Murray and Paul had a big influence on the 1970s evangelical culture in the UK that SOF originally started off in (through their work with Riding Lights), and maybe that's what your lecturer was talking about.
I remember the riding lights part as well, now things are a lot clearer! Many thanks Simon!
(And if this is already described somewhere I apologise. If it turns out to be a FAQ I grovel in the dust. Certainly I can't find the History that Shaun refers to, so I must be missing something.)
The thing is... Simon and I have never met. We've spoken on the phone a fair few times, but there has never been a face-to-face meeting.
I stumbled across the Ship about a month or so before the official launch in the spring of 1998, via a link from Anglicans Online. The original board was implemented in July of that year. (Trawl around in the Ship's Archive for an article that Steve Tomkins wrote, it's freakin' hilarious.) I remember when there weren't that many of us, and looking around, the only people still left from that first month or so on the boards are me, David Rayner, Steve T, Dyfrig, Chris, rachel (not rachel_o, the rachel who had Sven in Minnesota), DP, rosemary and Fudge. (Apologies if I left anyone out.)
Anyway, in January of 1999, I was a regular member, just like you, until the Ten-Horned Beast of the Apocalypse descended upon the poor, unsuspecting souls of the bulletin board. I'm not going to get into the details, unless someone really, really wants to know, but I will say that it took three months before she finally left us alone, and to make that happen Simon, Suse (no longer here) and I spent days and nights deleting thousands of posts; we shut the board down in order to implement the registration and subscription requirement; and David, Simon, Douglas (no longer here), Claudine (again, no longer here) and I spent countless hours doing battle on other (now-defunct) bulletin boards where she had gone to rally people against us.
Because of ALL that we had been through, and because we were also the group that put the original 10Cs together, we sort of became board advisors. At the time I was working a job from 3~11p which was SO BORING that I would pray "please, God, let someone post a message". So I became very active in overseeing the boards, and gradually Simon ceded various responsibilities to me.
Believe it or not, that's the short version. If you want the long and boring one, just ask.
quote:
If you want the long and boring one, just ask.
we are asking.......
(when you have the time, of course)
Neil
bb
(I love a good story)
quote:
Originally posted by starbelly:
And Erin, If you could put it all in the form of a Traditional Folk Song, that would be even better!Neil
The trouble with that is now the only melody that is echoing through my brain is the theme song to Gilligan's Island. Thanks a lot.
More memories, huh? It took us about three months to get to a situation where we needed the 10Cs. And that, interestingly enough, came out of a discussion on tolerance!!
Oh, and Laura the admin was the person who proposed the board split that happened about two years ago.
[ 28 March 2002: Message edited by: Erin ]
Not only would it be interesting in its own right, but it might help those of us who are more recent recruits to understand what is going on in the (thankfully rare) moments when when somebody (either by accident or design) presses the button marked "don't go there - the last time we went through that the Ship almost sank".
The other hot topic, which was so very recently resurrected and subsequently beaten to a bloody pulp, is the likening of a member's position to that of a universally-reviled group. That generates far too much heat, and absolutely no light, so in the interest of community preservation that is simply out of bounds. A big explosion a year ago over this particular technique (note: I was not involved in that debate AT ALL) led us to implement this policy.
We also had a shipmate who was in the habit of telling those who did not agree with his interpretations of the Bible that they were going straight to hell. Again, huge argument, so that's out of bounds.
Those are the major no-go areas that I can think of at the moment.
How about we do it like this: y'all ask questions about things that you don't understand or are curious about. Could be anything from what is perceived to be an inside joke, to how did we get certain rules, to why we're set up the way we are, and so on. I think it would be easier than us trying to recreate the last four years or so.
I think what I would find very interesting is a “behind the scenes” glimpse of life on the bridge of the SoF (unless this would be too much like letting daylight in upon magic!). Who does what and how? We have some idea of what the hosts do, but much less with “Community Editor” or “Administrator Member” (I’m not even sure I have those titles correct) and so on. Speaking for myself, but I suspect this would be echoed by others, I have very little idea how the ship works and knowing a little more might help shipmates to appreciate the work that goes on behind the scenes.
Simon is editor, owner, designer, and basically The Final Word. Just about all the board functions are delegated to me, as he has loads of other things to worry about outside of them. I, in turn, have delegated them outwards. Once upon a time, when there was one lonely bulletin board, I was it.
I am the Community Editor, which basically translates to manager of the bulletin boards, along with other community functions. (There are six editors, total.) Besides the stuff y'all see (responding to 10C violations, tech support, etc.), I manage the hosts behind the scenes. I'm responsible for the direction and high-level maintenance of each forum, recruitment and management of the hosts, and decisions about threads, posts and members. If members have complaints about hosts, they are referred to me. I spend a lot of time in trend analysis, too, to see if we're headed in the right direction and what the next step in our evolution should be.
David and I sort of split the overall, high-level functions -- he deals with a lot of the technical stuff and I deal with the people aspect of the boards, though we cross-cover each other's functions quite regularly.
Clare and Laura are member administrators, which means that if (the general) you continue to argue with a host after a ruling, the host turns it over to one of them and they deal with it. They do everything that David and I do, with the exception of major board maintenance and disciplining hosts.
The hosts are the people who are responsible for the day-to-day running of the boards, as well as communicating to the administrators and editors any problems, suggestions or comments that come from the members. Each board's hosts are the primary guides, so to speak, of the boards, but all hosts offer opinions and suggestions about the direction of each board. For example: David, Ruth, Tom and 'frin run Hell. With rare exceptions, they make 100% of the decisions about how the place operates on a daily basis, but it is not done in a vacuum. They get input from me, from other hosts, and from Steve Tomkins and Simon before they make the decision, but in the end the decision is theirs. They interpret the 10Cs through their board's guidelines, which is why some things that earn a nudge from a host on one board are engaged in by a host on another.
A lot of discussion happens behind the scenes, between hosts, between administrators, between editors and writers. We propose ideas, talk them out, weigh the pros and cons, look at it from every possible angle, see what our options are, and then make decisions. A perfect example would be the sex edition -- this had already been discussed by the writers and editors for the main site, then the boards were brought into it as it is the point of interaction for all of our readers. We had to determine what the potential problems were, how we could best deal with them, and who would take on which responsibilities in all of it.
So them's the basics. Does that help at all?
[ 28 March 2002: Message edited by: Erin ]
i could take over from Karl! Think of the fun we'd have!
I take it you and Simon took turns doing this for a couple of weeks.
You also said something about helping prevent Joanne from shutting down other boards.
This whole thing sounds really bizarre.
I'm very glad you guys managed to keep the ship afloat.
Moo
Perhaps Simon could be persuaded to tell us about the very drunken party where he first thought it sould be a good idea to set up this Christian-unrest website. At least, I presume you were drunk when you first thought of it 
(and it still seemed a good idea in the morning 
).
The first time we ever had to consider having anything approaching a rule was when someone posted something about their personal experience and someone else responded insensitively to it -- which led us to caution people about the wisdom of posting overly personal stuff. After that, the first version of the 10 Commandments was assembled in response to specific events onboard.
Hurricane Joanne struck us on 7 January 1999. It's memorable to all old-timers here because it was so completely unexpected and traumatic. Joanne was warmly welcomed, like all newcomers. She debuted by asking us all to spam another website that she violently disagreed with. When we checked the site, it turned out to be a role-playing game, so various people told Joanne that they thought spamming it was unnecessary. This was met with incredible hostility, and Joanne heaped personal scorn and ridicule on anyone who attempted to calm her down.
At this point, she also started large numbers of new threads, all designed to start flame wars, and she dominated every active thread on the board. Basically, we were being spammed ourselves, and normal conversation very quickly became impossible.
Our board software at this point was pretty basic, so when I finally asked Joanne to leave us, she simply refused to go, and there was nothing we could do about it. The incident you mentioned, Moo, took place on Sat/Sun night 30/31 January, when Joanne posted many hundreds of messages on the board, which Erin and Suse deleted manually... no wonder it took 8 hours. I seem to remember the night concluding with the entire text of Amazing Grace, with Erin and Suse posting the verses alternatively.
The only way to be rid of our unwanted guest was to shut down the board, which we did the next day. We reopened a week later with newly-written software that gave us a registration procedure and some protection against people who wished us harm.
