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From the Uxbridge English challenge. See all 652 entries (closed)

(BuiltByBen, Thu 1 May 2008, 20:55, archived)

this is the sixth thread with no replies
/paradox
(gobbledegook blurs the line between lurking and stalking, Thu 1 May 2008, 20:57, archived)

I was about to comment on this.
I would make an image of doctors skydiving and put "paradox" over the top of it, but I can't be arsed.

I know this challenge is popular with some of the regulars, and some of the entries are very funny, but in the name of all that is holy it's fucking relentless.
( The Hedgehog From Hell www.facejuggler.com, Thu 1 May 2008, 20:59, archived)

its just an excuse for some terrible puns
not that i have anything against puns buts holy hell how many can there be.
also i feel for our american b3tans who probably have no idea what this is about
(gobbledegook blurs the line between lurking and stalking, Thu 1 May 2008, 21:01, archived)

That's the weird thing for me.
I normally love wordplay and obscure puns. However, what seems to have happened is that everyone and their dog is posting their attempts, and nobody's bothering to comment on them.

I have no idea if it's been like this during the day as well, but I hope it isn't like this all week.
( The Hedgehog From Hell www.facejuggler.com, Thu 1 May 2008, 21:05, archived)

( Pasanonic 's been known to cause insanity in laboratory mice, Thu 1 May 2008, 21:06, archived)

Hahaha!

( The Hedgehog From Hell www.facejuggler.com, Thu 1 May 2008, 21:13, archived)

ha ha haaaaaaaaaaaaa
ace!

*vomits*
( Ptolemy the man with the silent pea, Thu 1 May 2008, 21:38, archived)

it's another
b3ta killer.
Whilst there are some funny jokes there is no point in submitting anything of top quality whilst the torrent is in full flow.

It's the thing that has always annoyed me about b3ta. The forum is so old fashioned.

It would be much better served to have a more modern UBB style web forum with different areas such as anim forum, shop forum, drawing forum COMPO forum et al where users posted their work in a new thread and people opened the thread to view and comment. This would also give the user better control of his bandwidth usage as he would not have to cache every image that is posted but only those he chose to open. But no doubt people think I'm mad. Seriously though, this forum style is stuck in the 90's.
( Pasanonic 's been known to cause insanity in laboratory mice, Thu 1 May 2008, 21:05, archived)

Have you made "how to update the b3ta forum" an image challenge suggestion?
I'd click it.
( The Hedgehog From Hell www.facejuggler.com, Thu 1 May 2008, 21:07, archived)

hehe
stobbit. I'm unpopular enough as it is ;)
( Pasanonic 's been known to cause insanity in laboratory mice, Thu 1 May 2008, 21:08, archived)

Oh well, in that case:
www.b3ta.com/questions/imagechallenge/post150731
( The Hedgehog From Hell www.facejuggler.com, Thu 1 May 2008, 21:16, archived)

clicked.
I expect lasers, lots of lasers.
( Pasanonic 's been known to cause insanity in laboratory mice, Thu 1 May 2008, 21:28, archived)

Hahaha
That's a great idea. Pity it seems that the quickest way for a suggestion to be ignored is to post it on the challenge suggestions page.
( boris the spider West, in that sort of thing is not., Thu 1 May 2008, 21:10, archived)

i agree
a few updates to the b3ta set-up might be in order given its age
(gobbledegook blurs the line between lurking and stalking, Thu 1 May 2008, 21:09, archived)

I think the "all on one" style
creates a sense of community that you just don't see on other sites.
You can get higher quality images on other forums but it all seems a bit clinical.
somethingawful is a good example. It's confusing as fuck. I think the old-school style is part of b3ta's charm.
( the_rhyme_minister has a little bit of gold and a pager, Thu 1 May 2008, 21:11, archived)

^ this
i can't stand other forum styles because there's so much other unnecessary shit. paragraph-long signatures, avatars, a member for how long, all those fucking tables. The b3ta system is flawed but is still cleaner and easier to manage, and is my personal favorite.
( Agent Muu wants to kick shit at a pig, Thu 1 May 2008, 21:14, archived)

ooh
you've been a member for 4 years, 6 months and 16 days and have posted 14817 messages on the main board :)

i agree though, i had to go out of my way to find that out. somethingawful's a great example for how forums can be ugly as fuck -- i end up adblocking almost everything because people's stupid animated avatars drive me crazy. unfortunately i don't know if there's any way to adblock signatures. (or if there's an option; i'm buggered if i'm paying $10 to be on the forums properly)
( boris the spider West, in that sort of thing is not., Thu 1 May 2008, 21:16, archived)

all configurable an removeable
at the admin level. Just because the options exist does not mean they all have to be implemented. It's would be nice to have the choice. I'd certainly disallow signatures were I running it.
( Pasanonic 's been known to cause insanity in laboratory mice, Thu 1 May 2008, 21:24, archived)

personally i like the idea of a mixture
i know what you mean by the sense of community -- there's no way anyone would bother looking at anything i've posted if we were all segregated. the same goes for anyone else whose username isn't all that well known or who, frankly, is as talentless as i am. at the same time i do like the idea of a separate board for challenge entries and for people who just want to talk shit.

no, wait, we've already got /talk, and that didn't work out so well.... :)
( boris the spider West, in that sort of thing is not., Thu 1 May 2008, 21:15, archived)

Haha precisely.
I've just been on SA as research. I wouldn't consider myself thick but I cannot even begin to understand it. I love b3ta and I know I've only been here for a short time but I wouldn't change it for the world.
( the_rhyme_minister has a little bit of gold and a pager, Thu 1 May 2008, 21:19, archived)

I shall now "out" myself in a previous life
or something.

