Question for Rob on current PunaWeb hopes & expectations

[ironyak]

Hey Rob!

As I've seen you checking in here more on the weekends I was hoping you might have a chance to provide your current hopes and expectations for PunaWeb. Historically, it's been understood that PunaWeb is for discussing topics related to Puna & Hawaii, not providing a space for punatics to give their thoughts on national and world events as there are plenty of other places to do that. As such, users were expected to keep it local as much and as best as possible.

Is this still the case? How much not-Hawaii-related chatter do you feel is ok? Do you take exception with users trying to reminder others to keep the conversation Hawaii related?

Also, you've often discussed not over-quoting (using the quote function to requote the entire quote above to be inside your reply). What's your current thoughts on this? Other tips or requests to help PunaWeb function as well as possible?

Obviously communities and standards change over time so figured it might be worth getting some clarity on how you'd currently like to see this resource you're providing to be used. I understand you're busy with real world projects, but if you have a few moments, it might help get everyone on the same page. Thanks!

ETA: A couple points of recent contention.

- 5 posts per day average: Is your view that people should try to stick to around 5 posts a day generally or only that the account's overall average has to stay below 5 a day on average over its full existence? Some of us could post hundreds of posts a day for weeks on end and never reach 5 a day average for our account total. Of course that would be highly disruptive and dickish so not sure who would want to do that, but it would be allowed by the account average math approach.

Your views on people using ALL CAPS, which of course is commonly seen as yelling online? Thanks again.

[Punatang]

For example, with the greatest respect and appreciation Rob for this amazing resource you provide the people of Puna, are you still tolerating United States Presidential assassination porn such as this:

ironyak

Posting Freak
Posts: 3,099
Threads: 101
Joined: May 2009
#1,357
04-23-2020, 05:08 PM

Sulu has the plan to get the US's Enterprise out of this jam (he'd pass the Kobayashi Maru with flying colors)

https://twitter.com/GeorgeTakei/status/1...2442572800

Joe: I just told Donald about the Tide Pod challenge.
Barack: You what?
Joe: Yeah. Told him it would stop Covid-19 dead.
Barack: Joe—
Joe: And I said you'd done it, no sweat. Now we wait.

[Punaperson]

I know the only constant is change, but I miss the Punaweb that was Puna/Hawaii specific, informative, and useful. It was unique. "Bicker Boards" are a dime a dozen on other parts of the internet. Rob, where do you want to take our community ?

[ironyak]

Punatang - For example, with the greatest respect and appreciation Rob for this amazing resource you provide the people of Puna, are you still tolerating United States Presidential assassination porn such as this: (link added for convenience Rob if you feel a need to remove "presidential assassination porn" from George Takei that's still live on X - maybe Musk is a fan of "assassination porn"? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )

lol - yeah. The early days of Covid were wild here on PW with the more conspiracy minded noting the threat near the beginning of the year (points & thanks to them). This is also when the "Hawaii-only topics" standard really slipped, then fell and broke. Was Rob allowing much looser discussions the right choice for that time and context? I'd say probably, yeah, and it did lead to some fun, informative, and wide-ranging conversations. Should that loose standard still apply now? That's part of what it would be useful for Rob to clarify.

[HiloJulie]

Being a relative newcomer here on PunaWeb, having been a member a little over a year now, I have spent a significant amount of time going back and reading posts literally since day one of PunaWeb. 

I have found and still find PunaWeb to be very useful and informative on a wide host of topics and issues. I have found numerous posters to be very interesting even though I may not agree with them on any particular topic. 

What I have found and truly understand is this underlying hypocrisy a handful of posters, both past and present, who feel the need to dictate to Rob how he should run this forum as well as asking Rob to change the rules he established when he first started PunaWeb. 

Granted there have been and will be posters who push Rob’s envelope to a breaking point and have been banned. Even several posters who were banned once coming back with a new name and continuing to push the envelope even further. 

Having said that, I do not see any significant wandering of topics being non Hawaii/Puna related. What I have seen being done to others as well as having been subjected to myself is name calling, degrading terms of peoples nationality, occupation and/or gender. Along with several posters saying NOTHING about those “digs.”

I have watched several posters complaining about quoting posts, fonts used, spacing used and number of posts being made, while not contributing one single thing to the subject matter of any particular thread. Further, I have found that the very posters complaining about other posters using the quote function, if you go and read those posters posts, they themselves use the quote function on their own replies to other posters. The “I can do it, but how dare you do it” mentality is quite astounding as well as humorous to an extent. 

In short, this thread is the epitome of the point I am making. 

It’s my opinion that if Rob doesn’t like what is being said, he would say something and/or do something. Personally when I read threads like this one, my opinion is the equivalent of some good old “white boy” club trying to keep the discussion limited to only what they want to hear. And further limiting who can and cannot say what they want to. 

I commend Rob for PunaWeb. I don’t think he needs to make any statements about his direction or hopes or expectations. He is not running for political office. From what I see, PunaWeb is exactly what Rob envisioned since the first day PunaWeb went live.

[TomK]

Has the spirit of 'elepaio taken over ironyak's soul?

[kalianna]

Should the questioning of ironyakʻs soul be better placed on the bickering thread?

[TomK]

Who knows? You can move it to the bicker thread if you want. All I did was point out that 'elepaio and Ironyak's questions to Rob seem to follow the same pattern, and they want the hall monitor to take over.

[HiloJulie]

"...and they want the hall monitor to take over."

I think it runs a little deeper Tom. They WANT to be the hall monitor.

[ironyak]

It's fascinating to see how wildly bad some are at understanding basic English. I'm just asking Rob to clarify his current take on some long established practices here on PW so that users don't have to play hall monitor and can just point at "Rob's Requests for PunaWeb."

When he has the time I'm sure he'll let us know his thoughts, but I understand he has a lot on his plate currently.

Assume the best and ask questions (but probably not about soul swapping as an explanation for requesting Rob's input about his own site? ;)