especially with the 5th idea. I'm all for freedom of expression, but, even I must say that this freedom can be abused, and it would be nice to see that the less friendly posts can be edited or deleted, to preserve the caring environment on oasismag. You have great ideas solvent, I would love to see them put in place. When do you think this will happen?

"What is the purpose of life? It is to create our own purpose."

In our quest for understanding and acceptance having a central repository of GLBT issues would benefit all. This would include web site, books, essays, etc. The included topics might be:

a) Science and sexuality
b) Religion and sexuality
c) Famous GLBT folks - Who, what they did, when....
d) Politics - local - National - World
e) Art
f) Music
g) History
h) Current Events

ele

I would like to add my own idea. A counter for the number of posts made.

I strongly agree with the sticky idea. Splitting up into the right categories is also a good idea. I'm sure having a coming-out forum is a good idea, for instance.

If the extra labour is needed, having moderators might be good.

I'm not so sure about the kill file idea, as it sort of disrupts the sense of community. But having said that, I know I would use it if it were available. Scorefiling is not a good idea, as it can seem a bit like a popularity contest, which is not what we need.

I don't agree with the personals idea, mainly because I think serious internet relationships an oxymoron and are generally a waste of time. I used to have a profile on mogenic, but I think that having the same thing here would cause more trouble than good.

Dave

While this is a good idea for a thread, I hasten to mention that it isn't a matter of Adrian and I not having an idea of what we want to do moving forward, but rather his totally being slammed with projects that are serving as his career. Unlike me, who just says "wouldn't it be good if we...," Adrian actually has to go implement it.

To my knowledge, although Adrian and I mainly chat about random stuff in IM not Oasis, one of the reasons that some of the stuff for oasis has gone slowly has been intentional, in that much of the core functionality we want in Oasis is being rolled into the core Drupal software. So, instead of us having to modify the Drupal software to add functionality, and then having to keep making those modifications every time there is a new version of the software, a lot of stuff we want for oasis long-term is being added to the software itself, which is a longer way to go, but for the long haul a good move.

Other issues:

I am always hesitant to have too many moderators on the site, because it creates a hierarchy amongst the users, a clique of the "in crowd" and everyone else. For example, in the recent thread where I got flamed, as a moderator, I could have just deleted the whole thread, and then gone and started a whole thread about Cheyenne and she couldn't do anything about it. That kind of stuff happens on sites all the time. So, that is why there aren't many moderators. Not to mention, there isn't all that much to moderate.

Also on the moderator front, there really isn't much of a need to merge threads, delete threads/posts, move threads, etc., because all of the posts mainly exist in one area (although support, which was supposed to be a technical support area about the site, has become a second place for threads). Again, this is somewhat intentional. I think if we created a lesbian forum, and a gay forum, and a bi forum, the site would cease to be Oasis. Everywhere else you go online, everyone finds their niche and never leaves it, so I like the idea of everyone talking across their labels and genders and everything else, which I don't think would happen if we went forum crazy. I would consider themed forums, though, where all the cutters can chat, and more general things like that, but I really want to preserve keeping all the genders/orientations chatting. There will be time enough for segregation and finger-pointing at one another when people enter the real gay community further down the line.

I'd rather the "sticky topics" (what's your name mean, where you from) end up in a newbie area than pollute the top of the main forums.

Also, promoting stuff to the front is a topic that is contentious. Somewhat similar to the hierarchy of users mentioned before. Lots of people question why someone else gets promoted and they don't, as if there is a rhyme or reason, when in fact, there isn't. Like, pretty soon, I know I'll be promoting stuff to the front just because I'm sick of seeing those poor kids with their nooses whenever i visit.

The plan in this regard is to enable voting on each post, Adrian knows this (as I said, direction isn't an issue, only time), so people can vote 1 to 4 stars or whatever how much they like a post, and then we'll figure out a number that lets the cream of the crop rise to the front page automatically at a apce where a few a day/week get promoted. That is how I prefer everything on Oasis work, with no way to claim "Unfair!"

