State of the QBN 2019
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- monNom2
I don't really see the lack of women here as an issue. It's an open forum and it just happened to evolve that way. There are plenty of places online that skew the other way.
It might even be that one of the things that makes this place a bit special is the consistency of viewpoint around what appeals to male designers. Where else do you go to find that?
I like that we have a proud dad's thread, and that the online dating tread is almost exclusively about men's failures and successes. As a male, that's the kind of content that engages me. I can't relate the same way to a proud mama's thread.
Anyways, I guess my point is that I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with being a man, and I don't think talking to other men is inherently nefarious. The gender thing doesn't seem to me to be the issue we're having. More likely, it's just that we don't have much young blood and the early members are getting older and have less time to spend here (case in point: Proud Dads). But that's probably more a product of changing technology expectations and our acerbic wit. I've heard from other designers that we come off a bit mean toward newcomers.
- Name three design-related forums like QBN that are 99% female.i_monk
- surely it'd be more interesting if there was a female presence here? Y'know, just to talk to.Fax_Benson
- We do have one or two, and bless them for putting up with us! My point was that the character of this place is a byproduct of the community....monNom
- if you try to change the community, you'll probably change the character of the place too... and I like the character (mostly)monNom
- JesusFax_Benson
- 'one or two, and bless them for putting up with us' lol.Fax_Benson
- They're so brave!deadsperm
- It's simple; we XX chromosomes like to talk more than type. Want to be heard, we get read enough.BustySaintClaire
- Nairn0
~153 likely unique users...
Next stage is to work out a way of displaying this info in an 'interesting' way without giving information out that would probably make people feel uncomfortable (ie. hiding usernames and URLs)
I also need to compile a seperate list of known pseuds to total up post counts properly - there are some people on here (hayzilla or Yuekit, for instance) whose response count is much lower than it should be, with older responses lost or spread across other usernames.
Anyway - creepy, huh? :)
- Sorry, "likely unique users who have posted in the past month or so".Nairn
- Looks like my Sainsbury's Christmas shop receipt.fadein11
- How many of them are active at least once a day? That would be interesting. (active like, posting something)Bennn
- Thats not an healty community if you want to know.Bennn
- What's this from?garbage
- What would constitute a 'healthy community' in your mind, Bennn? I'd be surprised if active users was much different in the 'Good Old Days'.Nairn
- i think we've all just gotten a bit lazy when it comes to posting cool shit we see around / don't have time to spend finding cool shit / we've all got old.Nairn
- @garbage—I compiled it manually over the past hour or so - I'm too dumb to automate this, but do have a borderline-autistic ability to copy/paste & alt/tab shitNairn
- @nairn, this community was way more active a few years ago. Many people have left.Bennn
- It was hard to keep up with the threads movments back in the day. Now we often have the same thread stuck for an entire day.Bennn
- because only a few persons are posting and answering.Bennn
- I dont want to be negative, but QBN is clearly less active than it was and its slowly going down every year. For multiple reasons.Bennn
- it's just a natural progression to the QBN singularity where one person argues with themselves all day.fadein11
- LOL fade so truerenderedred
- @Bennn:
Quality (of posts) > Quantity (of posts)Krassy - creepymonospaced
- @nairn Do you have a higher resolution image, I want details.
But also, MQBNGA.garbage - @garbage - I'm hesitant to post it publicly in its full form as it's not really 'my' info. What is it you want to see? Location/Post count & sign up dates ...Nairn
- ... aren't too personal or revealing, which is what I'm intending to try and make use of. it's not complete though because of pseuds and.. well, time.Nairn
- I was just curious as to how many sockpuppet accounts there are. I've only had two accounts, and only because I forgot my password for my first account..garbage
- ..so I decided to change my name. Also is georges behind any of the troll accounts. He's a legend, and I wish he was still around.garbage
- I have no way of telling that - I have access to as much info as you! I've kind of analysed each user and made assumptions as to whether they're 'real' or notNairn
- The leftmost column is 'sus?' and I only have in there so far - one of the 'women', who I suspect is not.Nairn
- zarb0z0
I’ve had a think, and I’d like to share.
This is my only QBN account. I say this to call attention to my faults and flaws; investigate. I speak quickly, sometimes harshly, and I own every word—I have to, or I am nothing. Sometimes, the little chav in me feels randy, and sometimes the gentleman wishes to pop round the shops for no good reason at all. Those extremes show in my posts.
