Nuts BR! There is a very very simple blocking feature, its called "ignoring". And by ignoring I don't mean " hey BR I'm ignoring you now", I mean ignoring. You and BR, both act like there's an outside force that forces you to respond to the other guy, and spend what must be hours upon hours talking to each other, and then complain about all the time you spend talking to each other. Take some responsibility for your own actions GR, these conversations would die if it was just BR talking.
Great delete your comment so nobody has any clue what I'm talking about.
there is an issue, and there is nothing we can do if you are doing the link in the editor.
Try disabling the editor on the comment completely, and putting in the link using HTML. (check HTML guide up top if you need help) If it doesn't work, then maybe a workaround to find the link?
Sorry about that.
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
Everyone seems to be bemoaning the loss of blockquotes. I believe all that it takes is an addition to the style sheet at /themes/beginningW2/style.css
There's already an entry for blockquote. I think you just need to add the rteindent1 class to that:
blockquote, .rteindent1 {
margin:10px 25px 10px 25px;
padding:10px 20px 10px 20px;
background:#d6dbec url(blockquote_bg.png) top left no-repeat;
border:1px #9caad8 dotted;
}
I think that will work.
We are the environment. There is no distinction. What we do to the earth we do to ourselves. —David Suzuki
Help! I screwed up the Help/FAQ page. I simply attempted to fix a missing bold. Then the breaks between the questions at the bottom of the page screwed up. After I thought I fixed the above (which I'm not so sure I did), the page no longer shows up for me. What gives?
I couldn't figure out what the heck was going on either.
I finally just set the input to php (so it would quit trying to auto line break stuff) and that seemed to do the trick. Also I reset the url to just point to "faq" so the link works.
Thanks for tinkering with it, sorry about the hassle!
Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
Just just received an update of FireFox to version 2.0.0.18 and I find that I can no longer reply to comments on SC. The browser just goes out to lunch and freezes.
Is it just me or are others having this problem?
I'm the Bugs Bunny of Swords Crossed! -4 Strongly Disagree - 0 Meh - Strongly Agree +4
Can I delete a diary? If not, I think it would be nice to be able to.
Alternatively, it would be nice to "retract" a diary so that it isn't publicized (e.g. on the "recent diaries" list), but might still be retained in the archives.
In my expert opinion, you should do what I tell you to do.
I liked the old version better, where you could undo a vote and see who voted.
I accidently voted for my diary trying to figure out how the system worked and now I can't undo it. Not that it matters, my diary is so awesome I wish I could vote for it twice, but I'd like the old functionality back if there's an easy way to do that.
Want me to look for voting modules, or is this something that can be activated for the system we have now?
Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
Ender, if possible, can you please (please, and pretty please) see about resurrecting it on the new site? I found it really handy to get back to threads that I remember but were more than a day or two old. otherwise you can waste hours trying to find things. :(
I'm the Bugs Bunny of Swords Crossed! -4 Strongly Disagree - 0 Meh - Strongly Agree +4
I made a view that displays comments by author. It is not pretty, but it should work until Ender gets a chance to make things nice. Let me know if there are problems, I'm sure there will be, I just did this quickly.
Anyone can replace "GoRight" with whatever user they want to track (like themselves, for example). I'll email Ender and we'll get a more permanent solution and put a link in one of the menus from the front page.
Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
Sorry was away this weekend. I will see if I can put this into a menu so it will automatically grab the correct user. But well done! Is that an adequate solution GoRight? I wanted to see if it was possible to also show the number of replies, but you can set the site to email you if someone replied to you as well.
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
but it would be nice to access via a menu as you indicate. Thanks Brendan!!!
All I want/need is something that gives me a list of just my comments so that I can go back through them to find things. Any bells and whistles you want to add beyond that are appreciated, but they are just bells and whistles at that point.
Thanks.
I'm the Bugs Bunny of Swords Crossed! -4 Strongly Disagree - 0 Meh - Strongly Agree +4
Hey Ender, is it possible to add a background-color style (white) to the comments themselves? It would be redundant except when the threads get so long and indented that they fall out of the main column. I tried adding it to an individual comment here , but it would be better if the background of the entire comment, including title, signature line, etc., could be white. Just a thought.
We are the environment. There is no distinction. What we do to the earth we do to ourselves. —David Suzuki
Some color-bars specific to strong candidate supporters might be nice so we can see how things are really breaking out. and how people are identifying themselves.
(That or maybe folks could put their current candidate and strength of commitment in their sig lines?)
I seem to be the only user with an uploaded picture. Unless they are going to be seen with our posts, I don't know why I bother. :-)
The "I can edit any diary" bug still exists. You'd better not upset me or else I'll start editing the open threads to mirror my point of view. :-) (again)
I never broke the law; I am the law! -- George W. Bush Judge Dredd I'm listening to...
The copyright notice at the bottom of the page is misleading in several ways.
1) Is all content on the site copyrighted by "Swords Crossed"?
I'd like to think each poster reserves the rights to their posts. This should be clarified. Slashdot's copyright policy is succinct and, I think, should be adopted for SS:
2) "Swords Crossed" isn't a person or entity.
In relation to 1), I'm not so sure "Swords Crossed" could even hold any copyrights since it doesn't really refer to anyone. I suppose the admin team could (whomever owns the servers, pays the bills, etc.) own the copyrights to the layout and design, etc.
And in a tangential concern, I've noticed that some posters (statusquobuster in particular) are copying articles wholesale and posting them as diaries. SC is protected from liability based on the DMCA if a takedown notice is submitted, so there isn't anything legal to worry about, but it's just really bad form. Perhaps a copyright statement should be added to the posting rules.
I never broke the law; I am the law! -- George W. Bush Judge Dredd I'm listening to...
statusquobuster, I believe, is posting his own articles as he is the undersigned man in question. He does the same thing on other blogs, daily kos in particular. However that is a good point in general.
I'll see what I can do :) I think your first suggestion on copyrights being owned by respective posters is right on.
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
Most sites assign copyright of comments to the commenter, and I think that makes the most sense from a legal and from a practical standpoint.
Luckily we don't really have to care about this stuff until we blow up and hit the big time, but might as well be ready for the coming wave of popularity...
Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
I recently came across this letter. I belive it is a just cause that every one can contribute to:
Dear Friends,
I am an Iraqi student in computer college of Baghdad University who had to withdraw from university because of disasterous situation in Iraq. My father was kidnapped and we found his body severely tortured. My younger brother is missing for three weeks and everyday we might find his body somewhere.
I appeal to all young people and all honest people to help us. The only way that Iraqi people belive would help us get rid of al-Maliki and his associated militias and agents is a new election.
I came across with the following petition. I ask you to visit this petition for a new election in my country.
I was surprised to discover how much content there is in the daily open threads. They seem to hold the majority of the comments. That's unfortunate for me, because I typically don't pay attention to open threads. I prefer more focused discussions...but I guess open threads are a sort of community-building thing.
That was actually going through my mind earlier today.
I sometimes envision people reading them and just coming away with a semi-blank stare and a quick shrug of the shoulders. That may or may not be accurate. who knows.
I don't know if the stuff comes across too heavy or what.
I do know that I am more into issues and ideas than E!-Style political gossip and see a lot of commenting on such topics. If that's what gets people's juices going, that's fine. I'm not complaining.
I don't want people to leave a comment just for its own sake so I've been thinking to change it up a bit and posting lighter (more fluffy) content.
