put ’em below.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
62 Comments
Recent Posts
- Day 14: Louisiana Senator Approvingly Compares Trump to Stalin
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- Day 12: While Elon Musk Takes Over, We Podcast With Driftglass and Blue Gal
- Day 11: Harm of Fascist Regime’s Foreign Aid Freeze Comes Into View
- Day 10: The Fascist Regime Blames a Plane Crash on Nonwhite People
I said it before in the last Suggestion Diary… the blue box that comes with a “blockquote” use contrasts with the pleasant green…
Maybe another color could be used?
BTW, I feel guilty in telling you this, but you can Recommend your own Diaries here at BM Tribune :))
Pax
Soj, what browser are you using, because my boxes are grey?
I normally use Netscape but I looked on IE and to me it looks light blue.. maybe it IS grey. The border however is a 1 pixel wide orange.. maybe the green would be nicer?
Pax
My suggestion: can we have a thing to let us edit comments?
Maybe it’s the damn eye cataract that I need fixing but even with the wonderful spell checker I get embarrassed at what I miss.
Oh, and that Spell Checker. It can’t spell. It needs to go back to school. I mean it’s simple enough. It’s “minimise”, “realise”,”labour”, “theatre”.
Every time I post it is like a 3M HighLighter Pen sniffer has gone berserk across the monitor.
The problem though is how to debate a moving target…
usually people edit to fix a typo or add or fix a link, occasionally to add new information.
Anybody who is going to edit the sense of their post without clearly noting it, for example:
on edit, I have changed my mind and now support raising the tariff on all Britney Spears beach towels, with the exception of the blue ones with Britney in Jerry Falwell’s lap, which I believe should be distributed free of charge to every child in America.
is not going to be worth debating anyway.
Well, that was my idea.. I was going to post a comment saying “I think George Bush sucks!” just to get a bunch of people to respond “I agree!” and then sneakily change the comment to read “I think we should all become neo-Nazis!”
Then my boy Hannity was going to do a biting expose on all the neo-nazi liberals blogging away at the BoomanTrib.
And I would’ve gotten away with it to, if it wasn’t for you damn kids!
-Jeff Gannon, the voice seeking the truth.
Go into Display preferences and change your spellchecker to Brit. Others can change to Canadian. We can interpret your messed up spelling. Just don’t try to make us say aluminum or laboratory.
don’t force me to say nuclear.
I tried spell check the other day and the only words it didn’t like were blog and bloggers. Ironic, no? Can the booman spellcheck “learn” words, like many spellcheckers can? Blog is one that should probably be added.
I just ran spellcheck to confirm this info before posting, and guess what other words the spellcheck doesn’t know?
Yes, it highlighted BooMan … and spellcheck. LOL Oh, and LOL.
wow – amazing to recommend your own diary.
I don’t think I’ll recommend any diary that the writer doesn’t recommend already. =)
is on our to-do list
This is my suggestion, to get a feel where we are and where we are going. Submissions could be made to world site.
My idea for first poll would be:
Where do you see yourself politically?
Moderate, Right of Moderate, Left of Moderate, Far left, Far Right and Fundamentalist.
Also I’m still pushing for a bookmark for diaries if possible.
I saw you can recommend your own diary, but maybe that’s ok, and maybe that would be a good poll subject.
If you put that on the World Diaries, how do you determine what standard to use when saying right or left?
Don’t you know we are all commies here in the UK? Or so the Repthugs tell me 🙂
– you are barely distinguishable from Ghengis Khan and Vlad the Impaler. 😉
I was not suggesting to put the poll on the world site, only suggestions for polls. Does that answer your question?
