Posts by mistybison

Eric Newman75 said:The legendary April Fools' Admin Panel, now officially archived. 😁

And here I was, thinking it was actually serious. It's a shame people fall for such nonsense so easily. ☕

On a more pressing note: will the server ever crash permanently, and if so, when? 🧐

Perhaps we should start a betting pool? 🤔

Grace Edwards92 said:Look, I’ll give you a real suggestion. Let the moderators create a specific sub-forum for people who hold certain niche views—you know, those folks who think they're special. They can go sell their nonsense somewhere else.

What you're really asking for is an echo chamber where everyone agrees with your ideology. If the owner wants that, then by all means, build it. It doesn't bother me one way or the other. However, such a space won't reflect how society actually works because it shuts down any meaningful debate on current issues. Eventually, you'll find it incredibly dull. It's hard to find a constant stream of new users who share your exact mindset, and without people to challenge your ideas, you'll likely get bored and end up hunting for conversation in other sections anyway.😁

mellowscout33 said:mistybison, there are countless religions, beliefs, and ideologies out there. It is simply not worth engaging with topics filled with fanatics who are convinced their specific god or faith is the only truth—whether it's Sumerian myths or anything else. I suggest staying as far away from religion and spirituality as possible. 🥲

We veteran members still remember how things used to be on the forums. We recall times when the 'Religion' section (and the 'Spirituality' subforum that later split off) hosted heated debates without anyone facing bans or warnings, even though most of us were actually friends in real life. Disagreeing on ideas or being opponents in a discussion didn't spill over into our personal friendships.

Today's users don't seem to grasp this. They fail to realize that you can disagree with someone's ideas while still maintaining a good relationship. Times have certainly changed...

Grace Edwards92 said:To summarize... are you suggesting that Philosophy needs stricter moderation?

Personally, I believe that specific sub-forum—and even this entire site—cannot be saved. 😁 While steelridge58 does his best, the regulars in "Philosophy" are a tough mix of highly intelligent yet difficult personalities, making engagement quite challenging. New users rarely join, and even the veterans eventually grow weary of reading the same people discuss the exact same topics over and over again. 🤷

People are constantly searching for a magic formula to bring this community back to its former glory, but I suspect those days are long gone. Forums are kept alive by longtime members who visit out of habit and a sense of belonging, but even their engagement is beginning to fade.

🤷

Grace Edwards92 said:I haven't been keeping up with Shady's thread. Honestly, I doubt anyone from the old crowd has forgotten Lastman.

Lastman is ancient history by now. It really shouldn't be used as fuel for any new arguments.

For instance, Shady (I believe he went by the name Kudum) was active on this board right up until his passing after an illness. The debates people had with him over on the religion subforum remain vivid in everyone's minds, and back then, those topics could easily spark heated confrontations among users.

Times have changed. This forum simply isn't what it used to be.

mellowscout33 said:It’s tacky how things turned out here. I haven't been dragging him, and nobody even mentioned his handle. I don't see where the issue lies; one could have offered condolences anonymously. However, you all opened a thread dedicated to him and ended up spamming everything under the sun. Technically speaking, those of you who claimed to "care" about him are the ones who blew this out of proportion. Not me.

The thread really should have been deleted the moment it was created, which was a mistake by the moderator. It seems she simply wasn't equipped for the situation and didn't anticipate how quickly the topic would spiral. My assumption was that users would offer a polite and dignified farewell to a former colleague, as some have done.

Unfortunately, even threads like this aren't immune to trolling, bickering, insults, and profanity. We saw this recently on the 'Religion' board when a long-time user and former moderator passed away. After just a few posts, the thread devolved into a total brawl. Despite deleting posts and issuing bans, the fighting wouldn't stop, forcing the moderator to finally lock the thread. At least that situation reached a conclusion.

This particular story, however, is far from over...

The user being constantly mentioned here isn't the only person who has passed away since this forum was established. Occasionally, someone revives an old thread—say, in 'Spirituality'—and I see five or six names of forum members who are long gone.

Joseph Bailey41 said:Since you're picking at me, I find that insistence on protecting a deceased person's privacy to be a sign of mental deficiency. When Lastman passed, no one objected to revealing his identity, which allowed us to pay our respects like decent people. Besides, he was quite the provocateur himself. Even more so than most.

