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Posts by steelskipper5

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Are we finally going to see stricter sanctions for "famous" trolls? in Feedback & Suggestions · Oct 3, 2012

Interesting point, dustyranger64. Honestly, I’ve been flagging almost everything you just listed—well, except for that first bit—as trolling over at the Social Science Research Council for days now, especially regarding that thread on same-sex marriage. I mean, based strictly on how much they troll, those users should've probably been forced into a mandatory cooling-off period ages ago, but nope, they're still here.
And look, if anyone wants to verify the posts I've flagged, you can actually track them right here in the thread—I explicitly stated in most of my replies that I was reporting them; given how this debate is going, I figured I’d better keep a paper trail of my reports.

The tedious truth about consistency in Feedback & Suggestions · Sep 25, 2012

Nicholas King said:The other issue stemming from this kind of practice is self-censorship. [...] It’s totally natural that if you can’t predict how people are going to react, you start policing your own sentences. [...] No, this isn't an "improvement"—it's just gutting the conversation, and the long-term result is basically total stagnation.

There’s also a flip side to this phenomenon that you overlooked—something I already warned Strilet about: the rise of sneakiness.

If you ban certain words, all that happens is that people stop using them explicitly. But they'll still think them; they'll still hint at them; they'll just find clever ways to get the forbidden message across.
The only difference is that instead of a bare-knuckle brawl, people will start throwing punches while wearing gloves. 🤷

There is also the issue caused by inconsistency on the "other side": consistency actually makes it easier to defend decisions. I could go on about this extensively, but I guess it's pretty obvious as it stands.

With inconsistency, the worst part is that nobody actually knows what kind of reaction they might get for what they write. (...and then Captain Obvious walks away.)

We basically have two main approaches here: the Roman style and the Anglo-American style. One relies on clearly defined rules and strict legalistic judgment; the other rests on established principles and a system of precedent. But both are relatively consistent within their own logic.
I definitely wouldn't want this forum to end up with a massive rulebook so dense that no user could ever figure out how to navigate it. But it's also clear that right now, there isn't even respect for precedent; instead, things are handled whenever a moderator or admin feels like it in the moment.

And let me say this again: yeah, both moderators and admins have the technical ability—and the owner's blessing—to do whatever they want. But every time they point that out, they're showing exactly the kind of arrogance that Anderlon promised to eliminate.
Rules should make life easier for everyone on the forum, both users and mods. But if the whole system boils down to the rule because I said so, that isn't just introducing inconsistency. It's a power grab over the consensus of the community. Last time, it escalated so much that the owner had to show up on a rogue forum just to ask what the hell was going on and why everything was such a mess.

Privacy policy and data usage: Questions for admins and members in Feedback & Suggestions · Sep 9, 2012

Melissa Martin32 said:Boys!

This thread is trying its hardest to be serious—at least as much as possible—in case people actually decide to talk about privacy. So, I’m asking you to please give me some real answers and share your experiences, or just grab your keyboards and go spam some other thread somewhere else.

I think you accidentally spelled "bold" correctly. 🥳

Treatment referrals, forum social roles, and more in Feedback & Suggestions · Aug 30, 2012

hiddenmoose16 said:Give me a break.
Either you're trolling or you're a clone of someone who already got banned.
There's no way you could have felt hollowtrucker77's dictatorship under this handle.

The bifurcation fallacy is—well, if you ask any of the mods over at LJES—actually a pretty interesting logical error. 🥳
If you'd kept going with that whole "Slavic antithesis" bit, I might have gone along with it; but instead, I really have to... well, correct you.

Yeah, it's a total given that this female user wouldn't have experienced hollowtrucker77's administration under this specific handle. But—and this is the big part—that doesn't automatically mean she's trolling or some shadow version of a banned account. And it's definitely not the only two options out there.

