Topics in the IRC header

[Bearcat]

I would love it if the topic in the chat rooms actually reflected the
current topic of discussion.

I have no problems with innuendo in the topic of the crossroads room.
We change topics so frequently there it seems impossible to do this
there.

However, in #Therianthropy i'd like to see things like "This room is
for thrianthropic discussion. Current topic: Why are there no Walrus
therians?"

When there is no topic it could be set back to a default "This room is
for thrianthropic discussion."

This way people coming in would be able to jump in. It might help the
room retain focus too.

I'm not sure if we would need a rule about this or not. It seems more
like a "good practice" to me.

MoonWind

[Istas]

Sounds logical and productive to me. I'll 'practice' it.

[Believing Wolf]

Uh, well, there's nothing against changing the topic to reflect whatever is going on, #therianthropy specifically. It's just that many times the topics we have are SO complex, a mere sentence summarizing it won't do it justice at all.

However, frequently, we have some really good kickass discussions in therianthropy but they rarely make it outside of the room.

I'd be interested in some function to where discussions can be logged server-side and then put up on a website like crossroads' own site. One would have to consent to that, of course, so a notification would be up in the topic and stuff. But it'd hopefully make more people aware of what's going on in #therianthropy.

I dunno, it'd be cool if there was some bot that would log things automatically in a temporary form, with like an hour cache. Then, if there's a discussion going on, a command could be issued to the bot to log things permanently, as well as another command once the discussion is pretty much over to end logging and to put it up on the website. Makes it easier, since many people have pretty much the entire day logged and won't have to sift through everything to get to what they wanted.

Of course, people would have to play nice and not bullshit around. And it'd have to be fairly abuse-free.

 

Way too much work, I know, but it'd be cool.

 

B

 

[Bearcat]

I don't like the logging idea. Discussions personal therianthropy is
not something many people are going to be comfortable with a button
that can publicly publish it. Even if it's not a good 'ol grilling
any therianthropic topic is liable to get personal since it is a
personal issue after all. Anyone could just cut-paste the logs
they've gathered to their personal web space but that threat seems
less immediate. Sitting around and logging is one of the reasons for
the no idling rule being so tight in #therianthropy.

I think you're right about the topic idea, though i was just looking
for short blurbs rather than "doing it justice" with exponaity.

MoonWind

[Bowtie]

No bots will ever be used in the main channels, specifically because
it is so easy to log with them. Back in the pre-werenet, pre-services
days, we had an admin offer up a bot for use in all the channels, one
that made channel organization a whole lot better. Later we found out
that said bot logged everything, and that said logs were used by said
admin for a variety of purposes. We have no idea what he really did
with them.

Back even farther, years before this, possibly before or around the
same time I came on, we had a problem with users idling in the serious
discussion channels, or idling when serious discussion popped up in
the only active channel at the time, whatever that may have been.
Said idling users would log the convo that was happening, look back on
it, and if they regarded it as rediculous, said users would post said
logs to websites.

We haven't forgotten those lessons.

As for the topic issues, the only way to lock a topic is to carefully
choose channel operators, which means not everybody will have @'s
anymore.

And that's something we intend to do, anyway. It'll all be
implemented in time.

I figure you people are old enough now to not throw fits about a "lack
of equality" in the channels, so you can just deal with some people
having ops, and some not having them. See, the big deal is... we have
a couple of channels full of ops... and nobody uses them, except to op
other ops.