Feature suggestions

[admin]

Got a great idea for something you'd like to see or do on the eplaya? Let us know here.

[Apollonaris Zeus]

I'll reiterate my request for an "Over Eighteen Discussion Board" here.

The arguement is still the same as I spoke of in "Case Studies"

There was certainly something strange going on right after I had innocently PMed Tears- an underaged Playan- as to what was her avatar because it is so DARK. Eplaya has become less of a free forum with the recent scrutiny of the new Republican and Christian Conservative moral majority bullshit movement with cleaning up our websites, airwaves, tv and radio I hope that we can add a new section for adults only. We have our enemies from the "Stop BM", Allanon, the local police and every wantabe politician looking to capitalize on that moral vote. Each one of these people would love something material to attack BM with. Lets not give them their ammunition.

I mean, we have had two (or more) underage females posting what I would consider highly sexually charged posts on Eplaya that have crossed the boundaries of rated X. Eplaya is becoming a magnet for federal and local vice squads. We don't need it and Burning Man doesn't need it like people speaking about their drug use on the playa. With Asscroch, the new FBI and other local law enforcement agencies, they are just wanting to get into our lives even if you speak to a minor or mention the word drug! Many of these law enforcement just want to get into your personal lives for ulterior motives. Me, I'm very active in the environmental, social and political issues. I'm have pissed off alot of corrupt people in government, including the FBI and other local Law Enforcement and social agencies that would just like to disrupt my business communications and take me down for what ever bullshit claim they could get. Let me tell you that these are local agencies, not national dept. There are some major corrupt activities here in Montana.

A few years ago, I had was involved in a setup by a Hate Group. They had coerced a sixteen year old into lying that she was eighteen and that she was on her way to College. Nothing ever happened sexually between us except she gave me her email address. Even then my messages didn't involve anything sexually provocative. Then I started to have some major problems with my email, phone and mail. I was poisoned and heard some very not so nice things about me that was full of lies from people associated with these groups- hate, wise and the cops that sympathize with them- never from my friends or associates in the environmental and social/political movement.

I began to wonder if this young women who I had met several years ago was indeed 18. I email her after not speaking to her for several months and asked her if she was eighteen as she had told me. She answered that she wasn't 18. Within a day, someone breaks into my office and deletes that message and every other message that spoke of a benign mutually respective friendly relationship. I also knew of people in our law enforcement that were divulging information to these people while I was on the road, but I can't say that right now. Things were getting back to normal until I have been having email messages deleted from clients that had started recently with Tears- Hi i'm seventeen. Shit I didn't even know that she was underage until then. If I had known I would never had PMed her in the first place suspecting some covert vice operation.

A few years ago, I had asked the Bmorg to have locals in the Black Rock area pay something to get into BM so it would prevent some, who are not participants, from coming just to see a free freak show causing the trouble that others and I experienced. The Bmorg followed that advice local have to pay to get in and we have less of that tailgate mentality crowd. Now I ask the Bmorg to make this simple policy change and have an adult only section- just like the policy that is enforced on the playa: if its an adult subject then only adults are permitted in. If a person that is a minor starts to post in an sexually elicit manor then the post is deleted and the minor warned especially if its in the adult only section!

I don't like having to ask such a thing, but the times and unsolicited scrutiny makes it so.

I just noticed a new bullshit thread that discusses "Public Masturbation"
with a guy named, nym. It Seems "out of the blue" he decides that the Bmorg has legitimized janking off in public and who do you think pops up- Our little tears again. Discussion Threads like that, adult, illegal subjects and others should immediately be deleted or transfered to the over eighteen section.

If I had my way, I would make the Burning Man Experience an all Adult event and many of our problems and mine would go away. If you don't want an all adult playa, then let start with an all adult discussion board!

Hi! I'm seventeen. What are you wearing? Oh, I mean "what are you wearing on the playa for your costume!

A II Z

[Tancorix]

Playing devil's advocate for a second...

