patrick.net

What is the value in the usernames?

To maintain a clear mental record of what you said to whom. Maybe it's not really necessary.

Let's see what happens if I de-emphasize individual users by not showing their icons for a while.

OK, icons and civility scores are gone for the moment. Would be easy enough to put them back.

To maintain a clear mental record of what you said to whom.

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

Never thought of that aspect, but then again, I'm an honest person, so I can just recall from memory

Hell, while I'm at it, I'm going to replace usernames by their user_id in the database. So all comments will just come from a number. You can still click the number to see the username.

Don't worry, it's not permanent. Just trying it out.

What do you think? Does it make discussions more about the topics and less likely to devolve into personal attacks?

@errc opinion?

I like the new experiment. Lets see if people get as triggered by Posts made by people they don't know who it is from.

I bet common sense prevails.

rando says

@errc opinion?

I like the idea, but it'll depend on what your users are looking for when they come to your site.

What do you want of the site?

P.S I'm Patrick

errc says

What do you want of the site?

Here are some goals for the site:

* to give people an anonymous place to express their real opinion, unlike Facebook
* to push the boundaries of acceptable discussion, but in a civil manner
* to learn things from other people about housing, politics, investing
* to get feedback about random ideas I have
* to get to know some new and interesting people that I may want to meet up with for a beer someday

Patrick says

End of Thunderdome

By 1

1 has spoken. 1 is the law. I am number 6.

www.youtube.com/embed/d0LaT6qVRpg

@1, I think you're passing your identity(1,1) userId column, not the username to the page.

I created the database, and the user_id field is auto-increment:

| user_id | bigint(20) unsigned | PRI | auto_increment |

It starts from 1.

So you can tell how long a user has been registered by the number.

Excellent! Now I understand Dan8267's name.

I like it

1.) read comment
2.) click on user number to reveal their alias, so I know if I can agree or disagree with them, based on previous history of being a got dam librul, or an unquestioning Real American Christian

But that extra bit of work is the important thing.

Will people bother to click to find the identity of the commenter and respond to that, or will they just respond to the point?

If the latter, this will be a great success.

rando says

But that extra bit of work is the important thing.

Will people bother to click to find the identity of the commenter and respond to that, or will they just respond to the point?

If the latter, this will be a great success.

Good luck!

Thanks for all the work over the years, 1.

Patrick says

Topics like this which are extremely, offensively, gratuitously nasty are a turn-off to your website. AF does this way too much as well.

AF posts are just jokes. It's the nasty threads and posts of trolls that turn people off. And yes, there is too much petty trolling and too little productive conversation on this site today. Before it became a political forum, conversations were better.

The question is can you have a political forum open to the public without trolls ruining it? Probably not. To have civilized conversations you need to keep trolls out because anonymity attracts them and makes them behave worse than they would dare to do so in public.

rando says

Excellent! Now I understand Dan8267's name.

It must have been auto-suggested. I forgot the details. I remember trying to register just Dan, but it was taken.

Dan8267 says

To have civilized conversations you need to keep trolls out

Let's use the "uncivil" link for that. (formerly named the ad hominem link, still works the same, puts a comment in comment jail)

You know, just displaying the user ID might make PatNet better since the trolls won't know who to act like an ass to and who's their butt buddies. Maybe it would make things more civilized if all posts were written without identifying who the author is, forcing people to deal with the content of the post rather than the author.

Of course, you could tell who wrote certain things by their writing styles or political positions unless the author masked those things.

Dan8267 says

Maybe it would make things more civilized if all posts were written without identifying who the author is, forcing people to deal with the content of the post rather than the author.

Yes, that could make another interesting experiment.

rando says

Yes, that could make another interesting experiment.

Maybe open a sister site or subsite of PatNet to try that out.

Yes, I do have plans for sub-sites.

What should drive people away are White Male Republican & Democrat voters.
They've had more than their share of bringing America to the place where she is now &
they've done a great job.

Next thread should be titled "FUCK Ds & Rs" but snowflakes don't like inappropriate language.
So fuck them too!

I want to know who got the user ID 1488. Was it zzyzzx? I bet it was zzyzzx? If it wasn't, he should be assigned that number.

I wish I had the user ID 69.

FUCK every # but 44.
How you like your number?

@1, you could also run posts through Google translate and back into English to hide writing styles.

Not sorry to see the end of Thunderdome. I mostly avoided those lately as the discussion was stupid.
Also, not sorry to see retarded disgusting posts get yoinked.
Good job, Patrick.
I don't complain much, just when I sense a great problem with the site.

Not sure I like the numbers thing, but as an experiment it might serve a purpose. I think most posters were willing to give each other a read even if known to be diametrically opposed on ideological grounds.

FUCK every # but 47.
How you like your number?

FUCK every # but 50.
How you like your number?

This number game is fun!

I'm going to change my avatar to so that everyone thinks I'm Patrick.

This is like being at a costume party where everyone is wearing masks.

The new PatNet...

Pretty much same as the old PatNet, really.

Dan8267 says

I want to know who got the user ID 1488. Was it zzyzzx? I bet it was zzyzzx? If it wasn't, he should be assigned that number.

You can tell by using the comments.php page:

https://patrick.net/comments.php?a=1

Looks like 1488 was deleted, probably a spammer.

rando says

Here are some goals for the site:

* to give people an anonymous place to express their real opinion, unlike Facebook
Succeeds

* to push the boundaries of acceptable discussion, but in a civil manner
Fails epically

* to learn things from other people about housing, politics, investing
Partial success, but success rate is diminishing due to trolling

* to get feedback about random ideas I have
Succeeds

* to get to know some new and interesting people that I may want to meet up with for a beer someday
Succeeds

Number 17402 is talking shit about number 31097. You going to take that?

User 69 is Ben69 as in Ben Dover.

I've invented a new game. Whenever someone opens a thread or posts, I try to guess the user by the content. It's actually easier than you would think.

Dan8267 says

Then you mark the post that reveals your lie as an ad hom

No, it's you who lied: I didn't mark any posts today. Ask @1.

PS. Despite clear message sent by Patrick some users insist on keeping up the shit which forced him to do the change in the first place.

Hmmm, a one-off username per thread?

That could also cut down on hostility a bit.

Yes. Gives one a chance to promote their view before promoting their views...

rando says

Hmmm, a one-off username per thread?

That could also cut down on hostility a bit.

I always love triggered confirmation posts...

Dan8267 says

As a bonus, I suspect that FortWayne and BlueSardine will find love with each other under the fake names. PatNet wedding, anybody?

Patrick is like Tommy Lee Jones in MIB and we're like the universe in his locker. He's just trying to keep us from blowing ourselves up.