Refocus: llllllll

tehn · 2020-03-20T15:36:28.935Z

several months ago we changed the settings so that Regular status persists for a full year, so this hopefully isn’t a problem for people.

if anyone feels they’ve been wrongly demoted by the system, please DM us.

EqualTemperament · 2020-03-20T18:22:27.343Z

Anyone know the criteria to become a regular or is it posted somewhere? I feel like I’ve been a member for quite a while, reasonably active. But I haven’t hit some threshold yet.

Not sure I’ll try to game it to get there if it doesn’t come naturally but it would be interesting to know what I’m not doing.

antiphon · 2020-03-20T18:33:39.450Z

This covers the basics, but as @tehn mentioned, some adjustments have been made to the criteria specifically for lines–or maybe just to the duration of one’s “regular” status?

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EqualTemperament · 2020-03-20T18:59:48.981Z

Interesting. I likely am missing on the 3rd and 4th bullets. I tend to just read and participate in the topics that look interesting to me. Guess regular is not in my future unless I do try to sort of game it to get there.

tehn · 2020-03-20T19:13:47.498Z

we can adjust the parameters as we see need be. will bring it up with the mods

scanner_darkly · 2020-03-20T19:14:10.279Z

is there some way to relax the new rules for the coronavirus threads? feels wrong to limit who is able to view/post there.

bgc · 2020-03-20T19:16:10.448Z

So this might be a mix of ignorance and the language barrier at work here, but

tehn:

we changed the settings so that Regular status persists for a full

for a full?

tehn · 2020-03-20T19:21:53.828Z

bgc:

for a full?

ack, full year

Jet · 2020-03-20T21:33:44.867Z

Yeah I lost Regular when I muted a couple of categories.

I’m not a coder and don’t use any of the gear that’s often discussed here. So to meet those proportion-of-posts-read criteria is pretty unlikely. If that’s at odds with what lines is about, i.e. you want to encourage participation from people who tick those boxes, that’s of course totally fine.

ETA: I also welcome the approach you’re taking, just adding fodder to the mods’ discussion about criteria.

neauoire · 2020-03-20T21:51:09.528Z

I think this is a good idea, it might limit the derailing and personal attacks if everyone has had at least a year to be acclimated with the other members in the discussion.

This had me look into how many days has passed since I joined, and it seems I’m only 7 days away from reaching the 365 days checkbox, and regular status. It’s hard to believe it has been less than a year since I’ve stumbled in here, I already call this place home.

zebra · 2020-03-20T21:58:09.411Z

@Jet , @EqualTemperament

i hear you. those checkboxes are the discourse defaults, and i think it makes sense to change (/eliminate?) the “proportion read” requirements given that the forum includes several pretty independent cohorts of users.

also we probably need to go through and move many things currently in the open category, to more specific categories. (things like release announcements or other publicity stuff,) trying to leave “Open” for stuff that is more susceptible to flamebait or privacy concerns.

EqualTemperament · 2020-03-20T22:01:27.836Z

Thanks for the consideration. Lines is definitely the highest volume discourse site I visit. Yeah, feels like the bar to get to regular is pretty high at this point. I feel like a regular. It hasn’t really mattered until now, but it feels a little bad that I might not be able to post in a topic of interest.

More generally though, the change probably makes sense and will be good. Just hope I can be included in it.

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ypxkap · 2020-03-20T22:21:37.914Z

is there a preferred way to help out recategorizing “open” topics?

i saw that as a regular i can “recategorize and rename topics” but it’s not clear to me how to actually do this. would be happy to pitch in on obvious moves if that is something the normal not-mod community can do––just need a point towards the UI function that carries that out

alanza · 2020-03-20T22:24:36.490Z

Recategorize and rename is not actually available to Lines Regulars—my understanding is it caused confusion a while back before my time. That language I guess is there by default.

If there’s a thread you feel should move categories, feel free to DM @moderators.

kirklandish · 2020-03-20T23:03:47.986Z

The categorization often seems very arbitrary. For example, there are four threads I see that discuss movies - two in open and two in review. The mega-thread on video games is in open, while the mega-thread about books is in review. Not a complaint, just an observation. I can imagine that in the moment the thread was created, there isn’t always clarity where something should live.

Jet · 2020-03-20T23:31:44.755Z

Maybe this is patently obvious, but, for the @moderators thinking about categories, I’d just note that forum users will always have two (un-articulated) questions in mind when figuring out where to post something: “which category makes most sense to me?” (context) and “what does a category allow me to do?” (settings, permissions)

So you’ll potentially find as people get their head around the rules / settings applied to each category, they post where it’s useful rather than where they think similar content goes. e.g. “this post really goes in category x, but I’ll put it in category y so that anyone can comment”.

It’s sometimes useful to bear in mind when coming up with categories and rules, IME - and also something to not be surprised by down the track when you see it happening.

polyoptics · 2020-03-21T03:04:40.428Z

I’m sure you’ve considered this but it jumped to mind for me : its a bit like closing up the borders around lines, and may have the effect of doubling down on the most “linesy” types of discourse.

There are only so many posts about growing your own food, looping tape around strange objects, and field recordings of fields, that I feel I can enjoy. That is just a joke, no offense meant!

I’ve only been enjoying the forum for roughly 6 years, and am not classified as a regular currently. I look forward to the next 6!

alanza · 2020-03-21T03:55:46.482Z

my personal hope is that the posts that seem most like Lines start to be the ones not in Open

pelang · 2020-03-21T11:42:20.386Z

Mmh… I am not sure how to think about this. The be honest, this is the first time I am consider to retreat.

tehn · 2020-03-21T12:02:52.858Z

thanks for everyone’s feedback.

i’ve updated the permissions so that Open is read/writeable by Members. but Regular status is still required to start a new Open topic.

later on i can attempt to write more at length about what we’re perceiving as the trajectory of this community— perhaps then we can get further input as to how to mitigate some systemic issues while trying to foster the positive elements.