Silvia Bluejay

Loving the thread but I find the comment about the missus slightly sexist! I have a guitarist friend (male) who only plays dark-coloured instruments because, in his view, they look smaller. As he's a little chap, he prefers not to be swamped by his guitar...

Bless. I just wish all of us played left-handed, as that would give companies an incentive to market more lefty models. I'm a lefty who was taught to write with her right hand 'by mistake', apparently (I was very little and they hadn't realised...). That's bad enough an experience for an entire lifetime, so my bass guitars are all lefty, and the upright I bought right-handed is now a lefty as well, after I spent an afternoon re-stringing, bridge overturning/filing and nut filing/adjusting with cork some time last year. I love it. I tried righty basses when I was a beginner; while my left hand felt like it could easily learn to both pluck and fret, the right hand simply appeared to refuse to learn how to pluck, so lefty it was from then on...

And I'm [size=1]tiny[/size].

[quote name='Grand Wazoo' timestamp='1321729557' post='1442567'] It's only when you meet a man and see what he is really like that you can form an opinion, not on a silly forum (not saying this forum is silly, mind you) I mean not on an internet social site where what's behind the screen can be either good or evil. [/quote] Aherm. Works the same with a woman too. And yes, of course you're correct. However, you do get a glimpse of what each person is like from the way they write - it may take a little while, but even your most monosyllabic posts contribute to creating an image of you for those who take the time to notice. I am a member of several local forums, and we have regular real life meetups, and my impressions of each poster's character have been relatively correct so far. It's harder to imagine someone's physical aspect (unless they provide a photo), but sometimes you can sort of guess that too!

LOL and sigh!

[quote name='charic' timestamp='1321728344' post='1442528'] Well the way I'm reading it at the moment it stands at: 23 9 28 That's 32 people that want to be able to like 9 People that want to be able to dislike 28 People that don't want to be able to do either I don't know how the mods are going to do this but that is how I would [/quote] Fair enough, but it could then be argued that the poll offers two options in favour versus only one against, which is not, after all, fair enough

It's the weekend. May I suggest you guys leave this poll up for more than just three days?

Will the votes be counted like that? I thought that each option stood by itself and that the one with the most votes would be adopted. But I do get your point that for number of voters, there are more who favour one flavour of the system than dislike the system completely.

? My view shows most votes being on the "Deactivate all" line...

By the way, I would favour the "Like the post" system, but then it would be nice/useful if the names of those liking the post could be seen by hovering the mouse on the number of likes, as on FB. Anonymous likes would be a bit of a waste, as those who would want to be known to agree with something being said would still have to Me-too the relevant post. OK, now I'll stop mentioning FB, promise

[quote name='Machines' timestamp='1321701778' post='1442091'] I think the like thing is a bit of an ego thing. But it's handy on threads where someone makes a good point in a discussion or says something funny - people can identify with them without the need to post a response with something like '+1' which is a waste of a post. If it could be done that way without it having to tally total likes on someone's profile I think that would be ideal. [/quote] That's the reason I at first favoured the Like Only system (as seen on FB, where it only appears on the relevant post/comment and not on the profile). My actual vote, against the system as a whole, assumed that it would stay in its present form and the likes/dislikes still be counted on members' profiles. If what Machines describes can be done, then I support the idea.

In the end I voted to get rid of the whole reputation caboodle. This isn't Facebook (luckily)! Better to have to add a few me toos or +1s than help fragmentaion and discord. Thank you admin guys/mods for allowing us to vote.

Thank you BigBeatNut and Discreet - will keep your advice and those '[size=4]ê's handy for next time I have to tackle a language I don't speak in a post [/size] xx

I find the site very slow on all the machines I use it, no matter what OS, processor or amount of RAM they have (I have 3 PCs at home). It was faster on that day when it reverted to the default scheme, which was minus the Basschat-specific customisation and the ads. I suspect that the latter are mostly to blame for slow performance and glitches. Then again, we're using the site for free thanks to them I guess.

[quote name='algmusic' timestamp='1321372912' post='1438373']I guess in an ideal world I'd have all these options... hhmm GAS [/quote] Heh... I have tiny hands and fingers (yes, I know, not quite the correct physique du role for a bassist - tough, I guess). That means the spacing of a 5 helps (although the neck width doesn't). In general, it's excellent to see how very individual each of us is regarding sound, setup, tuning taste and just about everything else. There's lots to learn from each other's posts, experience, suggestions, idiosyncracies and even betes noires* * Apologies to French speaking folks, my usual Alt+0234 method is not producing an e circumflex here.

