This is just it; wouldn’t the “let’s keep the riff-raff out” crowd prefer to have people here who came in because they were interested in some thread topic that was linked to on a friend’s Facebook account, than by searching “squid porn” on Google or whatever?
Besides which, my original point in mentioning having a Facebook button was seriously just that it seems like a massive oversight to have Digg, StumbleUpon, etc., but not have Facebook. I am also genuinely bewildered that people are upset/bitching/threatening to leave the boards over a Facebook button but are apparently totally cool with a Digg button. Random people on Digg are more welcome here than friends/family of current posters? I don’t get it.
Is there anyone in favor of Google indexing but against the Facebook button? If we find such a person, let’s ask them.
I don’t get that either. But I’m also not sure I’ve heard anyone say, “I will leave this board if we have a Facebook button, but Digg is cool.” If someone has that position, I am likewise interested in understanding why.
I was thinking of Martini Enfield, actually, but on re-reading, he actually said he was considering leaving the SDMB now (I mis-read that the first time) so you are right. Mea culpa.
I get that some people are upset about the Google indexing, but the fact is that Google indexing isn’t going away, and I really don’t see how Facebook links make the situation any worse. If anything, they’d make it better by encouraging friends/family of SDMB members to come in, rather than the squid porn searchers mentioned previously.
Also, it was said earlier in this thread already, but I’ll reiterate that without fresh blood around here, this site will die. I’ve been on other message boards that were once thriving communities and are now dead little ghost towns of the Internet, and in both cases, it’s because new members stopped coming in for whatever reason. You’re upset because you think the tone of the boards is changing. I not only disagree with you on that point – specifically, that the tone of the boards has changed for the negative – but also would like to point out that the boards will be nonexistent if they shrivel up from lack of new membership.
I’m not really all that worked up about the Facebook button, honestly. I am just really surprised and taken aback by this bizarre-to-me attitude that the SDMB can’t tolerate new members that come in through any route other than the columns and books.
Am I the only one here who’s tired of the whole “fighting ignorance”? It’s just a slogan. I don’t know why anyone thinks we’re seriously on a mission to do so.
I think you meant specifically me here, so I’ll clarify that while I suspect that Google indexing has had negative impact on tone and quality, I consider it minor and am not worked up about it. If we had a vote, I’d probably vote to keep Google indexing, because SDMB search blows, and I can use Google to search the boards now. That’s worth the small price to me. I’m also ambivalent on sharing buttons. I won’t use them, but I don’t really care. I still think avatars would be a disaster.
I would, however, leave the board if everyone felt this way. Fortunately, many still seem to take this slogan seriously.
It goes without saying that I’m not in favour of Google indexing, either. It’s the combination of Google indexing and “Share” buttons that bothers me so much, combined with a gradual change in board culture that I don’t think is a necessarily a positive one (Don’t bother disagreeing with me- I know that almost no-one else agrees, so let’s just take your derision and vehement disagreement as read and move on, OK?)
So, this whole thing has, as I said, prompted a serious re-think about what form, if any, my continued participation here will be. In the meantime I’m taking a few weeks off and we’ll see how I feel about it all then.
You think that’s bad? I remember distinctly when a long-time and somewhat “popular” member here argued seriously that he didn’t want the SDMB server to be upgraded so the board would run faster, because it might spoil the feel and change the membership. On my best days I don’t even know how to respond to something like that.
I must say that I am growing rather tired of these Penn, Brown and SUNY Ithaca … oh, I mean Cornell grads stinking up the place with their safety school antics. They should gather with their mental midget peers elsewhere, and leave the SDMB to us true intellectuals. Yes, indeed. :rolleyes:
I don’t have any strong hate toward the buttons. I certainly don’t have any selective hate for Facebook over Digg or the others.
