It’s been a fantastic week here at The Planet, we’re now over 100 members! So many great and different voices here, it’s becoming an embarrassment of riches.
A big ol’ thanks to all of those who have joined The Planet recently and to those out there who are reading this but haven’t signed up to be a member yet, thanks so much for your visits here and I guarantee a warm welcome awaits you when you join (and a two for one Quiznos coupon…hurry, this offer expires soon!)!
Let me be very clear about who’s welcome to join The Planet…everyone. Progressives, Conservatives, Democrats, Republicans, Northerners, Southerners, Yankee fans and Dodger fans…even Indians fans! There is admittedly a liberal/progressive sensibility to the site but conservatives and Republicans who want to discuss and debate issues with the same thoughtfulness displayed here by the current members are very welcome here too.
There is a strong desire by the majority of this nation to return to a place where people on different sides of issues can talk constructively with each other and even seek consensus. Free Expression is highly respected here, those with minority opinions will be treated with the same respect as those in the majority.
The Terms of Use will be used fairly and equitably with all members. The guidelines here are pretty minimal but firm. Basically, all members, whatever their perspective must be treated by their fellow members with a modicum of respect (what happens at HuffPo, stays at HuffPo). No trolls, snide put downs of fellow members, basically all that juvenile, petty and hateful behavior that has been allowed to take root there will not be tolerated here.
With that said, let me get to my other point, a constructive one.
With the continuing growth in membership and hearing just a bit here and there from members, it seems an ideal time to ask you for your thoughts and suggestions on the feel, functionality and features of the site. As mentioned on the Home Page, this is a site by and for bloggers so your opinion is sought and valued.
Until we’re bought out by a hedge fund, arms manufacturer or SnugWow inventor, resources are limited (contributions towards the expense and development and of the site via the PayPal section on the Home and other pages are gratefully accepted but never expected of any member) so there is only so much we can do at a time but we are constantly working on updating and evolving The Planet.
To kick things off, I’d like to ask for everyone’s thoughts on the comment system here since several members have already mentioned that as something we could improve. If you’re fine with it as is or you feel it’s only a matter of your acclimating to a new style of comment system, please let me know that as well. If you have suggestions on any other aspects of the site, I hope you’ll also share those with me. There are some things we can and can’t change on functionality and appearance but we’ll cross those bridges when we come to them.
Thanks so much for your valuable participation at PlanetPOV. With your help, we hope to make this site and the blogging experience here the best it can be.
I have one complaint.
This site is addicting!
I must force myself to log off to spend some time with the husband and dog.
He caught 2 fish today, btw, but too small to keep.
Hope to see you all, and more, tomorrow on the Planet!
Good night all!
Javaz, I’m logging off too…have a great evening, take care, all of you…was great talking about our dogs….see you tomorrow..
HELP!
LOL
My image attached, but it’s at the bottom of my post!
We clicked on the “center” as per the instructions.
Is it something we did wrong or is it a glitch?
I apologize for not doing this correctly.
Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated.
Not sure if it was my computer, but had major problems logging into the Planet.
Kept getting some very strange messages about certain errors and contacting the provider.
Hope everything is okay now!
Yeh, I tried to get on and got the same message, must have been a glich someone, maybe maintenance on the site…
Are you going to post something today?
I am going to try, but the husband has left and gone fishin’!
I’ve been working on a post about Lou Dobbs being shot at, which the police dispute, and how our wonderful self-proclaimed ‘toughest sheriff in the west’ has picked up on the Dobbs story and somehow how now he feels threatened.
Sheriff Joe loves media attention, and every couple years he does outrageous things but he is loved by the voters because of his anti-immigration raids.
Not sure if any other people would enjoy reading or commenting on that though, unless of course they’re folks from Arizona and aware of the Sheriff Joe madness.
Ah yes, Mr. Independent and Sherriff Joe, I think it would be interesting since I just qickly scanned the article, maybe you could give us more insight into the story.
From what I have see on the Dobbs show, Lou is quite enthralled with Sheriff Joe…and I’m a little suspect on the Dobbs shooting.
My husband fishes too, he’s probly out today also, nice day here in CT, but the weather doesn’t really stop him anyway!
Please post, I would be interested in reading it. I do not like Dobbs or Sheriff Joe. He is a hater.
