", all that one has to do is "unsubscribe" from it.

    In the two largest forums - Politics and World - there have long been topics that I find of interest and productive, particularly those relating to the environment and backpacker-related items. Others are a bit more inflammatory and, perhaps, ones I would be happier not having forwardded to me.

    Is there a way to accomplish that? I'm not talking about "ignoring" anyone; while there are some here who irk me, I know of no one who does not also post useful information.

    Or is it "subscribe to that forum, get it all"?

    The Weasel
    "Thank God! there is always a Land of Beyond, For us who are true to the trail..." --- Robert Service

  2. #2

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    Admin can unsubscibe you to any specific subforum. As far as specific threads, no.

    Do you have some sort of RSS feed set up?

    If your personal preferences are set to subscribe, thread subscriptions, new thread material may end up in your in box. This happens after you post to a thread. This is different though than being subscribed to a forum.
    "Sleepy alligator in the noonday sun
    Sleepin by the river just like he usually done
    Call for his whisky
    He can call for his tea
    Call all he wanta but he can't call me..."
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    Then it is as I thought it was, and it is essentially "all or nothing".

    Thanks for the information.

    The Weasel
    "Thank God! there is always a Land of Beyond, For us who are true to the trail..." --- Robert Service

  4. #4
    ECHO ed bell's Avatar
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    There are three groups one can subscribe to and unfortunately two of them can include material that people wish to avoid and some really good thought provoking threads. I think the thick-skinned group is what the moderators use to cull out material from the rest of the non-subscription areas when they believe the subject should be available, but only by those who are prepared for quite a bit of controversy. Trouble is that the Sensetive Trail Subjects Group is not used for Politics or World Abroad Threads that start to "get out there". I'm sure that the last thing the Administrators want to do is keep adding layers of Forums to shelve all this stuff, but maybe the Sensetive Forum should be a bit more broad. My .02.
    That's my dog, Echo. He's a fine young dog.

  5. #5

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    Not exactly The Weasel. You might be able to set up an RSS feed to grab what you feel is acceptable to you. ATTroll feeds in to WB news articles of interest. These are found by search terms. I'm guessing you might be able to zero in on a particular forum and get only what you want. Since I don't have a need for this, I can't help you. Maybe someone else will .
    "Sleepy alligator in the noonday sun
    Sleepin by the river just like he usually done
    Call for his whisky
    He can call for his tea
    Call all he wanta but he can't call me..."
    Robert Hunter & Ron McKernan

    Whiteblaze.net User Agreement.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Alligator View Post
    Not exactly The Weasel. You might be able to set up an RSS feed to grab what you feel is acceptable to you. ATTroll feeds in to WB news articles of interest. These are found by search terms. I'm guessing you might be able to zero in on a particular forum and get only what you want. Since I don't have a need for this, I can't help you. Maybe someone else will .
    Alligator, I think you and I here have established by this exchange that it's really a huge amount of work to exclude something once it gets to the point where it's objectionable to someone. It's not like the Hokey Pokey; either you're in, or you're out. So if someone is invited to "unsubscribe," essentially they're being asked to abandon the entire forum, not just one thread.

    I have hopes that, in light of the recent posts by ATTRoll and DixiCritter, choices like that will not be as necessarily confronted as they may have been in the past.

    Thanks for your information.

    The Weasel
    "Thank God! there is always a Land of Beyond, For us who are true to the trail..." --- Robert Service

  7. #7

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    Quote Originally Posted by The Weasel View Post
    Alligator, I think you and I here have established by this exchange that it's really a huge amount of work to exclude something once it gets to the point where it's objectionable to someone. It's not like the Hokey Pokey; either you're in, or you're out. So if someone is invited to "unsubscribe," essentially they're being asked to abandon the entire forum, not just one thread.

    I have hopes that, in light of the recent posts by ATTRoll and DixiCritter, choices like that will not be as necessarily confronted as they may have been in the past.

    Thanks for your information.

    The Weasel
    I'm sorry The Weasel, but that's not what we established. We established that neither you nor I know the specifics to address your need for a personal "objectionable filter".

    The low tech solution is to allow admin to decide whether the thread is objectionable, then to not click on it if you disagree with them .
    "Sleepy alligator in the noonday sun
    Sleepin by the river just like he usually done
    Call for his whisky
    He can call for his tea
    Call all he wanta but he can't call me..."
    Robert Hunter & Ron McKernan

    Whiteblaze.net User Agreement.

