New Forum Software

[Baron Fritz]

I noticed that the topic "what happened to this website" has mysteriously disappeared, along with all the posts it contained. I read that it may have been moved to this topic, however, as none of those posts are visible, I suspect they have simply been "accidentally" deleted. I hope that a knowledgeable administrator will come forth and explain why this is so.  You must forgive my suspicions for thinking that way, I come from a large country in which it is becoming increasingly common to suppress dissenting opinions. I remain optimistic that the bugs will be ironed out .... eventually. On the topic of "bugs", I am not able to see more than two visitors to my profile even though the counter indicates that there have been over one hundred! I am not planning to harass anyone or do any spamming, just curious. I am confident this issue will be addressed soon. 

On a side note, I received an interesting email from Fly Away Simulation, very likely anyone who has subscribed to their newsletter has also received it, recruiting freeware MSFS Mod/Add-on developers to upload to their site. It seems that they are making a push to attract disgruntled developers from other sites to theirs. Some folks may find it interesting reading, food for thought anyway.

[defaid]

9 hours ago, Baron Fritz said:

I noticed that the topic "what happened to this website" has mysteriously disappeared, along with all the posts it contained.

 

I was casually following the topic and I suspect some comments may have got a bit out of hand.

 

Apparently I don't now have permission to view the topic, and my posts in that thread have also disappeared from my profile. I couldn't replace a foul-language screenshot in one of them; deleting the entire thread seems a bit overkill 

 

(Actually, I ended up deleting the whole post and recreating it using a censored version of the screenie).

 

I guess that the thread is still there but now only visible to admin. A more informative "You can't... " notice would be a good idea.

 

D

[jgf]

No idea what happened to that thread.  Yesterday I had a notice that someone had quoted me there, but when I tried to go there got a "Sorry, you do not have permission to view..." message.

10 hours ago, Baron Fritz said:

suppress dissenting opinions

If the new owners feel a need to do this, I feel a need to longer be a member.

[daspinall]

Seems to me it's giving the same message, I translated it to Thread Closed... Just give them time to fine-tune everything......

[Adrian K]

2 hours ago, defaid said:

 

I was casually following the topic and I suspect some comments may have got a bit out of hand.

 

 

That is correct. Many comments were off-topic and inappropriate. The thread was essentially a duplicate of this one and posted in an incorrect location. ( fs2004 forum) We would prefer to consolidate and have people continue commenting here.

[mrzippy]

Pretty much what I thought and said here:

Basically a duplicate thread and ADMIN decided to close it.  No big deal.  It was in the wrong forum to boot!

[Baron Fritz]

...... I believe that a vigorous, rational discourse should be allowed to flourish. This is essential to maintain a healthy forum and, ultimately, the website. It would not hurt to allow people to drift a little off-topic or crank up the volume now and then. As for the inappropriateness of some of the comments, we must rely on the discretion of the poster to keep a lid on things, keeping in mind that this is a "family show".

[mrzippy]

@Baron Fritz  Read the Forum Rules...especially rule 11.

[ViperPilot2]

All I want to know is what happened to the roughly 2,000 posts I was credited for in the 13 years I've been a Member of this Site? Everybody else got to keep theirs...

[lnuss]

1 hour ago, ViperPilot2 said:

All I want to know is what happened to the roughly 2,000 posts I was credited for in the 13 years I've been a Member of this Site? Everybody else got to keep theirs...

Nope- not everybody, perhaps nobody. Although I currently show a couple of thousand, I had several thousand more before the switch. I'm pretty sure many others lost a chunk too, including Nels. But a lot of other stuff apparently disappeared too, including lots of stuff in the FS98 archives and in some other sections where there were a lot of answers to fairly early questions (including FS98 and real aviation) of which there is now no sign, and many of those answers would still apply today.

 

I'm not overly concerned about it, but don't want you to think that it was just you that lost something.

[jgf]

1 hour ago, ViperPilot2 said:

All I want to know is what happened to the roughly 2,000 posts I was credited for in the 13 years I've been a Member of this Site? Everybody else got to keep theirs...

 

Same here, I'm currently showing about half the pre-sale total.

[Baron Fritz]

so .... free speech is what "somebody else" says it is. By some remarkable coincidence, I have a fair amount of experience in that area.