I used to be a mod on thetransformers.net forums*. This was a good few years ago, t'was my first real internet forum experience and there were some top people on there.

Anyway, I couldn't imagine it ever changing - but they updated it every couple of years, and after a very short period of re-adjustment you realised that the new version was a shitload better than the old one.

*No, I'm not telling you what my username was.
( The Hedgehog From Hell www.facejuggler.com, Thu 1 May 2008, 21:25, archived)

Haha geek!

( the_rhyme_minister has a little bit of gold and a pager, Thu 1 May 2008, 21:40, archived)

All valid points
and I'd be a fool to suggest that there is a right or wrong way.
I used to be heavily involved in community web forums of various kinds and in fact used to be administrator of community.sigames.com/eve/ubb.x which has always been one of the busiest communities on the web for some 10 years.
I just feel that there is a 'better' way of handling the content of this site for the users to manage in a way they prefer ( the nested option is just a default and a lot of these forums can be configured to the users preference ).
The amount of content that can be added by the ubb modding community is huge and takes away the burden of wrewriting this bespok b3ta code every time something new is to be added.
That said the code is bespoke and no doubt ( rightly ) the coders are very proud of it.
I'd just like to see some of the ubb ideas implememnted so that there is not just one page of data that moves too fast.
I'm not bitching, I hope you can see where I'm coming from ( BEHIND YOO!)
( Pasanonic 's been known to cause insanity in laboratory mice, Thu 1 May 2008, 21:22, archived)

Oh shit!
Well after reading your reply I've realised that this is the only forum or messageboard I've ever actively been a part of and therefore am not really in a position to pass comment on its merits with respect to other sites. That said there are analouges that can be drawn from other aspects of life that demonstrate how over evolution, for want of a better word, can destroy the key ideal at the heart of communtity. There's no doubt Tesco's is a better place to do your shopping thant your local butcher/green grocer/fishmonger with regards to range, price and convinence but something of the communtity is lost in it.
( the_rhyme_minister has a little bit of gold and a pager, Thu 1 May 2008, 21:27, archived)

Shopping?
I'm afraid you have lost me. that's something the wife discusses with the housekeeper.


(my keyboard is dying)
( Pasanonic 's been known to cause insanity in laboratory mice, Thu 1 May 2008, 21:30, archived)

Haha point taken.
I need to do some work anyway. Also, I checked out that site you said you admined. Football manager!? Pah that's something the wife discusses with the housekeeper.
( the_rhyme_minister has a little bit of gold and a pager, Thu 1 May 2008, 21:33, archived)

I've never been an admin on a forum
but I've used lots of them and there are certainly areas of B3ta's layout that I think could be improved -- the speed with which pictures fall off teh bottom of the board is far too rapid especially during a popular challenge like this. I do agree about the community part of it, but at the least I think it would be nice to have each thread collapsible (which is easily enough done with quite a lot of forum engines) so that way more can fit on the main page before being shuffled into the archives.

People would still tend to ignore posts by unknown users in favour of well-known ones -- naturally enough and I'd do the same -- and that would be a pity. I do like the utter democracy of B3ta, even while being enormously irritated by the dickheads who get their kicks out of abusing it.
( boris the spider West, in that sort of thing is not., Thu 1 May 2008, 21:32, archived)

Wildly off-topic, but
as someone who was self-employed for many years working for a variety of different companies, from tiny independents up to Tesco: with regards to range and pricing, Tesco sucks big hairy balls. I found it truly astonishing how people just ignored that because it was slightly more convenient.

For overall customer service, independent or small retailers are the ONLY way to go. When people decide to value convenience over everything else, everything else dies.
( The Hedgehog From Hell www.facejuggler.com, Thu 1 May 2008, 21:33, archived)

I'm not sure I expressed it very well
but that what was precisely my point. There's more streamlined, efficient and therefore convinient layouts than b3ta's but that's what gives it its charm.
( the_rhyme_minister has a little bit of gold and a pager, Thu 1 May 2008, 21:38, archived)

Ah, OK.
Sorry, I interpreted you incorrectly. I think. Difficult to tell after a while on here, though.
( The Hedgehog From Hell www.facejuggler.com, Thu 1 May 2008, 21:43, archived)

Fried eyes.
Beats working though which is what I should be doing.
( the_rhyme_minister has a little bit of gold and a pager, Thu 1 May 2008, 21:49, archived)