This weekend I worked on the site’s back end a bit. The Search box is back – it’s a handy way to find old posts by topic. I’ve also added the ability to Edit your own comments, along with other options like Delete and Email.
Most new features may be found in the Forum:
1. Updated the software, fixing previous bugs and increasing efficiency.
2. At a reader’s request, created a new forum called Girls Only, adding a Guys Only forum as well. Use them as a way to chat with members of the same sex, but keep in mind that posts may be read by everyone.
3. Added a plethora of plugins, which should make the Forum more user-friendly and fun:
- Private Messaging between members
- Ability to subscribe via email to new posts or just “Watch.”
- A full-featured toolbox for typing replies, including the ability to upload images and files.
- The option to preview a post.
- A Poll button, allowing you to create polls within posts.
- A Report button to flag any inappropriate post or spam.
4. Several people have suggested that one way of keeping comment threads on topic and readable is to move the most argumentative threads over to the Forum. I think this is an excellent idea, and to that end I’ve added the ability to link blog comments to the forum. I’ll be experimenting with this in the days and weeks ahead.
As always, your feedback is appreciated.
{ 53 comments… read them below or add one }
Susan, I like the site but I do have a request. Can you have a thread on why men are too ‘lazy’ to go to college? I could give you an answer if we had the time….
@epoche
I’m not sure what you mean. You might start one under Feminism and Politics if you like.
“Several people have suggested that one way of keeping comment threads on topic and readable is to move the most argumentative threads over to the Forum. ”
This really is such a good idea Susan. I’m already looking forward to the changes.
I will suggest once more…
Each blog post should have a dedicated forum thread, with obvious links from the post to the forum thread. After X number of comments, or when it veers too off-topic, or when it gets too heated, the blog comments are closed, and the last comment shows the link to the forum thread. That way, if you want to respond to a blog comment, when it is closed, you have to use the forum.
Bonus points for putting all these special theads into special subforum dedicated just to this – meaning, nobody can post new threads in this subforum.
@OTC
Great feedback, thanks.
Great problem solving, SW.
Good idea, OTC.
Hmm. Very interesting.
In light of mike c’s most recent comments (possibly the last ones he’ll make?), i think you (ms walsh) should just go on ahead and pull the trigger on the majority of guys (including myself) and be done with it. Mike was right (and if youll kindly recall i predicted the same as well back in the summer) that hus will eventually wind up a “girls only” space-and you know what, i am perfectly good with that. What i have learned from this exercise is that women have a fundamentally different view, understanding and idea of what democracy is, what it looks like and what it should exist to do. And im good with that, too.
The country is changing. One of the biggest ways, is in terms of how we do business along sex lines. More and more, “a womans nation” way of doing things, big and small, public or private, is becoming the coin of the realm. And i accept this “new grrl order”. I just am not under any illusions that it will necessarily be any “better” than what came previous; and indeed in many ways, ill go on record right now in predicting that it may prove to be quite a far sight worse.
But i wish you all the best, ms walsh.
Take care.
O.
@ epoche
“men are too ‘lazy’ to go to college”
I have a degree, as do all my friends, including one who dropped out of a Ph.D program. The main reason I quite using my degree? And he quit his field? Affirmative Action means “White Men Need Not Apply.” It’s a huge problem.
I now own my own business, as does he.
I’ll be damned if I ever work for a woman again. Most of them think work is holding meetings and running their mouths while the men pretend to ignore them not working and instead do all the work.
Men of college age realize the problem and are now going to vocational school.
It has nothing to do with laziness.
I don’t actually know very many guys who are going to vocational school. Out of the guys I know, the ones who aren’t going to college tend to work minimum wage and smoke a lot of weed. Although SWPL parents tend to discourage vocational school, so maybe this could be a demographic thing. I dunno…
Good additions
Cool stuff.
Is this going to slow HUS down?
Cool! I tried to reply to a comment in the Forum just now though and was unable to. Is that a small bug or is it just my computer? : /
Nah, but as each thread grows I have a feeling we’re just going to get a lot of commenters hastily deleting past comments.
Men are too lazy to go college just like women are too scared to work in coal mines.
See how that works?
I have upgraded three times to larger servers to handle traffic and keep the site fast. I am still not satisfied but am continuing to work on it. The forum should not slow the site down.
@SayWhaat
I’ve been trying to troubleshoot this. Other members have been posting, so it’s not a universal problem. Are you saying that the “Add Reply” button does not work? I find that for me, it doesn’t work in Chrome but works fine in Firefox. I’ll put in a support request on this question.
Men are too lazy to go college just like women are too scared to work in coal mines….See how that works?