Chat rooms? I think they're boring and would kind of remove the long-term value in Oasis, since people would just go vent there and not write. But that's up to Adrian, if he's keen on implementing something, fine by me. Also, it changes the dynamic of the site away from people's feelings to "what are you wearing?" Which leads us to...

Personals: Not going to happen. The lack of personals is why this site has not become all cruisy and inappropriate. Once there are personals, there are more pictures, then more provocative pictures, then people come here who want to see younger people in provocative pictures, and then you're getting a lot of private messages that are inappropriate. I see no way to add this without losing the integrity of the site in the process. Besides, why invite other "old farts" in here, when I have the whole kingdom to myself now!? :-)

The back issues: here is where a "moderator" thing might eventually be needed. The way i see these eventually being added to the site is contingent on us adding a lot more categories to posts, so you can mark your post as "coming out," "drama," and whatever else. But without some way to fold the old things into the new, they will never really be integrated in a meaningful way, as far as I can tell. Also, the whole notion of the old site is that is was a completely different site then, more of a magazine with more, umm, purposeful writing (people wrote monthly, on a deadline, unlike our more blog-centered site now), so they really don't mesh all that well without some sort of categorization.

Search is built into Drupal. I think we were concerned about bandwidth/CPU stuff enabling it before. Not sure if that is less of a concern now, Adrian's call. Fine by me.

Kill file also has a tendency for abuse. Even in the description you gave "to avoid people or subjects we're tired of," speaks to that point. You know, for the site to be welcoming to everyone, there has to be some degree of not becoming a clique, whereby certain topics and such are considered "talked to death," or not appropriate. That may be true, but it creates an unwelcoming vibe to newbies, who will get the point soon enough. Better we all suffer for them to feel welcome than distance them at the beginning.

As for the "reference section" idea, honestly, that is something ya'll can come up with as a project and just handle without Adrian or me being involved. Just create a page with that stuff, fill it with info, and when it's ready, we can promote it to being a "site page" and give it a permanent home.

In fact, that is something I don't think people realize. Oasis is extremely flexible. A lot of the stuff we used to do is still a possibility, as far as people writing book reviews, having "book of the month" clubs, reviews of DVDs, movies. Again, any person or group who takes the initiative can totally own something like this. Hell, even have a bunch of people all write on a similar theme and then create a user account that you treat like a "zine," and publish essays from a bunch of regulars and others in it to spark discussions.

No one says this has to be a pure blogging "Here's what hapened in my life" site, peppered with the ongoing religion, politics, etc., forums only. Think outside the box. Post cartoons. Post MP3s (I don't think we can do this exactly just yet, but post them on myspace and link to them from here). I think there is FAR more potential in taking the software as it currently is and making better use of it, than really coming up with more work for Adrian. He's really a busy boy these days.

I mean, first on my list, for years now, has been user sites, so that www.oasismag.com/ghosbasensei/ or ghosbasensei.oasismag.com can be his personal site, same for everyone else, rather than it just being this constant, hard to navigate churn. Everything else to be is secondary after that feature. Nothing even comes close. And, like I said, years... so, adding more to Adrian's list, well... not sure that's a good plan.

The opportunities to change this site without changing a single feature are massive and not being used. Run with that and you'll probably come up with much more interesting things than technical things that reinforce the site as it currently exists, and only improve it "a little."

I mean, if you all decided to read a classic gay book in September, and then have a discussion on it starting October 1, that would be more impressive than anything we could do to change the architecture/technical side of the site.

On the "hit counter" idea. I imagine that is already in Drupal, and just a matter of Adrian tweaking a template. On the version of Oasis between the back issues and this version, which died a horrible death and is the reason I am NOT the sys admin anymore, there was a way to see the most popular pages on Oasis from the time the site started, that week, etc. And, while it had a hint of popularity, the end result was a bit of competitiveness, whereby people started thinking about writing longer, more interesting pieces JUST to get onto the list, so I can't say I was displeased as a result.

