Welcome to Davis_Square!

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

So a number of us gathered at the Diesel this evening to chat about the community and rules and such. In the interest of keeping everyone informed:

• The rules of the community, though slightly amended from what they previously were, are still in the community's userinfo. Some of the highlights:
• Multiple images or large (i.e. greater than 300x300 pixels) images should be put behind an <lj-cut> tag.
• Long posts should make use of the <lj-cut> tag. (Except this one, if you consider it long, because all y'all need to actually see it.)
• There aren't particular lj-cut rules for ads--it's not the case that all ads must be cut. But if they have large images, multiple images, a lot of text, etc., go ahead and use the <lj-cut> tag.
• When in doubt: use the <lj-cut> tag. The moderators may ask you nicely to add an lj-cut to your post. Please, be cooperative. Moderators won't delete things just because they aren't lj-cut, but posts from posters who repeatedly ignore these polite requests will be handled (on a case by case basis).
• There is no longer a "one ad per poster per week" restriction, either; but with respect to frequent posts on the same topic, be cooperative, etc. etc. (See previous point.)
• In general: be nice. Be cooperative. Y'know?
• plumtreeblossom plans, as a gift to the community, to buy it a paid membership, which will allow us to create a photo scrapbook, post polls, and many other wondrous things that are probably listed somewhere in the help files. More info as this develops.
• Finally, cos discovered that it's possible to set up a list of people, in addition to moderators, who can add tags to post. If anyone wants to volunteer to be on the "tag team" (plumtreeblossom's phrase, not mine!) and help sort through old posts, cataloguing them so users can easily find earlier discussions of restaurants, politics, or drycleaning, let the moderators know. ("Drycleaning"? "dry-cleaning"? "dry_cleaning"? Also: consistency.)

Generally, there was a feeling that the davissquare community, set up hurriedly over the weekend, isn't still necessary, and we ought to be fine with a single community (i.e., this one). What happens with davis_meta is up to prunesnprisms; it may be a handy place to discuss meta-issues away from those who'd rather not have to see it.

Comments

[enochs-fable.livejournal.com]

I'd be willing to help with tagging - settting up a loose framework and running with it.

A few questions:

Is there a consensus on what a "long" post is? This may seem self-evident, but having a clear limit (20 lines) would avoid arguments over whether a post is "too long" to exist without a cut.

I kinda liked the lj-cut for ads rule, but that's just my preference.

So prunesprism what to do with davis_meta? I'm thinking once we get tags going, we could just have discussions in davis_square appropriately tagged, instead of a separate group? Other opinions?

[ron_newman]

I'm willing to help with tagging. I'd also like to understand how tagging works. I have tagged some of my own posts here over the past couple of weeks, only to see the tags seemingly disappear into the ether.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Thanks for all the work you've done, folks. I know some of it has been painful in its own way.

Personally, I don't see any need for davis_meta. It was set up for reasons which, imho, weren't terribly reasonable in the first place. I think davissquare should stick around if for no other reason than to point people who forget to put in an underscore back here.

As for cuts, I think *all* pictures should be cut, period. It's just easier that way, and why would it ever be so important that it shouldn't be? 300x300 is (again imho) way too big to show up all over the community uncut, given that this is not a picture-oriented place.

And as long as I'm stating demands desires, can you PLEASE get rid of that horrific background image on the main journal page? Simplicity is good. :)

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

20 lines on one browser may not be 20 lines on another, so even with a clear limit, it's not as clear as it might be. :)

[enochs-fable.livejournal.com]

Give or take a few lines -- but it's still clearer than "lengthy."

For some people ten lines might be too long. I think you see what I'm getting at. :)

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

I think the comments in this Davis_Meta post (http://www.livejournal.com/community/davis_meta/1065.html) (in particular, hauntmeister's) underscore the problem of why it's hard to be certain what an ad is, which leads to the problem of uneven enforcement of the policy. And as firstfrost says, while "long" may be vague, so is "20 lines" (and I'd hate to see people counting words, or the like). "20 lines" may not be a bad guideline, but in the end: be nice. Be cooperative. Y'know?

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

The people gathered had varying opinions on what exactly should happen to davissquare-no-underscore. The agreement was "It doesn't seem necessary to have it be a live community", though that didn't entail "...and should therefore be deleted" as opposed to, as you suggest, being a pointer.

As for pictures--well, we're new at this, and rules will evolve and change over time, but for the time being at least we wanted to see how having pictures that aren't too large affects the sense of the community. "Here's the sun setting over the Somerville Theatre" may contribute to the feeling of community in such a way that it shouldn't be hidden; we'll see.

As for the style of the main page--that's astonishingly low on my own list of priorities, but I've got the aesthetic sensibility of a colorblind mud golem. :-)

[enochs-fable.livejournal.com]

I think prunesnprisms comment:

So far as I am concerned, an advertisement is a public promotion of some product or service--that's the strict definition of the term. You are advertising that you are seeking a service. By definition, this would have a limited group of interest. I, for example, have limited interest because I do not have such a space to offer for filming--and for no other real reason. a person with an apartment would have limited interest in a roommate advertisement, or that seeking housing.

