??? you mean you ain’t WOKE yet?
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Yeah thats not my cup of tea.
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yes of course, the server has to do system related tasks to display pages, etc. and that is not in question, however it has become apparent that some private group messages here have an extra user in the group named “system” that was not added by the OP. I was surprised to see these there, especially when I noticed that on further investigation that other private group messages did not have that additional user listed. So far we have not gotten a straight answer as to why it appears in some large group messages but not in others, though there has been a lot of speculation. Some have suggested it is triggered when there are over a certain number of members in a group message, and other things along those lines, however none of those has proven to be true either so far. I don’t think it is being crazy or unreasonable to ask who this “system” user is, since they apparently have access somehow and for some reason to some private messages and not others.
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Here is some info on ‘system’ under the forum software ‘discourse’. Take some time to research it, follow-up on searching for any questions via Google, then pose specific technical questions that are not in the ‘langley is tapping my brainwaves’ category … and maybe we can answer those.
As others have replied here, it is not possible to login as the system user. The system user is a special account that is automatically created by Discourse. It is used for performing some automated functions on the site. It is also used as the API user if you make API requests with the All Users API key.
If the site that you are asking about is on our hosting, you do not have access to the Rails console, so the guide for creating accounts from the Rails console will not apply to you.
Have a look at this topic What is a staged user?
If you can give us specific details about what you are trying to accomplish, we will try to help.
(reference)
Based on the recent discourse and activity, a number of the staff are on edge. Even when and if we try to explain that there is nothing there to be concerned about, there will be no explanation that’ll be good enough for everyone and the argumentation will continue.
So I’d suggest engaging in some research on the topic to your satisfaction. Learn a bit about the platform software. It’s called discourse. They have a whole set of documentation and a support forum on the web. Here, Documentation - Discourse Meta
After some persistent effort, if you become stuck, ask a technical question and we’ll do our best to understand that question and answer it the best we can today. For the more difficult questions, if we deem it a concern, it may take additional research on our side and/or directly engaging LJ and the backend pros to determine the answer.
However, frankly, the recent history has been telling within a subset of community members. Users engaging in conspiracies, trying to dox the admin (under the guise of safety or whatever, et al), being argumentative, demanding answers, throwing out assertions about how dishonest the admin and staff are, and generally creating FUD and drama makes our lives difficult. This has a direct effect on the peaceful coexistence across the overall forum. There will be a point each of the staff will get tired and take the appropriate actions to clean things up. There are problems that we do need to deal and other community members to support that don’t feel the need to have random flip-outs or engage in the generation of discord leading to more drama and concern, many times over innocuous things. Even after explanation. If it becomes necessary, actions can become escalatory. That is not where we want to go but will if need be to regain peaceful coexistance within the community.
In the meantime, consider that you are on a public forum. Consider that interaction do traverse across the internet. Consider that there are lots of things between you and the server which none of us has control over.
LJ and the backend pros have spent considerable effort toward ensuring a secure and safe platform for such discourse. Additionally, the TOS is designed to limit potential legal liability. Follow it, in public and in private. This has all been discussed a number of times in the past.
If such uncertainty remains overwhelming, there will be little we can do. If you don’t believe it is safe to post a message, don’t. If you are planning to engage conduct outside of the TOS (in private or public), just don’t.
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I didn’t forget that at all , and it was even the main point I was trying to make. If security is that important then you shouldn’t be on a weed forum , or anything online for that matter , talking about growing weed. I spent many years not even willing to creep weed forums in my cash cropping days from the mid 90s - 2006 ish .
I don’t think that is tinfoil hat like of you at all just like I don’t think anyone with those type of security issues should be on a forum.
Again I will point out NOTHING online is private folks. It really is that simple.
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Well, system seems that has gone to school:
So that’s what I am concerned about, it can be managed and programmed (close one thread after 4000 replies, bump old threads and finally corrected, post links to popular threads in Annual reviews … ), so having him present in a Private Message looks for me as a Trojan Horse. Just a simple question: why and what for is he there? Why is something episodic that doesn’t happen always? He is collecting statistics and he reads the whole forum, but PM’s shouldn’t be his territory unless he has got “special instructions”.