I like to think I contribute, but I confess it’s likely just in a participatory sense of community. The design work I do is all CAD, FEA/CFD usually, and there’s an incredible overlap between the (PC) tools I use to and the tools a DTP artist uses, but we share almost no software (that I can discern).
The conversations around COTD, NSFWotD, etc? Those affect me, for that’s where I “contribute” most. Otherwise, you’ll catch me commenting on POTD, or putting Yevgeniy in exceptionally unsafe conditions.
That said, before I vote for the removal of COTD (et al), I want to point out one small but glaring flaw in the logic of removing questionable comment:
Cocks gonna cock.
Tossers post trash, so when that avenue is closed, they’ll post trash where it doesn’t belong. I, for one, do not wish to expect a “clean and sober” QBN, only to find some bellend has sabotaged the POTD thread with a goatse.
So I vote for the sanitation of QBN...under one condition: there MUST be a way to quickly remove shitposts, shitposters, and troll accounts. There must. If there’s no way to stop that, then the you-know-who-you-are’s of the world will just destroy what we vote to create.
As far as diversity, I think there’s a possibility of abusing that too. We could easily find an untoward moderator asking for “proof pics” of female potentials to give them priority. We could see a lot of things. What management system does QBN have in place to make sure the ship stays on course?
Finally, there are not-so-obvious subjects to tackle. We have a “shooting of the day” thread. Why? Do we need a constant reminder that the USA’s media is literally obsessed with showing how tornadoes only strike caravan parks? There’s no equal time for such hot-button topics. And, if there becomes one, we’re no longer a Design Community, yeah? Isn’t there enough of that Elsewhere?
We have a Donnie Drumpf thread. Why? They have that in the States, it’s called “Fox News.” Who gives a toss about foreign governments buggering themselves?
We have a Cat of the Day thread. Why? There are countless websites, subreddits ad nauseum for cats, going all the way back to hieroglyphics.
We have threads so abjectly disconnected from Designing Stuff that, as Bennn said, it really hasn’t been a Design board in quite some time. Would we like it to be? Then those seemingly harmless threads have to go too, as much as I personally would not like to see that.
Finally, for those who’ve been in this game long enough to remember USENET, there used to be a system where, if you wanted a newsgroup called, say, rec.autos.makers.tvr, you would have to post your proposal to REC's RFC thread, get it voted in by the body politik, and THEN it would be approved. I close my rant with a suggestion that something similar be considered, or something where certain “karma” or “upvotes” or whatever participation-trustworthiness-me... means your posts go through immediately, otherwise they are held for approval (whereupon you get a point when it’s posted). Get rid of ALL the non-Design threads, have a rapid-response team to kill off the trolls and the NSFW content, and limit the methods by which the column on the left gets populated.
“I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.”
You see, Yevgeniy, site for anonymous not productive for dreams of ink and motion. Use QBN. Is nice.
- Let's just say that the high-and-mighty of us work or aspire to work on efforts to encourage a better society.canoe
- As designers we're not sworn to that often overlooked oath that journalists have which is to promote the truth.canoe
- Maybe and tangentially, that's the reason why the $5 BS is a part of our collective challenge.canoe
- But to equate COTD and political discourse is beyond comprehension...canoe
- Can someone summarize?robotron3k
- @canoe, if the argument is that QBN is a Design Community, then any thread that isn't design-related needs to go. If that's beyond comprehension, I can't helpzarb0z
- < best response yet.MrAbominable
- I think the threads are all organic and putting too many restrictions will be severely limiting. Otherwise we go for a more organised system...Ianbolton
- Like here are the 10-15 places you can post now and leave it at that. No more new threads? Sounds limiting to me though.Ianbolton
- If you don't think COTD backs into politics you may be out of touch. Women are people now too, you guys.i_monk
- maquito4
Left to right: drgs, any of docpoz’s personas.
Say no to drugs. Don’t let drgs drag you to the certified side. Be open to drugs. Bear no malice. Connect. Question fucking everything. Make QBN fucking care.
- bliznutty4
- The following statement is true. The previous statement is false.DRIFTMONKEY
- BonSeff3
I miss the old days when we had fun engaging each other with "type connect" sessions and "print exchange," FMT and what nots.
My take is that those days were rad because we had no myspace, facebook, twitter etc. to bounce around.
I wish the younger generation would think up fun activities like that, but there is just too much out there nowadays to hold interest like we used to do.
- MrBixler2
I’m a lurker. I lurk in the hope that Carver or Wendell might show up again.
- a grand aimFax_Benson
- Take out and trap the chief of me!BonSeff
