Messages

[are]

A) They or we or whoever don't think the person in question is a troll as you define it.
B) They/We disagree that posters acting in this way are not entertaining.
C) How many trolls have actually gone to the effort of making several (crappy) AGS games, and inspired a series of OK-to-hilarious games? That should earn our anonymous maybe-troll some slack, surely?
D) Sometimes people who start out writing barely-legible nonsense are cured, and turn into relatively reasonable posters.

A) Obviously! This is why I was expressing my opinion on the matter (never claimed to determine others' opinions, that's why I asked for them)
B) see answer A
C) If a troll invented the cure for cancer, but still acts the troll, I wouldn't ignore the trollish behavior just because of a great deed.
D) Opinion v Opinion on this matter, one isn't better (or more right) than the other

Theres just one guy here who is said to be a troll, an opinion that I don't share and that I think is really insulting and unfair towards someone whos just a little different. Especially if its someone whos obviously trying really hard and has made some good progress.
Seeking attention does not automatically make you a troll. Its probably just a typical behaviour of a 14-16 years old.

Secondly. Damn, these threads are entertaining. I really enjoy reading them and the absurdly hilarious situations. Its not like the whole board's been flooded. Is just a few threads.

So my opinion here is: Let's not make this a which hunt. Just relax and dont take everything so seriously.

Again though it's "opinion v opinion" ... I mean if a person has [several] threads where multiple posts straight-up call them a troll, or exhibit the anti-troll behavior(s) I mentioned in my first post, doesn't that mean that there is at least some who feel a troll is amongst us?

I wasn't starting a witch hunt and am not taking anything "so seriously" here ... recent events, which I consider trolling (as do many others), caused me to put to words some questions I've had for quite some time.

I agree with the other responses. This ol' internet is home to many people who want to start fights, insult people or force their views on others.

There's not a lot of that around here, so I think the community vibe is pretty good.

I do hope that wasn't directed at me?  I wasn't starting a fight or insulting anybody and certainly wasn't forcing my opinion on others ... I was just expressing my opinions which is, I think, the point of a discussion in the gen-gen

I wasn't specifically meaning the AGS boards either (this isn't the only place I have an account on a forums).  There is actually a surprising lack of trolls around these parts (and I agree with Ali the over-all vibe is pretty decent or I'd not be here after nearly 8 years) which is probably why the occasional troll stands out more (to me).

I would kindly and humbly ask that this thread not be turned into another crusade for the righteous in defense of a perceived slight and instead focus on the original intent of expressing opinions on trolling in general.

[Helpful Advice]

Given certain recent events (I'll be polite and not point fingers) I felt the need to post my feelings on the feeding of trolls.  These aren't new feelings.  Just feelings that the [previously mentioned] recent events have sparked my desire to post about it.

It goes something like this;

A troll is a troll is a troll is a troll.  A troll craves only one thing; continued attention no matter the cost. Trolls, in my opinion, add nothing useful to a web-community.  They aren't entertaining, they aren't 'occasional fun', they are nothing but useless and only take away from the communities over-all 'vibe'.

YOU CANNOT HEAL A TROLL.

YOU CANNOT CURE A TROLL.

YOU CANNOT HELP A TROLL.

YOU.CAN.NOT.

If you try to help, criticize, insult, enlighten, etc (anything) you only accomplish feeding the troll.

The methods people seem to need to try:

Helpful Advice:
No matter how logical and/or helpful your advice might be (attitude adjustments, spell-checking, etc) you aren't going to enlighten or change them, you only feed the troll.  It doesn't matter how politely you phrase it, you're feeding the troll.

Insults:
No matter how witty, rude, clever and/or warranted your insults might be you only accomplish feeding the troll.  A troll craves attention and this is the worst kind of troll food.  It's the candy/junk food of troll food.

Noble Defender:
No matter how much you 'defend' them to the others coming down on them, you are not going to make them feel 'accepted' and change their behavior you are only fueling the fire and thus, feeding the troll.

The Informer:
When you try to inform everybody else in the thread that they are only feeding the troll... you feed the troll (thus why I posted this as a separate topic in a vain (IE useless) attempt to stem the tide of trolldom).

There is only one way to make a troll go away;
DON'T FEED THE TROLL (don't reply to the thread)

It is the only way to make the troll go away. 

I will never understand why worthy topics/threads get only 1 page of replies before dying yet people perpetuate a troll thread with page after page of troll-food.  My current theory is that some [maybe most?] people just don't think of something as "trolling" and just take the bait unwittingly.

Now ... I didn't post this just to be a holier than though prick (surprise!). 

I'm actually curious what others' opinions were on the feeding of trolls and why, despite most peoples' hatred of trolls, they continue to take the bait and the cycle repeats itself over and over and over and over...

