I wanted to make reference to a bit of music (the theme music to M.U.L.E. as it happens) and I realized I had a midi file version of it which was acquired from a free site, so there are no copyright issues. The file itself is very small, something like 6k, and I realized it would be very easy to UUencode it into 7 bit text and then add it right to the posting so others could copy/paste it and listen to it. I didn’t do it, because I wasn’t sure how it would go over. For future reference, are there any formal policies about this?
Where you got a piece of music does not necessarily relieve you of copyright issues. The fact that you got it from a free site makes no nevermind if the piece is not already in the public domain.
More importantly I would think that any file that has an impact on the user experience is subject to our “two click” rule – and that would include any file like this. So you’d have to craft a link that wouldn’t play unless someone deliberately clicked it. We don’t want people getting smacked with something that they didn’t ask for specifically.
No no, a UUencoded file is just 7-bit characters. Hold on, I’ll give you an example.
That, above, is your response to my question UUencoded. Copy and paste that into a uudecoder and you’ll get a file called “yourresponse” which will contain the original text. Since a midi file is so small (it’s just text which tells a midi player when to play a given instrument, with what note) it can be easily uuencoded and dropped into a message like I just did above, and anyone who cares to listen can copy/paste the text into a uudecoder to get the file.
It’s not a link at all, it’s just text.
I would like to suggest to the mods that they ban this unbelievably obvious troll, if for no other reason than to punish his trolling incompetence. This is a high quality board – we deserve better trolls than this.
Er… what? Maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t see how I provoked this.
This accusation has no business being made in ATMB; if it’s intended as humor, it’s missing the mark, if it’s intended as a serious comment, it is against the rules.
I’ve reported it.
Quite apart from that, I’m not sure why you dislike what he’s doing here. I mean, Smash has some provocative postings here, but politely asking if he can do this type of coding doesn’t strike me as particularly provocative. 
I do see this as a joke. It is a joke, right, Giraffe?
That statement could come back to haunt you, given the comments in other threads about videos and sounds in ads.
Well, her statement certainly should be viewed in context; that is, we do our best to keep the annoyances limited for things we can control. Ads, unfortunately, we (the day-to-day staff) have no say over, so there’s nothing we can do about them.
That said, SmashTheState, you’re welcome to post the UU encodings as long as they don’t violate any of our other rules. No NSFW pictures, for example, or copyrighted files. If it becomes a problem, we can always revisit this issue.
Personally, I think your audience will be pretty limited, though. (Most users probably won’t have a decoder on hand and won’t know what to do with the encodings.)
No, I didn’t mean it as a joke. Apologies if it’s the wrong forum – I meant it as a serious moderation suggestion, not an attack on SmashTheState.
As an aside, you telling me what is against the rules is also against the rules. Especially since you’ve already been asked not to junior mod.
Given his posting history, I thought a faux-innocent questioning of whether he can post text-encoded binaries directly on a message board where file sharing has always been a sensitive issue, including the “no, here let me show you” follow up post was simply a little too obviously provocative.
In my opinion, brand new posters with highly provocative posting histories should be banned as trolls. No, you can’t prove they’re trolls, but common sense dictates 99.9% of them are, and that other 0.1% should have had more common sense themselves not to be mistaken as one.
I completely agree with you Giraffe.
Allowing UUencoded binaries is a bad idea. It’s an easy way to pass executeables to unsuspecting surfers. One of the things I like about this board is that it’s just words on the screen; leave images, video, and other content to other boards.
My $0.02.
Definitely the wrong forum. In the future, if we’re outside the Pit, please keep the trolling accusations confined to a reported post, e-mail or PM.
Admittedly, there’s a fairly fine line between pointing out the rules and being a junior mod, but I don’t agree DSYoungEsq was being one here. Simply telling someone they are violating the rules doesn’t necessarily mean you’re junior modding. Demanding someone follow the rules, however, is a pretty clear indication–in my opinion–that someone’s picked up the junior mod crown.
At any rate, DSYoungEsq, I do think it’s better to just report the post and let a mod handle it instead of going back to add your two cents. It cuts down on the drama and keeps people from accidentally stepping over the helpful poster/junior mod line.
On second thought, I agree with this. It is a bad idea for the reasons stated, and if I had thought of UUencodings as more than jpegs and midi files (what I ganked off Usenet lo those many years ago), I would have realized that. So, reversing what I said before, SmashTheState, please don’t post the UUencodings. If you’d like to share a legitimate file, please follow our existing guidelines and rules governing links, and post a regular link.
My sincere apologies. I honestly thought you guys wanted my type of comment e.g. “I think the mods should ban all guests who act like X” in ATMB now. Won’t happen again.
Well, sure; I don’t see any problem with discussing the overall topic of trolling and how the board handles it. What’s at issue (or what I was focusing on) was the accusation of trolling aimed at a specific user. I’m sorry if I was unclear about that.
I believe I understand now. At best, my post was in a grey area which puts you guys in an awkward spot. I’ll be careful to avoid that in ATMB in the future. Again, my apologies.
Just to make sure I’m 100% clear here, say I had started a separate thread titled “How about we ban provocative guests as trolls sooner rather than later?” with a link to this thread in the OP as an example, that would go in ATMB, correct? I don’t mind putting it in the Pit, except I’m not really angry at SmashTheState specifically, I just think he’s symptomatic of a larger issue so it seemed more ATMB appropriate to me.
Sometimes, quite honestly, the goal of the thread depends on the OP. While you may be concerned with the overall board environment, I wouldn’t be surprised if a number of posters would be tempted to use that excuse to label someone a troll just because there’s bad blood between them. I think we’ve seen those threads in the Pit where a partisan poster is falsely accused of being a troll by his/her equally partisan counterpart. As fluid as the defintion of troll can be from user to user, inviting users to post their linked accusations would just prove to be a huge headache.
For posters in good standing (no matter how long that status lasts) I’d prefer we avoid the temptation and ensuing drama altogether by avoiding links to their posts. Instead, I’d just report the post; and then in the relevant ATMB thread, either describe the behavior or link to an example of an already banned troll (of which, outside the first two hours of this board’s existence, we have never been short a supply). I know that creates a little extra work for the user, but considering how the accusation of trolling typically derails a thread and–sometimes unjustly–puts the target in a bad light, I think it’s a decent trade-off.
Fair enough. Thanks for the clarification. 
All the above commentary said, answered, and settled, I still wonder. . . Why are you, of all people, assuming that a provocative guest is per se a troll?
Assuming that you do not believe that such as Der Trihs, Rand Rover, Olentzero, and Shodan are trolls, what makes SmashTheState different from them? All our provocative members have to start posting sometime, after all.