META Bring Back the Negbang

Submitted by Lebowski on
What's a guy gotta do to get some justice around here? Wait for someone to post a thread?

NegBang away! This is your chance! Thread posted!

Lebowski

October 31st, 2011 at 11:13 PM ^

to Bolivia. Ecuador was really cool, it had iguanas and hammerhead sharks, at least in the Galapagos part.

Lately, posts have generally seemed well thought out. But, there hasn't been nearly as much social justice for crummy comments around here as there used to be...

Okay, I wasted time with this thread, but think about the the hidden costs of having to read responses that aren't well thought out, then embrace the power of the Negbang.

The only way to get to Bolivia, or Ecuador, is to post, and IMHO, that's too bad.



BlueDragon

October 31st, 2011 at 11:13 PM ^

has put a bit of a damper on celebratory-type posts.  This is both bad (less general cameraderie among the regulars and much less control/regulation of newer users) and good (much harder to farm points).  The circumstances that led to the malware overload were hardware based in nature and solutions exist to the problems we faced.  I would like to see the old voting system back; if not in the upcoming summer offseason, then by the summer of 2013.  How hard is it to hire a guy to write a code module to make the up-and-down votes affect individual users' vote totals?

On the same topic, I think making the points non-expiring is a good thing in general, since longtime legitimate users should not come back to their accounts after a long hiatus and find their treasury is down to a mere 82 pieces of gold (a circumstance which has happened to a number of people in the past).  A person's point total is their castle, resistant to entropy and barbarian alike.

Sac Fly

November 1st, 2011 at 1:40 AM ^

Alone that coding, trouble shooting, debugging, and security (because it's java) will take months of work. As crazy as it sounds working together would make it harder because everyone codes differently, that could make putting all the pieces toghter almost impossible. Another aspect is testing. I can code in JQUERY, which is used on this site, but I can not be sure that my lines will execute. It does Brian no good if he gets 20 pages of line that is useless.

name redacted

October 31st, 2011 at 10:55 PM ^

I'm glad the old point system is gone.  People are back to talking football around here.

In pursuit of points this place had turned into endless postings of lolcats, 'funny' animated gifs, users who couldn't put a comment together without the mgomeme, and contests to see who could be snarkiest... not to mention the my way or the highway mentality that turned everyone into a circle jerk participant (er, I mean mgocirclejerk).  Think like us, talk like us, or we will negbang you!  Ugh.

Even though I don't comment much, I check this site multiple times a day, many more than a 30 year old should.  This is the best college football blog on the planet, and while not perfect, currently mgoblog is as good as its been in a loooong time.  Yeh, I'm good with how it is.

StephenRKass

November 1st, 2011 at 12:11 AM ^

"You have created a monster!"

The points serve the purpose of eliminating troll posts. They allow the mods to change the points needed to post after a board meltdown.

Unless I am missing something, that's all they were ever really intended to do. The problem is that for some, points established some kind of pecking order. They also allow for ridiculous group think.

Really, the way to think of points is more like "life/health" points in a video game. Once you have "full" health, you can't have "more" health. If you have lots of mgo "health," you can afford to squander some in a rant that loses you points (mgo "health.") Lose too much health, you've got a problem, and you might be on your way to Bolivia.

I really don't care, one way or the other, if points were changed back to "the old days." But I do strongly believe that Brian has better things to do with his time than work on this issue. Further, he has better things to do with his money than pay someone else to program this issue.

TheLastHarbaugh

November 1st, 2011 at 12:34 AM ^

Brian hates the board with a fiery passion, so I don't think he's going to spend any more time on it than he has to.

I think his general sentiments are:

1. Are users able to post? If no, fix problem. If yes, continue to ignore.

2. Is the board completely out of control? If yes, ban most egregious members and/or restrict posting. If no, continue to ignore.

3. When everything is running smoothly: Mgoboard you say? Never heard of it.

LSAClassOf2000

November 1st, 2011 at 6:03 AM ^

I've only been here since January, but in the short time I experienced the old system, I grew to like it. In scanning the boards when I first got here, it gave you a short, sharp lesson in culture here and which lines should not be crossed and how they should not be crossed. It also gave you a clue as to what to simply stay away from. Now, it seems that the truly off-the-wall and over-the-top items have to be great in volume before someone is banned. 

I'm  still learning the board in some regards, but I liked that guide of the old points systems. I've taken a few hits because of it (even last night, I learned not to post while in a crotchety mood), but I think it would be useful if it returned. I do wonder how much programming wizardry it would take though.