PM, the first commenter to use the phrase “too lazy” had it in quotes. I believe they were asking for a post that examined other factors, like the economy, that are impacting the number of males in college. They were being ironic.
Hi Susan,
I hope you’ve been refreshed by your weekend off. The place wan’t the same without you!
@J
I don’t do irony on the weekends, union rules and all. Now that it’s Monday, I see your point.
I’m literally LOL, PM. Union rules…..
I’m loving the new look of the forum Susan.
I figured that epoche was alluding to feminism. Epoche is male, btw. Unfortunately, he hasn’t come back to explain.
@J
Thanks, it was nice to take a break, and getting a bit of distance helped me gain some perspective.
I’m so glad! Sorry it had gotten screwed up…Do report any bugs, either there or in a thread. Thanks.
The reason that more men are not in college or at least not achieving the way that women might like is that the economy has specifically been re-arranged to accommodate the feminine preference for material risk aversion making it difficult for men to extract status out of working. There are two ways of organizing society – as noted by Victorian Lawyer Sir Henry Maine A) Status (Compulsory cooperation) and B) Contract (Voluntary cooperation) and the modern progressive movement is a giant step backwards towards compulsory cooperation and away from voluntary cooperation. How a group of people determine achievement says nearly everything about how their lives are going to be lived – this is why Kay Hymowitz noted that these degrees “take years” in “preadulthood” but mistakenly blamed the “knowledge economy” instead of noting that the shift from away from material resourcefulness and towards credentialing as the source of social standing.
@epoche
That’s where I thought you were headed. I agree, FWIW.
The idea that economic activity is something we engage in as a social ritual that ‘sanctifies’ our social rank rather than something we do to cope with scarcity is regressive thinking not representative 0f progress. Those are the “special ingredients” that Hanna Rosin never mentions. I will say that the problem is not exclusively nor primarily being caused by feminists but it is almost impossible to make suggestions without being labelled sexist. The country is bankrupt, I dont see why it is so hard to talk about these issues.
It’s funny how nobody’s reacting to Obsidian, even though he’s 100% right.
SW, epoche
I really am looking forward to a post on this. I wonder what the future will bring as we complete our move away from a manufacturing economy with a thriving working and lower middle class protected by unions to an information/business based economy with a two class society with little or no collective bargaining. As a mom of two young men entering this economy, I would like to concentrate on survival strategies for young people.
As an intersting side note, we have been having this discussion at home over the last few weeks. We recently re-watched Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story, which made us nostaglic for the days in which our parents’ union jobs helped us make the jump into the middle class. The take-away for the boys was that those sorts of jobs no longer exist and education is now doubly important as the old standby jobs aren’t there any more.
A few days later, my older son was discussing the sale of virtual objects on Ebay for real money. My husband thought it was immoral; my son OTOH was fascinated by the idea of making big money selling “nothing.”
I think this discussion needs it’s own thread …and maybe a guest post from epoche?
Epoche’s point is being discussed on Roissy…
http://heartiste.wordpress.com/2012/09/25/womanly-economy/
GBFM is being as lucid as usual
Jesus H. Mothereffing Christ on a crutch!!! I pray God this is a pose on GBFM’s part and not that he’s run out pills.
I think Roissy’s angle is wrong. There’s a chicken-egg thing happening here that I hope we can discuss if epoche or SW does a post on this. I think that the move from manufacturing to an economy based on intangibles faciliated the growth of second wave feminism and that in turn has affected just loads of things which would be fun to explore.
@J
personally I find ‘opaque GBFM’ to be as interesting as…well I’ll have to get back to you on that. The ‘communicative GBFM’ was a whole different kettle of fish, his stuff I read…well almost mostly.
I’m looking forward to ‘credentialing ‘ involving, not just the BA / Masters / Phud, but the subject studied too. Just what is a master’s degree in puppetry worth…Sweet Fanny Adams (sweet F.A. in case that’s UK only)
http://captaincapitalism.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/who-wants-to-hire-katie-underhay.html
apparently ‘she is the future’…ROTFLMAO
It is my understanding, correct me if I am wrong, that the number of male students isn’t dropping. The 60/40 F/M ratio is due to rising female student numbers…hooray…studying fluff degrees…oh noes. I am not at all sure that feminists should be crowing about this, because sooner or later, when the SHTF budget wise, there’re gonna be a lot of women unemployed with immense debts and worthless degrees. They will be unmarriagable because when they marry the guy becomes jointly liable to that debt…oops. Would you marry a debt mountain with no prospect of her paying it off? no, me neither. I’d rather have a HS grad who is debt free.
