Minor things that bother you

[Scott5114]

Well, the problem is that if you were to take the "politics is discouraged" rule as broadly construed as to mean "do not discuss anything that a politician has expressed an opinion on", with the current crop of politicians we have now, we would not be able to talk about things like:

- Travis Kelce
- Cracker Barrel
- Target
- Chicago
- Pennies
- Police
- Springfield, Ohio
- Dogs
- Sharks
- Batteries
- Hurricanes
- the Colorado River
- Shower heads
- Light bulbs

...which is obviously unworkable.

In general, the main thing I am looking for when I'm looking to see if a post is political are obviously inflammatory things like "of course you would think that, you're a fucking Monican" or "Alan Merritt ran this country into the ground" or "I hope everyone is supporting Jade Sault Sainte John Madden in this year's election". Anything else, I try to take a "wait and see" approach, because if a civil discussion happens, great, maybe people will learn from each other and we'll all have a good time. If it goes downhill and turns into an actual squabble, that's when I'm more likely to step in. (Also, I'm loathe to use mod powers in a discussion I'm actually involved in, because that just makes it look like I'm stifling people to win the argument, which would be pathetic.)

[kphoger]

Well, it would make me a hypocrite, since I make useless and stupid posts all the time, so.

Plenty of valuable, intelligent people make useless, stupid posts all the time.  I should know.

Can it as the forum rules are written?  P13 and Crash_It didn't get the axe for being stupid but rather when they crossed the line into other greater offenses.

I'm not aware of any express set of rules governing moderators' actions.  That is to say, the forum guidelines are all about what we are expected to do, not about what they are expected to do in response.  A mod could perma-ban all users who live in Florida just because his ex-wife moved there and, while all the other mods would certainly not take his side on that, it wouldn't actually break any rules.  But the mods have tried their level best—especially, or at least most noticeably to me, Scott N.—to keep their involvement limited to clear guideline-breaking behavior.

If it makes any difference, I'm not asking for anyone to be banned, just for moderation to be more effective about contentious issues and a little more transparency about what actually constitutes political posts that aren't allowed. And I didn't call anyone stupid or useless, just specific information within a specific post.

Flame wars need to be quenched whether they're political or not, in my opinion.  But there's no good way to define exactly what that means.  So, while there may be some inconsistent moderator action, I think we've generally reached a pretty good place these days.  By and large, forum members respect each other's positions enough to not do much more than drop a snarky one-liner.  And, in the event that an incendiary reply is made, we seem to do pretty well these days at not pouring gasoline on the fire.  Every once in a great while, a mod deletes some posts, but I personally appreciate the swift action when it happens;  the only thing is that I wish purple text would accompany every single such deletion.

Anything else, I try to take a "wait and see" approach, because if a civil discussion happens, great, maybe people will learn from each other and we'll all have a good time.

I've noticed several instances when this has worked out well.  It's a much different atmosphere than it was seven years ago or so.

[webny99]

Plenty of valuable, intelligent people make useless, stupid posts all the time

... but only a few have perfected the humble brag 

[1995hoo]

Unfortunately, I can't ban someone for being useless or stupid.

Sure you can.. 

As my mother (a retired English teacher) would say, "He can, but he may not."

[Scott5114]

A mod could perma-ban all users who live in Florida just because his ex-wife moved there and, while all the other mods would certainly not take his side on that, it wouldn't actually break any rules.

Well, other than the fact that to do so would involve banning Alex. Banning the guy who pays the server bills is more or less understood to be against the rules even if it's not written down anywhere.

[kphoger]

Unfortunately, I can't ban someone for being useless or stupid.

Sure you can.. 

As my mother (a retired English teacher) would say, "He can, but he may not."

Sure he may.  Who's refusing to allow him?

[Max Rockatansky]

Unfortunately, I can't ban someone for being useless or stupid.

Sure you can.. 

As my mother (a retired English teacher) would say, "He can, but he may not."

Sure he may.  Who's refusing to allow him?

Self restraint, so essentially himself.  Maybe Alex also, but he always struck me as being very hands off.

[LilianaUwU]

This motherfucker on an almost full bus was in the middle of a sideways three-bench row with no one else around them and yet when I wanted to sit down, they refused to scoot their ass to either side of the row. What a selfish prick.

[vdeane]

Surveys that only let you look at one question at a time (or even a couple/few) rather than look at the whole survey.  Inevitably there will be one question early on that makes me feel like I don't want to bother with the survey unless I feel strongly about providing a response on a later question, and since it won't let me see the later questions, I just quit.  Most recently (as in, a few minutes ago) it was the Thruway survey on fuel options and the question on how often I use the service areas; I rarely do since, living near Albany, it's very rare for them to line up with when I want to eat/refuel, so since I couldn't see the rest of the survey, I just closed the tab.

[Scott5114]

One of the illuminated street name signs at Rock Springs Road and Lake Mead Boulevard had its back-side sign face go missing. (How that happens, I don't know.) So I reported it to the City of Las Vegas via the Clark County app. I got a notification a few days later that they had fixed it.

They fixed it by blocking up the back of the sign with a plain sheet of metal instead of a new sign.

[Molandfreak]

This motherfucker on an almost full bus was in the middle of a sideways three-bench row with no one else around them and yet when I wanted to sit down, they refused to scoot their ass to either side of the row. What a selfish prick.

Same story, but significantly worse.

[kphoger]

Computer popups that want me to upgrade or change something or another, but the only options are [UPGRADE NOW] or [REMIND ME LATER].  But the option I really want is [NEVER, SO DON'T ASK ME AGAIN].

