Tribe.net. Local Connections $item.owner.firstName http://brainstorm.tribe.net/thread/770fb28a-0d38-4fc5-b862-6d3c9b3ab148#b2f433b0-53f2-409c-9cba-460415fce99a 2009-06-08T03:23:11Z 2009-06-08T03:23:11Z

Or being green.

$item.owner.firstName 2009-06-08T03:23:11Z Shatter http://brainstorm.tribe.net/thread/770fb28a-0d38-4fc5-b862-6d3c9b3ab148#b60d5c5e-dc81-40ef-867a-a050eaf34b11 2009-06-06T22:21:08Z 2009-06-06T22:21:08Z

It's not easy being cheesy. --S

Shatter 2009-06-06T22:21:08Z Sqweegle http://brainstorm.tribe.net/thread/770fb28a-0d38-4fc5-b862-6d3c9b3ab148#e2ed9f85-8214-4ccd-af0c-5986fcc4b69a 2009-06-06T16:46:36Z 2009-06-06T16:46:36Z

.........cheetos..........?

Sqweegle 2009-06-06T16:46:36Z Shannon http://brainstorm.tribe.net/thread/770fb28a-0d38-4fc5-b862-6d3c9b3ab148#056b4378-68d3-4e14-b6ee-768ad4777641 2009-06-05T05:19:23Z 2009-06-05T05:19:23Z

>a rag tag bunch of made up followers. By made up, do you mean 'invented,' or 'painted hussies?' Just curious. And yeah, Shatter, I was thinking exactly of the Cheeto Attack. But I didn't want to bring it up,. because far be it from me to Give Anybody Around Here Ideas.

Shannon 2009-06-05T05:19:23Z Shatter http://brainstorm.tribe.net/thread/770fb28a-0d38-4fc5-b862-6d3c9b3ab148#85fda5f7-5dda-4953-a751-03e40f764df6 2009-06-05T05:11:41Z 2009-06-05T05:11:41Z

An example of a social network DoS attack was when Jman launched the Cheeto's attack on Heated Debate. It was funny though. --S

Shatter 2009-06-05T05:11:41Z $item.owner.firstName http://brainstorm.tribe.net/thread/770fb28a-0d38-4fc5-b862-6d3c9b3ab148#664b9b15-22bb-440c-ab1e-1e18fba12499 2009-06-05T01:12:52Z 2009-06-05T01:12:52Z

As Shatter likes to point out, I am but a mere techno peasant, unable to mount a DoS attack or even the most rudimentary hack. Rather, as a crude wordsmith, armed only with infantile taunting, arcane satire, and the most primitive of trolling techniques, I have attempted to single handidly DESTROY tribe.net through the use of a scary devil alt and a rag tag bunch of made up followers. I win! Where's my prize?

$item.owner.firstName 2009-06-05T01:12:52Z $item.owner.firstName http://brainstorm.tribe.net/thread/770fb28a-0d38-4fc5-b862-6d3c9b3ab148#60aeac88-0cfb-424c-83c9-fe858e8d2d41 2009-06-04T23:45:56Z 2009-06-04T23:45:56Z