I also agree that a political advertisement is just that--an advertisement, with limited interest. ALL political advertisements are of limited interest.

essayed a pretty good definition. I don't think it's hard to define ad loosely using the criteria above, explicitly including political and charity related solicitations.

[ron_newman]

I wouldn't mind having that garish background replaced by something neutral and anodyne, at least for now.

My preference is to keep davissquare(no underscore) around, but add in a final post that says it is being made read-only, and telling folks to come here instead. Something similar should go into the user-information page for that community.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Regarding the style on the main page, yes, I agree that it's a low priority to do anything special to it. I just think some of the bad stuff that already was done should be undone. Things like not disabling anonymous commenting across the board, maybe, unbanning some of the many many banned people, etc. Essentially resetting back to close to a default state, and then going from there as needed.

[ron_newman]

I didn't even know there were banned people. Yes, definitely get rid of that.

I'm not sure how I feel about anonymous commenting. I've been to places that allow it (such as TheSomervilleNews.com), and they can feel pretty hostile and not much like a community.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

People can screen anonymous comments if they want to. Personally, I prefer giving folks the option, that's all.

(I've always had anon enabled in my journal, for example, and I think in all the years, I've had maybe one "bad" comment because of it.)

[ron_newman]

'screening' is one of those things I haven't learned about yet... Is it something you do when posting, or when reading?

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

I actually really like the current background. I find it colorful and cheery.

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

Hey guys--I actually have a family death to attend to today, and won't be back until the weekend.

I think davis_meta has lived its purpose, and I will probably delete it or make it completely read only over the weekend with a pointer back here. I suggest that future meta-related posts be cut but placed in this community.

and i'd really like to be on the tagging team, if that's possible!

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

I honestly find memories easier to use than tags. :/

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that! Appreciated.

[ron_newman]

Sorry to hear about that. Be well, and we'll see you when you return.

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

Many of the banned "users" have Livejournal IDs that I would't want to say in front of my mother; those I have no problem with the banning of. Of the others--plumtreeblossom has gone through and done a selective debanning; I'll take a look again tonight or tomorrow.

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

It's...a pretty good definition. On the other hand: Almost all posts are of limited interest, period. I don't have any clothes that require dry cleaning, so even a request like "Does anyone know a good dry cleaner around here?" is something of no interest to me.

And: If an ad is "a public promotion of some product or service", then "I'm filming a movie! Anyone know a good location?" isn't an ad at all, because it's not offering anything at all, it's requesting something. And it's not even requesting a service; it's seeking advice. You may have no interest in giving advice because you have no space to offer; but then, I have no advice to give on dry cleaners, either.

Ultimately, my feeling on ads is this: like any other post at all, in this community or on my friend's blogs, I may or may not have any interest in the topic. If I have no interest, I'll scroll past it. The reason to use cut tags, I feel, isn't to keep people from the unpleasant knowledge that someone is looking for a roommate; it's to minimize the amount of scrolling-past readers have to do. Hence, a five-line ad, being easy to skip over, doesn't seem to me to require an lj-cut.

There may be other reasons to lj-cut all ads; I can't think of them, but, hey, if there are, let me know.

[magid.livejournal.com]

In a person's journal, it means that all anonymous comments are only visible to the journal owner until/unless the owner unscreens them for public viewing.

[hahathor.livejournal.com]

Thanks to all who have put time & energy into this. I think like Tahnan's take on "legislation" which seems to be: Be considerate; lj-cut long posts that will take time to scroll through.

Of course, everyone has a slightly different take on "long" and a slightly different take on "considerate." However, this is probably a good place to start, and we can take action if there are problems. So long as there are multiple people identifying problems and deciding on actions, things should be fairly reasonable overall.

tagging

[ron_newman]

I've started tagging some of the recent posts. My immediate thoughts:

- we should have tags for "public transit" and "religion".

- I'm not sure what "public services" are. I used this tag for MBTA-related stuff, but I'm not sure that's what it was intended for.

- it's not always clear how to distinguish "civic" from "local politics"

[hauntmeister.livejournal.com]

Sorry I couldn't make it, guys! It sounds like the community is in good hands. And though I would have loved to see my all-images-behind-a-cut and all-posts-cut-to-20-lines rules adopted, simply "be nice" is an excellent principle to follow!

And following up on another poster: How about if we keep the current background but just make it a little less, well, "vibrant?" Maybe something like the following?

(Alternately, something uniquely Davis-like but abstracted enough to be a blurry background would be excellent.)

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

What about a collage of that large wall sculpture in the T stop? (It'll only take someone about 10 rides up the escalator to shoot it. :-)). Or of those tiles made by children-who-are-now-like-35?