RationalWiki:Saloon bar

RationalWiki Saloon Bar

I hope this will be a place for general chit-chat about virtually anything that doesn't (or shouldn't) fit in on the CP:WIGO_talk page or Rationalwiki Main_Page_talk, similar to WP's Village Pump. Basically if you don't know where to post something then it goes here! Генгис^{Is the Pope a Catholic?}

“”For if we don't find The next whisky bar I tell you we must die

Create a new section

Civilization:Evolution

I used to play the PC-based version of Side Meier's Civilization II a while back (and spent far too many long nights doing just one more turn), now I've got the Nintendo-DS version of Civilization Revolution. It struck me how there could be a Conservapedia "nation" with Great Leader Andy Schlafly. The game starts at 4000 BC so that would fit in quite nicely. I can see Conservapedians only having Despotism and Fundamentalism as systems of government. There could be additions to the Great Persons roll call like Wiliam Dembski (Wiliam Dembski arrives in your city, you may either lose all of your current scientific knowledge, or all future knowledge is curtailed by 50%). Or a great wonder "The Creation Museum" has been built, creation of all new units is delayed by one turn. Anyone else got ideas? Генгис^{Is the Pope a Catholic?} 16:01, 10 January 2009 (EST)

I loved Civilisation. Still have it on an old box here somewhere. um.... only one I can think of is "Rapture" - lose 9/10ths of your population, slowing everything down, but oops... you're still here too. --PsyGremlin_Whut? 16:06, 10 January 2009 (EST)

I almost tanked a semester as an undergrad playing Civ II. The worst was when you sent a caravan halfway across the world only to have a goddamned barbarian or something kill it when it was almost where you wanted it to go. Corry^{Baby, you got a stew going.} 21:30, 11 January 2009 (EST)

I used to have II but have III on my PC now. Man, I used to make alliances to get tech and gold and then break them ASAP. Now that's deceit:). "People discover rational thought. Reverses benefits of the temples"--Nate River 21:14, 12 January 2009 (EST)

I still play Civ IV with both expansions from time to time. The last expansion added corporations to the game; every corporation has to be founded by a particular type of great person and have particular resources to operate and provide its bonus. So, I'd suggest that a Conservapedia nation should have a special "Defense contractor" corporation, founded by a great prophet, whose necessary resources are military veterans and rich white men from Texas. It's bonus would be "50% more civilian casualties in foreign wars." (Full disclosure: I work for a defense contractor; the comments above were pure snark.) OneForLogic 14:44, 13 January 2009 (EST)

Conservapedia, Leader, Andy Schlafly, Traits: Spiritual, Expansionistic, Special Unit: Homskollar (Replaces warrior) Special building Homeschool classroom (replaces university). preferred Civic: Theocracy.EternalCritic 15:05, 13 January 2009 (EST)

Something I expect to see on CP fairly soon

Генгис^{Is the Pope a Catholic?} 12:45, 11 January 2009 (EST)

Well, I never knew Hitler was a Muslim! Totnesmartin 04:40, 12 January 2009 (EST)

Well, I'm suprised it didn't pop up already. Do they have any Hitler on the Obama article, I can't remember? ArmondikoV^narchist 07:41, 12 January 2009 (EST)

Of course Hitler was a Muslim, why do you think he hated the Jews? Генгис^{Is the Pope a Catholic?} 08:12, 12 January 2009 (EST)

Pardon me for being so blunt, but this is the most pathetic whiskey bar I've ever seen, and I don't even drink. You people party with all the enthusiasm of a decaying Gila monster. The electrocutioner 16:39, 12 January 2009 (EST)

This is more tavern conservsation for those of us with no lives. Outside of the internet, that is. --"ConservapediaUndergroundResistor^{Rusty-spotted catspeed!} 20:18, 12 January 2009 (EST)

Community Chalkboard

I thought that the saloon bar might be a good place to put links to ongoing discussions like the current ones about site policy etc. - like some of the stuff that goes out over the intercom, but keeping it visible a bit longer. So I've designed the Community Chalkboard as a place to note these messages, & added it here as a template. (I had to put it below the beer & whisky as it was skewing the arrangement). If people like the idea, I'm hoping we can also display it at a few other prominent places, like WIGO:CP talk, main page talk & maybe even the main page itself.