Joanne then registered a few times under different usernames (but her unique style quickly gave her away, of course), and we repeatedly booted her back out. She then took her quarrel with us to another bulletin board, The Godless Zone (sadly no longer running), where our banning of Joanne was hotly debated and where we were initially taken to task for censorship.
A few weeks later, The Godless Zone banned her themselves, as she did to them what she had done to us. Erin wrote about it: "They, like us, sought to engage her in dialogue. They, like us, tried to ignore her, warned her, and finally banned her. She took that fight to still other boards, and then dragged Ship of Fools there with it." I think the fight continued on a further three boards across the Net.
One of the things this episode taught me was that it is very difficult to draw solid lines between "real life" and what happens on the Net -- it was a line a lot of people tried to draw solidly in those far-off days. Joanne's behaviour was cruel in the extreme (I especially recall her vicious attacks on one poster's marriage, which was at an already agonising point of collapse at the time) and she left in her wake a lot of confused, distressed and wounded people -- all through words typed onto a screen. The wounds were real, not virtual.
The rest of our structure (rules, hosts, admins, the separate boards) evolved over time in response to quarrels, growing numbers and our desire to try different and better ways of doing things.
Hope that's long enough on Joanne... As for the drunken party, Chapelhead, I'll post something on it when I've had a whisky or two.
[ faulty date fixed ]
[ 29 March 2002: Message edited by: Simon ]
Ooooh... rereading through what Simon posted, there's one bit he left out -- she was originally booted in mid-January, but she refused to go. Neoworks logged her IP address and then banned that ISP's customers from posting on the bulletin board. She joined AOL to get around the block on her original ISP, which is when we finally decided that the registration software needed to be implemented.
(The Amazing Grace thing happened the night Simon chucked her the very first time.)
[ 29 March 2002: Message edited by: Erin ]
The battle between good and evil, simon (obi wan kenobi?), and erin (luke skywalker?Princess leia? yoda!?!??!) versus Joanne, the darkest, cruelest christian poster on the internet!
But seriously though, you wanna be careful against nutters like this spiking you with virus' i know its very possible. We had a guy at uni who got kicked out, who very nearly brought the entire university computer system down. Scary stuff.
Moo
Down Below... mentions some of the other people involved with the ship and some handy links.
The membership on the Neoworks board hovered around 250, but I would say that there were only 50 or so active participants at any one time. In less than a year our membership has grown to ten times that. Everyone had to reregister for the new boards, so the hosts, administrators and editors at the time we bought the software got the lowest numbers.
There are at least two Simon Jenkins. One is our dear Captain, and the other is a writer for The Times. Both are published authors.
bb
quote:
Originally posted by The Wanderer:
Personally I think there is real status in having a member number below 100. Is there any way of buying one, like a rare car number plate?
Wow! And I look up with great awe at anyone with less than four figures!
With free registration on these new boards the division between free and subscriber boards became irrelevant. The old free general discussion board vanished into Purgatory.
And I paid my tenner ya skinflint!
Tubbs
. But I only posted on Small Fire ( which was free ), so I didn't feel a need to progress at that time.IIRC, the deeper boards ( Heaven, hell and purg ) were subscription only, and the others ( MW, SF, UM? ) were free, because they benefitted from a wider audience participation.
quote:
Originally posted by The Wanderer:
When I first started posting on SoF it was on another set of discussion boards - ... what happened to them?
Check out the Caption Competition. The neoworks software is used for the displaying the captions.
bb
(Note to non UK shipmates - the lasr question is a humourous reference to Ali G, not a serious accusation of racism. )
When the boards became subscription the letters page was kept as a way for non paying readers to put up comments on the ship content. People would email Simon, would would format it into html and post them up as a list of links. I imagine this became increasingly tedious for him, so a bit later the neoworks board format was used so that people could post their own 'letters'. There was something in the blurb about there being a bit of a time delay (just so people didn't think they were getting the full bulletin board experince maybe?!) though I'm not sure if this was ever the case or a bluff!
IIRC when the boards did the heaven/hell etc split this was renamed from the 'letters page' to 'shiptalk board'.. and in reality became a sort of parallel discussion comunity to the main boards - yeah... the skinflints! So when the boards went free again it made sense to integrate them all.
clare
Is there any way of finding how many people posted on Friday, say, and comparing that with the number a month earlier, six months, a year? It would just be a way of getting a snapshot of Ship activity, and seeing how we're going. Not sure if it's of any use, but I would be interested to know.
Other useless fact: there are 318 people who qualify for shipmate status.
('The Gods', for those who don't know, is a top secret board that only hosts and administrators are allowed to post on.)
Oh (shuffles feet nervously) wasn't I supposed to say that......
However in a spirit of openess I have decided to serialise transcripts of editorial discussion I have. So lets starts with todays:
s3: Hi, can I speak to Catherine Please?
Receptionist: I'm afraid she's on another call.
s3: Ok, it's Edward Green here, I was returning her call about the interview.
Receptionist: Okay. I'll get her to call you as soon as she's available.
s3: Okay. Thanks. Bye.
Click
Next in this exciting series, emails sent to to marketing departments of major publishers ... watch this space!
quote:
Originally posted by Fiddleback:
So when was 'The Gods' set up then?('The Gods', for those who don't know, is a top secret board that only hosts and administrators are allowed to post on.)
It's hardly 'top-secret' is it now? It's been mentioned several times in different threads by shipmates. And none of the hosts/admins have ever denied it's existence - IIRC they've acknowledged it's existence when it's been mentioned. So what definition of top-secret are you working with?
Or do you mean that it's not listed on the main board page? That would get really confusing for people, particularly newbies who tried to click on it, and found that they didn't have access, and then got confused, and then started repetitive threads in styx about it.
Maybe you mean that there shouldn't be a special board for hosts and admins to talk about threads, and hosting changes, and issues that come up? Then they would have to do all that through PMs, and making sure everyone had all the information would be difficult. Much easier to have a board, and simply post it up, so that all hosts/admins can read it, and reply etc.
Viki
The board was then called Editorial. The name change to The Gods only happened a few months ago. There's still a private board called Editorial for discussing main site features and projects, in contrast to The Gods, where issues relating only to the boards are discussed.
There is absolutely no truth in the rumour that there is a Paranoia board hosted by Fiddleback.
quote:
Originally posted by Fiddleback:
Ah but its contents are strictly top sectret. However the spies tell me that there are whole threads dedicated to troublesome shipmates. They're keeping dossiers on us, folks...
[joke alert ON - please do not take any of the following statments seriously in any way]
Oh goody! So if I go around the Ship causing problems and arguing with the hosts and admins and generally be obnoxious I can have my very own thread? Wheeeee...I can't wait. Just as soon as I iron my husband's underwear and polish the copper pipes in the basement, I'll be sure to find time to do this. What could be more wonderful than to be famous on a board that's not open to the public. 
[joke alert OFF]
quote:
Originally posted by Fiddleback:
Ah but its contents are strictly top sectret. However the spies tell me that there are whole threads dedicated to troublesome shipmates. They're keeping dossiers on us, folks...
Will there be a prize for the shipmate with the longest thread?
(joke!)
Typical Gods thread:-
Viola - Look, heaven is 4 pages again
Clare - Bother
Viola - I may delete some tonight
Clare - Good idea, so might I
Belisarius - Oh good
Clare - Thats better
Starbelly - Yes.
And the thing is - I am not joking!
Neil
quote:
Originally posted by Ann:
Will there be a prize for the shipmate with the longest thread?
According to my mole, Cosmo still has this honour with a four page thread, but I should imagine that Ultraspike is rapidly catching up.
Viki
Granted, there is a small fee involved, but this is trivial compared to the cost involved in having access to The Gods.
We pay with our sanity.
jlg (who has held elected office in a very, very, very small town with lots of people who assume all elected officials are always lying or trying to get away with something unnecessary just to make people pay higher taxes.)
quote:
Originally posted by sarkycow:
Now that starbelly has revealed secrets from threads on the Gods board to us mere mortals, will he be taken out at dawn and shot?
*FLASH*
What were we talking about? Oh, yes, the weather is nice this time of year, isn't it? I do wonder what those "secret boards" are all about... guess we'll never know!
Men in Black II will be out this summer, for those who care.
quote:
Originally posted by Fiddleback:
According to my mole, Cosmo still has this honour with a four page thread, but I should imagine that Ultraspike is rapidly catching up.
quote:
Originally posted by Ultraspike:
But I don't think we'll catch up with you, Father!
