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Idea: Bring Back Scripts/CSS In Our Profiles

Last posted Jan 15, 2016 at 05:07PM EST. Added Jan 11, 2016 at 02:44PM EST
8 posts from 5 users

I'm going to preface this with a reiteration of a problem I've pointed out before: Suggest Ideas is not paid attention to by the admins (and if it is it's much less than it should be) and this thread is probably as useless as most threads in Suggest Ideas. But since I care about this topic a great deal and numerous other long-time users miss it I'll be bringing it up (though I would guess it's been mentioned before).

Scripting allowed people to express themselves to a point that has not been allowed on any other mainstream site, period. If a script got out of hand a mod/admin could always message/warn the user or in the case of admins even edit it out. This feature was an attraction, and you could proudly say this is one of, if not, the ONLY mainstream site that allows script/CSS. You cannot say that anymore, and I am dissatisfied with the reason WHY.

The reason why, from my memory of the event, was that people were abusing the scripts. A small issue that contributed was lagging people's computers out (I was part of this issue by having lots of browser ponies dancing around my profile) with how much code you had. The code on my page was too much, but an admin easily edited it out. It would, of course, ask too much to have the few admins scouring our profiles. Instead, you can just have mods send warnings to users doing this, and if it persists, you can just ban the person UNTIL they remove the offending code.

Another issue was people using their accounts to automatically send you to other sites (I heard some of these sites were ads or malware-infectors). This would be an immediate perma-ban in my eyes (though if the user explained it was somehow a mistake you can always revoke such a ban). However you can't ban every account in the world, and as a result of this lack of control when it came to these infecting accounts existing, script and CSS as we know it, were scrapped from KYM.

An easy remedy to this I would recommend, and I am surprised has not been thought of, is simply setting up a system so these quickly-spawned accounts wouldn't ever happen. I would recommend starting things out by making it so a user must show they are not simply being spawned in for the sake of malware-linking trolling. To do this, it must be made inconvenient to create a large number of malware/ad filled accounts. This inconvenience can be achieved by making it so the user must be a part of KYM for at least 6 months and demand they have a standard minimum amount of posts/submissions/edits made by their account. This would make it so you can't immediately go around posting ad-infected accounts, and ensure these accounts had to have a certain level of activity on them.

This insistence that an account must be active and exist for a mildly long time would result in script/CSS acting as a reward for being a dedicated user. A reward like that would greatly boost user dedication and happiness. This increased amount of dedicated users would also increase the activity of the forums since chiefly dedicated users post in them. The forums are your core audience, and a strong core audience affects how well other people are attracted to your site based on the social atmosphere.

Even with all this in place, would it still be possible to create these ad/malware-loaded accounts? Absolutely. BUT, this would reduce them to such a small number, you could easily have mods take care of them in a quick and painless manner and if the account is especially volatile to the point a mod can't access it, you can always ask an admin to help with the situation if it's that bad of an issue. We already have accounts that are spambots that are plentiful in number, so I do not see a reason why a very few ad or malware accounts that are being actively sought for perma-banning by mods would be an issue.

Please explain what your thoughts on this idea are and any details, flaws, or improvements you have below.

Scripts were removed for a reason. They were often annoying, had the ability to completely fuck up the page's layout, could potentially lead to malware, and even be used to create a fake login screen to steal passwords. If they were brought back, they'd potentially be even worse than before.

I understand you think they can be moderated, but 99% of the time they'd do no good.

Last edited Jan 11, 2016 at 03:09PM EST

RandomMan wrote:

and I am dissatisfied with the reason WHY.

Sucks to be you, cus they ain't coming back.

Give yourself a warning for not contributing to the discussion.

Emperor Palpitoad wrote:

Give yourself a warning for not contributing to the discussion.

Please explain what your thoughts on this idea are and any details, flaws, or improvements you have below.

Seems to me that saying they're not coming back is perfectly in line with what you requested.

Of course if you want me to add to a discussion:

this thread is probably as useless as most threads in Suggest Ideas.

> Thread featuring useless idea → Useless thread.
> So by that logic: Many useless ideas → Many useless threads.

