This is a cautionary tale which shows how good intentions can be subverted by net nannies.

The story begins with a Usenet newsgroup that was being overrun by trolls. A couple of people volunteered to set up a moderated version of the group and I was one of the people who promised to do a bit of moderating. For those of you unfamiliar with this, all it means is that posts to the newsgroup have to be approved by someone trusted before it appears in public. In this way the off-topic and obnoxiously provocative posters are denied an opportunity to make a nuisance of themselves; leaving the rest of us to discuss matters and ask questions without being abused, shouted at and interrupted by obnoxious people who’s only enjoyment in life seems to be being a pain in the arse for others.

Anyone can set up a newsgroup in the usenet hierarchy provided they say what the subject discussion should be focussed on and other ground rules.1 Typically a self-appointed group cobble together some fine words that attempts to be a watertight definition of what is and isn’t allowed. This is called a charter.

Lesson one was that even though the hoards were at the gates there was still room for an enormous amount of dispute over the exact form of words. The basics were understood but then somebody would point out a potential loophole or disagreed with a particular nuance of a particular word. Strewth! Why don’t you guys (and they were all men) just get on with it. I was paxed.2 Whatever happened to “the ends justify the means”.

There was now a hiatus as the rusty and decayed Usenet machinery creaked into action. This was beyond our control. The moderation software turned out to be buggy and not very well presented. I could fix some of those things so I found out how to do it and passed on my detailed suggested fixes to the bods in charge of the engine room. It turned out that the bod I passed this on to was using a text-based web browser – something that is completely inappropriate to modern use of the web by 99.9999% of the rest of us. So that didn’t get too far – A bit like taking your car to a blacksmith to get it serviced. On the other hand when we started running the system for real we were able to adapt various aspects quickly.The open source software paradigm is brilliant in that it allows fast fixes and multiple strands of development.

Lesson two was that although the Internet is pretty good at evolving, improving and adapting, sometimes this is at the price of bumbling amateurism.

At last we had a live working newsgroup and the fun really started. At the charter definition stage people had been suggesting all sorts of scenarios so they were well fired-up to pounce on malefactors. Once again there has been a huge amount of missing the point going on. The object is to keep out the mischief makers not to sanitize and suffocate debate. What amazes me is that some moderators are so sure of their right to reject posts on trivial grounds yet show the greatest nervousness when there might be the very slightest whiff of impropriety on their behalf. One post was rejected on the grounds of misuse of punctuation and I’ve researched this poster on Google and they are provocative! Really that’s true and was meant seriously.

Lesson three is that there are some people that shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near a censorship role as they have a passion for the job that exceeds their discriminatory abilities many times over.

Lesson four is that just because people appear to be ‘good eggs’ doesn’t mean they can be trusted to exercise judgement.

I wonder if there is some personality test that could be applied here to get the right combination of abilities to see the wood for the trees?

1. And they have to show some level of support.
2. See blog entry for 16 Oct 2009.

Bad news A lot of free software is rubbish. Many paid-for programs are rubbish as well. Loads of it is pre-loaded by manufacturers 1 and starts of its own accord serving to clutter up your system, use resources, open up security holes and many worse things. The next post in this series will cover how to slim your system

Good news You can do just about everything for free. Paying for programs should be an absolute last resort. Read more

Basic usability that has stood the test of time

One of the first Delphi programs I wrote way back in 1996 was a general purpose menu that didn’t close when you’d picked an item. Some people would call this a program launcher but because it was always available I used mine for a lot more. Every computer I’ve had since has used this as my main start point.

Looking at the screen shots below you’ll see the basic tree structure … but then it gets a bit fancy. As just described clicking on a heading opens or closes it: Very simple and obvious. Now programs or documents can be dragged from say Windows explorer onto the heading for permanency or run with a double click. Then it gets interesting…

Screenshot

• Coloured shapes are used for immediate recognition. This is used all day every day so they become familiar landmarks – even if they are abstract.
• Special blobs are used for special purposes
  • Keyhole password protected and encrypted tree. Under this heading are my passwords etc.
  • Spark is a URL
  • Hand is a local directory
  • Play button is a timer. I work freelance and charge by the minute so this is essential
  • Bell Alarm Not shown
• Various textures are available to relieve the monotony of looking at the same thing month after month. Just for the sake of it I implemented a transparent window. (In the illustration the parrots are the wallpaper.) Coupled with this is the 3-d effects of different border shading.
• If the menu is 90% overlaid by other windows it appears on the taskbar for convenience of getting it back.

So not only does the Sticky menu have cool features but it is one of those tools that is indispensable once you’ve tried it. So if it is so brilliant, why doesn’t everyone use it? Because most people will put up with an awful user experience because they don’t know any better.

Nowadays when a lot more is done on the web there’s a related issue. I collect bookmarks all the time but find difficulty organising them. I suspect that what a lot of people would like is a home page that can be edited with ‘bookmarks’ on the fly. As it is I have to jump into my editor hack some HTML then test. OK for me but beyond the ordinary person.

1. Ask if you’d like to try it out. It only works on Windows and because it has grown from small beginnings when I was first getting to grips with Delphi it isn’t really designed for general release. On the other hand if you think it might be worth rewriting from scratch in whatever system you like then that sounds like a good idea to me.

Firefox only : See here for installing

Normally you can use the excellent Adblock plus to get rid of adverts but two days ago two sites I use The inquirer and New Scientist started putting an advert page before their real content. This meant you had to click on another link to get through.

So I’ve written a tiny Greasemonkey1 script you can use to automatically click you straight through to the actual content.

I expect Adblock Plus will soon be updated to include this functionality in which case I’ll remove this script. Also, if you find the script would be useful but can’t get involved with Greasemonkey (not really a pain) then I may turn it into a proper add-on.

1. Greasemonkey is an add-on for Firefox that allows you to hack web pages inside your browser. For example to discover where a ‘click here’ link goes and ‘click’ it automatically which is exactly what this script does. Get it here

There’s a new version of my Firefox add-on that makes the BBC radio schedules readable. On the 1st October the BBC changed their format to add in even more confusion. This broke some of the functionality in my adapter.

To upgrade you have to uninstall the add-in via the tools menu, then reinstall from here. It takes longer to describe than do.

Is your computer little more than an electronic heap of documents? has anyone ever shown you how to organise your files properly? This article explains essential file system organisation and how to make it happen.

The basic theory is simple you have four different types of file on the computer

Programs – Archive – Current – Temporary

Read more

A lot of the power of the internet comes from using a web browser. The trouble is that the content providers have their own agenda and want to direct you to their own sites, skip over important but profitable opt-outs, serve endless advertisements and capture all your private information for more marketing. What this post is all about is using a browser to do what you want to do with it.

There are two sections here: Firstly getting rid of the avalanche of clutter that obstructs your daily browse. Secondly getting new tools to make what you want to do a lot easier.

Read more

Digital photography is wonderful. Once you’ve found out how to copy from your camera to your computer there are a few more basic skills you should learn.

Read more

In this part we’ll just look at the main tool you use for manipulating your files and a couple of things about naming conventions. (File management – how to organise a filing system will be dealt with in a following part.)

A lot of people labouriously plod through my computer to eventually find the directory they want. Read more

Email is one of those things that many people find they need but find it a lot of hassle for the occasionally useful message. We’ll proceed on the basis that it is a necessary evil which can be kept in check with some simple good habits. Learn to love it.
Read more