Thanks! I started reading Shield of Sparrows by Devney Perry last night. I thought it was a fantasy, but I guess it's a romantasy (turns out the author has written tons of romance novels--for example, an intriguingly named holiday story called A Partridge and a Pregnancy). So far, my book is pretty good.

I recently read The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman. I love those Thursday Murder Club mysteries! Does anyone else like them?


Interesting! My sister and I stayed in Whitechapel in September. I think I would enjoy seeing the architecture drawings in that book, but not the crime drawings--too gruesome for me!

you called all trans people 'crazies' and 'delusional'. i think that's more of a name-call than calling someone a bigot for... following the exact definition of being a bigot.

sorry. maybe you didn't expect that we were here to see you insult us. but we were :(

for what it's worth, this isn't an uncommon feature across the internet; even youtube does something very similar where you can only see the number of likes on a video, not the dislikes. i haven't ever used a site that has seeing 'negative' reactions fully enabled, so i can't actually speak to if it's better or worse, but i don't think it's unreasonable

Although I don't recall ever seeing these before, I think a small, custom puzzle would be fun, especially if the completed puzzle showed a clue for a traditional box.

Also, a moist towelette or two would be helpful for those of us who are the primary inkers in our groups.

my mini signature stamp (my main one is too big for many logbooks) has changed three times over the past year─no one's said anything about it, so i think you're probably good :P

looking forward to seeing you in mailing rings, if that's an interest! i primarily do LTC and postal swaps, myself, and theyre loads of fun :)

Mayhaps, you should change your name to DARVOcks? ;-)

Yea, i remember when Youtube got rid of that option. Wasnt sure why though.

It really makes no difference to me, I can see both sides, but I am more of a masochist, I want to know who doesn't like what i have to say. 🤔😂

tbh thinking about it. youtube getting rid of it DOES make me want it back more. i do love spiting youtube

Gotta love the trolls. Hey, whatever gets them up in the morning...lol

I replied to you on FB, so I’m just saying hi here. Welcome!

I still have the magnet on my fridge from L&B in Groton. It would be fun have one from this one.

I don’t need a sticker.

Most events don’t have swag. This is a special every five years event.

Path tags are always nice.

Thanks, I know. I organized a meet-up earlier this month, and we had a couple of event boxes but no swag.

At the risk of needlessly prolonging this discussion, I ask sincerely. Why have a disagree button at all? If no one can see the disagreements, other than the one disagreeing, then it falsely appears to everyone else that agreement is unanimous. So the disagree button is not just useless, it misleads readers about the responses because they assume no one disagrees. Eliminate the disagree button, and let people click agree or not click agree.

I'm in favor of smiting.

This is true. And an important point. There have been posts that I see and consider disagreeing with but then think, what’s wrong with me? Am I the only one who sees this? It’s weird. Although, I remember a post in the No Kings tread that had 20+ dislikes. Is there a point at which when the number climbs high enough, they show?


Ooo, me too! I’ll go first… ‘Smite!’ 😉

That’s adorable!

I'm gonna do all y'all a solid and start disagreeing all my own posts, maybe enlist some aliases, too, so I & all my invisible friends make you feel more welcome. It will be an interesting social experiment.

Hello hello!

Perhaps I wasn't clear enough in my explanation. This is NOT what happens.

Only the FIRST disagreement is hidden (or maybe it's 2, I am unsure). If there are more, they DO show. This was to keep accidental "disagrees" and malicious "disagrees" (yes, we DID and DO have members that will automatically "disagree" with something another specific member posts. Childish, but true. Also for the confusion and dismay that it can cause with posts that have multiple points.

For MOST of AQ, which is (thankfully) not quite as contentious as this board, this actually works well, and has been around for many years with no problem. Most boards and posts are overwhelmingly "agreeable".

Not swag, I like the ability to order a tee shirt or sweat shirt.
Swag can be costly to the committee. Just a simple pen/pencil with the event name is very useful at the event.

