Caltrops

[bryanb]

Did Caltrops ever have user comments on reviews? If not, why not? Was it a strategic decision to drive users to the forums, an aesthetic decision based on theme, or something else? Inquiring mind wants to know!

Incidentally, searching caltrops on Google, Bing, and even Gigablast doesn't lead to the website on the first page of search results for me. Dictionary words suck.

[pinback]

Did you try "caltrops shitpost maggot"? Comes right up for me.

EDIT: "maggot" is not what I typed there, with this BBS' draconian censorship policy once again ruining the humor, but you get the point.

[RealNC]

EDIT: "maggot" is not what I typed there, with this BBS' draconian censorship policy once again ruining the humor, but you get the point.

You need some lessons in BBS censorship circumvention techniques. Then you can write "faggοt" as much as you want.

[Casual Observer]

not sure when exactly caltrops flipped to the current alt right dilbert guy mindset, it's even less entertaining now than a decade ago.

[The Happiness Engine]

Caltrops never had what you think of as a "modern" web forum. The front page used to just be static HTML until ICJ moved it to Wordpress for simplicity and it would make zero sense to fracture the conversation into no-threaded comments on the articles themselves.

[pinback]

I don't understand what that has to do with the question.

[bryanb]

Did you try "caltrops shitpost maggot"? Comes right up for me.

EDIT: "maggot" is not what I typed there, with this BBS' draconian censorship policy once again ruining the humor, but you get the point.

So I did the searches fully expecting both the uncensored and censored versions would bring up Caltrops. THEY DON'T! Google does not interpret "caltrops shitpost maggot" as in any way seeking Caltrops, the website. If you pull that shit with Bing, it assumes you are looking for medicinal maggots. I'm not kidding -- "Love a Maggot" is the top result. Don't go there...please. Only the censored search works properly. Unfortunately, now whenever I turn off my ad blocker I get ads for genuine commercial shitposts. I had no idea they were an actual product used by ranchers.

Reading between the lines here, I think Caltrops never instituted review comments by design in order to better build the forum-based community it has today. Say what you will about the site, but there's definitely a community over there. If it were a neighborhood in real life, sure there'd be burning tires, burning oil barrels, and disheveled young men with gaunt faces and eyes of rage...but it'd still be a community.

[AArdvark]

Medical maggots is the name of my new punk band

[pinback]

I don't understand what that has to do with the question.

Oh, you were replying to an earlier question. My apologies.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Did Caltrops ever have user comments on reviews? If not, why not? Was it a strategic decision to drive users to the forums, an aesthetic decision based on theme, or something else? Inquiring mind wants to know!

Incidentally, searching caltrops on Google, Bing, and even Gigablast doesn't lead to the website on the first page of search results for me. Dictionary words suck.

We never did comments on the articles, we always directed people to the forum. Wordpress is a wasteland when it comes to comments, they never really figured out how to turn off spam. The last thing I saw sort of work is "manually approve all comments" and "turn off comments after 30 days." We have had people take umbrage with some of the Baldur's Gate articles on Caltrops, and the writer of those hasn't been to the site in 10 years. So yeah, it was definitely a choice.

The site is the worst it's ever been, most of the regulars have left and there's one or two guys trolling by attacking regulars without sticking to a regular name themselves.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

not sure when exactly caltrops flipped to the current alt right dilbert guy mindset, it's even less entertaining now than a decade ago.

It's not alt-right, you can just say what you want there. I'm certainly not going to moderate anything. Hell, four of the people left (me, Mischief Maker, FullofKittens and laudable) are bleeding hearts. I will say that liberals in general treat every site that isn't a liberal echo chamber as conservative. I am not saying you believe that or said that, but it is something I see a lot of.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Reading between the lines here, I think Caltrops never instituted review comments by design in order to better build the forum-based community it has today. Say what you will about the site, but there's definitely a community over there. If it were a neighborhood in real life, sure there'd be burning tires, burning oil barrels, and disheveled young men with gaunt faces and eyes of rage...but it'd still be a community.

True! And I don't know if I responded to the last email you wrote. I'd rather send people here should RFTK come back than a pointy-style forum. Just makes more sense, one less thing for me to manage and this place can use the discussion anyway. We can turn on guest posting in the "Text Adventures" sub forum here, too, so people do not need to register.

I can't remember if I asked if you were on Steam. Are you on Steam, Bryan?

[bryanb]

True! And I don't know if I responded to the last email you wrote. I'd rather send people here should RFTK come back than a pointy-style forum. Just makes more sense, one less thing for me to manage and this place can use the discussion anyway. We can turn on guest posting in the "Text Adventures" sub forum here, too, so people do not need to register.

I can't remember if I asked if you were on Steam. Are you on Steam, Bryan?