Awwwww 
I want a thread as long as Fiddleback's : pouty smilie :
Viki
[the evil smilies won't behave]
[ 12 April 2002: Message edited by: Erin ]
quote:
Originally posted by sarkycow:
AwwwwwViki
Thats just vanity.
Neil
[it's an epidemic]
[ 12 April 2002: Message edited by: Erin ]
![[Mad]](angryfire.gif)
Kelly, you are a mind-reader. Go to this link in Styx"Looking for board junkies" and you will find a project underway.
quote:
Originally posted by Erin:
I spend a lot of time in trend analysis, too, to see if we're headed in the right direction and what the next step in our evolution should be.
quote:Six freakin' months since she roped other people into doing this and she's still gloating.
Originally posted by Erin:
You should have asked me this before, when I was still in charge. Now I just sit back and give the admins a hard time.
quote:
Originally posted by kenwritez:
Having begun and then abruptly broken off a relationship with a woman who somewhat resembled Joanne, I certainly understand and sympathize with the reactions against her.
quote:Ken, we've been growing something in the dark here for the past six months that is going to steer the ship into some very entertaining and highly original waters in 2003.
Originally posted by kenwritez:
A few questions for you, Simon and Erin: Where is the Ship headed? What developments do you both foresee in her in the next year or three? What are you both most proud of concerning the Ship?
quote:Many things that grow in the dark are not very nice to be around.
Ken, we've been growing something in the dark here for the past six months that is going to steer the ship into some very entertaining and highly original waters in 2003.
![[Help]](graemlins/help.gif)
quote:I'm intrigued.
Originally posted by Ancient Mariner:
quote:Ken, we've been growing something in the dark here for the past six months that is going to steer the ship into some very entertaining and highly original waters in 2003.
Originally posted by kenwritez:
A few questions for you, Simon and Erin: Where is the Ship headed? What developments do you both foresee in her in the next year or three? What are you both most proud of concerning the Ship?
Suffice to say at this stage that it is highly interactive, very shipmate orientated - and that nothing like it has been attempted in the mainstream/secular or religious world before.
We hope to do a pre-launch of this project before Christmas - so keep
quote:I'm
Originally posted by Ancient Mariner:
Suffice to say at this stage that it is highly interactive, very shipmate orientated - and that nothing like it has been attempted in the mainstream/secular or religious world before.
We hope to do a pre-launch of this project before Christmas - so keep
, I'm very .quote:Well you'll just have to. We can only afford one cubicle and there's certainly no budget for a cleaner.
strathclydezero:
There are other things I can't wait for ...
quote:Is that Chris me? Was I part of the Original 250 who paid up? Have I been around that long? I wish I had taken more of an active role back then now, I seem to have missed out on the Hurricane and probably several other interesting goings on... oh well.
the only people still left from that first month or so on the boards are me, David Rayner, Steve T, Dyfrig, Chris, rachel (not rachel_o, the rachel who had Sven in Minnesota), DP, rosemary and Fudge. (Apologies if I left anyone out.)
quote:I just wanted to echo EJ here. Thanks to Simon, Erin and all the other responsible parties for building an online christian community where I feel so welcome.
Originally posted by ej:
*sitting here feeling respect levels increasing regarding rest of team, and feeling somewhat humbled and envious of the long-termers*
![[Not worthy!]](graemlins/notworthy.gif)
quote:It hit an iceberg cause Simon had his eyes on something else?
Originally posted by Wood:
The print version of the Ship went the way of the Titanic about twenty years ago.
quote:Wood and Britney?
Originally posted by sarkycow:
quote:It hit an iceberg cause Simon had his eyes on something else?
Originally posted by Wood:
The print version of the Ship went the way of the Titanic about twenty years ago.
And who were acting Leo and Kate?
Viki
quote:Oh yeah?
Originally posted by Rhisiart:
Wood and Britney?
![[Snigger]](graemlins/snigger.gif)
quote:You assume that this is no longer true?
posted by Pyx_e:
...and that hosts could talk bird language.
quote:[fearful thought] A role playing shipmate game? Pray tell no!
Originally posted by Ancient Mariner:
quote:Ken, we've been growing something in the dark here for the past six months that is going to steer the ship into some very entertaining and highly original waters in 2003.
Originally posted by kenwritez:
A few questions for you, Simon and Erin: Where is the Ship headed? What developments do you both foresee in her in the next year or three? What are you both most proud of concerning the Ship?
Suffice to say at this stage that it is highly interactive, very shipmate orientated - and that nothing like it has been attempted in the mainstream/secular or religious world before.
We hope to do a pre-launch of this project before Christmas - so keep
I am confident that will NEVER happen ever. Sorry, having a nightmare. Done now. ![[Embarrassed]](icon_redface.gif){kind=icon}
[/fearful thought]
![[Waterworks]](graemlins/bawling.gif)
![[Love]](graemlins/lovedrops.gif)
)
quote:Yeah because it only ever turns that way in the spring.
Originally posted by Chorister:
How appropriate to have the TnT boards resurrected every Spring (when a young man's fancy turns to......
quote:We draw the line at trinitarian Christianity simply because that is our faith tradition. No judgment of faith traditions outside trinitarian Christianity is intended by that. So while it's true that we don't have a specific denominational identity, we do belong to the trinitarian tradition.
The Mystery Worshipper project only deals with trinitarian Christianity (we have in the past made a few forays into nearby traditions such as Unitarianism, but don't plan to do so again).
The project is guided by the principle that it's not fair of us to critique mosques, synagogues, Mormon temples, etc, since they represent faiths which belong to others and not to us. The Mystery Worshipper is about the Christian Church engaging in self-criticism, rather than criticising other faith traditions. Reports from places outside the trinitarian Christian tradition cannot be published.
quote:Yep, that's true enough.
Originally posted by Chorister:
...all appearances that it is Simon captaining the ship are illusory......
quote:I envy anyone who can access the Ship at whatever time of day they like, especially those who can do so at w*rk.
Originally posted by sarkycow:
It's alright for those hosts/admins who are at work, and so have access to the net 24/7. What about us students? Sometimes I have to leave the Ship for a whole 2 hours to go to a lecture! I had to *beg* for permission to do this...
quote:Yes. So?
Originally posted by The Wonderful Nanny Ogg:
Some w*rkplaces have very strict rules on internet use - and they're tightening up.
![[Yipee]](graemlins/spin.gif)
quote:I admire your energy, it must have taken a lot of pins to make my eczema this bad.
Originally posted by Erin:
My main Ship-related activity consists of sticking pins into various dolls.
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
quote:Ah, I understand now.... you are a Barbie doll clothing manufacturer
Originally posted by Erin:
My main Ship-related activity consists of sticking pins into various dolls.
quote:
Originally posted by tomb:
Anybody want to go into any detail about Miss Monica? Interacting w/ her was my apotheosis and the reason I got invited to be a host. Talk about the wages of Sin being Death....
quote:
Originally posted by Ultraspike:
Do tell us about Miss Monica. Sounds like a cyber dominatrix.
quote:<fall guy>Please, Miss Etheridge, what has Miss Monica got to do with the history of the Ship?</fall guy>
Originally posted by Erin:
See for yourself.
quote:I agree with all of the above. Specially the last bit!!!! Just posting to boast, really.. my classroom has just been networked, and I snuck a sneak peek at the ship while my class did a test yesterday....!!!!!
Originally posted by Chorister:
As a teacher I am very envious of people who can access the Ship at work - in my job you have to spend all your time with the kids, and even admin work has to be done out of hours. If you don't have an assistant, you can't even go to the loo when you want! (so I work part-time, to get the best of both worlds)
Mind you, in teaching, it often seems like you are on a real-life, permanent Ship of Fools! you never know what's going to happen next......
quote:Hehe!! bloody lurkers should go get registered!!!
Originally posted by Janine:
Ya left out the lurkers.
The MM link doesn't work for me.
Erin, is it too old or somethin'?
quote:Ancient Mariner replied to this at the time outlining what we now know is the Ark. But, great though the Ark is, and no doubt there'll be other bigger, even better projects in time, I'd be interested to know where you all see the ship more generally going, rather than (or as well as) the specific one-off projects. Thanks
Originally posted by kenwritez way back on page 2:
A few questions for you, Simon and Erin: Where is the Ship headed? What developments do you both foresee in her in the next year or three?
quote:Gee, I'm "other Admins", even though I've been here forever.