I understand where you are coming from A II Z, but the eplaya like a lot of the ORG related functions is run by volunteers. So...if the PTB decide you are right and the eplaya needs an over 18 section, what mechanisms or systems will be put in place to restrict access? Who gets the task of verifying who is who? And who's going to be willing to donate their time to do the verification? I don't know our admins personally but I bet they have a life beyond the eplaya. And it's going to be tough to get anyone to do that kind of work pro bono. So...while your idea has merit, the fun part is figuring out how to make it work. And with less than 30 days before we meet on the playa, I don't think this will get much attention right now. You might want to sit on this idea a bit and resurrect it after the event. There will likely be other changes made to the eplaya in upcoming months if history serves as a guide and your request could get some attention then. Again...I'm not trying to shoot down your idea, I'm simply thinking about what can be done to increase it's chances of success and what groundwork must be done first.

[stuart]

how about pages that load in under a minute?

what's going on girls?

[Isotopia]

Yep. Achingly slow.

[emily sparkle]

yeah, it's slow! i sometimes forget what i've been looking at/for when a page finally loads! thank heavens for the back button, it's like the digital string around my finger...

but... i didn't just stop in to concur...

i brought it to spanky's attention a few days ago and aside from pre-event eplaya load, the server's been really laden these days with an excess of email and spam.

so be patient, we're aware. browse the image gallery while you're waiting. that's what everyone else is doing.

[THE ORIGINAL DIGIMAN]

You can always hop on playacast while you're wating. some music to sooth the savage beast........well at least tap your feet to the beat of the music instead of hearing the click of a clock.

[stuart]

thanks for the info. It would not bother me nearly as much if my threads did not get marked all read everytime there is a big lag.

image gallery?

I kid you not, I have looked at every photo from at least the past five years.

[Apollonaris Zeus]

Playing devil's advocate for a second...

I understand where you are coming from A II Z, but the eplaya like a lot of the ORG related functions is run by volunteers. So...if the PTB decide you are right and the eplaya needs an over 18 section, what mechanisms or systems will be put in place to restrict access? Who gets the task of verifying who is who? And who's going to be willing to donate their time to do the verification? I don't know our admins personally but I bet they have a life beyond the eplaya. And it's going to be tough to get anyone to do that kind of work pro bono. So...while your idea has merit, the fun part is figuring out how to make it work. And with less than 30 days before we meet on the playa, I don't think this will get much attention right now. You might want to sit on this idea a bit and resurrect it after the event. There will likely be other changes made to the eplaya in upcoming months if history serves as a guide and your request could get some attention then. Again...I'm not trying to shoot down your idea, I'm simply thinking about what can be done to increase it's chances of success and what groundwork must be done first.

I am not sure on how much work would be needed but just a entry page where a person must state if they are or aren't eighteen years or older is needed to enter that section of Eplaya. I believe that would be legally binding to protect us from any interlopers or trolls on the major minor issue. Once that is set up all adult topics would be moved or deleted with posts by known minors deleted and the posters banned untill eighteen from posting in Eplaya.

Just yesterday, we have another thread started about Masturbation! Is that a topic with want everyone including minors and guest to review and form opinions about BM? Of course not, masturbation is not about sharing or is it? Well I guess its about sharing if your an voyeur or exhibitionist! Those people can find those camps or discover it by attenting BM or having to sign up as an adult if they want to find out about it on Eplaya.

Just my opinion.

A II Z

[diane o'thirst]

Bring back the Edit and Delete buttons.

And the "Post Reply" button at the bottom doesn't work, or works sporadically at best. It's really handy if and when it does work, but you never known when it's going to work or flake out.

Second the emotion of "pages loading in less than a minute."

[emily sparkle]

hey diane,

can you give me some more info? what browser and platform are you using. i haven't noticed that particular behavior on my machines....

[diane o'thirst]

Try not to fall out of your chair...

Mac OS8.6, Netscape Communicator 4.77.