There's also a chalkboard template, which can be used to make similar chalkboards for other things (e.g. on user pages, etc.). The only slight problem at the moment is that links appear in blue (as usual), which looks bad against the black background. If anybody knows a way to make links inside the template appear in a friendlier colour (e.g. yellow), please make the appropriate changes. Wëäŝëïöïď^{Methinks it is a Weasel} 19:21, 12 January 2009 (EST)

Q&D fix is to manually enter the links with font color tags, like we do with our sigs. Could also try making the blackboard green, or greyer (like they usually are)? ħuman 20:17, 12 January 2009 (EST)

For some reason that I can't completely work out, I can't get that to work. It works on the basic Chalkboard template, but not on the Community Chalkboard, probably as a result of riding off the other one. It just makes all the text vanish. Wëäŝëïöïď^{Methinks it is a Weasel} 20:41, 12 January 2009 (EST)

set up a class in mediawiki:common.css like: a:link {color: #EEEEEE} or somesuch & use it on the whole "div". ? (with cheese)_{talk to Toast} 20:48, 12 January 2009 (EST)(see here

I see Jeeves was ahead of me! (with cheese)_{talk to Toast} 20:58, 12 January 2009 (EST)

Vabal Registration

Anyone who wants to register with the cabal (or 'vabal' as I like to call it): Please apply on my talk page. I am ve veader. --"ConservapediaUndergroundResistor^{Rusty-spotted catspeed!} 20:15, 12 January 2009 (EST)

I need volunteers. Otherwise I may have to force a user into the cabal. --"ConservapediaUndergroundResistor^{Rusty-spotted catspeed!} 21:08, 12 January 2009 (EST)

My advice to your CUR is give up. - User $\pi$ 02:10, 13 January 2009 (EST)

I believe you mean 'you' not 'your'. --"ConservapediaUndergroundResistor^{Rusty-spotted catspeed!} 12:08, 13 January 2009 (EST)

Non relevant chat

I've just been going through Conservapedia's moon article and its talk page. I'd forgotten how much fun they are. Must return to reading them once a month or so. & the talk page gives some lovely Andy v TK moments, not to mention TK v YEC moments - so expect it to be vanished before long.  ^{(with butter!)} _{talk to Toast} 02:04, 13 January 2009 (EST)

Maybe we need somewhere where we can post our favorites. Генгис^{Is the Pope a Catholic?} 08:29, 13 January 2009 (EST)

Genghis's astrology project

How is that big astrology project going? I was having a look at it, are you ready to move it to main space yet? - User $\pi$ 07:20, 13 January 2009 (EST)

I've got a backlog of emails to analyse but someone else was posting their missives from Jenna and I realised that there are a lot more things that those charlatans try and swing on the gullible and keep on doing it for quite a while even with no response. I even got this (just an extract) today:

It is very important that you pay great attention to what I have to tell you now because this morning I HAD A VERY POWERFUL FLASH CONCERNING YOU.

I am going to be direct with you, I know that at the moment all of your attention is directed towards your love-life and you feel that certain things are escaping you in your romance, you are asking yourself a great deal of questions and you have doubts and uncertainties about your relationships. You are hesitating about which path to take and I can feel the doubt and uncertainty which lies deep in your heart about your partner because you don't want to make any mistakes but you feel that all control is abandoning you and you experience a certain distress and even panic sometimes because you feel that you no longer have all of the cards in hand.

I had this flash about you this morning because I felt this distress that you are going through this morning and I felt that I had to help you. First of all I will not hide the fact that the situation you are in at this time is extremely delicate and you cannot afford the slightest error. I had this flash about you not only because I felt your distress but also because I know that an important event lies ahead for you Clint, an event which will occur very soon over the next couple of days at the exact moment that Venus will find itself in retrograde with your 8th House (a very rare event in your astral configuration). I won't go into too many technical details but basically over the next few days you will be able to act fast to regain control over your relationship and what you will do at this time will be vitally important for the future of your relationship. You must make certain choices about your romance over the next couple of days.

so the data are still being accumulated. Генгис^{Is the Pope a Catholic?} 07:41, 13 January 2009 (EST)

Wow, how did you know Genghis? - User $\pi$ 08:04, 13 January 2009 (EST)

Uh... "Clint"? That's your name, or just a random placeholder name used by the astrologer? Radioactive afikomen ^{Please ignore all my awful pre-2014 comments.} 08:15, 13 January 2009 (EST)

My real name but just one of about 8 names I signed up with to see how the readings varied by gender, employment & marital status. Генгис^{Is the Pope a Catholic?} 09:23, 13 January 2009 (EST)

"Flash! A-aah! Saviour of the universe!" --AKjeldsen^{Cum dissensie} 09:35, 13 January 2009 (EST)

Can we have a link to the project, Clint? Wëäŝëïöïď^{Methinks it is a Weasel} 09:48, 13 January 2009 (EST)

It's here. Генгис^{Is the Pope a Catholic?} 13:20, 13 January 2009 (EST)

HANNITY

Hello all.