There ARE sites that welcome "read-only" members. Not everyone has to participate. Everything from journal articles to daily comics. Magazine articles, news stories in history. Every novel written is made for people to watch...to read what is going on, and not to add in anything to the story line. When I read a novel that I like for one reason or another, I'm drawn back to that author, to read their next book. Soap operas and TV series, sure, they want to keep you hooked, to come back the next day or next week. For the people who follow the stories, it's just something they do. Novels or TV or news or politics, they want to see what happens next or what has happened. There's a lot of cross-over though, between all these things. They aren't compartmentalized. And I think that is maybe part of the problem? There's no target audience, no one kind of thing that can be identified as being "tribe.net". People like things separated. Like TV dinners. ;) If they didn't, why bother making little compartments to separate the peas from the brownie? Just put it all in a blender and list the ingredients. kind of like Soylent Green, but made of carrots and peas and brownies. Tribe still hasn't identified it's niche. Where it wants to go. So that people come here for many reasons. And various groups clash because they feel equally justified being here. And the groups ARE equally justified in being here, but only in as much as being in their OWN groups that they have created. For instance, I don't belly dance, I have never been to Burning Man, I don't run Windows. So I generally don't visit those tribes and don't expect the members of those tribes to invade unrelated tribes. Like belly dancers forming a gang and invading the tap dancing clan. I don't want gravy on my brownie and I don't want brownie in my gravy. There are sites that vie for the attention of web consumers. Sure, there are a couple of auto-related forums here, but when I wanted to know in depth, I went to...auto-related sites. Like Edmunds. Any info here is supplemental, if any exists at all that relates to my own topics of interest, because there are sites devoted entirely to any specific subject. Right? in the TV dinner analogy, I don't ever have to risk the gravy and brownie combo, if it visit the website devoted to brownies only. And to gravy only. Many people do that, go to the site that has the most about whatever they like the most. So where does that leave Tribe.net? They can't compete with Edmunds for autos and the vast number of other sites devoted to specific topics. Tribe shines with allowing groups of people to be together, or to explore individual interests. So that a group of individuals can not only share things they have in common, but go off on their own to enjoy other topics that the group as a whole doesn't necessarily like/enjoy. Would you agree that is a strong selling point to Tribe.net? But it is also part of the downfall, the negative. There is group pressure. To stay within the bounds of a specific group. Or groups within groups, like Politics being a main group, and liberal/conservative divide. Uh...I'm really boring, aren't I? Everyone, just shut up. No need for a unanimous "Yes" to that first question.

$item.owner.firstName 2009-06-04T23:45:56Z Craig http://brainstorm.tribe.net/thread/770fb28a-0d38-4fc5-b862-6d3c9b3ab148#7d01a2b4-1427-47be-9ccb-532b6618ab0f 2009-06-04T23:17:47Z 2009-06-04T23:16:23Z

<< Regular people have retreated to private tribes where they are relatively safe from the internet weirdos. >> Sad but true. We also consume reasonable amounts of roughage. Oh yeah, DoS attack: http://www.cert.org/tech_tips/denial_of_service.html

Craig 2009-06-04T23:16:23Z $item.owner.firstName http://brainstorm.tribe.net/thread/770fb28a-0d38-4fc5-b862-6d3c9b3ab148#69288b5c-7523-4892-86f3-e088a29a7d32 2009-06-04T22:11:44Z 2009-06-04T22:11:44Z

Regular people have retreated to private tribes where they are relatively safe from the internet weirdos.

$item.owner.firstName 2009-06-04T22:11:44Z $item.owner.firstName http://brainstorm.tribe.net/thread/770fb28a-0d38-4fc5-b862-6d3c9b3ab148#29853033-042a-4404-8b4f-3064178315cd 2009-06-04T21:12:36Z 2009-06-04T21:12:36Z

Well actually, "regular people" don't participate in any notable numbers on the radar, not on account of trolls and perceived stupidness, but on account of their own limitations or willingness to participate in an environment that has largely become a ghost town populated by voyeurs.

$item.owner.firstName 2009-06-04T21:12:36Z Marzipan http://brainstorm.tribe.net/thread/770fb28a-0d38-4fc5-b862-6d3c9b3ab148#6bbf3d26-093c-413a-8091-eeaffd3dc716 2009-06-04T20:15:14Z 2009-06-04T20:15:14Z

Trolling and drama attracts nothing valuable to this or any other website. It allow a select few to play in a strange game of tug-O-war. Most people think it's ridiculous and they back away from the active tribes to avoid the stupidity. It's counterproductive to the success of a website.

Marzipan 2009-06-04T20:15:14Z Shannon http://brainstorm.tribe.net/thread/770fb28a-0d38-4fc5-b862-6d3c9b3ab148#86f9a801-be1a-4d41-a200-013af1f94387 2009-06-04T19:55:07Z 2009-06-04T19:55:07Z

Do dead tribes cause problems, Shatter? Do they add to database bloat or clutter in any actual way, or do they just make the place look like a ghost town? I sort of love my dead tribes--even though some of them have been inactive for years, I keep my favorites on my list, because it's a sketch of my interests, and/or because people I like have said interesting things, and I refer back to them every now and again. Say there was an archivist function created. How easy would it be for somebody to ask to activate and moderate a tribe that had been archived? Would somebody have to ask an administrator to re-activate it and make them moderator? Would there be a vetting process for that? Or could there be something automated that allows whoever wants to to reset the tribe and take it over?

