Suggestions

[BMW-Guy]

Hi, um...........I new to this forum, but I'm a very well-known member on PhilosophyForums.com. I have a few suggestions:

1) I noticed that the "language" (inappropriate comments, swearing, etc.) seems to be allowed quite a bit. Maybe it's just me, but I don't feel all that comfortable around such speech. Most other Forums do not allow this......
It's your guy's forum, so don't let me tell you how to run it or anything, but..............

2) I see (in my humble opinion) too much non-philosophical topics/threads/etc. (you guys have at least three seperate non-philosophical disscussion forums).

3) The profile could be made to be more informative. For instance, many forums allow you to put your date of birth, favorite philosopher, biography, etc........

4) You ar unable to post a file-attachment to your posts (on ilovephilsophy).

Just my humble ideas........

[ben]

Hi BMW-guy,

Welcome to the fray, I hope you will find something of interest to you here. I'll try to give some feedback on your suggestions...

1) We make it very clear that swearing at people is not tolerated. Any kind of insult flinging is not appropriate here. However, general swearing is accepted and is left up to the individual to decided whether to use it. We are not a babysitters club and if people are offended by swearing then perhaps this place is not for them. It's not a rule I'm likely to start enforcing.

2) Forums are added on a trial basis. If they are popular they are promoted to the main forums, if not they are scrapped. This happened in the past with "The Chamber" which wasn't getting used a lot. Although being a predominantly philosophy site, I like to think that we offer a wider view on what "philosophy" is so that as many tastes can be catered for. So far, the forums you can see, are being used and are liked by the members. The fluidity of ILP.com means that things are always changing and new forums are popping up.

3) Agreed, this is partly due to the software we use and partly due to laziness on my part. There are mods which can be added to the board which say "KonGraTULATIONSZZZ" when it's people's birthday but it requires fiddling with the software and I get worried when i have to do things like that. When the new phpBB gets released I will most probably upgrade to it. But i shall take what you've said into account.

4) Why do you want to attatch files to your posts? You can link documents from other websites which saves space on the ilp.com server and also stops people uploading vicious stuff. I'm not sure what sort of stuff you want to upload?

Thanks for your suggestions

- ben

[BMW-Guy]

Thanks, Mr. Ben!

I take it that you are either the Admin. or perhaps a Moderator here, right?:)

Maybe I'm just expecting too much..........

I come from a forum of well over 5,000 members....

and, thus, it has more to work with.....Sorry if I came off too critical about ILP.

I guess the swearing issue is not as big of a deal---so long as it is not directed towards an individual (which you already acknowledged, is not allowed).

The only thing I'd like to attach to a post would be an essay, perhaps.........

My essay (I posted it in the Essay-Forum) is copyright(ed). This information would normally be on the "title" page of my essay. But, since I had to copy the text directly into my post, and thus, was not able to include the copyright-info.

oh well...............

Thanks!

BMW

[Rafajafar]

Yes, your virtual penis is large. I bow to your 5000 members. How many of those are repeat visitors, by the way?

I love ILP. It loads fast. It's small so I know when someone is new or not, it's growing, but not so fast that it becomes impersonal. The quality of discussions are up to my standards.

I love to fucking swear. It's how I talk in real life, even to my professors. If you don't want to be around it, then don't. If there was a no swearing rule here, though, I would fucking leave, god damn it.

I think that philosophy comes in many forms. There are compliments to much of what we have on your forum...however, you added the words, "The philosophy of.." on most of those. I'm not sure why you think that's any different than what we have, but whatever.

And I don't like your forums. I've been there a few times and never even felt inclined to post. ILP always seemed...like poetry near a fireplace. Personal. I don't mean that as an insult, it's just personal preference. I mean, I never felt inclinded to plug ILP.com on PhilosophyForums for a reason. The quantity of discussion has no correlation with the quality whatsoever.

PS: No, I am not an admin or moderator. Just a frequent reader/poster of the site.

[BMW-Guy]

And that was relavelent to my essay? I personally think that you should be banned. You strech the rules--You swear/make in appropriate comments, but not quite bad enough where they'll ban you. I'm not trying to say this forum is inferior, I just think it could use a few new things. What's this have to do with my essay, anyways.........

[Rafajafar]

EDIT:
----------------------------------
Dude, screw it.

Yes, kid, I should be banned. You've convinced me. I petition myself to be banned.

Ben? This kid says I should be banned. What about it? You into the idea?