I am becoming afraid I may miss some of my fav posters…Can we have a subscribe list or something like it. Perhaps now it is OK, but as time goes by I know the diaries are gonna be flying off the page. I guess we could look them up on “Diaries by” search….Also..I know we don’t want pricks or trolls here, but is there anything wrong with using words like Motherfucker, shithead, asshole upon discovering the trolls and for describing people like Bush, Delay, Frist, and others that we find so repulsive that those words just instantly come rolling off our tongues. I guess with MSO as a main pager one would not think words like those would be banned. btw/ where is she? is she OK…?
please no profanity on this site. I think if you realize many, many people come to these sites that never become members, and this is what they see of Liberals and their views. How sad that profanity is the vehicle used to express some views. Really, that makes us look bad.
I would suggest that if you cannot find decent language to use then don’t comment.
I am offended many times by the trash talk on DK and wonder sometimes if I am in a porn site alternate reality. Profanity is used many times to bash one of the members, not a troll, that doesn’t agree or has a different point of view. Using trash language on the other side invites it to be used on us, is that what we want.
So far I have been very happy to see little of that here.
I really hope that this place can be a bit kinder and gentler than other places on the Internet.
That’s why I am staking my Internet Homestead here.
On the minus side, as the site grows from 400 to 4,000 to 40,000 members, kinderliness and gentlerliness will become harder to come by.
On the plus side, with the proper community design, collective moderation and end-user filtering tools, a) a culture that is, on balance, socially constructive should take hold, b) serial violations of that culture can be handled gracefully, and c) you as an end-user should be able to filter out the harsh and wallow in mellow so you never even see the crap.
On the ultra-plus-plus side, BooMan seems like the kind of host who is going to do everything he can to make sure that this remains the home of compassionate disconservatism.
This suggestion box is an EXCELLENT AND PROMISING!!!! first step. Kudos, Boo-guy.
Now, if you can just make it a regular feature, that would be terrific. At first, it is going to be overloaded with excited off-the-cuff ideas, because of the novelty, but I urge you to keep it up.
Over time, it will be a comfortable place for the community to do a lot of the upfront conceptualizing ourselves, to discuss ideas for improvement, finetune and massage suggestions, and ultimately provide you with actionable feedback in manageable chunks, which you can then decide to implement or not, depending on the degree to which each suggestion matches your objectives for the site.
Ultimately, a permanent suggestion discussion board attached to the blog will work better than a diary, but this is more than adequate for now with the current membership size. Kudos again for caring about your community!
that this diary could be the place for all
diaries on diaries,
comments on comments,
ratings on ratings
posts?
It should only be the suggestion box for suggestions about suggestion boxes.
your concern about foul language and your desire not to be over-exposed to it.
However, I am not going to put any restraints on the language used here, other than the obvious restriction that people be respectful of each other and not act like jerks. And, of course, hateful language aimed at groups of people is also trollish behavior.*
But beyond that, people can say what they want. I hope you understand my policy.
*GOP excepted.
MSO isn’t here, so somebody had to say it.
but the more it is used, the more the emphasis diminishes.
I don’t swear much around my family, but when I do, they really listen.
the wrong site..I cannot imagine our Freedom of speech being taken away from us..As a matter of fact..if it is…I will leave NOW.
Just because I do not like swearing? Hey swear away if you like, I just thought it would make a better statement to the world at large.
Call me old fashioned but don’t say I am at the wrong site for stating my feelings. Free speech remember!
Question, ‘If swearing is a right of free speech then why is it not allowed for the most part on TV and radio and in newspapers? Would you like a news broadcast filled with f-ing and a-hole for example or open the paper to find it full of those words. I wouldn’t.
my comment..my writing “wrong site” was in response to you hoping people here wouldn’t write..Fuck…shit…you know..word like that…not “Wrong site” for you to express you opinion…I am all for people expressing their opinions…I love it…This is a Blog…not a newspaper, ABC Nightly News or even Fox News (God forbid). ..btw// I have the right to say whatever the FUCK I want to. I am not one for flame wars and normally not one to toss these kinds of words around..But I’ll be damned if someone is gonna tell me what words I can and can’t use on the net. Freedom of speech is at the Top of my list. Also…I Love it when Bill Maher, Chris Rock, and the gang use words like Motherfucking Bullshit, especially when referring to people like George Asshole-Motherfuckering Bush.