Shannon 2009-06-04T19:55:07Z Shatter http://brainstorm.tribe.net/thread/770fb28a-0d38-4fc5-b862-6d3c9b3ab148#80d54142-370e-4490-98ee-2ebf4bd2e16b 2009-06-04T19:48:24Z 2009-06-04T19:48:24Z

The compelling reason is that it sets the tribe up for static archiving, turning it into a static page and removed from the data base, clearing that whole mess up. So, it's still viewable and searchable, but really, it's a just a static HTML page. --S

Shatter 2009-06-04T19:48:24Z Shannon http://brainstorm.tribe.net/thread/770fb28a-0d38-4fc5-b862-6d3c9b3ab148#698ea434-2243-4b44-99ab-833939ca1b84 2009-06-04T19:44:24Z 2009-06-04T19:44:24Z

Unsubbed, (if that Is Your Real Name,) what carolyn is referring to is a type of kindergarten-level hacking in which a user floods a site with signal beyond the server's capacity to handle it. In the old days of online communities, it was about the only offense that could get you thrown off a site for good. And it's also one of those things which (I think) is clearly illegal, because it interferes with communications and/or the ability of a company to do business.

Shannon 2009-06-04T19:44:24Z Shannon http://brainstorm.tribe.net/thread/770fb28a-0d38-4fc5-b862-6d3c9b3ab148#5f86e656-64b7-4cc7-ac17-97b5b2910079 2009-06-04T19:40:05Z 2009-06-04T19:40:05Z

carolyn, I don't think that the contemporary crop of trolls thinks that way. Most people don't know what a DoS attack is anymore, much less why it's a bad thing. If asked what the word 'ping' means even, probably most people would guess it's an anime character. Users these days really aren't system-savvy at all. Getting somebody unsubbed is most likely the only sort of DoS attack that's likely to happen around here--users attempting to deprive each other of service, not the system itself from functioning. I definitely take your point about tribe being too fragile to really invite heavy use, especially heavy trolly use. But It's certainly not unheard of for online sites to encourage, or at least not discourage, flames or the posting of flamebait topics to boost traffic. Salon.com, for example, has made a regular policy of it for the last few years. Camille Paglia writes a column once a month, and she generates up to 500 angry responses within a couple of days. And when salon.com posts its financials, it mentions the high traffic numbers as a selling point (to offset the loss of subscription revenue--most of which went away, unsurprisingly, when they began to go for the traffic an unmoderated open user forum would generate, instead of quality content and carefully moderated discussions.

Shannon 2009-06-04T19:40:05Z $item.owner.firstName http://brainstorm.tribe.net/thread/770fb28a-0d38-4fc5-b862-6d3c9b3ab148#4e638f4f-6ce7-4016-bc79-9ef545d1076d 2009-06-04T19:02:26Z 2009-06-04T18:58:14Z

Gee. Trolls try to do you a favor by keeping people posting, and what thanks do you repay them except by denegrating their valient efforts? LOL! You might want to explain what DoS attack means. There are people who are going to read that, gloss over what that means, think it means ordinary trolling, and go straight to the part about turning to law enforcement. This encourages and excites a certain camp of tribers who actually talk about how they are going to get a judge somewhere to issue an injunction preventing their foes from participating on the website. Of course, you may not care, you may just find that entertaining to watch, as some of us do. The website would actually have to ask those users to stop using the website before a court would enter an injunction ordering them to stay away. It is possible that if tribe.net simply asked someone to leave, or told them they were prohibited from using the site, they would comply. Until tribe.net had at least made that effort, a court is not going to intercede. Unsubbing people with notice or explanation, as the site has done in the past, does not serve this purpose. The site would have to combine the unsubbing with actual communications to the user that they were not welcome to rejoin.

