Moving Forward
If you’re a troll or a spammer, you better try to get your last licks in now, because by Monday, the guest commenting function will be a thing of the past on Brownstoner. If you haven’t signed up for a user account yet, please try to do so in the next couple of days. (If…
If you’re a troll or a spammer, you better try to get your last licks in now, because by Monday, the guest commenting function will be a thing of the past on Brownstoner. If you haven’t signed up for a user account yet, please try to do so in the next couple of days. (If you don’t receive your verification email within a couple of minutes, just email us and we’ll verify you by hand.) If you already have a user account and voted for the elimination of guest commenting, please put your money where your mouth is and make an effort to get involved in discussions. Another to remember is that you are still anonymous when you comment with a username: Just pick a silly name like Cobble Hill Guy and stick with it; no other readers will be able to see your email address or know who you really are. Our hope and expectation is that the improved quality of the threads—along with our ability to boot anyone who steps out of bounds—will more than make up for any decline in the quantity of comments.
We know that there are a lot of long-time readers out there who’ve gradually been moving to the sidelines of the discussions as they’ve grown nastier and more inane, and hopefully they will take this as an opportunity to re-engage and take the sense of community back to its roots where we can have meaningful, useful discussions about real estate, architecture and the many issues that confront the borough and its neighborhoods as the inevitable wheels of change continue to turn.
There are going to be a number of new features coming to the site in the next few months, the use of which will also be enhanced by having a user account. The first of these, launching next week, involves a group effort at building a comprehensive restaurant guide for the borough. (Having a username is particularly useful because other readers can come to trust, or distrust, you opinions about restaurants.) Other features down the pipe include map-based mobile access of the Brownstoner archives, neighborhood emails and some new service-oriented improvements in the architect and contractor spaces.
Brenda, when you say “Hope it works to reduce the tedious and hateful idiocy quotient”, yes, we can hope that would be the case. But as you can see from posters who have now newly registered with names on this thread (a few of them of questionable taste), the quality hasn’t improved any. It’s just as sophomoric as ever. I used to enjoy posting here occasionally, but as time went on, I got tired of being bashed for my opinions (which were pretty harmless, I might add, and not controversial in any respect). It seems like opinions are no longer respected as such and are now targets attack. Very immature, if you ask me. I do agree that some of the snarkiness or provocativeness does originate with Mr. B at times, but I think that’s a generational thing (ok, attack me now). There’s an old saying…”the fish stinks from the head…” Nonetheless, I don’t intend to post any more and don’t intend to register either (by the way, this is my first post under this particular thread). I doubt the new policy will result in a better blog from the evidence so far. I’ll probably browse future posts that contain useful information about our neighborhoods, the way it used to be when this blog was born, but that’s about it.
“I take my privacy seriously too”
“I, unlike you, have nothing to hide.”
see- dumber than a box of hair
“CHP isn’t assuming. that’s exactly what happened.”
Okay. I am standing by to see your proof of this.
8:50- CHP isn’t assuming. that’s exactly what happened. Anyone who signed in under the old typekey system can tell you we didn’t know what would be public and the system was buggy and awful. This was nearly 2 years ago, if I remember correctly. I take my privacy seriously too- I’m sure the trolls would just have a field day with my info otherwise, so i hope you decide to register and keep posting in any case.
Also- you don’t have to give any personal info when you register other than an email address, and that doesn’t show up in the profile unless you want it to. You can get a free gmail, yahoo or hotmail address that is unconnected to your regular email addresses. And Mr. b has responsibility for the registration system- it’s not in his interest to make any private info public or use it in any way.
“…Soon after, someone posted my real name and phone number as a contact for a community event that was featured on the site, and the troll got my phone number…”
CHP, are you merely ASSUMING that this is how the troll got your phone number or do you actually have evidence to support this theory? If you’re simply guessing that the troll must have found your number on this other site because you can’t imagine how else he could have acquired it…well, while you could be right, that’s just not very reassuring, if you see what I mean. No disrespect intended here. I just take the protection of my privacy very seriously.
Well, I don’t think I’ve ever consciously come up with tricks and tools to, kind of, hide. I do think I’m a bit more vigilant, in terms of safety issues and things. And sometimes it is kind of nice to try to hold onto your anonymity.
– Calista Flockhart
A virtual kindgarden class would be useful, since Brooklyn and Brownstoner is just a breeding ground for anonymous psychos!
Hoo Fucking Ray!!!!!
Crown Heights Proud here. Bxgrl’s explanation is true. I stupidly wrote my real name on my registration to TypeKey, which was readily available when one passed the mouse over my log in name. I changed it as soon as I was outed, but it was too late. Soon after, someone posted my real name and phone number as a contact for a community event that was featured on the site, and the troll got my phone number, which he/she posted whenever the mood hit. That is how it happened, and is a good lesson learned in terms of providing information to non-secure registration systems. One’s real name is not necessary to register, so I would advise that people keep that in mind. Still read Brownstoner, BTW.
– crown heights proud