Today, I left the ABS forums, with this message. This was a difficult decision, but I do not plan to come back unless some major things change, so please do not try to convince me to. Interestingly, 5 members have also left as a result of this.
<&S][nner> The last sound on the worthless earth will be two human beings trying to launch a homemade spaceship and already quarreling about where they are going next.
I (with the assistance of a few friends) have assembled this basic framework for (theoretically) better forums. This has not been tested, however, a forum system with these properties may be implemented in the future. I will change or add to this as I see fit.
Initial Conditions
- Small community (< 100 members).
- No ruleset.
- All members have no powers.
- Special case: Host/forum creator/admin(s). It is assumed that they will act as normal, powerless members.
Projections
- When it becomes necessary, members will be chosen by other members to be in a position of power (moderators).
- Note: I have a bit of an issue with the term "moderator", as it seems to imply that they are no longer really a member, which can lead to all sorts of bad consequences.
- When it becomes necessary, a ruleset will be created that is agreeable to both members and moderators.
- Recommendation: A ruleset that is not strict and absolute, but rather, a set of general guidelines that allows for judgment on a case-by-case basis.
General Concepts
- Moderator actions should be subject to review.
- It should be possible to remove the ability of certain members to create threads.
- It should be possible to have threads go through a review process before they're posted.
- It should be possible to restrict the ability to create threads based on postcount.
- It should be possible to have certain members' threads go through a review process based on postcount.
I would like feedback on these ideas. You can contact me in #emptv on irc.luniticfringe.net.
My grandmother is possibly the best person I have ever known. She also has terminal, inoperable cancer. All they can do is give her chemotherapy and radiation in what is most likeky a vain attempt at making her live in pain for another year at best. Poison, nuke, repeat. That's all it is now. It's awful to see how frail she's become; she weighs less than I do, and can't even walk without getting tired. And it's absolutely sickening to know that when she does die, everything she was, her mind, her self, her very being, will be completely and irretrievably lost. To me, she is the last person in the world who deserves to die.
All of this is simply because her body is attacking itself. There is nobody to blame in this case; she is dying needlessly. Our selves, intelligences, "souls", are maintained only by this fragile, high-maintenance, utterly unreliable biological shell. If this was a video game, you would have only one life, no save points, slowly lose health throughout the course of the game, be surrounded by things that can easily kill you, and there is no way to win. If we don't die because of illness or injury, we die of old age. And our minds die with us. The human body is completely inadequate for the support of consciousness. Mortality is unacceptable.
I know many of you believe in an all-powerful, perfectly good deity, however, throughout my life I have seen absolutely no concrete evidence of His existence. Furthermore, I find it difficult to believe that He, the almighty and perfectly good being, would allow 150,000 of His creations (in His image, mind you) to die every day.
I'm not sure where I'm going with this. Right now, I'm just really angry at mortality, this situation that we're all in, the fact that something with as much value as intelligence is housed in something so weak, and destroyed so easily. We don't deserve that. Consciousness is worth so much more than that. Simply returning to dust is not an option.
SitePoint.com is a pretty good web developer site, especially its PHP forums.
<@PacoL250> hey rmuser
<@PacoL250> see if you can access my site
<@PacoL250> http://www.teaml337.org/
<@PacoL250> having troubles here
<~rmuser> nope
<@PacoL250> so...no good?
<~rmuser> nope
<~rmuser> I TOLD YOU IT'S A PUNK SERVER
![[OMGF IT IS TEH DAY ATFER TOMMOMOMMOMROWOW]](images/tornado.jpg)
I found this to be very interesting, and scary.
Several of my acquaintances and I have been working on spoofs of Johnen Vasquez's "Johnny the Homicidal Maniac". So far, there are 21 spoofs by 11 people, and another person is actually boycotting the site because of this feature.
A while back, ImageShack was blocked from ABS Forums. The staff refuse to explain this action, leaving the users to find other hosts, which are typically slower, unreliable, or require registration. On the other hand, the person running ImageShack has had a stable, fast, free service since October of 2003. I believe that the image host that a user chooses is their business. Therefore, I have provided this service for the members of the ABS Forums, which allows them to once again use ImageShack links. I hope somebody finds this useful.