  8. #8

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    In the two largest forums - Politics and World - there have long been topics that I find of interest and productive, particularly those relating to the environment and backpacker-related items. Others are a bit more inflammatory and, perhaps, ones I would be happier not having forwarded to me.
    Backpacking and environmental issues are generally posted under: Trail Concerns, Issues & History

    http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=23

    The non-AT forums are just that, with an emphasis on politics and seldom have anything to do with backpacking or the environment.
    Last edited by dixicritter; 12-12-2006 at 19:40. Reason: to remove inappropriate comments in post

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    Quote Originally Posted by Alligator View Post
    I'm sorry The Weasel, but that's not what we established. We established that neither you nor I know the specifics to address your need for a personal "objectionable filter".

    The low tech solution is to allow admin to decide whether the thread is objectionable, then to not click on it if you disagree with them .
    Well, I think we both know what I'm asking, and what you're telling, and you've helped me understand the situation well.

    But I don't know that any of the threads are deemd "objectionable". I know that some seem controversial, but that's not the same thing. And I know that many of the controversial ones I just don't care about. But there's no real way to winnow between them automatically. That's what I was looking for.

    Thanks for your insight.

    The Weasel
    "Thank God! there is always a Land of Beyond, For us who are true to the trail..." --- Robert Service

  10. #10
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    Sly, there's no need to call The Weasel a troll here. I do not believe that his post here was intended to be inflamatory, only seeking information as to how to unsubscribe from specific forums.

    Things have started to settle down, let's allow them to remain calm please. I am editing out your last comments in your post.

  11. #11
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    The new firefox browser has the rss feed set up on the address bar.

    http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/exte...2&forumids=362

  12. #12

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    Quote Originally Posted by bfitz View Post
    The new firefox browser has the rss feed set up on the address bar.

    http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/exte...2&forumids=362
    Been meaning to learn how to pick these up. Thanks.

    However, the fact that the Non-AT forums are subscription based seems to be interfering. The icon appears, but attempting to add the feed draws a blank page.
    "Sleepy alligator in the noonday sun
    Sleepin by the river just like he usually done
    Call for his whisky
    He can call for his tea
    Call all he wanta but he can't call me..."
    Robert Hunter & Ron McKernan

    Whiteblaze.net User Agreement.

  13. #13
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    Default

    Hmmmm, yeah, and unless you actually were able to check all the threads how would you know which ones you wanted in your feeds anyhow?

  14. #14

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    Tunneling down to the answer now.
    1. Use a smart feed. This works with search terms.
    2. The RSS aggregator needs to be able to supply credentials--username,password.
    "Sleepy alligator in the noonday sun
    Sleepin by the river just like he usually done
    Call for his whisky
    He can call for his tea
    Call all he wanta but he can't call me..."
    Robert Hunter & Ron McKernan

    Whiteblaze.net User Agreement.

  15. #15
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    I am going to add this comment here again..

    I have been contemplating for a while moving the politics over to the thin-skinned forum. I don't think Troll or Dixie even really care since I am probably the only administrator that even goes there on a regular basis. I think this would help as there are some people in that politic forum that seem to only want to pick fights anyway - yet there are people that want access to some of the other off topic forum stuff without reading about all the bickering or all that less than accurate "information"
    SGT Rock
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    My 2008 Trail Journal of the BMT/AT

    BMT Thru-Hikers' Guide
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    NO SNIVELING

  16. #16
    Registered User Frolicking Dinosaurs's Avatar
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    I feel what SgtRock has suggested is an excellent idea.

  17. #17

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    Quote Originally Posted by SGT Rock View Post

    I have been contemplating for a while moving the politics over to the thin-skinned forum. I don't think Troll or Dixie even really care since I am probably the only administrator that even goes there on a regular basis. I think this would help as there are some people in that politic forum that seem to only want to pick fights anyway - yet there are people that want access to some of the other off topic forum stuff without reading about all the bickering or all that less than accurate "information"
    Sounds pretty smart to me, Rock.
    Teej

    "[ATers] represent three percent of our use and about twenty percent of our effort," retired Baxter Park Director Jensen Bissell.

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    Whoever goes whining and complaining when they get their egos clipped out to be ashamed of themselves.

    I said it before, but maybe we could start a "minnesota smith update" style mega-thread that was only for bickering. Something gets someone annoyed and they go there to vent. It could be the WB gripe thread. If people started getting on eachother participants in a thread could tell em to take it "outside". Then it could go on forever, and mabye even provide loads of entertainment for WBers. Our rivalries are kind of, well, enjoyable. I don't think there's any sides taking it out on each other on other threads. Imagine how boring WB would be if everything was all toned down and folks like LW and JT, and others filtered all the "character" out of their posts. That's really a depressing thought IMO. What's next? The Anti-rancor-niks demanding FD stop making photoshop mockeries of WB memebers? Bluejay to stop claiming I'm insane with bloodlust? (I swear, I'll really miss that!) Where will it end? Aw shucks, maybe the glory daze are just over.

