main
side
curve
  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Fun and Games Forum Discussion Thread

Discussion in 'Communications' started by Coruscant, Aug 26, 2020.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. MotivateR5D4

    MotivateR5D4 Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 20, 2015
    Sometimes people like to drop information into the discussion. It's an ongoing conversation. Sometimes there is commentary, sometimes there isn't. There's nothing wrong with that.
     
    Princess_Tina likes this.
  2. Lowbacca_1977

    Lowbacca_1977 Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Jun 28, 2006
    I think the simple thing, without drawing a hard rule, is that a post in a Senate thread should generally still contain something after the links are removed. That goes for if it's a tweet, an article, a video, whatever. The expectation should be for some level of independent thought and contribution, and the simplest thing for that is that generally the post should be saying something if all the links are removed.

    For example, the old Senate rule had this idea as well: "Spam is not allowed in the Senate Floor. Spam consists of any messages or threads posted without promoting the appropriate topic of discussion. This includes the direct posting of news stories or other articles without providing a basis for discussion."

    Ensuring people act in good faith is a trickier matter. Editing something in a substantive way without any note that something was changed is, imo, not participating in the discussion in good faith, especially if that edit is done in reaction to a response. It's hardly the only example, however, though the others tend to get a bit harder to draw specific boundaries around.
     
    Jedi Ben, Coruscant and harpua like this.
  3. A Chorus of Disapproval

    A Chorus of Disapproval Head Admin & TV Screaming Service star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Aug 19, 2003
    If we were a news aggregate rather than a discussion forum community this would be 100% correct. If we benefitted from a news ticker we would probably have CNN's bar running across the bottom of our pages.
     
    tom, SuperWatto and Coruscant like this.
  4. Rylo Ken

    Rylo Ken Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Dec 19, 2015
    this is all I have to say about it really:
    [​IMG]
     
    tom, Diggy , poor yorick and 3 others like this.
  5. starfish

    starfish Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 9, 2003
    but more and more it’s just a tweet or image with no commentary added to it, it’s become more than just a sometime thing
     
    poor yorick, Jedi Ben and Coruscant like this.
  6. MotivateR5D4

    MotivateR5D4 Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 20, 2015
    We're in particularly crazy times right now. The tweets are in keeping with that.
     
  7. Thena

    Thena Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    May 10, 2001
    The way I see it, discussions stem from news events, things that have happened, ideas that have been expressed, all sorts of things people hear about or experience. When it comes to political events and news events, most people hear about it online, or maybe from the TV. If we are present where an event happens, we can take our own photos.
    The way I see it, the discussions could still take place without a single hyperlink, photo, gif, tweet, or any other graphic element. In many ways maybe it would be more inductive to a straight conversation.
    I didn't even know this latest version of the JCC could take more than just hyperlinks until I saw people doing it. But I would not like it any less if we got rid of all graphic elements.
     
    Last edited: Aug 26, 2020
  8. 3sm1r

    3sm1r Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Dec 27, 2017
    I feel like we have different ideas of how the senate threads would look like with a similar rule.
    For me, it would be mostly about sequences of relatively long texts where the posters explain their opinions, with few spoiler tags here and there when a reference to a tweet is needed. What's so annoying about it?
     
  9. Glitterstimm

    Glitterstimm Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Dec 30, 2017
    Regarding tweet dropping, often times it's just the same as sharing a news link, sites like Politico do have twitter accounts they post their articles through. Yes it comes with the twitter media embed, which doesn't match the message board aesthetic, but the content is the same as a link.

    I can understand how the credibility of a tweet can be confusing if you're not familiar with the account. However, there is a difference between posting an account of a journalist vs a social media influence, although that difference itself is increasingly blurred in our modern media environment.

    My point is, I don't think it's fair to say that Twitter is less credible than other news sources simply because it's Twitter.
     
    Darth Guy and Princess_Tina like this.
  10. MotivateR5D4

    MotivateR5D4 Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 20, 2015
    Plus, if I see a tweet that expresses the exact same sentiment that I want to, sometimes it feels more appropriate to post the tweet.

    Take this for example.