This one here. My "kitchen table" level of economic unerstanding did not allow me to contribute to that discussion substantively, but some other people commented on that one, so there you are :-)
Everybody has to post on what interests them and let the chips fall where they may. I find you to be an interesting and thoughtful contributor, and agree with you at least partially most of the time.
that one was a little heavy. But I felt so strongly about what I read that I just exploded on that story.
I do actually read a lot about economics and the history economic thought.
I absolutely cannot stomach Karl Marx. The labor theory of value is so devastatingly stupid and wrong that I couldn't pass it up.
There are some really really bad economic ideas, fallacies and totally bogus and bunk "logical constructs" out there and they persist and it really triggers my libertarian monster.
It reminded me that Marxism became as heavy as Scholasticism, with every sentence scanned for doctirnal purity, and discussion actually devolving into fine curlicues meant, it seems, to hide the meaning even from the Marxists themselves.
One certainly needs to learn marx-ese to get along.
But lest you think that heaviness had anything to do with it, at last entirely, I will note that I put some lighter personal observations on that thread as sort of a counterbalance, and garnered no response.
I sort of took that as a message. Today, I look at the front page articles and as soon as I see any mean-spiritedness or charge taken as true without evidence, I leave the site. (Today it was the notion that the administration didn't tell us about Pat Tillman, as if Bush called the sergeant on the ground and told him to make up a better story.)
Over the years, I have come to believe my original instincts, and to prefer Marx' earlier writings, which, despite his protestations, show the influence of both his analytical genius and German Romanticism. Next to these writings, Das Kapital seems as dry as pebble shaken in a dry gourd. (thank you, Robinson Jeffers.)
That is not a criticism, though. I do read them occasionally and weigh in but I find that, while you may not appreciate this, we tend to view the econ thing alike and you do a better job of explaining it than I could. So I leave that to you to keep setting people straight on that front.
I'm the Bugs Bunny of Swords Crossed! -4 Strongly Disagree - 0 Meh - Strongly Agree +4
It's CLC's fault. I can't use the same color as he does. I know it's silly, but hey that's how I feel.
I'll switch back in a day or so.
EDIT:
There, I switched back. I don't want to let CLC tear down all of my hard work at iconifying the color red around here! Not that I was the only one, the team may be small but I guess we have made a name for ourselves and can suffer a fool like CLC riding our coat tails. He he.
I'm the Bugs Bunny of Swords Crossed! -4 Strongly Disagree - 0 Meh - Strongly Agree +4
a quantity thing. Your posts are thoughtful and deserving of attention, but many of them deal with the same basic topic, just repackaged in different ways. Plus you are prolific, maybe too prolific, but that is not a complaint. I have a hard time reading all of the posts anymore; forget about commenting on them.
I'll keep them in mind. Though, I must say I don't see the same basic topic....unless you mean economic issues...which is pretty broad...like the middle east.
The problem for there is that I'm so fed F'in fed up with Iraq. I was against it before it started and have just grown so disgusted with it. It looks way too simple to me and I see the details of the day to day noise as being so throughly uninteresting and pointless. But hey, that's just me. I have been known to post an occasional post or comment on the nauseating matter.
though that doesn't mean we don't read it. I don't have a good answer. We obviously are a pretty small blog so I think we simply need more people for more topics to be discussed. John has helped liven up the place :)
Suggestions on increasing participation are always welcome.
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
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In my expert opinion, you should do what I tell you to do.
posts. I know it's generally considered bad form and I don't do it myself when I post elsewhere but I'm fine with it here, since (a) it's not disallowed by the software and some people already do it and (b) sometimes people are particularly interested in making sure something they wrote gets maximum visibility.
If everyone recs every little thing they write then it becomes pointless but if authors are judicious about recommending their own work then I don't see any problem with voting (the best of) your own stuff up.
Just my personal opinion, of course.
Edit: another option is to mention your diary in an open thread and invite people to come comment. Bonus points if the topic relates to something being discussed in the open thread and you successfully move the discussion from within the 200+ comments where it would be hidden to a location easily identifiable, accessible and compartmentalized!
Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
I might have to use a different mechanism for recommending stuff if it's not fixed... Anyways, this Friday night! I decided to forgo doing more on the test server (I'll backup the data of course) and just experiment with new stuff on the live :) So stuff might change around through this weekend.
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
Hi guys. I've been active here for a few days and I think this place looks great. It's a great idea, and I like a lot of aspects of the interface.
Regarding the interface I have a few comments/requests regarding the interface: 1) Could you tell me what system you use? It looks like Drupal, but I couldn't find an acknowledgment anywhere. I think it's nice to note the system somewhere (in the footer or the "about us" section) both to give credit to the developers and let others know what system is being used in case they ever want to set up a website.
2) With the "Ideology" setting, it would be nice to have a note of the fact that this setting determines the color of the bar above your comments, and also which colors go with which ideology.
3) I had a hard time finding the "recommend" buttons. Even after I knew they existed, I couldn't find them. Perhaps in the FAQ section for "popular diaries" you could place the "recommend" icon so users know what to look for. On top of that, the "Popular Diaries" header (on the right) could link to the appropriate section of the FAQ (maybe have a little "FAQ" link to the right of the label). Same for the "X recommends" label at the bottom of diaries.
4) For the "new diary" page, it would be nice to have a note describing how to select multiple tags. I figured out how to do it only because I'm very familiar with computers.Â
In my expert opinion, you should do what I tell you to do.
Actually as I just posted a minute ago - I will be upgrading us from Drupal 4.7 to Drupal 5.2 next weekend and we will take all your recommendations into account.
Ideology colors will be explained and FAQ will be updated. Hopefully the site will run more smoothly :)
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
Thanks for the feedback. I didn't know that Drupal had a major release. I may take a look at it. Is it easier to manage?
 Another thought: I seem to recall that the default ideology was Anarchism. Would "neutral" be better--or do you just figure that no-one is really an anarchist, so it doesn't matter?
 BTW, is that quote from me (AR)?
In my expert opinion, you should do what I tell you to do.
As for Drupal an even newer major release is supposed to come out this fall - 6.0 but it will probably be sometime in the winter when it will start being presentable enough with all the plugins updated.
The 5.x is supposedly faster, smoother, and yeah perhaps easier to manage. From what I've seen it is a good improvement over 4.x and a lot more modules.
Yeah that quote is from you, when did you say it? :)
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
That's odd, it doesn't really sound like me. If I wanted to express that opinion, I would have said something like "People suck, and some people suck more than others."
I think you may have gotten me mixed up with Ayn Rand.
In my expert opinion, you should do what I tell you to do.
We could have specified times if people wanted to chat.
Although it seems like Second Life (and the meetups purpleface has been organizing) sort of serves that purpose for a significant fraction of people here.
Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
How hard would it be to provide a page that gave me access to ALL of my comments rather than the abbreviated set now available on the my account page?
I REALLY REALLY would like to have that. Searching this site for old material that I know exists is a REAL pain. My only acceptable method is to go back through my comments to find it but once they fall off the end of that list I am screwed and have to sometimes resort to a linear search back through the open threads manually.
I'm the Bugs Bunny of Swords Crossed! -4 Strongly Disagree - 0 Meh - Strongly Agree +4
Ender, is there any way to add a check box or something to a comment or thread so we can label it as an attempt to come to a conclusion vs competitive debate?
I've noticed a lot of the nastiness comes up when people who feel very strongly about something, often on a personal level end up in a discussion with someone who is merely trying to keep someone's point at bay with technicalities or (very unlikely) alternative interpretations. It might keep things a bit calmer if people actually had a way to advertise the difference.
