181

Suggestions & Concerns / Proposal: A public moderation log

« on: May 31, 2015, 07:56:52 PM »

Following up on Thork's recent outrage with Pongo's nomination for moderator, and in the interest of general transparency, I would like to propose that the moderation log be made available for viewing by all registered users.

The moderation provides a backtrace of all thread moves, splits, deletions, edits, user bans and ban triggers, making a thread sticky or revoking that status, etc. I don't think any of this information is particularly sensitive (please correct me if I'm wrong or if I missed something that is), and it could provide our userbase with the opportunity for a more fact-based judgement of how the moderation team works for them.

Unfortunately, at a glance, SMF doesn't appear to have an easy way to facilitate this. Out of the box, being able to view the moderation log is included in the "Administrate forum and database" bundle, which includes a bunch of weird and wonderful things that we probably don't want to give everyone access to:

This permission allows a user to:

• change forum, database and theme settings
• manage packages
• use the forum and database maintenance tools
• view the error and mod logs

Use this permission with caution, as it is very powerful.

Assuming this motion passes, I'm happy to investigate a way to implement it.

182

Flat Earth Community / Which space missions do you consider to be legitimate?

« on: April 07, 2015, 06:30:20 PM »

We've received the following question via Facebook. I (and presumably the author of the question) would be interested to see what our individual members have to say.

Of all the space missions, be it Man on the Moon or simply spacecrafts like Curiosity, Voyage, Rosetta or others, which do you consider to be legitimate?

183

Suggestions & Concerns / Improving our home page

« on: April 04, 2015, 08:31:14 PM »

It's no secret that our homepage currently leaves much to be desired. We don't have all that much content there, which appears to lead to a high bounce rate (i.e. people finding us, visiting the site, and leaving shortly after). We've neglected it, and I think it's high time we work on it.

I've been playing around with SMF's website integration functionality, and so far I came up with the idea of listing the most recently updated threads in the sidebar (which is currently cluttered by largely unhelpful blog stuff). Mind you, this is just a quick draft, but instead of this:



we could have this:


(Currently, I have this set to display only threads from Announcements, FEG, FEQ&A and FED of my dev forum, but this can obviously be changed)

While on the subject of tying the homepage together with the forum, this could also open another avenue. Currently, we rely on a blogging CMS that only Parsifal and I have direct access to. Obviously, this is not ideal since it needlessly stops our members from directly contributing (see: the fact that we only published one of Pongo's two proposed posts, for no real good reason). We could, for example, have a News board here which would allow some pre-approved members to post directly to the home page.

We could also explore areas for integrating the home page with our Wiki, e.g. "Flat Earth image of the week" (this could be randomly picked from a selection of images we mark as good), a link to a random article, or something along those lines.

All in all, I'm looking for opinions on the ideas I've had so far, as well as any other ideas you might have for improving our homepage. Do you think the links to recent posts in the sidebar might be useful to a newcomer? Would people be interested in writing an occasional paragraph for the homepage were it not for the current administrative difficulties of getting this done? What else can we do?

184

Philosophy, Religion & Society / PhD student shows students X-rated footage of herself; viewers unimpressed.

« on: March 29, 2015, 10:41:03 PM »

Lauren Barri-Holstein, actress and PhD student at Queen Mary University of London, decided to show a recording of her "feminist performance art concerned with the female body" as part of an introduction to a theatre class. Many students seemed displeased:

"It was surreal. I honestly didn't know how to react. I don't think I'll ever be able to look her in the eye in person, it's just weird."
"It's not even the fact we saw her lady parts, it's the fact I literally have no idea how the clip was in any way related to this module."
"It was just so extreme and I don't understand why it was in any way necessary."

While some were okay with it:

"I understand her aim is to actively gross out the audience and challenge us, which does actually make sense."
"She's really passionate about exposing our socially ingrained expectations, so I'm going to suspend my judgement and wait until I get to know her better as a teacher."

Here's a Telegraph article providing some more detail about the story. Now, without further ado, I present to you Splat!, helpfully censored and narrated by Youtube's very own Sargon of Akkad:



Sometimes I really have doubts about my thoughts of going into academia.

185

Flat Earth Community / The Hampden-Wallace wager

« on: March 01, 2015, 03:25:10 PM »

I imagine you are much like Hampden when he lost to Wallace.

Hampden never lost to Wallace. The wager was deemed invalid by a court of law. Please do not present your interpretations of who you think might have won when it was authoritatively settled. Even Christine Garwood's hit piece, Flat Earth: the History of an Infamous Idea managed to get this right. I'd encourage you to read at least chapters 3 and 4 before making further libellous remarks about this wager.