People make alt accounts for all kinds of reasons; for instance, this guy switched from my original handle because nobody could pronounce it and it was driving me crazy.
Plus, most people lurking on this forum don't even bother having an account. They just read, you know? They don't feel the need to register until they suddenly get the urge to chime in.
None of that changes the fact that the user in question could have easily been around to witness how things were run before, even if she wasn't personally banned. In fact, even when the ban wave started hitting toward the end, there were still hundreds of users who managed to stay in the clear.
Sure, who knows how many would've stayed if hollowtrucker77 had stuck around longer, but that’s a whole different conversation. 😬

I hope this false dilemma is settled now and we can stop seeing it pop up—especially not as an ad hominem attack like we just saw here. ☕

Treatment referrals, forum social roles, and more in Feedback & Suggestions · Aug 30, 2012

velvettrucker52 said:Erm... Byron has been offered moderation duties several times across various PDFs.
I’ve personally reached out to him on both ŽuD and RiD. He turned down every single offer.

This whole business of assigning diagnoses is incredibly messy and unreliable. 😢

You clearly don't get it. Byron is obviously holding out for a moderator role on something actually intense. Or—more likely—he's eyeing an admin position. He isn't just going to jump at any random offer. 🥳

Treatment referrals, forum social roles, and more in Feedback & Suggestions · Aug 30, 2012

coppergardener said:I honestly don't understand how certain people expect to be taken seriously—especially when they target Nicholas King. He’s explicitly stated more than once that he has zero interest in being a moderator, and frankly, he doesn't even have any issues with the site administration. He’s simply offering a bit of social commentary by commenting on the "events" unfolding on this forum—which, while it might seem a little unconventional to some, I actually find incredibly refreshing, especially when you compare his input to that mountain of unconstructive nonsense found over in the admin feedback sections. And yet, people claim he's just sucking up? Seriously, who is the actual troll in this situation here? 😕 Good grief, at this point, I can't even tell who the trolls are anymore. 🙂 🤣

That’s not trolling. If I can take a quick dive into some armchair psychology—it’s just plain old projection. 🥳 Pair that with some sour grapes and various rationalizations, and there you have it.

It would be trolling if the only goal was to start fights or trigger intense emotional reactions across the board. But this? This feels more honest. It's crazy, but it's sincere.

Hacker Guru Flood in Feedback & Suggestions · Aug 16, 2012

Nicholas King said:Or, you know, we could just call it a grace period for mocking trolls—which, honestly, would be pretty damn great 😬.

Personally, I’d much rather they just scrap the whole grace period entirely. 🙂

Best ways to archive useful threads long-term? in Feedback & Suggestions · Jul 23, 2012

Quote : steelskipper5

Melissa Castillo said:I used to use Internet Explorer back in the day—like, ten years ago. If I recall correctly—and feel free to set me straight if I'm wrong—it used to track everything via a specific folder. What I’m actually looking for here is just one single, standalone file.

As far as I know, there isn't some extra folder tucked away somewhere. Everything is just shoved into one single archive—which, honestly, is kind of the whole point.
Quote : steelskipper5

Nicholas King said:Aren't those all just different ways to save? one Dozens of pages... honestly, that’s just not the most practical way to handle a thread, is it? Not when a topic stretches out this long—it's kind of a mess.

If you’ve got a massive thread that stretches out over dozens of pages, just open it up in Google Chrome with the AutoPager plugin installed. Let AutoPager load the entire topic—or, if things start getting buggy because the thread is just too huge, you can always just manually trigger it ten pages at a time. Once everything is loaded, just save the whole thing as an .mht file. Easy enough.

Best ways to archive useful threads long-term? in Feedback & Suggestions · Jul 23, 2012

loneraven25 said:...my bad for leaving out a detail there—if you're using Google Chrome, just click on Tools / plugins
install the Save as PDF plugin
and then you'll have the option to save the page as a PDF file right from your navigation bar...

You can also save a page as an .mht file, which is basically a handy little HTML archive that works in any browser. I guess you might need an extension for that too, though—I don't know off the top of my head.

Who owns the rights to forum posts? in Feedback & Suggestions · Jul 21, 2012

Henry Hernandez7 said:So what you're saying is someone can just hop onto this or any other Reddit thread and drop a death threat like "I'm gonna kill this guy," and then just shrug their shoulders when they get hauled into court!?