So over the weekend I was drinking and signed up for the hannity.com forums. I don't know if any of you guys have ever been there, but the rules are kind of odd, to say the least. Like, I want to describe it as "fascist" but I know that associating the word "fascist" with anything Hannity does seems kinda cliche, but there's no other way to describe it. Users have to ask permission to link to other websites, you're not allowed to show contempt to Oliver North because he's a dear friend of Sean's, and there's like eight hundred thousand rules that serve to do nothing but make all of the users kiss the ass of the moderators.

So, imagine my surprise when I got banned fairly quickly. I know, a dude with a RatWiki account getting banned within 24 hours. What a shocker. The odd part about it, however, is that I was banned for being a "retread," which is apparently their word for "people who were banned and then returned." I had never been to this site before Sunday of this week.

I rather politely pointed this out to them and got all sorts of flak about it. Not just from the moderators, but from the brown-nosing users sticking up for them. The moderators have referenced "data" and "evidence" which they are not going to share because then other people would know how to evade them, and the users backed them up on this like it was the word of God. Nobody has ever seen any of the "evidence" used to ban anybody, they just blindly accept whatever the moderator tells them. Nobody even questions the possibility that the moderators are just making things up as they go along, and the users argue that this is impossible until they are blue in the face.

What in the hell kind of oddball establishment is Hannity running over there? Is this really the core of the Repubican party? ^{— Unsigned, by: Bingosherlock / talk / contribs}

Sound exactly like the core of the Republican party. Wëäŝëïöïď^{Methinks it is a Weasel} 12:31, 13 January 2009 (EST)

And like a certain blogopedia many of us follow just for the laughs... ħuman 13:07, 13 January 2009 (EST)

Security

Will the pictures of alcohol and drinking emotes at the top keep the CP spies away? On a side note, why are we being shovelled into here? EddyP 13:06, 13 January 2009 (EST)

And isn't "Saloon bar" a bit redundant? CЯacke® 14:24, 13 January 2009 (EST)

That's already been mentioned. I don't think anyone's suggested anything better yet. Wëäŝëïöïď^{Methinks it is a Weasel} 14:56, 13 January 2009 (EST)

It's basically to stop general discussion from clogging up WIGO:CP as that gets the majority of the traffic, it grows quickest and often stuff gets archived very, very quickly. So anything not massively important, new or "holy crap this has never been seen before!" can move here. Stuff like "eugh, CP is down again" or "man, Andy is being a cock today" can have a place to go without it getting in the way of better things. In theory at least. ArmondikoV^narchist 15:05, 13 January 2009 (EST)

Jinx Baiting Withdrawals?

For those missing their daily recommended allowance of Jinx Baiting, now he has retired from CP, I noticed that little Jinx _{hi Jinx!} has now taken to posting inane comments on the hive of scum and villany that is Ray Comfort's blog. Go bug him there, and at the same time stick it to Comfort for being a total trolly ignoramus. --JeevesMkII 14:37, 13 January 2009 (EST)

Look, I am sorry

Thread moved from WIGO:CP talk

From what I understand from the ongoing policy discussion, the thing to do when someone posts something like what was posted--Karajou's name, Mrs. Karajou's name, their address, phone number, and pictures of the exterior and interior of his house, including the kids' bedrooms from a realtor's site--was to delete. My bad for not deleting the right way. Perhaps more detailed instructions could be posted. But given the difference between broken wiki links and stalking...TheoryOfPractice 15:41, 13 January 2009 (EST)

In light of a breach of that magnitude, you probably did the right thing, so don't worry :). The only better option is to delete the text and trust the mob, or delete the text and ask Trent to reinstall oversight. You had great motivations, and thanks for conducting yourself and this site with an eye towards maintaining our standards of non-creepiness and good-guy persona.-caius (historian) 15:44, 13 January 2009 (EST)

I would oppose the reinstallation of oversight, as it is just too damn creepy. Something like that thing that RWW used when Proxima complained would be good. Phantom Hoover 15:47, 13 January 2009 (EST)

