Topicless thread

[Bella]

I swear to god if Bells' idiot neighbors get her killed by forcing her to drive into the hurricane to 'evacuate' from a rumored burst dam (since NO ONE HAS A WEATHER RADIO or enough since to call the local authorities.  Who usually, you know, notify residents of this sort of thing).  On the other hand, if they're right and there is danger I'll simply kick their asses for being unprepared and panicky and making me worry.

Actually, the idiot neighbors saved my life, forcing me to leave before the 20-some foot* wall of water** arrived. Even if they did decide to wait until the LAST GOD DAMNED MINUTE and be VERY PSYCHOTIC AND BITCHY ABOUT IT. Of course, dad is FAR AWAY AT THE MOMENT and WORKING SO HE CANNOT RETURN FOR A WEEK (at which point he returns for a day before LEAVING FOR ANOTHER COUPLE OF WEEKS), leaving me at the mercy of my INCREASINGLY BITCHASS-ACTING BROTHER who seems to think HE ISN'T OBLIGED TO GIVE ME A PLACE TO LIVE NOW THAT I'M HOME- and TEMPORARILY PARENTLESS. My sis-in-law doesn't like dogs, which means MINE GET THE CHOICE OF STAYING IN MY CAR, OR BEING IN THE BASEMENT AND CONSTANTLY CLAWING AT THE DOOR AND HOWLING AND DRIVING ME BATSHIT. Also, MY ROOMMATE IS AN 8 YEAR OLD.*** Also, I'm a part of a cleanup crew at my semi-decimated place; even though it will probably NEVER BE FIT FOR HUMANS AGAIN (what with all the soggy flooring and insulation and mold, undoubtedly), I'M GETTING STUCK BACK IN THERE UNTIL THE NEW PLACE IN FINISHED in GOD KNOWS WHEN. Also, since my dad is AWOL and brother being a bitch, I HAVE TO DO ALL OF THE SALVAGE WORK (ie: deciding which priceless family keepsakes are worth saving and which should get tossed out, etc).



So if I had to pick an emotion for what I'm feeling right now, it'd probably be ARRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHH *slams head through plate glass window*



*I don't know how high the Pemigewassett river got; only that it's the biggest flood in 40 years
**More like a Rapidly rising river of water
***I have a separate room, but there's a doorway between my rooms and his; although it lacks a door and only has a thick curtain/divider-thingy which, in no way, stops him from dropping in if he wants to. Luckily if I'm reading or looking at a wallotext wiki page he tends to go away quickly.

Two notes:
-When your typically upbeat neighbor proclaims "THE POLICE CANNOT HELP US NOW", you know it's time to GET THE FUCK OUT.
-Wifi is a great idea that's horrible in practice. HORRIBLE.

[Chocofreak13]

but wifi is so useful. i wouldn't have internet without it. :\

if you want somewhere to stay for awhile till your dad gets back, i could ask my mum if you could crash here for a few days. you must be rather traumatized after all this. :[

that said, i realize how scary it must have been, but that quote from your neighbor is pretty funny. >w<;

@pentium: there was a call for user pruning awhile back; it would likely entail giving the boot to members that haven't accessed in a long time and have 10 posts or less. (have a look at the memberlist. you'll notice alot of people who signed up and posted once.)

[Nichi]

Ah. That's kind of what I was thinking you meant, but just wanted to be sure

[Chocofreak13]

with the forum update, i figure it's about time. :\

[IanDanKilmaster]

Oh fuck.

I'm so so so sorry Bella.  Sounds like a horrible time all-around.  Especially considering that families are generally expected to pull together during a crisis not turn into totally disagreeable shits.  I really hope things work out for you, somehow.

@Choco:
I can remember us all having this same discussion back before I left.  It was all a bit helter skelter at that time, wasn't it? xD  I suppose it would be nice to have someone who was on regularly to perform any immediately necessary administrative tasks, but as far as I can tell, the current staff have things under control.  Ever since I've been back, I've noticed either Pitkin or Aurora lurking somewhere in the shadows, and who knows, perhaps they lurk even when they aren't online.  Until there is a very apparent vacuum in administration (like a flood of unrestrained spammers or trolls), then I don't see much call for adding another admin/mod to micromanage everything.

