THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)
Fun Stuff => CHATTER => Topic started by: Sideways on 12 Oct 2005, 11:49
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I don't want this to turn into a thread of bitching/moaning/complaining/etc, just suggestions, maybe small gripes and what we can do about them before things get out of hand.
- If there is going to be tighter moderation, could this moderation be accompanied by more detailed explanations? Maybe I'm not being clear... the best example I can think of is when someone creates a thread, and after 3 pages people are still on-topic, civil, etc... but a mod comes in and says "Ok, that's enough of that!" and locks it. Enough of what? I'm certainly not going to complain about the thread being locked... it's not my forum, and I'm not paying anything to be here, so whatever Jeph and the mods want to do, hey... that's fine. But could more detailed explanations be posted? Just a thought.
- Instead of complaining about problems, creating threads to complain about other threads (that the the complainer may have created themselves) could we not rely a bit more on constructive posting? I mentioned this in the last forum, in the big complaint thread that started this whole... thing. If you fear that what you post is going to cause people to turn around and be nasty towards you... guess what? It probably will. So, instead, maybe post more interesting things? Maybe create more useful threads? If you don't like how threads deteriorate, then here's a crazy idea; don't perpetuate the issue.
- General communication. Perhaps we should have a stickied, strictly on-topic thread where we can talk to the mods, where we can discuss issues of the day relating to the forum, forum moderation, forum discussions, whatever. I think it would be better than the monologues we're treated to now... there's this idea that us forumers don't posess the strength of character to actually discuss issues with the powers that be... there are comments made that relate to general age of forumers being low (I'd like to point out that I'm not having a cry here about ageism, I happen to be older than most of you, Jeph and mods included, it's merely something I've noticed) or that relate to how all forumers act 'this' way or 'that' way... maybe if we had more open lines of communication there would be less assumptions made. A blurring of the lines between slave and master, perhaps? The best bosses I've ever had are the ones who speak to me often about what's going on... not the ones who only come into my office when there's a problem.
- Stricter rules or stricter enforcement of the rules should mean very clearly understood rules. If this means you guys (mods and Jeph) have to create a 50-page thread dedicated solely to specific rules... then perhaps that's something you should do. Leave no room for misinterpretation, leave no flexibility. Note: in re-reading this suggestion, it seems to come across as being sarcastic, which is not the intent. Seriously, if you're going to be stricter with us, then make sure we all know exactly what we're supposed to be doing here.
That's all I have. If anyone else has suggestions, maybe post them here. If any mods don't much care for this thread, then please post your thoughts and lock away. This could be a prime example... I mean; is this sort of thread ok or not? Lets leave no room for uncertainty.
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Nah this sort of thing is fine, you were not being rude or anything.
I can't really post 50 pages of rules because that's not what I am going for. I am basically just trying to get rid of threads where one person is like "omg i stubbed my toe" and gets 40 responses ranging from "lol ow" to "u shuold go 2 doctor".
A thread for talking to mods is not a bad idea. i might make one later once the hubbub over "OMG HE KILLED DON'T BE STUPID!" has died down.
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I know I haven't been here for a long time, but I still feel like adding my opinion about this:
First of all, I agree with Sideways about having clear rules. They should be understandable and not too complicated.
That said, I don't think you can be that specific because from me experience, there's a gray area when posting in a forum. The posts are somewhat spammy but spammy enough to be annoying, if you hit that, it's okay. Finding out where that area is in my experience depends on common sense and watching people who have been posting here for longer than you.
Case in point: That marine life thread: I don't get it. I honestly admit that, it seems like spam to me, but I guess it's not and I just don't get the joke. I won't post in it, problem solved.
That said, I also post at another message board which is pretty spam free. The reasons for this in my opinion are three things:
1. Everything can be discussed but check whether there's a thread about this already. If there is, use that and discuss your problem there (we have one for politics and relationships for example, even a general spam thread (though it's really just little discussions that don't warrant opening a new thrad, actual spam gets you banned), a car thread and so on). Only if you feel that your thread is about a new topic and interesting enough, you can post it.
If you post something that's either considered useless or fits into an existing thread already, your thread will get closed along with a link to the existing thread or a short explanation. If you do it again, you get banned. Simple as that.
2. Coherent, intelligent and respectful posts: If you're going to have discussions about touchy subjects (politics, religion, relationships), you need strict rules. If someone is posting populistic bullshit or insulting people, he will get banned. This rule is enforced pretty strictly, I've seen people getting banned that were really popular and had posted there for over 3 years. But they knew the rules and chose to violate them, so they got banned.
3. Chatting on a forum gets you banned or at least the thread gets closed. There's IRC, IM or PM for that. Don't do it in a thread.