$item.owner.firstName 2009-06-04T18:58:14Z carolyn http://brainstorm.tribe.net/thread/770fb28a-0d38-4fc5-b862-6d3c9b3ab148#bd97fb20-40a7-4d70-b305-8eddfbeca996 2009-06-04T15:05:10Z 2009-06-04T15:05:10Z

Troll content doesn't monetize well and creating "a great deal of traffic" on the site isn't doing us any favors given the fragile state the servers are in these days. If a troll's goal is truly to bring down the site with a massive onslaught of traffic, such as a DoS style attack, then we will deal with that type of behavior accordingly. Someone who hates Tribe so much that they want to destroy the site and would take measures to do such a thing needs a special kind of help that we can turn to law enforcement for. Otherwise, the reason we tolerate it is simply that it's an issue of free speech. If someone wants to go around posting idiotic or useless content, it's up to the tribe moderators to remove it if they don't want it in their tribes. As for archiving tribes, we haven't seen a compelling reason to do so: the date of last activity is clearly visible and if a tribe should want to become active again alongside its previous content, why would we want to disable it?

carolyn 2009-06-04T15:05:10Z $item.owner.firstName http://brainstorm.tribe.net/thread/770fb28a-0d38-4fc5-b862-6d3c9b3ab148#3e37e047-68a9-437e-85da-25d6b32d8830 2009-06-04T14:21:41Z 2009-06-04T14:21:41Z

Trolling and drama generates a great deal of the traffic on this website, and that is one of the reasons it is tolerated to such a large extent. Tribe.net has little incentive to devote its resources to going after trolls and drama queens when they are the ones generating the traffic that the side needs in order to have ad revenue. Whether this traffic generates new members is a separate matter. It probably doesn't. Rather, it just serves to keep a core group of existing members engaged and even addicted to the conflict.

$item.owner.firstName 2009-06-04T14:21:41Z SN http://brainstorm.tribe.net/thread/770fb28a-0d38-4fc5-b862-6d3c9b3ab148#ffa2a012-e680-49c6-874f-3c1a565cbdb5 2009-06-04T13:10:23Z 2009-06-04T13:10:23Z

yah, cause we can all see how the "drama" is just flooding tribe with new members!!

SN 2009-06-04T13:10:23Z Christie http://brainstorm.tribe.net/thread/770fb28a-0d38-4fc5-b862-6d3c9b3ab148#21579674-1357-4bd7-ac14-b3e6bc2d4510 2009-06-04T04:34:22Z 2009-06-04T04:34:22Z

It's a good idea, Shatter.

Christie 2009-06-04T04:34:22Z Jane 1 http://brainstorm.tribe.net/thread/770fb28a-0d38-4fc5-b862-6d3c9b3ab148#e36c8783-2b12-4d7a-864b-6da3b7e43a70 2009-06-03T13:56:07Z 2009-06-03T13:56:07Z

The Troll Armies were working for the TOU GUY. The TOU GUY welcomed them for they generated drama and drama was proven to generate traffic. The Troll Armies received no pay. When they found they were working for the enemy, they were caused to be unhappy. They left. Many are now at 2L and Facebook. New armies there. Set phasers to stun. Only those who are chosen may board the Blue Mother Ship.

Jane 1 2009-06-03T13:56:07Z $item.owner.firstName http://brainstorm.tribe.net/thread/770fb28a-0d38-4fc5-b862-6d3c9b3ab148#b9b3358a-91d8-4ca4-bcda-7de33b020a2f 2009-06-03T06:32:05Z 2009-06-03T06:32:05Z

If participation doesn't pick up in a consistent, sustained and substantial way soon, Tribe may very well become one giant archive. The Troll armies can help but it is up to The Common Folk to begin stringing words together to form sentences that get typed out on a screen on the magic internet and then people respond to those word things on the screen and discussions take place. kinda thing

$item.owner.firstName 2009-06-03T06:32:05Z Shatter http://brainstorm.tribe.net/thread/770fb28a-0d38-4fc5-b862-6d3c9b3ab148#c686def8-ea9e-4904-8e09-e2956860670c 2009-06-03T06:26:45Z 2009-06-03T06:26:01Z

Since the idea to "delete old tribes" comes up every few months around here, I have an idea. NSA creates a profile called "Tribe Archivist" and kicks out the moderator, takes it over, and boots everyone from the tribe, and sets flag to moderated. I would say no activity for 2 years would be sufficient. This way, the posts are still there, and nothing is changed, however anyone joining tribe or finding teh group would see that it's "archived" and don't join, expecting people to say anything. This is a work around for the current revision. Tribe 3.0 needs to have a mechanism for this to happen that's better executed, but this would work for now. --S

Shatter 2009-06-03T06:26:01Z