Friday Q&A

Questionable Observation

Greetings, crickets and trolls. Welcome back to another edition of the Friday Q&A. I'm glad you chose to join me again. Each week, I cover the issues that matter to our community. To follow up from last week's column, my contacts at the CIA have informed me that Al Quaeda will not be selecting TSZ has their leader. The terrorist network apparently wants someone with a bit of charisma on the Arab street. Also, speaking Arabic, or whatever language is commonly used amongst poppy farmers, would most likely be a prerequisite. Better luck next time, old friend.

Q: How is Fark's redesign coming along?

A: It would seem that each day catapults us further into an increasingly uncertain future. Well, actually not, but sensationalism is a passion of mine. In my opinion, sensationalizing fairly innocuous events is the best thing anyone can possibly do, in the history of the universe. In reality, I've been generally impressed with the quality of the new features being introduced. Probably the most important so far has been the addition of one-click voting. No more selecting a pack of entries and scrolling all the way to the vote box.

Q: How will this effect voting outcomes?

A: It's too soon to tell, but I would wager we will see an at least slightly higher turnout. There's no denying that this new feature is convenient. When you improve the convenience of something like voting, more users inevitably take advantage of it. One problem that I have noticed, though, is that no vote boxes appear at all if the user isn't signed in. This could confuse some idiots into thinking that the thread is not vote enabled. But anyone with an IQ that low probably would probably just vote for the Beer Looter and call it a day. No big loss.

Q: Have there been any unintended consequences?

A: It appears the Fark Photoshop Leaderboard will be offline until further notice, due to Fark's recent instability. Once the redesign is completed and all bugs have been worked out, Hobosong still faces a the arduous task of fixing everything manually. You can find more info about this situation in a post made by i-dig in last week's comment section.

That's all for this time, gentle reader. Thanks again for stopping by. Even though the Leaderboard is currently out of service, Fark's own Contest Browser remains fully operational. Let's hope the finishing touches of the new Fark design are implemented soon, so that the FPCL can be repaired.

Stay tuned for more occasional optimism from the Doctor!

Friday Q&A

Questionable Promotion

Greetings, crickets and trolls. Welcome back to another edition of the Friday Q&A. As you're no doubt aware, Osama Bin Laden is still dead. That's good news for the world at large, but not so good for the Photoshop community, who lost a brilliant star in the pantheon of mockable political/religious fanatics. That's why I'll be doing the jihadists a favor this week, by running down the list of potential replacements.

Q: Who is the top choice to replace Bin Laden?

A: The 24 hour news channels are dead-set on it being some foreigner with an unpronounceable name. I'm sure that would be great for ratings, but I'm tired of hearing a bunch of foreign garbage on the CNN. Let's give the next terrorist leader a name that's easy to say, like Billy or Steve. Preferably the latter, I've yet to meet a guy named Steve who wasn't a massive fuckcunt.

Q: Does the new leader have to be a terrorist?

A: Terror groups always seem to promote from within. That makes it very hard for newcomers to break into the terrorism business. I'm proposing they try something new this time. Why not pick one of the many unsavory characters found on the Internet as the new boss? I would like to formally nominate my old pal and nemesis for life, TheSniperZERO.

Q: Why would TheSniperZERO make a good replacement for Bin Laden?

A: Well for starters, TSZ has experience running a blog. So we know he's a twisted, sadistic freak. A barely-human shell of a man. He would have no trouble convincing people to strap explosives to themselves. Hell, I'm sure they'd willingly do this just to end their conversation with him a little more quickly.

That's all for this time, gentle reader. Thanks again for stopping by. Please do me a favor and pass this blog posting along to the highest echelon of Al Queada leadership. You may have to translate it into whatever backward language they use to communicate. Your country, and the entire semi-free world, are depending on you.

Stay tuned for more undue pressure from the Doctor!

Friday Q&A

Questionable Capitulation

Greetings, crickets and trolls. Welcome to another edition of the Friday Q&A. In this long-running regular feature, I take a look at issues facing Farks' Photoshop community. It's been a little over a week since Drew and friends debuted their new site design, and things seem to be coming together nicely.

Q: Have all of the users' concerns been addressed?

A: Maybe not all of them, but the most important one has. You may recall that the new site didn't give users an option to view the list of recently rejected and approved contests. This list was a vital tool in the submission process that fills our Photoshop queue each week.

Q: Why do we need to see a bunch of rejected crap?

A: The average contest submitter will release bursts of images or themes into the queue. It's tough to get even one of them through, so the majority of us spray and pray. My method is to release a bunch of stuff that sucks to accentuate the one good idea I usually have.

Q: Why is it important to have this feature back?

A: It's more symbolic to me than anything. True, the rejected contest queue is an important tool, but I'm more enthused that Drew and company are actually listening to my obscure blog. Or at least, the dozens of people who complained. Either way, thanks to them for taking the initiative to get things right.

That's all for this time, gentle reader. Thanks again for stopping by. If you discover any more glaring omissions in the new design, be sure to let Drew know. It's refreshing to see a website that actually cares if it gets the redesign right. Even if the meme of cold indifference on the part of Fark's management made for better blogging.

Stay tuned for more reluctant positivity from the Doctor!

Friday Q&A

Questionable Reorganization

Greetings, crickets and trolls. Welcome to another edition of the Friday Q&A. In this weekly feature, I examine the strange world of Fark Photoshop contests. This is a landmark week for our favorite news aggregate, as a brand new design went live Jun 1st. Users have actually had the option to start using this new design for a while now. I've completely avoided all the discussion threads so that I may offer what I feel to be an unbiased opinion on the changes.

Q: How much do you hate the new design?

A: You might be surprised to learn that I don't hate the new Fark at all. In fact, I like it a lot. The text just seems easier to read. I actually hated the old design, Fark 2.0. Fark 3.0 is a much better visual update. Management's approach to this change has been vastly different compared with the disastrous debut of 2.0. I did avoid the discussion threads this time, so there may have been a staff member trolling the users and I just missed it.

Q: What sucks about the new design?

A: There are only a couple issues that I can see. First of all, we seem to have lost the list of recently green/red Photoshop links. That's a huge detriment to people who submit contests, and I really hope someone fixes it soon. Another problem is the contest page, which looks butt-ugly due to some odd typeface choices. It's functional, but odd-looking. I'm hoping they take a closer look at that at some point.

Q: How will Photoshop contests be affected?

A: Besides losing a primary resource for submitters, I don't see any major changes. I already covered the addition of a vote button to the bottom of the screen, which I still think is a great idea. The Contest Browser could be more prominently positioned, but I'm glad to see it present in any capacity.

That's all for this time, gentle reader. Thanks again for stopping by. Here's hoping any bugs in the new Fark design get worked out quickly. Visually, it's a huge improvement over version 2.0. The only major flaw is the omission of recently submitted contest links. Picking out Photoshop links from the mass of crap spammed to the TotalFark submission queue is going to require more filtering on my part, but it's something I can get over.

Stay tuned for more page searching from the Doctor!