Making it Better: The future of WP

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Such as by referring to them as racists without evidence?

I wouldn't want to get into the full meat of Amity's post, and for the record I do feel that the assertion that Alex has 'abandoned us' is a bit over the top. But just to concentrate on a specific issue, the whole business of contacting the 'admin' and getting anything done can be something of a nightmare.

As an example, a few years ago there was a potentially major security issue, with the private email addresses of members (often revealing their full names) appearing sometimes in the information beneath their avatars to the left of the posting box. I was sufficiently concerned by this to try to change the email address registered with WP to a new one that was more 'impersonal'. It proved very difficult to do this, so I tried to contact the 'admin' to find out what to do.

I had more or less taken it for granted that WP would by default have a group of people who could sort out such matters without any drama (a 'help desk', if you like), but it turned out that there's no such group, and that this was not a function of the moderators either. After a good deal more digging around, I discovered that Alex Plank appears to be the sole 'Administrator' (or is the official title 'Developer'?), so I contacted him by PM to explain my issue. No reply, which was a bit of a surprise to me at the time, though it became very clear over time that this was an entirely typical experience (I think I PMed Alex on another occasion with the same result). Anyway the issue wasn't solved, because a few months later I got an official email from WP, which was delivered to my old email address (ironically, the email technically came from ''Alex'). I went on trying to change my registered email address, and eventually managed to do so. No way of checking whether this is actually now my official registered email address, as I haven't had an email communication from WP for at least 3 or 4 years.

Maybe some members might regard this example as a rather trivial and technical matter, but my basic point is that there ought to be a panel of 'administrators' here (whose duties need not include moderating), who have the tools to sort out the difficulties faced by members in a fuss-free and straightforward way. As things stand, we are faced with the options of a PM to Alex, or posting in the 'Wrongplanet Discussion' forum, in the hope that a friendly moderator or fellow member can sort things out: sometimes they can, sometimes they can't.

Last edited by DeepHour on 25 Aug 2020, 6:41 am, edited 1 time in total.

One of the requests from the mods has been for alex to elevate an existing mod to admin to eliminate this problem.

Boycott PPR.
I did/have.
Simples.

Let the left have its "Echo chamber".

I have a case because I was misrepresented by a repeat offender in PPR.
Not long after, due to this problem not being addressed, I simply left that forum.
Problem fixed.

Last edited by Pepe on 25 Aug 2020, 6:09 am, edited 1 time in total.

I'd be willing to bet plenty of lefties don't want PPR to be an echo chamber. Everyone loses.

How about "all liberals love Stalin"? Or maybe "All the Jews want genocide on Arabs"? "All men are agressive"? "All women are gold diggers?" "All left-wingers are hypocritical"? "All centrists are spineless"?

Last edited by magz on 25 Aug 2020, 6:16 am, edited 1 time in total.

On an even more technical point than the one raised in my previous post by the way, I just tried to edit that post by removing a SINGLE LETTER to correct a spelling error, and the Captcha device appeared, forced me to resubmit the entire post, then came up with some sort of error message about the server not being able to understand the request. LOL.

Maybe the admin should look into this matter as well, though it's been an issue in various forms for well over half a decade.

All progressives are sanctimonious, self-righteous virtue signallers.

Doesn't back-spacing a couple of times fix the problem?

"All BLM protesters want to just demolish and loot"? <- I strongly disagree with that one but I'm asking about boundaries of the acceptable.

Yes, hitting the "back 1 page" button in browser twice returns you to your post as it was when you hit preview\submit, so you can edit and resubmit.

Captcha generally won't reappear on your next submission attempt.

All progressives are regressives.

All Muslims are terrorists just waiting for the right moment to strike...

All Christians are sanctimonious, weak-minded, meek sheep...

All atheists are mindless druggies and alcoholics with no moral character...

Let no group be left out! Inclusivity!

How about a less controversial example, potentially more illustrative of the problem, as seen by certain NT's:

"All Autistic people are _____"
(I'll leave this blank, as I'm sure people can think of words that others have seen\heard).

I'm sure people have come across some variant of this (either aimed at them, or at those on the spectrum as a group) and know how it made them feel: That's how centrists or those who may agree with the right of politics are treated here on a continual basis, and have been for many months - Simply replace "Autistic people" with "conservative", or "right wing" (or some related term), apply the pejorative of choice (with no explanation for the reason or justification for the statement, either when having the "description" applied, or when asked for an explanation as to why they were labelled in such a way), and you'll see why members have been leaving, or are very close to doing so.

And who, seeing that sort of treatment applied to a member, whose post they may see and agree with, would want to sign up and become a member here?