Originally posted by Kenwritez:
OK, so I'm trying to get a feel for where the Ship is sailing. Where do the Simon, Erin, RuthW and the other Admins see the Ship in a year, two, three?
![[Disappointed]](graemlins/disappointed.gif)
quote:I once started a game in Heaven where shipmates had to post in order of longitude, just to see if we could really span the globe. We sailed west as I recall, via Exeter and Ireland, right through Colorado and all the other places that don't have coastlines, and got becalmed in Japan and never left it. I don't think the Virgin Islands ever featured on our route.
Originally posted by Laura:
Personally, I see the ship in the British Virgin Islands. Tortola, say.
![[Devil]](graemlins/devil.gif)
quote:September 2003 - new poster arrives. Within 6 posts she has offended thirteen racial minorities, the gay community and Wood. Four days are lost to the ensuing arguments. 27 Heaven regulars threaten to leave because of the heartache involvde. pyx_e insults Nightlamp.
Originally posted by Kenwritez:
OK, so I'm trying to get a feel for where the Ship is sailing. Where do the Simon, Erin, RuthW and the other Admins see the Ship in a year, two, three?
quote:Both, actually.
Originally posted by ChrisT:
Miss Monica scared me. And was rude to me. At the time I thought that Not Very Christian™, but now I'm worse than that a lot of the time.
I can see why Hell was started with her in mind. Her Monkeyboy must have balls of steel - either that or she pays very well.
quote:Thanks, I was sort of looking for it the other day and was about to make that Helpful Suggestion ... it was very informative to me.
Originally posted by jlg:
Checked this thread to get some dates right and figured it wouldn't hurt to bump it up so the apprentices had a chance to trip over it.
![[Ultra confused]](graemlins/confused2.gif)
) but people should be able to find this easily.
Of all the people who run this ship!
quote:Ya know, there really should be a "Raspberry" smilie
Originally posted by jlg:
You could rename yourself "Amazing Grace (Ship's History Thread Bumper)".
(this one ain't enough for what I'm feelin' here).quote:I was interested to learn this. Could you tell us what the increase in membership numbers has been like over the past couple of years? Has the growth been continuously exponential?
Originally posted by Erin:
Usually only between 5 and 10 percent of the membership are active at any given time. Some register to specifically comment on an article, some are lurkers and post very rarely.
quote:Thank you Ruth.
Originally posted by RuthW:
As it is truly a deserving thread, it's been moved to Limbo - where it is filed under "Heaven."
).quote:I think that's when we acquired 'Preview Post' and the arrow that will jump you to the most recent posts on each thread.
Originally posted by Chorister:
Please remind me what actually was done during that time to improve the boards - I'm having trouble remembering what was new and what was there before.
quote:Best of all, this was when we gained the ability to have avatars and personalized Shipmate titles.
Originally posted by Moo:
quote:I think that's when we acquired 'Preview Post' and the arrow that will jump you to the most recent posts on each thread.
Originally posted by Chorister:
Please remind me what actually was done during that time to improve the boards - I'm having trouble remembering what was new and what was there before.
quote:This is not the only thread that he posted to. He was warned and suspended on more than one occasion for some pretty rude and blatant racist crap.
Originally posted by Talitha:
A meta-History of the Ship question: why did the guy who started this thread get banned? His posts on this thread seem pretty innocuous - did he go on to do something unforgiveable later?
quote:Well, I am surprised. I always assumed that the name was taken from the 1965 film written by Abbey Mann and directed by Stanley Kramer starring Vivian Leigh that won the Academy Award for cinematography and was the inspiration for the Grateful Dead song. A precis of it by a popular author summarized the movie, "in which everyone who didn't die went mad."
Originally posted by Simon:
...
For me, the Ship of Fools name has always been linked with Noah's Ark and the disciples of Jesus in their boat in the storm on Galilee. Both Noah and the disciples were fools in a boat, and yet they proved to be wise, and the world foolish. And I've thought of Paul's words in 1 Corinthians: "God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong."
quote:So, you didn't think this was a Christian website?
Originally posted by tomb:
You mean to say that, after all these years, I've been mucking about on a website based on the Bible?
quote:I think you'll find, Tori, that the proper phrase isn't "integrated into" but rather "addicted to" the Ship.
Originally posted by Tori:
[....]I appreciate all the hard work you all put in, and am looking forward to being more integrated into the ship in the future.
Victoria
quote:That wouldn't happen to be based on the book by Katherine Porter, by any chance? I do own the book, I just haven't got round to reading it yet, and am now being very lazy, clearly.
Originally posted by tomb:
Well, I am surprised. I always assumed that the name was taken from the 1965 film written by Abbey Mann and directed by Stanley Kramer starring Vivian Leigh that won the Academy Award for cinematography and was the inspiration for the Grateful Dead song. A precis of it by a popular author summarized the movie, "in which everyone who didn't die went mad."
quote:
Passengers on a ship [...] represent society at large in that era. [...] La Contessa[...] A young American woman [...] David [...] [...]sleazy dance troupes and bitter lovers [...]
quote:Wanna hear something cool?
Originally posted by Arrietty:
The synopses sound uncannily familiar:
quote:
Passengers on a ship [...] represent society at large in that era. [...] La Contessa[...] A young American woman [...] David [...] [...]sleazy dance troupes and bitter lovers [...]
quote:All that's missing is an Orthodox priest
Originally posted by Arrietty:
The synopses sound uncannily familiar:
quote:
Passengers on a ship [...] represent society at large in that era. [...] La Contessa[...] A young American woman [...] David [...] [...]sleazy dance troupes and bitter lovers [...]
How many are there now?!
quote:You have to remember that we got new software in the spring of 2001. Up until that time there were no such categories as 'shipmate' and 'apprentice'.
Originally posted by Ophthalmos:
I was alarmed to read there were only 318 people registered who had made Shipmate status in 2002!!
quote:I'd be interested to know one more thing about those who have become Shipmates, if its easy enough to find out, please. Of 8,000 registrations 1041 have made Shipmate status. Of those 1041 shipmates how many of them have posted in the last 10, 20, 30 and 40 months?
Originally posted by Belisarius:
Within this past minute, 1,041.
quote:Jem, IIRC Yahweh had a lot to say when King David came up with the plan of taking a census of "his" armies..
Originally posted by Late Quartet:
quote:I'd be interested to know one more thing about those who have become Shipmates, if its easy enough to find out, please. Of 8,000 registrations 1041 have made Shipmate status. Of those 1041 shipmates how many of them have posted in the last 10, 20, 30 and 40 months?
Originally posted by Belisarius:
Within this past minute, 1,041.
quote:So basically, over half of all shipmates have posted this month (July 04).
Originally posted by Belisarius:
539 of these have had posts since 07/01/04.
]quote:You can find the rules under the name 10 Commandments, and the Protocols for the Boards at the top of each one. I'd recommend reading them, they're not P. G. Wodehouse but will certainly stand you in good stead.
Originally posted by Goodric:
I on the other hand am just one of those idiots who despite not knowing the rules and protocol
quote:I often think of that movie when I see the phrase Ship of Fools, but for different reasons. There's a scene in the book 2061 by Arthur C. Clarke, where a film star onboard a marooned spaceship with other artistic noteworthies discusses the movie.
Originally posted by tomb:
I always assumed that the name was taken from the 1965 film written by Abbey Mann and directed by Stanley Kramer starring Vivian Leigh that won the Academy Award for cinematography and was the inspiration for the Grateful Dead song. A precis of it by a popular author summarized the movie, "in which everyone who didn't die went mad."
quote:That look pretty impressive: 70 per cent of shipmates have posted in the last 6 months or so.
Originally posted by Belisarius:
The UBB Boards have not yet been here 40 months, but to give an idea of stats as of this morning:
1,042 registrations have achieved Shipmate status.
987 of these have had posts since 01/01/02.
956 of these have had posts since 07/01/02.
865 of these have had posts since 01/01/03.
790 of these have had posts since 07/01/03.
705 of these have had posts since 01/01/04.
quote:I'm even more impressed that over half have posted in the last 4 weeks, and more than 25 per cent in the last two days -- that is quite stunning.
539 of these have had posts since 07/01/04.
270 of these have had posts since 07/21/04.
quote:I was wondering if that offer still stood. If I asked about ice cream forks, would I get an answer? Or would I be laughed at? Or am I just imagining that there’s a joke going around about ice cream forks anyway?
