Hi everyone,
After doing some searching for a more dynamic website, I've found WordPress to be especially interesting and fun to work with, so I'll be moving over there shortly. I will still post and reply on here when I can, but if you want your nearly-daily dose of writing from myself, please bookmark http://laelaps.wordpress.com and visit there when you can. It will most likely be a more rich and interesting forum for my ideas and conversations, the best next step I think I can take in the culture war I seem to find myself in the middle of. Best regards,
Brian
You are leaving us! For a more interesting site! please tell me how its better so that we can steal you back, lol.
Francesca Chambers
Well I'm not entirely leaving; I'll stil debate on here and probably mirror my posts, but if you just take a look at the link you can tell it's much more appealing overall aesthetically. Also, the controls for posting blog entries are more advanced and user friendly (it enters the code for you) making it easier to link to other articles, insert pictures, add youtube, etc. Also, the comments on here can get a little mind-melting, with new comments being nested below the old ones (I know there's an option to fix this, but I usually forget) and I also want a little more power to manage the posts. I know debate is a big part of this site and I don't want to just block people who disagree with me, but there are some trolls on here or a lot of back-and-forth namecalling that isn't really necessay. As far as ProU goes, I would have a moderator or a person specially appointed to deal with such issues and a warning system, i.e. every time there's a post or comment that's unnecessarily nasy you can hit a warning button which will cause a review by the moderator. Some comments or post might be nasty enough to get taken right off, and others might be repeat offenders, but I think such a function would help the site overall because I know you mentioned earlier how you were not happy with some of the nasty tactics and such going on via this website.
Also, I've had outside newgroups look at my posts and comment on how they really don't like the format and would be more inclined to read if things were set up nicer. A lot of this has to do with money (I don't know if ProU has the same money that WordPress does, although both are free... maybe a joint effort?) I would assume, but I'm not taking my scholarship and running because I am grateful for the community of people I've met on here and I want to continue to keep up the debate, but I want to branch out a little bit and reach a wider audience that normally does not read ProU either.
Never fear, evolutiongeek will still be here for a long time to come, but I do have to admit that WordPress is easier to use, autosaves, is more aesthetically pleasing, and thus far I am quite impressed with it. I suggest some of the ProU staff open an account just to try it out and see why it is so successful (scienceblogs.com seems entirely based on wordpress and is very popular). Best,
Brian
"The trouble with having an open mind is people insist on coming along and putting things in it"-Terry Pratchett
I see your points, but I like how the comments are posted, personally. But I do think that we should have a button to mark comments that moderators would review. That would make things a lot easier for us and help to clean the site up. I have been saying that I think we need to clean up the content on the site for a long time, but that idea is not one I had thought of before and is a really good idea.
Francesca Chambers
I think for a small amount of comments (under 20 or so) the current setup works, but large amounts of comments seem to get tangled up a little bit. I don't have much of a problem with it myself (since I can just hit track) but I know some other readers from places like the talkorigins.org newsgroup said it was a little hard to navigate/look at out of context (I guess if you're new to a post and haven't seen the accumulation of comments, it can sort of blend together).
In any case, I think the strongest point ProU has going for it is the community and I'll continue to be active and write on here, but I do want to try and personalize my own writings a little bit more. As I'm sure you can tell from my activity, just because the contest is over I'm not quitting, so hopefully I'll be a presence on here for a long time to come.
"The trouble with having an open mind is people insist on coming along and putting things in it"-Terry Pratchett
*sniff , sniff* I willl miss you. Please mirror. I'm terrible with bookmarks.
www.worldcantwait.com
Don't worry, I'll still be here, likely with some posts that you won't see anywhere else (being that there is a big community here but I probably won't be recognized on my other blog for a while). How could I ever leave you and my other supporters on here ? :)
"The trouble with having an open mind is people insist on coming along and putting things in it"-Terry Pratchett