(EC)I didn't realise that was what had been posted and agree, that is way over the top. Despite Mr. (We all know your real name anyway it was in the LA Times) Karajou revealing details that were obtained through privileged information, i.e. checkuser. I think Trent may have been too cautious in removing oversight, there is a case for a small group to have that power for instances just like this. Ghostsucker, I appreciate you concerns about oversight but I would suggest that any uses of it be open to review. Also I would regard checkuser as much more creepy. Генгис^{Is the Pope a Catholic?} 15:54, 13 January 2009 (EST)

The reason I am scared by oversight is that when it is used, the edit vanishes, with no logs. The deleterevision extension is perfect in these situations, as it removes the edit but leaves a placeholder showing where it was. Phantom Hoover 15:59, 13 January 2009 (EST)

I don't know what Oversight is. The thing at RWW is just the ability to hide revisions ([1]), although it only hides them from people who don't have that ability. Wëäŝëïöïď^{Methinks it is a Weasel} 16:08, 13 January 2009 (EST)

I think the "hide/delete revision" function would be a good addition, in that it's as effective as oversight but not as draconian. I'm glad we're taking steps to hide other people's private info in this case; I think we should be in the business of protecting not just our anonymity, but the other guys' too. Even if we hate their online work, talking about them IRL just crosses a line.-caius (historian) 17:32, 13 January 2009 (EST)

Now that the dust has settled, who was the troll who caused the mess by posting the details? Quite the exploit, managed to take the wiki down for over an hour. ħuman 18:31, 13 January 2009 (EST)

It was a BON, and, in my glaring display of incompetence, no, I did not remember to take note of what its digits were. There may have been a "5" in there somewhere. TheoryOfPractice 18:34, 13 January 2009 (EST)

Meh, it was an IP out of a Chinese proxy. Nothing of note there. tmtoulouse 18:36, 13 January 2009 (EST)

Oversight

I am going to do something I rarely do..I am going to dictate policy by fiat, because I am the one that has to waste an hour of his life cleaning things up, not you. You can not delete pages with 30,000+ revisions......don't do it, ever. The mob wants to be able to get rid of edits, and that is what oversight is for. Until such time that the mob decides we will never have need of to removed revisions from the database it will stay. Currently I have it. Pick 2-3 people who are established members of the sight, who most people trust. Ideally pick at least a couple that themselves don't get along that great. Then you have some oversight of oversight. All oversighting leaves a log, I, and the other oversight people will know when it has been done and if it was not done for a good reason then that person will no longer have oversight. tmtoulouse 17:35, 13 January 2009 (EST)

Well the not get along is easy, RA and Human then. - User $\pi$ 17:37, 13 January 2009 (EST)

Can haz too?-caius (historian) 17:38, 13 January 2009 (EST)

Owing to time zone differences I think there should be at least one European. Just off the top of my head, AKjeldsen, BobM, Sid or myself are all long time members. It's really a matter of who is around the most to respond. I heartily agree with peer-review of any oversight actions. Генгис^{Is the Pope a Catholic?} 17:57, 13 January 2009 (EST)

Any crat can move someone into oversight, just discuss before you do it. Keep it to a minimum, right now it is just me and I am not going to be around enough to do much more than monitor it's use. tmtoulouse 18:20, 13 January 2009 (EST)

I'm around fairly (too?) often, but if this is something that requires any technical skills, I'm probably not the best choice. Also, perhaps Trent should make a brief list of "stuff a sysop never ever should do"? Could as well have been me as Theory to do something like this. --AKjeldsen^{Cum dissensie} 18:25, 13 January 2009 (EST)

Agreed, that it is a good idea, I am not trying to fault anyone. The problem is one I face all the time which is that you usually don't know what people will do that they shouldn't until they do it. I will see what can be put together. tmtoulouse 18:27, 13 January 2009 (EST)

Don't stick beans up your nose! AK, I don't think it's hard to do, it probably looks like the "deleted article" revision history, right? ħuman 18:29, 13 January 2009 (EST)

"I heartily agree with peer-review of any oversight actions." Me too. How about once we've picked our small gang of evil overseers, we insist that any oversight action must be immediately reported to another overseer to "second" that it was the right thing to do? ħuman 18:34, 13 January 2009 (EST)

The primary concern is that there is no public log right? I will just make one. tmtoulouse 18:39, 13 January 2009 (EST)

The CP Special Discussion Group

Someone on Wikiindex posted a link to a download of what looks like the SDG archives. (It doesn't appear booby-trapped to me, and it's got their unique blend of idiocy and paranoia that makes me think it's for real.) Posting said link here might be a trifle gauche, but a little digging in the history of the CP page there can find it. --Gulik 17:56, 13 January 2009 (EST)