Originally posted by Erin (a long time ago):
<snip>
How about we do it like this: y'all ask questions about things that you don't understand or are curious about. Could be anything from what is perceived to be an inside joke <snip>
quote:It was a Hell thread that featured a fascinating discussion about dinner party settings. The rug burns made their celebrated debut in the "small group experience" thread, also in Hell.
Originally posted by Grits:
pirate sunny, I would never be able to remember the thread now, but apparently the talk got onto utensils, very special utensils. We have some Shipmates who are just swimming in refinement, and one happened to mention he possessed ice cream forks.
Well, people went absolutely mad over this: "What are they?" "Why do you have them?" "Do you really use them?" "Are they silver?" It was a hilarious mixture of fascination, incredulity and admiration.
I don't think folks will ever let him forget the forks. Or his rug burns...
quote:When you do come out, don’t forget to read Beryl AND the nativity play AND The One True Holy Catholic Apostolic AND TnT……….
Originally posted by Avalon:
Alright, I've read the small group one and found a table setting one;and I think Limbo will be the death of me.Any estimates on whether anyone embarking on reading their way through Limbo ever comes out again - and, if so, when?
![[Two face]](graemlins/scot_twoface.gif)
![[Killing me]](graemlins/killingme.gif)
More like Christmas 2008.
quote:That almost sounds like something St. Paul would say.
Originally posted by Alan Cresswell:
That you have the capability to do something doesn't automatically make doing that the right thing to do.
quote:OMG!
Originally posted by Dyfrig [Posted 28 July, 2003]:
August 2005 - Simon asks for money
quote:That was our stash of Weapons of Mass Criticism (holy Mass, that is). I seem to recall that they got lost somewhere.
Originally posted by professorkirke:
What was the special surprise project that had been worked on "in the dark" and was going to be released "soon" way back in '03?
quote:So far, 1,491 registrations have made Shipmate status, of which 697 have posts for this month, compared (per previous page) to a 539/1,042 ratio in July 2004. The percentage of active posters has gone down, but the overall traffic has probably gone up about a third.
Originally posted by fisher:
Are things much busier now than a few years ago - how many more posts a day, say (roughly)?
...Was the atmosphere originally more "clubby" - everyone knowing each other?
quote:At one point Erin said there were about 50 people who posted regularly. There wasn't nearly as much on the boards, so people read almost everything.
Originally posted by Belisarius:
Overall, the Neoworks incarnation must have been clubbier, as it had only between 100 and 200 registrations...
quote:On the historic usage of Ship of Fools(*), but from the following century, a friend set me this entry from the complete Oxford Dictionary: thought you might be interested.
Originally posted by Simon:
The first instance I know of the name Ship of Fools is in a 15th-century allegorical poem by Sebastian Brant, who set his drama on a ship crewed by all the fools of the world.
quote:(*)and I recall a thread which mentioned the wonderful woodcuts from this book: here they are for those interested: thanks to whomever it was who first posted them.
1517 Watson Shyppe of Fooles a ij, I am the fyrste in the shyppe vagaunte with the other fooles.
OED Volume V. p 10
quote:Wanna bet?
Originally posted by Moo:
I don't think the day will ever come again when Erin, Gill H, and I post on the same thread.
Moo
quote:It's nice to learn the Latin for Ship of Fools--Stultifera Navis.
Originally posted by Ian Climacus:
...and I recall a thread which mentioned the wonderful woodcuts from this book: here they are for those interested: thanks to whomever it was who first posted them.
quote:This is astounding! Dear mystic Dyfrig, do you have any more predictions to guide us into the future?
Originally posted by Dyfrig (on 28th July 2003):
quote:September 2003 - new poster arrives. Within 6 posts she has offended thirteen racial minorities, the gay community and Wood. Four days are lost to the ensuing arguments. 27 Heaven regulars threaten to leave because of the heartache involvde. pyx_e insults Nightlamp.
Originally posted by Kenwritez:
OK, so I'm trying to get a feel for where the Ship is sailing. Where do the Simon, Erin, RuthW and the other Admins see the Ship in a year, two, three?
February 2004 - Simon asks for money
May 2004 - apprentice starts "Mornington Crescent" game in Heaven.
January 2005 - further changes to board software mean Ship is down for two weeks
February 2005 - Ship goes back on line. Fiddleback starts thread in Styx complaining about how things were better befoer the change. His fourteen multiple posts of the same message have to be manually removed because he has managed to crash the system.
August 2005 - Simon asks for money
& thanks to Erin, Simon and co. Until I read through this and read about the Hurricane Joanne incident,etc I had no idea how much s**t you guys had gone through at points to keep this running.quote:Not in the forseeable future (if nothing else, would there be an adequate number of new biblical characters?).
Originally posted by Tractor Girl:
...the Ark looked facinating any plans for a rerun?
quote:Oh, wow, did this project just get a major renovation around my ears! Down to 7 pages and the dust not settled yet apparently.
Originally posted by Avalon:
Alright, I've read the small group one and found a table setting one;and I think Limbo will be the death of me.Any estimates on whether anyone embarking on reading their way through Limbo ever comes out again - and, if so, when?
And I think I just admitted to being mad and obsessive. (Do you think I could paint that as inquisitive and methodical?) And I've cancelled Christmas in favour of pagan festivals (solves so many family politic problems) since I wandered into Limbo so I don't have that landmark either...
quote:Yes, I remember. We had a special requiem for MW, as I recall, eventually settling upon black chasubles in the gothic cut, but with birette allowed. Not sure what setting we plumped for.
Originally posted by Chorister:
How the transformation from Small Fire and MW to Ecclesiantics was announced. Which is an interesting read in itself.
quote:Well, I cruised in and was intrigued by this but am currently getting a "you've requested a thread that does not exist" message... hmmm...
Originally posted by Chorister:
How the transformation from Small Fire and MW to Ecclesiantics was announced. Which is an interesting read in itself.
quote:Apparently some of the threads intended for Oblivion instead went into. . .um. . .oblivion.
Originally posted by Lynn MagdalenCollege:
Well, I cruised in and was intrigued by this but am currently getting a "you've requested a thread that does not exist" message... hmmm...
quote:Me, too. Strange to think we were there together ...
Originally posted by jlg:
I re-read the entire Nativity Play about six weeks ago. It really was fun!
for the first time (Christmas 2003) and subsequently crossing to the Miss Molly thread Fields of Gold ![[Tear]](graemlins/tear.gif)
made me realize how special this community is.
quote:OMG! Would you???
Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
Heh. I was just thinking the other day about starting a thread called "Nativity Play Reunion Call."
quote:Er... can I register a complaint that Herod doesn't feature in the distinguished cast list?
Originally posted by Scot:
Click here to read the Nativity Play.
quote:Sheep3 gazes adoringly at Chelley
Originally posted by Chelley:
I am particularly impressed so far with the performance of Sheep3!
quote:Well you certainly threw yourself into the spirit of the part I seem to remember.
Originally posted by Stoo:
quote:Er... can I register a complaint that Herod doesn't feature in the distinguished cast list?
Originally posted by Scot:
Click here to read the Nativity Play.
Quite possibly, it's because he wasn't that distinguished, but any way...
(Yes... I have only just noticed)
quote:You've been busy
Originally posted by Stoo:
quote:Er... can I register a complaint that Herod doesn't feature in the distinguished cast list?
Originally posted by Scot:
Click here to read the Nativity Play.
Quite possibly, it's because he wasn't that distinguished, but any way...
(Yes... I have only just noticed)
quote:I'm confused by this unregistration thing - surely it would muck up all the threads the person posted on. Or is it more useful in cases of extreme trolling that you want to remove completely, like Dattaswami's self praising homilies not too long ago?
Originally posted by Alan Cresswell:
Un-registration totally removes all record of that user from the system. It's a much more substantial action, reserved for those who manage to seriously piss Simon off.
quote:Over the years the admins have changed. There was a time when Erin and David did practically all of the member admin tasks, including banning those who deserved it. The avatar was an entertaining, and in many ways fitting, way to mark that Erin had done the booting. We haven't actually used it for a booting in a long time, partly because the member admins are more likely to do the deed than Erin.
Originally posted by altarbird:
The avatar is part of what made me think his banned thing was part of the joke! Since it was obviously a parody of Erin's avatar.And there do seem to be a lot of in jokes here.
quote:Nothing quite as convoluted as a meltdown with a second evil identity. Simply that Angel/Reepicheep was banned when the ability to change screen names was still activated, and that she changed name just before she was booted.