[Scott5114]

Computer popups that want me to upgrade or change something or another, but the only options are [UPGRADE NOW] or [REMIND ME LATER].  But the option I really want is [NEVER, SO DON'T ASK ME AGAIN].

Won't you think of the dollars, though? If you answer something so callously and with such finality as "Never, don't ask me again", it makes the dollars sad. What if you really do mean never?

Won't you think of the dollars, in their time of need? Their time of needing more dollars?

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Unfortunately, I can't ban someone for being useless or stupid.

Sure you can.. 

As my mother (a retired English teacher) would say, "He can, but he may not."

Sure he may.  Who's refusing to allow him?

Self restraint, so essentially himself.  Maybe Alex also, but he always struck me as being very hands off.

As someone who mods elsewhere, it's definitely a thing. Being stupid isn't against the rules. We often privately wish certain people would actually do something against the rules to warrant being banned, but just being an idiot isn't enough.

Don't be a douche and don't argue with admins/mods will keep you safe in 99% of online communities.

[Max Rockatansky]

Unfortunately, I can't ban someone for being useless or stupid.

Sure you can.. 

As my mother (a retired English teacher) would say, "He can, but he may not."

Sure he may.  Who's refusing to allow him?

Self restraint, so essentially himself.  Maybe Alex also, but he always struck me as being very hands off.

As someone who mods elsewhere, it's definitely a thing. Being stupid isn't against the rules. We often privately wish certain people would actually do something against the rules to warrant being banned, but just being an idiot isn't enough.

Don't be a douche and don't argue with admins/mods will keep you safe in 99% of online communities.

I moderate elsewhere also.  I'm not exactly big on having patience with people being deliberately disruptive.  While I wouldn't say that being stupid is something I would act on I'd be lying if I said that I never have.

[TheCatalyst31]

Computer popups that want me to upgrade or change something or another, but the only options are [UPGRADE NOW] or [REMIND ME LATER].  But the option I really want is [NEVER, SO DON'T ASK ME AGAIN].

Won't you think of the dollars, though? If you answer something so callously and with such finality as "Never, don't ask me again", it makes the dollars sad. What if you really do mean never?

Won't you think of the dollars, in their time of need? Their time of needing more dollars?

Sometimes it's not even the dollars, it's "the team that came up with this feature has a KPI of getting X% of users to actually use it, and if they don't use the feature because it sucks, the team's manager will have a hissy fit about it".

[Scott5114]

Computer popups that want me to upgrade or change something or another, but the only options are [UPGRADE NOW] or [REMIND ME LATER].  But the option I really want is [NEVER, SO DON'T ASK ME AGAIN].

Won't you think of the dollars, though? If you answer something so callously and with such finality as "Never, don't ask me again", it makes the dollars sad. What if you really do mean never?

Won't you think of the dollars, in their time of need? Their time of needing more dollars?

Sometimes it's not even the dollars, it's "the team that came up with this feature has a KPI of getting X% of users to actually use it, and if they don't use the feature because it sucks, the team's manager will have a hissy fit about it".

I suspect that's happening with every app that has an AI feature for some reason now.

Why the hell would I need an AI to read a newspaper? Isn't the newspaper itself supposed to be summarizing what happened? If I needed a summary of the summary, isn't that what the headline and lede are for?

[TheCatalyst31]

Computer popups that want me to upgrade or change something or another, but the only options are [UPGRADE NOW] or [REMIND ME LATER].  But the option I really want is [NEVER, SO DON'T ASK ME AGAIN].

Won't you think of the dollars, though? If you answer something so callously and with such finality as "Never, don't ask me again", it makes the dollars sad. What if you really do mean never?

Won't you think of the dollars, in their time of need? Their time of needing more dollars?

Sometimes it's not even the dollars, it's "the team that came up with this feature has a KPI of getting X% of users to actually use it, and if they don't use the feature because it sucks, the team's manager will have a hissy fit about it".

I suspect that's happening with every app that has an AI feature for some reason now.

Why the hell would I need an AI to read a newspaper? Isn't the newspaper itself supposed to be summarizing what happened? If I needed a summary of the summary, isn't that what the headline and lede are for?

That one usually is the dollars, but in the even dumber way of "these investors with lots of money think AI is the future, so if we stuff our product full of AI they'll give us some of their money". Tech investors love hyping up technologies that they're momentarily obsessed with (see also anything related to the blockchain).

[Scott5114]

Computer popups that want me to upgrade or change something or another, but the only options are [UPGRADE NOW] or [REMIND ME LATER].  But the option I really want is [NEVER, SO DON'T ASK ME AGAIN].

Won't you think of the dollars, though? If you answer something so callously and with such finality as "Never, don't ask me again", it makes the dollars sad. What if you really do mean never?

Won't you think of the dollars, in their time of need? Their time of needing more dollars?

Sometimes it's not even the dollars, it's "the team that came up with this feature has a KPI of getting X% of users to actually use it, and if they don't use the feature because it sucks, the team's manager will have a hissy fit about it".

I suspect that's happening with every app that has an AI feature for some reason now.

Why the hell would I need an AI to read a newspaper? Isn't the newspaper itself supposed to be summarizing what happened? If I needed a summary of the summary, isn't that what the headline and lede are for?

That one usually is the dollars, but in the even dumber way of "these investors with lots of money think AI is the future, so if we stuff our product full of AI they'll give us some of their money". Tech investors love hyping up technologies that they're momentarily obsessed with (see also anything related to the blockchain).

I'm rather pleased that NFTs seem to have died an ignominious death.