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I recall rendering on an Amiga as an exercize in patience.
I really loved that machine, though. I wish it had gone farther than it did. But.. eh.. Thanks, Medhi Ali.
Yup. That was the first wave of suits and bean-counters coming into technology with the idea that it is ALL widgets and that the methodology of moving widgets is universal.
And technology hasn't been as exciting really, since.
Applied in a more general way, we've been automating the same tasks for half a century and getting less and less efficient at it all the time.
This means that when everyone has gigabit or multigigabit speeds, every landing page will download a completely immersive VR environment that you have to walk around in to find the information you want. Search engines will place you into a virtual library where you have to walk over to a card catalog.
And I miss my Amiga too.
Ig.. your last post reminded me of something I'd like to see on Citadel.
A way to LIKE or UPVOTE a message, even if I don't have anything to say to respond or add to the comment. Just a way to acknowledge, "I agree," in what Facebook and Twitter have established as a standard.
I'd like users who have nothing to say to be able to contribute to a post by upvoting it. I know it is... silly, I guess... but it is something I think users respond to.
+1 this post if you agree!
Sat May 18 2019 03:23:54 AM EDT from ParanoidDelusions @ Uncensoredin what Facebook and Twitter have established as a standard.
That is exactly why it shouldn't be implemented.
Just because Facebook and Twitter have implemented it as a standard isn't the reason to reject it, though.
Giving customers (callers) what they want to create a compelling alternative for people is why it should be implemented.
I can see your concern - maybe. It could dilute the quality of the callers by encouraging the lowest common denominator of customer. Turn Citadel from Van Halen into Van Hagar, from Pre-Napster Metallica to post-Napster Metallica.
So make it a switch that individual sysops can turn on or off at their whim. I mean, having a web interface at all dilutes the quality of the userbase by making Citadel more accessible. I had originally considered just implementing the text-client side - for just this reason. Then I realized - most of the people I know who know how to use the text-based version have long since burned out on Citadel - I need new, fresh users - and the problem with Citadel compared to traditional menu-driven BBS systems has always been that it has a steep learning curve when you're new. That makes it exclusive in the people who use it. But... that makes it exclusive in the people who use it. :)
So... just a thought. The more people "dialing in" to the more Citadels - the more Citadels will happen for people to dial into.
It would be better to get social media and other forums to remove the up vote and like buttons, the world would be a better place. Up vote if you agree.
:)
We've had a tendency to just do exactly what you did and type '+1' when we agree with a post.
(OTOH, if you wanted to +1 something several posts back... eh...)
I'd like users who have nothing to say to be able to contribute to a
post by upvoting it. I know it is... silly, I guess... but it is
I think I might have actually tried building a moderation system, around 15 years ago ... yes I had Slashdork in mind when I was doing it, but today it would probably be Disqus that we'd emulate.
It would be easy enough to ignore, for those who don't really care to use it. The tough part would be building it in a way that doesn't slow the system down. It would need to keep track of who voted for each message, to keep people from voting multiple times. That means one record per user per message, plus a reference count.
(OTOH, if you wanted to +1 something several posts back... eh...)
That's totally possible now, even with the text client. If you use the <R>eply function, you'll continue reading where you left off after saving your message.
While I was typing that, I realized that what you meant was that the "+1" message would appear out of context. And we can't easily do a threaded view because too many people use <E>nter when they should use <R>eply :)
But that may have a lot to do with me being a real Citadel old-timer set in my ways and that Citadel has, by necessity, evolved in the right way to navigate it. In fact, that seems likely to me.
But, I do like the idea of a +1 "digg" kind of system. On the other hand, if there are concerns about it impacting performance - it probably wouldn't be ideal for a Citadel running on a Pi, at any rate.
Not-pausing after each message, combined with pausing at the end of each screen, is a particularly nice combination. Gone are the days when you could read text faster than the modem could push it, so you need it to stop *somewhere*.
Of course, I think that being able to reply to an individual message and then continue reading where you left off, is a useful feature.
It's always difficult to balance the needs of modern systems with the desire to keep Citadel traditions intact.
Wed May 22 2019 12:00:37 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar @ UncensoredYou can disable the prompts after each message, using <.E>nter <C>onfiguration.
Not-pausing after each message, combined with pausing at the end of each screen, is a particularly nice combination. Gone are the days when you could read text faster than the modem could push it, so you need it to stop *somewhere*.
Of course, I think that being able to reply to an individual message and then continue reading where you left off, is a useful feature.
It's always difficult to balance the needs of modern systems with the desire to keep Citadel traditions intact.
I agree completely. I'm torn on how I want to configure it and how I want to adjust it to cope for modern realities of my 175mb connection which is... I dunno, I'm bad at math... a lot faster than my 2400bps connection when I was 17. :)
I was just thinking about how, as a Sysop, I miss being able to just WATCH the current caller entering a message... without them even knowing there was someone lurking and watching as they typed in each character - maybe backed out an entire line or paragraph, maybe abandoned an entire post that they thought only they knew about. The voyeur quality of being a sysop back then wasn't something you realized was a weird... not perk... but experience of being a sysop that a lot of people weren't really aware was even a thing... and of course, now that is gone - which is far more secure.
Oh, yeah, I remember that.
You could see folks fumbling around the UI, too, which helped you improve it. At least, if you had access to sources and a decent-enough compiler.
Not that I knew enough back then to modify the code.
Bring Back War Signatures!
No, don't do that!
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