Originally posted by mrs whibley:
I am puzzled that oftentimes in Limbo/Oblivion I come across a banned person called Reepicheep. While I wouldn't dare to ask why she was banned, the most puzzling thing is that even in her 'most recent posts' she refers to herself and others refer to her as Angel. So I imagine some sort of meltdown involving a second evil identity etc. etc.
quote:But please, please don't ever get rid of the "Erin eating a Troll" avatar--it's too wonderful for words.
Originally posted by Alan Cresswell:
quote:Over the years the admins have changed. There was a time when Erin and David did practically all of the member admin tasks, including banning those who deserved it. The avatar was an entertaining, and in many ways fitting, way to mark that Erin had done the booting. We haven't actually used it for a booting in a long time, partly because the member admins are more likely to do the deed than Erin.
Originally posted by altarbird:
The avatar is part of what made me think his banned thing was part of the joke! Since it was obviously a parody of Erin's avatar.And there do seem to be a lot of in jokes here.
quote:Just the threat might make people shape up.
Originally posted by the giant cheeseburger:
Maybe we need an avatar like this for miscreants of the newer sockpuppetish type.
quote:I've always thought that was Shaun's avatar by his choice and a way to make a dig at Erin. Now it's not as funny...or amybe it's funnier. I haven't decided yet.
Originally posted by Alan Cresswell:
The avatar was an entertaining, and in many ways fitting, way to mark that Erin had done the booting.
quote:Come on, I'm sure a little imagination could be used here. Impaled on Stoo's hook ... squashed by Scot's hand ... I bet even Chorister's teddy bear could turn into a grizzly if required.
Originally posted by Alan Cresswell:
quote:Over the years the admins have changed. There was a time when Erin and David did practically all of the member admin tasks, including banning those who deserved it. The avatar was an entertaining, and in many ways fitting, way to mark that Erin had done the booting. We haven't actually used it for a booting in a long time, partly because the member admins are more likely to do the deed than Erin.
Originally posted by altarbird:
The avatar is part of what made me think his banned thing was part of the joke! Since it was obviously a parody of Erin's avatar.And there do seem to be a lot of in jokes here.
quote:Ahh - I'd not quite got the difference yet.
Originally posted by The Great Gumby:
It's a lovely thought, but Stoo and Chorister are Hosts, not Admins. Scot's hand, on the other, er, hand, sounds like an excellent idea!
quote:Now that December is officially on us, I composed an OP. Am now in revision stage.
Originally posted by Scarlett:
quote:OMG! Would you???
Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
Heh. I was just thinking the other day about starting a thread called "Nativity Play Reunion Call."
quote:It is a food substitute traditional amongst Anglo- and Traditional Catholics.
Originally posted by rufiki:
Could someone explain the significance of GIN?
quote:Gin is a fine drink. But there's a great deal of pretension surrounding the myth that it's good to drink neat - for example, all the arrogance as to how dry one can make a martini.
Originally posted by Professor Kirke:
Well, rufiki, it's one of the foulest tasting substances on earth. A long time ago, someone who was Exceptionally Cool decided it would be funny to pretend that he liked GIN. Ever since, other people have also been pretending to like it (and to like it very, very much) so as to be Exceptionally Cool as well.
![[Paranoid]](graemlins/paranoid.gif)
quote:Because once upon a time, a long long time ago, threads on gin were taking over the old Mystery Worshipper board. At some point, they were closed, on the basis that they were not relevant to the Mystery Worship reports that the board was there to discuss. It was suggested that if threads on a particular drink had to exist, they should do it in Heaven. However, a group of (mostly now departed) shipmates who saw the MW board as their only home on the ship complained and thus GIN in capitals became a sort of little protest.
Originally posted by rufiki:
I think you're not telling me the whole truth. Why, for example, is it always in CAPITALS? I smell a conspiracy.
![[Projectile]](graemlins/puke2.gif)
quote:
Originally posted by Jimmy B:
If memory serves correctly, the capitalisation came after the censoring; incited by Fiddleback (but of person I'm not certain).
quote:That's true, but Jesus gave us tonic water to drink with it.
Nowdays it seems to be capitalised by anyone who really really really loves it.
I cannot understand why. Satan uses it for enemas.
quote:I must strongly protest that I am neither anglo-catholic, masonic* or a tat-queen, yet I do love GIN with all my heart and soul!
Originally posted by Real Ale Methodist:
Also G, I and N are the initials of the three highest grades of a spiky anglo-catholic masonic sect. I daren't tell you the full importance of same, and fully expect the conspiracy to get to this bit of the thread and delete my post...
quote:I don't recall a single instance of a banning, or even a suspension, that wasn't the result of something other than behaviour on this site. Perhaps I'm being blind, but I don't see any "dark hints" of such activity on our part on this thread either.
Originally posted by piers ploughman:
the dark hints of a history of recurrent bannings and exclusions - often for reasons that had nothing to do with the recipients' on-site behaviour.
quote:This is one of the things I had in mind.
Originally posted by Alan Cresswell:
Shaun was banned long ago. For reasons other than anything posted on this thread.
Fiddleback was de-registered a long time back. Again for reasons other than anything posted on this thread. He was let back on after repenting in sackcloth and ashes.
quote:Probably true, because management are clear about what the Ship is and what it isn't.
Originally posted by piers ploughman:
One has the impression of a collective mind behind it all that dearly loves control and and sense of its own seniority in a sub-system...
quote:Despises??? Nah. Critical questioning is blatantly obviously allowed. As for genuine dissidence, how does that work on a private website? If we can't persuade management, we're absolutely free to dissidence ourselves off to another site.
... and despises critical questioning and genuine dissidence.
quote:Really?! Personally I find the thread entitled
Originally posted by piers ploughman:
This thread has to be one of the most disturbing reads I've had in a while.
quote:I find that putting the kettle on and having a nice cup of tea does the trick when dark hints of history and the collective mind get a bit worrisome.
I find myself torn between admiration for the Ship's founders and administrators and deep disturbance at the dark hints of a history of recurrent bannings and exclusions - often for reasons that had nothing to do with the recipients' on-site behaviour. One has the impression of a collective mind behind it all that dearly loves control and and sense of its own seniority in a sub-system and despises critical questioning and genuine dissidence. Increasing age makes me wary of such behaviour, especially away from work.
quote:He said 'on this thread' not 'on these boards'. Big difference. No-one has been banned here (as far as I recall) unless they've broken the commandments of these boards on these boards.
Originally posted by piers ploughman:
quote:This is one of the things I had in mind.
Originally posted by Alan Cresswell:
Shaun was banned long ago. For reasons other than anything posted on this thread.
Fiddleback was de-registered a long time back. Again for reasons other than anything posted on this thread. He was let back on after repenting in sackcloth and ashes.
quote:Excellent advice, and well taken. It's a long thread and I'm learning that it's all too easy to go a tad potty after too much time on the Ship in one session without a break.
Originally posted by Chelley:
I find that putting the kettle on and having a nice cup of tea does the trick when dark hints of history and the collective mind get a bit worrisome.
Trouble is, I'm lovin' it!
quote:Just to repeat some of what Viola had said. That comment was in response to a post by altarbird just over a year ago, who asked about Shaun and Fiddleback. My point in posting that was to clarify some confusion as the OPer (Shaun) was banned after starting this thread, and Fiddleback was unregistered after he posted here (top of page 2). In both cases their banning/deregistration was for their actions elsewhere on the Ship - they did nothing wrong on this thread. The actual posts where they created enough problems to warrant the action taken against them have long since been removed.
Originally posted by piers ploughman:
quote:This is one of the things I had in mind.
Originally posted by Alan Cresswell:
Shaun was banned long ago. For reasons other than anything posted on this thread.
Fiddleback was de-registered a long time back. Again for reasons other than anything posted on this thread. He was let back on after repenting in sackcloth and ashes.
quote:There are only 45 Shipmates with five digits. We are WAY outnumbered by the lurkers and low- activity members. Without y'all we would just be talking to ourselves. So no change there.
Originally posted by jlg:
And as that little bit of data attached to the previous three posters shows (low post counts but been around nearly forever), our lurkers and low-activity members are just as important as any of the five-digit ones. If not more so.
quote:I can see that shipmates posting in these random months (40, 61 and 109) are 539, 697 and 663, which I guess looks like a constant against the total number of shipmates which has continued to grow 1042, 1491 and 1965.
