patrick.net

rando says

I've done away with the 2k comment limit @Dan8267 and hopefully simplified making comments and posts.

Let me know if problems!

Oh god Patrick, I don't think you know what you've done.....

@Patrick, the new login via emailed link feature is broken. Worst still, the old login mechanism no longer exists.

On a system where somehow the cookie got deleted, I tried to log in via the new mechanism. I never receive the link in email, and there is no fallback mechanism.

More importantly, the new system has no value. At best it could be an alternative mechanism, but certainly there is no up side to using it as a replacement for providing a username and password, even if the user name is a person's email and his display name is something else.

By forcing a user to login with an email link, you are taking something that is extremely easy and making it difficult and much more likely to fail. Now in order to log in a user, PatNet is dependent upon that person's email provider working, not filtering the link you send, your site sending the mail properly, and the link mechanism working. Even if done right, it actually opens a window for hacking because anyone who gains access to a person's email account now automatically has access to PatNet.

In the very least, PatNet should authenticate users directly using a username/password combination.

OK, I put it back manually in the database:

update users set user_name='jazz music' where user_name = 'jazzmusic';

Spaces in names cause a lot of complications with the code, so I've been modifying the code to not allow new names with spaces.

One small example is that you need to escape spaces in urls: https://patrick.net/users/jazz%20music

@Patrick, consider getting rid of Thunderdome threads. We've tried them now for months, and they are never productive conversations and only serve to further hostilities between users and discourage new people from joining PatNet. We need new people.

Patnet needs to get rid of everybody but me (Pat can be a silent partner) so that I can rave and crow incessantly without interference.

@Patrick, can you change my username to dan'; delete from user where username = 'Tenpoundbass'; --? I've been having trouble doing this myself. I think the form doesn't handle this name.

@Patrick what's the thought process behind allowing users to delete their comments? Obviously they can change comments with edit, but straight out deleting seems strange. If you don't like what you said, change it or comment that you may have fucked up. I think if a comment is deleted there should still be a place marker there numerically as you currently have it, but with no content or maybe stating it was deleted. That way as users see more blank comments from an individual they'll know which users are prone to deleting something they didn't think about before hitting submit. It's almost like they can put themselves on ignore/block (whatever it is) for deleting their own comments and people will figure out who to avoid. There's honestly no reason to delete a comment on an anonymous forum unless you're worried about your meat curtains getting hurt.

Dan8267 says

consider getting rid of Thunderdome threads. We've tried them now for months, and they are never productive conversations and only serve to further hostilities between users and discourage new people from joining PatNet. We need new people.

Yes, you're probably right about that. Should also probably ban "fuck" and "cunt" in post titles. And have the nudie photos not visible unless user is logged in. Search engines ding me for that.

WookieMan says

I think if a comment is deleted there should still be a place marker there numerically as you currently have it, but with no content or maybe stating it was deleted.

Yes, this would make sense, and keep the numbering consistent in a thread. I could leave the "edit" option and if people want to delete a comment, could just edit it down to almost nothing. I think there has to be at least one character in the comment.

You can still edit a comment, but now delete should be gone.

Also:

* thunderdome threads are no longer special, and have the "ad hominem" link
* post with porn images will not be visible unless user is logged in
* you will not be able to create a post with "cunt" or "fuck" in the title

Hopefully these things will attract more users and cause search engines to look more favorably on patrick.net.

All politically incorrect speech is still allowed and encouraged. Just try to be civil to the other users when making your point.

jazz music says

Don't you use the [delete comment] feature in Facebook?

Seems like a basic feature to offer for so many good reasons.

Don't want to derail the original intention of this post. But the delete function in any forum or social media is complete garbage. Anyone supporting it probably has kids named Winston and are part of the Ministry of Truth all while enjoying a nice memory hole ;) If you have 2nd thoughts after posting something, maybe you're not intelligent enough to be posting on the internet? Whats the phrase, "think before you speak and/or type" from the late great Ed Roberts.

This is why facebook is trash. Grow some balls or don't post it. Just don't delete it.

You can quote anyone's comment to preserve it.

Of course you could have edited the quote, but people will catch on to that pretty fast.

WookieMan says

@Patrick what's the thought process behind allowing users to delete their comments? Obviously they can change comments with edit, but straight out deleting seems strange. If you don't like what you said, change it or comment that you may have fucked up.

