I requested Michael in The Shoutbox to ban me; he can do it whenever he wants from now on because it is "morally praiseworthy" to keep me away from my addictions and emotional instability, as the philosopher stated.

The result appears to be the same: justify yourself to drag others into the gutter.

So, If I ask you to help me kill myself twice, you will do it without winking, because I am an "adult".

This is surprising, coming from a "philosopher" like you.

That would be a bit weird wouldn't it? "Can I be banned for 45 days after which I will have calmed down and want to come back please?" — bert1

No, it is not weird. This is what the "suspended" status is intended for.

I don't understand what either you or javi2541997 are expecting of us. — Michael

I expected that you would have given him the opportunity to calm down and reflect about his words. Perhaps, he might have thought it twice, and the situation would be different.

Well, I know I have to carry on and leave it there. Banned members do not come back, so I guess my arguments are flat and worthless.

Yeah, "hard cheese, mate" blah, blah, blah.

You are rude, Michael.

He wasn't serious at all. He just felt confused and perhaps anxious, but you knocked him down without a shred of compassion.

-first of all, on the phone version of the website, you tap on the number of notifications you get in the side bar, across from "you", and it brings you to a list of responses people recently had to your content. However, getting back to that page, after you address the first response, is not so easy specifically on the phone browser. On the desktop version of the website, this is better and easier: you just click on "you" and go to "mentions" and then you can look at all your recent responses. — ProtagoranSocratist

I also experienced some struggle with using TPF on the phone. You are right that it is clearly easier to use it on the desktop version. I concluded that PlushForums are for PCs, not phones. However, I think the matter is actually a software owner's issue rather than Jamal's.

i did not see it pop up on the front page after i posted it, and i could not find my most recent added comment in my "comment" section on my profile.So i had to conclude that Jamal erased my comment, and then unfortunately I later found this wasn't the case... — ProtagoranSocratist

Perhaps, there was a bug when you posted it. Check your drafts, is still the comment there or at least part of it?

Bird on a fence by Dario Dzamonja.

The title of this book was translated by me. I couldn't find on the Internet the exact short story compilation by Dzamonja. However, there is a collection called "Letters from the Madhouse", and perhaps it includes the same short stories.

The Spanish edition is called "Pájaro en el alambre", which literally means "bird on a wire". However, in the Spanish context, the term "alambre" also refers to a fence. And, since the short stories are based on Yugoslavian wars, I thought that the translation and interpretation I did were more correct.

What can I say about Dario Dzamonja? Sorrowfully, he died young; aged 46 in 2001 after finishing the Yugoslavian wars. He left as a legacy several memorable manuscripts, and his friends collected them.

His own biographical note in the 2001 edition (Post-mortem) of Letters from the Madhouse simply said: "My name is Dario Džamonja. I was born in Sarajevo in 1955. I died in Sarajevo in 1993 when I left it. I died again in 1998 when I left America and my children. Now I'm trying to live again in Sarajevo from my writing."

Enjoy.

Indeed, it takes time to get around to reading them. The issue (though I hesitate to call it an "issue") arises when you discover a new style of literature that deeply captivates you. I planned to read many Russian writers this year, and the result has been good but far away from what I expected. I discovered authors from Eastern European countries whose books captivated me to the point of becoming very fond of them.

Yes, and I want to keep it in a category which is not hidden from the main page. — Jamal

Wonderful! What a great idea! :up:

@Jamal

Perhaps this question may be obvious – will the "Currently Reading" thread also be part of the new TPF version on Discourse.org?

It helps me a lot to remember what I read during the year. Furthermore, thanks for your comments and recommendations; I discovered good and intriguing authors.

:wink:

@T Clark

Hey Clarky, I come with a 1950s American film recommendation this time. Perhaps you have already watched it or heard of this film.

It is called Edge of the City. It was directed in 1957, starring John Cassavetes and Sidney Poitier.

I really love black-and-white films. This was very good.

I searched more info on Google and it says that In 2023, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant."

Does this count as a classic?

I think yes! :grin:

In other words, if we do our best to be above board, we'll be fine in the UK. — Hanover

:up: :up:
.

Rather than an argument against forming a UK company, this seems to be an argument against existing at all. — Jamal

:up: :up:

A UK limited company is very simple. In contrast, a non-profit or charitable incorporated organisation (CIO) or similar would mean a lot of bureaucracy, at least in the UK. — Jamal

As it has to be. You clearly stated that you want to set up the new version of TPF according to a legal framework. This limited company will be run in the UK, according to British law. I don't see any problem with this. Wondering whether someone would sue me or not for "consumer, financial or legitimate damages" is a bit twisted.

I think some folks are obsessed with the stateless oasis they wish to live in...You do very well to start the company in British territory since you are a UK citizen. It is logical and understandable. It gives me confidence. Setting it up in a tax haven like the Netherlands or Belice would be odder, I think.

UK is restricting free speech pretty severely and those existing and any new restrictions will automatically apply to the forum. — boethius

However, if there's commitment to that, then 100% the only reasonable implementation is that Benkei takes care of the administration aspects. Small errors in paperwork can lead to audits and fines and endless bureaucracy. Just filing the taxes properly will likely cost more than this 100 Euros a month. — boethius

Oh no!!!! @Benkei stop being missing and help him, please!!!

It is a life or death risk.

He was banned — probably for low post quality — but then he created a new account, so we banned him again, but then he created a new account, so we banned him again, ... — Michael

Marco expressed a lot of affection for TPF, but you repeatedly banned him and treated him as a twat. :sad:

The Festival of Insignificance by Milan Kundera.

