The Clan Lord Sentinel

One of the features that I miss from the newsgroup is the ability to kill articles from particular authors. Is there a way of implimenting this ability within this forum?

Phineas wrote:One of the features that I miss from the newsgroup is the ability to kill articles from particular authors. Is there a way of implimenting this ability within this forum?

I'd like this too. I could killfile all the people I agree with. It would save a tremendous amount of time spent reading stuff I already knew.

what is this all about? i don't understand. pls explain.

Cinnamon wrote:what is this all about? i don't understand. pls explain.

USENET clients allow a user to suppress articles (killing or using a killfile) in newsgroups based on filters, most commonly used to kill articles written by specific individuals. A user can do this in comp.sys.mac.games.adventure. In the version of phpBB used by the Sentinel (2.0.4)Ûa version that's outdated by 4 other releases of phpBBÛthe ability to kill articles is missing. I think article killing might be missing in v2.0.8, as well.



There are third party modifications available for article killing in phpBB. People report that they work very well. The Sentinel, being outdated and modified in other ways, might not be able to support this sort of modification. It would be a useful addition, nevertheless.

Slyph wrote: In the version of phpBB used by the Sentinel (2.0.4)Ûa version that's outdated by 4 other releases of phpBBÛthe ability to kill articles is missing.

Just a note: we know that the board software has more releases, but due to the vast changes that Ann made for this board, we've been slow to update because we'd have to reintroduce all of her changes into each new version.



But, if there's enough interest in killfiling (which I can only assume that it filters the php content on the fly), maybe it's time to consider those other versions.

Slyph wrote:

Cinnamon wrote:what is this all about? i don't understand. pls explain.

USENET clients allow a user to suppress articles (killing or using a killfile) in newsgroups based on filters, most commonly used to kill articles written by specific individuals.

Thanks! That's pretty cool, and I could see it being used if the group has a high proportion of jackasses or a BB having a broad topic base. I don't actually feel that way about this group, just one poster comes to mind. Wouldn't one run the risk of missing valid points and even being totally off base on a topic by filtering out people?

Cinnamon wrote:Thanks! That's pretty cool, and I could see it being used if the group has a high proportion of jackasses or a BB having a broad topic base. I don't actually feel that way about this group, just one poster comes to mind. Wouldn't one run the risk of missing valid points and even being totally off base on a topic by filtering out people?

Sometimes I'd see a response to someone that I had killfiled, but most often I'd read something that was merely a tirade against the killfiled author. Some threads were breifly confusing because of a killfile, but it's not that disruptive. I think people tend to killfile few individuals in newsgroups, but do killfile whole groups of persons: when comp.sys.mac.games.adventure was much more popular, even with non-CL people, readers routinely killfiled all articles beginning with "CL:"Ûperfectly apt for the sort of broad topical forum you mentioned above.



But even if there are no authors that persons wish to killfile in this forum, author filtering is important. It's the foil to the heavy-handed moderator that must step in (too slowly or too quicklyÛand always reluctantly) to repair a situation when someone does start causing problems. The absence of author filtering lends to the likelihood of future censorship.



I'm aware that the persons running this forum might consider it to be private and not public. Author filtering at the user's level is good for any online community.

Slyph wrote:Author filtering at the user's level is good for any online community.

Not necessarily. Some admins I know (admittedly in more heavily moderated communities, where you can get kicked out for being too much of a jerk) are of the opinion that people should be mature enough to simply ignore the posts of people they don't like, or perhaps be a bit more tolerant.



I still think it would be a good idea here, but that's not necessarily universally true.