Look, you didn't ask me, but since I've actually had to report people on another Reddit thread because of threats, I can tell you—the police will find whoever made the threat pretty damn fast. They'll have their name, address, and probably even what they had for breakfast.

But yeah, good point about the anonymity part. 😁

Copyright ownership of posts on Reddit in Feedback & Suggestions · Jul 21, 2012

Patrick Miller3 said:I’m telling you again—you can’t exactly walk into a courtroom and prove those words weren't typed up by your mom, your brother, or some random fifth cousin. Having a login for Reddit doesn't prove you're the one actually doing the writing.

Look, if I claim I wrote them, then it's on someone else to come along and prove me wrong.

You aren't legally registered on Reddit as an author, a columnist, a researcher... blah blah blah.

I don't even have to be. A work is protected the second it's published. Period.

All of this is regulated by law and I know that, but honestly, Dr. Vojky from this Reddit thread would probably be the best person to explain it all to you.

Go ahead and read up on what falls under "non-copyrightable works."

Copyright Act Section 8

2. Daily news and other reports that function as basic media information.

Reddit posts aren't daily news or standard media reports. They just don't fit that description at all.

Maybe Vojky could sit you down and explain how things work.

Copyright ownership of posts on Reddit in Feedback & Suggestions · Jul 21, 2012

Kate Ward16 said:If we’re being honest, the site itself basically "owns" everything—our handles, our posts, all those threads—and I only put that word in quotes because... well, you know how it is. Nah. The guy behind all these thoughts—you can see him clearly in everything written here.
Look, this whole site is just a platform for online communication owned by one single individual—so, at the end of the day, it isn't exactly under the jurisdiction of everyone typing away here, even if we all consider ourselves part of this "community." I mean, you could go ahead and pore over the entire Electronic Communications Act if you really wanted to, but honestly, that's entirely up to you.

I mean, I’m putting this in quotes because—honestly? I highly doubt Anderlon would actually even try to publish a book filled with their favorite posts without getting permission from every single author first. It just doesn't seem likely. 😉

Patrick Miller3 said:Look, your post would actually carry some weight if you were posting under your real full name along with your SSN on Reddit.
Look, if you write an article for a newspaper or a website using a pseudonym—like how steelskipper5 might do—it actually holds weight in court. Why? Because there’s a paper trail that proves exactly which employee is hiding behind that handle. But posting on Reddit? That’s a completely different story. Your post is basically worthless from a legal standpoint because there's zero accountability.

Look, the thing is—you could easily have multiple people posting under a single handle, like steelskipper5. And honestly? We probably need some kind of identity verification around here too, just like we do on other platforms.

Look, the academic community needs to get a grip here. You honestly cannot compare plagiarizing someone’s published, printed, or registered work—stuff that's legally tied to their name—with just scribbling some nonsense on a blog or posting on Reddit where the person basically signed away their rights by being anonymous in the first place. It's not even the same ballpark.

Where on earth are you getting that kind of nonsense? Seriously.
Just because someone is (allegedly) anonymous doesn't mean they’ve somehow waived their copyright. I mean, maybe that logic works over on 4chan where everyone is just Anonymous, but this isn't that—here, I sign every single one of my posts. Sure, it's a pseudonym, but it's still a signature. At the end of the day, copyright kicks in the second you hit publish.

Good luck trying to prove any copyright ownership in court when you were posting as Anonymous—you’d have a hell of a time convincing a judge that those posts actually belong to you. I mean, how are you even going to prove they weren't written by your dad, your mom, your grandma, some coworker, or even your boyfriend or girlfriend? It's basically impossible to verify.

You’re wrong on a few different levels—honestly, it's kind of embarrassing.
First off, I wasn't posting as Anonymous. Seriously—nobody knows my password except for me, so there's no way it could be anyone else.
Look, this isn't even really a question—it’s just a fact. If someone decides to take my posts and dump them into a book without asking me first, proving they violated Copyright Act Section 8 is actually pretty straightforward. You basically just have to prove that the person... Not steelskipper5.
Look, I’d have to prove I actually am steelskipper5—which is pretty much a joke since nobody else can log into the email tied to my handle or this Reddit account—but I guess I’d only bother if I were trying to sue for damages.