[Chocofreak13]

the majority of the time here, there hasn't been an admin present. there wasn't a clear and present danger, so it was ok, but it was still a little unsettling to not have someone around and barely having any other lines of communication. :\

currently trying to send messages on facebook, which is taking about an hour longer than it should. thankfully, i typed out the next one beforehand, which should make things easier.

remember that bastard of an ex who broke up with me on christmas? he might have my missing red scarf. >:\

[IanDanKilmaster]

I just don't think there is any reason to pile on any excess administration.  I know the idea is to have someone ready when we have a need, but from what I can see there isn't anything indicating our current admin/mod duo won't be ready when something does happen.  I've generally been able to rely on whatever mod/admin I had to call on when something needed to be done, so all is well.  Admittedly, I did get into the panic of "we need a mod" right before I took my hiatus, but that was because the madness at that time had seeped into the membership as well.  Looking back, that's really what makes this community so great - we do a pretty good job of moderating ourselves when the time calls for it.

[Chocofreak13]

you were gone for a long time.....in that time the presence of a mod was patchy at best. :\ even if they didn't do anything, it'd be nice to have one on call.

also: beginning to question my connectivity here, considering it's taking almost 2 hours just to send a message on facebook. :\

[IanDanKilmaster]

Well, if the mod situation is as serious as you assert, I'm sure other members will echo your concern.  At that point, it will be up to the staff to further evaluate whether more officers are needed.  As Pitkin has been around more frequently lately, I'm sure she'll have something to say about this before too long.

As far as wi-fi connection goes, I really don't know what to tell you there.  It might be related to the recent weather, but I haven't really used that technology enough to be familiar with it.  I'm more of a wired guy.

[Pitkin]

On the matters of:

1) Bella: I'm glad to see you're alive! Stew already declared your survival but it's nice seeing you online. I'm very sorry about your current conditions though. ._.

2) More admins/mods - the more "staff" there is, the bigger the risk is that the line taken by one mod/admin is different from the line by another, which can easily lead to bickering. Remembering also how it went the last time Fedora-Tan named a mod in 2010, I'm not a big fan of the idea unless the site shows really the tendency to get out of hands.

3) Member pruning - this I wouldn't be against at all in fact, but unfortunately the SMF engine seems to lack the elaborate pruning measures: it allows deleting user accounts of people not having a) activated their accounts or b) logged into the forum for X days, where is can be chosen by the admin. However, it does not allow conditions such as "only delete members with less than Y posts" so using the method based on the user not having logged in would delete also members with lots of posts. That leaves as the only pruning option the manual method, and well... spending hours clicking on member name, delete, confirm would probably make me snap after a workday and go postal.

I could take a look at the third-party admin tools available for SMF to help facilitate the pruning, but truth be told I'm scared that it wouldn't work exactly as promised and I'd have to use forum backups afterwards. ><

4) Wifi - Wifi's awesome, especially when it's ~10 times faster than my previous connection! <3

[Red-Machine]

That's horrible, Bells.  I hope Eve and all of your other machines are safe!  But more importantly, you're safe.  If I lived in Mass, I'd head on over there and help you move stuff out.

With regards to a new mod, I tend to agree that we don't really need one right now, however somebody who could crack down on certain rulebreaking/rulbreakers (not naming any names) would be welcome, IMO.

[NejinOniwa]

Well, what to say - when storms' a-brewing, storms be brewing as well.

Fortunately most of the floods over here went off in Norway.

And wb bells. If they make too much noise, just blow something up. Works fantastic.

[stewartsage]

Note on my first few days of class: My digital photography professor was a ceramics major and we're going to learn how to use Macs today.  Yaaaaaay.

[Chocofreak13]

@stew: RETAIN YOUR PRIDE AS A WINDOWS USER!! RETAIN IT!!

@pitkin: i wish i could do it for you. menial tasks don't bother me a lick. :3

[Nichi]

@Stew: Macs are quite nice, really. After all, I'm using Fuuka as my primary desktop, because it's sadly too damn hot to use 2k (She's built to handle the heat better than TARDIS...at the unfortunate cost of making my room uncomfortably warm)

Well, tomorrow is the big day. I have to get up earlier than I'd like, but considering the occasion, I don't mind.