Okay, Okay, Okay....

[Surfah]

I don't have a favorite in particular but I walked past this:



Every day on my way to class when I was in art school.

I like the 5 Hour Energy Shot in the pic. Subtle marketing?

[Rosebud]

the one where she schooled you.

obviously

[Coach McGuirk]

I would have preferred to know about SE from the moment I set up my account. The information would have changed the way I interacted on the board. It's pretty unfair, IMO, to have a club that secretly exists and talks about new people without their awareness.

Why is this? Were you not yourself when you joined and you would have been. Or were you yourself and you would have put on airs to gain access? I find that statement curious.

[Babs]

I don't have any problem with clubs. I have a problem with secret clubs that have unjust election policies and a tendency to exclude people for arbitrary reasons. IMO, having an exclusive place away from lurkers has the potential to be valuable.

I also think there are valid reasons for members to want to exclude people who haven't earned their trust. I can't really see how you can keep up any fair way of determining who is and isn't to be trusted once the club reaches the size of the SE, though. I'm guessing it's pretty dang impossible to have an election process (for the purpose of keeping out the untrusted) that doesn't run into the problem of members holding grudges and using the exclusivity of the club as a power card.

***

I would have preferred to know about SE from the moment I set up my account. The information would have changed the way I interacted on the board. It's pretty unfair, IMO, to have a club that secretly exists and talks about new people without their awareness.

the club (if you will) is not a secret. It's listed, along with admissions criteria and all the participating members, under the community section.

You say that you don't care about it, and that's fine. But if hypothetically you did care, I would hypothetically tell you that:

Your observations are not unprecendented. Changes to the crypt/SE system have been proposed continually for a couple of years now. Several more prominent posters have always held that the system is ineffective and somewhat juvenile.

For a long time there was overwhelming resistance to any suggestion of change. But as the forum has grown to include nearly every regular user of the board, even the most committed of the SE-defenders have begun to concede that it no longer serves its original purpose, and that so much fuss over admission is hardly warranted.

I would not be surprised if the system is overhauled in the near future. I also wouldn't be surprised if it isn't. But several of the moderators have been proponents of automatic entry criteria since the founding of the board. And if admission to a new "crypt" is based solely on number and frequency of posts, you may be included whether you like it or not.

(note that I'm not an official voice of the board here)

[Babs]

obviously

exactly. straightforward inference.

[tooblue]

I like the 5 Hour Energy Shot in the pic. Subtle marketing?

I was trying to figure out what it was -- the statue is only steps from China town and I thought maybe it was something from one of that various markets or curio shops.

[Surfah]

I was trying to figure out what it was -- the statue is only steps from China town and I thought maybe it was something from one of that various markets or curio shops.

I'm pretty sure that's what it is.

[Rosebud]

I don't have a favorite in particular but I walked past this:



Every day on my way to class when I was in art school.

Lucky. What do you think of this one?





It's exhibited next to a funky computer animation of the thing walking around and changing which four limbs support it.

[tooblue]

Lucky. What do you think of this one?





It's exhibited next to a funky computer animation of the thing walking around and changing which four limbs support it.

I'd want to see it in person and truth be told I'd likely be more interested in the animation -- is it on the wall in the second pic? How does the animation play? Is it a projection or ...?

For my first year MFA thesis I've been working on a sculpture of sorts. Eventually (later this month) I will post a link to a Web site chronicling my work.

[All-American]

I don't have any problem with clubs. I have a problem with secret clubs that have unjust election policies and a tendency to exclude people for arbitrary reasons. IMO, having an exclusive place away from lurkers has the potential to be valuable.

I also think there are valid reasons for members to want to exclude people who haven't earned their trust. I can't really see how you can keep up any fair way of determining who is and isn't to be trusted once the club reaches the size of the SE, though. I'm guessing it's pretty dang impossible to have an election process (for the purpose of keeping out the untrusted) that doesn't run into the problem of members holding grudges and using the exclusivity of the club as a power card.

***

I would have preferred to know about SE from the moment I set up my account. The information would have changed the way I interacted on the board. It's pretty unfair, IMO, to have a club that secretly exists and talks about new people without their awareness.

I do not have a club. Maybe I should look into it.....

Just for those of you who read posts like this and think that Rosebud does actually care about being excluded . . . she doesn't. Really, she doesn't.

[Pheidippides]

I don't have any problem with clubs. I have a problem with secret clubs that have unjust election policies and a tendency to exclude people for arbitrary reasons. IMO, having an exclusive place away from lurkers has the potential to be valuable.

I also think there are valid reasons for members to want to exclude people who haven't earned their trust. I can't really see how you can keep up any fair way of determining who is and isn't to be trusted once the club reaches the size of the SE, though. I'm guessing it's pretty dang impossible to have an election process (for the purpose of keeping out the untrusted) that doesn't run into the problem of members holding grudges and using the exclusivity of the club as a power card.

***

I would have preferred to know about SE from the moment I set up my account. The information would have changed the way I interacted on the board. It's pretty unfair, IMO, to have a club that secretly exists and talks about new people without their awareness.

I do not have a club. Maybe I should look into it.....

I have two things to say:

1. Seriously? It's a bleeping privately owned internet message board, and one that isn't even a pimple on the bloated ass of the internet. I suggest a bit more ambition with your battles against inequity. I hear there's a group that gets together at Augusta National every year - maybe you should look into that.

2. My views on the SE are such that I almost never vote no. I can only think of two instances where I have done so. I otherwise vote yes or abstain. You, however, are one of those two instances, and the reason why is not because I dislike you or think you'd ruin things or because I disagree with you on issues or anything like that (I dislike very few people in life, and disagree with people I like all the time). It is because I do not know you outside of your limited world of pet issues and griping about the perceived inequality of the SE, and you therefore haven't made the transition from "internet caricature" to "person I know online" yet.

3. Okay, I lied, I have three - you may want to check wuap's posts for secret text. Also, if you doubt my sincerity or think me malicious in saying the above, I think wuap is the best person to talk to about it.

[tooblue]

Just for those of you who read posts like this and think that Rosebud does actually care about being excluded . . . she doesn't. Really, she doesn't.

The more you sarcastically insist that she doesn't care about being excluded the more you demonstrate you really care about how you and the Speakeasy is perceived. Why? Why be so territorial?

[All-American]

The more you sarcastically insist that she doesn't care about being excluded the more you demonstrate you really care about how you and the Speakeasy is perceived. Why? Why be so territorial?

Oh, it has little to do with territory. The decision over who gets in our territory doesn't take place here.

[Babs]

The more you sarcastically insist that she doesn't care about being excluded the more you demonstrate you really care about how you and the Speakeasy is perceived. Why? Why be so territorial?

All-American?? um, hardly. nice try, though.

[tooblue]

Oh, it has little to do with territory. The decision over who gets in our territory doesn't take place here.

Exactly