Hi J, I’ve read a little about that sheriff and his love for attention — please do write about him. He and Lou seem like two peas in a pod. I think Lou’s “shooting” story is just him trying to jump on the Beck bandwagon. He’s probably been smarting ever since Ted Turner quipped “Have you ever watched Lou Dobbs?” The implication being it was like watching a pet rock (my metaphor).
My hubby watches Lou for a laugh, gets his decoder ring out when he watches, because in midsentance Lou will change his stance if the person on the panel know their stuff and stands up to him. Very funny to watch….I can’t stand the man, and he gloats when he reads his adoring fan mail at the end of the show…Mr. Independent my ass!
My mother used to watch him obsessively. She was a CNN addict — an old liberal. Much to my horror, my liberal mother gradually became obsessed, like Dobbs, with how the “Mexicans were stealing our country.” She was very old by then and not thinking too clearly any more — he had insidiously turned this elderly progressive into a racist.
Well I can see that it could happen to someone if you watch long enough…he does have an engaging smile, when I watched him a few years back, he was far more ‘fair and balanced’ and yeh, the illigal thing was getting out of hand in parts of the country, but you have to balance that with the companies that were employing the illigals and the treatment and wages they were getting. It seems the MSM never really tells the whole story…
For all you people interested in the great Sheriff Joe Arpaio, here’s a really good concentrated source of stories. The Phoenix New Times and Joe go back a long ways.
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/arpaio
I also live in the jurisdiction of the sheriff of Nuttingham.
Oh, God! Poor Monk!
Yep, the site had an issue this morning which may have been connected to the rating function (to rate posts and comments) so for the time being I’ve deactivated that function to see how things roll.
Sorry about that!
Hey!
My husband helped me with an image, and on the preview it showed, but is not showing on the homepage.
What did we do wrong?
I was a little worried that The Queen had taken offence at the growing numbers here and ordered one of her minions to do a little hacking. :0)
Hacking? I thought maybe her expensive lawyers had called up the service provider and made some recommendations. But it would have made a great headline on Fox if that had been the case. Scary for all of us.
The woman does tend to induce a wee bit o’ paranoia in me.
This will be my only comment regarding this situation. For the most part, the whole thing was an attempt to mend fences between myself and someone who attacked me the night before. The whole thing was an attempt at making peace, and Ladynaga was only a point of reference, not the subject of the conversation. The vast majority of this (99.9%) was about 4 bloggers, and this wasn’t about bashing anyone. I deleted 4 accounts in attempt to make others feel more comfortable, and the others did as well. I’d really rather just move forward, and put this in the rear view mirror.
SeeknDestroy
Afternoon, Seek I saw the attack, the attacker seemed very young and his emotions seemed to running very high at the time…did not see the mending of fence process…but have seen this morning the continued discussion of the situation….lord this sounds like a soap opera…will respect your wishes to put this in the past..
Thanks.
I wish to move on..
Hi seek. I was somehow privy to much of what went on, including the business that happened beforehand. I for one hope you all stick around, at least over here if not there.
What she said. 🙂
Hi Escribacat..
I plan to make this my new home.
I like the freedom here…
I’ve always enjoyed your posts..and have had lots of fun with you…I hope to keep it that way..
Thanks, Escribacat…You’re very kind..
Suits me fine.
Hey, Seek, from what I read it definitely appeared you were mostly an innocent bystander to the whole thing…
I only wish to do this site justice.
Moving on, Pepe.
Appreciate that, I do think it’s best to leave the unnecessary stress and conflict that HuffPo engenders between its members, at HuffPo.
This site is meant to be far more comfortable and satisfying. It was created for all of us to have meaningful conversations about things that really matter and though the emotions that result from the turmoil at HuffPo are valid, the turmoil itself isn’t worthy of our participation.
I think you are right on the money, SeeknDestroy, let’s move forward and leave the HuffPo craziness in our rear view.
My two cents on the events of last night in the hope of putting the matter to rest.
I read the entire Gosselin thread prior to any scrubbing or deletion of ids.
I will not go in to all that was said on it, but suffice to say that it appeared to be a private matter between several people, and the efforts of others who wandered over from the main to intervene were at best, misguided.