In the UK we had the unions bitching that cuts in the public sector hit women harder. Well that is true, it’s true because the ratio of women to men public sector workers is 2:1.
Who do you think are doing the vital jobs like garbage collection, street cleaning, maintainence works, water supply, drainage? and who is doing the paper pushing ‘diversity coordination’, ‘five (pieces of fresh fruit/veg) a day coordination’… and who would you sack first when the city goes bust? The paper pushers or the men doing the shit stuff that must be done?
Ha, two new milestones at HUS.
1. Heartiste wrote a post based on a comment left here. Does Roissy read HUS??? Or perhaps epoche left it there as well….
2. I left my first comment ever at Heartiste. Evil Alpha appears to no longer be grounded and he’s back online, being a total knucklehead as per usual.
Ha, two new milestones at HUS.
1. Heartiste wrote a post based on a comment left here. Does Roissy read HUS??? Or perhaps epoche left it there as well….
2. I left my first comment ever at Heartiste. Evil Alpha appears to no longer be grounded and he’s back online, being a total knucklehead as per usual.
Yep the world is definetely ending in 2012…this are the signs…
Even someone as bright as Charles Murray never mentions the shift from voluntary cooperation towards compulsory cooperation in his book Coming Apart and blames all social change on the “knowledge economy”. For a libertarian sociologist to not mention Sir Henry Maine is reckless. Taking Charles Murray seriously in this regard along with his comments about “assortative mating” in elite universities and one might be led to believe the elites of one hundred years ago could possibly have been bootblacks. I work currently as a manager for a student loan collection agency and the sheer amount of waste used to achieve equality is becoming absurd. This is money that young couples could have used to buy homes or start businesses instead of asking for permission to work because of 1960s grievance rackets. Either private employers are allowed to hire, train or discharge employees according to mutually agreeable terms and keep the spoils or they are not. Bad ideas hurt real people – the problems caused by a regression from contract to status are plain as day: Its much easier for the average person to get into 100k worth of debt than it is to save 100k.
Add Reply function works now, thanks Susan!
One of Roissy’s pastimes is hamster spotting, so it wouldn’t be that surprising if he read HUS.
More likely, one of Roissy’s pastimes is spotting his own name, so it wouldn’t be that surprising if he read HUS or any other blog where it might be taken in vain.
Or maybe he reads so he can learn how to pick up college girls.
At the very least, he must know that HUS exists. (I’m sure he would have heard people bitching about Susan). IMO he deserves some credit for leaving us alone. The fights with minor bloggers were bad enough. …can you imagine the sh*tstorm that would ensue if ROISSY sent his followers after us??? *shudder*
@HH
To Mr. O’s main point:
HUS is a publically accessible, privately *funded* forum. It’s not a political jurisdiction, nor a Berkeley-style free speech zone. There is no direct voting, nor any elected officials. It’s got some basic guidelines and standards of conduct, like any workplace environment, either private sector OR government.
I highly doubt this place will ever be “for girls only”. Though it’s never been “for guys only”, in my time lurking (from late 2010) and commenting (from late 2011) here, I’ve found it to be “for guys mostly”, judging by the general tone, commentary, OT tendencies, and overall lack of gender proportionality.
I have no problem if a handful of guys become discouraged from participating, after they themselves helped to create an atmosphere that discouraged girls from participating. Rather, I find it extremely ironic. I learned first-hand from observing my friends on the Left back in college (pre-9/11 days), in and out of the classroom, that the exercise of free speech is often used to discourage the exercise of free speech.
In short, I don’t see how the right honorable Mr. O can be 100% right if all he’s done is make a prediction about the future, one which hasn’t come to pass.
@Emily
Or maybe he reads so he can learn how to pick up college girls.
LOL.
I have lost track of who actually writes that blog now, but the original Roissy Jim Weidmann must be about 47 now. Even HE may have aged out of that by now.
At the very least, he must know that HUS exists. (I’m sure he would have heard people bitching about Susan).
At one time Susan was considered by a big chunk of Roissy’s readership to be the “woman who gets it.” I found this blog through Roissy.
IMO he deserves some credit for leaving us alone.
Perhaps. Or maybe he had his fill of ugliness with the famed Lady Raine debacle.
The fights with minor bloggers were bad enough. …can you imagine the sh*tstorm that would ensue if ROISSY sent his followers after us??? *shudder*
Some Roissyites have indeed shown up here–Doug1, Gorbachev, and Rum immediately come to mind.
