VISITORS GUIDE

WELCOME TO BINDLESNITCH:

This guide will explain the differences between visitors and members and includes information about the permissions and limitations that visitors agree to by using BindleSnitch.

WHAT IS BINDLESNITCH GOOD FOR? 

Bindlesnitch was originally designed to serve as a publishing platform but it can also be used as a social media meeting place. We want BindleSnitch to be a place where people can express different opinions on just about any subject within the limits of good taste. Debate is encouraged. Acrimony is not.

But what is BindleSnitch really good for? 

Well, for one thing, BindleSnitch is organized differently. It isn’t really a social media site, although you can use it that way. BindleSnitch is a publishing platform that enables you to write articles and lay them out exactly how you want them to look. Because we are limited to 100 authors by both the technology we’re using and the legal restrictions on our incorporation status, we are never going to grow into a Twitter or a Facebook, nor would we want to. We are in the business of facilitating communications, not obfuscating them. (There is no limit to the number of visitors.)

And major social media sites are most definitely obfuscating communications. There is too much data, and way too much fake data, in circulation…and those big social media sites make their money on controversy rather than consensus.

Now, we’re not saying that we will never have any fake data on BindleSnitch…hell, I’ve posted some questionable shit myself…but BindleSnitch isn’t a news organization. We are publishing opinions and everyone knows all about opinions, right? They are like assholes. Everybody’s got one. Sometimes they work. Sometimes they don’t.

On BindleSnitch, everyone sees what everyone else sees. Other websites use “friends or followers” to break down the incredible amount of attention-stealing activity into bite-sized pieces that users can consume.  There are 1.93 billion daily Facebook users. If each one were to submit one post per day, you would have to peruse 3672 new posts PER SECOND in order to keep up with the feed. Twitter adds in addition 500 million tweets per day.

That’s way too much traffic for any human being to consume. It’s also way too much traffic for the algorithms to parse through and digest, which is why most of the “time-outs” handed out by social media sites begin with a complaint from another user.

At BindleSnitch, we decided that we don’t need 1.93 billion daily visitors. What good would they do us, and what good would we do them. When you’re all done chunking down, it turns out that most Facebook users only get to see around one hundred posts per day from friends and family…and that’s exactly what we’re offering you, without all that excess baggage.

There are no AIs reading your posts and comments, nor any human censors either. BindleSnitch is self-policing. Whenever members or visitors are offended by someone or something, they can post a complaint. The members, collectively, will decide whether there is a valid cause for complaint, but we will listen to well-reasoned arguments. However, if you piss us off enough, you will be kicked off the site.

BindleSnitch was specifically designed to produce articles that can then be posted (via links) to other social media sites. For members, this is a convenient way

KEY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN VISITORS AND MEMBERS:

VISITORS

MEMBERS

  • Visitors can post comments on articles
  • Visitors can reply to comments on their comments
  • Visitors can ask questions and provide answers
  • Visitors cannot post articles
  • Visitors are not entitled to compensation
  • Visitors can be suspended or banned.

 

  • Members can post articles
  • Members can answer comments
  • Members can delete offensive comments
  • Members may receive monetary compensation
  • Members may become equity participants
  • Members can sponsor other members

 

CATEGORIES

Here’s a nonexclusive list of the subjects we dally with: World News US News Politics (mostly American politics) Science (which is often confused with technology), Technology (which is often confused with science), Health, Sports, Entertainment, Fine Arts, Media, Fiction, Poetry, Art. Music,  Film and Television (which is becoming increasingly confused with film),  and Et Cetera, which is actually a category for everything else.  There are also two special categories that you will find under FEATURES,  Top Tens and Grab Bag. Tops Tens is exactly that, the ten most popular articles currently in each major category. The Grab Bag is exactly what it sounds like, a random collection of fetches from our files that changes every time you click there. Stay tuned. We add more categories from time to time, just to confuse you. Sometimes, we even confuse ourselves.

HOW TO READ BINDLESNITCH

A website that comes with instructions for readers?  Yes. BindleSnitch isn’t simple.

You can do things the easy way, and just scroll down the home page, picking out the articles you want to read. Click on those articles and you will also get a list of other recent articles in the same category.

Or, if you are interested in a subject, go up to the main menu and browse around. The drop-downs will tell you where each of the categories are to be found.

READING PREVIOUS POSTS BY A SPECIFIC AUTHOR

If you are interested in reading more of a given author’s output, go to MEMBERS>DIRECTORY and select the author whose page you want to visit from the pick-list.

Once there, you read the ten most recent articles posted by that author. Use the LOAD MORE button to scroll through older articles.

If you want to send a message to an author, use the MESSAGE button to initiate a private correspondence.  You will also see a FOLLOW button along with a counter for the number of contributors you’re following and the number of contributors who are following you.  We can’t get rid of those buttons and they don’t seem to do anything, but you are welcome to use them.

CODE OF CONDUCT FOR VISITORS:

  • You may not threaten other users of the website with any kind of violence
  • Flame wars will be snuffed out as soon as we sniff them out. The parties involved will be suspended. The length of the suspension depends entirely on the extremity of the offense and our mood at the time.
  • Hate speech is strictly prohibited. You are entitled to your opinions…but we are not required to tolerate them if we don’t like what you are saying. Hate speech is defined as saying something about someone else that you wouldn’t want to hear said about you.
  • Obscene, profane, and vulgar language is frowned upon. Don’t make a habit of it because you can be called out for excessive use of obscenity, profanity, or vulgarity but, let’s face it, sometimes you just have to call a fuck face a fuck face. Be moderate, not extreme.
  • You may not post explicitly pornographic material (and we, collectively, will decide what’s pornographic and what isn’t.)
  • You may not solicit members or visitors for contributions of any kind. We don’t care how worthy you think your cause might be, do your fundraising somewhere else, says the guy who spent twenty years as a fundraiser.
  • Marketing products (or even just marketing yourself) will not be permitted on BindleSnitch. Take your business and begone with it. We all absorb too much advertising as it is. (Ignore that shit in the right side column. I never look at it myself.)

 

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