Cruise Journal

[PsychicHeart]

Hey everyone!
Yesterday my muchneeded vacation really began, and for around 8 more days, i am on the Pacific Sun. We are going to Vanuatu, Noumea, thAt sort of stuff. I'm  in the netcafe. Anyway, i thought i'd write a bit of a log.

Day 1
Well, todays teh day, we head out. we went to the pizzaplace. Me and my best mate Alex went to the arcade where a selection of new & old (A slightly batterd NeoGeo!) awaited us. They stuffed up our dinner arrangements, but, these things happen.
Well, i'm about to go get some sleep, so seeya.

Day 2
A breakfast of Pancakes and Maple syrup. Tasted pretty nice, especially with Pineapple on it. We headed to the Pools, where they have a wicked slide. Well , gotta go eat.
Cheers.

[esper]

Cool. You should post pics and stuff...

But I have one question: How muchneeed a vacation could a 13 year old actually need?

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Esper: when you were a 13 year old, didn't you yourself think that school was so much work and you relished your vacations just about as much - or even more - as you relish your own nowadays? We have to put things in perspective.

[Nacho]

Esper was not in a forum for people over 16 when he was 13...

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

I didn't say I thought the thread was interesting, did I?

[Nacho]

You can't, because it isn't...   

Like dessert to try, the "My first PSP image", the Black and red 3-d union jack, cool futurama fonts...

Is there an "ignore user" button I can use?

[esper]

Harsh. Leave the kid alone (wait, what am I saying...)

And no, I wasn't in a forum for people over 13 when I was 16. dan quayle hadn't invented the internet yet....

[Nacho]

And no, I wasn't in a forum for people over 13 when I was 16, dan quayle hadn't invented the internet yet....

Lol! You were not in a forum for people over 16 when you were 13, not the oposite!

[esper]

Shut up!!! (scuttles away all embarrassed)....

[Nacho]

 :o

[Andail]

Hm, people, if you don't like Fluke's thread, you're not making it better by hi-jacking it.

[Nikolas]

I don't know, he's trying to make something interesting. He's trying to make games, companies, logos, pictures, cruise logs.

If you check the forums, all of these do exist! But for some strange reason he can't make any of it interesting. And I don't know if it's the age that's wrong. We do have other 13 year olds here, I believe, who don't cause all this trouble...

Anyway, Fluke when you post try to think really hard what you're doing. When you post a picture don't post it for no apparent reason. When you create a company logo, and have people making for you (even if it is voluntarily) try to think what company in the first place, you're 13. There's no doubt that when you grow up you'll have so many knowledge over so many things, but still try to think before you act. After all the topics you've posted you should've gotten the picture.

And I don't know about the 16 years old limit, but sometimes I wish there was a 27- years old limit, so I couldn't be here. I feel a lot of times, so old, so ignorant, so stupid...

[Nacho]

But the "over 16" rule does exist... Why setting a rule if we're not going to accomplish, or set punishments for those who does not accomplish it?

Ok, I know that the part of the "punishement" sounds horrible, but I've studied introduction to law, and civil law, and the parts of a law are clear: Where does it apply (application zone), to who, and the punishement if the law is not accomplished.

Imagine a law "thou shall not drive faster that 120 kms. per hour in fast lanes" And you don't include a "if you do, you'll have to pay 500 â,¬ if caught, plus retirement of license and jail penalties if it results in accident" Do you think people would drive slower than 120 kms. per hour if law does not specific punishements? Surelly not.

Do you imagine what should cops do when catching people driving fast? "Sorry man, but you're driving to fast... eeeer... please... reconsider..."Ã, 

This guy is laughing at the "you must be over 16" rule each time he posts, not because their silly posts, but of the lack of effort. He usually posts something like "My first PSP image: (in generalÃ,  ) crit it!" or "I went to a pizzaplace, I ate a pinneaple at breakfast and I went to pool... discuss about it!" That is miles away of the good starting topics examples we've seen in M0ds' or Andail's posts. Fluke's posts are boring, not helpfull, interesting or funny.

So... what should we do? As said... stablish a punishement for posters who does not follow the rules (I.E. posting nudity without warning, spoilers without [ h i d e ], or starting threads being younger than 16...) like, I don't know, being 5 days without being able to start a topic or something...

OR

Remove the "you can't be under 16 to post". If we set a rule and we're going to do nothing when we're being witness of a constant breaking of that law, that law becomes totally stupid. Let's remove the minimun age. No one can post worse than Fluke, no matter if he is 5 or 4.

If you see, I've posted the two possibilities I see as the only possible things to do.

Going on with this nowadays "We're seeing a breaking of a law, but who cares?" attitude is the worst and some kind of "hypocrital" attitude (I can't find the propper, and non-offensive word, but if someone does, please put it here).

So... Which is my opinion? Which of those two staled possibilities should I choose? Helm asked me in Mittens: "Do you want Fluke to be banned?" My reply could have surprised the mitteners.

"I don't hate Fluke, I want him to go on here and I like that AGS is a forum which hasn't banned anyone"

Minimi was a member which I used as a example of a "I WANT ATTENTION!" attitude, at the beginning, and finally resulted as a good member after learning some art and relaxing a bit.

I think, thought, that Fluke was going to be the same, but I think nowadays that he will be regullarilly posting this silly threads for seeking our attention for a long time. My opinion is that his right of starting threads in general should be removed for under 16. Not the right to reply, or being a member, so they could learn and see how the forum works.

So... What happends if we find a young guy who is really interesting? It should be a shame to lose his topics. No problems. Start threads through moderators. PM them and they will post in the name of the young member.

I might be wrong, but that's what I think, sincerelly.