My favorite thing was a golf-sized pencil with the letterboxing event logo. Had that for a long time and was so sad when I lost it!
Would love a link to order a shirt or something ahead of time too.

I hope you’ll have a patch. I sewed my L&BXXV patch to my letterboxing bag.

A pen is a nice souvenir.

Don’t need stickers or whistles or magnets.

I almost missed this thread because I stopped following this board earlier in the week. (I don't really like this board myself--I only follow it sometimes because I run the site and want to know what's going on. If I were a regular member, I'd just ignore it completely like I do with most social media websites.)

Anyhow, Wassa explained it well. There were instances in the past when someone would maliciously "disagree" with every post that someone they didn't like posted, and that person would notice and get very annoyed by it. It was stupid and petty (on both sides, really), but since people would get so worked up about it or get so angry, I decided to hide the first two disagrees that other people make.

There are also times people would accidentally click the disagree button--probably more likely with smartphones--and the person who made the post would get very upset over it. (e.g. "Why would someone disagree with my post wishing everyone a happy New Year?!")

The problem with these "one or two" clicks on the disagree buttons showed up within months of the buttons showing up, and I decided just to stop showing the first two "disagree" clicks that other people make just so people would stop bugging me and getting angry over a spurious click. If there are people who really disagree with something, I feel like it's important to show it and so you'll still see it--but it needs "confirmation" from at at least two other people to help ensure it's a "legitimate" disagree.

This also happens with the "huh?" button which has also been abused in the same way, but since it's less "extreme" than a disagree, I have AQ suppress only the first click of that button.

The "rude" button also uses special rules. That's mostly to notify moderators of a problem post and not so much for other members to communicate information between each other, so it will never show anyone else's click of the "rude" button. You'll only see your own clicks so you can see that you clicked it or verify that the click was processed.

Actually, moderators can see the total number of times that button has been clicked. It helps to separate the accidental click from the legit ones--moderators won't get a notification until it's been used by at least two different members, but non-moderators will only see a 0 or 1 there.

I also think think that there should be a lot more hugging going around, so I have AQ automatically hit the "hug" button for me on the occasional random post. (I will also manually add them to posts that I think are particularly deserving of them as I come across them, but nobody ever gets more than 1 hug from me on a single post.)

It doesn't do that for every post--that would be as useless as a participation award, but nobody has ever complained about a random hug from me. But I kind of hope people see that sometimes, and it encourages others to use the "hug" button more often as well. =)

So yeah, out of the eight "voting" buttons for posts, four of them have some sort of manipulations going on for various reasons. And each of the manipulations is slightly different depending on the reason for it.

The only time I might point it out is if someone takes a poll for something and the manipulated numbers would otherwise change the results--which doesn't happen very often. Or if someone notices "discrepancies" and asks about it, like how this thread started.

-- Ryan

pen
highlighter
black reinker (even though wont be needed at L&B XXX)
lanyard (to display trail name and sig stamp during event)
small logbooks (suitable for planting)
snacks
rechargable led flashlight (for night boxing)
compass
lip balm
hand sanitizer
bug spray

tote bag, book bag, drawstring backpack - possibly useful bag types

I also love, love, LOVED the phone chargers and have used mine multiple times since. I also love the L&B Patches.

Other ideas I've liked are the lip balm, bug spray, and pen. I appreciate it when the swag items are items I can use at the event, not just keepsakes I'm carrying around with me the whole weekend.

Quick research shows quality is better than quantity .. so a new phone would be nice. I prefer Android over iPhone. If not a bookmark to hold my place in logbook would be nice also.

Greetings and welcome to the circus!!! Lol
I've heard of some folks using different sig stamps for each season, holiday or yearly. We are currently looking into carving a new stamp for 2026. ♡
Have fun, enjoy & let your art soar ♡
Cheers!
Dawni & Terra
Wind & Fire