General Discussion

I think I missed a lot of that drama.

My perception of BZ is that it's gotten a bit more bland. Probably because our membership has become more homogeneous, apart from some exceptions? I feel like we used to have more "characters" in the earlier years. Posters with a unique voice and tone. We still have some of those, but far less than before. Though I think this is a trend that is visible across all social media.

I guess you all got the message about the creation of a politics sub-forum too.

Thoughts on the matter?

On ‎09‎/‎02‎/‎2017 at 9:31 AM, SympathysSilhouette said:

I guess you all got the message about the creation of a politics sub-forum too.

Thoughts on the matter?

In principle, it's not a bad idea. There's been so much overspill in GenTalk as of late that we seem to have ended up with multiple topics serving the same purpose, as well as non-political posts that many would otherwise want to read getting lost amongst the constant noise. So it does feel like we're getting to the point where the content might need to be compartmentalised in some way.

I suppose my biggest worry is that the majority of our membership are already very steadfast in their viewpoints. The prospect of people trying to impose their opinions on others and new topics being created solely for the sake of starting arguments would most likely be a constant.

I'm of two minds as well. On the one hand, it does gives us a place to have those kind of discussions and if a member gets into such a topic in another thread, we can ask them to go to the appropriate forum.

On the other hand, it will definitely create more such discussions in a time when the forum is already getting more polarized.

It may be a decent idea to keep everyone in one spot away from the rest of regular discussion. Especially if you dont wanna hear about it, then you dont have to go to the politics forum. But yes that in general is a touchy subject. We just need a huge disclaimer stating we will not moderate this forum or your on your own or something. 

Maybe not a subforum, but how about just a thread, and then we encourage people to keep the politics talk to that thread? It may take alot of moving posts and reminders at first, but a majority of the people partaking in the politics talk are long standing members whom if were directed would move to a separate thread and follow the rules.

 I know alot of people like talking about it, but it isn't really apart of this site or what this site is supposed to be all about, IMO it deviates from what its all about: Fashion/Models and celebs. But thats just my take. 

I have expressed on numerous occasions my opinions about having political and social issues discussions on BZ . No need to be a broken record

I think if we were going to do the subforum thing, the number one rule would have to be "discuss the subject, not the person" - meaning that you can tear up an argument or a position, but if you cross the line by getting personal, the thread in which the incident occurs is history. Or alternatively, we could create several GenTalk threads dedicated to, say, news and current affairs, general politics and Trump waffle, and maintain a very strict policy about staying on topic.

Of course, the big drawback of moving in either of those directions would be the potential of more rifts developing in the political areas and the residual animosity then spilling into other parts of the forum. There's also the possibility of attracting new posters who join specifically to participate in the subforum. I've seen heated debates about models to rival any of the political discussions that happen here, but at least we all share that as a common interest. There are a lot of obsessives and trolls out there, and some of them might just see us as another place to wave their flags.

54 minutes ago, PinkCouture said:

I have expressed on numerous occasions my opinions about having political and social issues discussions on BZ . No need to be a broken record

Without wishing to try and make you repeat yourself, I certainly wouldn't mind getting your thoughts, Pinky.

2 hours ago, katchitup said:

 I know alot of people like talking about it, but it isn't really apart of this site or what this site is supposed to be all about, IMO it deviates from what its all about: Fashion/Models and celebs. But thats just my take. 

Actually thats a good point. We need to steer everything back to fashion/celebs not other items. Some of the pip stuff is harmless but politics is a whole different matter.

So after some thought  I think we should not do a thread for politics and maybe even go as far as not allowing threads for the topic. Thoughts?

4 hours ago, maddog107 said:

 

Actually thats a good point. We need to steer everything back to fashion/celebs not other items. Some of the pip stuff is harmless but politics is a whole different matter.

 

So after some thought  I think we should not do a thread for politics and maybe even go as far as not allowing threads for the topic. Thoughts?

I whole heartedly agree!   If I want to engage in political discussions, there are numerous forums I can visit.  There are, however, very few forums that focus on fashion, models, and celebs as well as BZ does!

I think if we decide against creating a subforum or allowing new political threads, the only way to alleviate the current GenTalk problem would be to make all mention of politics completely off-limits (which I personally wouldn't lose any sleep over). However, to make that work would probably require a unanimous decision from everyone on staff, because we'd all have to be on the same page with regard to shutting down discussions.

Was battling a horrific cold the past few days  I am semi-functional now  Still feel like DEATH but more like Half-Death currently  

On 2/10/2017 at 3:38 PM, Michael* said:

 

Without wishing to try and make you repeat yourself, I certainly wouldn't mind getting your thoughts, Pinky.

Here is what I have said in the past:

Quote

We are a fashion model and celebrity forum---not a political or social issues forum. Most members here probably are not well-versed or have a full understanding of these topics. And they don't need to b/c BZ isn't that type of forum. Therefore I am not sure will this all be impactful or contribute in a positive way to the mess that has been going on. Also some of us have very different political and social views. That's ok. If we all agreed life would be boring and obsolete. All we can do is accept each other's views even if we don't agree b/c chances we aren't going to change each others opinions. We all make our own choices. 

On 2/11/2017 at 11:36 AM, Michael* said:

I think if we decide against creating a subforum or allowing new political threads, the only way to alleviate the current GenTalk problem would be to make all mention of politics completely off-limits (which I personally wouldn't lose any sleep over). However, to make that work would probably require a unanimous decision from everyone on staff, because we'd all have to be on the same page with regard to shutting down discussions.

What about a politics thread where any and every type of political conversation can get redirected?

I'm with Pink on this one, no politics subforum, IMO it deviates from our brand image (can you tell I'm a business marketing major?)

16 minutes ago, PinkCouture said:

Was battling a horrific cold the past few days  I am semi-functional now  Still feel like DEATH but more like Half-Death currently  

 

You and everyone else in the world Feel better!

Ok so we all mostly on board with just not allowing politics anywhere in Gen Discussions? No politics thread and just try to shut down any mention of politics? 

Is there any way we can cut and paste pics into posts anymore without needing to input the coding instead?

Example: I just bought some stuff at Walmart and if I upload the image to imgur and cut and paste here, this is what happens:

To get the image to show I need to imput this

[img=http://i.imgur.com/BKXBZKb.jpg]

8 minutes ago, Prettyphile said:

Is there any way we can cut and paste pics into posts anymore without needing to input the coding instead?

 

Example: I just bought some stuff at Walmart and if I upload the image to imgur and cut and paste here, this is what happens:

 

 

To get the image to show I need to imput this

[img=http://i.imgur.com/BKXBZKb.jpg]

Does it only happen with imgur or others as well?

Every image hosting site I've tried

This might be related to the issue above. A few members, myself included, have been having issues with embedding images. Images are being automatically converted to 200px thumbnails (although it is not a thumbnail image). When I try to resize the image manually it won't let me  

@Prettyphile @PinkCouture

Can you please try again? I have disabled an image proxy we have in case that is the issue.