Originally posted by Belisarius in April 2006:
So far, 1,491 registrations have made Shipmate status, of which 697 have posts for this month [April '06], compared (per previous page) to a 539/1,042 ratio in July 2004. The percentage of active posters has gone down, but the overall traffic has probably gone up about a third.
quote:This very post just took your post count above your member number - congratulations!
Originally posted by Tallis' Canon:
As a Shipmate with a low membership number and lower post count, I really value the ship and the thoughts it gives me about life and faith.
quote:
Originally posted by Erin:
My main Ship-related activity consists of sticking pins into various dolls.
quote:
Originally posted by Erin: June 2005 In a stunning development, people figure out that they can simply avoid threads they do not like. The admins suddenly gain 64 hours every day from not having to explain this fact to griping shipmates. The price of gin plummets.
quote:In light of the all the tributes and all the love pouring out for her now - not just here - it seemed almost prophetic.
December 2010 - Bill Gates throws a tantrum because in a 'most famous computer personality of all time' national TV opinion poll, Erin Etheridge scores more votes than he does.
quote:I wish this one had been prophetic. Even if it means I'd have to endure a flaming.
Jan 2011 Erin breaks in the new year by randomly flaming newbies, just for the hell of it. Everyone else realises that it's going to be a great year.
quote:That's my understanding, too. ACNY reports them as distinct parishes.
Originally posted by Arrietty:
According to Day 29 of this Forward in Faith list of intentions, they are two churches but with the same vicar and the same curate.
quote:I had the idea when consulting in PR for a trade show on the market research industry. It was, at first, a play on words in my mind - mystery shopper sounded wonderfully, playfully close to mystery worshipper.
Originally posted by itokro:
While we're on the subject of Mystery Worship: how did the MW project come about?
).
quote:wow. fun. great memories. what a bunch of freaks we all are.
Originally posted by JFH:
Wouldst it be that ye be referring to this?
quote:The fact that it was a H&A Day was the theme
Originally posted by LeRoc:
did we have a theme at the first H&A day, celebrated for Erin?
quote:There wasn't a theme other than to allow the H&As to do whatever we wanted. The other "special" days for reaching 10000 posts (Chorister, Mousethief and ken) weren't H&A days as such, particularly as only one of those posters was a host anyway. They were just allowed to pick a theme for the day.
Originally posted by LeRoc:
Just another Ship history-related question. Although I'm not a very prolific poster, I was around at the first three Host&Admin days that were celebrated when Erin, Mousethief and Chorister (I guess in that order) hit 10.000 posts on the Ship.
I remember that these H&A days used to have themes relating to the poster we celebrated, and that we changed our screen names according to the theme (the Ship's software still allowed for name changes in those times). For example, with Mousethief we had an Orthodox theme, and I changed my name to LeRostov. Wich Chorister we had a musical theme, and I had something like LeRock'n'Roll.
I can't seem to remember very well: did we have a theme at the first H&A day, celebrated for Erin? Was it alligators or something like that? And did we change screen names for that day?
Thank you.
quote:So, for Chorister, Mousethief and ken we didn't do the full H&A mayhem? That's not really how I remember them (but I can be wrong of course).
Spike: There wasn't a theme other than to allow the H&As to do whatever we wanted. The other "special" days for reaching 10000 posts (Chorister, Mousethief and ken) weren't H&A days as such, particularly as only one of those posters was a host anyway. They were just allowed to pick a theme for the day.
)
quote:Not as such. I think we may have had some "guest" hosts for the duration. A full blown H&A day means anything goes which includes random thread movement/closure, members being suspended on a whim, entire boards disappearing and, best of all, Marvin hosting All Saints.
Originally posted by LeRoc:
So, for Chorister, Mousethief and ken we didn't do the full H&A mayhem? That's not really how I remember them (but I can be wrong of course).
)quote:Next time I will not be so forgiving.
Originally posted by Spike:
and, best of all, Marvin hosting All Saints.
quote:You know you love it, honeybuns!
Originally posted by Marvin the Martian:
quote:Next time I will not be so forgiving.
Originally posted by Spike:
and, best of all, Marvin hosting All Saints.
quote:A portion of the Boards started out life as a subscription service, as a way to keep away abusive posters (see the whole discussion on "Hurricane Joanne"). There were both pay boards and free boards Tubbs recalled:
...the Shiptalk board started life as the letters page. In fact, the whole thing did, as far as I know when the ship first sailed the letters page started to take on a life of its own, which led to the bulletin board format, as being more discussion friendly.
quote:Erin provided a link to something that was supposed to explain the whole subscription changes, but sadly the link no longer works.
The subscription charges were introduced after the departure of the "Ten-Horned Beast of the Apocalypse" to ensure that nothing like that would ever happen again. The rational was, if I remember rightly, that paid access would act as a discouragement ...
quote:The split creating Heaven, Purgatory and Hell seems to have occurred around the same time as the subscription changes. On April 5, 2002, Alan Cresswell recalled:
When the boards became subscription the letters page was kept as a way for non paying readers to put up comments on the ship content.
* * * *
IIRC when the boards did the heaven/hell etc split this was renamed from the 'letters page' to 'shiptalk board'.. and in reality became a sort of parallel discussion comunity to the main boards - yeah... the skinflints! So when the boards went free again it made sense to integrate them all.
quote:Similarly, Schroedinger's cat wrote:
This time last year, and for a while before that, there were two sets of boards running on the Ship. The main boards (Purgatory, Hell etc) you had to pay to contribute to. In addition, there were some additional free to post to boards; MW was one of these (it is somewhat unfair if people at a church that's been MW'd then have to pay a subscription to respond to the report), there was also a general discussion board (I've forgotten what we called it) where I reckon the intention was that people could try out the boards before subscribing.
With free registration on these new boards the division between free and subscriber boards became irrelevant. The old free general discussion board vanished into Purgatory.
quote:None of this tells us WHO came up with the idea of the Heaven/Purg/Hell split, but the impression that I get is that the split came at the time that some of the boards were subscription based. I welcome any more seasoned shipmates to correct me if my reconstruction is wrong.
I started on the old boards, and didn't quite get round to paying my subscription. But I only posted on Small Fire (which was free ), so I didn't feel a need to progress at that time.
IIRC, the deeper boards ( Heaven, hell and purg ) were subscription only, and the others ( MW, SF, UM? ) were free, because they benefitted from a wider audience participation.
The Hell board is one of the best ways I have seen this done on any web forum that has a need for that kind of seperation and containment.
quote:What is curious buddhist? Google is not my friend.
Originally posted by luvanddaisies:
It'd be an interesting look at the development of a very successful online community, challenges to it along the way (Hurricane Joanne, Curious Buddhist, Cosmogate),...
quote:"Unicycle" was posting at the same time as Curious Buddhist and all her wider sock puppets. S/he was also posting as "tryingtobefriendly" IIRC, also around the same time - but that character mainly migrated to St Pixels and ended up causing havoc there too. If memory serves me, wasn't one of the things that led the PTB to put two and two together that Curious Buddhist and co here and tryingtobefriendly on St Pixels were both posting about their cat, and posting pictures of the same cat? The other feature in common was lots of dramatic back stories - CB and all that Bosnia stuff, unicycle claiming to be married to someone who died in a real-life motorway crash, and tryingtobefriendly as severely autistic. It must have been exhausting and a full-time job trying to maintain all those personae at the same time.
Originally posted by Curiosity killed ...:
Didn't Curious Buddhist return later as Unicycle? We had a whole prayer thread deleted to remove Unicycle's posts. And Shipmates became a lot more cynical
quote:People had suspicions for a while as it should have been possible to confirm some of the details from third party sources. The cat pictures were the confirmation that they were all one and the same, although there were other things as well. It may have been just one person or a group of housemates seeing how far their prank would run before they got busted.
Originally posted by Jack the Lass:
quote:"Unicycle" was posting at the same time as Curious Buddhist and all her wider sock puppets. S/he was also posting as "tryingtobefriendly" IIRC, also around the same time - but that character mainly migrated to St Pixels and ended up causing havoc there too. If memory serves me, wasn't one of the things that led the PTB to put two and two together that Curious Buddhist and co here and tryingtobefriendly on St Pixels were both posting about their cat, and posting pictures of the same cat? The other feature in common was lots of dramatic back stories - CB and all that Bosnia stuff, unicycle claiming to be married to someone who died in a real-life motorway crash, and tryingtobefriendly as severely autistic. It must have been exhausting and a full-time job trying to maintain all those personae at the same time.