Times have changed, and clearly, that kind of decency is no longer possible, as evidenced by the thread for the late Shady on 'Religion.' If Lastman were to pass away TODAY, the exact same thing would happen. People would argue in his thread, insult the deceased, and eventually, the moderator would have to shut it down. If there is a thread for Lastman active today without such chaos, it's only because the veteran users have already forgotten him, and the new users don't even know who he was or care to find out.

mistyhound94 said:This question has been hanging around for, I guess, years. When is the server hosting this Reddit actually going to crash? Here’s another one. When will the avant-garde boss at Microsoft finally open his wallet and invest in something more modern and stable? Another question: should we just start some crowdfunding?

I don't know, the ads are obviously there to scrape some cash if someone happens to click them, because, well, that's how it works. But seriously, in almost 13 years of using this Reddit, has it really not been possible to make enough money for a decent server?
I'm not sure if people realize this, but all your passwords and messages are basically exposed since this site isn't running on HTTPS. Mine, yours, his, but CNN money keeps flowing in while the site just gets patched together. Every single year, right when the heatwaves hit, it's like the server just can't take it anymore—as if an Intel Core i7 physically can't handle the heat and starts lagging.

So, you logged in, the home screen loaded, and then you realized you weren't actually logged in?

Or maybe you got a notification, CLICKED ON IT, only to find out it wasn't there, even though it is? You just have to refresh a few times, but then after you write a reply and go back to the thread, it shows a status like the message wasn't even sent? And yet, after several solid refreshes, it finally flashes and says it was sent. Often it sends twice, just in case. Thanks, Microsoft!

Or perhaps you just want to open a thread you're interested in, but the Reddit just spins and does nothing? Then, again, it's solved by a single refresh.
Fantastic!

Can you sense the sarcasm? I doubt it. The boss at Microsoft will probably show up again with some pathetic explanation about how certain things are technically impossible (in the 21st century!) or how there's no money (haha, lol!), just to buy more time. They'll sweep the problem under the rug and move on. If the server survives this summer, man, that would be fantastic. I have this gut feeling that I'll come back here in 10 years and see the exact same mess, because as long as the cash keeps trickling in and everything stays barely functional, nobody complains. Everything is fine. Great. Fantastic! Dammit!

It's a disgrace that in 2021, this server looks exactly like it did when I registered here 13 years ago. A total disgrace. That's all.

Based on my experience, that intuition is correct. 🙂

I left Reddit in 2009, and when I returned in 2018, the site looked exactly the same. The only difference was that you could search fewer posts and you had to change the font color manually. Back then, certain emojis died out, you couldn't even update an email address because verification emails wouldn't arrive, and during my time as a moderator, post reports often failed to show up. I used to make sure to copy every single post before hitting send, because you never knew if it would actually go through. Whenever I suggested looking at how other sites operate or what features they offer, there was hardly any interest in modernization. 🤷

Then the pandemic hit, the owner stepped back in, and things improved—emojis were fixed, verification emails started arriving, and posts went through regularly. Even though the search function was limited to 50 posts, at least we weren't dealing with constant errors. Once the state of emergency ended, we were once again left without leadership 😢 and the site slowly began sliding back into its old ways. Even minor updates were left unfinished; for instance, there's a "TV Shows" sub-section with an empty category marked "to be deleted soon," and confusing thread titles on the homepage that don't match actual names. It's just the same old bugs—502, 503, 504 errors...

I believe our situation can only be improved by another major wave of the pandemic or some other catastrophe that forces the owner to return to us. My only fear is that such an event might only lead to fixing the most urgent issues rather than implementing real changes. 😢

The situation is truly unfortunate. 😢 I have partially resolved it for myself by joining two other platforms today that are more modern, faster, and run flawlessly—and I wouldn't say they are any less popular than this one. Migration... 😢

Gregory Turner71 said:Can't help yourself, can you?

There is absolutely no shame in admitting we have weaknesses and need a little support. 🧐 😁

If I’m not actively typing, I usually don't bother reading. 🙂

In those moments, I’m quite rational: "Just some random people sharing opinions on a message board. Who cares! Why bother!" 😁

But the second I log into my account, my whole persona shifts. Those "random people" suddenly become "online friends," and everything being discussed becomes incredibly important. I find myself reading every thread and jumping right into the conversation. It is a total transformation! 😲

It's just like how Clark Kent transforms into Superman; similarly, I transform from an ordinary person into a dedicated forum member. 😁 Though, in my case, it feels more like a step backward than an upgrade. 😁

Thanks, but I've already made plans with Nick. 🙂

Unfortunately, Tampermonkey doesn't work on mobile devices. 😢

However, Nice mentioned that you can get as many partials as you want, so... 🙂 🙂 🙂

I just finished reinstalling Tampermonkey after completely forgetting I even had the extension, and I've already hidden most of the subforums. If that doesn't do the trick, I might look into getting partial access just to clear out those most annoying sections.