To me, America isn't some "backwater" wasteland, and honestly, if that's how you see it, there are probably other countries out there you'd actually prefer, right?

It isn't? Well, good for you.
Me? I'm getting out at the first chance I get. You stay here and enjoy yourself.

Copyright ownership of posts on Reddit in Feedback & Suggestions · Jul 20, 2012

Patrick Miller3 said:And what exactly are you gonna tell a judge!?

@loneraven25/">@@loneraven25 stole text from @steelskipper5/">@@steelskipper5 on Reddit in a thread about a Formal debate given man 😂

Seriously guys, a judge would just laugh in your face and kick you out of the courtroom. 🤣

Who even are you people!?
Some made-up characters from a fairy tale, who else?

Look, if you use my post in some project of yours without asking, I have a right to damages. And I doubt a judge would just toss me out of the office.
If you pull that stunt in an academic paper without citing your source, that’s blatant plagiarism—the kind that can get your degree stripped away. I mean, maybe it isn't common practice in this total wild west (looking at you, Smith), but it's definitely possible.

It's not that the copyright system doesn't need a complete overhaul, but that's just how things stand right now.

Copyright ownership of posts on Reddit in Feedback & Suggestions · Jul 19, 2012

loneraven25 said:...if you actually bother to read the Terms of Service you agreed to when you signed up
you'll run into this bit of info:

… which doesn't really answer the question being asked.

Basically, by posting anything here, the authors are granting the Reddit platform certain rights over those posts. That’s why moderators are allowed to edit or delete stuff—among other things.
And because of that, someone who isn't well-informed might assume the site itself owns all the content, which—if I recall the legal jargon correctly—isn't quite how it works.

Copyright ownership of posts on Reddit in Feedback & Suggestions · Jul 19, 2012

Gary Sanchez88 said:Who actually owns the copyright to the posts on this Reddit? I'm asking because I want to use some of these posts for my research project.

The copyright belongs to the people who actually wrote the posts—it's not rocket science, though it feels weirdly complicated sometimes!

So, yeah, just go ask the authors directly.

New mods on the Religion subforum? in Feedback & Suggestions · Jul 19, 2012

Kyle Carter2 said:Just a thought...

I honestly think Aunt Elza would be an awesome moderator for the Religion subforum—mostly because I've seen enough to know she actually knows her stuff, and frankly, we could use someone like that around here.

Good grief.

She’d probably be better than Veronica, but let's not pretend that's exactly a glowing endorsement. Veronica gets way too carried away with moderating sometimes.

Look, I'm willing to give anyone a shot if they're stepping in for Veronica, but generally speaking... 😲

What's the point of required reading? in Students & Teens · Jul 15, 2012

Peter Doyle2 said:🤣 The whole process is, I guess, basically a perfect snapshot—not just of the bureaucracy, but of our entire American system of government. Beautiful.
Orwell is a total legend—honestly, I’d put him on every required reading list, and not just for Animal Farm.
But I guess that's just my take on things. 😢

It’s a bold move—and honestly, that’s exactly my point. I mean, how are you even supposed to properly process something like the Bible, the Iliad, or the Odyssey... on a watch? ☕ Maybe you could just give the kids specific, interesting chapters or small excerpts—rather than making them tackle the entire epic at once. I guess that might be easier. 🙄
It’s honestly kind of ridiculous—back in high school, they only gave us a few select chapters of the Iliad for our reading assignment, whereas my cousin, who went to a vocational technical school, had to read the entire thing from start to finish. I guess the curriculum is just all over the place. 😕 To what end, I guess?

See? It’s actually an incredibly insightful book—provided you can wrap your head around the context first.

