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posted by on Thursday September 03 2020, @08:00PM   Printer-friendly
from the silver-linings dept.

The Mighty Buzzard writes:

Congrats to the wannabe APK noobtard for advancing the site's codebase despite me having extremely limited time to play. I added three lines of code and now Spam modded comments (and comment trees) auto-collapse and you can still moderate a comment as Spam even if it's already at the minimum score. Honestly, the folks using any other downmod on obvious Spam annoy me more than the noobtard does but that annoyance at least is now history. Changes are to hot code only, I'll put them in the repo as part of my next pull request.

Suck it, noob. --TMB

 
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  • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Saturday September 05 2020, @02:11AM (10 children)

    by aristarchus (2645) on Saturday September 05 2020, @02:11AM (#1046649) Journal

    Well, Mandrake, you never see a commie whine about down-mods, do ya! That means they are after my precious bodily upmods, so I will deny them my essence. Every complaint I have seen about this has been by a RWNJ, usually with a massive, and probably deserved, persecution complex. But again, they are not smart enough to see what is going on, and how they are perceived by others. It is like conservatives complaining that there are not more of them on College Faculties, when the real reason is that conservatives usually are either too stupid, or too lazy, or too cheap, to complete advanced academic degrees. True during the School of Alexandria, true in at the University of Bologna in the middle ages, true everywhere except at American Business schools.

    Mod points are used by Soylentils for what ever purpose the Soylentil desires. I have seen particle beams off the shoulders of Orion, and bad comments modded funny, funny comments modded as -1 Redundant. Journal authors modded off topic in their own journals, khallow modded +1 Insightful, just to mess with his head. TMB has been spam-modded, as have I. And I have seen -1 Troll used on trolls that did not realize they were trolls. So even discussing moderation on SN is itself a trollish action, a ruse de guerre, a ploy, a device, a strategem, if you will. That is why the semordinlap of KiloPascal resides where it does.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Saturday September 05 2020, @03:00AM (3 children)

    by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Saturday September 05 2020, @03:00AM (#1046656) Journal

    you never see a commie whine about down-mods, do ya!

    *cough* s/down-mods/rejections/ *cough*
     
    But more seriously, Why would they? The general user population of SN is well left of center with a healthy far-left population. The middling right of center contingent tossing downmods isn't going to be enough to bother them much.
     
    As I pointed out above, the approach AC proposed would increase marginalization of smaller groups in the SN environment, meaning it would make actual RWNJ's get less traction. So it doesn't make sense that an RWNJ would propose it (if they evaluated the likely outcome.)
     
    All IMO of course.

    --
    В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
    • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Saturday September 05 2020, @04:05AM (2 children)

      by aristarchus (2645) on Saturday September 05 2020, @04:05AM (#1046673) Journal

      The Obvious khallow is, we used to have more limited mods, five per user per day. And we changed to 10 because, better? I don't think going back would solve the whining AC's problems, unless they are trying Make SoylentNews Great Again!! (MSNGA? Not quite the right ring to it!)

      • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 05 2020, @08:30AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 05 2020, @08:30AM (#1046711)

        To be clear, the change from five to ten mod points was to provide users greater ability to mod down shitposting [soylentnews.org]. I'm proposing that editors use unlimited spam mod points to eliminate the worst of the repetitive spam. If editors are modding the worst of the garbage like APK spam, that might obviate the need for the extra five mod points. And I admittedly have a bit of nostalgia which makes me want to retain as much of the old Slashdot feel as possible.

        • (Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Saturday September 05 2020, @03:06PM

          by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Saturday September 05 2020, @03:06PM (#1046774) Journal

          Heh, it didn't work on me.
           
          I run out of up-mods often enough, but I haven't dropped a downmod in something like two years at this point, not even for emordnilap KiloPascal. (Yes, yes, dowmods exist for a reason, i get it, but if my daughter can flip a switch and be vegan i can flip one and not downmod. Downmod if you disagree!)

          --
          В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 05 2020, @08:26AM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 05 2020, @08:26AM (#1046709)

    I'm the AC you've been commenting about. Interestingly enough, I am a university faculty member.

    The university had an issue with TPUSA in the not too distant past. TPUSA maintains a professor watchlist [professorwatchlist.org] that's supposed to expose faculty pushing left wing political agendas in the classroom. In fairness, academic freedom [insidehighered.com] does not mean that faculty can impose their political views on students. I suppose the first question, though, is why TPUSA only objects to faculty pushing left wing views in the classroom. Does that mean they would be okay with faculty pushing right wing views on students? But you're right, there just aren't many right wingers who are university faculty members. The bigger issue is why a group that says they promote free speech is maintaining a watchlist. That has a chilling effect on free speech.

    Many faculty members on the watchlist are there because of op-eds or guest appearances on TV as commentators, things that have nothing to do with classrooms. Others are there because they did things like assigning students to write about or in support of positions they disagree with. Of course, requiring students to examine and write essays in support of positions they disagree with is actually a really good critical thinking exercise. The "carefully maintained" watchlist is pretty much bullshit. In the case of my university, the administration cowered to right wingers in the legislature. Faced with the prospect of retaliatory funding cuts, the administration was all too happy to skip over the due process rights in academic freedom and impose sanctions against faculty members. We caved to TPUSA, which is highly unfortunate. I'd provide more specific details but I don't care to make myself a target of TPUSA. I will say a nearby university adopted social media policies [npr.org] that violate academic freedom [ericgoldman.org] because some snowflakes were triggered by a faculty member saying mean things about the NRA.

