As I mentioned in a pair of previous articles, I’m beginning a slight cleanup of Xadara. By slight, I mean probably 50 articles being deleted, and a shift to the general structure of the site. Of course, this is all for the better.
Regarding articles, I want to clear up some of the more negative content from the site. While they fit with my love of space and rocketry, they don’t fit with the nature of the site itself, which is to talk about what like (with a few exceptions of social commentary and more critical study of such.)
As I mention in the above articles, they will be migrated to the sub-blog hostile space, a very fitting name for what the section will be. This keeps the thoughts there for people to read, for whatever it’s worth, but simultaneously keeps such hidden just enough so that it won’t ruin the flow of the primary site.
Following that, I’m also planning on a chance to commenting on the site. I don’t get many comments as is, but they do happen. I’m considering just eliminating comments all together, but I’m equally conflicted between that and another idea – opening them up to everyone.
Comments have always been a registration based thing on Xadara. I feel now though that while such has generally been good at eliminating trolls, it equally might keep random people from wanting to comment, which may be why my comment rates are low. That, or no one has anything to say, which is fine, I guess, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t simply a case of people not wanting to bother.
Considering I’m switching to focus more on what I like, opening up comments might well bring out more positive replies than anything else, which would be great – conversations can be pretty awesome sometimes when the people involved all really like something. While I also can take criticism fine, it does have to be formatted as such, and many people think outright trolling based on something you don’t like or see an error in is criticism. It’s not, and I do my best to mitigate such. comments being on approval only, however, will pretty much solve that.
IP based bans from the server are also a plus, and yes, I’ve done that before to people with pretty interesting results.
Of course, again, that’s if I want to do such, but whatever case, there is a need for change. A major need for change. Thankfully, I seem to be back into the swing of things on a whole, which is great!
Now, if only I could get forums installed again…. >_>