Thanks for pointing that out Zippy!

[mrzippy]

20 minutes ago, jgf said:

 

Same here, I'm currently showing about half the pre-sale total.

Same!  Missing several thousand !  @Baron Fritz all of the flightsim forum sites state that in their rules section.  This is considered a "benevolent dictatorship".

[daspinall]

16 minutes ago, Baron Fritz said:

so .... free speech is what "somebody else" says it is. By some remarkable coincidence, I have a fair amount of experience in that area.

Thanks for pointing that out Zippy!

Me too...... My ex used to say "Choose your next words carefully" with a deadly look lol  

[ViperPilot2]

Thanks for the Replies! Looks like the folks whom I thought hadn't lost any did indeed lose some!

 

I was just curious about why those posts were 'deleted' in the first place; a number of them were Screenshots so I guess I shouldn't be surprised... fair enough. 

[lnuss]

1 hour ago, Baron Fritz said:

so .... free speech is what "somebody else" says it is. By some remarkable coincidence, I have a fair amount of experience in that area.

Thanks for pointing that out Zippy!

You might note that the "free speech" section of  the U.S. constitution describes what the government may or may not do or control about our speech, and does not require that anybody is allowed to say anything they want any time and any place -- that would mean chaos or worse. But it does strongly restrict what rules the government may put into effect concerning speech. Of course yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theater isn't allowed, for obvious reasons.

 

So consider that this forum (and the many other places with various restrictions) are private spaces whose speech restrictions are not governed by our constitution, though there are laws that have certain effects.

 

In point of fact, certain kinds of comments could get the forum in trouble with the government (hate speech, etc.). In addition, the forum owners want to keep this area civil and, for the most part, related to aviation in some way, so they have put a few basic rules into place. And please note that this forum's rules do NOT dictate what you may do or say in any other case than here on the forum (their private property), so please don't equate it with what happens from restrictive governments -- 'taint the same, not even close.

 

I better stop now, but I just don't want you confused about the subject.

[Baron Fritz]

Whoa....that certainly inspired a lively discourse! Things seems to be on the verge of spiralling off the deep end, which is well beyond what I had anticipated, even some politics found their way into the picture. Interesting just the same though.

[oglitsch]

When I click on an entry in the list of threads in a forum, I am automatically directed to the latest post. Can I set somewhere that I automatically go to the first entry? I actually always like to read the starting point of the discussion first.

[mrzippy]

1 hour ago, oglitsch said:

When I click on an entry in the list of threads in a forum, I am automatically directed to the latest post. Can I set somewhere that I automatically go to the first entry? I actually always like to read the starting point of the discussion first.

From what I can see, it should take you to the first "Unread by you" post in that topic/thread.  I would think if you have been following a thread for some time, you wouldn't need to start at the first post and re-read all they way through again.

[oglitsch]

I checked again and sure enough, you are right.

[johnhinson]

SUGGESTION:

When you view a list of the latest posts in any forum section, the title of any unread post is slightly bolder than it would be otherwise. On my screen (maybe others see it differently) the difference is barely discernible.

 

Would it be possible to highlight unread posts using a different colour, or maybe using a "New" icon of some sort alongside? Nothing dazzling or tacky required, just maybe dark blue text or a little red dot.

Best regards,

 

John

[PhrogPhlyer]

5 hours ago, johnhinson said:

Would it be possible to highlight unread posts using a different colour, or maybe using a "New" icon of some sort alongside? Nothing dazzling or tacky required, just maybe dark blue text or a little red dot.

I do like the idea of having higher visibility of new posts. I start each day pointing to the Activities tab at the upper right of the FlightSim page. Then I select Unread Content and peruse all the comments. When finished reading everything I wish to, I go to the bottom right of the page and click on √ Mark site read to clear any I did not wish to read.

[sfgarland]

Thanks for pointing the "activities" tab out.  I had not noticed it.

[PhrogPhlyer]

Happy to be of assistance.  

[MSgt]

Well, I guess it's time to go. I have been a member since 1996 or so, and used to come here every day. Now, this is the first time I've been here in a month or so. Sorry, Nels, but IMHO you have completely ruined the site and I probably won't be back. I'm sure no one out there really cares, but I thought you should know.

 

Thanks for the memories, though.