Originally posted by Curiosity killed ...:
Didn't Curious Buddhist return later as Unicycle? We had a whole prayer thread deleted to remove Unicycle's posts. And Shipmates became a lot more cynical
quote:Graphic Novel!!!!!
Originally posted by luvanddaisies:
...but it's also wondering if there ever will be a book about SoF's history,
quote:That all pre-dated me . Perhaps s/he just wanted to belong?
Originally posted by Jack the Lass:
S/he was also posting as "tryingtobefriendly" IIRC, also around the same time...
quote:Yes, but from what I've read, the worst bits didn't even make it to Oblivion, which gives a rather less than rounded overview of that experiment as a result. (And I totally appreciate that it was meant to serve a sensible purpose. Maybe on that basis its temporariness was a mistake. But I imagine it was a moderation nightmare.)
Originally posted by Alan Cresswell:
It's not all gone. There are still some threads in Oblivion. This one was the first I found
quote:IIRC Oblivion was not set up until years after the T'n'T boards were discontinued. Before Oblivion was set up, outstanding old threads were sent to Limbo, and all others were deleted.
Originally posted by pererin:
Yes, but from what I've read, the worst bits didn't even make it to Oblivion, which gives a rather less than rounded overview of that experiment as a result.
quote:Initially, TnT was home to some fantastic discussions on topics that would have been over-the-top anywhere else on the Ship. Over time, however, the sexual topics because less shocking and more accepted on the main boards. TnT spiraled downwards into silliness and rampant oversharing. In my view, TnT accomplished its purpose of bringing a wide range of sex-related topics into general discussion, leaving itself no reason to exist.
Originally posted by pererin:
And I totally appreciate that it was meant to serve a sensible purpose. Maybe on that basis its temporariness was a mistake. But I imagine it was a moderation nightmare.
quote:Saw what you did there. Don't do that. Personal atacks belong in Hell.
Originally posted by passer:
quote:That all pre-dated me . Perhaps s/he just wanted to belong?
Originally posted by Jack the Lass:
S/he was also posting as "tryingtobefriendly" IIRC, also around the same time...
quote:I'm still waiting for Pyx_e to prick it out in leather.
Originally posted by Pyx_e:
quote:Graphic Novel!!!!!
Originally posted by luvanddaisies:
...but it's also wondering if there ever will be a book about SoF's history,
quote:That Might tempt Chast back.....
I'm still waiting for Pyx_e to prick it out in leather.
quote:There is a ship of fools generated book. There was a thread, which made lots of use of the pseudonym feature on the old boards, in which a very long and convoluted story was told with various ship personalities drafted in as characters. Like a circus thread, people took turns to add an entry into the story, and they did it from character perspectives - diary entries, letters, emails, a 'found story' kind of writing. When the thread had been going long enough that people were running out of steam, we were encouraged (by Miss Monica) to keep going and keep moving the plot forward. Some time later, Miss Monica had copies printed up as a book. I have mine still. It wouldn't mean much to people who joined the board later, as it is full of in-jokes. But it is great for reading back and remembering (or guessing) who was contributing as who.
Originally posted by Pyx_e:
quote:Graphic Novel!!!!!
Originally posted by luvanddaisies:
...but it's also wondering if there ever will be a book about SoF's history,
quote:Try these two for starters - Calling Erin to Hell and Incompetence 1, Democracy 0 . Marvel at the razor wit, the creative turn of phrase and the ability to cut through bullshit in two words or less. But, behind the scenes Erin had a heart as big as a whale and was extremely kind.
Originally posted by Og, King of Bashan:
This seems to be the best place to ask this. Every time a new troll comes along, someone laments that Erin isn't here to take care of it. I don't think I really got my sea legs before Erin left us, which makes me sad. Can anyone suggest a classic thread down in Limbo where I can really see the Gator doing what she did best?
quote:I didn't realise Miss Monica wrote a book. Bound in Leather to be whipped out under duress, no doubt?
Originally posted by frin:
When the thread had been going long enough that people were running out of steam, we were encouraged (by Miss Monica) to keep going and keep moving the plot forward. Some time later, Miss Monica had copies printed up as a book. I have mine still. It wouldn't mean much to people who joined the board later, as it is full of in-jokes. But it is great for reading back and remembering (or guessing) who was contributing as who.
'frin
quote:dammit you lousy motherfuckers made me cry! well, laugh myself to tears, but still. shit. good stuff. *singing* mehmmmories........
Originally posted by Tubbs:
quote:Try these two for starters - Calling Erin to Hell and Incompetence 1, Democracy 0 . Marvel at the razor wit, the creative turn of phrase and the ability to cut through bullshit in two words or less. But, behind the scenes Erin had a heart as big as a whale and was extremely kind.
Originally posted by Og, King of Bashan:
This seems to be the best place to ask this. Every time a new troll comes along, someone laments that Erin isn't here to take care of it. I don't think I really got my sea legs before Erin left us, which makes me sad. Can anyone suggest a classic thread down in Limbo where I can really see the Gator doing what she did best?
I'm sure that others will have other favourites to recommend.
Tubbs
quote:Rather different message, though, I should think!
Originally posted by Golden Key:
Surely, a Ship graphic novel would have to be done by Jack Chick? Or in his style?
quote:That would be about everybody, then. Even our "conservatives" would be too liberal for Chick.
Originally posted by leo:
Well, he'd have the liberals in Hell
quote:Yeah, but that's why he'd be so perfect!
Originally posted by Chorister:
quote:Rather different message, though, I should think!
Originally posted by Golden Key:
Surely, a Ship graphic novel would have to be done by Jack Chick? Or in his style?
And his style is considered to be really good, regardless of the content.
quote:Haw! Haw! Haw!
Originally posted by leo:
Well, he'd have the liberals in Hell
quote:Exempli gratia:
Originally posted by Qoheleth.:
Or are you thinking of the Diocese of Bolsover, with Bishop Rodrigo Borgia and his Chaplain Fr Bildad? Products of the fevered imagination of Fr David Rowett, IIRC.
quote:
The diocese would like to apologise for the interruption to its news service during the month of May. This was due principally to the following:
As widely reported in the national press, the May Day Procession of Our Lady at St. Mary's, Cleavage ended in disaster. The supplier of the rose petals is has been served with notice of a civil action for damages. Nevertheless, the diocesan server was down for several days, and even now walks with a pronounced limp.
Even more disastrously, a chance, in-all-probability innocent but ultimately unwise comment by the Bishop's Chaplain, Fr. Bildad, during the May-Morning liturgy of the diocesan Feminist Theology Encounter Group led to him being chased up the impromptu anti-masculinist May fertility symbol, all seventeen feet of it, there to languish for a full week, meanwhile being in possession of the bishop's engagement diary. After negotiations, basic food was sent up to him, but the diet of vegetarian macrobiotic high fibre muesli meant that at the end of his enforced exile, not only had he lost three stone in weight, but there were only two pages of the diary still in a fit state to be read. Bishop Rodrigo pronounced himself 'delighted' so to have gained a month without engagements, but as we write Fr.Bildad is still going in to the Bishop's office every morning at 8.00 to catch up on 'missing' correspondence.
quote:AFAIK that was never part of The Ship.
Originally posted by Qoheleth.:
Or are you thinking of the Diocese of Bolsover, with Bishop Rodrigo Borgia and his Chaplain Fr Bildad? Products of the fevered imagination of Fr David Rowett, IIRC.
quote:Never part of the Ship, but hugely entertaining while it lasted.
Originally posted by Qoheleth.:
Or are you thinking of the Diocese of Bolsover, with Bishop Rodrigo Borgia and his Chaplain Fr Bildad? Products of the fevered imagination of Fr David Rowett, IIRC.
quote:Would it have been the Diocese of Wenchoster? The only other one I can think of is St. Bastard's and the Niblets, which was definitely a ship one, created by Dyfrig.
Originally posted by Offeiriad:
That reminds me, very early on I seem to remember a series about a spoof diocese, whose Bishop's diary seemed to mark every Sunday as a day off. At this distance I've even forgotten the name of the diocese, sorry! Anybody know where this material might still be around please? - I'd love to re-visit it.