(Much of my discussions with GR and MS being examples)
Have a check box for "rant" with the idea being that people can blow off steam about politics in general without having to defend every statement against the honorable opposition. A "rant" post would be understood as hyperbole and personal opinion and it would be poor form to subject it to rigorous fact-checking or cross-examination. Naturally the target of a "rant" could not be other users here, and posting rules regarding no profanity would still apply.
Just another thought to make it easier for all types of participants to share the same sandbox.
Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
although I would phrase it somewhat differently. Maybe call it a "point of order" checkbox to signify a desire to contest/correct a particular statement without arguing the general ideology or overarching idea. Then after the date in the comment it could say "PoO" so we know what kind of post it is... heh.
Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
a few labels that could be applied only by the user adding the particular comment. There would be a choice that you can check off before submitting or while editing a comment and it would display to the right of the title.
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
for a new site in the "Blogs we Like" section under either
"Other" or a new "Libertarian" label. BTW, if you were to choose the latter, The Agitator and Volokh C would fit under that label as well.
That site is The Liberty Papers , an excellent site from a libertarian perspective. I say "a" libertarian perspective because there are many. But Liberty Papers is quite good with very informed opinions on the day's issues. it's a worthy addition.
Just today are great pieces on Cheney and Eminent Domain.
it's a good site. I hope people refer to it often. Understanding the broad range of libertarian ideas and POVs is important...not only for people to discover their "inner libertarian" but also to get liberals and conservatives to see this underrepresented group of people in terms of emotions, ideas and goals. Making the bases consider ideas, rhetoric and perspectives that appeal to such people is a key to broadening the tents and perhaps discovering new policies to champion.
I feel the eminent domain article there today is a powerful indictment and offers the Left a fresh perspective on minorities and how big-government-power policies can hurt them. It also opens up a different POV on government power as it relates to big business. Often times, much of what we decry about big cold businesses is really a matter of government empowerment. And since shutting them out of government is not practical or really possible for many reasons, the real solution is then to weaken the tools they use.
Kudos Ender for the way you have brought the site together, it is much easier to get about in because of so many little details.
I do have a small suggestion. I hit more on the recent diaries and got basically the same list with more pages to pick for older posts, but because it started at the top, the bottom was not halfway down the page to its equivalent.
Since when picking more, that is what one wants, could you not scroll 2 or even several pages of list per page? Personally if I have a choice to either scroll or jump pages I would rather scroll (usually assigning the highest number possible, such as on Google). Perhaps others have a different Idea?
The Self Made Man is just not admitting where he got all the parts.
I would really like to have a way to go to a page that gives me a list of all of my comments regardless of thread. The "My Account" page sort of does this at the bottom but it only contains a limited amount of history.
I would like a way to go back over my comments even days and weeks earlier. I frequently find myself trying to reference something that I already posted but if it was from a while back I need to manually go back through the front page articles and use the IE search page by page to find what I want.
If there isn't already such a mechanism available, can we get one easily?
I'm the Bugs Bunny of Swords Crossed! -4 Strongly Disagree - 0 Meh - Strongly Agree +4
Would it be possible to make it so that if a poster wishes to start a new thread/diary on one of the given Special Topics catagories here on SwordsCrossed, that s/he would be able to do so? Just a suggestion/question.
When I click on the comments in the front page left column, and when I click on the "X new comments" links, I am no longer taken to the actual comment. I end up on the right screen, but several lines below (I think always below) the actual comment.
I don't get that... It seems to be going to the correct comment all the time (first new comment for the X new comments as well)... Anyone else having this problem?
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
of the main page, you have a section for NEWS, but it's just very old new stories. I understand that upkeep of a NEWS section requires time and effort. However, having a news section with old stories may give the impression to those who visit that the site itself is not up-to-date. I suggest you eliminate that section altogether.
Is it possible to have a poll type setting that measured a persons attitude about things (similar to the libertarian test) that a person could show their score and talk about it?
The creator of the poll would have questions with a -4 to +4 answer and then identify in the calculation whether a plus four would add or subtract 4 from the total so:
Q1 Hillary Would be a great president
Q2 the Clintons are involved in a crime ring
Would be measured in opposite directions as a +4 in one would likely get a -4 in the other.
A realistic measure of political thinking say(as that is what the site is about) should mean that I would be as proud of a -30 if Bush would score +50 as I would be of the reverse.
The Self Made Man is just not admitting where he got all the parts.
I've seen that before, though I am not 100% sure what would cause it. Yes, multiple people are accessing the database behind the software but the software should be able to handle that.
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
I had some continued trouble getting into the site but just got the standard "unavailable" messages. This all cleared up after a couple of minutes.
I checked the site meter when I was able to get into the site (after I left the message here) and the stats did not seem to indicated that there had been that much volume. So, it might be related to the behind the scenes access.
I changed it from "diary" to "old diary" and somehow that didn't work well. Your diary is still there though. I'll think about how to rescue it without putting it back on top of popular diaries list. When I get some time I'll do a lot of things heh - it all fell by the wayside in the last couple of weeks.
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
As far as increasing the number of indents... It is easy and I've already gone from 9 to 12.
Here is the issue:
We do not want it indenting so far that people have to scroll sideways to read everything and the whole page is screwed up.
The way I addressed it is by decreasing the maximum width of a comment itself. I could make the comment width even smaller which would allow for maybe 2 more indents, but that is an annoying tradeoff.
I could also decrease the width of the indent itself but then the problem of readability occurs as it becomes tougher to notice the indent. Right now the indent is at 25pixels. With max of 12 indents that comes out to 300pixels. If I decreased indent to 20pixels it would allow us to jump to 15 pixels. By decreasing the width of a comment from 540 to 500 - another 2 levels to a max of 17...
I could do it but it might be a bit ugly... I wonder if there is a way to decrease the width of the comment itself as you get deeper in levels - I'll check that tomorrow night.
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
the margin still has quite a bit of white, unused space before it comes close to the right column information. Can't you let the thread veer to the right a bit more--as in spacing not, political ideology? :)
With all the flavors of HTML, what is allowed, and what is not, and the many Blogs that have automated buttons, perhaps something beyond a blank slate approach might be useful. even if you think the singing emoticons are too cheesy.
The Self Made Man is just not admitting where he got all the parts.
to get new comment threads to start up at the top of the list instead of the bottom, on these "Special Topics" forums? None of them are over-long now, but as they grow, no one's going to want to scroll down for 10 minutes to get to the latest threads.
I don't know the coding involved here, so I'll just throw that question out.
Saint, n. A dead sinner revised and edited. - Ambrose Bierce
Should there be date or age of the diary be one of the factors in computing for Popular diaries so that oder diaries can make way for new popular diaries?
that is also on the list. It is already supposed to work that way - I set a date limit, but it's not working. So when I get a bit of time I'll really check into it.
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
As much as I like my PC diary, I wouldn't mind seeing it slide into obscurity because of the train wreck comments section. With so many recommendations (thanks everyone), it will never fade away without some timed expiration.
that we can have a longer short-term memory on this site meaning whenver I check to see if one of my links works, it erases my comment when I hit the 'back' browser tab. How about it, programmer?
that is somewhat annoying - as I used to hit 'back' all the time in the previous version... I thought I saw something on how to fix that... lemme check, but no promises.
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
but I'm using IE at work (I normally use firefox at home) and the "new comments" box shows that I've followed all the links, even if I haven't. Somehow the setup is recognizing that I've been to the page, regardless of whether the new comment came after my last visit.
