On Yack Fest and Recent Events

Regarding some other recent events

...what is this doxxing thing I'm hearing about, what happened, and should I be concerned for my own personal information?

edit: lol this became a pagetopper and my other actually meaty post became the pagebottomer, what irony

Edited by GlennMagusHarvey on Jan 20th 2021 at 1:49:18 PM

A certain thread was looking at us, especially me^note they basically were bullying me incessantly, and I was incredibly concerned for my safety until I was reassured that they wouldn't harm us.

And yes, I definitely agree with the whole essay you posted. It's a good catch-all thread for when you don't have anyplace else to go, and is pretty necessary for the ecosystem of the Yack Fest... at least, as far as I've been there. I don't know if that's a great case for reopening, as it basically restates some of my points which have been counterargued.

I do definitely like it and it would be sad to see it gone, and I promise no further drama will enter it under the new rules.

Edited by TheWhistleTropes on Jan 20th 2021 at 2:00:06 PM

I say this again: the less we talk about the fruit farm, the fewer problems we'll have with them. We are far from their only target of scorn, since they pretty much mock every "cringe" thing on the internet.^note I noticed that one of the people on this thread actually went to that thread to ask them what they were doing. With the same username as their troper handle and everything. Dude, why. Also, it's technically drama importation.

Anyway, I agree that the idea of a nondescript chatting thread is fine at least in theory. Sometimes you just wanna dump what's on your mind. We just need some structure to prevent total chaos. I also don't understand why we don't just use the other threads designated for that purpose. "Post your random thoughts" has never given me any trouble.

Edited by mightymewtron on Jan 20th 2021 at 1:59:09 PM

Again, Trash Heap is the fast-paced amalgam of Random thoughts and Hangout, up to which Anti-Necro took eleven. Trash Heap is Anti-Necro lite, and thus allows things trashier than Random Thoughts—it does feel strange seeing "Meep" on occasion on Random thoughts, as it feels like less of a thought and more of a random shitposty interjection. Trash Heap would allow these sorts of things (I know I did a lot of variations of "Bleh" back there) while also containing a conversational area more between the Hangout and Random Thoughts.

I mean I guess we could open it under the new rules but I don’t think it would be that easy to moderate because iirc it moved pretty fast (not as fast as anti necro though). Personally, it wasn’t easy to find things that broke the rules or find things people were concerned about because everything was surrounded by garbage posts when I lurked there a while ago and when something did happen everything would move at the speed of light.

As said before we have thread like Random Thoughts and Hangout which are easy to follow so to me, it won’t be a huge loss to not reopen TH. But then again, I am not a regular there.

Edited by MacronNotes on Jan 20th 2021 at 11:08:01 AM

Okay, let's put it in simple terms relating to hangouts:

• Hangout Thread is the coffee shop where people come and chat.
• Random Thoughts is the bar where people always say what's on their mind.
• Trash Heap is the nightclub where people party and do whatever.

I feel like the one thing that'd let us keep Trash Heap is if the community works harder to follow the rules, alert the mods to drama/potential drama, and maybe can find a place to take things before they blow up threads. Basically, Yack Fest needs better moderation.

^^^^^^ Ah, I see. So I guess it's not something I need to be anxious about. Thanks.

^^^^^ FWIW, I was just describing my own perspective on the Trash Heap, and my intentions for it.

I'm aware that it eventually evolved into an informal hangout frequented by successive generations of tropers, some of whom stayed longer than others. I'm less familiar with this phase of the thread, but to my understanding it was basically a low-tension "post whatever" thread that some people frequented...at least until the drama happened, I guess.