You didn't respond to my email...I'm still waiting. However, Flack's pretty much convinced me at this point that Wordpress really is the way to go at this point so I guess we don't need to continue debating the merits of keeping the old site as is or modernizing it a bit. I have to say, though, that I really do want to keep comments on the reviews themselves despite the perils of that approach. The forums will inevitably feature a wide variety of discussions and won't necessarily be focused on any particular game or the reviews we're writing. With comments on reviews, we have gems like Adam Cadre giving us behind the scenes information about 9:05 or Ben pointing out that puzzles I claimed to be easy in my reviews are really the absolute opposite. Adam could post that comment in the forums and I'm sure it would get a response, but it would get buried over time and new users reading about 9:05 won't necessarily even know he posted about the game. It's like how Caltrops features more discussion about politics than it does gaming despite not being a political site...forums just aren't focused by nature and if you try too hard to make them focused you kill the conversation and the fun. That's why I want forum activity AND comments -- it's the Trotting Krips way!

The spam issue is certainly real, though. Is Akismet no longer effective at all? In any case, I'd be happy to take over the job of manually approving comments personally...it's worth it to me.

In other site news, I got a nice message from a forum member who is interested in contributing reviews to the new site. What could I say but "Welcome aboard"? The guest reviews were a great feature of the old site and I definitely want to see that legacy continue. Who knows, maybe we'll end up recruiting one or two more official Trotting Krips reviewers. Considering my bouts with writer's block, having some more backup would definitely be a good thing. Do you think Flack might be interested in contributing, too? We could definitely use some more C64 game reviews.

I am on Steam...sort of. I want to be a cool uncle so I like to buy Steam gift cards to give my nephew for Christmas. Sending physical gift cards through the mail makes me worried so, yeah, I'm on Steam. But I still hate DRM and believe strongly I have the right to play games I've purchased anyway, anyhow, and anywhere I choose. This has lead to a situation where the only games I actually have on Steam are oddities that are DRM-free but still only sold through Steam like the Binding of Isaac and CKII or games my nephew got through Humble Bundle and didn't want or games Steam gave me for free. So I'm on there, embittered and still rooting for GOG and Indie Box to ultimately triumph, but on there nonetheless.

[bryanb]

However, Flack's pretty much convinced me at this point that Wordpress really is the way to go at this point so I guess we don't need to continue debating the merits of keeping the old site as is or modernizing it a bit.

At this point, I'm hoping I can write a review that uses "at this point" at least once every single sentence. It just seems like a really powerful and effective phrase to me at this point.

[Flack]

I'd love to contribute a few reviews here and there. Maybe new IF games on older platforms could be my niche.

I pretty much killed spam on my sites with Akismet and turning on "flag every response that includes html" which every single spammer uses to add links back to their crummy sites. I think the other thing I turned on was "first time commenters have to be manually approved."

[Casual Observer]

It's not alt-right, you can just say what you want there. I'm certainly not going to moderate anything. Hell, four of the people left (me, Mischief Maker, FullofKittens and laudable) are bleeding hearts. I will say that liberals in general treat every site that isn't a liberal echo chamber as conservative. I am not saying you believe that or said that, but it is something I see a lot of.

Agreed, I should admit that there are just SOME folks contributing to Caltrops that are Alt-Right and the rest debate them in pure Caltrops beauty. It's just a little disappointing there now. There used to be fun folks like Quentin Beck and Zeni who put a real zing into the threads. Oh well.

[bryanb]

I'd love to contribute a few reviews here and there. Maybe new IF games on older platforms could be my niche.

That would be great! I honestly think the new site may well end up being even better than the old one. Incidentally, I now answer to the name Arthur "Two Reviews" Jackson because I've now finished my SECOND comeback review. If only I had somewhere to post them...

Now I have to decide what game to take on next. It should be something really good, I think. Perhaps A Mind Forever Voyaging. Perhaps Dragons In Chocolate Land. Maybe it's even time for me to try to finish that Dorothy Millard game I started 20 years ago. Unfortunately, I don't remember anything about it now which means I'm going to have to try to finish ALL the Dorothy Millard games. See you in 2025!

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

It's not alt-right, you can just say what you want there. I'm certainly not going to moderate anything. Hell, four of the people left (me, Mischief Maker, FullofKittens and laudable) are bleeding hearts. I will say that liberals in general treat every site that isn't a liberal echo chamber as conservative. I am not saying you believe that or said that, but it is something I see a lot of.

Agreed, I should admit that there are just SOME folks contributing to Caltrops that are Alt-Right and the rest debate them in pure Caltrops beauty. It's just a little disappointing there now. There used to be fun folks like Quentin Beck and Zeni who put a real zing into the threads. Oh well.

It is, man. On one hand it's freeing - we are not slaves to people that posted 15 years ago. On the other hand, a new audience would need to be built. That can be built by regular front page articles. I hadn't had the time (excepting a few months last year when I wanted to prove I could be an editor for it) to do it myself though.