  19. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by bfitz View Post
    Whoever goes whining and complaining when they get their egos clipped out to be ashamed of themselves.

    I said it before, but maybe we could start a "minnesota smith update" style mega-thread that was only for bickering. Something gets someone annoyed and they go there to vent. It could be the WB gripe thread. If people started getting on eachother participants in a thread could tell em to take it "outside". Then it could go on forever, and mabye even provide loads of entertainment for WBers. Our rivalries are kind of, well, enjoyable. I don't think there's any sides taking it out on each other on other threads. Imagine how boring WB would be if everything was all toned down and folks like LW and JT, and others filtered all the "character" out of their posts. That's really a depressing thought IMO. What's next? The Anti-rancor-niks demanding FD stop making photoshop mockeries of WB memebers? Bluejay to stop claiming I'm insane with bloodlust? (I swear, I'll really miss that!) Where will it end? Aw shucks, maybe the glory daze are just over.
    Bfitz:

    I say this not in a spirit of bickering, but to ask you - and perhaps others - to consider how what you consider "enjoyable" may not be as much fun for others. Set aside your preconceptions of me for a few minutes - perhaps others will, as well - and try to reflect on what I say, with as much candor as I can; I'm sorry this is so long, and hope you'll tolerate it.

    Some weeks ago, I read a post of a thru hiker who had been confronted in Erwin by the police. He didn't know how it could happen and, frankly, it upset me how he was treated, and I thought that maybe if he'd known a little reliable law, things would have been better for him and might be for other hikers. I spent an hour going through WB, current and as much as I could, past, and didn't find much that told backpackers what might be considered "first aid for hikers", about topics I thought would be useful. I suspected there would be a lot more topics that others would come up with, and I also had hopes that some of the other lawyers here (and there are several), as well as law enforcement types and others with knowledge of particular topics would post, as well. I was also concerned about two things: First, a lot of laypeople "know" what the law is, but they really don't, and their well-intentioned errors can get people in trouble. A small example is the thread about "Canadian Customs" (i.e. immigration into the US), where there were several incorrect posts about passport requirements and lengths of time that a Canadian can be in the US without a visa). Second, I didn't want a "let's debate good and bad laws" thing; I wanted to try to find out what topics mattered to backpackers, and get as much input back-and-forth on that so that I could consolidate everything at some point for an article to be submitted and, I hoped, accepted.

    I put these points in the very first post, and asked - not demanded, or required, or ordered, but asked if people would refrain from providing "legal opinions" in the sense of "this is the law" as well as debates, unless they had qualifications to do so. Part of that was because WB is essentially an anonymous group of people, usually without names, or any way to know if the speaker had any basis for saying "what the law is."

    I probably put 30-40 hours of time into the early messages and posts, and it was, I thought, well received. Other lawyers made contributions, as did several law enforcement types, and even a doctor and, I think, an RN, as to some medico-legal issues. Suddenly several posters started posting "this is what the law says" types of messags, or wanting to argue about "the law means this or that" types of debates, and in some cases raised points or topics that were pretty clearly off-topic. To try to keep the thread from veering off, as many threads do, into a variety of "this is my opinion, dammit" subthreads, I asked, a number of times, for people to try to honor my request. I also noted, over and over, that if they didn't agree with my request, it was incredibly easy to start their own thread. No one did.

    Instead, the thread increasingly became a debate thread, with more and more "who do you think you are" types of posts. As much as I would ask, "are there more questions here," I got what I viewed as attacks, sarcasm, and hostility. Several others in that thread saw the same things, and asked posters to stop doing so; among those was Sgt Rock. But after that, things became even more intemperate. And understand this: This wasn't a "debate" thread, and it wasn't even in the "normal" part of the Forum: It was put, by Rock, into "Straight Forward" to try to stop the debating and bickering. So this is where you and I differ a little - when you say that it doesn't look like this bickering happens other than in the Non-AT threads. It does. A lot.