I highly doubt this place will ever be “for girls only”. Though it’s never been “for guys only”, in my time lurking (from late 2010) and commenting (from late 2011) here, I’ve found it to be “for guys mostly”, judging by the general tone, commentary, OT tendencies, and overall lack of gender proportionality.
HUS had gone through a lot of changes. It began as a blog that was aimed at young women, but was not a “girls only” blog. Some ‘Spherians noticed Susan’s relatively conservative slant on hooking up and labeled her the ‘sphere’s Aunt Sue. As a result, Susan was attacked by Friedman, Marcotte and the Jezzies, which solidify the ‘sphere’s support of her. As Susan has tried to come back to center and to restore the blogs original mission, there’s been a lot of blow back from the ‘sphere; I won’t rehash the details.
Thank you, Megaman! I am truly flummoxed by the number of people who demand free speech at HUS, when it’s clear to everyone they would like the freedom to destroy it. I have used the Gertrude Stein metaphor – HUS is a salon of sorts, of civilized and intelligent people. I have zero desire to host a gathering akin to a political demonstration or angry protest march. The idea that HUS is or was ever intended to be a democracy is laughable. I am your host, and I encourage fair and lively conversation, but I’m not going to tolerate people who piss in the punchbowl and throw things.
Since this rather dire prediction was made and seconded just 5 days ago, I believe three male commenters have said their farewells.
Things will change a bit around here, but I believe that HUS will continue to be a place where men who seek to learn via debate (rather than instruct via debate) hang out.
<iI have used the Gertrude Stein metaphor – HUS is a salon of sorts, of civilized and intelligent people.
This is why I still post here, FWIW.
I highly doubt this place will ever be “for girls only”….Since this rather dire prediction was made and seconded just 5 days ago, I believe three male commenters have said their farewells.
I for one am very disturbed by this. And I believe that some of it stems from male-on-male conflict.
The Girls Only forum is having a harder time losing its virginity than White N Nerdy.
@SW
I for one would never act like I rented, let alone owned, this place. Totally inappropriate. You’re not obligated to subsidize the acrimony of others. I think history has shown that civil societies rarely if ever develop out of pure democracies. Though if the internet was actually governed by “the madness of crowds”, I have no doubt that you personally would be voted out-of-office (and offline) by both ends of the sociopolitical spectrum.
On the other hand, if I was qualified to run my own blog and had the time to do so (I’m not and I don’t), and there were people who had a problem with HOW I ran it, I’d still encourage them to participate as often as possible. Provided they paid an admission charge and a per comment fee. Those who didn’t have a problem with the basic rules would be able to comment for free.
The reader who requested it should at least participate! If those new forums are duds I’ll delete them, but I’ll give it a few weeks.
Obsidian what you have to learn about women is that they do not respond to abstract arguments about morals or justice, they are much more self-interested than men. What you have to explain to women is that many aspects of radical feminism are much more like a chain letter where the benefits fall disproportionately on the initial participants and subsequent participants receive a diminishing rate of return rather than this being representative of progress for women. Ask women sincerely if a nanny welfare state is likely to produce men that you would be interested in having a family with. Point out that student loan debt is caused in no small part because of disparate impact and identity politics.
Obsidian what you have to learn about HUS is that Susan is not interested in abstract arguments about morals or justice. She is writing a “how to” blog that is focused on strategy and designed to get people together today. Relationships are the primary focus, fixing the SMP is a secondary focus, and fixing America’s problems is not a focus at all.
. She is writing a “how to” blog that is focused on strategy and designed to get people together today. Relationships are the primary focus, fixing the SMP is a secondary focus, and fixing America’s problems is not a focus at all.
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This is a wise course of action Susan, however, I am just merely pointing out the fact that there are limits to how much we can get people together today because female sexual behavior is determined a lot more by sexual economics than anyone would seem to acknowledge.
@epoche
Oh, I’ll agree with that. Oddly, feminists are the ones who have screamed the loudest about this. They have accused me of being heartless and unromantic with my analyses of sexual behavior. I find that ironic since those same women champion sex without emotion.
Oh, I’ll agree with that. Oddly, feminists are the ones who have screamed the loudest about this. They have accused me of being heartless and unromantic with my analyses of sexual behavior. I find that ironic since those same women champion sex without emotion.
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I will give you a lot of credit for acknowledging these realities and having the humility for admitting there are limits to which even individuals can cope with these problems – the existing structure of human nature being what it is. In pointing out these limits I wasnt trying to disparage you or your website – I just wish there was a place where reasonably intelligent men and women could discuss solutions. Towards this end I am working on a pamplet entitled “The Personal Is Not The Political” A Patriarchal Manifesto.