There are legitimate reasons to delete a comment.
1. You accidentally posted a comment on the wrong thread and want to move it to the right thread.
2. You were posting a test comment, for example, to figure out how to set start and end times on video links.
3. You double posted.
4. You accidentally posted private information like a CC number or address or the wrong picture, say a naked picture of yourself when you meant to post a picture of your lunch.

If you changed your mind on a position, it's better to retract the post by editing it and adding "This post has been retracted. See [link].". That way you remain honest, get points for admitting your mistake, and can easily refute anyone who tries to use the retracted comment against you. Use of the strike tag is great for this as well.

Fixing grammatical and spelling errors is also a good use of edit.

Of course, deleting the content of a post can always be done with an edit, but if you're in the habit of doing that, you'd be better off thinking about your post for ten minutes before hitting the submit button.

Dan8267 says

There are legitimate reasons to delete a comment.

1. You accidentally posted a comment on the wrong thread and want to move it to the right thread.

2. You were posting a test comment, for example, to figure out how to set start and end times on video links.

3. You double posted.

4. You accidentally posted private information like a CC number or address or the wrong picture, say a naked picture of yourself when you meant to post a picture of your lunch.

#1 - Kind of agree. But perfection isn't realistic and that's what deleting does. So someone makes a mistake. On this forum edit it and say wrong place. I think the internet becomes more realistic when it becomes like the real world. Do you get to delete your mistakes at your job? Maybe in the coding, computing and IT world you can get away with that. Most jobs or relationships a mistake gets caught. You can get called out for it even if it's minor like wrong comment in a different thread if someone so chooses. 92% of people won't care, but the reality is no one is perfect. Delete can create the illusion of perfection but that person is a fucking clown like everyone else.
#2 - Not saying I know how to do this, but isn't there a better way to test the start time of a video on a post outside the forum?
#3 - Again, kind of agree. Though I estimate double posting is negligible on most sites. Most users would read the first sentence, maybe two and realize it was double posted and just scroll on past. Kind of like those memes or posts with all the words misspelled yet you still can easily read it. You see the double post and instantly move on.
#4 - Disagree here for the most part. If you're dumb enough to type CC info or your personal address into a random website that you don't trust, you deserve it in my opinion. In all likelihood your information was compromised a long time a ago and you just haven't checked your credit score. If you're keeping nude photos or videos of yourself or significant other on a device that is connected to the internet (at ANY time) you are likely a slight retard. Physical devices should be stored in a safe (DVDs, thumb drives, etc) and behind a locked door if you're gonna shoot them type of scenes. (I still don't trust it) But if you're in pinch, shoot in airplane mode and then transfer to a non-internet connected device (that ends up in a good safe).

Now on to the fact that someone could actually, accidentally post a nude photo of themselves. You do that, you're full blow retard and your primary physician should recommend a lobotomy.

Dan8267 says

If you changed your mind on a position, it's better to retract the post by editing it and adding "This post has been retracted. See [link].". That way you remain honest, get points for admitting your mistake, and can easily refute anyone who tries to use the retracted comment against you. Use of the strike tag is great for this as well.

Agree and that was kind of what I was getting at. I'm still of the opinion that the original should stay though (even though it can be edited). Goes back to no one being perfect. You speak something ridiculous in front of 10 close friends, they're going to remember it. You can't delete their memories... or can you Will Smith?

Dan8267 says

Fixing grammatical and spelling errors is also a good use of edit.

Agree. But in the end does it really matter. I'm sure I have grammatical errors above. When I catch them I'm like, "what the fuck happened to my Brian." It's the fucking internet, grammar was gone when it was invented.

Dan8267 says

Of course, deleting the content of a post can always be done with an edit, but if you're in the habit of doing that, you'd be better off thinking about your post for ten minutes before hitting the submit button.

And this is it right here. Thinks before you post (or speak). In daily communication it's much easier to withhold and refrain from jumping the shark. Just because the internet allows you to jump the shark with minimal consequences in most cases, doesn't mean you should do it.

WookieMan says

Do you get to delete your mistakes at your job?

Yes, for all jobs you can delete a mistake by correcting it unless the mistake is uncorrectable, but that's rare.

People are too hung up on mistakes. It's not bad to make a mistake, only to leave it uncorrected. Only the petty lord over every minor mistake a person makes.

The important thing is to not keep repeating mistakes. Learn from them.

WookieMan says

Delete can create the illusion of perfection

Does any person on this planet think that any other person is perfect? Well, maybe Taylor Swift, but I think for the most part we all know everyone is human.