It's a little disorienting, because I can't tell which new comments I've viewed and which I haven't.
Really minor thing in the grand scheme, but any solutions?
Saint, n. A dead sinner revised and edited. - Ambrose Bierce
and changed the colors for visited and non-visited comments and it seems like IE just treats them differently from Firefox... I went into a diary for one comment yet it thinks that I visited all the comments in the diary...
You are right, that is a pain... Solutions? hmmm
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
and I don't have a problem seeing new comments. Mine turn purple after I view them, but it does not say new, so perhaps you are correct. Maybe your cookies?
by.... I don't know - but that is one of the things I have to fix. So lemme check what's going on there tonight. But that is a good potin, thanks man :)
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
Comments :
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I'm the Bugs Bunny of Swords Crossed!
-4 Strongly Disagree - 0 Meh - Strongly Agree +4..
...
I'm only half stupid
Nuts GR! There is a very very
Nuts BR! There is a very very simple blocking feature, its called "ignoring". And by ignoring I don't mean " hey BR I'm ignoring you now", I mean ignoring. You and BR, both act like there's an outside force that forces you to respond to the other guy, and spend what must be hours upon hours talking to each other, and then complain about all the time you spend talking to each other. Take some responsibility for your own actions GR, these conversations would die if it was just BR talking.
Great delete your comment so nobody has any clue what I'm talking about.
SC bug: broken links, ampersands
John and I have had problems linking to the following site:
http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/ezraklein_archive?month=02&year=2009&...
The problem, is that when we do an in-text link
, the ampersands get converted to something else.
This is not apparent when you are in the editor, but it is visible if you go to "view source"
In my expert opinion, you should do what I tell you to do.
yup
there is an issue, and there is nothing we can do if you are doing the link in the editor.
Try disabling the editor on the comment completely, and putting in the link using HTML. (check HTML guide up top if you need help) If it doesn't work, then maybe a workaround to find the link?
Sorry about that.
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
Blockquotes
Everyone seems to be bemoaning the loss of blockquotes. I believe all that it takes is an addition to the style sheet at /themes/beginningW2/style.css
There's already an entry for blockquote. I think you just need to add the rteindent1 class to that:
blockquote, .rteindent1 { margin:10px 25px 10px 25px; padding:10px 20px 10px 20px; background:#d6dbec url(blockquote_bg.png) top left no-repeat; border:1px #9caad8 dotted; }I think that will work.
We are the environment. There is no distinction. What we do to the earth we do to ourselves. —David Suzuki
thank you very much
let's see if it works:
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
What about the loss of the Fonts?
Lately, since the new format on SwordsCrossed came in, I've been unable to do the Box Quotes, or the bold or italics fonts. What gives?
Ender's working on it... ;-)
n/t
Underlying all arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. ~M. Friedman
fckeditor?
F*ck fckeditor! :)
But oh well, I thought it might be an easy fix. :(
We are the environment. There is no distinction. What we do to the earth we do to ourselves. —David Suzuki
Who is -AR from your signature quote?
n/t
Underlying all arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. ~M. Friedman
Ayn Rand :)
.
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
Oh right...
...didn't recall it, but it sure is classic Ayn Rand.
Underlying all arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. ~M. Friedman
Brendan or Ender (or any FPer)
Help! I screwed up the Help/FAQ page. I simply attempted to fix a missing bold. Then the breaks between the questions at the bottom of the page screwed up. After I thought I fixed the above (which I'm not so sure I did), the page no longer shows up for me. What gives?
Sorry.
We are all mediators, translators. - Derrida
Fixed, I think, but
I couldn't figure out what the heck was going on either.
I finally just set the input to php (so it would quit trying to auto line break stuff) and that seemed to do the trick. Also I reset the url to just point to "faq" so the link works.
Thanks for tinkering with it, sorry about the hassle!
Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
Bug in rec list?
I see two entries for purpleface's recent diary. Maybe the software thinks there are two distinct posts because I edited it for promotion?
Also, we might want to make diaries "age" and fall off the list more quickly to get greater turnover. Maybe.
Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
Why do we still have no hall of fame ...
for the most prolific commenters?
I'm the Bugs Bunny of Swords Crossed!
-4 Strongly Disagree - 0 Meh - Strongly Agree +4because that feature
is not available in this version yet :( There is another way to do something similar - counting comments, but it is a bit complicated.
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
OK, fine.
Just throw a little thing like "that feature is not supported" at me! Geeze. :)
I'm the Bugs Bunny of Swords Crossed!
-4 Strongly Disagree - 0 Meh - Strongly Agree +4Firefox 2.0.0.18 broken with SC?
Just just received an update of FireFox to version 2.0.0.18 and I find that I can no longer reply to comments on SC. The browser just goes out to lunch and freezes.
Is it just me or are others having this problem?
I'm the Bugs Bunny of Swords Crossed!
-4 Strongly Disagree - 0 Meh - Strongly Agree +4hmm strange
Well go to the firefox website and download the version 3. :) It is better.
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
I've decided to give Chrome a real go for personal stuff ...
like SC.
I'm the Bugs Bunny of Swords Crossed!
-4 Strongly Disagree - 0 Meh - Strongly Agree +4How to Delete a diary?
Can I delete a diary? If not, I think it would be nice to be able to.
Alternatively, it would be nice to "retract" a diary so that it isn't publicized (e.g. on the "recent diaries" list), but might still be retained in the archives.
In my expert opinion, you should do what I tell you to do.
if you let us know which diary you want retracted
We can unpublish it. It would no longer be searchable without proper permissions.
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
taken care of
the post in question has been deleted, but for future reference, how do I make a request? Does this site have a "personal message" function?
Do I write it here? Do I just put a little comment after the blog post? Do I blank the post and change the title to "delete me" (if that is possible)?
Any suggestions on that?
In my expert opinion, you should do what I tell you to do.
I set up a new email account
that will forward to my personal account and alert me.
If you have any such requests please email SwordsHelp at Gmail dot Com
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
diary voting
I liked the old version better, where you could undo a vote and see who voted.
I accidently voted for my diary trying to figure out how the system worked and now I can't undo it. Not that it matters, my diary is so awesome I wish I could vote for it twice, but I'd like the old functionality back if there's an easy way to do that.
Want me to look for voting modules, or is this something that can be activated for the system we have now?
Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
The "My Comments" link?
Ender, if possible, can you please (please, and pretty please) see about resurrecting it on the new site? I found it really handy to get back to threads that I remember but were more than a day or two old. otherwise you can waste hours trying to find things. :(
I'm the Bugs Bunny of Swords Crossed!
-4 Strongly Disagree - 0 Meh - Strongly Agree +4Temporary fix
I made a view that displays comments by author. It is not pretty, but it should work until Ender gets a chance to make things nice. Let me know if there are problems, I'm sure there will be, I just did this quickly.
Go to http://www.swordscrossed.org/node/GoRight/my_comments
Anyone can replace "GoRight" with whatever user they want to track (like themselves, for example). I'll email Ender and we'll get a more permanent solution and put a link in one of the menus from the front page.
Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
activated tracker
so now for example http://www.swordscrossed.org/tracker/8599
provides a list of posts authored by me.
Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
good job Brendan!
Sorry was away this weekend. I will see if I can put this into a menu so it will automatically grab the correct user. But well done! Is that an adequate solution GoRight? I wanted to see if it was possible to also show the number of replies, but you can set the site to email you if someone replied to you as well.