Honestly, Orwell is a total legend—I’d put him on the mandatory reading list in a heartbeat, and I'm definitely not just talking about Animal Farm.
Look, maybe that’s just my take—I guess I could be wrong—but that’s just how I see it. 😢

Animal Farm My first pick has to be this one—mostly because it’s so incredibly condensed. It’s just this short, punchy little thing that hits you hard, which I guess makes it way easier to actually sit down and unpack everything later.
And then, after all that, you just go ahead and point people toward... 1984, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451 And, as for the more recent stuff— Blind Faith If anyone here actually reads in English—because let’s be honest, no matter how you try to organize a reading list, there’s just never enough damn time to get through it all. 😁

Look, that’s exactly my point—it's about being bold. I mean, how are you even supposed to tackle heavyweights like the Bible, the Iliad, or the Odyssey? It's a massive undertaking—not exactly something you can just breeze through during a lunch break. ☕ Maybe you just give kids specific, interesting chapters or short excerpts instead of forcing them to slog through an entire epic? I mean, who actually has the attention span for that anymore? 🙄
It’s honestly ridiculous—we only got stuck reading a few random chapters of the Iliad back in high school, but my cousin? He’s in vocational tech school and they handed him the entire damn thing to read. I mean, seriously? 😕 What's the point?

Seriously, what’s even the point? 🤷
I can't say I've heard of anyone actually sitting down and reading the entire Iliad from start to finish in the last twenty years or so—I mean, honestly, what's even the point? We didn't even tackle the whole Decameron ourselves; we just dipped into a few stories here and there. Though, I guess our professor did give us some subtle hints toward the more... scandalous chapters. 😁
We didn't even finish the whole thing back in fourth grade—I guess we just skimmed through most of it. Pure rage and The Scream.We already covered Benjy in class—and for the rest of the parts, we just picked one section each to present to the group.

Look, I get it—I went to a pretty solid high school, too. And honestly? I’m painfully aware that, in a lot of ways, my teachers were actually way above average.

Look, even though I haven't sat down and read the whole *Iliad* from cover to cover, I realized later that I’d actually covered the most important parts—you know, the stuff that actually matters culturally. To be totally honest about it—because when I finally picked up some *Simmons* years later... Troy...which kicks things off with an invocation just like... IliadI was honestly hooked from the very first sentence—I couldn't help but smirk to myself after catching that reference. Even if it was pretty trivial, I still loved it.
I won't even get into the rest—I don't want to spoil the book for anyone who hasn't picked it up yet. 😁
And honestly, if you have a teacher trying to pitch the > as some kind of tedious slog... man, just imagine the level of enthusiasm there. 😁

What's the point of required reading? in Students & Teens · Jul 15, 2012

Peter Doyle2 said:You know, I guess my transformation was actually pretty cool—it really turned out well. 🤣 If Pajcekica had been a guy, I guess Gregory would probably be in my top 10 names—maybe. 🤣
I mean, even if it is totally absurd, the book is still somehow readable and easy to follow—plus, it’s pretty short. 🤣
Well, regarding that whole process—I guess it’s just how things work. 🙂
The issue—and the whole process, I guess—is still being worked out. Maybe we'll see some clarity soon. 😲 🙂

Could any of the teachers, professors, pedagogues, or psychologists hanging out here on Reddit please explain what a 17-year-old—which is junior year of high school, if I recall correctly—is actually supposed to get out of this book? I mean, besides the realization that LSD is a total disaster. 🤷 😂
And don't even get me started on the Proust and those little pastries—honestly, it’s a whole other conversation.
All that talk about Judith, the equinoxes, all those debates and complaints—honestly, I don't even want to get into the weeds with it. It’s just not accessible for a high schooler. Not even close. The Bible, the Iliad, the Odyssey?! Give me a break. For a fifteen-year-old—which, if my memory serves, is when you tackle these in freshman year—it's just total nonsense. It’s a complete turn-off, and honestly, probably just a total reading trauma.

Let's be clear—I’m not against reading. I guess I just see it as an idea where kids could maybe pick up one book a month.
I really am not.

I'm just generally against forcing kids to read total nonsense—you know, those incomprehensible, useless books that only serve to leave them traumatized or, at the very least, staring at the page with a massive "WTF?" expression.

