Lets talk about Lucas

[DraconianOne]

That's douchebag territory and I hope I fell in the sarchasm.

Yes, yes you did. 


I should probably have put in green, right?

[Oban]

No, everyone here is able to read sarcastic comments and not take them as personal affronts.

[Selby]

Breaking up via fax or email? That's douchebag territory and I hope I fell in the sarchasm.

Funny.  I broke up with my first girlfriend via ICQ (no green there).  I admit it was a complete douchebag thing to do, but I was 18 at the time and didn't know any better (shit, that was over 8 years ago now).  She was psycho though, if I didn't respond to ICQ within 30 seconds she was calling me asking why I wasn't reading her messages.  I didn't exactly feel bad, and now that I'm reminiscing on that, I still don't.  She called me and screamed and yelled at me right aftwards and wanted to know why.  Then she said "yeah, you've got issues so let's break up."  I didn't even feel like arguing, I was just glad she was gone.

Hah, I've still got the logs.  Talk about a timewarp.  April 12th, 1999 3:43PM: "we need to talk."  I'd forgotten all about that.

[Ironwood]

You've still got logs and she's the psycho ?

Ok.

[NowhereMan]

Well I'm firmly stuck in the generation that got mobile phones and text messages. That said I refused to use texts much till University and I still object to shitty txt spk. However as people have said it's brilliant for getting a quick reply, if you want to meet someone send them a text with a time and a place and all they need to do it send back yes. This generally works out quicker and cheaper than calling someone, unless you make the mistake of asking them to meet up and 7 or 8 messages later you've finally figures out where to go.

Also asking people out or breaking up with them by text is classless, friend of mine broke up with his girlfriend by text and I felt fucking offended on her behalf (nice girl, not a psycho).

[Megrim]

So did you message her and offer your condolences?

[Der Helm]

It's a tough situation. In a perfect world, we could find funding to build a seperate teen area for them to hang out in without disturbing everyone else.

Maybe limit online time when the place is crowded ? 30 minutes per user or whatever ?

[Selby]

You've still got logs and she's the psycho ?

Exactly.  I still admit it was a shitty thing to do and just the fact that my ICQ history goes back to 1998 and I have her in it is just bordering slightly on the "odd" side of things.  It's interesting to see how much people change over the years though.

[Murgos]

I've had the same mIRC install for 8 or more years now.  I'm sure I turned logging on at some point.  I should probably go look to see what's accumulated in there.

Nah, I'll give it another couple of years to percolate.

[Sky]

Maybe limit online time when the place is crowded ? 30 minutes per user or whatever ?

We do have a policy that people can use the computers for 30 minutes, but there are some loopholes that were officially put in so we're not kicking people doing serious research off unless there's a ton of demand...and there's a ton of demand...for myspace. It sucks to boot someone doing genealogy so homey can hook up wit da bitches. Or someone writing a term paper so someone can play yahoo games. We're getting the reputation of being a place you can't get much work done, because of the people using myspace, mostly, and it's only really gotten bad in the last couple years since it became cool to do myspace. Now we long for the days when kids playing runescape were the policy abusers, because at least they would use other library resources.

No matter what policy we've instituted, people will work around and find a way to abuse it. Working with the public often sucks, especially when it comes to free internet access. Being fair means the people willing to be abusive and selfish win, generally.

[cmlancas]

Sky, why doesn't the library allocate six computers or so (my hometown public library has this) for research/wordprocessing tools? The library I frequented as a kid would lock you out if you decided to hop onto games.yahoo.whatev or whatever was the rage at the time. People who had actual work to do would go to the front desk and ask to either sit at one or get on a waiting list to use a dedicated computer.

Just a thought.

[Sky]

We can't police research. Folks need Internet access for research. I guess we could throw the myspace block on that, but again, we do not wish to get into the business of policing what our patrons access (because of the ease of a proxy bypass). It's a very thorny issue and nobody is comfortable with anything on it. Restricting myspace would make the library a better place overall (except to the teenagers who exclusively use the internet for that), but it goes against everything we fight for here (free (as in speech AND beer) and confidential access to information).

[cmlancas]

I must not be being clear. When I was around twelve or thirteen, I would routinely go to the public library to do a research paper. There was a room in the back where if you presented to the person at the desk that you were coming in to try and work on a paper/research/whatever, he/she would let me into the room and I could work peacefully. Granted there were around four to six computers, but it was better than having to be out next to the people who were playing distracting games and whatnot.

I just don't see that as policing what people are doing. I'm very much all about the "I may not agree with what you say but I'll defend your right to say it" stance, but as you have said, there are always people looking to abuse the rules.

[Murgos]

Librarians in the US have a long history of vigorously defending privacy.  To the point that they have won several decisions all the way up to the supreme court.  They have some pretty good arguments for why it's an all or nothing endeavor.

[Sky]

Yes. Even if we make our lab research only, and filter internet access, there are easily-available circumventions that would render our efforts useless. And we really won't filter our internet access anyway, as it goes against our mission statement.

[Yegolev]

I still admit it was a shitty thing to do and just the fact that my ICQ history goes back to 1998 and I have her in it is just bordering slightly on the "odd" side of things.

What I find odd is that your computer has been operating since then.  Then again, I think I have some pictures and whatnot on some dusty hard disk that's hanging off of my rig, but I don't really ever get rid of hard drives I just add more.

[Merusk]

Yes. Even if we make our lab research only, and filter internet access, there are easily-available circumventions that would render our efforts useless. And we really won't filter our internet access anyway, as it goes against our mission statement.

See.. but the way I'm reading the situation is you're fucking you mission statement as it is.  The folks doing the research are the ones who donate to libraries in the first place.  They decide they can't do research at yours, then they'll stop donating. You won't filter for the government grants, so you start to run into cashflow problems and the library closes or -worse yet for a library- can't buy new material. Game over, mission statement is now meaningless.

But then I also say: Full? Empty? What kind of an idiot drinks out of a glass containing some unknown liquid they just happened to come across.

[schild]

No one has answered my question in the second post.

[Chimpy]

No one has answered my question in the second post.

I think they did by way of talking about everything BUT lucas in the last 3 pages.

[Ironwood]

No one has answered my question in the second post.

If you forget history, you're doomed to repeat it.

[cmlancas]

No one has answered my question in the second post.

The answer to your question why? is most certainly 42.
This is significant because well, George Lucas is in direct conflict with everything in the known universe. In fact, Lucas causes so many contradictions in his movies that he is one of the most widely feared serial killers because of the resulting explosions from his contradictions.

Happy now?