[BMW-Guy]

Heck! I just got banned from my other forum. On the account that I posted too many times with too little content.

I don't believe it!

[Rafajafar]

Amazing.

[Pax Vitae]

Heck! I just got banned from my other forum. On the account that I posted too many times with too little content.
I don't believe it!

So does that mean you'll be joining us on a more permanent basis?

[Pax Vitae]

But on a more serious note, I’ve been reading some of your posts on the other forum, for a while a little over a year ago I was reading quite a bit off that site. But I found ILP was more like sitting around with friends talking philosophy, and just taking crap when I need to blow off some steam. That’s the main reason why I like it here, and ended up volunteering to become a moderator when there was a need a while back.

This site to has the same problem with completely ridiculous posters that didn’t get band a quickly as they might on other sites. But all philosophy sites go through a renaissance of content, though it can only go on for so long before people have progressed as far as they can, so stagnation sets in and after that the stupid posters take to the floor, to kick us while we’re down, so to speak. To be honest ILP is currently at one of its low points for content, I don’t have problem admitting this, as if you look around at some of the older posts there’s a lot of really good discussions. But this will turn around given time.

Part of the site’s philosophy here is putting a lot of effort into trying to keep the site an informal fun place to discuss philosophy, giving people the freedoms to do express themselves in away they are comfortable with. This means we are a little slower in banning people we should, as first we try to get them to mend their ways, as most just didn’t know any other way till they are asked to stop doing something that is annoying. But of course you do get your mental defective group of people who just won’t stop, even after being advised to desist, so they do get banded. This is the reason this site is enjoyable you get honest reactions to posts, like Rafajafar comments. On a totalitarian philosophy site I would just delete his above post ‘Amazing’ as it adds nothing to the topic and more then lightly will offend you. But we try to be mature even when the posters aren’t and allow this in the spirit that people will grow given time and encouragement.

If you don’t feel comfortable with this, that’s a pity as you’ll miss out on what is overlook on other sites, the human side of philosophy.

[Smooth]

This site to has the same problem with completely ridiculous posters that didn’t get band a quickly as they might on other sites.

Yeah, I'm a good example!

[Rafajafar]

This site to has the same problem with completely ridiculous posters that didn’t get band a quickly as they might on other sites.

Yeah, I'm a good example!

No you're not, be quiet.

[BMW-Guy]

You both are..........

And if you feel complimented when I say "you should be banned", you are going to feel complimented once more:

"You should both be banned".

If you two represent the personality of the average member on ILP, then that could explain why EVERY single other forums out there (on philosophy) has at least 5 times the number of members.

[INoNothing]

I love I love philosophy!!!!! Rafajafar summed it up rather well. It can be a nice casual place at times to.

[Rafajafar]

You both are..........

And if you feel complimented when I say "you should be banned", you are going to feel complimented once more:

"You should both be banned".

If you two represent the personality of the average member on ILP, then that could explain why EVERY single other forums out there (on philosophy) has at least 5 times the number of members.

Or why every single person here knows why this place is better and tends to come back. 4573 posters, with only 217 who have post counts over 150. ILP has 1167 registered accounts with 57 posters over 100 posts. That's a 4.9% frequenter rate... PhilFor.com has a 4.7% frequenter rate. All your numbers mean is that you have more people bitching at each other. The ratio of posters to transients is very close. We're just more personal. Sorry if you don't like that...please, feel free to leave.

Dude, you come here, act like cock of the henhouse, making comparisons between this place and your ohhh soooo uber forums (that aren't even really yours). You insult the mods, you made the DUMBEST fucking comment about the "non philosophical discussion", you say that Smooth, who is one of the nicest guys you could possibly ever meet in your High School hyper pretentious years, should be banned, and ...and all this by 7 posts.

Suck a dick, kid. YOU should be banned.

[BMW-Guy]

Bye!

MODERATORS:

Please "cancel" my membership on ILP. You have failed to to deal with these comments made against me.

This is not allowed on any other forum I've ever visited (a good few). You really need to keep certains member's language from getting in the way of an otherwise excellent philosophical conversation.

With all due respect, You really do a poor job with the up-keeping of your forum.

Find me one other forum that allows this kind of stuff--you won't find a single one that is centered around the disscussion of philosophy.

Thank-you

[ben]

Dear Mr. BMW-Guy,

Please accept my unreserved apology for all the pain that you must have gone through in your time with us. You will of course be getting a full refund for your membership here. It really is unacceptable that we didn't restructure our entire forum ethos for you and I hope one day you'll be able to forgive us. We truly are failures I envy the boards that will gain you as their newest member.