Yeah, I know, my setup's disgustingly ancient. The bloody archeologists come and bang on my door every frickin' hour of the day or night. But hey, no money to upgrade, can't run Jaguar or Panther unless I fork over $250 for a G4 or G3 card and hunt down XPostFacto, then I get to fork over another $200 to get Panther and drive the Opener of the Ways to distraction with frenzied petitions that it's all compatible.

Welcome to Oregonomics. A) Food and Shelter, or B) All the latest toys, CHOOSE ONE.

[emily sparkle]

oof... NN 4.77. it is horrendous to code for the pc veresions of those browsers. i didn't realize that was a mac thing too.

well, interestingly enough, i might be able to replicate it on a mac i have at work, but... i can't promise the technical folks will be able to fix it. but i'll let them know.

[DVD Burner]

ooooo diane,

Suggestion.........get rid of the netscape and get firefox. There is a new netscape. I haven't tried it yet but anything that is owned by AOL I have no faith in.

programming for netscape is more trouble than it's worth.

[diane o'thirst]

Don't know if my current ISP will support it. See, I do my e-mail in Netscape, too.

Considering a move over to Syracuse.net, a Mac-only ISP which is cheaper per month, and supports EVERYTHING.

But not now. After the Burn. Pretty much, I'm in the pike 5x5 and shooting straight on to the desert. No big life changes until then (please please please O gods of life...)

[Apollonaris Zeus]

I'll reiterate my request for an "Over Eighteen Discussion Board" here. ...

I am removing this as a crosspost. There is already a full topic that is happening on it's own in this folder.

~technopatra~
eplaya admin team

[Don Muerto]

Is there any reason why all but one of the policy discussions is sticky? Kinda defeats the purpose, no?

[spectabillis]

Is there any reason why all but one of the policy discussions is sticky? Kinda defeats the purpose, no?

Its not something I can change.

[emily sparkle]

how do you want them changed? all sticky? none sticky? i think since there are only a few threads in this section, they don't really need to be sticky.

let me know, i'll change 'em.

[Don Muerto]

None sticky would be best, All sticky would be second best. With only 5 threads in there I am not sure what the concept was, but all it does currently is mess with the board floating the post count page up when it is the most recent.

Thanks!

[emily sparkle]

done

[Don Muerto]

Thank you, Emily

[spectabillis]

Are the TOS and CG's easy enough to find and to wade through for newbies? Hmmmm...I'll look at that from a curious non-empowered (he has no eplaya authority) outsider perspective...it might be something the ETF could fix with a simple link shuffling or replacement on the page. If it heads off future flamewars it's a worthy cause.

The idea that has been brewing for a little while is to have an intro sticky topic included under the main one Start Here. that would include information like rules and guidelines.

It has also been suggested to have it link to other ones under each main sub-Topic since rules and guidelines may vary - like thread-drift allowed (and encouraged!) under more the more socially interactive Bar area.

[sputnik]

Any way to force this to be the only things readable immediately after registering a new account? Does that even make sense to do?

[theCryptofishist]

Good idea, sput, but I always just sort of go "Yeah, yeah, boilerplate, yadda, yadda, sign away my right to privacy" when I register at a new site. Perhaps the confirmation e-mail could strongly recommend reading the TOS. But people would likely still ignore.

I learned the hard way. I just didnt' whine a lot.

[sputnik]

Yeah, I know. There ought to be a test.

[spectabillis]

Any way to force this to be the only things readable immediately after registering a new account? Does that even make sense to do?

Makes sense, dunno if there is a way to do it. Kinda like having to agree to a TOS when someone signs up for a new account?

[sputnik]

Right, but it would have to be less than one screen long or people are going to fade out on it and just click OK. Hyperlinks acceptable.

[spectabillis]

Right, but it would have to be less than one screen long or people are going to fade out on it and just click OK. Hyperlinks acceptable.

IMO I think its a good idea, and off the top of my head, do-able.

Of course my opinion is presently jaded enough to think madatory testing is appropriate... you all have invaded my brain.

[bullD]

scratch-n-sniff

yep, that's spectabillis' brain. he he he