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
This solution is just fine ...
but it would be nice to access via a menu as you indicate. Thanks Brendan!!!
All I want/need is something that gives me a list of just my comments so that I can go back through them to find things. Any bells and whistles you want to add beyond that are appreciated, but they are just bells and whistles at that point.
Thanks.
I'm the Bugs Bunny of Swords Crossed!
-4 Strongly Disagree - 0 Meh - Strongly Agree +4Glad it works, thanks for the reminder,
and also thanks in advance to Ender for putting it in a more useful form.
Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
Style suggestion
Hey Ender, is it possible to add a background-color style (white) to the comments themselves? It would be redundant except when the threads get so long and indented that they fall out of the main column. I tried adding it to an individual comment here
, but it would be better if the background of the entire comment, including title, signature line, etc., could be white. Just a thought.
We are the environment. There is no distinction. What we do to the earth we do to ourselves. —David Suzuki
good suggestion
Yeah, let me do that.
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
Election Season Improvement
Some color-bars specific to strong candidate supporters might be nice so we can see how things are really breaking out. and how people are identifying themselves.
(That or maybe folks could put their current candidate and strength of commitment in their sig lines?)
Why does that matter?
And don't most folks already have a sense of whom is supporting whom?
I'm only half stupid
Avatars?
I seem to be the only user with an uploaded picture. Unless they are going to be seen with our posts, I don't know why I bother. :-)
The "I can edit any diary" bug still exists. You'd better not upset me or else I'll start editing the open threads to mirror my point of view. :-) (again)
I never broke the law; I am the law! --
George W. BushJudge DreddI'm listening to...
huh
How did I miss that bug... I don't remember hearing about it. Weird. I'll check what's going on.
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
The banner at the top
should change over to 2008...unless 2007 bears some significance to the site that I'm not aware of....
hehe thanks
I'll change that when I get a chance :)
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
Why have a date at all?
Hopefully our posters are aware of the current year =P
Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
that's a good point :)
Though it is a good looking year!
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
And...
And the copyright is still 2007... and still attributed to a non-existent entity.
I never broke the law; I am the law! --
George W. BushJudge DreddI'm listening to...
What the heck
do you have against heritage and tradition, man? Sheesh, the next thing you'll want us to do is to take down the Confederate flag or something. ;-)
We are all mediators, translators. - Derrida
Just one question:
Is there a way to make posted links here on SC clickable?
Unfortunately it's not automatic
so you have to use the html, like so:
<a href="http://www.cnn.com">Link to CNN</a>
which shows up as:
Link to CNN
Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
Copyright clarifications
The copyright notice at the bottom of the page is misleading in several ways.
1) Is all content on the site copyrighted by "Swords Crossed"?
I'd like to think each poster reserves the rights to their posts. This should be clarified. Slashdot's copyright policy is succinct and, I think, should be adopted for SS:
2) "Swords Crossed" isn't a person or entity.
In relation to 1), I'm not so sure "Swords Crossed" could even hold any copyrights since it doesn't really refer to anyone. I suppose the admin team could (whomever owns the servers, pays the bills, etc.) own the copyrights to the layout and design, etc.
And in a tangential concern, I've noticed that some posters (statusquobuster in particular) are copying articles wholesale and posting them as diaries. SC is protected from liability based on the DMCA if a takedown notice is submitted, so there isn't anything legal to worry about, but it's just really bad form. Perhaps a copyright statement should be added to the posting rules.
I never broke the law; I am the law! --
George W. BushJudge DreddI'm listening to...
Change
Obviously "SS" was meant to be "SC" in the first point.
I never broke the law; I am the law! --
George W. BushJudge DreddI'm listening to...
well
statusquobuster, I believe, is posting his own articles as he is the undersigned man in question. He does the same thing on other blogs, daily kos in particular. However that is a good point in general.
I'll see what I can do :) I think your first suggestion on copyrights being owned by respective posters is right on.
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
Ditto
Most sites assign copyright of comments to the commenter, and I think that makes the most sense from a legal and from a practical standpoint.
Luckily we don't really have to care about this stuff until we blow up and hit the big time, but might as well be ready for the coming wave of popularity...
Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
That very well may be
I didn't really investigate too far. If that is the case, then obviously that isn't a problem.
I never broke the law; I am the law! --
George W. BushJudge DreddI'm listening to...
I would propose putting in a # of thread views
counter on each thread. Viewing the comments don't necessarily get to interest level.
Photos aren't changing
I've added a photo, then deleted it, confirmed its been deleted, and added a new one, yet the old one reappears instead of the new one.
Unfortunately that's because the old one is still in your cache.
Shift-refresh should force a reload.
I'm the Bugs Bunny of Swords Crossed!
-4 Strongly Disagree - 0 Meh - Strongly Agree +4You are so useful!
Hey, was your tongue in your cheek when you typed that?
I'm the Bugs Bunny of Swords Crossed!
-4 Strongly Disagree - 0 Meh - Strongly Agree +4I could make a joke here...
...about the "useful idiots" comments that GoRight makes on occasion...
... but I won't. ;-)
I survived the Bush Administration
Contribute to a better future for Iraq
I recently came across this letter. I belive it is a just cause that every one can contribute to:
Dear Friends,
I am an Iraqi student in computer college of Baghdad University who had to withdraw from university because of disasterous situation in Iraq. My father was kidnapped and we found his body severely tortured. My younger brother is missing for three weeks and everyday we might find his body somewhere.
I appeal to all young people and all honest people to help us. The only way that Iraqi people belive would help us get rid of al-Maliki and his associated militias and agents is a new election.
I came across with the following petition. I ask you to visit this petition for a new election in my country.
I appreciate your concern.
Ahmad Mansoor
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/iraq789/petition.html
a lot in the open threads
I was surprised to discover how much content there is in the daily open threads. They seem to hold the majority of the comments. That's unfortunate for me, because I typically don't pay attention to open threads. I prefer more focused discussions...but I guess open threads are a sort of community-building thing.
 I don't get many points for contributing to social capital
.
In my expert opinion, you should do what I tell you to do.
that is fairly usual for us
discussing current events. However we might want to promote more thoughtful diaries to the FP to get those more focused discussions fired up :)
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
I don't know , Ender.
John has been writing some interesting front pagers on economics and other issues that haven't generated much comment.
If you really believe this is the "fight of our lives," how come you're not in Iraq?
yeah, I know
That was actually going through my mind earlier today.
I sometimes envision people reading them and just coming away with a semi-blank stare and a quick shrug of the shoulders. That may or may not be accurate. who knows.
I don't know if the stuff comes across too heavy or what.
I do know that I am more into issues and ideas than E!-Style political gossip and see a lot of commenting on such topics. If that's what gets people's juices going, that's fine. I'm not complaining.
I don't want people to leave a comment just for its own sake so I've been thinking to change it up a bit and posting lighter (more fluffy) content.
We'll see.
I admit to coming away from the Marx one with a blank stare :-)
This one here. My "kitchen table" level of economic unerstanding did not allow me to contribute to that discussion substantively, but some other people commented on that one, so there you are :-)
Everybody has to post on what interests them and let the chips fall where they may. I find you to be an interesting and thoughtful contributor, and agree with you at least partially most of the time.
skymutt: accept no substitutes!
yeah,
that one was a little heavy. But I felt so strongly about what I read that I just exploded on that story.
I do actually read a lot about economics and the history economic thought.
I absolutely cannot stomach Karl Marx. The labor theory of value is so devastatingly stupid and wrong that I couldn't pass it up.
