Updated: 2024 October 18, evening
Sunday I got home and it had been almost a week since I last looked at GeyserTimes. On the latest Grand entry, there was a comment that the entrant said that they didn't know what Grand code to use since they started together. User34 replied to the effect that "ties go to Grand." I also posted a comment noting that User34 was correct, that the code corresponds to the difference in start times, with "T" being negative, while "G" is non-negative, and that zero is not negative.
This was the second time this year that i had to make that clarification to someone, and it occurred to me that I should write up and document exactly what and how a Grand eruption gets recorded, or at least how I do it.
Perhaps it was the residue of the anesthetics and other drugs in my system, but I quickly prepared an entry that covered most of the important points. Best of all, when I re-read it a couple of days later, it still made sense. I noticed a few things I missed, but added them and finally posted it a few days ago.
During the last week it became obvious that a Klaque of Kewl Kidz were posting to GeyserTimes, especially in note entries. These consisted of jargon and jibberish and were obviously intended to be cryptic and useless as descriptions or of any help to others. But since the owners of GeyserTimes seem to tolerate that sort of abuse, I try to ignore it.
Then this morning KCooper posted this note, which got flagged by Udo
"Ernesto is somewhat beefy but inconsistent (strong and variable)".
At first I was tempted to double flag it, but decided I really shouldn't, since I don't like it when others do that. But when I looked again a few hours later, the flag was still there, with an expanded note attempting to explain away the jargon being used. There was also a smarmy, insulting comment added by SantaFe108.
That's when I decided to have a little fun. I opened a flagentry , and wrote up the following:
"if you flag this one might aswell [sic] flag most CCI notes on here, and many other features." - SantaFe108
Good idea. Maybe a general cleanup and reduction of noise would be appropriate.
If notes are not clear as to what they are describing, then they are inappropriate and should be removed. What terms mean should not be defined in the comments as is being done here. Even then there is still no objective description as to what constitutes "weak" vs. "withering" or all the other gibberish.
As it is too many of these notes and comments are noise that only serve to inflate the egos of the persons reporting them, or farming to add to their already inflated GeyserGamer score.
Then I hit the "submit" button and waited to see what would happen next.
It took a few hours, but at some point people figured out what had happened. Now this evening, I see everything but my lock comment has been restored. But I've also heard it got the attention of a few people, too.
This behavior is too often typical of GeyserTimes, where jerk-like behavior is tolerated to the point that it becomes overwhelming and a bit repulsive. Especially from GeyserGamers who think their subjective opinions are of lasting value, or who use the database as their personal logbook.
Update 2024 Oct 18 evening
Well, "Ernesto" made another overnight appearance. It appears that KCooper has decided that since his inappropriate notes were restored yesterday by the owners of GeyserTimes, he and the other Kewl Kidz have unlimited license to be jerks, and engaged in a little victory celebration.
This whole episode has given me a greater appreciation and understanding as to why the NPS prohibits the entry of any electronic data into GeyserTimes. And re-inforces my decision to limit my participation. Until the owners of GeyserTimes clean up their act, it's only going to get worse.