OK point taken, point accepted. Nice use of expletives by the way to illustrate your point. Just kidding I am not trying to offend you. No more words from me on this, I have been properly chastised. OK
at all…thanks for the response…I do want us all to get along, we have a big fight on our hands coming up midterm elections and with all the Bullshit that the current administration is trying to pull. I am sure you are a lovely person, it’s just so many of our rights are trying to be taken away that I just get pissed off sometimes. That’s all..You may be chastising me sooner or later…as my spelling and grammar suck. see you around Diane101
I want us all to get along as well. Also the rights thing I agree on too, as a child of the 50’s I know the differenc in what we had then and what we have now and I don’t like it one bit.
See you around too Chamonix1.
I don’t know how you’d do it, but I’d really like to see a thoughtful and reflective tone encouraged. The colors help, as do the gentle reminders. Hopefully can can become a self-selected group and build up a culture around civility. It’s tough, since when new (I speak from experience) it is not always automatic to realize that a community exists. Perhaps the communityness can be emphasized — like a community member of the week section. (With a photo, little bio, links to diaries, etc.) Just a thought.
I think it really ought to be possible to view single comment ratings (0/1). A pat on the shoulder is always welcome for its own sake, even when it has no practical effect. Many of us sometimes toss off a 4 as a way of saying ‘thanks for the discussion’ or ‘no hard feelings,’ and it’s good to know that it’ll be seen.
My other wish would be for automated paragraph breaks in the HTML formatted mode. Inserting the tags is tedious and easy to forget.
with making it so we could see the single comment ratings.
Also, is it possible to change it so that when the mouse rolls over a commentators name in the comments section it would show their UID? Right now it just says “short cut to diary”. Or, maybe that’s just a problem with my setup.
Thank you and kudos to a great site. The amount of excellent work you have put into it really shows.
Personally, I think it is a bad idea, from a community standpoint, to expose sequential UID’s so readily. This encourages the kind of “low number bigotry” so pervasive on large sites, which, in turn, intimidates newcomers and encourages people to evaluate comments not based on their actual merit, but based on the “status” of the commenter.
IMO, the solution to this is that UID’s should be randomized, rather than sequential, so you can’t tell just from looking at the number how long someone has been around.
If you even need UIDs. I’m not sure what actual purpose is served by exposing them at all. We humans tend to identify people by name, not by number, as far as I know.
You’re right. I hadn’t really thought about it; it was just different from what I was used to. And really, I don’t know what good it did me to know, other than to feel intimidated when they had a much lower number than I, so – never mind!
I’m NOT right, dammit, and I INSIST IN ALL CAPS that you (or someone else, I’m not picky) disagree with me. About something. Preferably calling me names in the process.
And using LOTS of exclamation marks!!!!
Otherwise, this will start to resemble a place where folks can actually have discussions without resorting directly to the nucular option. As opposed to, say, virtually everywhere else on the Intarwebs.
At the very least, you could invoke Godwin’s Law.
maybe I will hide them in the future. For now, I like them because it helps me welcome people to the site.
I disagree. Being able to see how long a person has been with a site is useful. Old timers carry a sense of the history of a site, and that comes out in what they post. Knowing who they are allows me to be attentive to that. It’s like lending extra respect to seniors. What they say carries the weight of experience.
Weight to the person vs. weight to the argument.
Attention to the seniority of the messenger vs. attention to the ideas in the message.
Welcoming challenging new ideas vs. appealing to the status quo.
Personalities vs. merit.
Which do you think is more conducive to constructive, sustainable community?
Personally, I think we’re better off the less we make this a backslapping special club and the more we make it a place where people are judged on the content of their posts, not the number of their user ID.
you miserable S.O.B. coward liar prick. you are wrong. and not about one thing in particular. about everything, everywhere, everytime you have thought it, written it down, or even thought about thinking it. so SYFP and go away. </everywhere else on the Intarwebs>
are you feeling better now galiel? or should I have used more curses?
