Entertainment For Lively Minds
That Nasty Down Arrow: It's Gone
Following the bickering and general air of hysteria that accompanied our experiment with up-and-down arrows, we've done the sensible thing and decided to ditch the down, retaining just a single, positive, McCartney-esque up-vote. This is to be used to show your approval for a contribution: for when you think a blog entry is of particular interest, or for when a subsequent comment really adds something to the conversation.
Now that we've reduced the possibility of negativity and upped the likelihood of sunshine and lollipops, we'd also like to take the opportunity to remind everyone of our posting guidelines, which have come to be somewhat neglected of late.
Please take the time to read them. It's quite an extensive list, but this "Wordiquette" is there for a single, simple reason - to ensure that this site remains a pleasant environment for all to inhabit.
Finally, thanks to everyone who contributed comments regarding the arrows, and to those who used them.
Note: You may need to reload the page to see the single arrow as it's meant to be.
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boo !
You caved into the whingers
thanks!
positive vibes all around!
I'd have preferred these:
Can't see the point...
..of just having the UP arrow. I'd rather lose them altogether.
For one...
Because it offers a chance for people who might not necessarily feel comfortable posting comments to get more involved with the site, merely by clicking something to show their appreciation of a post.
When the arrows were first introduced
I felt the same. However, I came to favour the option of just retaining the 'up'. An example of where this has been used to good effect is in the 13 (at last count) 'ups' for Backwards7's post in the 'What is Your Commute?' thread.
As Archie succinctly outlined previously, the down arrow was too prone to misunderstanding and bad vibes, whereas the worst that's going to happen now is that someone doesn't know the precise reason for their 'upped' status, which is hardly the worst thing in the world.
As Fraser implies, a victory for McCartneyism - no bad thing in my book!
Much more aesthetically pleasing into the bargain
A winner all round, I feel!
Can we have a league table?
with who has received the most thumbs up each month? This would lead, im sure, to a enhanced quality performances as various posters seek to out do eachother to get to that top slot, the coveted poster of the month award!
It's certainly possible
We'll see how it goes.
Presumably, this award will be known as
'The McCartney'.
And hopefully not as 'The Fairclough'
(Sorry!)
I had to look that up on Google.
You have a better memory than I for scurrilous allegations!
You can't libel the departed.
Thank God!
McCartney's dead????????
Why weren't we told?
He died in 1967 - I thought everybody knew that
Why else was Billy Shears wearing a black rose in MMT as he danced down the stars in white tails with the other three?
There's a whole other 'clues' thread in here somewhere.
Oh Dear
Where's the down arrow when you need one?
Well done,
you just demonstrated its redundancy.
Ha!
Your arrows have no sting!
I remember at the time it happened
Jssper Carrott did a pretty good gag about it on Carrott's Lib, where Ken and Dreary got some kind of congratulations card with the message, "All the best! Thumbs up, Len and Rita"
I thought it referred to David
Liverpool supersub. Obviously not...
As discussed with Word Twitter chums
The former TFT Hitmaker
http://twitpic.com/aoev8
And can we have a league table
of the most enthusiastic neggers? I am convinced that the whole down arrow thing was a subtle experiment to test the average predeliction for engaging in negative behaviour when given the means to do so. Similar in fact to the experiment mentioned elsewhere that tested whether or not children could resist eating marshmallows when left alone.
Song for Fraser
(Apologies if this has been done before)
Can't see the song at work
Is it REM's "Exhuming McCartney"?
This solution
strikes me as rather more civilised and sensible, adhering to the principle of 'if you can't say something nice, say nothing'.
I've never really used them, but at least I have the option.
Hooray !
I left last night and now I'm back. My therapist says that this, a spatula and a sturdy pullover will do the trick. Anyone for a Scotch Egg ?
Thanks Fraser.
As a fellow Moderator on a web-site I know you can't please all the people all the time, but this news has certainly pleased me!
A strange lonely and troubling death
The news of the death of the down arrow was deeply shocking. It was not just that another young symbol of blogging had died pointlessly.