Carpenter, the original referee of the debt that both gentlemen agreed on confiding in, had no doubt that the result was in Hampden's favour. Wallace threw a complete shit-fit, which led to many wonderful things such as threatening Carpenter and eventually calling the cops on him to forcibly remove him out of his house. Wallace was so desperate to turn the tables that he changed referees mid-wager to his friend and sports magazine editor, Walsh (n.b. this is not to say that Carpenter had better credentials himself). During the 1876 court case, Walsh was so desperate to defend his illegal actions that he tried to rebrand the entire event as "not a wager". Also, since Walsh and Wallace had previously agreed on Walsh's indemnity, the cost of the whole farce fell on Wallace directly, putting him at a net loss even after all the libel suits he won against Hampden.

It's a sad story, but both men struggled with financial difficulties at the time, so it's no surprise that Wallace would resort to petty cheating (keep in mind that £500 was a very substantial sum of money at the time).

186

Announcements / The original Zetetic Astronomy is (finally) available!

« on: February 12, 2015, 04:58:19 AM »

After entirely too long a time (I've been working on this on and off since August 2014), it is my pleasure to announce that a copy of the original 1849 pamphlet Zetetic Astronomy : a description of several experiments which prove that the surface of the sea is a perfect plane and that the earth is not a globe! : being the substance of a paper read before the Royal Astronomical Society on the evening of Dec. 8, 1848 by Samuel Rowbotham is now available for your reading pleasure at our library.

To those not in the know, this pamphlet was Rowbotham's first attempt at laying down his model of the Flat Earth, which has then been expanded into the much more thorough book Earth Not a Globe.

Previously, this resource was only accessible on microfilm in a small amount of high-profile libraries around the plane, many of which are only available to researchers. Bringing it back to public access where it rightfully belongs is a substantial achievement for our Society. Further work could include transferring the body of this document to a machine-readable format so as to allow for it to be searched and interpreted freely.

I would like to express my thanks to the US Library of Congress for their invaluable assistance in producing this resource.

187

Announcements / New designs in the store!

« on: January 18, 2015, 09:27:35 AM »

Thanks to Blanko's graphical know-how, our store now features additional shirt and magnet designs.

As usual, all markups are set to $0 so the prices that appear are purely Cafepress costs.

You can find all the goodies at http://www.cafepress.com/theflatearthsociety

188

Suggestions & Concerns / REQUEST FOR COMMENTS: Reunification Proposal

« on: December 27, 2014, 08:57:16 PM »

The time has come. After many months of discussion, we believe the negotiations between tfes.org and theflatearthsociety.org have reached a point of conclusion, and we would like now to present our reunification proposal. The support (or lack thereof) presented in this thread will determine whether or not we proceed. Please see the proposal below:

Reunification Proposal
Author: pizaaplanet
Version: 1

Assuming the approval of our members, we would like to reunite the two societies under the following conditions:

• The Forums
  The two societies' forums will be merged by way of tfes.org inheriting theflatearthsociety.org's database. The resultant forum will remain under the current administration, moderation and rules of tfes.org. The web server, codebase, and technical solutions used will be those of tfes.org. Wilmore and Daniel will also have administrative privileges in the forum, but their role in running the forum will be advisory at most, and likely simply ceremonial. The administrators of tfes.org will be the decision-making organ for all things related to the forum. The reunited forum's URL will be forum.theflatearthsociety.org, but redirects will be maintained for forum.tfes.org and theflatearthsociety.org/forum for the foreseeable future. No content from either forum should be lost.
• The Front Page and Library
  The current front page and Flat Earth Library of theflatearthsociety.org will be used. This will be primarily maintained by Daniel, and will be located on the server of his choosing. At least one tfes.org administrator will be permitted to be a co-admin of the front page. Non-administrative members will be able to apply for accounts, should they wish to submit periodic content (news stories, articles, images, etc.).
• The Wiki
  The current Wiki of tfes.org will be used.
• The Society
  
  • President/VP - Daniel will be the President of the reunited society. Lord Wilmore will be the Vice President. These positions are at Daniel's discretion.
  • The Zetetic Council - A democratically-elected body of 5 members will be electable yearly. They will be officially recognised as such within the Society and will therefore be expected to act as its legitimate representatives. Their exact remit and structure of the council will be established post-reunification (and pre-election) through a general agreement of all members of the Society and forum regulars (unless they deem that such a body is unnecessary). In principle, they will be a decision-making organ of the society wherever possible (e.g. not in charge of membership and merchandise - see below). Daniel will retain veto power over the ZC's decisions.
    
    • A necessary consequence of this development will be the dissolution of the current Zetetic Council of tfes.org.
    • There will be no restrictions on current councillors partaking in the elections for the new council.
  • Membership - Daniel remains in control of the membership register of theflatearthsociety.org, which will continue to be used in the reunified society. The current membership rules (free associate membership with an optional "Friend of the Flat Earth" membership package sold at no profit) will be carried over to the reunified society.
  • Merchandise - This remains within Daniel's remit and will likely operate as it does currently on theflatearthsociety.org, under the condition that it will be performed at no profit. After reunification, we may investigate alternative pathways (e.g. Zazzle/CafePress), should there be significant demand for such a development.
  • The Logo - The logo of theflatearthsociety.org will be used at the time of reunification

Version history:

#	Description	Date	Author
1:	Initial version	27/12/2014	pizaaplanet

What happens now?
As agreed previously, it is now the time for our community to discuss the proposal and suggest modifications. Everyone's input is welcome. Please post your comments below. We (tfes.org administrators) will avoid getting too involved in the discussion proper so as to avoid skewing it, but we will happily respond to any questions. We will also notify Daniel and Wilmore about this thread, so they may be able to answer questions directed at them, should they choose to do so.