    Does it really make a difference if I write this out almost verbatim or post the tweet? In my view, the tweet is even a little more engaging. It expresses the sentiment in the JCC and adds to our discussions here, and also provides context about an ongoing conversation being had outside of the JCC.

    What exactly is the issue with that?
     
  11. Thena

    Thena Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    May 10, 2001
    Yeah this whole "Twitter is evil" thing, I just don't understand, it's just a communication medium. It's the technological equivalent in many ways of the old hyperlink, which used to be the only way to link to news articles and websites in the earliest days of these forums.
    The advantage of a newstweet over an old-fashioned hyperlink is that it includes a photo and a brief summary of what the article says, which makes it easier sometimes to decide whether or not you want to open the article itself (for those that link to a news article)

    I don't always want to click on a hyperlink to decide if a story is worth reading.
     
    Last edited: Aug 26, 2020
    Glitterstimm likes this.
  12. Coruscant

    Coruscant Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Feb 15, 2004
    Motivate

    It goes back up to what @Lowbacca_1977 said: does the post say something if the tweet is removed. Where is the original content?
     
    CT-867-5309 likes this.
  13. Thena

    Thena Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    May 10, 2001
    In the old days we sometimes used to have posts consisting exclusively of a hyperlink, which spoke for itself.
    Where was the outrage then?
     
    Last edited: Aug 26, 2020
  14. MotivateR5D4

    MotivateR5D4 Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 20, 2015
    That seems like such a nitpicky minor concern though considering that seldom happens (in terms of the tweet being removed). There shouldn't be a blanket policy about tweets just because of the small chance of that happening. My point still stands.
     
    Princess_Tina likes this.
  15. Coruscant

    Coruscant Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Feb 15, 2004
    Tina

    What forum? Senate? Anyway, we’re talking about the JCC as it is today. Things have changed a lot since the JCC of 2003, and even back then, I would say a post containing a link and only a link in a more serious thread would be frowned upon

    Motivate

    Reposted tweets without a poster’s original commentary seldom happen? That hasn’t been my experience.
     
    Last edited: Aug 26, 2020
  16. Boba_Fett_2001

    Boba_Fett_2001 Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Dec 11, 2000
    The thing is there's no reasonable way to enforce this dream scenario where a thread is mostly text with some tweets/images here and there especially in today's world. Unless a rule was made to just ban them completely which most people don't want.

    Again, I acknowledge it'll help in terms of tweets taking up space but it just seems unnecessary to me.
     
    Darth Guy likes this.
  17. Darth Guy

    Darth Guy Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Aug 16, 2002
    I think tweets and images should be limited in "serious" threads and original commentary should be encouraged, but I'm against the spoiler tag idea (except for particularly large images) for the same reason as @Boba_Fett_2001. Generally I'm against hard thread or tag-specific rules beyond Senate is for politics, Amph is for media, etc. I don't see why people seem to be unable to just scroll past posts. Like I said in Round 1 of this thread I still think it's pretty much only one user who has pushed the boundaries of JCC's-- or Community's-- loose attitudes, and you know what? I often scroll past those posts. I ignore dozens of threads. I'd rather people do that than have mod micromanagement.
     
    Last edited: Aug 26, 2020
  18. Lowbacca_1977

    Lowbacca_1977 Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Jun 28, 2006
    In "the old days" "we" generally didn't.
     
  19. Thena

    Thena Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    May 10, 2001
    @Coruscant - I don't remember offhand what year the Senate started, I'll admit, but when the forums were new to me, I certainly wouldn't have spent too much time there, except perhaps for very specific threads. So my memories are mostly from the SW forums and the JC, and maybe the amphitheater. And sure, at that point you would have seen a lot of posts that consisted solely of an emoji, or a hyperlink.

    Today it seems more like a free-for-all, with relatively small differences between a JC thread and a Senate thread, and in the last Comms discussion we even agreed that the Covid thread should be tagged as both. That seemed to satisfy everyone.