Seriously, I think we gave banned members a second chance when we moved in 2015, and one or two members were reincarnated. — Jamal

Interesting! @Agent Smith and @karl stone may have a second chance. :smile:

Will all the previously banned members get a second chance? Lol — Mikie

I too was thinking of this yesterday. I wonder whether they would dare to sign up on the new platform.

They must be aware that TPF moved to new software to do it, though.

It was the only place anywhere where Tegmark responded directly to me. Yes, he briefly utilized an account on PF. — noAxioms

I understand how you feel. Forums are very important places in our modern era. We meet wonderful here, and we spend a lot of hours. Thanks to different tools, which I can't explain because I am not very expert, our presence here is recorded and kept in a digital book. We go to the past chapters where we interacted with friends, and we experience a sweet feeling of nostalgia.

I completely understand that each of us feared seeing everything fading away. Fortunately, this will not be the case thanks to Jamal's effort and compromise. Otherwise, if we don't keep all TPF's data in an archive, it might mean that we have never been here—when the countless experiences and conversations we all had here are amazing!

Now that I am thinking of this... The TPF archive will be like our Antikythera mechanism.

(you can get them all in a single file in the download). — Jamal

Yes, yes. I also saw it--very nice!

Wow! This is fascinating. I typed my username, and every post since I joined here it is perfectly ordered from the newest to the oldest. I can follow my TPF track very easily!

It was written in 1977, but it is very worth reading nowadays:

Toward a Creative and Original Spain.

Everything is changing, rapidly and rather smoothly; almost everything has already changed; but there has been no discontinuity or power vacuum or revolution or anarchy.

The Franco years seem incredibly distant; almost everything that seemed impossible has already taken place.

Is this not a political miracle? Has Spain changed that much? Or were the ideas one held about her mistaken? What has happened since November 1975? I would say just one thing: There has been a beginning of a respect for reality. — Julián Marías.

Even if they're on old-fashioned software I think we should celebrate the continuing existence of independent discussion forums. Not everyone wants to discuss everything on Reddit. — Jamal

Absolutely--I dislike Reddit, by the way.

To be fair—and because I'm reflexively argumentative—dull isn't necessarily bad for a forum, What matters more to me is how smoothly everything works — Jamal

I now understand why phpBB is the main software used for the forums in my country. :razz:

Incidentally, I tried NodeBB for a couple of weeks and XenForo for a couple of days, and some other more Enterprisey things like circle.so . I was almost ready to go with NodeBB but then I tried Discourse again and the experience was substantially better than NodeBB. — Jamal

Opera browser has a forum and it is set up on NodeBB. I had a look at it because I wanted to solve some doubts. I'm glad you chose Discourse because NodeBB is a bit plain dull.

Fear not. I will pretty much be with you till death do us part. Or, until something else happens, — BC

I didn't expect otherwise, dear friend. We are going to talk a lot about Spain's mussels in the next home/chapter of TPF. I promise!

I expect you in the new home of TPF with no excuses. Don't leave me (us), BC.

Yep, no paging, either in chat or in regular discussions. But there are other ways of navigating within a discussion, and you can easily search within it too (for chat as well): — Jamal

Cool! :cool:

Here are some screenshots of the Shoutbox, one expanded and one floating in the bottom right corner. — Jamal

OK – it will have a different aspect, but I do not see any problem at all. It seems we will be able to interact as we used to do, and the dark mode is very refreshing. The current light mode strains my eyes when I use it at night.

Perhaps—another different feature I am thinking of—each thread would not be ordered with pages, as in PlushForums, but just a single page where all the comments and replies are posted. Then, if I wanted to reread a response from you, I would have to scroll until I found it; not go to page 261 as we do here.

As you can see, it's pretty lonely there at the moment. — Jamal

There are three Jamals. That's enough. :grin:

The Shoutbox used to be live chat and we had to make it a regular discussion thread when we moved to Plush only because Plush has no live chat feature. — Jamal

et @Outlander

It is a great discovery to know how the shoutbox was born. :up:

I think it is one of the most relevant threads, and that most of us are fond of it because this is where we grow our online friendship. I understand Outlander's concerns, but we have to trust Jamal, and if he states that the shoutbox will still be the same but with a live chat function, then that is what will truly happen. However, if for different reasons, we are not satisfied, we can always ask Jamal to set it up in a different manner until it fits our preferences. I think we will have to be patient. The first months will be about getting used to the new platform. Yet it is very important to admit that some things will indeed be different because we are moving from PlushForums to another software. Like when we move to another neighbourhood.

Keep in mind one important thing—we are actually the ones who make the things. Whether the next version of the shoutbox is funny and entertaining is dependent on us, nothing else.

Metempsychosis? — Banno

Yeah.

True. You were also in the old PF, so the transmigration is not something new to you, Banno. :wink:

Incidentally, aside from the number of posts we will have other things like badges, trust levels, and upvotes, though I'm not sure how we'll use them yet. — Jamal

Interesting!

I wonder what some folk are going to think about having their post count reset to 0 — Outlander

If I am not mistaken, I believe Discourse doesn't count the contribution of each member with the post number. However, everything will depend on how it is set up, I guess.

For legal compliance and technical reasons, we will not be migrating the content from this site (the current one). Instead, we will start fresh, and the current site will become a permanent, read-only archive, which I will host myself. — Jamal

Understood. I appreciate that you will keep the site as a read-only archive. There are many memories here, and it would be a pity to lose them forever.

We will be using Discourse — Jamal

I guess we have to wait until you set up the new TPF to create our profiles in this new software, right?

This upgrade represents a substantial investment in the forum's future. Running costs will be $100/month for Discourse hosting, in addition to the costs of setting up and running a company. Because of this, we'll need more subscribers to keep things going. — Jamal

I'm in. I hereby agree to the costs, investment and other features to keep things going.

Stay tuned for further updates. — Jamal

:up:

Greek Rebetiko.