I always thought the robots were MM, huh, color me stupid.

Heh. I actually created them to wish MM happy birthday, and occasionally take them out for a spin.

Oh, and since I'm in here, the deathmatch announcements drive me batshit. I try to just deal with it and skip though.

I'm seriously curious and not being snarky: are there some kind of internet connections that small posts like the deathmatch announcements are actively a problem for?

My irritation with the deathmatch posts is that, while the original deathmatches, way back, were a fun way to kill an afternoon, the current deathmatch feels like it's been going on forEVER, and will never end.

When I log in and see new posts in Press, I immediately think something important is going on -- some people do post Important Life Stuff (the kind that most people put in Beep Me) in Press, and I want to catch that.

But, really. Month after month after month of deathmatch announcements have really gotten old.

There are several reasons for the deathmatches taking so long. They include -

• server problems that resulted in a long (4 weeks, maybe) hiatus
• hurricaine Juan and the subsequent power outage
• massive blizzard
• going out of town, twice

I'm very sorry that you are being irritated by this. I am trying to find a workable way around this.

It seems like the Non-deathmatch-y people find the Press posts irritating, and the Deathmatch-y people find them useful. Can there be a middle ground? Could Elena be given, temporarily, a deathmatch notcie thread?

Elena brought up using Atlantic Canadians as a the notice thread. I don't like to see the thread go that way, and besides, we'd do discuss this season of Angel, so UnAms could possibly get spoiled. But I have told her that my objections are mild, if it's the only solution.

I also suggested to Elena that maybe if she limited her Deathmatch posts to one a day in Press, that was edited to mark where things stopped and started. Is that an acceptable middle ground?

Or you know, we could put it to a vote, and put the whole thing to bed.

Thing is, though, I have only very rarely posted more than once a day in Press regarding the deathmatches. The few times I've posted more than once a day it was because there was a gap of several hours between sessions.

Look, I have never had any intention of cause problems or dissent. I'm running the matches for those people who enjoy them, and posting the start of each daily session to help those people. That there are people that are annoyed/bored/driven bat-shit by them is something that was brought to my attention the day before I left for vacation. I've been back for 3 days. I'm trying to find a solution that will irritate the least number of people.

Elena, I'm not at all meaning to beat up on you. I know that you're working on a solution. I can be a crankypants sometimes.

And this all starts to get in to the territory of "you know the O.C. posts in...every non-show-specific thread drive me batshit". Which they really, REALLY do. But I've kept quiet about it because it didn't seem like that big a deal given that others were really into the show. I just scroll past them. IJS.

Other than the fact that it's probably a pain in the ass for Elena, I've enjoyed the deathmatches lasting for the time they have; I'll miss the action when it's gone. It's a fun thread, and I really appreciate that she has the patience and desire to keep running it.

Not sure how to measure qualitatively irritation at Press deathmatch notices v. people finding them helpful. A number of people find the announcements useful, a number of people find them annoying, and a number of people have expressed a neutral position. Does one trump the other? In other votes/discussions here, it's broken down by people who, for whatever qualitative reasons, vote pro, anti, or indifferent about an issue. I guess I don't see this as different. So far about 20 people, more or less, have weighed in with an opinion, but I don't think any consensus has been achieved (as in other cases, where discussion here does eventually decide an issue; my perception is that this one isn't going to go that way, but again, that's my opinion). I'm kind of liking the vote and put it to bed scenario. Something like:

No, deathmatch notices do not belong in Press.
Yes, put a notice in for each time a new round of voting starts.
Yes, but only one notice per day max.
Yes, but only one notice per new character round.

That's my quick and dirty of what I think the suggestions have been. As for other threads or new special threads, I guess I'd leave that decision until after a vote on whether or not the notices can or can't stay in Press.

That's my two cents, anyway. My personal view is that I perceive that the usual culture here is to scroll past stuff you don't care about or is annoying to you in a thread (that's the universal you, by the way), but Press seems to be a particular sticking point, so maybe a vote is the way to go.

One thing to remember as a community is that scrolling past is one of the most important social lubricants we've got. There are some tensions intrinsic to the board, and they're not ever going to be resolved one way or the other and I don't think they should be resolved. The middle is a space where we can all function and so it takes some scrolling and skipping to maintain it.

Which is not to say that these issues shouldn't be addressed. It's a legitimate point that Beep Me and Press are (for many people) part of their limited diet on the board, a way to keep up with the life events of the people who are part of the community.

One reason the deathmatches went more quickly the first time is simply because I posted entire brackets at a time, so you'd vote on as many as four vote pairings at once. Personally I don't mind drawing out the death matches. Not only do people enjoy them, but I think they serve a valuable function of us revisiting our "common tongue" as it were. It's a kind of community glue in its way.

Anyway, I hope people don't take the criticisms personally. I don't think anybody was upset about Cindy's pseud - I think a lot of people had a muscle memory about pseud abuse though that made them feel uncomfortable. This discussion on pseuds is mostly on the level of potential abuse - and that's useful. I think if nothing else we affirm community values on the level of consensus (which still is an important part of how function). In short, people can use pseuds but double identities need to be clearly a source of fun and play and anybody who posted "seriously" as two different personae would be considered suspicious.

That's not a rule or anyting - that's just sort of our historical culture (I think).

I don't think you can compare the quote deathmatches to following other threads. The deathmatches are dependent on Elena's having a window of time to run them, and without something like a Press announcement, a particular match might well be over before most people noticed it. I think they're fun. I participate when I have time and skip the notice when I don't. There are occasionally notices and natter in Press that don't seem to fit the official Press definition, but it's only a minor irritation to me.

I thought the ferrets were posting as lurkers, myself.