    While I am mostly interested in a long and serious discussion, I don't sense a lot of people are as eager to see those, but I could be wrong. If we could move back towards more serious discussion, I would be all for that, too. I don't know if it's realistic to expect that at certain times, like during breaking news and major events like the political conventions. But for most everything else, yes I think it might work.
     
    Last edited: Aug 26, 2020
  20. 3sm1r

    3sm1r Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Dec 27, 2017
    Are you using a laptop or a phone?
    In case you use a laptop, just go to the last page of the Race relations senate thread.
    How can you not be annoyed by pages like that?
    All these huge windows with formats that are different from one another, just to convey extremely brief messages, very often unimportant (it's the nature of tweets). It dries away my desire to stay in the thread.
     
    tom, Coruscant and harpua like this.
  21. Lord Vivec

    Lord Vivec Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Apr 17, 2006
    Wocky, unless something hurtful was said, I don't think it should be edited to retroactively comply, especially after people have already responded to it.
     
    SuperWatto and Darth_Duck like this.
  22. Thena

    Thena Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    May 10, 2001
    I just took a quick look at that page. It includes one tweet of mine, which I moved to the Race forum after someone complained that it didn't belong in the ****posting thread.
    I also see the photo of a tweet and another tweet link, both posted by mods. And one more tweet by @MotivateR5D4
    Is that the page you're talking about?

    So it's back to playing "gotcha!" but only with the users who don't adhere to your political agenda?
    I had you on ignore for a long time. Then it came to my attention you were making wild and unsubstantiated accusations about my political leaning based on a malicious interpretation of a cartoon, the point of which you missed completely.
    You will deliberately take things out of context, but you don't want anyone to make sure they've not accidentally phrased things in a way that might make it easier for you to twist things around.
     
    Last edited: Aug 26, 2020
  23. Lordban

    Lordban Isildur's Bane star 7

    Registered:
    Nov 9, 2000
    A few thoughts:

    - One can't really miss a tweet (or other similar embeds); the formatting is designed to attract attention to it, and, well, it does, and can distract from what's written above or below
    - It's not as much of a distraction and/or hindrance to some as it is to others; we don't all function the same way and react to prompts the same way
    - Throw in an embedded picture or video within a tweet, it's going to take as much space as a rather long post
    - It's not that problematic on high resolutions, but on a smartphone several tweets on a page involve a lot of extra scrolling
    - And a good bit of bandwidth usage, for that matter - which isn't going to be a concern to most in 2020, sure, but still a concern to some
    - A tweet can still be a good conversation starter by itself
    - Three, four or five tweets in rapid succession in one thread rarely are, and are far more likely to make it hard to keep up with ongoing conversations
    - Letting a conversation breathe and develop before prompting another is a good thing
    - There's an ongoing disaster and it's major election season, people get on edge and at each others' throats a lot faster in such circumstances than they normally would; even more so when they've heavily been affected by the disaster
    - This in turn is going to make a format designed to grab attention whether a person wants to or not quite a bit more offensive than usual for people it already annoys
     
  24. Jedi Ben

    Jedi Ben Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Jul 19, 1999
    I don't mind links or tweets but, on their own, the link or tweet tells me little about why you are posting it. Instead I have to guess and guessing is inaccurate at best.
     
  25. Jabba-wocky

    Jabba-wocky Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    May 4, 2003
    If people want to talk about Twitter, I will agree that I find it toxic and unenlightening. I wish to avoid it, and would support efforts to do so, up to and including just now allowing those kinds of posts on the forum. I fully agree with your comments about letting others speak with you versus trying to find your own words. I've often found that even if I can't express something as pithily as some public speaker or popular quote, my attempts to find my own words and expressions is helpful as a matter of personal growth. I really agree with your sentiments here.

    On the other hand I am here because of what I saw in the Senate thread earlier. That was disgusting, petty, and absolutely went after one user disproportionately. Worst of all, rather than keeping it between themselves, the antagonism ruined the experience of the thread for the entire userbase. At this point I really don't care how it's handled anymore. Ban Twitter re-posts. Or just as readily, make the JCC nothing but one long Twitter stream. The personalities issues underlying seems more concerning, distracting and toxic by far.
     
    Emperor Ferus likes this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.