Lady Naga was only mentioned by initials or as “Naga” in 2 or 3 posts by one individual only. The remarks were observations, not really terribly derogatory (had they been said about me, I would have laughed it off), and resulted in a whole bunch of people being harmed, but not by the remarks themselves.
Gotta go. Back later.
Much to do about nothing, as I suspected…see you later
Good morning. I read the thread too. They were clearly having a very personal conversation on an obscure thread and made the mistake of thinking they were alone. Some posters on the main thread made comments about the conversation and it quickly took over the main. I don’t know if LN already knew about it or heard that way.
LN posted a “goodbye” post on the main thread, and did also post the thread title to which she was referring.
My impression was that she happened upon it (or was told about it) prior to posting on the main.
Honestly, as BDM said, much ado about nothing. But, someone seems to have gotten what they wanted, as a number of people are gone, and in spite of her posts to the contrary, LN is still there.
And much fun was had at their expense.
yes.
Thank you all for not judging us.
It was never about Naga, it was about our concern for Brown who had some issues, and we were trying to help him. He’s only 22. We are half-century adults.
We were well aware that anyone could read our posts, but the things we discussed were actual events that had occurred on the main over the last month, also in clear view, and we were being truthful with each other in order to stop the conflicts.
When we read the ugly comments that many “friends” had posted, we knew there was only one direction to go.
We were not banned. The three of us were on the phone as we each deleted our accounts. 10 in all. Brown deleted himself after a futile attempt to post on the main. I watched his profile disappear seconds after posting that he would in fact do that.
Now, the heresay, rumor and lies are out of control. We just want to put this behind us.
It was time to move on from HP. That’s why Seek and I registered the other day on here. Too much personal stuff on hp these days.
I just want a place to post accountable insights, where I won’t get attacked, and where there aren’t clear lines of power-posturing in evidence by a select group of posters.
HP would be so much more enjoyable if people would refrain from publicly using it as a social network.
That said, it is probably inevitable on any large site. It turns me off, however.
And, no prob on the “judging” thing. I just call it as I see it.
The response quickly became far worse than the original transgression.
Since I’m not part of that group, I was just wondering where you all stand on LN…if you don’t want to take sides, I’m ok with that.
I was just at Huffpo when the planet was down, maintenance?, and a lot of LN’s groupies where still talking abount what happened…not for nothing, but me thinks she doth protests too much…and so do her fans…
What happened? I am late to the party. I heard LN left, and I noticed that some of my fans are gone what gives? I am obama20082012 on the ‘other’ site.
Grab, LN didn’t actually leave. At least her profile is still there.
Well whatever happened. I just like getting along with people. And it getting very nasty over there.
Not sure, only saw some remnants of the saga here and over at HP this morning…but, I will reserve my judgement and respect Seek and HITO’s request to let it go…
I am not a part of that group either, and LN has never done anything to me. I don’t know her, so will reserve judgement.
I do think like yourself, that it was much ado about little/nothing.
I do have my opinions on the subject (of course!) but would only feel comfortable discussing them in a private forum. The whole thing is a “teachable moment” as Pres. O would say.
Ha ha…..for sure.
I am considering putting up a private forum, or at least partly private, where this kind of stuff can be discussed.
I don’t think that the Planet should have a private area, and I do think that it would be useful to have one.
Your thoughts?
EDIT
to be perfectly truthful, i am already in the process of setting up said forum…….just trying to figure out if i should continue with it.
I agree. I was just thinking about that. I’ve never set up anything like that. Do you know how? I use Skype a lot for conference calls and I’m assuming the chat feature can also be conferenced…
EDIT: Hey, an EDIT feature. I didn’t notice this before. How cool. Anyway, yes, do continue…what platform are you using?
Done. I used a free site, since I’m viewing it strictly as a public service sort of thing and don’t intend to turn it in to something more commercial.
I like the Planet as it is, and having reading the comments of AdLib earlier, I tend to agree with him on this topic.
http://huffpostextended.proboards.com/index.cgi
Was always a little uncomfortable with the relatively small circle of apparent “gatekeepers,” but not enough to make an issue of it. LN pretty much completely ignored me (and somehow, I survived), so, as they say: I don’t have a dog in this fight.
They ignor me too, Oh well, say la vie…
My dogs are trained to hunt and track, but alas their Mom doesn’t…
Ain’t it fun to be a grownup? :o)
Well, I am glad that it apparently was much ado about nothing, but there certainly was ado and from people that I trust and respect.