[zlandael]

zlandael - please read the forum rules before posting.

Alan v. Drake - glad to know you're still working on this so I didn't have to lock it... however please update your first post to have 2 screenshots!

No worries!  Thanks for the update (game looks great!)

That seems like an awful lot of effort... I've coped 15 or so years of email usage on this clever funtion called 'delete'.  Granted, my 12-year-old hotmail account is now drowning in spam, but these days I deliberately use that address as a dumping ground,  for signing up to stuff that I think will cause a lot of unwanted emails.  I've been using Gmail now for maybe 2 years?  And I think I could count on one hand how many peices of actual spam I have had in that time.

It wasn't too much effort [for me] but I love tweaking, customizing, experimenting and testing ... so I can see why the effort is probably too much for most!

But you're right for the most part... Spam (to my personal address) rarely gets into my actual inbox (and I've had my gmail addy for going on 7 years now). However when my Spam folder has 150 messages in 3 or 4 days it still aggravates me (wish it didn't) so I took on the challenge to lower that number.  Which I have!

I'm not sure how other email providers handle the dots ...

I am not sure spammers would actually remove the dots though because some people might give out their address with dots and filter for addresses without the dots (to delete) but some people might do the opposite way (and a spammer wouldn't know which was which).  I suspect (what I would do were I scum-of-the-earth spammer) is they probably have some kind of script they run that will remove the dots, but also keep the original and just email them both.

With gmail there's no difference between; darth.mandarb@, darthmandarb@, or even d.a.r.t.h.m.a.n.d.a.r.b@ ... it's all the same.  Another trick you can filter on is @googlemail.com instead of @gmail.com

I have also basically blocked all spam/telemarketer calls to my phone as well using Google Voice.

I no longer give out my actual phone number.  I only give out my gVoice number.  When I give it out if I need to allow the person I'm giving it to to contact me I add them to my contact list (even if just temporarily).  If anybody calls the number that is not in my contact list they get a pre-recorded message saying, "this number is no longer in service" and it doesn't even ring my cell.  I have set up several filters on those people actually in my contact list as well (friends get one voicemail recording, colleagues another, businesses another, and so on).  The 'net result?  Nobody gets through to my phone that I don't want getting through

If you get a google voice number (which I recommend you do, it's free (for now) and is awesome and easy to setup/use!) just remember to add yourself to the do not call registry (not sure if that works outside the states or how bad telemarketing is outside the states).  I would think Google would have that by default, but it's opt-in only!

I actually have, lately, taken an interest in removing ALL spam from my mailbox.

I have a gmail 'spam' account that is something.spam(at)gmail.com (something is obviously something else, I just don't want to list it in here) which has filters on it that just delete anything that comes to somethingspam(at)gmail.com (without the . in the middle) because Spammers will remove the dots because they know people use them to filter their emails.  Anything that comes to something.spam(at)gmail.com gets FWD'd to my personal address and immediately labeled 'Non-Friends' and skips the inbox.  So if I'm 'out' and someplace asks for the email I refuse, if they insist (saying they need it) they get "blah dot spam at gmail dot com"... it's so fun to see the looks on their faces when I say it.

If I sign up for something online (or order from a website) I add +website before the @gmail.com so like; something.spam+thinkgeek@gmail.com ... in this way when I receive spam email that isn't from think geek but has the +thinkgeek in the address I know they sold my email address (I doubt think geek would do so, I just used it as an example).

The only problem is that these scum-bag low-life spammers know these tricks ... so if/when they see the +website or the dots in the address they can work around it.  However ... since putting this system in place my 'spam' label in my personal gmail inbox has gone from about 30/day to about 6-10/day ... so it is effective.

The only thing that still causes spam is that my friends/family still sign up for shit online and give out my personal email address in those 'recommend to friends'.  I have told them all time and time and time again to NEVER give out ANYbody's personal addresses but they still do it.  I am working on a fix to this as well but Google hasn't added the 'whitelist' feature to the gmail inbox.  Once they do that my plan will be complete!!

Chloroform.  Once the woman is unconscious roll her over onto her stomach and, using a [minimum] 8" syringe, do a little ovary invasion.  You should be able to harvest several eggs before the chloroform wears off.  I suggest taking several that way you can keep a few, and sell some to the black-market and make some serious cash.  They can go for up to 30,000USD (espcially if the woman has green eyes).

Important caveat; if the woman saw your face before the chloroform rendered her unconscious you'll need to kill her (wait till after retrieving the eggs).  To prevent this (if you haven't the stomach for it) I recommend wearing a mask while doing the deed.

[monkey]

monkey - that was extremely generous of you!

icey - if you want to run with what he suggested (or need more help with it) please take it into PMs so as to not [further] clutter up this thread. 

