I'll give you a few of my thoughts.

I do like to review the shouts in the evening, up to 15 pages isn't to bad but when it gets up to 40 or 50 pages I think that is a bit much.

On the other hand who cares if it runs up to 100 pages.

Why is this an issue at all?

Well, now I don't even know why I started this thread, I just figured out I don't really care what happens in the shoutbox.

riiight. uh huh. I have an idea but..........





I do find it annoying to have a question I've asked in the shout box disappear in like 2 seconds, because some members insist on saying hello to every member listed I think that sort of thing could be done in Comment section of members profiles.

I really don't spend that much time using the shoutbox, and I really don't care how many pages anyone uses in it. I just thought it was amusing that I am not allowed to use emoticons there while others are allowed to swear a blue streak in the shoutbox. Also....it never ceases to amaze me when large numbers of humans are taught one "truth", and never, during their lives, come across evidence that this "truth" might be in error. One person comes along and presents the large number of humans either with evidence that their "truth" has flaws or that their "truth" is not really a "truth". That person, then, becomes an anathema of sorts and is attacked. I tend to have some ideas that stray from the beaten path, and it is my opinion that I was banned from the shoutbox for using emoticons because I do not agree with the mainstream every single time I express a thought or opinion on this board. Otherwise, it seems that I would have been sent a message from the mods about why I was banned from the shoutbox. Is this becoming a theme around here? If it were the Herald Conservative Monitor, or the Herald Christian Times, and not the Herald Mail, I could see the outcry to my and a couple of others' comments, but news is news, and I am not aware of any requirement of the news, or comments therof, to conform to the mainstream viewpoint of what reality "should" be.

Siriunsun - You got a time out in the shoutbox for dominating it for so long, not for you views on any subject. I find your beliefs and views interesting. Nothing wrong with believing whatever you want. Takes a strong person not to follow along.

Maybe it's just me, but to me the shoutbox looks just like a chatroom. Apparently it is not to be used for free-flowing chat, but if not then I just don't get what purpose it really serves.

If it's going to become a place where some obtuse set of rules are going to be imposed and enforced to the point where it annoys the heck out of everyone, then IMO just get rid of it in favor of a real chatroom.

We have a real chatroom, BMIC. It's just that no one goes in there. I can probably speculate some good reasons why no one would want to go in there, but that would involve saying things on this forum that are not nice about a few of the other posters, and no one has actually provoked me recently. A couple of things came up not too long ago about either mistaken identites or "stolen" identities in the chat room, and made this made quite a few people upset. Perhaps if one were forced to use the same online nic in the chat room that one uses for posting on the forum, this prob would resolve itself, but that has not happened.

Seems to me if it were a chatroom for this site it should use the same login name and password as the forums - in fact they should be integrated. Instead, it sounds like they grabbed a cheap independent chat provider and just let everyone sign in as whomever they want.

I still don't get what use the shoutbox has if not as (basically) a chat. If they can set up a real chatroom and let people use it, then why should there be issues with how the shoutbox is used?

Just seem to be much ado about nothing.

It is good for asking short quick questions. Why should the Mods need to read it anyway?? Are they looking for an excuse to boot someone? If your not a member you can`t read it anyway.

It serves as an actual chat for one or two people on this board. And if one of those individuals, and I will not name this online entity in this post, happens to be parked in the shoutbox, no one else will even get a word in edgewise. The day several of us (I think it was only several) actually used it enough to get suspended from it, the individual who parks in it all the time was either not present or not responding to us.

Yes; the chat room SHOULD be integrated with the website in order to preserve our online nics. Since some online personalities are immature enough to impersonate others (what kind of head games would these people play in person?....Siriunsun shudders to think about it!) it would seem to be in order to insist that everyone log in with the same nic they use for posting comments.

A quick explanation here, without naming names.

One of our members expressed their frustration with one of our other members who is known for their hogging the shoutbox. The frustrated member uttered the "f" word in the shout. There were no mods signed in at the time to see the offending language.

Shout went on and on for pages. And none of the moderators ever went back to review the shouts, since, at that time, shout was pretty much wide open and not always moderated.

Then another member called the moderators to task for not handling the poster who uttered the "F" word. It took the moderators some time to wade thru the pages and pages of shouts to find the offending post and delete it. The reporting member was relentless in their demands that something be done about the language and the member.

In order to keep such an incident from happening again, the moderators have chosen to enact certain limitations on the use of the shoutbox, thus the inclusion now in the Guidelines.

None of the mods/admins are here 100% of the time, and something is bound to slip past our notice.

As far as the current chat, it was linked here as a temporary measure until such time as the Herald-Mail IT person has time to include a "real" chat with authentication based on your registered forum username.

I never envisioned people using bogus or counterfeit names in the chat (though on hindsight, I probably should have figured that would happen).

The compressed version of all of that?

Don't blame us. It's never our fault.

Yep. It's all MY fault.




apparently







DRAGON strikes again

How's it all YOUR fault, Dragon? I thought it was all Siriunsun's fault! Everywhere else Siri goes......it's always her fault, no matter what it is........Geesh! Siri uses the wrong metaphor or figure of speech and suddenly it's her fault when the crops fail! Siri points out a flaw in someone's logic, either in person or online, and the entire political situations become her fault.........naw....it can't possibly be ALL be the Dragon's fault!

Now, now ladies, we all know it is my fault, I'm the one who would actually like to see the mods do their job, and to dole out punishment equally.

Oh.........................................I forgot to add.....if Siriunsun uses the wrong metaphor, it becomes a threat...................(that was precious!)

What kind of punishment would you like to dole out?

I don't care, I just want equal treatment.

As an example one user was banned for a year for deleting a thread, yet another user is still, to the best of my knowledge still hear even though this memeber did the same.

Ok, ok. Equal treatment.

So, you want Idiot banned? Isn't he the one who periodically deletes some of his replies?

Or do you just want the members banned that you don't like?

You did a good job with bentcorner... who's next on your hit list?

Psst, you are talking in your wrong voice.

I did not get Bentcorner banned, unless you, Yossarian, know something I, or the rest of the members don't.

Are you sure that's why Bent was banned? I don't think he even knew how to delete a thread, or else why didn't he do it instead of just changing his first comment and thread title to "."?

And btw, if it's against the rules to delete posts and/or threads why isn't it stated in the guidelines? And why do we even have the ability to do so?

I don't get it.

I've got some stupid firewall at work that won't let me access anything "chat". I use the ShoutBox as a chat when I'm @ HM. Yeah, I know it's against the HM guidelines, and I also know that I KNOWINGLY abuse it.

Leave it alone, let us chat there. JMHO.