Who is our current number one Suggest Ideas thread creator? You.

Seems to me that you are the cause of Suggest Ideas ending up with so many useless threads, clogging up the board so that good ideas have no time to shine. Basic math really.

Last edited Jan 11, 2016 at 06:29PM EST

I for one didn't actually know the reason the scripts were removed, so I was actually okay with the idea until I read it, so that's one benefit to the thread. There's nothing wrong with posting a lot of ideas, even if most of them aren't, well, good ones. If they get rejected, now the reason's out there for future reference. I wouldn't call a rejected idea a useless thread. Besides, the suggest ideas board IS for suggesting ideas, it's not like he's doing anything wrong per se. Also, sidenote, I know Wyn has made some threads that are legitimately useless and shouldn't have been posted, but still.

I don't know, maybe I might agree that just giving some sarcastic non-answer to a legit (if infeasible) idea is more off topic and useless than the poor idea itself?

Last edited Jan 14, 2016 at 01:06PM EST

I agree, Twenty-One. It can get frustrating and it's easily forgivable to get snarky with a user who creates a lot of threads that have either already had an answer to them or just wouldn't be good ideas.

But just because it's forgivable doesn't mean it's cool. RM shouldn't have posted either time.

As for the idea itself, I don't think being unique and having that level of creativity is enough to outweigh the risks and grievances I saw from way back when. Even now, I actively avoid pages with autoplaying videos. I work, and I like to check KYM from time-to-time, but I can't risk coming across a music video playing and being heard from my cell phone.

I don't think the culture towards the unavoidable nature of the scripts' effects has changed. And with malware, I don't think we need to develop any reputation for having pages that can screw with someone's machine. It wouldn't be fast enough to report it to someone with administrator powers and get it removed. I would champion the preventive approach.

Last edited Jan 14, 2016 at 02:06PM EST

Aight your criticism is fair. My posts here weren't exactly the most proper ones, so my apologies for that, but allow me to defend my case regardless.

For starters, I'm not gonna defend the tone. As said, not the best posts. Can't really justify that.


Second, my first post (excluding the "sucks to be you") is how I believe ideas like this are best approached. Of course, some explanation is probably better, but ideas like the CSS scripts and for example the all too popular "Don't allow BNMs to do anything" are those general ideas we most likely will never change our stance on.

I then find it more efficient to shoot the idea down swiftly and right away. I would find it extremely unfair to have a good discussion flow around the idea with people having high hopes, only to then have one of us reply "We appreciate all the great discussion, but sorry dudes this is never going to happen."

Going through all the effort of fleshing out an idea only to discover your effort was pointless is a lot more demotivating than getting a heads up beforehand and being saved the trouble. We have a bunch of good and fleshed out ideas on the mod forum, void of any staff reply, so we should know how demotivating that is.


Third, my second post here was uncalled for, but my beef which let to the second post was the tone of the OP post and his reply. Posting ideas is fine, but the possibly greatest ideas lose their value if the message is poor. Keep ideas and the beef with sharing them seperated, they're different topics after all.

The first thing the thread starts off with is a complaint about Suggest Ideas in a highly negative tone, a tone which then keeps an overlaying presence throughout the post. It's an absolutely awful start for an idea thread. He's biting the hand that feeds him and then expects to be rewarded.

And despite my first post, his reply then basically is telling me to piss off, which isn't doing the tone any good. Few would remain objective at that point.


But OP, despite his complaints over Suggest Ideas, actually posts a lot of ideas on here. Sure, most of them are bad and some are even legitimately useless, but Suggest Ideas exists to have those shared as well. Like with BNMs posting new entries, even if it takes 100 bad ones to find a good one, then the board's existance has paid off.

I will never request him to stop posting ideas. I will advice him to think them through, to save everyone some time and trouble if necessary, but I will never outright tell him to stop. This is Suggest Ideas, the board was made to, as the name says, suggest ideas for the site. I'd rather have someone on here posting 50 awful ideas, than someone posting no ideas.

Last edited Jan 15, 2016 at 06:16PM EST
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