The discussion/suggestions period will last for no less than 7 days since the time of this post. At that point, assuming we've reached a sensible consensus, the final version of the proposal would be put to a vote. Provisionally, I would like to suggest that all members who registered and made 50 posts prior to this post. These rules are open for suggestions and amendments on the same conditions as the rest of the proposal.

Thank you for reading, and thanks for flying Flat Earth.
~pizaaplanet

189

Announcements / New Wiki theme

« on: December 08, 2014, 05:06:59 PM »

Thanks to Blanko's mad design skills, we have now updated our Wiki's default theme to one that's more consistent with the rest of our visual identity.

As it stands, this is still a work in progress and it's quite likely we'll be making changes and adjustments over time. Meanwhile, if anyone has any comments or suggestion, please direct them to either Blanko or me.

Thanks for flying Flat Earth!

190

Flat Earth Community / MOVED: Getting to know each other.

« on: November 05, 2014, 07:26:17 PM »

This topic has been moved to The Lounge.

http://forum.tfes.org/index.php?topic=2056.0

191

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Responsible suicide

« on: September 25, 2014, 04:48:51 AM »

Before I begin, please note that this thread is gonna be pretty grim. It will likely contain content that some may find particularly offensive or "triggering". If you suspect you might be one of those people, I'd like to suggest you move along.

I'll cut the crap. It is my personal belief that a person has the right to end their lives if they so desire. No one else should have a say on that person's decision unless the person in question specifically welcomes it. This, however, raises a number of issues. It would be selfish to think that one's suicide doesn't affect their immediate environment. It means work for some, potential trauma for others, and is generally messy and unelegant. Some people will be left with questions, others might blame themselves needlessly.

So, FES, what would you do to minimise the impact of your suicide?

192

Flat Earth Media / MOVED: Poll for Member's Beliefs. Please Participate.

« on: September 22, 2014, 02:42:43 PM »

This topic has been moved to Philosophy, Religion & Society.

http://forum.tfes.org/index.php?topic=1928.0

193

Announcements / Possible minor disruptions to Tapatalk

« on: August 08, 2014, 11:35:28 AM »

I'm currently working on fixing a few small things in our Tapatalk plugin, and I'm somewhat forced to do so on the live forum. As such, you may expect some minor glitches occurring for a while. I doubt there will be any severe disruption, but you might see things get broken for a second or two now and then. Sorry for any inconvenience, and thanks for flying Flat Earth.

194

Philosophy, Religion & Society / MOVED: American teeth

« on: August 08, 2014, 05:00:17 AM »

This topic has been moved to The Lounge.

http://forum.tfes.org/index.php?topic=1784.0

195

Suggestions & Concerns / MOVED: Re: On the notion of the other site's technical issues

« on: August 07, 2014, 05:07:40 AM »

This topic has been moved to Angry Ranting.

http://forum.tfes.org/index.php?topic=1781.0

196

Philosophy, Religion & Society / MH17 (aka MH370) is a false flag

« on: July 27, 2014, 04:39:50 PM »

http://worldtruth.tv/mh-17-was-in-fact-the-lost-flight-mh-370/

The two planes are one and the same, and the Conspiracy is trying to turn us against our Russian brothers. Don't be fooled!

197

Flat Earth Community / MOVED: I guess you guys aren't kidding.

« on: July 20, 2014, 12:20:28 AM »

This topic has been moved to The Lounge.

http://forum.tfes.org/index.php?topic=1726.0

198

Suggestions & Concerns / MOVED: Facebook fraud

« on: July 20, 2014, 12:19:24 AM »

This topic has been moved to Technology & Information.

http://forum.tfes.org/index.php?topic=1727.0

199

Technology & Information / Tesla Motors opens their patents to the world. Fuck yeah.

« on: June 12, 2014, 08:47:23 PM »

Technology leadership is not defined by patents, which history has repeatedly shown to be small protection indeed against a determined competitor, but rather by the ability of a company to attract and motivate the world’s most talented engineers. We believe that applying the open source philosophy to our patents will strengthen rather than diminish Tesla’s position in this regard.

See full announcement here. I think this is a fantastic move, especially with today's world being haunted by patent trolls and legal disputes slowing down technological progress. Hopefully more companies will follow suit!

Importantly, this means that electric cars might actually become common now. And, you know, not burning gas is a good thing.

200

Flat Earth Media / Rory Cooper: Interesting Flat Earth animations

« on: June 01, 2014, 07:43:00 AM »

It would appear that Rory Cooper has been illustrating evidence of FET for quite a while now. His videos are well worth checking out.