There are some really really bad economic ideas, fallacies and totally bogus and bunk "logical constructs" out there and they persist and it really triggers my libertarian monster.
Well, John
It reminded me that Marxism became as heavy as Scholasticism, with every sentence scanned for doctirnal purity, and discussion actually devolving into fine curlicues meant, it seems, to hide the meaning even from the Marxists themselves.
One certainly needs to learn marx-ese to get along.
But lest you think that heaviness had anything to do with it, at last entirely, I will note that I put some lighter personal observations on that thread as sort of a counterbalance, and garnered no response.
I sort of took that as a message. Today, I look at the front page articles and as soon as I see any mean-spiritedness or charge taken as true without evidence, I leave the site. (Today it was the notion that the administration didn't tell us about Pat Tillman, as if Bush called the sergeant on the ground and told him to make up a better story.)
Over the years, I have come to believe my original instincts, and to prefer Marx' earlier writings, which, despite his protestations, show the influence of both his analytical genius and German Romanticism. Next to these writings, Das Kapital seems as dry as pebble shaken in a dry gourd. (thank you, Robinson Jeffers.)
In my case I am just not AS interested in the econ thing.
That is not a criticism, though. I do read them occasionally and weigh in but I find that, while you may not appreciate this, we tend to view the econ thing alike and you do a better job of explaining it than I could. So I leave that to you to keep setting people straight on that front.
I'm the Bugs Bunny of Swords Crossed!
-4 Strongly Disagree - 0 Meh - Strongly Agree +4same here mostly
though I am probably more interested in Economics (similarly to PF) I too agree with John on most related issues and find it hard to add much :)
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
yes, but, Ender
I figure the more left o center members would engage such issues but it's hit or miss a lot times.
Alright, starting tomorrow I'll try to engage more on econ.
But you need to pick a non econ topic once in a while! :)
I'm the Bugs Bunny of Swords Crossed!
-4 Strongly Disagree - 0 Meh - Strongly Agree +4Ditto
Although I am perhaps a bit more interested than GoRight in economics, I find that I agree and cannot add anything of real substance, so I don't.
Some weeks we are just more active than others.
And GoRight, that green, it's just so wrong. . . .
LOL But I am so concerned about the Global Warming debate.
Isn't that green? :)
It's CLC's fault. I can't use the same color as he does. I know it's silly, but hey that's how I feel.I'll switch back in a day or so.EDIT:
There, I switched back. I don't want to let CLC tear down all of my hard work at iconifying the color red around here! Not that I was the only one, the team may be small but I guess we have made a name for ourselves and can suffer a fool like CLC riding our coat tails. He he.
I'm the Bugs Bunny of Swords Crossed!
-4 Strongly Disagree - 0 Meh - Strongly Agree +4agreed.
I can't get used to that color on him. "right" and the color green just don't go together.
GR, just go back to the red dress...PLEASE.
I think it is
a quantity thing. Your posts are thoughtful and deserving of attention, but many of them deal with the same basic topic, just repackaged in different ways. Plus you are prolific, maybe too prolific, but that is not a complaint. I have a hard time reading all of the posts anymore; forget about commenting on them.
We are all mediators, translators. - Derrida
thanks for the comments.
I'll keep them in mind. Though, I must say I don't see the same basic topic....unless you mean economic issues...which is pretty broad...like the middle east.
The problem for there is that I'm so fed F'in fed up with Iraq. I was against it before it started and have just grown so disgusted with it. It looks way too simple to me and I see the details of the day to day noise as being so throughly uninteresting and pointless. But hey, that's just me. I have been known to post an occasional post or comment on the nauseating matter.
I'll try to change things up.
true
though that doesn't mean we don't read it. I don't have a good answer. We obviously are a pretty small blog so I think we simply need more people for more topics to be discussed. John has helped liven up the place :)
Suggestions on increasing participation are always welcome.
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
voter registration widget
You may be interested in this voter registration widget from Working Assets
:
In my expert opinion, you should do what I tell you to do.
got it
thanks. I added it to the list of upgrading things to do. :)
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
I can recommend my own diary!
Is this bad form, or expected?
In my expert opinion, you should do what I tell you to do.
It's both!
We've all done it at least once ("hmmm, what does this do? Oh damn.")
But once you know what that little R button does . . . .well, that's different ;}
Hopefully that will be fixed in the next version of the site.
You know, I've never had a problem with people rec'ing their own
posts. I know it's generally considered bad form and I don't do it myself when I post elsewhere but I'm fine with it here, since (a) it's not disallowed by the software and some people already do it and (b) sometimes people are particularly interested in making sure something they wrote gets maximum visibility.
If everyone recs every little thing they write then it becomes pointless but if authors are judicious about recommending their own work then I don't see any problem with voting (the best of) your own stuff up.
Just my personal opinion, of course.
Edit: another option is to mention your diary in an open thread and invite people to come comment. Bonus points if the topic relates to something being discussed in the open thread and you successfully move the discussion from within the 200+ comments where it would be hidden to a location easily identifiable, accessible and compartmentalized!
Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
hehe
I might have to use a different mechanism for recommending stuff if it's not fixed... Anyways, this Friday night! I decided to forgo doing more on the test server (I'll backup the data of course) and just experiment with new stuff on the live :) So stuff might change around through this weekend.
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
newbie
Hi guys. I've been active here for a few days and I think this place looks great. It's a great idea, and I like a lot of aspects of the interface.
Regarding the interface I have a few comments/requests regarding the interface:
1) Could you tell me what system you use? It looks like Drupal, but I couldn't find an acknowledgment anywhere. I think it's nice to note the system somewhere (in the footer or the "about us" section) both to give credit to the developers and let others know what system is being used in case they ever want to set up a website.
2) With the "Ideology" setting, it would be nice to have a note of the fact that this setting determines the color of the bar above your comments, and also which colors go with which ideology.
3) I had a hard time finding the "recommend" buttons. Even after I knew they existed, I couldn't find them. Perhaps in the FAQ section for "popular diaries" you could place the "recommend" icon so users know what to look for. On top of that, the "Popular Diaries" header (on the right) could link to the appropriate section of the FAQ (maybe have a little "FAQ" link to the right of the label). Same for the "X recommends" label at the bottom of diaries.
4) For the "new diary" page, it would be nice to have a note describing how to select multiple tags. I figured out how to do it only because I'm very familiar with computers.Â
In my expert opinion, you should do what I tell you to do.
cool, thank you for the suggestions Adam
Actually as I just posted a minute ago - I will be upgrading us from Drupal 4.7 to Drupal 5.2 next weekend and we will take all your recommendations into account.
Ideology colors will be explained and FAQ will be updated. Hopefully the site will run more smoothly :)
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
default ideology
Thanks for the feedback. I didn't know that Drupal had a major release. I may take a look at it. Is it easier to manage?
 Another thought: I seem to recall that the default ideology was Anarchism. Would "neutral" be better--or do you just figure that no-one is really an anarchist, so it doesn't matter?
 BTW, is that quote from me (AR)?
In my expert opinion, you should do what I tell you to do.
hehe
As for Drupal an even newer major release is supposed to come out this fall - 6.0 but it will probably be sometime in the winter when it will start being presentable enough with all the plugins updated.
The 5.x is supposedly faster, smoother, and yeah perhaps easier to manage. From what I've seen it is a good improvement over 4.x and a lot more modules.
Yeah that quote is from you, when did you say it? :)
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
doesn't sound like me
That's odd, it doesn't really sound like me. If I wanted to express that opinion, I would have said something like "People suck, and some people suck more than others."