And I couldn’t imagine why LadyNaga would sign off like that if there was not some fire behind the smoke.
I asked for an explanation. I got one.
I’m good.
Well I was just climbing into bed when I remembered I had forgotten to include this “Breaking News” email from the BBC.
Hi wts and goodnight, I’m pooped!!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8337832.stm
Thanks everyone who suggested that I use Fire Fox, hopefully this will help this poor techno illiterate person that I am…I like it already, it looks like it will easier for me to use…
Morning, BDM!
I’ve used FireFox for a while and am very happy with it. Hope it works out for you.
I love the spell check feature, I was one of those kids in the ’50’s that they used in a study to teach spelling with words be flashed at you in repetition at a high speed…it didn’t work
I also use Firefox. I do have to restart it now and then because the memory usage gets out of control.
I’ve used Firefox for years now, can’t stand to use IE for anything, it is so ridiculously stupid, lol.
Firefox rocks. Enjoy.
Wow, I leave this place for a short while and it seems this planet has had its very own Cambrian Explosion! Congrats to AdLib, and all who work tirelessly at this!
Omedetou gozaimasu!
Morning, AdLib and the gang are doing a bang up job with the site….I like to call it a breadth of fresh air…
Evening, for me. Like Kalima I’m in Tokyo.
Oyasuminasai, BigDogMom
Evening to you, I’m in CT, on EST, so there isn’t a lot of traffic here at this time of day for me, but have started to go to this site first in the mornings to see what took place the night before…
Good evening to you (morning here). I’m in Colorado. I am also checking in here every morning now! See how easily addicted I am.
Good morning everyone!
I’m going to try this again – making a post and attaching an image.
I’ll try to attach the image before writing anything this time, and will wait for my husband to get up to help me!
Wish me luck!
Good luck javaz and goodnight. You are all getting up and I’m going to sleep. Silly time zones.
Hope that you all have a good day.
Goodnight. Gute Nacht and Oyasumi nasai.
Good night and sweet dreams!
Hope to see you later on the planet!
Morning javaz, You and I seem to be on EST, where as the others seem to be CST…looking forward to your post, will check back in later to read…
I wish you luck, heck I haven’t even tried to put an avatar here…doesn’t look too hard, just need to read the instuctions…I’ll check back later
I am also on EST. And, good morning!!
Good morning BDM!
Just got back from walking the husband and the little dog.
We’re in Phoenix, but I’m an early riser normally, and early to bed always!
I see that AdLib is atweaking behind the curtain, as we now have reference to the posts with the comments. Thank you my friend! 🙂
My pleasure, my dear Kalima!
An excellent tweak!
Funny, that’s what my first girlfriend called me.
Seriously, thanks so much. Just returning the favor for all the contributions you and other members are making to the site through your posts, comments and inviting others to join!
Cheers!
LOL. My imagination runs wild.
As we say in Japan “Gokorosama!” it means thank you for your hard work. 🙂
I’ll have to remember that one Kalima.
What is the Japanese phrase for you’re a lazy sack of shit? I could have used that for a couple scientists I supervised. 😉
The Japanese are far too polite to say such a thing!
Well the second part of the insult Kuzu and lazy is namaiki and no the Japanese are not as polite as they used to be, it depends on which generation they are from.
My only suggestion is KISS (keep it simple stupid). I love the clean layout without all the bells and whistles on the front page. I like the main column approach with only a few extra columns with some easy navigation features. Using the tabs at the top is definitely the best way to go with navigating to different pages and features and they too should be relatively clean.
Also I have to give props to AdLib on the logo. I think it’s one of the best on the net and goes along with the color scheme we picked perfectly.
I second that emotion!
I always feel so left out – sniff 🙁 – when people post youtube videos because we don’t have DSL available in our area, and we’re pinching pennies, so we do not have cable or satellite.
So, we have the 20th century dial up along with 20th century television sets with the HD converter box!
Thankfully though, there is a live chat available here, and hopefully we will have live chat Friday night!
That should be much fun!!! 🙂
*Sniff* Tell me what you want to hear and I’ll post them for you if I’m awake and here at the time. 🙂
😆 great Motown oldie.