What I'm trying to say is: I feel a forum is a lot more useable and friendly if you only have a couple of threads where discussions about these things go. And if the rule "only open a thread if you deem it valuable" is enforced, the spam dies pretty quickly, because interrupting a thread with stupid spam is a lot harder to pull off (either people keep the discussion going or at least you have to be more of an idiot to do it) than creating a new thread to spam in.
And if you don't feel like discussing certain topics, you can easily avoid the specific thread adressing them and additional threads about the same topic won't spam up your forum. It's just one thread.
I think everything can be discussed on a forum as well, even touchy subjects, as long as people adhere to the rules. Then it can be quite fun.
I know this is against Jeph's opinion but I think it doesn't hurt to suggest it, it's not like I'm forcing him to do it (not that I could anyway).
Edit: Before people yell at me: These are only suggestions. They are not meant as accusations ore personal attacks, just things that I think might improve this forum.
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The music forum needs to be moderated more fo realz. Its insanity over there. I understand music is a touchy subject on here since we're all obsessed and there really is no right or wrong side, but people are starting to be total assholes or just plain stupid. I mean, the other day, someone asked for some recomendations about indie christian music. They werent asking for a debate, they werent looking for your opinion on it, they didnt care if you liked christian music or not, they just wanted some band names. Its not rocket science, GEEZ!
Other threads are much worse, they always end up the same way, which is arguing about something completely different than what the topic was. I think if we could just get some of these locked once they start being idiotic and pointless, itd be a way better forum.
[/rant]
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I'm reading this thread, and all I see is sense.
My particular head-nodder is point one that Sideways raised - I think I just object to a thread being locked with a "this is stupid now" and no further explanation.
Sometimes, that's enough, don't get me wrong, but I have seen a few occasions where just knocking a few heads together and actually contributing an on-topic post to the thread would have done for more good than locking it.
Now, despite how much I may bitch about lockings (far too often, really) I acknowledge that I'd make a far worse mod than any of the guys actually doing the job.
So here's a suggestion I borrowed from somewhere else: Why not start up a forum called the "Tangentarium" or something like that. Here's the kicker: it's policed, but posts there do not count towards the total count. Obviously, if things get stupid in there, threads are locked and people banned as per normal, but mostly it's a repository for all those threads that aren't serious, but are popular.
The effect of this is to seperate the OT forums into two groups - the serious one, and the one full of the threads that, although they're fun, really fail to contribute anything useful.
Isn't there a way of locking a forum off so that non-mods can't start a thread there? What happens then is that threads deemed not right for "I like fish" get moved to the Tangentarium, where things happen to them and they eventually die.
I've seen it used before, to good effect. It might not quite match the flavour of the QC boards, however...
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I think that would just encourage people to continue dicking around. i know I tend to get swept up in the moment and forget myself.
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You could be right. That's the downside, of course.
But I have seen it work elsewhere, pretty well. I guess it depends on the board. Different populations will behave in different ways, and I think our lot are pretty random on the whole...
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I know I'm one to talk on this subject, but I'm willing to put a moratorium on the usage of "DONGS". I mean, kinda let it get outta control with the dongs thread and even when we knew a thread was going to be locked down.
><FISH> instead? JK!!!!
Also, can we stress the usage of PMing? Instead of cluttering up a thread with side convo. Or if you think a thread is pointless, let's not go all ironic by posting in said pointless thread?
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Why not start up a forum called the "Tangentarium" or something like that. Here's the kicker: it's policed, but posts there do not count towards the total count.
I use phpBB at my own website, and as far as I know, there is no way to have a specific section of the forum for posts that don't count towards the total postcount. What I've always wanted to look into is the ability to ban a user from one specific section of the forum, and I plan on writing to the phpBB people about instituting this in their next release.
As for the topic at hand, however, I think the mods usually are pretty good about posting their reasonings behind locked topics. If I'm unsatisfied, I PM the mod, and the one time I did this, est was prompt with his reply (I believe he said something along the lines of "because I hate freedom" in response; he elaborated, of course). So, meh.
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Stuff about music forum
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Heh, I kind of like the Music Forum as it is.
It's not as if people just say "NURR, YOUR MUSIC SUCKS"
They provide reasons ;)
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Funny, I don't remember reasons coming into it...
I use phpBB at my own website, and as far as I know, there is no way to have a specific section of the forum for posts that don't count towards the total postcount.
www.darkmillennia.net/forum
Posts made in the "random Warp Disturbances" forum don't count towards the poster's count.
No, I don't know how they do it. Sorry.
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Well really the whole post count thing becomes a factor if your post count actually earns you things (yes I have seen these forums.)
Post count here doesn't really mean anything, so I don't see how that would help.