The sad thing is—even though I was kind of a slacker and a bit of a troublemaker back then—we didn't actually sit down to write out our literature assignments. We just worked through them during study hall periods. It usually involved shuffling from desk to desk while the teacher threw out random questions... like what color the wallpaper was, I guess. 🙄So, I basically read about 99% of all that stuff assigned for high school reading—and honestly? I can't remember much of it today. All I really recall is that Gregory was some kind of bug, Raskolnikov killed his grandmother, and in Anna Karenina, everyone's just a miserable family member in their own unique way. Or something like that, I guess.
I guess I can't even begin to describe how much baggage I brought with me from high school.
That’s why, for instance— Sadako wants to live—I guess. I remember my elementary school reading list almost perfectly—honestly, I still remember more than half of those books even now. I won't bore you by listing every single title and author, though.

It’s almost like you’ve never had to deal with American bureaucracy before. 🤷
The whole process is basically a masterclass in how life works.

Personally, I’m bummed that Animal Farm wasn't on the required reading list, along with a few other dystopian stories. They actually help you make sense of the world, even if they are pretty dark and depressing. And honestly? That’s exactly why people end up loving them.

not at all. The Bible, the Iliad, the Odyssey?! Give me a break!! For a 15-year-old—which was freshman year, if I remember right—it’s just pure nonsense. It's a total turn-off and a complete trauma when it comes to reading.

If they’re taught correctly, they aren't traumatic at all. But then we run into the issue of teaching competence, which seems to be hitting new lows every day. And things might get even worse once teacher salaries take another hit.

What's the point of required reading? in Students & Teens · Jul 14, 2012

Peter Doyle2 said:But to whom? Maybe some shrink, I guess, because that aversion was just too deep—books literally made me feel sick. If I couldn't even bring myself to read stuff like *The Outsiders*, which is, you know, a timeless classic, then it's pretty obvious. I tried, but it just wasn't happening. Brrr, thinking about it now gives me the chills.

Let's be real, the "popularity" of books and reading culture is tanking.
A huge percentage of kids and teens aren't reading. And honestly, the exhausting, confusing, and totally unnecessary grind of high school required reading isn't helping at all—especially in high school. Wouldn't it be better to actually encourage young people to read by giving them literature that actually speaks to them? Instead of pushing them away from books with "too heavy" works? I mean, what does it even matter if these works are "great classics" if, in 90% of cases, they stay unread anyway because kids just use SparkNotes or the internet to get by? 🤷
As I said, you can cover all that fine through a history textbook or a lecture. For required reading, maybe stick to light teen fiction—stuff that's actually accessible. I'm not saying the entire current curriculum is bad, but most of it is.

Man, that is the million-dollar question right there. And honestly? I’m not sure you’re gonna like my answer. 😁

See, the whole point behind most of our school systems isn't just pure education or even "character building"—it's about enculturation. Or, if you want to call it what it really is, indoctrination. The goal of teaching history isn't so kids learn facts, but so they soak up those national myths that keep the country feeling like one big, homogeneous unit. Even the required reading list? It’s not about making kids love books; it’s about cementing a specific canon that supposedly serves as the foundation for our entire culture.

That’s why, for instance, a classic like Marley's Judith stays on the curriculum. In certain parts of Western culture, apparently it's vital to know exactly how to poison someone or kill them in their sleep. ☕

Look, putting my cynical side aside for a second—these reading lists fail even by the standards of "enculturation," and the way teachers force students through them is just terrible.
But hey, that just brings me back to my usual whining about semi-literate Americanists...

What happened to Enter and Next Level magazines? in Miscellaneous · Jul 14, 2012

fadedbadger7 said:Man, what a joke... that magazine was actually pretty solid. Do you happen to know any others similar to it? I mean—in terms of how deep the articles and topics went. I’m not really into stuff like PC Gamer because it feels a bit too "heavy" for casual hobbyists, you know?

Thanks!

Nah, sorry. PC Gamer is actually for the casual amateurs; Enter was more for the kids.