    Some of what happened in the "Law" thread appears to be that some people here despise lawyers, or don't like being told that their knowledge of something such as law is less than mine. There may be other reasons. But, uniquely of all the jobs that WB members hold, mine suddenly became one that was fair game for almost any insult. There then came a suggestion from Brrrb to create two threads, with some very specific "rules" (as Brrrb put it). I took his suggestion and loosened it up a bit, and created the two threads. One was "Lawyer Praise and Peeves". I hardly realized that it would become a thread for "how bad can we hurt Russ."

    On the heels of this, I began posting in "World". I took a position that disagreed - strongly - with some very, very strong words about George Bush, which called him a "slime bag" and more. Those are harsh words, yet no one minded their harshness, it seemed, while going very intense against me for describing them as beyond the limit of fair debate. It became apparent that other opinions were allowable; mine were not. This culminated in a gloating - it seemed to me - post that equated George Bush with Hitler. Frankly, I disagree with our President about much; but, for many reason stated in that forum, I think such words are too much. Instead of disagreeing with my message, though, I got beat up pretty hard. More, I think, than WB ever was intended to permit.

    So the upshot was that I had two senses of what was occurring on WB: The first was a stark application of "The Boy Scout Corrollary to Murphy's Law: No good deed will go unpunished." My effort to try to create a crib sheet for backpackers about the law was trashed. The second was, "All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others," in the sense that some people could state what I considered outrageous opinions, but if I challenged those statements, I was subject to attack. And, yes, I was pretty sore (not angry...sore) and, frankly, very hurt about the law thread.

    I have no doubt that you enjoy WB, and perhaps you enjoy the Trail aspect of it too; it's a beautiful thing, and I'm sure it's what drew you (and most others) here at the outset. But I really mean it when I say that I think this slash-and-burn mentality to so many threads that are in the "AT" part of the forum - and the legal thread was in the "Straight Forward" segment (i.e. "straight forward question-and-answer") - that it is seriously damaging WB to the many people who don't come here for politics and all such things.

    Yes, I know it's boring reading about trekking poles over and over; as a Scoutmaster for 20 years, I learned that it's not total fun teaching how to make upside down cake every year; my wife, an elementary teacher, knows even better what "repetitive teaching" means. But there is a huge value here for people with experience teaching those without it, particularly about a wonderful trail. But people ARE being scared away, both from this Forum and from the Trail by what appears to be a highly confrontational "trail mentality." Telling people that's not the case gets dubious responses. Honest.

    I don't want to fight, but I have to say this: I do honorable work, as honorably and competently as I can. I'm not better in doing that than a janitor, a Senator, a teacher, or a mechanic. I view all work honestly done as worthy of admiration. And as such, when my profession - with thousands of good and dedicated lawyers who try to help others - is attacked, and I am attacked as part of it, yes, I respond. When my character - the part of me I am most proud of - is attacked, yes, I respond. I would rather not. But I can't let those things sit there; others will (and have) said, "He didn't respond...he knows it's true."

    So I guess I feel very disappointed, and very sad here: I tried to do something useful, and I know it was. I saw it, from my perspective, trashed. I found myself attacked, over and over, despite the request that it stop from the one member of this forum I respect the most...and the one that I tried so hard to become the leader here...Sgt Rock.

    And no one seems to mind.

    So I'm sorry if you feel that I'm "against" you or others; I'm not. But there is a time to dispute, and a time not to; and there are ways to dispute, and there are ways that, well, are dangerous. I haven't seen many people say that publicly - although I have had a number who said so to me privately, along with admissions that they don't want to say so publicly because the don't want to get beat up, too. That made me feel very bad; I mean it. It means that people who I'm sure are good people - you included - are doing some damage that maybe you don't realize, and don't intend...but damage, all the same.

    I've learned some lessons in the last couple of weeks. The biggest one is not to stick my head up and start a thread about "how to do" things that I know about...the law. And I've learned not to disagree with a number of people, no matter what. So WB is now a place only to take from, not give to, at least for me. To go back to reading, and not sharing.

    This is long, and I'm sorry, but I'll probably have little to say in the future, although I have hopes - one last time - that someone may look at this and say to themselves, "Well, maybe we all got a little carried away." Then again, I can see them coming already...the snarky responses and more. Well, they have before, and that will tell me much, as I read and reflect, too.

    But I appreciate, Bfitz, what you say, and understand, and I'm glad you posted as you did. It was honest, and that's good.

    Best wishes,

    The Weasel
    "Thank God! there is always a Land of Beyond, For us who are true to the trail..." --- Robert Service

  20. #20
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    I'll admit I got/get carried away. I will try my darndest to not get personal with you in the future. sorry if any of my ramblings hurt your feelings. I can be a dick at times. I'll make an effort to stop.

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