Please welcome the new owners of Deskthority

[Muirium]

I liked your post in the woods, but no-one heard it.

I have both liked and not liked your comment, but there's no way for you to know which is true until we get a like button

Yes, and I see no reason to collapse that particular wave function!

Cool cats embrace position/momentum uncertainty. And you can't even tell!

…on a technical forum…

I think that particular context matters a lot indeed! I've seen the same dynamic on Mac forums too. The more technical the community, the better it works. The more general access, the quicker it all goes to shit.

[depletedvespene]

I think that particular context matters a lot indeed! I've seen the same dynamic on Mac forums too. The more technical the community, the better it works. The more general access, the quicker it all goes to shit.

All the more reason, then, to avoid said feature like the plague. DT (and to a lesser degree, GH) is unusual in that it has a core of technical, dedicated regulars, with a large constant stream of "n00bs" (typically someone who needs advice on getting a better keyboard, and goes off elsewhere once that need has been fulfilled); adding this feature would provoke a serious divide between both groups, with the former permanently soured.

[lhutton]

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Haha, put me on the IBM side. No Zoomer era web bloat please! Keep that crap on Discord or TikTok or whatever the kids use these days. Signed, 35 year old Boomer who still uses IRC.

I seem like I'm perpetually "just passing through" but I still read a lot.

Any plans for DT Pro members? I really liked that idea as a way to support the site in lieu of ads. I'd rather just "pass the hat around" and have whosoever is able just through a few dollars/pounds/loonies/euros/etc in that go on any sort of sponsorship thing.

[shallot]

As a 100 year old boomer, I think we should close the website and go back to writing each other letters.

[depletedvespene]

As a 100 year old boomer, I think we should close the website and go back to writing each other letters.

Okay, but... handwritten? Or can we still use those things called "word processors"?

[Polecat]

As a 100 year old boomer, I think we should close the website and go back to writing each other letters.

What, we can't use our vintage keyboards in Wordstar 3 for CP/M (or, grudgingly, DOS...) and churn those letters out on our daisy wheel printers? I still have a Diablo 1650 HiType II packed away here someplace, dangit, but I'm only 60 or so.

Doesn't anyone remember the CB radio craze back in the '70s, where all the basement dwellers used their CBs to talk to other basement dwellers...about their CBs? Kids today are doing exactly the same thing, only using their phones.

[lhutton]

As a 100 year old boomer, I think we should close the website and go back to writing each other letters.

I'm ok with that!

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I've got a Wheelwriter now too, but this old tank of a Selectric of mine still works and is oh so brown in its glory.

[NeK]

I'm on a technical forum (3d printing) that has this system since years and absolutely nothing bad happened because of it. When I first registered and posted something informative I got a "like" (I didn't even notice there was a "like" button), I thought it was a kind gesture to a new user. People mostly ignore the system but I think it's more of a way of saying "go ahead, you are doing good" and can be actually motivating.

Does it *add* anything of value though? The answer in my opinion is a resounding no. If a person does not give the time and energy to respond to a message to say a proper thank you in order to express gratitude to a post/message, that someone else had actually invested time and energy to write, then he or she isn't really saying thank you. Isn't really expressing gratitude, in fact it devalues that message and the real amount of positive impact that it had. They will just use the thank you button, for their own convenience, by effectively putting zero effort for something they feel obligated to do and which, in their minds, be enough and then feel ethically right and get closure. This will become evident to everyone with time and it will slowly deprive it of value, until it ends up being a valueless gesture, costing nothing, meaning nothing and adding nothing.

On the contrary, IMO it actually subtracts value in the long run. How? By people abusing it, for promoting post and messages of their interest. Good luck moderating those abusive "thank yous". It is a nightmare.

But whatever, don't listen to me. (and wth, let me wave my experience around and look like a dork, I dont care that much afterall) My almost 30 years of BBSes, usenet, proto-forum sites and modern forums, including having created the biggest, by far, technological forum in my country for so many years, could very well mean nothing. For all I care, anyone that feels that they just reinvented the wheel, they can go ahead and add whatever bell and whistles they want. If it worked for facebook, reddit or twitter why wouldn't it work for a forum, right?

Also about the blog, what a great idea, if this was 1998! Lets see how that turns out. And a blog really? For what? To issue statements? Gatherings? New keyboards? What? Who, will speak in this blog in behalf of this community and for what? What does "Member sourced" even mean? Who will curate those sources, who will say what goes in and what does not? This is a recipe for disaster...

Making advances and going the forum forward into the future by... adding a blog? And now we are discussing for a... thank you button? What is this... 2003? These ideas and many others, have already be beaten to death, over and over, and over and over again. But don't mind me, go on.

PS. Content is king. Was king. And will always be king.

[Bjerrk]

As a 100 year old boomer, I think we should close the website and go back to writing each other letters.

I'm ok with that!


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I've got a Wheelwriter now too, but this old tank of a Selectric of mine still works and is oh so brown in its glory.

It's a beauty!

[Bjerrk]

People mostly ignore the system but I think it's more of a way of saying "go ahead, you are doing good" and can be actually motivating.