Lovez me a bit of old Smokey, what a voice.
Me too.
I’m a bit intimidated about adding the image to an article.
I tried it earlier after writing an article about the media and somehow I managed to lose it all!
Next time, I’ll ask my husband because he’s really good with all this computer stuff. 😉
I wish that I could say the same about my hubby, he has just learned how to email me from his mobile when he is out of the country. Bless his cotton socks. 🙂
As for the images, practice makes perfect, this from someone who can get an image into the post but not onto the Home Page. I’m a total technofart!! 🙂
*blush* Thanks to you, Kalima and K7 there’s a site to have the logo on.
Cheers, my friend!
Oh gee, come on now ” Mr, working all day and night to make it run smoothly,” take a bow, you deserve it more.
Ditto.
*bows modestly*
Arigato!
Doi itashi mashite AdLib san!
One “i” too many there but it means “You are welcome.”
I know, that’s about all the Japanese I know, thank you, you’re welcome and hello!
That’s all I got!
Hey, it’s a polite enough start.
Anything else you might want to learn, just holler. 🙂
Thank you all so much for the great suggestions, please keep them coming!
I’m going to go through all of them to consider which will work best, how or if they can be implemented and how best to make them as intuitive and easy-to-use as possible.
Some changes mentioned could be made pretty swiftly, others would take some time and some will need research to figure out if they can be effectively applied to this software.
Again, please keep the suggestions coming, they’re great and you’ll see many of them here in the near future.
I’ve been cruising the site and I should have done that sooner as so many of my questions were answered!
But, I’m the type of person that jumps in with both feet and then learn things the hard way.
But I found the live chat, and wondered if that works like instant messaging?
And if so, wouldn’t that be a fun thing for HuffNO Fridays?
javaz, absolutely, that’s on the agenda, wanted to ramp up to introducing new features on HuffNo Friday.
We haven’t had the opportunity yet to try the Author’s Chat with a lot of members on at the same time but I’m looking forward to seeing if it holds up solidly.
Maybe next HuffNo Friday, just want to make sure that everyone knows about it so if it gets quiet on the threads, members aren’t left wondering where everyone else is.
Great!
Perhaps an article on Friday morning telling members to click on the live chat at a certain time, which might be hard to do with the time differences, but not impossible.
I am looking forward to trying this out and chatting live with everyone!
Fun time!
Well guys, I’m outta of here, I have not gone to Hufflelumpost today and don’t intend to….thank you everyone it was lovely chatting with you…have a wonderful afternoon or evening…
Have a wonderful day and look forward to seeing you tomorrow on the planet!
Have a nice rest of the weekend.
Bye, BDM!
Sorry that just when I get home, you’re leaving. But have a great evening.
This has become the first place I log on to now, and it’s looks as though today the joint has been jumping! It’s exciting to watch the growth of PlanetPOV just over the last week.
Stopped briefly @ Hufflelumpost earlier this a.m. and it was very ho-hum. Getting pretty stale over there.
I’m thinking that we could have a page one and a page two.
The authors would be asked to discern if their submissions were more page one or page two. (There would need to be a box on page one listing the titles on page two)
Page one being debate and analysis of issues of the day, page two being humor, gossip, political snark, etc.
Thoughts? We would need the “editorial board” to occasionally weigh in and say “this really is more of a page two column”. It would be up to the author to move it or not.
And that would really all be about traffic. The fact is that we have a very satisfactory surge in traffic here. And some of it is more weighty than is other bits.
Either that or the “editorial staff” could have a “permanency rating” say one to five, and weigh some articles as more durable and therefore more worthy of remaining on the first page, and others to be less so, and to thus slip more quickly off the first page.
I don’t like that suggestion as much for a number of reasons. Not as voluntary for the authors, and a lot of work for the “editorial staff”, who, let’s face it, have a sex life to keep up with.
But I would be less pleased if someone spent a few hours researching and writing a column, only to have it pushed off the page because Hairyanna did something else outrageous and six of us felt the need to author a column excoriating her. (We all know she is a butthead.)
Hi AdLib, I have to say I’m already spending too much time here! I have a few usability suggestions. (I do this kind of thing for a living so I’ll probably over-do it, so don’t be too annoyed).