This site's gotten 10000 hits. Nifty.
Z made a parody of EMPTV.
Interestingly, my dad has the same view on the Shrek advertising as I do.
Well, aside from PHP's $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] returning emptv.theseb.com instead of emptv.com like before (now corrected, thanks seb), I think everything is back in order. If you notice any problems, please tell me.
Strojovna 07's new album III came out recently. I think it's pretty good, if you like electronic/techno music. Also, I finally found The Picard Song, as seen on YTMND.
<%poke__egg> I SWEAR TO DRUNK I'M NOT GOD
The orc is down to a hundred life!
<@Zeshin> What if there were a lot of baby Reses?
<%res> Who the hell is rese?
<%res> oh
<%res> right
<@Zeshin> Congratulations.
<@Zeshin> We've got a rocket surgeon.
I wonder why the Garfield movie cross-marketing hasn't invaded Kit Kat bars yet. Really, it's a perfect target. Garfield is orange, the wrapper is orange. Garfield is a cat, the candy is named "Kat". Maybe chocolate is deadly to cats, I don't know. But I doubt the sodium in Goldfish is good for them.
The HUGE Plume: "IT MAKES YOUR EYES BURN!? THEN GET OUT OF THE FREAKING CHLORINE GAS!!!"
It seems like all of my friends are getting websites now. Check out Gashman the Uncontrollable, TeamL337.org, idown.luniticfringe.net, and coming soon, Atomboom.com.
<~rmuser> time for the sleeping
* rmuser is now known as rmuser|away
<PanicMan> now its time for my evil PLAN!
<PanicMan> MUAHAHAHAHAHH!
<PanicMan> Muahahahahah!
* PanicMan Smacks Rmuser
* PanicMan Smacks Rmuser
* PanicMan Smacks Rmuser
* PanicMan Smacks Rmuser
* PanicMan Smacks Rmuser
* PanicMan Smacks Rmuser
* PanicMan Smacks Rmuser
* PanicMan Smacks Rmuser
* PanicMan Smacks Rmuser
* PanicMan Smacks Rmuser
* PanicMan Smacks Rmuser
* PanicMan Smacks Rmuser
* PanicMan Smacks Rmuser
* PanicMan Smacks Rmuser
* PanicMan Smacks Rmuser
* PanicMan Smacks Rmuser
* ~rmuser|away 's client dings every time you do that.
<PanicMan> oh, shit
<PanicMan> HE FOUND OUT
* rmuser|away sets mode: +b ~q:*!*@luniticfringe-1E3198B9.hln-mt.client.bresnan.net
<~rmuser|away> Gnight <3
OH YEAH!
X Gon Give It To Ya was featured on the front page of Albino Blacksheep again.
<tom-gone> what is bukkake?
<&rmuser> tom-gone: google for it
<tom-gone> hmm
<tom-gone> 4-bukkake.com
<tom-gone> Complete guide to bukkake, covering American Bukkake and Japanese Bukkake in detail
<tom-gone> sounds informative
<tom-gone> OH GOD NO
I'm getting really, really sick of anti-Americanism. Of course it's just horrible to hate Hispanics, Jews, black people, and gays, but wait, look at this! Hating a group of nearly 300 million people is just fine, because they're a bunch of crude, ignorant savages! Join the party! Seriously, this is no better than racism. I don't know why it's even considered acceptable. (Note: This rant came about as a result of my experiences in a large, diverse, community.)
I recently picked up a copy of Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. Eliezer Yudkowsky says it's "the most intelligent, the deepest, the most beautiful book in the world." I think it's pretty good (and dense) so far.
It seems like once I got this site, people started assuming certain things. Namely, that I could host other sites, delegate webspace, give people FTP accounts or shells, etc. Well, guess what: I can't. So get the hell off my lawn, you damn freeloaders.