Yes! Likes and similar quantifiable forms of social endorsement are extremely motivating! Often to the point that they take on a primary role. I'd say that's exactly the problem, and why they're better avoided.
People optimize with respect to the feedback that they get. Let's make it as nuanced as possible.

The influence of Likes is an interesting question, IMO For instance, this functional imaging study suggests that one's preferences are directly altered by the number of Likes that one thinks a post has. If you're told that it has a lot of Likes, you react strongly to it.

People mostly ignore the system but I think it's more of a way of saying "go ahead, you are doing good" and can be actually motivating.

Does it *add* anything of value though?

[...]

If it worked for facebook, reddit or twitter why wouldn't it work for a forum, right?
[...]
PS. Content is king. Was king. And will always be king.

Agreed - building the Wiki, collectively gathering more info in the forums etc. is the real reward

[Archie]

Doesn't anyone remember the CB radio craze back in the '70s, where all the basement dwellers used their CBs to talk to other basement dwellers...about their CBs? Kids today are doing exactly the same thing, only using their phones.

Yes, exactly - and several decades later, they'll remember these good old days when everyone used a smartphone...

As for the DT future - I'd personally prefer to keep it as is. IMHO currently it's a perfect media for existing community. But the first computers I've worked with were equipped with punch cards and 8" floppy drives, so...

P.S. Found youtube video with printer I've used: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgPNgneX_Xs What a great sound it was!

[Muirium]

Yes, exactly - and several decades later, they'll remember these good old days when everyone used a smartphone...

Ah, back when everyone just made do with 25/7 apocalyptic conspiracy theories live jacked into our brains. Simpler times!

As for the DT future - I'd personally prefer to keep it as is. IMHO currently it's a perfect media for existing community. But the first computers I've worked with were equipped with punch cards and 8" floppy drives, so...

That’s the argument for modernising a bit. All of us age out eventually. You’re either still attracting plenty of new users or you’re dying. And the newbs are younger nowadays, dang namit!

[shallot]

As a 100 year old boomer, I think we should close the website and go back to writing each other letters.

Okay, but... handwritten? Or can we still use those things called "word processors"?

Handwritten. All this new-fangled technology ugh

[Muirium]

I'd only annotate this post with "like" if it were in fact a photograph of your handwritten response!

[depletedvespene]

As a 100 year old boomer, I think we should close the website and go back to writing each other letters.

Okay, but... handwritten? Or can we still use those things called "word processors"?

Handwritten. All this new-fangled technology ugh

With quills, I would expect; pens are for the lazy younglings.

[Bjerrk]

Okay, but... handwritten? Or can we still use those things called "word processors"?

Handwritten. All this new-fangled technology ugh

With quills, I would expect; pens are for the lazy younglings.

I usually resort to petroglyphs, like in the good old viking days (when I had fewer grey hairs). "You never run out of stone!" is what my mum always said. She never did approve of that newfangled paper. Toilet paper would've been nice though.

[Archie]

As a 100 year old boomer, I think we should close the website and go back to writing each other letters.

[depletedvespene]

Handwritten. All this new-fangled technology ugh

With quills, I would expect; pens are for the lazy younglings.

I usually resort to petroglyphs, like in the good old viking days (when I had fewer grey hairs). "You never run out of stone!" is what my mum always said. She never did approve of that newfangled paper. Toilet paper would've been nice though.

You had stone? You lucky bastard! We made do with smoke signals made by burning dried-up cactii. That taught one to be concise!

[Muirium]

Archie wins +1 for effort.

I'd write that "Like!" myself, but I'd need to load paper into the printer.

[ddrfraser1]

I think comparing a possible like button here to upvotes on Reddit is the wrong approach. I spend a lot of time over on keebtalk which has like buttons. All it really does is have the effect of engendering a deeper sense of community that I think deskthority would benefit from. That’s all I don’t think it even has the possibility of becoming a means for (only) immediate gratification the likes of reddit it Instagram. Nobody is going to get thousands or even hundreds of likes from a post. Our community is too small. And that’s why it would work really well here. Rather, it would be nice to know “oh hey, so and so liked my post. Neat!” That kind of thing fosters community!

[Archie]

I'd write that "Like!" myself, but I'd need to load paper into the printer.

Feel free sending me a greetings postcard.

[Muirium]

Code: Select all

whois Archie
% IANA WHOIS server
% for more information on IANA, visit http://www.iana.org
% This query returned 0 objects.
%
% You queried for Archie but this server does not have
% any data for Archie.

[Archie]

Oops, I've totally forgotten about that new European privacy game, sorry.

[Findecanor]

Topic subject says "owners". Who else owns the site beside Oliver/keyboardjoy?

[Wodan]

Topic subject says "owners". Who else owns the site beside Oliver/keyboardjoy?

The Keeb Kabal

[Muirium]

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[ddrfraser1]

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[darkcruix]

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[ddrfraser1]

I'm impressed.

See? This would have been a great opportunity to use the like button.

[Muirium]

Calligraphy!?