Trust me ... it doesn't need more confusion.

Please update the first post (one of the screenshots has been moved/deleted and is not displaying)
Thanks!

Congrats on finishing Dom!

Doesn't feel any faster, though, despite their claims.

Yeah it's one of my favorite things about this kind of thing "and faster than ever!" only they're talking in milliseconds which nobody but a computer could detect.

I suspect these are issues with the new standards FF4 adopted (HTML5/CSS3) conflicting with some site's CSS.

I'm not sure though. 

The folks behind Firefox are [usually] pretty darn fast/good about updating these kinds of bugs so I'm sure it's just temporary. 

The conspiracy theorist in me wants to say something about them knowing of these bugs but releasing anyway 'cause IE9 just launched.

** goes and gets tin foil cap **

I experienced an issue with the FF myself.  The javascript alert box has been updated but in my version of Firefox it doesn't work properly.  It's just a plain looking box.  My google searches returned as little success as yours seem to have (though I was able to learn some people were fixing the issue by reverting to the default "theme" ... I am not using a theme though)

I haven't had the missing text issue but I have noticed, on these forums, that the normal size text is appearing smaller ... normally, in the past, I would hit CTRL-0 (zero) and it would correct the text size but that has no effect in Firefox 4.

I fear it was released with some bugs ... but even if it had 10 times as many issues it would still be 100 times better than IE.

I do use Chrome most of the time now (posting this from Chrome) but I've had some issues with it too.

Ideally what I'd like to see would be, now that AGS is 'open source' would be somebody to create a plugin (or better yet an actual part of AGS) that exports the development files to iOS format.  So you can work on the game in one place but make it exportable to the iOS as well.

So I suppose you could create this plugin ... and sell/liscense that.  However; the very nature of the AGS community is free contributions.  So while you could make something like that (and charge for it) I suspect it would then only be a matter of time before it's recreated and freely offered.

My girlfriend and I have begun developing Aps (for iDevices) and this is something I have been thinking a LOT about lately (a way to make adventure games for the iPad primarily).  So I'm interested in what you come up.  I am not trying to discourage your endeavor just giving you the reality of the AGS community.

Good luck and keep us posted!

Sorry for your loss my friend.

[recruit a team]

When you have the screenshots let me know and we can unlock this. 

In the mean time, if you want/need help, you should post in the 'recruit a team' thread in the adventure related forum.

Since when is the general discussion board not the place for this type of thread?

I'm going to keep my opinion on the matter out of this thread because, as usual, it would just be misunderstood and then start an off-topic-10-page-back-n-forth where nobody will see the obvious point I'm trying to make and get all "enlightened" on me about it trying to make me seem ignorant and eventually I'll just stop trying to make the close-minded see my point and bow out of the thread garnering posts about how this somehow proves them right since I am not taking part anymore when it's actually a case of me not caring to open a closed mind and then I'll receive countless PMs from people saying that they understand and agree with me and they can't understand why the people in the thread just can't see it when it's so obvious.

Pass.

I admit grim is a little ... emphatic ... with his posts on this [admittedly] morbid subject but I don't see the difference between that or somebody making a post about a movie they liked.  It's "general" discussion ... it's what it's for.  When a celebrity dies and somebody, who cared for him/her, starts a post about it, there's always those blow-hards that feel the need to post the usual "people die every day why is this so big a deal" posts.  So I suppose I'm not really surprised.

Is it really that hard to understand that this is something he cares about and wants to discuss, generally.

For what it's worth Grim; I sent some positive thoughts into the universe for little James ... where ever he is.

The table tag (and its respective children) is being phased out in favour of styled divs and spans, though it hasn't been formally deprecated yet (even the XHTML 1.0 Strict DTD still officially supports it). So at this point it's a matter of preference, but using divs/spans will give you a greater level of control, and help make it more future-proof.

Nevermind, someone already said that tables were being deprecated before I did.  So sorry about that.

Tables are most assuredly not being deprecated!

They are no longer in vogue for site layouts (were never intended to be used for it anyway) but the markup for tables isn't going anywhere and is still 100% the best way to layout tabular data (that is what the tag was created to do).

But your points are, of course, valid as they were in regards to his site's layout!  I just felt the need to stick up for my beloved tables (I create a lot of reports on the web and I would never use anything but tables to display them!) but I have gone table-less for my site designs.

Put a small script on your site that detects Internet ExSuxplorer and says, "You're using an inferior, piece of shit, browser and this site refuses to retard itself to work in such a worthless web browser.  Download Chrome or Firefox" and provide them the appropriate links.

Take a stand!!!

Let's not turn this into a debate on ripped verses original backgrounds.  If (s)he wants advice on that (s)he can post in the critics lounge.