Plus who cares about the person writing the post as long as that person isn't a troll. The message, not the messenger, is important.

PatNet is an anonymous site. There's no point to bragging or virtue signalling on it. It has zero effect on your real life.

WookieMan says

If you're dumb enough to type CC info or your personal address into a random website that you don't trust, you deserve it in my opinion.

None of us even deserve to exist. Why should any of us, or our species for that matter, be the ones to exist instead of others? No one earned the right to exist. We are all lucky accidents.

By the same token, why should someone be humiliated or punished for a trivial mistake? Where's the upside in that? Saying such a person deserves to be harmed in any way sounds rather vindictive. You should really be asking, what would make the world a better place.

WookieMan says

Not saying I know how to do this, but isn't there a better way to test the start time of a video on a post outside the forum?

Unfortunately, no. PatNet process the text in each post doing string substitution. Patrick does this to prevent injection attacks, cross-scripting attacks, and other things assholes like me do to harass trolls. Patrick put the YouTube processing in because I exploited a security hole that allowed me to redirect a certain troll's threads to a comedy goat porn site. Oh, the memories.

WookieMan says

Now on to the fact that someone could actually, accidentally post a nude photo of themselves. You do that, you're full blow retard and your primary physician should recommend a lobotomy.

Maybe so, but why do you feel compelled to harm such a person even through humiliation?

WookieMan says

Agree. But in the end does it really matter. I'm sure I have grammatical errors above. When I catch them I'm like, "what the fuck happened to my Brian." It's the fucking internet, grammar was gone when it was invented.

Sometimes a grammatical error can completely change the meaning of a sentence in a way that goes entirely against your intended meaning. Best to fix such problems immediately lest a discussion gets derailed on an irrelevant issue.

The important thing in any discussion is the ideas, not flawless serialization of those ideas in English text.

As long as people are being intellectually honest, little mistakes don't matter, but it still makes sense to correct them so that the conversation and debate can proceed as smoothly as possible. It helps both sides if the other side is clearly understood.

WookieMan says

Thinks before you post (or speak).

Not only think before you post, but also give yourself time to calm down if you are upset. Ask yourself, is it really worth the time and effort dealing with this shit?

Dan8267 says

being intellectually honest

I wish there were more of this. Not just here, but in the world.

Tribalism has become the fashionable substitute for politics.

Unfortunate, but true.

What is going on with all those one-liner newslink posts (@tovarichpeter and others) that have a cloud of mostly unrelated and irrelevant keywords below them? Apart from being an annoyance, it will make searching site:patrick.net difficult.

Example:

-------------------------------------------

California has a housing catastrophe

By tovarichpeter

(2) 7:50am today ad hominem 1 link 283 views 26 comments watch (0) quote

http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/erika-d-smith/article153899264.html
Placer Yolo Sports Sports Kings Kings Corner with Jason Jones NBA News 49ers with Matt Barrows Giants Oakland A's High School Sports Joe Davidson Ailene Voisin More Sports Raiders NFL News MLB News River Cats Soccer Colleges Golf Auto Racing Politics Politics Capitol Alert State Workers Local Elections PoliGRAPH State Worker Salary Database Legislative Gifts Dan Walters Dan Morain Investigations Investigations Data Tracker Public Eye Afghan Refugees Nursing Homes Opinion Opinion Editorials Viewpoints California Forum Letters to the Editor Submit a Letter Jack Ohman Columnists Dan Morain Shawn Hubler Foon Rhee Erika D. Smith Joyce Terhaar Editorial Board Entertainment Entertainment...

Also, what is up with some many posts (comments) being laid out like poem verses, with , say, 4 lines of text rather than a single paragraph? Is this by the site, by cellphones or by the posters themselves?

Most recent example:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Patrick.net is no longer a Free Speech forum.

By HEY YOU

3:56pm today ad hominem 7 views 0 comments watch (1) quote

The sensorship buck stops with Patrick.
How Snowflakey can people be?
"You cannot comment here because the post author has banned you."
https://patrick.net/1307155/2017-06-10-european-support-group-to-arm-eu-citizens

Good Bye!

justme says

The sensorship buck stops with Patrick.

How Snowflakey can people be?

"You cannot comment here because the post author has banned you."

Worst haiku ever!

Philistine says

Dan8267 says

being intellectually honest

I wish there were more of this. Not just here, but in the world.

Tribalism has become the fashionable substitute for politics.

Dan8267 says

Unfortunate, but true.

