New boards & changes for 2017 Season

[trilobyte]

I'm pleased to announce the 2017 boards, along with a few other minor changes and tweaks. Let me take a couple minutes to walk you through what's new and different.

First and foremost are the 2017 Event boards. There aren't any changes from the 2016 structure, so it's the same as before except specific to Burning Man 2017.

Other board changes & additions...

• Lost & Found - we've simplified these into a single board for Lost On-Playa and Found On-Playa. We think this will help streamline the process of finding your lost stuff, or returning the stuff you found to its owners.
• Building & Making Art - the 'Building Art Installations' board has been renamed and expanded to include art of all sizes, from the most beautiful and ornate jewelry to large scale installations.
• Bikes & Transportation - Bikes, trikes, personal mobility and getting to/from the event - this is the place to discuss general transportation issues.
• Power & Electronics - this board used to be 'Power & Illumination' but has been expanded in scope. Sound gear, arduino projects and other cool stuff now fits in here.
• Articles - Share and discuss articles and blog posts about Burning Man and the culture of Burning Man.
• Off-Playa Meetups - we've renamed the 'Connect With Burners' board to make it less vague and confusing.
• Get Involved Year-Round - this board is being renamed, and changing its focus to things happening year-round in the world. For getting involved in projects on the playa, check the 2017 event boards.
• On-Playa Project Fundraisers - we've renamed the 'Support A Project' board to make it less vague and confusing.
• Burner Businesses - we've renamed the 'Burnerpreneurs' board to make it less vague and confusing.

Additionally, we've changed the amount of time you have to edit your own posts from 30 minutes to 3 hours. This should still guard against bad actors who try to change what they said after-the-fact for malicious purposes, but will give you a little more time to correct typos or add something you may have forgotten.

The mod team and I will be looking for threads and posts that need to move to one of the new boards, but if you should see something that looks out of place please flag it for review! You can do that easily by clicking on the icon with an exclamation point in it. That puts it on our radar, so we can review it and make sure it gets to the right spot. We do what we can, but with 1.04 million posts there's a whole lot to cover!

Thanks, and we hope you're as excited about 2017 as we are!

[Elliot]

Thank you!... for all that you do, Trilo!

[ygmir]

Thank you!... for all that you do, Trilo!

seconded.

[Skuzzy61]

Ditto that!

[Skuzzy61]

Was not able to edit my post.

Thank you!... for all that you do, Trilo!

Ditto that.

[Ratty]

Thank you. All great changes.

[Aurelia]

Thank you for trying to help me remain relevant in our world of burners everywhere

[ZigZag]

When I found eplaya at the beginning of this year, I found a gold mine that then then-virgin really needed. The gold was not just the amazing wealth of information, it was the wisdom, friendship, and humor of everyone here.

I lost my virginity this year in what I consider a successful burn, I got to actually meet several of you, and I give so much credit to those here that showed me what being a burner is about. Thank you to all the mods and everyone else for making this place happen.

I'm still working on how to be snarky which is a weak area of mine but its nice to know that I will get plenty of practice here until we meet again on the playa!

[BoyScoutGirl]

Trilo and mods, thank you for all that you do. What ZigZag said is true of so many of us:

When I found eplaya at the beginning of this year, I found a gold mine that then then-virgin really needed. The gold was not just the amazing wealth of information, it was the wisdom, friendship, and humor of everyone here.

Be sure to stick around, ZigZag! In no time, you'll be the one helping newbies out, especially with your (relatively) fresh memory of the first time experience.

[Elliot]

Drifting gently toward philosophy....
Is the level of snark about right? Or is it a bit too high? Might we be losing new members to excessive or premature snark?
Yes, I know about the "Page 2" thread. I rarely manage to connect those comments to their source, but it is a good outlet for The Snark Instinct among the old hands.
Still... are we generally treating the new folks right? I remember one very obnoxious e-Playan (no longer active) almost driving me away ten years ago.

[June Cleaver]

Drifting gently toward philosophy....
Is the level of snark about right? Or is it a bit too high? Might we be losing new members to excessive or premature snark?
Yes, I know about the "Page 2" thread. I rarely manage to connect those comments to their source, but it is a good outlet for The Snark Instinct among the old hands.
Still... are we generally treating the new folks right? I remember one very obnoxious e-Playan (no longer active) almost driving me away ten years ago.

I read plenty of snark and it made me laugh alot. Naturally being a first year burner I was intimidated. That was a good thing because it caused me to learn. Had a fantastic year planning and attending. Love ePlaya it's a great source of info and friendship.

[Aurelia]

It was lovely meeting you June Cleaver !
You know and I know burners do wood burners do
Snark , ?

[trilobyte]

I don't know if there's a general purpose snark-o-meter per se, but I can say that there are a couple different kinds of snark.

If you could call it that, "good snark" is sarcastic and funny, while still being good natured... and as is often the case with burners, pretty helpful. An example would be a reply to someone's post telling them that they're doing it wrong, and then immediately following that up with alternative ideas or pointers on how the original poster could do it right (or at least better).

On the other hand, the stuff that would constitute "bad snark" is just plain mean-spirited. It's replying with an insult or something that borders on an attack, intended solely for the purpose of belittling the person or making them feel bad. It makes newcomers to either the event or the site (some of whom have been participating in Burning Man for years) feel unwelcome, and gives the whole ePlaya community a bad name.

Overall, I think ePlaya has been greatly improved over years past. The page 2 thread (whose days are at this point numbered) has been problematic, because at its heart it's just plain mean-spirited. Saying really mean things behind someone's back doesn't mean that you're not saying mean things, it means you're banking on the person you're talking about not finding out.

I think that these days, a lot of the mean-spirited stuff we see comes from people who've been around a bit that get frustrated or exasperated at seeing people asking the same questions over and over. It's not the new person's fault (we're all new at least once), but it's certainly understandable to get tired of writing or rehashing the same answers or linking to the same places. We want to help make it easier for the new people to figure things out on their own (that's where some of the tweaks to the board names and descriptions comes in), and encourage them to be more radically self reliant, and on the other side we want to encourage veterans to have patience, take deep breaths, or in some cases just don't look at (or opt out of) the sections that annoy them the most.

I'm glad that whoever it was didn't drive you away, you're a great guy and wonderful addition to the community. Being a new person either here or anywhere can be a bit intimidating, I'm glad that more new folks seem to be sticking around and taking that leap to make the first post (and many thanks to those welcoming and encouraging folks who welcome them).

[Traveller in Time]

Thanks for your (team of colored name people) support.
Keep feeling fascination (by human league) is part of the drive for me.