Keeping on topic, let's promote this to the front page! But I think I'm interested to hear your idea on what YA'LL can do to change the site, rather than adding this to Adrian's list. I mean, we all just responded in a thread about gay movies we like/dislike. Wouldn't it have been easier if each gay movie had its own node on Oasis, with a review and discussion about the movie? And people could tag them as to their audience? And we built a page so you could see all movies, broken down as to drama, coming out, documentary, romantic comedy?

So, what ideas do people have along those lines? And this isn't a matter of me running with your ideas. I've been doing this site for 10 years now, it is all up to you. So, feel free to make suggestions, but at the same time, if you are willing to take the ball and run with it, even better!

> * 'Sticky' topics, that always stay at the 'top' of the >thread-listings, so that questions that get asked over and over again >(where is your screen name from, where do you live, what do you look >like, etc.) will only have one thread.
Drupal already does this, I just don't have any nodes promoted.

> * A forums/thread search box, so that less common, but still >repeatedly posted, topics can be searched for without having to go do >a Google search on Oasis.
Drupal can do this, but I can't enable this. Basically, drupal needs to index (ie: scan) all the data on the site already, and the current version of the software tries to scan the whole site , instead of just a few bits of it at a time. I tried enabling it before, but it killed the server.

The new version of the software the site runs on can actually index the site, so I do want to switch over to the new software version.

* Splitting the forums up into more categories. I know that this can lead to hair-splitting and fracturing, but a few more of the right ones could still be a good idea.

Recommend them and I will enable them =)

> * Chat rooms.
I had chat rooms on the staging site, but I wasn't quite happy with it. I will enable chat room ssooner or later, but I am afraid how that will affect the feel of the site, as one of the most inviting part of the system is that you can read without having to post.

Lurking is a lot harder on a chat room.

> * The ability to have a kill file or score file to avoid people >or subjects we're tired of.
>That's incredibly hard to do in a natural language situation.

Also, when you are ignoring someone, do you see responses to their threads ? and how does that involve legibility of the site ?

> * The ability to edit the starting posts of threads.

There's an edit own nodes permission, i *think* you guys have that permission, don't you ?

> * Having frequent users who have proven themselves to be >reasonable and dedicated to the well-being of Oasis be Moderators, >with the ability to do things like merge redundant threads, move >journal entries to the front-page, delete/edit threads and posts, >move threads, and the like.

There are about 6 people that have administrator privileges to the site, but all of them have stopped coming to the site. I am not opposed to giving trusted members admin privileges, but it is not a popularity contest.

It's been almost a year since I have given anyone that kind of access.

In the future, I want to build a reputation system into the site, that would give you more say of what goes on the front page / magazine.

> * Personals, maybe? I'm not 100% sure I's want that sort of thing >on a newbie-/questioning-friendly web-site like Oasis, but it's a >thought.
No.

However, the site will make it easier to find people, in the new version. an example

> * Edit the 'back issues' part of Oasis so that it looks like the rest of the site.
I have a plan for this, but it involves taking them down for a good long time. So I'd rather leave them up until I am good and ready to start updating it.

---
Adrian
Putting the HEAD back into Hedonism

It's cute how you believe in things. - Slither

Not that it's not a good idea, I just think that everyone here has access to finding out things about other members, if the other members wanted to let them know. If they want to see a picture, they could always exchange that on their own.

maybe you can arrange it so that it would find names of people too because when i click on someone from my inbox it doesnt go to there info page so yes just a thought. =]

I'd never lie to you
Unless I had to, I'll do what I got to
The truth...is you could slit my throat
And with my one last gasping breath
I'd apologize for bleeding on your shirt - Tbs