    As for moderation, I suppose I just spent too much time on Slashdot, where M2 is supposed to remove bad moderators and there's a considerably smaller amount of mod points in circulation. I could also do without triggered right wing snowflakes occasionally modding my comments to -1 before others have a chance to mod them up. And yes, I only post AC.

    • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Saturday September 05 2020, @08:39AM

      by aristarchus (2645) on Saturday September 05 2020, @08:39AM (#1046713) Journal

      My apologies if I misread your intentions, Herr Facultater! TP-USA is really a problem, seeing how they are lead by a community college dropout. (He just recently lost his sugardaddy, so the whole operation may fold soon). But as is often pointed out here, moderation is not censorship. It seems to hit some posters rather personally, I won't mention any names, but exaeta and hemo are extremely sensitive about getting down-modded. But really it means almost nothing, unless you get spam modded. And, as a perennial AC, you do not have to worry about your username karma, so only the cumulative super-secret karma can get you down. As for your posts, don't whine. It attracts sharks.

    • (Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Saturday September 05 2020, @05:42PM (2 children)

      by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Saturday September 05 2020, @05:42PM (#1046856) Journal

      The university had an issue with TPUSA in the not too distant past. TPUSA maintains a professor watchlist [professorwatchlist.org] that's supposed to expose faculty pushing left wing political agendas in the classroom. In fairness, academic freedom [insidehighered.com] does not mean that faculty can impose their political views on students.

      That's the rub. This is where academia is seen by many to have failed to serve well for generations, and for good or ill, why things like TPUSA now exist. I personally remember a psychology prof telling his class (attempting to quote by memory from 40 odd years ago..) "if you look at every bad thing the government has ever done, it was done by republicans", and don't even get me started on my macro-economics prof. :-)
       
      Academic freedom [natlawreview.com] requires balancing the rights of the university, the professors, and the students themselves. I don't know the perfect answer any more than anyone else, but I suspect like a lot of things it involves more sunlight to make reality match philosophy. Sunlight invariably is disliked for various reasons - Some are just used to the dark, some are doing things they shouldn't under its cover, and some are opposed for perfectly valid privacy/surveillance state concerns. That last is weakened by being invoked to protect instruction [themix.net] that parents feel is inappropriate in school. Sticky wicket and I'm mixing higher ed with K-12 anyway.

      I suppose the first question, though, is why TPUSA only objects to faculty pushing left wing views in the classroom. Does that mean they would be okay with faculty pushing right wing views on students? But you're right, there just aren't many right wingers who are university faculty members. The bigger issue is why a group that says they promote free speech is maintaining a watchlist. That has a chilling effect on free speech.

      Ok, also for free-speech concerns :-p
       
      I'm no expert on TPUSA, but it has an explicit viewpoint. Why would they track those that agree with it? From their mission statement page:

      "Turning Point USA’s mission is to educate students about the importance of fiscal responsibility, free markets, and limited government. TPUSA activists are the community organizers of the right."

      If there is an expectation for TPUSA to call out the small population (possibly hidden in business schools) that are actually aligned with their views I didn't see it in my quick perusal. That expectation may need adjustment?

      As for moderation, I suppose I just spent too much time on Slashdot, where M2 is supposed to remove bad moderators and there's a considerably smaller amount of mod points in circulation.

      Fair enough, I just don't think SN has the user population to make it work and that it would lead to issues that /. was able to avoid through sheer size of its user population smoothing things out.

      I could also do without triggered right wing snowflakes occasionally modding my comments to -1 before others have a chance to mod them up. And yes, I only post AC.

      A lot of folks read at -1 just because of this (I do). Reasoned/valid comments at -1 that don't belong there vex me and I'll drop an upmod on them that I might not have otherwise for that reason alone. As is so often the case - that's not a right or left wing snowflake specific issue.
       
      I also think we have categorically rebuked that you are a RWNJ.

      --
      В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 07 2020, @03:18AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 07 2020, @03:18AM (#1047405)

        I personally remember a psychology prof telling his class (attempting to quote by memory from 40 odd years ago..) "if you look at every bad thing the government has ever done, it was done by republicans"

        You object to professors relaying truth in their classrooms? Oh, you were one of Those students! Smarter than your profs! OK, Welcome to the desert of the real.

        • (Score: 1, Troll) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday September 07 2020, @12:34PM

          by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Monday September 07 2020, @12:34PM (#1047541) Homepage Journal

          Well, it's astoundingly untrue and verifiably so, so your objection is not really relevant. The Dems were the worst enemies minorities had historically. Pro-slavery, pro-Jim-Crow, anti-civil-rights bills, yadda yadda yadda. Some idiots think that changed around the late 60s but it didn't; they only switched whose votes they were trading manufactured racial hatred for.

          --
          My rights don't end where your fear begins.
    • (Score: 4, Informative) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday September 06 2020, @05:12PM

      by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Sunday September 06 2020, @05:12PM (#1047221) Journal

      It's kind of a self-selection thing. The RWNJs aren't much for higher education (or ANY education at all), did you notice? All they want to do is destroy it, because it doesn't fit in their worldview...and they're trying to turn the ideas of openmindedness, considering all viewpoints, and fairness/equal exposure into a weapon to eradicate the very people and ideas that depend on them!

      It's fucking disgusting is what it is. I don't have the words or the bile to express what kind of rancid brass-bollocked sociopathic gaslighting horseshit it is, and if anything, the underlying idea behind it--"destroy those weak fools with their own soft, stupid ideas about fairness and justice, they deserve it for being weak!"--is what pisses me off the most. Fuck those people and fuck their sociopathic bullshit.

      --
      I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...