[esper]

Farl's post kicked all manner of bitticks. I totally agree. The one problem is that it would be hard for the moderators to keep up (has it been five days yet? You still can't post, suckah!) or, if they decided to program it in PHP or something, it would take a whole lot of time and trouble for folks who aren't even getting paid to do it.

I think, personally, these "mini-flame sessions" are the best way to deal with it. If someone hears enough times that they are posting stupid stuff, it might eventually get their attention. It hasn't with Fluke yet, but.... ohh, well.

I mean, I've posted some asininity in my day. I have two threads that never got replied to and one just the other day that got locked... Ummm, it was actually today, come to think of it .... I once posted a competition in the competition section before reading the rules that said not to do it. I suck just as much as the next guy... Everyone is capable of doing it. Just not quite so much as certain people.

[Nikolas]

I havent studied law, or anything but as an idea punishment is not the greatest to start with.

I don't know what's the solution here...

But there are laws which go without punishment. And I used to drive more than 120 Khm/h whenever I felt that I could do it (this has to do with the car I'm driving and the road). It had als oto do if there were any cameras around.

Now, I've grown up. I can understand the dangers of doing 150 on a Motorway. And I don't do it. There's no reason for me to have a punishment for speeding. I see the reason behind the law.

Repeated crimes should be punished and I think that here with Fluke we have a case of repeated "crime" multiple times. I don't think he's laughing everytime he post, I think he's spoilt and he's looking for attention be trying to mimicke (sp?) everything he sees here. This is wrong but I think that the best thing why can do is just to ignore all his silly threads, even delete them (?) I do remember a guy named Maryland who seemed to stop posting (is he banned?)

And anyway I don't see why fluke can't reenter the forums with a different name and a different age?

I don't know if the solution is to stop people from making threads, or is it better to teach them.
The internet is a great way to be tottally irrisponsible...And a bad speller!

[Andail]

Hm, this may sound harsh to a friend, but please just leave this to the moderators.
Not only have I been moderator here long enough to have worked out a pretty well-founded agenda, I also work with kids on professional basis.

The biggest problem with trying to enforce these age-rules, is that we have little means to establish their real age. This means that if we have a zero-tolerant age policy, people will just not tell us their real age anymore.

This very liberal view helps establishing closer and more honest relationships.
The supporting (as opposed to banning) kind of moderating helps improving the poster's behaviour, instead of creating resentful trolls who will keep spamming the community for ages.

When the kids finally reach a mature age, they can look back at how they behaved and learn from that, and help others, etc.

As for now, I think the situation is very good compared to most other forums.

PS:
I'm very near closing this thread, since the rules-debate have little to do in gen-gen (there is a moderator-forum already), and the initial post hasn't got any attention. I'll leave it for now, though.

[esper]

Hey, listen Fluke... Nik was right. It is cool that you are being an active member of the society, and the last thing I'm sure any of us want to do is drive you away. But seriously, now... Check out what people are saying and realize that you need to be a part of the community, not try to say "hey check me out! No, seriously, check me out!!!" I had a friend (vomits upon using word friend in the same sentence as the name:) Matt... He was the clown of all clowns. Everyone hated him. He was a worthless member of society. He refused to get and keep a job (he had been through thirteen in six months once...) and just leeched off everyone around him. One day, he got a true and mighty asskicking, when we were all at a pool hall and he decided to just randomly walk up and grab a cute girl's boob. He was doing it to show off, but we mopped the place with him. Later, I told him the secret to life, the universe, and everything: 42!!!! (no, just kidding) Ever since I explained to him exactly why people pissed on him everywhere he went, and that he needed to learn how to share the world with other people and be a part, not just make believe he was the only person around that was worth anything, he instantly cleared up his act.

My point is this: Be a part. Most of what you do is "Hey, look what I did" or "Hey, look what I'm doing!" If you try to help other people, post interesting links people can use and will enjoy, etc... maybe when you come up with a cruise log more people will say "Hey, cool! Fluke went on vacation! Let's see what he has to say!!!"

And PS: Don't take my above suggestions and do them flamboyantly and constantly just to "get your name out there." People will realize what you're doing and eventually get aggravated. Just be yourself, with a little more effort placed on other people and not just you. Then, you may very well rule several galaxies with your resulting coolness.

[Nacho]

That doesn't sound Harsh at all, because the spirit of my post was not:

"Silly moderators! I ares more smart than you!!! Follow my brilliant idea!!!111one!!11" Ã, 

It was just my opinion, and I know some people was going to post for and against it, giving better sollution (and practical, mine was difficult to be taken to reality). That's why I posted it. I hope we find something that really works.

The biggest problem with trying to enforce these age-rules, is that we have little means to establish their real age. This means that if we have a zero-tolerant age policy, people will just not tell us their real age anymore.

I knew that. That shows the weakest point of my thread. But I see a problem and I've started a brainstorm. Ã,  Go on with it.

But I wanna ask... If we are not going to enforce the age-rules... why having them? Ã,  Let's remove them completelly and proclaim that we are a totally auto-ruled forum.

And yeah... The situation is better than in 99% of the other forums, thank God!

EDIT: Niko... The punishement of driving faster is specified very clearly in each law code in every country, with the tables of punishements deppending on how faster than the limit you're driving and much more... 

[Nikolas]

EDIT: Niko... The punishement of driving faster is specified very clearly in each law code in every country, with the tables of punishements deppending on how faster than the limit you're driving and much more...Ã, 

Of course. But if you check I bet you that 80% don't drive faster than the limit, not because they will be punished but because they know that the speed limit is there for a reason. So If we could all learn the reason behind the law (difficult but hey... I'm a dreamer)we wouldn't have to have punishment. Hm... too much Hollywood

[Nacho]

You are too pure thinking that 80% follow the limits because they're good people...