I think it is a valid concern, I am not questioning anything or anyone, just want to make sure my privacy is respected … 
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@monkeyman There has been a lot going on outside of here the last few weeks and @toastyjakes admittedly jumped the gun from stress. We are all humans and make mistakes. Mods are almost always only called into a thread when there is a problem and an ugly mess. Just being a leader, I get called into teamog messages or threads by default and it can really stress me out and I don’t even have a job to do here, just opinions and a few editing powers. I totally understand how you feel and it wasn’t wasn’t right, but you are a intelligent and reasonable person, I’m sure you can switch shoes and understand. We are all human and because of that we are all gonna screw up sometimes. Seeing mostly the ugly stuff can really wear on the mods. All in all, I think they do the best they can and try to be fair. Hence, he lifted your vacation and tried to make it right.
You and everyone who knows me knows that I am a straight shooter and I say nothing behind the scenes or in pm’s that I don’t say in the open forum. I’ve never seen any kind of conspiracy in any Teamog private messages etc… EVER. I know I have said that before and its the Dog’s honest truth.
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I understand that completely. But, if everyone lived by that mantra the original overgrow would have never been what it was.
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Power to them . They certainly had more balls then me .
I am A O K with having never experienced the original Overgrow and having grown for 26 years now without ever being in legal trouble for it. Had a few close calls , but me having a presence online never caused any of them.
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I guess I don’t understand why a spam bot is needed in an invite only private message. Seems suspect to me.
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Thanks for your explanation about the mysterious “system” user. However, I am still curious as to why it appears in some messages and not others, and apparently no staff here has an answer for that question either, other than to toss the forum software manual at me and tell me to look it up myself.
A reasonable explanation from the staff, done after a bit of research to the question posed by members, such as the one you provided regarding this “feature” in Discourse, could have avoided this whole derailed discussion. Instead they acted and replied heatedly and in a disrespectful manner.
Staff needs to set the tone of the site, and by acting childlike and irrationally and accusing concerned members of having “tinfoil hats” or suggesting that members are so unreasonable that no answer could ever suffice is not a favorable way to lead a community.
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I honestly don’t care either way . I expect nothing less while online . And to be perfectly honest I am still not even sure what that " system " is or does .
I just make sure it won’t effect me regardless .
Nobody is forcing you to use the site. If you don’t like it you are free to move to Montana and live on a compound guarded by attack dogs.
Freedom and security and privacy are not absolutes and do not exist in some abstract independent way.
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How many times have I see moderator say, stop the name calling and personal attacks.
Stop the name calling and personal attacks. Set the tone for conversation properly.
I’ve never known a leader that needed to constantly remind their followers that they are a leader. That’s inaccurate terminology. Y’all are managers.
I would follow a leader into battle. Y’all would be running in alone.
The managers around here are accusatory and paranoid when questioned. Come on.
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I dont think asking is unreasonable at all. I just dont think anyone knows exactly, but Joe and clearly he is away at the moment. Like I said before, I’m no expert, but is it reasonable to assume that anytime something triggers a change on the site, the response of the software would be logged for quality control and error id? Just curious. Meaning a log would be generated to identify if something possibly went wrong with the system response or where the program glitched right? That just intuitively makes sense to me.
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If you aren’t an expert, I would leave that to the experts then, ma’am.
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You are way off with the manager angle, but whatever @Badger. I couldn’t care less what you think of me. I am a member here too and like you, can have my own opinions on a subject and be allowed to voice them. Mentioning the leader thing was only to clarify why I am privy to teamog messages, not to make some sort of statement, especially all I do on this site is grow my cannabis and chitchat with members. Not leading anyone into battle or managing.
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I have managed many websites and forums (as well as been a member of many other forums) through the years and never saw anything such as this be so public, if it’s meant to be there to serve up the site. Usually those types of things happen behind the scenes and are only viewable in “debug” mode or by certain usergroups, and I have never seen forum software require an ominous user named “system” so that is why I asked. Apparently it is required in the software engine to do certain key tasks, but the fact that a visible user named “system” shows up in PRIVATE group messages that have over 4k replies and nearly 100 members is worrisome to say the least, especially when it is inconsistent, and seemingly unrepeatable.
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