I *always* get lost in those Halloween corn mazes, but never that lost that I had to call for help. That's what a family did after getting lost inside a 7-acre Salem, Massachusetts, corn maze:
A voice recording of the 911 call was made available to the media on Wednesday. The exchange:
Woman: "Hi, I just called. I'm still stuck at Connors Farms. I don't see anybody. I am really scared. It's really dark and we've got a 3-week-old baby with us."
Dispatcher: "Just relax. Calm down. Your husband is with you right?"
Woman: "Yes, but my baby?"
Dispatcher: "OK. I understand and the police officer is on the way."
Woman: "We thought this would be fun. Instead it's a nightmare. I don't know what made us do this. It was daytime when we came in. And I never take my daughter out. This is the first time. Never again."
Can't you just trample some maize and force your way out of the maze?
Otherwise, I'd definitely upvote scottdaris on here. Nice.
++++
Also: corn maze, small child, scared at night... The Shining? I'd be a little scared too.
Also, for those who are overlooking it, there are simple instructions for commenting that are posted directly over the comments box. They read quite simply, "Comments aren't censored, but those that are abusive or off-topic may be edited or deleted, mmkay?"
It will need to have a balance between automatic algo (including say, a vote up/down mechanism - which doesn't exist right now) and admin intervention (which is the only thing we have right now).
The problem with the admin intervention only scheme is that it's a big time sink for admins.
In short, we're working on it! It'll take us a while, and I'm sure it'll take us a couple of iterations to get it right, but we will. It's important.
This is the first time I have visited Neatorama and I love it!
I found Vonskippy's comment mean but hilarious! (I've only read the one above.)
I grew up with twisted folk. (But I am not saying there is anything wrong with Vonskippy!) My dad's "humor" was kinda mean too, and now that he is gone for two years, I really miss it. He had PTSD but we didn't call it that. In his life experience, stupid people got killed, and "gallows humor" was how survivors like him dealt with it.
I vote NO on censorship. I don't think commenting be a polite lovefest.
But, looking at the larger picture, it's quite clear that negative comments have created a hostile environment that discourages other readers to participate. That is what we're trying to fix here.
Re: upvote/downvote - this is just one of the mechanisms considered. I don't think any single mechanism is enough, so we will probably use a combination of several mechanisms in the comment section.
I try not to make personal attacks, but I will speak my mind sometimes. Some people see any contrary opinion as trolling, but sometimes it's genuinely somebody with a different opinion.
I have a cousin who operates a corn maze. They give you a map, because it's usually a fancy picture of something. A lot of work is put into a maze, and there are exits placed along the way, in case of emergency.
And who in their right mind would take a 3-week-old baby into a corn maze? The baby won't remember it. They must have had another kid with them; otherwise, it's just bizarre.
More and more, people leave comments that don't add any value to the discussion because they can do so easily on this blog (for example, no account registration is required before you leave a comment). These are the negative comments that we're fighting.
I just took s look, and there are about 5 or 6 comments I've made in other threads that are no longer there. They certainly weren't of the vonskippy variety, so you may be going down the tougher path with the censorship, interpreting things a little heavy-handedly. You're free to do whatever you like, of course. Just sayin'.
We've started deleting negative comments that don't have any constructive values to the discussion.
The mechanism that's available to us (on WordPress) is limited - there's no voting or hiding comments. Only deletion, but that will have to do right now.
Sorry if yours have been deleted. We're not targeting anyone in particular.