A New Bathroom Wall

Posted 4 April 2008 by Reed A. Cartwright

We're experimenting with a new Bathroom Wall that is hosted directly on PT instead on our forums. (Like the old days.) This BW also serves to torture test the new comment paneling layout that I wrote using jQuery and Ajax. Eventually, comment preview and submission will also use Ajax. The Bathroom Wall Yes, I know the green color doesn't look right, but that's the jQuery UI default, and I haven't had time to adapt it to our site.

17 Comments

Ravilyn Sanders · 4 April 2008

Frist psot!

Dale Husband · 4 April 2008

Uh, you need a spell checker?

Ravilyn Sanders: Frist psot!

Reed A. Cartwright · 4 April 2008

If you want to comment on the new Bathroom Wall, please go to http://pandasthumb.org/bw/.

GSLamb · 4 April 2008

Reed: Not being a troll, but commenting in regards to the new BW or commenting within the new BW structure?

Reed A. Cartwright · 4 April 2008

within.

'About' can be made here or there. I'll see it easier here.

Ichthyic · 5 April 2008

nice work, Reed.

a quick look suggests a much more manageable system.

cheers

Altair IV · 5 April 2008

I like the new ajax functions. Very snappy.

One suggestion. There should be tabs at the bottom of the thread also. It's annoying after reading a long page to have to scroll up again in order to click to the next set of messages.

Ravilyn Sanders · 5 April 2008

Dale Husband: Uh, you need a spell checker?
Ravilyn Sanders: Frist psot!

That is a weird slashdottism. There when new threads open there is a mad rush to get the first post. So many people scramble so much that there used to be flurry of misspelt first posts in every thread. As usual the zany /. crowd started deliberately misspelling frist psots :-) They have a very nice moderating system. People can post as anonymous or as registered logged in users. The comments get voted up (insightful, interesting) or down (troll, off topic) by other registered users with mod points. As the registered user gets voted up more than down, they accumulate karma. Once a level of good karma is reached they get mod points to award to other posters. Their site has very simple filters to filter out low ranked comments and see only +3 or +2 comments. Thus Larrys and WWs and HeywoodUBuzzoffs can cry themselves hoarse. No body would see their postings. So trolls don't derail threads. Evolution stories easily generate 500 to 1000 comments. Most stories generate a total of 200 to 300 comments and I usually filter out all but a dozen or so. If PT could implement a few ideas from slashdot, may be with some pro-bono help from their administrators, it would go a long way in keeping the trolls away.

Henry J · 5 April 2008

When the wall was just another thread (whether on PT or AtBC) it would be just another thread on the forum (or blog) index. With this new thing one has to remember to check it for new stuff.

Henry

J. L. Brown · 8 April 2008

It's been a long time since I kept up with the goings on over at SlashDot, but I have fond memories of their comment system. Ravilyn Sanders is right; the way it is built inherently reduces the impact of trolls without needing to censor or move comments. If I recall correctly, everybody gets a chance to moderate, though--periodically, or at some interval (affected by karma), each user may non-cumulatively gain 'moderation points'. Moderation points may be spent (max one per post) to rate other users comments. IIRC super-moderation works in a similar way.

I would very much enjoy having a similar system here, although I recognize the coding involved would be significant.

Henry J · 8 April 2008

I don't know how you'd do it without also having to maintain a list of registered users, either - i.e., users would have to log on using id and password, for a scheme like that to work.

Henry

Henry J · 10 April 2008

How will people find the new bathroom wall once this topic falls off the bottom of the main page? ;)

Henry

Stacy S. · 10 April 2008

Henry J: How will people find the new bathroom wall once this topic falls off the bottom of the main page? ;) Henry

That IS a good question. I put the link on my desk top.

Tupelo · 26 May 2008

Is there some nitwittedly nefarious, WileECoyote:Supergenius scheme by the IDot/Creo crowd to post off-topic and other rule-smashing posts repeatedly in order to earn bans, thereby "proving" that this site is "intolerant of dissenting views" and therefore morally unably to judge the wholsale assault on the very concept of debate at UnDiss, AiG, and all creationist sites? There seem to be an unusual number of such trolls on the boards these days.

pete Dunkelberg · 5 July 2008

hey Reed, greetings from the library. The system here did not let me use the Contact Us button. - i get a microsoft login screen:

"The server loginnet.com at Microsoft passport requires a username and password."

I like my pc much better than this ine but mine was stolen. So I lost all my files - a couple years worth of emails, downloads and lots of photos and etc etc. The box was missing the side panel so that the circuit boards are visible also missing the front panel that is just for looks. So it may be hard to pawn (but not the nice monitor)so it may become someone's personal computer -- neighbiors are suspect but no evidence. so the crew won't hear from me for a while. Jeeze what a lousy screen I am working on. For some reason spelling errors are not marked and the screen is a bit hard to read. there is an interesting paper in nature on inferring the evolutionary history of protein folding if I got it right on a quick look. One Eric Smith in The Scientist writes something about Evolution's ""real problem"" meaning OOL. Seems to be a complexity enthusiast but he concludes that life started from something simpler than what it now is - duh.

In Barnes and Nobel I have not seen Behe DBB or othe rbook on the shelves recrerntly -- two days ago I saw dbb remeindered.

atheismisdead · 23 December 2009

Looks like your website is under attack from supernatural forces...

First of all: Nostradamus demolishes "atheism"

__________________________________________________ __
wait, wait...

I forgot something...

you little shits even talk about me....

GOATS ON FIRE....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssFaIhJkLsk

LIBERATION!

Sing from the rooftops:

"Atheism is dead!"

http://www.conspiracycafe.net/forum/index.php?/topic/25104-atheist-ap...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sK50So-yYRU

BYE BYE ATHEISM

these little insignificant fools try to use science to destroy every mystery in the universe...

but not this one!

Dave Luckett · 23 December 2009

Dear me, a troll. This has never happened before. Whatever shall we do?