I think you may have gotten me mixed up with Ayn Rand.
In my expert opinion, you should do what I tell you to do.
I like the active discussions box
Good stuff.
Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
thanks
Perhaps I can modify it to be slightly more descriptive. But it seems useful for the times when someone comments on an old thread.
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
Hey!!!
How about adding a chatroom to this site? Would that be possible. I think adding a chatroom to this site would be cool.
yup
the new version can have that... That is a great idea.
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
IRC??
It'd be much more simple to have someone man an IRC channel and throw a link to it on the front page somewhere.
I never broke the law; I am the law! --
George W. BushJudge DreddI'm listening to...
That's a good idea too
We could have specified times if people wanted to chat.
Although it seems like Second Life (and the meetups purpleface has been organizing) sort of serves that purpose for a significant fraction of people here.
Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
that is simple to do
but not as convenient since you have to get people to either go to a different page, or to use MIRC software or whatever.
There are actual plugins to this software that have simple chatrooms... Might be easier.
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
On a separate note, Ender ...
How hard would it be to provide a page that gave me access to ALL of my comments rather than the abbreviated set now available on the my account page?
I REALLY REALLY would like to have that. Searching this site for old material that I know exists is a REAL pain. My only acceptable method is to go back through my comments to find it but once they fall off the end of that list I am screwed and have to sometimes resort to a linear search back through the open threads manually.
I'm the Bugs Bunny of Swords Crossed!
-4 Strongly Disagree - 0 Meh - Strongly Agree +4I am looking at that bud n/t
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
Are old dairies
lost forever? Or are they still in the cache?
I would like to read some of my old dairies. Some of them I linked to other sites and it comes up now as blank.
I'm only half stupid
old diaries
are still there. They are not coming up in search? Check that. If not, remind me when I get back from vacation - this coming Monday.
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
The search for truth vs argument for the sake of it (To Ender)
Ender, is there any way to add a check box or something to a comment or thread so we can label it as an attempt to come to a conclusion vs competitive debate?
I've noticed a lot of the nastiness comes up when people who feel very strongly about something, often on a personal level end up in a discussion with someone who is merely trying to keep someone's point at bay with technicalities or (very unlikely) alternative interpretations. It might keep things a bit calmer if people actually had a way to advertise the difference.
(Much of my discussions with GR and MS being examples)
Another idea along these lines
Have a check box for "rant" with the idea being that people can blow off steam about politics in general without having to defend every statement against the honorable opposition. A "rant" post would be understood as hyperbole and personal opinion and it would be poor form to subject it to rigorous fact-checking or cross-examination. Naturally the target of a "rant" could not be other users here, and posting rules regarding no profanity would still apply.
Just another thought to make it easier for all types of participants to share the same sandbox.
Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
yes
that would be another type of the labels I'll try to implement :) Sounds very good
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
Great idea
although I would phrase it somewhat differently. Maybe call it a "point of order" checkbox to signify a desire to contest/correct a particular statement without arguing the general ideology or overarching idea. Then after the date in the comment it could say "PoO" so we know what kind of post it is... heh.
Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
I am thinking of
a few labels that could be applied only by the user adding the particular comment. There would be a choice that you can check off before submitting or while editing a comment and it would display to the right of the title.
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
sounds potentially doable
on the new version of this software. I'll scour all the suggestions here as well as any new requests while I work on it.
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
I humbly submit a request
for a new site in the "Blogs we Like" section under either
"Other" or a new "Libertarian" label. BTW, if you were to choose the latter, The Agitator and Volokh C would fit under that label as well.
That site is The Liberty Papers
, an excellent site from a libertarian perspective. I say "a" libertarian perspective because there are many. But Liberty Papers is quite good with very informed opinions on the day's issues. it's a worthy addition.
Just today are great pieces on Cheney and Eminent Domain.
Looks good
Gimme a few minutes.
Edit: added Liberty Papers under a new "Libertarian" section, and added Michael Yon under "Other" because I thought it should have 3 links also.
Appreciate the suggestion, and if anyone has further ideas please post.
Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
Thanks.
it's a good site. I hope people refer to it often. Understanding the broad range of libertarian ideas and POVs is important...not only for people to discover their "inner libertarian" but also to get liberals and conservatives to see this underrepresented group of people in terms of emotions, ideas and goals. Making the bases consider ideas, rhetoric and perspectives that appeal to such people is a key to broadening the tents and perhaps discovering new policies to champion.
I feel the eminent domain article there today is a powerful indictment and offers the Left a fresh perspective on minorities and how big-government-power policies can hurt them. It also opens up a different POV on government power as it relates to big business. Often times, much of what we decry about big cold businesses is really a matter of government empowerment. And since shutting them out of government is not practical or really possible for many reasons, the real solution is then to weaken the tools they use.
A small suggestion
Kudos Ender for the way you have brought the site together, it is much easier to get about in because of so many little details.
I do have a small suggestion. I hit more on the recent diaries and got basically the same list with more pages to pick for older posts, but because it started at the top, the bottom was not halfway down the page to its equivalent.
Since when picking more, that is what one wants, could you not scroll 2 or even several pages of list per page? Personally if I have a choice to either scroll or jump pages I would rather scroll (usually assigning the highest number possible, such as on Google). Perhaps others have a different Idea?
The Self Made Man is just not admitting where he got all the parts.
Is there already a way to do this?
I would really like to have a way to go to a page that gives me a list of all of my comments regardless of thread. The "My Account" page sort of does this at the bottom but it only contains a limited amount of history.
I would like a way to go back over my comments even days and weeks earlier. I frequently find myself trying to reference something that I already posted but if it was from a while back I need to manually go back through the front page articles and use the IE search page by page to find what I want.
If there isn't already such a mechanism available, can we get one easily?
I'm the Bugs Bunny of Swords Crossed!
-4 Strongly Disagree - 0 Meh - Strongly Agree +4let me see
what I can do. Have you tried using the SC search? Maybe I can give people a link to a page with more comments... Not sure yet.
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
Question:
Would it be possible to make it so that if a poster wishes to start a new thread/diary on one of the given Special Topics catagories here on SwordsCrossed, that s/he would be able to do so? Just a suggestion/question.
well
you definitely can do a new diary on almost any topic, including the ones covered by the special topic threads.
Special Topic threads are just there permanently for longer and multiple discussions.
So if I understand you correctly, you can do a new diary on philosophy, religion, science, or whatever you wish.
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
Database issues?
When I click on the comments in the front page left column, and when I click on the "X new comments" links, I am no longer taken to the actual comment. I end up on the right screen, but several lines below (I think always below) the actual comment.
strange
I don't get that... It seems to be going to the correct comment all the time (first new comment for the X new comments as well)... Anyone else having this problem?
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
Suggestion--On the upper left
of the main page, you have a section for NEWS, but it's just very old new stories. I understand that upkeep of a NEWS section requires time and effort. However, having a news section with old stories may give the impression to those who visit that the site itself is not up-to-date. I suggest you eliminate that section altogether.
name the enemy, win the war
I agree
since we have an open thread every day there's no need for the news section. It's a cool feature in theory but I think you're right.
Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
Polls
Is it possible to have a poll type setting that measured a persons attitude about things (similar to the libertarian test) that a person could show their score and talk about it?
The creator of the poll would have questions with a -4 to +4 answer and then identify in the calculation whether a plus four would add or subtract 4 from the total so:
Q1 Hillary Would be a great president
Q2 the Clintons are involved in a crime ring
Would be measured in opposite directions as a +4 in one would likely get a -4 in the other.