However, I do have one personal experience. There was a blog I read daily, I enjoyed the topics and the writer, and would make comments. Then he started linking Digg buttons on the columns. I observed an increase in the number of comments coupled with a decrease in the quality of the comments. Anything contentious, such as global warming or anti-vaccination, would draw in some very lengthy exchanges, usually full of the same comments repeated anew. I found my pleasure with the blog diminish, to the point I rarely visit anymore. Sure, Digg was probably getting the blog post content to people who needed to read it, but unfortunately it was drawing in more obstinate and less reasonable commenters. Eventually I got tired of having the same conversations over and over again.
GuanoLad seems to think that wouldn’t happen here, in part because we’re not posting blog posts on interesting/contentious topics, but just talking about random crap. But we still see the occassional 1 post wonder coming in to the columns forums or even dredging up old threads through google only to never return after they drop their nugget of wisdom.
I think the one advantage that this place does have is that it has a registration to post. That blog I mentioned does not. I think the moderators can still keep a handle on the worst of the riff-raff, to keep this from becoming youtube.
I can understand confusion over why StumbleUpon is included and Facebook is not. I mean, if you’re going to add buttons, why omit the most popular system out there.
I honestly don’t care about the share button or whatever. I haven’t even renewed my membership here in over a year. But I quoted this to throw some support for it. I hate the whole patronizing thing with ‘you do know how the internet works’ shit. I mean, the first time, it amuses me, I confess. But every time after that, it grates on me. If the person you are speaking to expresses that she understands your point, but still disagrees with you, then every time you pull out the ‘you do understand how the internet works, right?’ shit after that is just patronizing. You can continue to explain to the ‘confused’ poster how she is still mistaken without the condescending bullshit.
Also, put me down as another square that actually drinks the kool aid and thinks this board is a special snowflake.
I think this message board is the shit, I just don’t think it would be particularly harmed by people following in Facebook links. Actually I think that might make it even better.
I guess I’m talking about the elitism of this board. Sometimes I feel there’s a lot of snobbery about, “we’re better than everyone else.” I think that’s sad.
That’s not to say I DON’T like it here, but I don’t think we’re somehow “unique” as in whole new, different part of the intraweb. I like the people here. I just don’t like it when people get snobby about how much better this place is than the rest of the web. That’s one thing I really can’t stand about this place – I don’t think people MEAN it like that, but that’s how it comes across.
Why keep other people out? Besides, sometimes it’s fun to let in the occassional idiot.
(WHERE did I say “that’s how the internet works?” The only thing I DID point out is that if you put something on the internet, don’t complain that it’s an invasion of privacy – you’re the one who put it out there to begin with. That has nothing to do with this place.)
Even though that is what I said, and kind of what I meant, I was in a hurry as I was about to go out and wish I’d used a more prosaic description.
These are conversations. If anything is going to be singled out about them, it’s individual posts that make a salient or amusing point, or the consecutive posts made up of off-topic humour (the sort of thing that might elsewhere get a “Like” or a “Retweet”). Just having a discussion about the events of the day, or IDing a half-remembered book title, isn’t the kind of thing that will get posted to Facebook.
The exception may be GQ, where fascinating factual answers might be worth showing to someone who has a related query elsewhere online, but even then that isn’t how Share buttons operate.
I can’t think of any thread that we create here that would be worth showing off to Facebook friends, except obvious hits like the LOTR thread I mentioned. Even our in-joke memes don’t make any sense outside of context.
I fully believe the quality of conversation here is better than I’ve seen on any other general-purpose discussion board that’s still running. It may be a fine line, but I think the sentiment that we have better conversation - by which I mean more interesting to me - is different from believing that we’re actually better people. The latter is elitist and snobbish. The former is expressing a personal preference, and that’s what I mean when I talk about how I think the board is a special snowflake and how important it is to not go out and do things just because everyone else is.
Look at you, glistening and shining on your own little point of the snowflake! Steophan, this place just wouldn’t be the unique, precious ice crystal that it is without you!