The Head-Fi Healing Thread

It's also of an example with what's wrong over there. We have what should be an excellent thread, with behind-the-scenes looks at what happens at a company that most of us like, written by a man that knows (and an articulate guy to boot), and the signal to noise ratio plummets as a bunch of probably well-intentioned individuals bury it under an avalanche of shitposting.

That seems to be par for the course there. Someone starts a thread that should be good (and again, probably with the best of intentions) and several thousand posts later, the gems are firmly covered by the fertilizer.

Props to Jason for seeing that one coming and linking to his additions, but still...it's endemic, and it's annoying. I suppose that this is unavoidable when a forum gets to a certain size. Everyone and their extended family feels the need to chime in with an opinion, much like I've done here.

*Deep sigh.*

Anyone here remember Usenet? Things used to be so much simpler. The internet needs to have an entrance exam again.

 

I think these large communities should have an essay requirement. Just a little blurb about yourself, why you're there, and what you have to offer the community. Simple. Something short, like 250 words. Most people who only post nonsense can't be bothered to bullshit their way through it, but if you do have a good reason for being there, then it's easy to muster. If you can't manage that, something is wrong. With good oversight, it actually works pretty well ime. I was on an admin team that did that. Made our lives easier, everybody got along, discussions stayed focused. As a bonus, we never had to worry about spam bots We flourished for nearly 8 years that way. What ultimately killed us were outages and lack of funding.

Unanimously, the ones who would stick around and make good contributions beyond passed the essay test, while the wastes of space and future problem children barely made it. The essay just made it easier to identify them and later weed them out, if they weren't ousted by the community of people who really wanted to be there, first. And the ones that didn't pass... ...holy shit. I wish I had saved some of the essays that didn't pass. Prime specimens of toxic entities. People who would have otherwise slipped right in and been a disruption/distraction. Glad not to have had to deal with them later.

There at least needs to be some form of vetting. It's strange to me that everyone on most large forums has sort of an even footing when it comes to credibility. Makes it hard to separate the quality from the tripe and hinders meaningful conversation imo. A "like" or "karma" system isn't enough. Everyone knows that likes don't matter.

One thing that stood out to me about SBAF is that they actually have a dislike button AND a vetting process. And it clearly f'ing works! A like is easy to give, but a dislike says a lot more about intent and perception. You have to really stop and think about why you are giving/receiving one. A non-arbitrary hierarchy (rather than one based on likes/post count) is another good way to highlight people who are known for quality and/or close involvement with the community. I like it as sort of a loose-gripped way of directing people towards better behavior and keeping things a little tighter and more cohesive.

Everyone should be able to say what they want to when its appropriate, but this freedom of expression nonsense is ruining the internet. If everyone chimed in on everything at once, nobody would be heard. Some opinions are more valuable than others... ...better-informed, more focused, more intentful. Not everyone puts the same amount of effort and thought into what they say. I think it would be great if there was a way to better emphasize the voices that do.

Not everyone who has an opinion should say it or be given equal attention for it. Quite often, they're wasting their time and yours. Of course, there has to be a place for shitposting too - an outlet, but where it gathers is the difference between a place of meaningful discussion and a pile of shit with golden little glimmers. There needs to be a systematic way of separating things... ...one that people are intuitively drawn to adhere to.

I think many of the people who oversee internet communities don't do enough to control the SNR. Sometimes, it's just growth. If you don't start establishing a stable order/structure to modes of discussion early, it's hard to change the momentum later. You wind up with major contributors who operate in a way that undermines discussions and there just isn't a whole lot you can do about it without eviscerating the whole damned thing. Many things must be left to the community, but it is the staff's responsibility to create channels that enable participants to shape the backdrop in a way that is beneficial to everyone.

 

You said what I was thinking, but better than I thought it. Bravo.

 

hello,

do it!

 

So good to revisit these threads.

 

I might have to scratch my "Life after Yggdrasil?" thread entirely (I'd already pretty much decided on just continuing that over here). I really never opened my mind to the notion that the Fiio D3 was, in any way, a relevant alternative to Yggdrasil.

Clearly a missed opportunity on my part.

And, despite being the happy side of a bottle of Alexandria Nicole's Tempranillo (very nice, and certainly qualifying as wet-and-alcoholic, though I prefer Tempranillo in "proper" Riojas with rather stronger vanilla/oak undertones), and decidedly the wrong side of a couple* of Park's "Cognacs" that showed up on my bar at some point that I completely fail to recall (it was probably last Halloween, but I was the 4th Doctor then ... so who knows), that kind of muppetry is still beyond me.

I might be inappropriately inebriated.

And I am, more than likely, quite wantonly wankered.

But even in this state, and subject to an extreme level of keyboard-diarreha/incontinence, my mind is just not open enough to entertain that sort of comparison.

Probably time to stop talking/typing utter bollocks and make some tea; though that might involve a trip to casualty (the ER for you US types), as near-boiling water combined my coordination is long past the point where I'd dare braving queuing up an LP that wasn't of the "Donny Osmond" (possibly has more teeth than braincells) variety.

(*"Couple" is, for my purposes here, defined as any number >= 2. There were six in the sampler box. I can't find that now.)

 

. . Wow, it was worth going through this whole thread for just this particular entry! Now I just really want to know what "Judegate" is about? But to be fair, I have encountered a different approach (even though it was in 2002), where Jude revealed this:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/18185/diss...-basic-power-cord-photos-included#post_203202

 

. . Wow, it was worth going through this whole thread for just this particular entry! Now I just really want to know what "Judegate" is about? But to be fair, I have encountered a different approach (even though it was in 2002), where Jude revealed this:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/18185/diss...-basic-power-cord-photos-included#post_203202

 

Hah! You couldn't resist getting it's right!

 

Have...to... avoid...disliking....

 

Be my guest! Please... I'd be honoured!

 

You know, I enjoyed that blog. Why not start it up again over here?

 

I sincerely enjoyed your music lists as well and have discovered quite a few gems for which I am very grateful.

 

Yessss, I also loved discovering artists through your blog as well. It would be cool to read it here!