A realistic measure of political thinking say(as that is what the site is about) should mean that I would be as proud of a -30 if Bush would score +50 as I would be of the reverse.
The Self Made Man is just not admitting where he got all the parts.
Traffic Up?
I got a specific error message this morning that I'm passing on here:
User swordscr_ender has already more than 'max_user_connections' active connection
is that message gone now?
I've seen that before, though I am not 100% sure what would cause it. Yes, multiple people are accessing the database behind the software but the software should be able to handle that.
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
Yes, message is gone
I had some continued trouble getting into the site but just got the standard "unavailable" messages. This all cleared up after a couple of minutes.
I checked the site meter when I was able to get into the site (after I left the message here) and the stats did not seem to indicated that there had been that much volume. So, it might be related to the behind the scenes access.
Hey, what happened
to my diary
. Censorship on SC? Or a bug? It's missing in my account too. I have a saved draft that's altered a bit if I need to re-post.
It got bumped from the rec list a little too quickly also. Couldn't you let it slide gracefully from the list instead of murdering it outright? :)
We are all mediators, translators. - Derrida
oooh
I changed it from "diary" to "old diary" and somehow that didn't work well. Your diary is still there though. I'll think about how to rescue it without putting it back on top of popular diaries list. When I get some time I'll do a lot of things heh - it all fell by the wayside in the last couple of weeks.
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
Ratings???
I miss the ratings function.
You could read posts and acknowledge the poster with a rating.
Is that off the table?
I'm only half stupid
it's not
I just have to get to it. It's not a minor thing but definitely would take some time to program in. I am hoping sometime this month.
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
Thx!
I'm only half stupid
reply to Brendan - indents
As far as increasing the number of indents... It is easy and I've already gone from 9 to 12.
Here is the issue:
We do not want it indenting so far that people have to scroll sideways to read everything and the whole page is screwed up.
The way I addressed it is by decreasing the maximum width of a comment itself. I could make the comment width even smaller which would allow for maybe 2 more indents, but that is an annoying tradeoff.
I could also decrease the width of the indent itself but then the problem of readability occurs as it becomes tougher to notice the indent. Right now the indent is at 25pixels. With max of 12 indents that comes out to 300pixels. If I decreased indent to 20pixels it would allow us to jump to 15 pixels. By decreasing the width of a comment from 540 to 500 - another 2 levels to a max of 17...
I could do it but it might be a bit ugly... I wonder if there is a way to decrease the width of the comment itself as you get deeper in levels - I'll check that tomorrow night.
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
On the right of my posts
the margin still has quite a bit of white, unused space before it comes close to the right column information. Can't you let the thread veer to the right a bit more--as in spacing not, political ideology? :)
We are all mediators, translators. - Derrida
HTML Buttons
With all the flavors of HTML, what is allowed, and what is not, and the many Blogs that have automated buttons, perhaps something beyond a blank slate approach might be useful. even if you think the singing emoticons are too cheesy.
The Self Made Man is just not admitting where he got all the parts.
but you do have those buttons
if you either press the "enable rich-text" below the comment box, or set it to default to that in your profile settings.
Or do you want the smileys? :)
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
Tracking Replies to comments
Will we have that ability here? In the old one we were able to track replies to comments.
Thank you.
I think we will
I haven't had much time to work on the enhancements, but that one is very high on my list of things to do. That along with the comment ratings.
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
Thanks for all your work.
I didn't know Republicans could be so smart.
Kidding.
I have a lot of smart Republican friends.
If you really believe this is the "fight of our lives," how come you're not in Iraq?
hehe
it is possible to be republican and smart :) You know all those selfish corporatist bastards? Heh well that's only half true.
We gotta do another thread on ideology and our ideas on what makes us tick. Those are fun.
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
Is there a way
to get new comment threads to start up at the top of the list instead of the bottom, on these "Special Topics" forums? None of them are over-long now, but as they grow, no one's going to want to scroll down for 10 minutes to get to the latest threads.
I don't know the coding involved here, so I'll just throw that question out.
Saint, n. A dead sinner revised and edited. - Ambrose Bierce
only because I am cool n/t
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
Algorithm for Popular Diaries
Should there be date or age of the diary be one of the factors in computing for Popular diaries so that oder diaries can make way for new popular diaries?
yes there should be
that is also on the list. It is already supposed to work that way - I set a date limit, but it's not working. So when I get a bit of time I'll really check into it.
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
Good idea
As much as I like my PC diary, I wouldn't mind seeing it slide into obscurity because of the train wreck comments section. With so many recommendations (thanks everyone), it will never fade away without some timed expiration.
We are all mediators, translators. - Derrida
yeah
time expiration is a must :) Who wants to see that thing (your diary) anyways!
But I am just sorry I didn't get to participate. Hopefully by the time we all get by the holidays I'll be back in the swing of things.
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
You have bigger concerns
than to fight over word-choices. :) But if you want to get into it I will--just kidding. I'm a bit PC'd out for a while.
Glad to hear the surgery went well, and I hope he has a speedy recovery.
We are all mediators, translators. - Derrida
thanks a lot man
it's only the day after so still very difficult but so far so good. It's just very hard to see your father suffer so much.
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
The best to your pop, Ender.
The fact that everything went well should make this a thankful Christmas.
If you really believe this is the "fight of our lives," how come you're not in Iraq?
Is there anyway
that we can have a longer short-term memory on this site meaning whenver I check to see if one of my links works, it erases my comment when I hit the 'back' browser tab. How about it, programmer?
We are all mediators, translators. - Derrida
I agree
that is somewhat annoying - as I used to hit 'back' all the time in the previous version... I thought I saw something on how to fix that... lemme check, but no promises.
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
I open the links in another browser window
to avoid the problem entirely.
Saint, n. A dead sinner revised and edited. - Ambrose Bierce
Good idea, but a slight pain. Thanks. n/t
We are all mediators, translators. - Derrida
Use preview
and don't use back button. Problem solved!
Come, my friends. 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world -- Tennyson
That's what I mean
I'm in the 'preview' section, and I check to see if a link works. Bam, no more comment upon my return.
We are all mediators, translators. - Derrida
I'm not sure if this is standard,
but I'm using IE at work (I normally use firefox at home) and the "new comments" box shows that I've followed all the links, even if I haven't. Somehow the setup is recognizing that I've been to the page, regardless of whether the new comment came after my last visit.
It's a little disorienting, because I can't tell which new comments I've viewed and which I haven't.
Really minor thing in the grand scheme, but any solutions?
Saint, n. A dead sinner revised and edited. - Ambrose Bierce
I just tested it
and changed the colors for visited and non-visited comments and it seems like IE just treats them differently from Firefox... I went into a diary for one comment yet it thinks that I visited all the comments in the diary...
You are right, that is a pain... Solutions? hmmm
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
I use IE in my office
and I don't have a problem seeing new comments. Mine turn purple after I view them, but it does not say new, so perhaps you are correct. Maybe your cookies?
We are all mediators, translators. - Derrida
Sorting of Popular Diaries
Are the Popular Diaries sorting oldest first? Would newest first be better?
they are sorting
by.... I don't know - but that is one of the things I have to fix. So lemme check what's going on there tonight. But that is a good potin, thanks man :)
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR
I am thinking of
another row of buttons below the current one, for some quick menu choices like "create diary", "my profile", etc...
"To discuss evil in a manner implying neutrality, is to sanction it." AR