Flutterby™! : Sorry and hang in there 2003-03-18 08:41:14.272689+00

Sorry and hang in there

2003-03-18 08:41:14.272689+00 by TC 13 comments

I'm sooooo sorry. I didn't link a google search but I did trick www.google.com and it's causing quite bit of hits on the www.flutterby.com server. I'm going to go find some of the more painful punishment links previously posted on Flutterby and glue my eyes open a la clockwork orange. Please welcome new voices that would add to the signal ratio and try to ignore the noise.

#Comment made: 2003-03-18 09:25:07.064667+00 by: pharm [edit history]

Now I'm serious, Dan: couldn't you break the sign-up function for a while?

And while I'm at it, is it possible to lock a thread? Like, oh, say, that one that's taken on a frightening life of its own over there? I keep trying to tell myself that this is just a scary little slice of life, but it's starting to give me the willies.

Dan might have a technology solution to help us with this blight recently upons us. Phram (with wonderful sarcasm I might add) has the right idea of social pressures by ignoring the flame fest on that thread. now that I'm done with the punishment links I'm gonna take a brief dip in a tar pool and wander over to the chicken farm.

I'll take some of the blame, todd. I pointed out the broken registration to Dan after Susan tried to join us. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

To paraphrase Gielgud... "Usually one must go to a bowling alley to meet people of your stature."

Ignore it and maybe it'll go away. We could just delete the entry, but now I'm kinda curious...

Actually, the one solution I was thinking of was setting up blacklisted users, and showing them a version of the site that included their posts, but making it appear that they didn't exist for the rest of us. Thus we could go blissfully on in ignorance, and they'd wonder why their flame-bait wasn't bringing anything new in.

I'm going to do a full day's worth of work, but maybe I can figure something out that's easy. It's just soooo tempting to put up something that detects their cookies and says "go away, numb-nuts", but that'd just cause escalation.

So, consider that entry virtually deleted. Forget it exists, and it'll drop off sooner or later.

My concern, actually, is that people with whom I don't feel comfortable sharing details of my life are now trolling Flutterby with their testosterone waving. (Heck, I don't always feel comfortable sharing things with the "regular" Flutterby crowd either, but I never felt actively THREATENED by anyone before now.) Do you think there's anything to be concerned about here? I see no evidence that they've found their way out of That Particular Thread's paper bag, but it COULD happen... I'll just stay out of things for a while until this maybe blows over.

[edit: For anyone who watches Six Feet Under, this past week's episode's death was relevant. It was that of a young woman who ran into the street when she felt threatened by some men, who turned out to be her friends teasing her, coming up behind her at night and cat-calling her. I sort of feel the same way here: slightly more vulnerable in exposing myself than most of y'all probably feel, since most of you are guys...]

Diane, my guess is that those folks are harmless. Emotions are running high all over the world right now and you are seeing some folks handle some run away emotions in ways that work for them. They just happened to find this forum to carryout their conversations. I expect that thread to die by the end of the week.

Diane, I've seen zero evidence that the people who stumbled into that thread go anywhere else on the system. I'll try to do some log analysis and see what happens. Barring that, Todd, are you okay with me deleting that post 404ing the resulting searches? I'm afraid that that'll just egg them on to look further for places to vandalize, though.

Give it another hour, Dan. The count is at 64 as I write this. If it goes no higher by 2:00 your time just assume the deluge is over. If it continues to grow then delete it. It's going to remain in Google cache forever with links to the rest of the site intact. If you 404 it people are going to look in the Google cached page to see what happened and it could lead them to your fears.

Okay, I've made a quick change. That page continues to exist, it'll never be referenced off the front page. I need to work this into a larger database schema fix, hopefully this won't goad any of the bozos into attacking other threads, or I'll just cut-off new registrations and start adding people manually. Sucks, 'cause that'll be new software to write, but that's why we live on the hairy edge.

It still comes up when I read my unread comments, which is a good thing. While there is a tremendous amount of noise in there there are a few jewels that have been posted.

Dan, of course make changes you think are best(always and in the future). If I ever have an issue, I know how to find you (there are only a few dozen good Scotch places in the area).

Larry, your right there are a few gems in there. I'm going to keep checking in there to see how it evolves. I sorta feel like Jane Goodall looking into a people aquarium. The flamieness seems to attenuate as time goes on. Some of the brighter ones have brought the thread IQ to near that of a house plant(yes I know I started the thread). I want to invited the smart ones over to the rest of Flutterby but Diane confirms my worst fears.

If any of you are looking for the people aquarium it's here. It's up to 94 post and 4 or 5 don't suck.

I'm staying out of the whole debacle, but agree with Todd, some good comments have been made, maybe they'll stick around and the bozo's will go back to Luserland.