Unless I'm mistaken, Scriba, this 'crackdown on spam' as you call it, is referring to the business district and not the Streets. I haven't seen any abuse in the Streets, aside what you're alleging exists, where as in the Business District whole "menus" are just blockquoted, as if being examined, to score points/increase vision. That is spam. Irrelevant contribution made in that instance solely to score points with little to no effort. That's wrong and should be clamped down upon.

However, Batiatus' blockquoting refers to the actual messages the games produces when you do certain actions and it aids his story. The very reason they are in blockquotes is because they aren't his thoughts or something he is saying, so they are distinguished for ease of reading. Why is that a problem? To me, incorporating the 'clicking of buttons' into a story like he has done is actually very smart and impressive and should be encouraged to happen more. I don't know why you wouldn't want that in the streets or how you could construe it as spam. I also did not suggest it was a a journal, newspaper or poster; I was offering you other acceptable examples which do not comply with your interpretation. 

So, whilst I'm grateful that you've pasted the links to various threads already accessible by everyone; I don't feel any of them support your interpretation of 'role-play'. However, I do feel you're right that perhaps more could be done to educate people on posting than is already being done and that is something I will look into.

Scriba, when you and I discussed your concerns with my You Have Taken A Contract post last night in mobmail, I thought you were referring to something totally different than what you appear to be referencing here.

I had been collecting text from the various game mechanics and copy/pasting it in a back-alley thread for some time now, with the intent of incorporating it all into a story. I suppose it's not conventional role-play in that it wasn't intended to encourage others to participate in the story, as that generally isn't something that interests me. It was just something I felt like doing because I enjoy writing stuff like that, and hadn't written anything like it before. If your issue with it is that the game-text that I put in blockquotes indicates the OOC pushing of buttons, I feel I incorporated enough of my own character/personality into it as make it acceptable for the streets. The rest of it that was copy/pasted into blockquotes was done so deliberately, as that is how I wanted the piece to read and I thought using it would be entertaining. It's simply phrases and sentences that would be familiar to anyone that read it because they see them on a daily basis, that I created a scenario around.

Anyways, I can appreciate if the style and presentation it was written in is something you don't personally think is the right way to present a story in the streets, or doesn't fall into what would you consider to be conventional role-play, or isn't your cup of tea. I could even appreciate if somebody thought it just plain sucked, as anything that is done with the intent to entertain is subjective to the person taking the content in. But if your implication is that it's content was in any way spam, or shouldn't be allowed in the streets forum, then I disagree and stand by what I wrote, and how I wrote it.

I'd hate to see the street standards become so stringent and black-and-white that it impedes on people's creativity or presentation. I think things would get pretty stale. The type of roleplaying you are promoting isn't a style that particularly interests me, but does interest others, so perhaps we're just playing to different demographics.

Back to the original point of this announcement, I do like the aesthetics that blockquoting provides to a post, but can see why it needs to be addressed by the admins if it is being abused for points. If it were possible or relatively easy for the admins to implement (I would have no idea what kind of coding it would require, or if it was a lofty task or not), I agree with Kelly_Kapowski that there could possibly be a citation option to be used when quoting something or somebody. Blockquoting what people said previously can be helpful, and makes it easier for the reader to follow, when responding to something that somebody may have said earlier in the thread, especially if it's a  discussion thread that is accumulating a lot of responses.

Or, people could just quit reposting the damn menus in the business district.

In the meantime though, stay tuned for my next street thread, which will be comprised entirely of blockquoted witness statements and financial transactions copy/pasted from my personals.

:) I appreciate the discussion, and the differences in role-play styles and understanding. Batiatus our discussion also happened after I posted on this topic, and was definitely referencing something different which we already covered.

Having a second look at the post the only part that I wouldn't consider role-play is "Angelo_Hadland was spawned in Hollywood, Los Angeles." The rest is role-play itself, even though referencing in game mechanics.

Don't let my opinion take away from your effort and how good the post was, as I also said how much I liked it and to see you getting up in the streets again in the opening of our discussion.

I still hold to what I believe to be role-play, just as you guys will, yet your post Batiatus is sound imo and I apologize for taking this thread off course slightly.

Well to put it in an RP perspective then, perhaps good Batiatus "spawned" Angelo_Hadland by impregnating a woman of the same last name as Angelo's with his mighty seed one night in Hollywood, and was then asked by Barry to kill his illegitimate son many years later?

Anyway, I've taken things a bit off topic as well, so I'll exit stage left. And no offense taken, Scriba. Cheers.

To be fair I used blockquotes in the business district recently. I created the thread and used the blockquote for the menu. Should I lose marks for something I originally did? I don't think so.

However I do think that blockquoting in the streets and getting credit for it is ridiculous if it is not something you originally wrote. So I am going to have to agree that maybe having something like citation would be better. So if someone uses that then they aren't getting the credit for it.

Why not use the hyper-link function to highlight a direct quote?

That way it can be formatted however the writer deems fit but when someone cursors over it, the entire quote will underline/change colour, and the writer can credit the appropriate webpage/author (and everyone else can see the extent of the quotation with little effort, which may cut down on the copy/pasting if sheer, unadulterated laziness is forcably highlighted for all to see)?

The hyperlink function cant really be used for much other than adding visual aids to a story, so it's rarely used for more than a word or two (as far as I'm aware), so it wouldnt take much away from legitimate posts.

The only potential down-side I can think of is - I dont know if large strings of hyperlinked text would be detrimental to site/server speed?

When we see a copy and pasted list of 2,000 wines, a lengthy menu, or a very large chunk of the text above you, followed by a "I agree" - we never deep down know if you are spamming for points or if thats just what it happens to look like.

We are going to try to something new so we can make it intentions clearer.  If you are doing any text that you did not create yourself or fear it may give points you do not deserve, put it in a block quote.  Anything in a block quotes will now be ignored when evaluating texts. 

This is a block quote --^

Mid week should have the code battle tested and ready for release.

 

Cheers!

I have one thing to say!

I AGREE!!!!

Has this change been implemented?

I am unsure as Squishy did delete a business a short while ago for having a copied and pasted menu despite it being in block quotes