–The New Comments section is nice — I’ve been checking that first to see who said what. But it doesn’t tell you what thread each comment is from. Is it possible to get a list of “active” threads (with recent comments). Then you could click on a thread and see a list of new comments.
–When you scroll through a thread looking for new comments it gets a bit unwieldy if the thread is long. A smaller font size and less white space between comments would help with this.
–I’m not clear on the left column’s default layout. Sometimes there’s a list of topics and sometimes it’s a single topic and its comments. It would be less confusing if that column showed a list of recent topics so we could click on the one we want to read — instead of one main topic and the rest hidden.
–If you want to reply to the original story, you have to scroll down to the bottom to get to the reply button instead of just having it up there at the bottom of the story.
–Okay…I’ll shut up now.
Don’t sell yourself short. I for one have enjoyed reading your posts.
Some good ideas as well.
Oh no, please don’t take my font size away, I’m as blind as a bat and have problems reading what I’ve written in the comment box.
“My font, my font! My Queendom for my font!!! 🙁
Kalima, I don’t know if you’re aware, but you can change your font size on your computer. 🙂
Yes Nicole I know that but I have to change it every time I log on or want to read a news email and go into Safari. I keep a magnifying glass on the table next to me and changing back and forth gives me a headache, I know I’m such a pain. 🙂
I have one bad right eye since I was a kid and since 2 years ago after a haemorrhage in my left eyeball, a very unfocused left eye but if it is annoying to many people here, then I would surrender because I think that Adlib decided on the size just for me and it wouldn’t be unfair to be selfish if it poses a problem for others.
Oops,there I go “wouldn’t be fair….”
Even so, I liked the larger font too after getting eye strain from reading HuffPo hour after hour.
Still, there are practical issues connected to that now, with so many more members and more comments, it does take a lot more scrolling to get through all the comments and to the bottom of the page to post a new comment.
I do think reducing the font size makes sense at this point.
Have you tried just using the Zoom function in Safari?
In Firefox, I can use the Zoom function to enlarge any website and as long as my browser stays open, it stays that way when I refresh or go to any other site. Meanwhile, the rest of my programs look as they normally do.
Can you use the Zoom function the same way in Safari?
😆 I just tried my Zoom in Safari and all it did was make the page smaller, when I clicked back, the page disappeared into my icon dock.
That’s weird. It sounds like it zoomed out instead of zoomed in!
Are there both Zoom In and Zoom Out options?
Kalima, forget using the Zoom function. Just saw these simple instructions, try them (repeat to see if it makes the font bigger each time) and then refresh your page to confirm that it keeps the font size enlarged:
=============
In the Safari menu, to increase the text size:
View > Make Text Bigger
I have Zoom and Minimize on mine, when I clicked minimize, the page flew off into the Dock, hilarious, my computer seems possessed, I need an exorcism. 😆
Found it Adlib, I’ll try it on the comment box later, thanks a bunch!!
Kalima, I didn’t mean to make you feel bad at all! Actually, I like the larger font size as well, but I also hate the scrolling, lol. So to me, it’s a choice between 2 evils.
I use Firefox, and just use the zoom feature if needed. Just have to change it once during a session, and it’s all set.
Oh gosh Nicole, you didn’t make me feel bad at all, I realize that for some it could be annoying and maybe I have been totally spoiled for too long. 🙂
There is nothing wrong with being spoiled, Kalima!!
I know, my husband does it often. 🙂
Plus you have thirty cats.
Actually it was 20 and I lost 4 this year, a very sad year. 🙁
How are your monsters?
OK, the two youngsters squabble all the time.
There is a very nice male hanging around mooching food at the job I’m working. No tags, three years old? Healthy and friendly. I might bring him home.
Hey why not, the more the merrier I think. I’m thinking about another Siamese male myself.
Our half American shorthair found in a park days after he was born, needs a friend, with four females and only one other docile male in the house, he thinks he’s the boss. He’s not, I am!
P.S. Don’t forget to have him tested before you bring him into your home.
One hand raised halfway…waaaaay at the back of the room…yes, I believe it is….another vote for a font slightly larger than HuffPo’s! That could be a migraine inducer, at times.
Back of the room or not, I spotted you and thanks for vote. After about an hour on Huff I used to go cross-eyed and get a headache too. 🙂
Oops, missed a word again, “thanks for the vote” might fix it.