LOL - it gets sillier and sillier. :-/

Algmusic - maybe. Width of neck another possible reason. And yes, drop D on a 4 sounds different from low D on a 5, but the latter is waay better IMO! Different taste (and makes of bass) I guess. EssentialTension, I would miss my G-string if I did that (seriously, also - it's handier for high notes than running up the neck).

Hm, are you comparing like with like? Same make of bass guitar, same pickups, internal electronics, string type/quality, etc.? My impression is that, all other things being equal, a 5-stringer might sound marginally less bright because its pickups need to be better suited to detecting lower frequencies than those on a 4-stringer, but that's just about it. If you use any effects, they should make light work of correcting that problem.

[quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1321280849' post='1437248'] Things is though, what does like/dislike or pos/neg actually mean? If it's a behavioural sort of thing related to abusive and rude posts then I can see it might have some value, but if it's an agreement/disagreement type thing then surely it's rather pointless. Suppose someone posted something saying that Fender make the best bass guitars and 1,000 people posted negative feedback because they disagreed? So the OP picks up a huge negative reputation because of a perfectly reasonable opinion, which they are highly unlikely to change. OTOH, another poster might be rude and abusive and also pick up 1,000 negative posts. which might, perhaps, make them consider their behaviour (unless they consider it a badge of honour and simply encourage them to achieve a record score for 'trolling'). But the thing that makes a simple neg/pos thing of little value is that we can never know the reasoning behind the rating, unless the voter describes their reasons in a post, in which case the like/dislike vote is superfluous anyway. [/quote] Flyfisher makes perfect sense. I hereby choose to state my approval of and support for his post in written form and without using the positive button. (Not being sarcastic here, just lighthearted!)

[quote name='Ou7shined' timestamp='1321277593' post='1437185'] Nope you are right enough. It has happened before, however I'm not sure if the detection system was automatic or if it needed the crafty intervention of the forum elves. That was on the old forum's software, maybe this new software can do it.. I don't know. [/quote] Being a mod is a thankless task and a very difficult job. Ideally, there should always be at least one mod reading all the posts on the sections assigned to his/her supervision. That may not be feasible, especially if all the mods live in the same country and time zone. Obviously, the trusted veterans of a forum can help by emailing or PMing the mods in case of trouble, and they are the most reliable defence system! Also, I may be wrong, but i thought it is possible to compile a list of words that the software will flag automatically if posted - not just swearwords, but also non-sweary insults in phrase form, for instance. That would probably help a little in the detection and eviction of double identities and trolls.

[quote name='Ou7shined' timestamp='1321276611' post='1437169'] I think he has a point though as it could eliminate multiple screen identities being created in order to fuel a neg campaign on some poor schmuck. Admittedly it's only ever likely to happen once or twice. I liked you earlier post btw. [/quote] Shouldn't it be possible for the mods/admins to detect multiple identities almost automatically, through their (common) IP address? (not an expert here, so I may be wrong). Thank you for liking my post! If the system becomes permanent in its present format, I think I may end up liking other people's posts out of politeness as well as agreement, and then I'd become the official forum luvvie, mwah mwah dahlings Edited for grammar and typos. Sigh.

[quote name='charic' timestamp='1321275964' post='1437151'] Actually another interesting thought, should new people be allowed to + or - until they have posted a certain amount of posts? [/quote] Hm, why have a two-tier membership? I suppose you're entitled to have and express an opinion whether you've been a member for a month or several years, and if you're a dickhead, it probably doesn't make any difference to your behaviour how long you've been posting on the forum.

I've been following this thread with interest and curiosity, as a newbie. My tuppence is that I don't mind the presence of a Like button (got used to the ubiquitous one on Facebook, and it does save saying 'me too' or 'hear hear' too many times). However, I find the dislike/neg voting system a bit dodgy and would happily do without it, for the reasons stated by previous posters on this thread and because, honestly, it's more than a little childish in my view.

Ha! OK, thanks, at least I know it's not just me. But in my case the site is not just slow - it doesn't function at all. Anyway, I'll make sure to check it at other times and not in the middle of the night.

Might be the same problem, but you get an explanation for the blackout, and I don't.