Jason and I recently explored the local sewer system. The first one began in a drainage ditch/small creek and ended in someone's backyard. The second one was the same, but with a different creek and backyard. Never wear long pants when exploring sewers. And never put wet shoes in the dryer. Pictures: 001 002 003 004 005
The Day After Tomorrow wasn't great, but it wasn't that bad either, despite the awful-looking CGI wolves and gimmicky "flash-freezing". I wouldn't go see it again, but it didn't feel like I wasted two hours.
While at the mall yesterday, I bought Ghost in the Shell. Honestly, it wasn't very good. They presented some interesting concepts, and then just didn't do anything with them. The program became sentient, found a body, merged with the Major in a rather unexciting scene, and then... the end. It was only 82 minutes long, there was so much more they could have done! Hopefully Stand Alone Complex and Innocence are better. From what I've seen, Innocence is going to be the best thing since Garfield-free Goldfish. However, I'm pretty sure it's going to be released in the US by Dreamworks, the same bastards who made Shrek. May God have mercy on their souls if they mess it up, because I won't.
I think it's inevitable that there will eventually be brain implants, or some other method of direct neural interface. Once this happens, I'm sure the systems will be perverted by those looking for profits. It happened to the telephone, email, Usenet, the web, why not this too? Imagine having a rotating corporate logo in the corner of your field of vision. Imagine having ads artificially placed on the flat surfaces you see. It's not a very appealing prospect.
A friend recently told me about Adbusters, a very interesting anti-consumerism site. You should check it out.
S][nner's email to Michael Powell of the FCC:
"I've been looking at some of the recent complaints that have been released to public, and frankly I feel the restrictions are destroying the Americans freedom of speech. People who listen to the radio and watch the TV programs that are being complained about for the most part know that's what that program is about, and know that they don't have to listen or watch it if they don't want to. People are bitching for the sake of bitching, and are ruining it for the rest of the country. Frankly I don't see why you allow 1% of the population decide what the other 99% should be allowed to watch or listen to. I've seen programs I watch or listen to be censored out time and time again, and its disturbing how much people are allowed to interfere with others interests. At this rate, there wont be a freedom of speech within 10 years, at least not one that will be able to be recognized as freedom. A man can no longer say what he thinks on the air, because he has to worry about offending someone? If someone has a problem with what that person is saying, then they should do like the 99% of the population that respects freedom of speech does, and change the station. I know when I don't like something, I don't complain to the FCC about it, or I would be complaining about rap, country music, and BET, but I respect those that like that particular kind of music and programming enough to not complain, and not watch it. Last year in July alone there were 5,552 complaints about indecency/obscenity (out of an FCC report located here : http://www.stlmedia.net/pdf/quarter3complaintsfcc.pdf ). 5,552, what's that tell you? And how many of those were truly justified complaints? I know I for one am tired of seeing my few programs that I do pay attention to be restricted more and more because some soccer mom doesn't want her 9 year old son listening to it while she drives him to school, or watching it while she does work around her home, when all she has to do is turn it off (or like on the TV's with the V-Chip, Block it) and not have to worry about the child being exposed to the "evil" influences of a fart joke, or a phrase that could be considered a little risqué, but if listened to for what they are actually referring to, its not. (IE: WFBQ, 94.7 out of Indianapolis, and the "traffic hunt" you can guess what that sounds like, but they actually do the traffic reports like they claim they are going to do). Now I'm all for peoples rights to complain about legitimate things, but when you have to restrict what has been accepted for years now (Bob and Tom, Howard Stern, and many others) because some yahoo cant take their humor and cant change the station, then that's not peoples rights, that's taking the rights from them.
Thank you for your time
-S][nner-"
WTF?
"moarning is feeling very sad/depressed of over someone's death..well your just think about them...when people cry over someone's death and mean it... frick i'm smart for an 11 year old girl." -Thief_Girl_21
<bense> i just read the alt f4 thing
<bense> what is alt f4?
<%rmuser> try it
<Deadsy> try it
<cartufer> try it bense
<MMAS|Sad> try it