Through the recent travails and sad ends of the Microsoft Office Assistant, Bebo (tbc) and Muxtape fans know to expect the unexpected of their web technology - particularly if those technologies live a life that is shadowed by dark appetites or fractured by the private vice of online users.
There are dozens of household names out there with secret and not-so-secret troubles, or damaging habits both past and present.
Twitter, Facebook, Google, Yahoo; we all know who they are. And we are not being ghoulish to anticipate, or to be mentally braced for, their bad end: a long overly complicated new interface, a mysterious upgrade feature, an odd set of circumstances that herald a sudden deletion.
In the morning, a piece of code has already been deleted before the first concerned hand reaches out to mouse-click an icy blue fletching. It is not exactly a new storyline, is it?
In fact, it is rather depressingly familiar. But somehow we never expected it of this symbol. Never this symbol. Not the down arrow.
In the cheerful environs of The Word Blog, the down arrow was always charming, cute, impolite and funny.
A founder member of The Word Blog's revamp, the down arrow was the site's co-lead click (along with up arrow), even though he could barely carry a constructive comment.
He was the Peacock Dilletante of The Word Blog, a popular but largely decorous addition.
Down arrow quickly came out as no longer opinion neutral almost immediately, after discovering that he could be used as an alternative to finger-pointing and verbal baiting.
Although he was effectively smoked out of the blogging back-room, he has been hailed as a champion of affirmative rights, albeit a reluctant one.
At the time, down arrow worried that the revelations might end his ultra-mainstream career as a pin-up of the blogosphere, but he received an overwhelmingly positive response from fans. In fact, it only made them love him more.
In late summer 2009, down arrow entered into a civil union with fellow arrow 'up', who had been introduced to him by mutual friends 'Reply' and 'Edit'
Last week, the couple were enjoying a holiday together in Fraser Lewry's content management system before their world was capsized.
........
Jan Moir writes...
Of course, the arrow's lifestyle was to blame. He had it coming. They're all the same, etc.
rumour has it
he'd been feeling pretty down.
"I think we can
all agree that this is a victory for common sense, for good sense, for decency, for tolerance and for something we have come to regard as The Word Way. Furthermore, I believe..."
"Oh shut up Sheev , you pompous arse"
The Only Way is Up ,,,
Glad to see this change - now all we need is for the Old Ones to come back over the Rim [Babylon 5 allusion] and all will be well ...
Who is Babylon5?
Is s/he mates with backwards7?
funny you should ask ...
... as in this SF series of yore much time is spent discussing the original inhabitants of the galaxy who have nipped off over the Rim-leaving other junior civilisations in their wake ;-)
Still none the wiser.
WTF is 'The Rim' dare I ask?
Actually, on second thoughts, don't tell me.
the edge of the galaxy iirc [*]
anyway, my laboured metaphor is redundant, as Backwards and Archie among others seem to have returned-no idea if they are also Twittering frequently as well, or indeed how they actually manage to do anything else-I guess there are a lot of fast iPhone typers/smooth timeslicers out there ...
[* B5 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylon_5
was for many SF lovers *the* genre masterpiece, until the new Battlestar Galactica came along--I still have a soft spot for it--but haven't seen one for years.]
Gets spacesuit ...
Blimey.
I'd call myself a Sci-Fi fan, but I don't think I've ever consciously watched a single episode of Babylon 5.
No doubt there is a 56 disc DVD Boxed Set to look forward to in my dotage, when it will be available on a USB 7 dongle for about 5 Sinodollars in Fopp2.
I'm sure there will be
presently 5 DVD boxes-but really, if you like SF, give series 1 a go ...
took a while to grow on me and the FPO but after a few eps we wer hooked over 5 enjoyable years
well this place has gone to the dogs
and turned into some sort of commune we've got people wittering on about what drugs they've taken (hey let's talk about our dreams next)and now this positivity nonsense. Why don't people edit the magazine themselves while your at it entire tedious interviews with jeff beck talking about drugs.
Interestingly
There has been a surge in posts explaining just why they've hit the up arrow.
Chris G's all about the fun, isn't he, by the way?