I understand all that, but I am curious if there are any restrictions, since I would only want to keep a few subforums active...

I was wondering how many subforums I can request at once. 🙂

Is there a specific limit on this, or am I free to pick something like 20 or 30 different ones? 😁

Thanks for the help. 🙂

Morgan Peterson said:I follow your logic, yet I find myself questioning whether such an ideal is even attainable.
The crux of the matter regarding the coronavirus is that we are navigating a global pandemic—a phenomenon that serves as a defining precedent of our era and remains largely unprecedented in human history.
Because of this, we are all essentially stumbling through the dark, attempting to investigate, listen, and place our trust in whoever appears most credible to us personally. Consequently, moderating this specific forum is an entirely different beast compared to something like 'Health'; so much information surrounding the virus remains incomplete, unverified, or misinterpreted, and the "facts" seem to shift almost daily.
Consider, for instance, how certain ideas once labeled as conspiracy theory have transitioned from speculation into lived reality, much like the implementation of vaccine mandates. For that reason, we don't penalize users for their convictions or for making predictions that might sound far-fetched, provided they aren't engaging in direct insults or violating the basic rules of forum etiquette.
As for the constant battle against trolls, that is a struggle we face across every single board on this site. This corner of the internet is no exception, and I highly doubt that simply raising the bar for "seriousness" would change the underlying nature of the discourse.

Not at all... I wish you all the best. 🙂

I truly admire your patience in reading through all that nonsense copied from various American news sites. 😁

I believe the main issue with the 'Coronavirus' subforum is its lack of a clear direction. It sits in this awkward middle ground—neither strictly serious nor purely casual. You can't mix high-level medical discussions with random conspiracy theories; those two things just don't belong in the same space. If the goal is to have a professional forum, it should be managed with the same rigor as our 'Health' or 'Natural Sciences' sections. We already have a dedicated spot for conspiracy theory discussions over in 'Alternative,' though the users there aren't quite as aggressive as those currently occupying the 'Coronavirus' section. Then again, social media today seems to prioritize clicks above all else, and unfortunately, nonsense tends to generate the most engagement, so... 🤷

Weekend Warrior

Jessica Jones21 said:What’s the deal with profiles like this? You can't click on them, you can't open them, and there's no post count listed.

What is going on here?

Those are profiles that were essentially "swallowed" by 😁 a server crash somewhere back when my current profile was first created. In fact, my very first account suffered the same fate, which is why I had to start fresh.

I have personally suggested many times that this feature should be enabled for any user who wants it, but the answer is always a firm no. My posts under my old username, such as this one, are still perfectly visible for anyone to read and reply to, so I don't see an issue. 🤷

Unless it's meant to prevent clone accounts, though that method isn't even reliable. 🤷 Especially since there are so many clones on the forum today, including those belonging to permanently banned users... Or perhaps it's simply just the forum's policy. 🤷

Regardless, it doesn't change much, so all you can do is live in the slight hope that some future technical error might "swallow" your profile too. 😁

It’s never going to happen...

From what I’ve observed so far, forums using such outdated software typically don't allow for profile deletion. They generally lack an understanding of the "modern era"—specifically the user's need for better anonymity, security, privacy, and more granular control over their own profiles.

Platforms that actually get this right have moved on to much newer formats. They look significantly more modern and offer a wide range of features, which often includes the ability to delete a profile upon request (though even then, posts might remain, depending on the specific rules).

This forum looks exactly the same as it did twenty years ago, and it's unrealistic to expect that will ever change. It will simply keep running as long as it can, provided various server errors—like 502, 503, or 504—don't eventually bring it down.

The only thing a user can really do is enter an incorrect email address and password to lock themselves out of their account. That is pretty much it. 🙂

The philosophy section needs some moderation. 🙂 :

swiftowl7 said:The only things worth backing up to external or secondary drives are your essential files, plain and simple.

I already have multiple backups for everything so I can recover my data, but if the OS itself fails, I'd have to take it to a repair shop. Since I'm just a novice, I wouldn't know how to handle a system recovery on my own. 😳 😁