As for the distinction between Heapers' Hangout and the Trash Heap, what Tre said is basically accurate; HH was originally spawned (in March 2011, to give you a sense of how long ago that was) from people who posted on the Trash Heap, but has since evolved into a distinct place, frequented by various people only some of whom have a TVT connection (much less still visit TVT, even much less still post on TVT).

edit: oh gosh I've been ninja'd by like five posts now

Edited by GlennMagusHarvey on Jan 20th 2021 at 2:13:34 PM

Admittedly, yes. I used to post a lot of conlanging, music, and writing stuff on the Trash Heap because it could be deposited, wherever, whenever, and get buried without having to be seen or seeming annoying. I liked the fast pace of the thread, though it definitely did feel awkward when slowmode engaged after a post of mine.

We definitely need much better moderation, and the only one I can think of to really help moderate the FG/YF section would possibly be wingedcatgirl (Sylvi&), as they appear to be the most mature of the people on Trash Heap. She would be a better candidate than me, that's for sure.

And better than me, maybe.

@mightymewtron: Agreed on all points. ^note And I apologize for going over to that dreadful place. I was getting quite mad during the brief moment of panic, to the point where I wasn't thinking clearly.

Edited by AngrokVa on Jan 20th 2021 at 2:29:30 PM

Looking at the recent rulespost, I wonder if I might be able to make a new version of the Trash Heap or edit the existing Trash Heap's OP to indicate that the thread is for casual, no-commitment conversation and posting about whatever, subject otherwise to the rules. This would distance it from its original shitposting connotations.

And it would also have a somewhat more relaxed version of "don't hog the thread", since users would be allowed to chainpost (as long as they don't do it to too great an excess I guess).

I guess that's a possibility, but that seems to be more for "I wanna post this about this character because she's on my mind and she's really cool" rather than "I wanna post half a sentence of text because I want to see how people will react when I just post 'I walked into the bathroom and'".

Edit: Y'know what, lemme see what the "Post your random thoughts" thread is like.

Edited by GlennMagusHarvey on Jan 21st 2021 at 4:56:00 AM

Found another potential complaining thread: Pages That Have Been Ruined FOREVER. While activity is sparse, it's worth keeping an eye on regardless.

I think we should close any threads that are just passive complaining about the wiki, and encourage people to take an active role in improving the wiki instead. There are plenty of places on the wiki where you can actually get something done about it. What use is there in collecting complaints in an out of the way thread in Yackfest?

A part of me really wants to enact a passive-aggressive rule that any topic that is not specifically military in nature is limited to exactly two posts about military technology or history in a row.

Why, are there so many military derails?

They do know we have an OTC thread for that, right?

No, the problem with military technology discussion is that it tends to be so insular and jargon-ey to be offputting.

Oh, yeah, I can agree with that. It pops up on work pages too from time to time: examples that go into great detail about some gun or tank, far beyond what that work's audience would notice or care about.

Re: Pages that have been ruined FOREVER: That thread was meant as a joke. It's for people to jokingly pretend to complain about pages. Maybe that's not clear enough from the title, though.

Are they still aware it's meant as a joke?

It's rather easy for joke complaining to evolve into actual complaining, after all.

Edited by Redmess on Jan 21st 2021 at 3:52:06 PM

If there's one thing that any person who's been on the Internet for more than a week should know, it's that any topic that starts out to mock something will become the thing it's mocking over time.

Edited by Fighteer on Jan 21st 2021 at 9:53:39 AM

If Trash Heap is kept, my main problem is how fast the thread moves. Considering this past situation (and the one with TANG), it'd be hell to figure out what happened and go through the posts or stop something in its tracks.

My idea right now is to make the report button more visable,right now its fairly well hidden,in the little button next to the post,that needs to change

We can also make triple posting frowned upon,double posting is fine if you don't do it too much

Edited by Ultimatum on Jan 21st 2021 at 3:29:44 PM

I remember the holler button was much more visible in a previous build of the forum. Can we do something similar to that? That would help.

I think any changes that rely upon new/changed forum tools are a bad idea, sure they could work in the long term, but we can’t delay addressing the problem for the amount of time that it would take to get such tools implemented.

I believe you're talking about the four buttons that you'd see on someone else's post? I was never there for that design, but I think it was the 2015-16 period of the forums.