Wake up ILP!

ILP has apparently been provoking thought since 2001.

14 years is a short time in terms of philosophy, but since 2001 there have been considerable advances in technology. Here are some features that I think should be built into ILP:

  • The ability to mention someone (e.g. @Carelus ) in a post, and for that to show up in a notifications box of some sort.

  • The ability to tag posts by topic, then to search and filter through different tags (‘consciousness’ etc)

  • Members should be able to have their own blogs as well as posting in the main forums. We should be able to subscribe to such blogs and then have new posts come up

  • A dashboard as a landing page which gives you an overview of what the most popular posts are across the forums

  • Her’s a thought - how about an appearance that reflects some of the digital design trends that have come about in the last 16 years?

…OK I’ll stop there. Obviously this site has been built using some sort of copy and paste forum builder and there’s no chance of anyone taking the time to build a completely bespoke site. However now its almost 2016 there must surely be some out of the box forums that have at least some of these features built into them? Can’t we modernise?

I think you would have to change the forum type.

Personally i like it simple and i hate front pages and sites designed to include mobile phone utility, it makes the whole thing clumpy, like how a room full of stuff is a cluttered one.

Invisionfree do a far more adaptable version, and you can get rid of the ads by purchasing the software. But the problem is that if you move you get lost.

“why cant ilp be more like facebook ugh”

You can’t wake up zombies; many participants here are brain dead and refuse philosophizing.

A potter can work out of clay, not out of sand. Maybe the mould will change in another 10 years. But who wants to wait for a new generation?

](*,)

Maybe.

But for thousands of years now folks have been exchanging philosophy without the need for any of these “technological” gadgets.

You make an argument. Someone reacts to it. An exchange unfolds. Hopefully more or less intelligent and more or less civil.

Alas, the folks who took that “simple” approach to it seem to have, one by one, moved on. Now ILP is what it is. For better or for worse. A point of view.

But the “problem” [for some of us] isn’t really “technical” at all.

I disagree. Sure, a few academic intellectuals have been doing so by way of published articles and books, but clearly that’s not what ILP is. ILP is an outlet for people who like to have deeper philosophical conversations, but who find themselves alone amongst their peers who want to discuss other things. It acts, therefore, as a kind of bespoke peer group where more philosophical discussions can be had. ILP was never going to be a place where philosophical discussions at the level of high academia were being held, because there is already a place for that (journals and books). ILP is a social network. Let’s not pretend otherwise. And in this, it’s a modern solution that wouldn’t have been possible 30 years ago.

The reason for the headbanging, though, because the comment was too stupid to respond to with words. I am suggesting specific things which might put a different abgle on the discussions that happen hear. Feel free to debate them individually, but just grouping them all together and saying ‘I don’t want those because they look like something on another website which I don’t like’ is plain silly.

The platform we are using affects the way we behave, from the categories of forums to the smilies we can use. It’s sensible to at least consider ways this can be improved upon.

You haven’t said why. I mean, you’re talking about a major upgrade: even assuming the programming expertise and software are available at no charge , the site would be down for several days and return with unforeseen glitches, bugs and incompatibilities that might crash it again… and again…
I’ve already survived Windows 8 once.

The present format is clean, easy to use, familiar; I can find everything I need; I even like the colour.
What would be the gain?

We can, we should. In theory, there is a plan to do so. It just takes time, and time is a scarce resource.

As of last week, I have a second server set up on which I’m planning to experiment with more modern software to see 1) if I can handle the move, and 2) if I can import ILP’s data in a mostly-usable format, and quickly enough that the site doesn’t have to be down for a week to make the transition.

Only some of your suggested changes are implemented out of the box (mentions, possibly tags, and modern design). The blogs are a feature I’d like to include, but they will come later (possibly much later).

As I said, though, time is a scarce resource. This is very much a seat-of-the-pants operation, I’m not a server admin, and while my google-fu is strong and I can eventually figure out how to do each step, that adds a lot of time to what might otherwise be simple operations. But I appreciate your suggestions, I am motivated by your complaint, and I acknowledge that it is long overdue.

Huzzah! Thanks for the response.

Don’t worry about the time. I’s not like I’m paying for the service or anything, I know where my rights to complain start and end! :smiley:

People should be able to opt out of being tagged and mentioned. Just a thought.