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Oh god, I hate Hate HATE forums that have stupid graphics for post count ranks. All those multi-colored stars are almost as bad as graphic sigs.
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Well, see, postcount = penis size
I once checked out a forum because someone had started a topic there linking to my website... I would NEVER post there, just because they have postcount-based images, avatars, AND graphic sigs. Seriously, the avatar is your pictorial signature, what more do you need?
I also remember a forum where you could also enter your OWN rank in the user profile. Now that just seems odd to me; the signature isn't enough?
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People who post for no reason probably need no reason. That kind of logic is just alien, difficult to combat except by immediate and final force.
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What we need to prevent the stupid threads from propagating is for everyone to take a visit to see FATMOUSE (http://metawire.org/~malafex/fatmouse/fatmouse.htm) and CAT TOWN (http://www.spatch.net/cattown/), because they really do render the use of caps lock and amazing idiocy anywhere else on the internet superfluous.
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I also remember a forum where you could also enter your OWN rank in the user profile. Now that just seems odd to me; the signature isn't enough?
Actually, I was a member of one of those for a while. It's actually quite fun: another level of customisation. I was "The Wizard of Odd" for quite a long time.
Admittedly, however, this board didn't really have any kind of centralized "feel" to it to dictate any kind of rank progression like QC does. ours is random, but it makes SENSE that it's random.
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@valrus: That Cat Town link is hilarious.
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About mods spelling out clear rules- I think that it's important. I also hope that everyone self-regulates themselves. I've had to stop myself from making an inflamed situation worse, but I've probably said things that I shouldn't that makes things worse.
So here's to self restraint so that we don't drive our host Jeph, the mods, and everyone else crazy.
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It's not as if people just say "NURR, YOUR MUSIC SUCKS"
They provide reasons
What threads are you reading? Geez.
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He's probably talking about the threads that pertain to music that you & I like, Rachel. ;-)
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Hey, i like some inde music and other stuff you folks call "good music", but those threads go to hell quickly too.
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90% of the music forum threads go to hell a lot faster than they should, really.
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I'm really sorry to Jeph and other other mods if I contributed to the demise of the "Don't Be Stupid" section, and I agree that it was getting rather stupid. I will try to make sure that all of my posts are intelligent and interesting from now on. I suppose I will go back to rereading my posts a few times before hastily clicking "submit." I think that as I grew less cautious about posting, my posts became a bit more useless.
However, I do have a question (about questions): if I am unsure about posting something, is it alright to PM the mods? I'm not sure if you guys get about a million PMs, because then you might not want another small question taking up your time.
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Ditto. (See my signature)
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However, I do have a question (about questions): if I am unsure about posting something, is it alright to PM the mods? I'm not sure if you guys get about a million PMs, because then you might not want another small question taking up your time.
You can PM me if you want. I promise to listen to all your problems.
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Seriously dude. Are you a mod here or something?
...hey, wait a minute!
Hey Luke.
YES!
Kieffer.
GEEZ!
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Alright, thanks SeanBateman. They aren't insignificant problems, they are more like "queries to prevent me from posting stupid things." Said queries come up from time to time.
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It's pretty remarkable that of all the old threads, the spambot picked this one to revive, right when we've been discussing new rules/being nice to people/the good old days.
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Blast from the past! Look at all those who we have loved and lost.
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i've actually been looking for a super long time for something to amplify my cossack artefaction so this is pretty much perfect
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It's a Christmas miracle
Also I thought Sideways had returned to us for a second there. I wonder how he and Aphi are doing.
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@valrus: That Cat Town link is hilarious.
I forgot about Cat Town. yessssssss
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this thread was before my time. so i started reading it and was instantly :psyduck:
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i was 14 last time I posted in this thread
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for reference: I'm almost 20 now.
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this was when I lurked and didn't have an account yet! (i was 13!) why are so many user accounts deleted now?
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How on earth do you think we've managed to keep this forum going for so long if not by blood sacrifice?
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Well that explains the Pyramid.
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As soon as I saw the dates on the first couple posts I starting hoping that I'd see a post by heretic.
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my god, remember when I took internet message boards seriously?
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MAUSAGE BERD
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SAUSAGE BEARD
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guys I know it's "cool" to "not be up on QC" but please stop making fun of my sausage beard :(
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The Q in QC stands for BBQ
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guys I know it's "cool" to "not be up on QC" but please stop making fun of my sausage beard :(
QC is the new Toto.
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:x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x
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oh man oh fuck oh shit :psyduck: :psyduck: :psyduck:
(http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lcz4xy6jCQ1qzvl4eo1_500.jpg)
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The Q in QC stands for BBQ
YOU SON OF A BITCH