Thank you. I’m much better now.
(pulls out two cigarettes, lights both and hands one over)
Was it good for you?
I had also looked for that facility and what happens – today I can!
But also noticed that I have the option to ‘Mega Troll’ comments – guess that makes me a TU 😉
Maybe the ability to view single ratings is linked to TU-status? No need for that, though.
so you can see who gave you the other one. I agree. It’s nice to know who gave you that pat on the back, or troll-rated you or gave you a warning. Without the second number, you really don’t know what’s up.
I made TU status overnight, and this morning, I can check comments rated only once and see who the rater was.
Recommended diaries are being duplicated in the regular and world sections; seems redundant and, as the site grows, eventually might keep a worthy diary from making the list.
The other day I was so pleased to see that text boxes and links opening into a new window were activated. Great for thumbnails and easy links. The text boxes are great when you’re as psychotic as I am in keeping like thoughts together. Besides, they look great. But today when I tried posting a link into open window, I got same html error code. (No opening tag found for closing tag A.) I haven’t tested the text boxes yet.
Here’s the code that doesn’t work.
(a href=”link” target=”_blank”>Text.(/a)
I was just wondering if these codes are causing an unexpected problem, or if kinks are still being worked out with them. They worked beautifully for a period of time the other day. Perhaps they caused other problems?
Last post I saw, I believe you suggested a runoff. So is it Darwin, or Jeremiah W. Boofrog, or Phib Rovitt, or … ?
Which would be short for Epipe dob ates tricolor… an Ecuadorian Tree Frog that is one of the deadliest poisonous tree frogs known to man.
(except Dobby would just be poisonous to Fascists!)
(except Dobby would just be poisonous to Fascists!)
Ah, that would be the subspecies E. t. boomanii – curiously, nonfascists may attain both enlightenment and minty fresh breath by licking it.
And I just want to thank you so much for the larger font default on the diaries and comment postings. This is such a pleasure for those of us that are beginning to suffer that “short arm syndrome” that comes with age, and the “lost the reading glasses on the top of my head” as well… 😉
Spell check is so great, too… no more keeping M-W.com minimized on my toolbar!
How do we know when we’ve become a rusted user… 😉
I agree with the above comment about the larger font in the diaries and comments. But is it me, or is the diary list in the right collumn seem not only disproportionately small, but also hard to read?
it is smaller font, but once you pass 50 everything’s smaller 🙂
I have a question about updating diaries, What is the accepted way to go about doing that. Can one use the same title, part 2, or what do you suggest. Any info on this would be helpful.
it depends.
If you want to add new content to a diary, you can hit ‘edit story’ and write [UPDATE] at the top, and then write a note, or correction.
But if you want to substantially rewrite a diary and resubmit it, just add ‘updated’ in the title.
Be cautious about doing this though. You should never resubmit a diary that is substantially the same as a previous one.
So, if you decide to resubmit, there should be a lot of different content in there.
So new content, but can you use same name, part 2 for example? In other words same subject, different info.would that be ok.
Is it not there or have I not found it?
I like to be able to subscribe to diarists, and to have the most recent replies to my comments.
Also, could there be a way to post pictures without having posted them before that on a website (i.e. taking them directly from the hard disk? That would be really helpful. (Or I am missing some very easy way to do this?)
the Hotlist is on a shortlist of things to do. To see replies to your comments, hit the box at the top that says ‘Jerome a Paris’s Comments’.
And, unfortunately, I cannot afford the bandwidth to host people’s images.
I hope to hear from you when you have the chance.
Thanks.
ok thanks. Not to worry, I have an alternative via Moon of Alabama (typepad stuff, convenient enough)
I’ll get back to you – some discussions are under way. Your feedback was very helpful.
Could we have a Recommended Action Diaries box? As Caliblogger said at the other place, “Talk is good. Learning is good. Action is better.”
I too like this idea. It could really let us all jump on each other’s bandwagons, and play some powerful tunes.