Case in point, the one who disliked the above post solely because I posted it. Now that's a fine example of intellectual dishonesty and tribalism.

justme says

What is going on with all those one-liner newslink posts (tovarichpeter and others) that have a cloud of mostly unrelated and irrelevant keywords below them? Apart from being an annoyance, it will make searching site:patrick.net difficult.

If someone posts a bare http link, my site attempts to extract some text from that page.

It does not work very well, mostly.

Dan8267 says

justme says

The sensorship buck stops with Patrick.


How Snowflakey can people be?


"You cannot comment here because the post author has banned you."

Worst haiku ever!

I cannot take credit for the "worst haiku ever". HEY YOU wrote that. But yeah, it crossed my mind that what looked like a new "poetry mode" formatting perhaps was repeated attempts at dropping 3 lines of haiku.

Enjoy your vacation @Patrick, but just wanted to bring up one thing that has been bothering me.

On or around 2017-03-31, Patnet succumbed to the "today" disease, which is when online commenting system start to follow the fad that posts should be labelled "today 3:29pm" rather than "Jun 13, 3:29pm", or even better, "2017-06-13 15:29".

I often save my comments in a file, and since March 31, it seems that all of them are from "today", whenever that might have been. I don't know if you agree but I though I'd put it out there. There must be a setting for this somewhere.

151   Dan8267   3019/3059 = 98% civil   3:36pm tommorrow  ↑ like   ↓ dislike   ad hominem   quote    

If your posts aren't labelled 3:29 p.m. tomorrow, then you're an asshole!

Stupid PatNet filtering inline styling, ruining the joke.

Joke received, looks ok to me.

I was going to displace the HTML I wrote in the post so as to cover the header produced by PatNet. Then you'd see one post header, not two. But PatNet had to filter out inline styling.

@Patrick, how about an "unfollow thread" feature that marks a thread unread by the user. Lots of time I read a thread, find it uninteresting and don't want to follow it, so I don't want the "new posts" icon to appear for it since that icon is most useful for continuing conversations that you are interested in.

Basically, let the user mark threads as unread like one does for email.

Thanks! Yes, some things are kinda abgefuckt, as they say in German, but that's the old php code.

The new version of the site is here:

http://node.patrick.net/

Not yet finished, but very close. I hope that users who know Javascript will read the source and submit patches to make the site better:

https://github.com/killelea/node.patrick.net

Interestingly, this very comment is being made via the new code and the bold text error is still there. So I propagated the problem by simply translating large swathes of php code to javascript, lol.

end bold

At least another person is realizing just how much PHP sucks.

Yes, thus the conversion to node.

OK, up next, ignore feature.

Patrick says

OK, up next, ignore feature.

Here's how to implement that feature.

On the home page
1. Actually deliver the content, but hide it in a div with display: none.
2. Show a link "Show N ignored messages".
3. If you click that link, set each ignored thread's div to display: block.

On a thread page
1. Again, deliver the content, but hide it in a div with display: none.
2. The reply index should not be affected. Even ignored posts get a post index.
3. Each ignore post should have a visible link like "index. [username] Show". For example, "23. Blue Sardine Show   Show All".
4. Clicking the "Show" link shows that post. Clicking the "Show All" link shows all posts for that user in the current thread.

Layout bug: When quoting someone, lots of line breaks are being added. See prior post.

Also, the "new post" bug when you post a reply is still there.

@Patrick, new bug.

1. Go to any thread.
2. Select text from a post.
3. Click the quote link.

The text inserted into the comment box reads "[username] says" where username is the name of the logged in user rather than the name of the user being quoted.

Dan8267 says

The text inserted into the comment box reads "[username] says" where username is the name of the logged in user rather than the name of the user being quoted.

You're right! Thanks for telling me.

OK, fixed now. Here is the fix:

https://github.com/killelea/node.patrick.net/commit/281f687970ecc34598d23c1018c07f25afb71253
One more problem I'm having: since moving from php to node, certain characters are not displaying correctly. I don't understand why, since I am using <meta charset='utf-8' /> in the html just like before.

Patrick says

One more problem I'm having: since moving from php to node, certain characters are not displaying correctly. I don't understand why, since I am using <meta charset='utf-8' /> in the html just like before.

Example? A guess: it may be that your font doesn't have glyphs for those characters.

Check out https://patrick.net/post/1309428/look-at-the-democrats-trying-to-weasel-out-of-their-confederate-heritage
Here are some of the characters that won't display properly:


Happens the same on multiple browsers.