Were images turned off because they were causing a problem, or only because they weren't on the old Dope?

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#1

Let us be honest with ourselves. As much as we may love this place, it has been in decline for some time now.

If new features cause specific issues with the board, or if it’s something we specifically don’t want our board to become – for example ordering posts by number of likes instead of chronologically – then I agree that those features should be turned off.

But if our attitude is “anything that wasn’t on the Dope needs to go” – well, I’m worried we will go the way of the dodo.

I’m not asking for the admins of this site to have this discussion now – clearly things are hectic and they have bigger fish to fry. But if our default stance is “make no changes to the site, let’s be as close to 1999 as we can get” – well, that doesn’t sound very appealing, frankly.

#2

I totally agree with the sentiment but I think it’s the right to do to start with all the settings as close as possible to the old board. There is enough sudden change right now as it is. Then, after a few months, we should start to talk about whether it’s desirable to switch functionality on.

Mind you, there are probably a few changes you could sneak in now without much fuss that people would rail against if you tried to introduce them separately later.

#3

I feel like there are a lot of negative changes, and a few positive changes would be welcome. And yes, in line images would be a positive change for me.

#4

I completely agree. The removal of pictures, likes, and emoji’s (for a while) is my biggest issue with the move. Learning a new interface… no big deal. But the removal of items which have been basic functionality since the popularization of Facebook and Twitter is a MASSIVE turnoff.

Have a setting in which users can ‘turn (pictures/likes/emoji’s) off’, but don’t ban them for those of us who desire to use the things.

Wait… I see the upload is back. Let’s test it… didn’t work, file was too large (5mb). Let’s test it again… nope, says images aren’t allowed.

Which is bullshit.

#5

The worry is that inline pictures will change the nature of the board.

The last thing I want to see is message threads where people substitute thoughtful responses for an animated GIF of someone smacking their forehead or looking shocked, which is the kind of crap that fills facebook and twitter.

On the other hand, there are legit uses for photos. For example, it’s pretty hard to have a discussion about photography without allowing the display of photographs. Economic and scientific discussions could be improved if we could embed a graph.

If photos can be turned on or off for threads or categories, that would be ideal.

#6

Preach it, brother!

That’s exactly my feeling, too.

But… that’s not what I’ve seen happen. In the last year, two of my boards switched to Discourse, and the… well, the discourse… remained mostly the same.

There were a couple of people who liked to reply with stupid gifs, but they were kids, and they responded well when asked to knock it the fuck off, please and thank you.

#7

I don’t know why anyone expects any different. The culture of the board is created by the people of the board, not the board features. The sky won’t fall if the board joins the 21st century.

#8

See, this post here is why we need likes. At least a few.

#9

1000% this.

#10

My personal opinion:

I’m fine with limiting features for a week or two until we get the bugs worked out of the new board. Once that’s done bring in new features in a controlled manner.

I can adapt to pictures (i have in other forums)… but can we limit the size perhaps?

#11

That’s not what human factors theory says. Features can definitely change the behavior of people using them, in ways varying from subtle to dramatic. Look at how Twitter’s 140 character limit changed the way people talk to each other. Sometimes all it takes is adding an extra click to an option to have that option decline in use dramatically.

That said, we don’t know if pictures will dramatically change the tone of the board or the nature of conversations. It would be an experiment.

#12

I get limiting features until they can be rolled out at a better time. But what they seem to be doing is reverting everything to our old vBulletin system, or as close as they can get to it.

And I understand why.

But it’s a non-starter. This is Discourse, not vBulletin. This is 2020, not 1999. Shit is breaking on this board because of the reversions.

#13

And this!

I’m not sure why people think GIFs are lower on the totem pole of useful content than “lets go down to the query and throw stuff down there” or “1920s style death ray” or “just once, in 1960”.

#14

I’m starting to see some of that, already. People are just replying to other people without quoting them.

I’m assuming that they don’t quite know how to quote properly (and yes, Discourse, itself, is hindering us), but my biggest fear for this board is that we’ll lose the culture of quoting that we’ve held since well before the likes of me ever showed up.

#15

I’d love to have one forum where photos are enabled. That would be fun. Keep them corralled in one place, but allow them. That would allow photography threads and similar things.

#16

And I’ve gotta say… Discourse is modeled on current social media. And current social media is not about having a discussion. It’s all about voicing your opinion with little chance of backlash.

Fellow Dopers, please, never let us come to that. It really is up to us.

#17

[quote=“Sam_Stone, post:5, topic:911578, full:true”]
The worry is that inline pictures will change the nature of the board.[/quote]

The last thing I want to see is message threads where people substitute thoughtful responses for an animated GIF of someone smacking their forehead or looking shocked, which is the kind of crap that fills facebook and twitter.
…[/quote]

On the old board we had a custom headsmack smilie. It is really all that different to have a photo of Captain Picard smacking his head? I don’t find it so.

I agree that those types of photos don’t ADD value. But I don’t think they are all that problematic, either. And other types of photos do add value. “What is this plant in my garden?” “Here’s what my bathroom remodel looks like”. Even, “here’s a screenshot of something that puzzles me about this board, can anyone help me?”

#18

aw, crap, I messed up the quote and don’t know how to fix it. :frowning:

#19

Yep. The threads that spiral into Yahoo chatroom circa 1999 asterisk actions are not more elevated discourse (ha!) than a clever and well placed gif reply.

That said, it can get out of hand, and I would strongly advise against moving avatars, gifs or animations in signatures, and enormous pics that don’t add anything to the thread.

Again, a lot of this can be controlled by board culture, and a willingness to let some peer pressure take place outside of the Pit would go a long way toward regulating behavior.

#20

Hit the pencil icon under your post (if there’s still time). Then take out the wrong [/quote] tag and put the right one (the first one, I’m guessing) on a line by itself.