Tilting at Windmills
Aerobe has picked up a pet project or two which for now look like they might actually get somewhere. As we know, that first impression can often be decieving. It seems like most ideas for changes to E2 do just fine in the abstract brainstorming phase but peter out when it comes down to deciding exactly what to implement. Whether an idea will be completed or not seems to have more to do with people being determined enough to follow through on that brainstorming and turn it into a specific plan which is implemented than anything else. We as a group (not just one person) need to sit down and say 'Yes, we want this and we will make it happen.' Keep us honest, ask us about the progress and, by all means, give us your suggestions.
HTML Roundup
In the last month I (along with OldMiner's help) discovered and corrected about a dozen writeups which had some very ugly HTML. We eventually tracked it down as being caused by noders copy-pasting HTML documents from Microsoft Word into E2. If you use a word processor to compose your writeups instead of scratch pads, please remember to double check for errors when you copy-paste into E2.
Noder's Wiretap
As I stated last month, most of the discussions that take place within the CE usergroup are pretty banal. That said, I realized that a lot of decisions on editorial policy happen in these discussions but don't get communicated to everyone else. So, here's a short list of the conversations that took place during September (and early October) amongst the editors. Bear in mind here that a 'discussion' can consist of one or two messages sent back and forth. A discussion about:
- Why editors can delete writeups but cannot delete nodeshells (it's due to the way the site is coded).
- One of clampe's PhD students messaged the eds asking if there was a list of noders with multiple accounts (which he called bots). As it turned out, he was asking about things like Klaproth and Cool Man Eddie, not actual users. (In any case, there is no list of noders with multiple accounts and the staff are very opposed to making such a list for privacy reasons.)
- Two cases of plagiarism (both were nuked).
- The policy on abusive softlinks in nodes which coincide with usernames. (It's up to admin discretion but the policy is to be mostly laissez-faire unless it's clearly abusive.)
- eien_meru's departure from the staff and welcoming vandewal to the staff (the bucket and mop are over there).
- A new policy for staff activity (requiring a number of writeups per year).
- Observations about the E2 Sperm Counter. (It's awesome).
- Asking for advice about a noder who appeared to either be plagiarising or posting the same article on as many places on the net as possible. (Nutter).
- Dealing with editor cools on nodeshells and nodes that have subsequently had writeups deleted. (Should automatically expire OR removing the ed cool when the last writeup in a node is deleted (so we don't have cooled nodeshells).)
And finally, as promised in
my last ed log, the list of my exploits over the last month.
You see a bug hole, NUKE IT
Theory of a Hairy Back by artoffighting2 - Reputation of -8 when nuked. Was intended as a humorous writeup but seems to have missed its audience and did not go over well with the noders.
i need to stop coming to work on acid by godeye - Reputation of -9 when nuked. Vague stream-of-consciousness-style writeup from a new noder. Seemed to lack real content. FAQed.
A dawn by Salazar Dovor - Reputation of -5 when nuked. Distracting formatting and low reputation. Subsequently resubmitted with changes.
Cats are in control by Supernumerary - Reputation of -5 when nuked. Single sentence writeup. Explained that writeup does not mean reply and encouraged to post writeups with more content in the future.
shotgun by 1eddie - Reputation of -2 when nuked. Single-sentence writeup about writer's personal preferences. Explained writeup does not mean reply.
Nuked By Author Request
Possibilities Unfold by kto9
Winter Thoughts by kto9
A Chapter Ends by kto9
For My Love, This All Hallow's Eve by kto9
The Mega Man Death Sound by mkb