With all due respect,

- ben
(unknown on philosophyforums)

[Jesblath Finger]

It seems, on this forums, that there is One rule for some and One rule for others.

BMW-Gay, I feel hurt with you. Prejudice is an evil, that we must conquer together.

[BMW-Guy]

Dear Mr. BMW-Guy,

Please accept my unreserved apology for all the pain that you must have gone through in your time with us. You will of course be getting a full refund for your membership here. It really is unacceptable that we didn't restructure our entire forum ethos for you and I hope one day you'll be able to forgive us. We truly are failures I envy the boards that will gain you as their newest member.

With all due respect,

- ben
(unknown on philosophyforums)

Who ever heard of a sarcastic modertor? Is it ok, then, if I swear my head off (as long as it is NOT at somebody) in my next post? I mean, I came here for philosophy; not flame-wars. I introduce myself by posting an essay, giving a few good-intented suggestions, and all I get is slams against me & my work by posters who make avid use of high-level swear words.

[Pax Vitae]

Who ever heard of a sarcastic modertor? Is it ok, then, if I swear my head off (as long as it is NOT at somebody) in my next post?

Yes it is... you seem a little hesitant, so start off simple and work your way up to the more complex combination of expletives.

I mean, I came here for philosophy; not flame-wars.

Just because somebody disagrees with your point of view doesn’t mean you’re in a flame war. We’ve stated how we enjoy discussing philosophy, but philosophy is only one part of the experience. The other is what you might class as the mundane interaction that lacks any philosophical merit. So, of course your going to come up against opposition to your point of view on how a board should be run. We’re here for those who wish to enjoy philosophy and not get banned because they said something stupid and mister moderator says “Hay, that guys posted to much with little content, lets ban him, so he’ll just comeback under a different name.”

I introduce myself by posting an essay, giving a few good-intented suggestions, and all I get is slams against me & my work by posters who make avid use of high-level swear words.

Well I’ve read the topic with your essay and I only see one reply and it’s a complement to your creative abilities. So who was it that has ‘slammed’ your work? And the rude language was not directed towards, but used to express that person’s freedom to free speech. If you’re not free to say fuck, it won’t be long before you’re not free to say other things. There’s nothing wrong with rude words, a word is just a word; be it roses or fuck. There’s no difference, the only different is how you feel when you read them. To me all words are, are ways of communicating ideas and thoughts, and some times saying fuck, shit, blox, etc can help make a point. While it’s not necessary to everybody, some people just like to express themselves this way. We believe they should have this freedom so long as it’s not an intentional attack upon another member of the community.

You seem to have very fixed ideas about how philosophy must be done. Lighten up your only 16 from what I gather from another post. So be more open to the fact that most people want to use rude words. But don’t think of them as rude words, there just words. They’re only rude because you believe them to be! Don’t be so subjective.

[Paul]

And I don't like your forums.

You keep calling them his forums... they're hardly his forums when he's not even allowed to post there.

Anyhow, my apologies for the content of this thread as far as it references my site, and no I do not happen to believe that the number of members on a site determines how good it is (nor do I believe all swearing should be outlawed, et cetera).

Who ever heard of a sarcastic modertor?

Have you ever heard of me? Surely you've noticed I tend to be quite sarcastic towards people who make posts which call for it. I don't doubt that if a new member posted what you have in this thread, I would be just as sarcastic as ben's post.

If they choose to give you the chance, hopefully you can recognize what a bad introduction you've given yourself and take steps to repair it. The people at this forum are not idiots. I'm not a regular poster here, but I have been registered for a very long time as you can see, and I do browse the site occasionally and have found it to have some interesting discussions. And please BMW, as a final request I would prefer it if you don't tell go around telling other sites that philosophy forums is better than they are, because that just makes me look bad by association.

[BMW-Guy]

Sorry Mr. Paul. I didn't realize that Defending PF could actuall bring you "harm by association". I'll stop at once.

Yeah, you're sarcastic, all right (and cynical, too). But that's what makes you Mr. Paul!

[Rafajafar]

Yes, that was a misread on my part the first time I read his post. I thought he was trying to promote HIS forums, not forums that he prefers/frequents. He seemed so proud of the member count, I just assumed until I looked into it further.

Again, my appologies. I think I corrected myself later, or at least stopped refering to it as his as though he owns it.

[BMW-Guy]

Pax Vitae, Please check your PM box. Thanks!