Cookies!

[Chris J]

Have you considered doing official polls? When you just up and got rid of post counts (using as example here) I don't recall seeing a poll on whether or not it should happen. I have seen threads, no poll. So basically, a fair amount of people wouldn't have at least had the chance to vote, and if they were to say something, it wouldn't be as anonymous as a poll would, so would be flamed for their responses.

I get where you are coming from, but tbh, out of all the forums I have been on, this one is the most moderated, as well as to some extent, egotistic. What used to be a great place has now turned into a not so nice place, people are becoming more elitist here, and that's not why I joined.

Sorry, but I just had to get that out.

I can't escape the backlash of post counts being removed, can I?

Only a small minority of people had a problem with post counts being removed. And I didn't remove them for the sake of it, I didn't do it because I ran out of other minor changes to make, I did it because it's caused many problems in the past, with members being accused of spamming other areas of the forum simply to increase their post count. With post counts gone, they've no excuse not to keep the Spam to General Chat.

If I'd run a poll on post counts, we could have ended up with more members wanting to keep them. Some would have voted to keep them because they like seeing how many posts they've made, fair enough. Others would have voted to keep them because they're in love with their post counts and they like trying to boost it to as high as possible. So we'd have had a vote, we'd have been stuck with post counts, and the problems would have continued. How would that have solved anything?

Sure, for some problems, an official vote might work. For post counts, a subject which I actually thought had blown over, it wouldn't have.

I'm sorry you see us as over-moderated and egotistic. I do want that to change though, and am going to do my best to try and make that happen. Starting this thread was one tiny, tiny step towards that, to show we can have casual, fun discussion here. However, you then "told me off" for starting it, and look what it's turned into.

Cookie?

[Elise]

I get where you are coming from, but tbh, out of all the forums I have been on, this one is the most moderated, as well as to some extent, egotistic. What used to be a great place has now turned into a not so nice place, people are becoming more elitist here, and that's not why I joined.

Sorry, but I just had to get that out.

The way I see - I'm a member of several boards. One with app. 10 000 members. The mods there are not posting, the way mods here do. The mods here (and admins) prove that they are human, people, just like the members. We have likes and dislikes, opinions and thoughts. We have personality, humor and the lack of.

I think, and this is just my thoughts on this, is that since we have mods so active as the ones we've got here, mods who show the members who they are, the modding is bound to be seen as a "egoistic" simply because you know the mod behind the actions. If we as mods didn't post the same was members do, but only posted when doing mod-business, we wouldn't have the amount of complains and moans we get now from time to time.

I'm merely drawing this conclusion from that big board I'm a member of, and several smaller ones where problems like this is not an issue.

Ok, here is an example, I go to a foofighers postboard. It has over 51,450 members. All mods and admins (trust me, there isn't as many as there is here), not only do they post on a regular basis, but band members do as well. People from all ages and backgrounds are on it, and trust me, there isn't as much piddyfiddle there as there is here.

Regarding mods in general here. Most of you are fine, in fact I'm friendly with most of you. But there are people here (and I'm not referring to the drama queens) that find that the way things are 'moderated' here are a bit harsh. I'm not targeting anyone at all, so please do not think you have anything to do with it Mar. I'm not saying that because you guys do your job then you are nazis, but sometimes the way things are done are not very fair. I'd go into specifics, but then I know how that will end.

[-Tess-]

To be honest - tbh

To be honest.

Ohhhh! I get it now

Thanks both of you!

[MarMar]

No worries, Tess

We've talked a bit about this, mostly as a joke, but... what about no modding for a while? With that I mean, no merging, no editing, no closing. Rules still apply.

Wanna see if things will change?

[Elise]

Have you considered doing official polls? When you just up and got rid of post counts (using as example here) I don't recall seeing a poll on whether or not it should happen. I have seen threads, no poll. So basically, a fair amount of people wouldn't have at least had the chance to vote, and if they were to say something, it wouldn't be as anonymous as a poll would, so would be flamed for their responses.

I get where you are coming from, but tbh, out of all the forums I have been on, this one is the most moderated, as well as to some extent, egotistic. What used to be a great place has now turned into a not so nice place, people are becoming more elitist here, and that's not why I joined.

Sorry, but I just had to get that out.

I can't escape the backlash of post counts being removed, can I?

Only a small minority of people had a problem with post counts being removed. And I didn't remove them for the sake of it, I didn't do it because I ran out of other minor changes to make, I did it because it's caused many problems in the past, with members being accused of spamming other areas of the forum simply to increase their post count. With post counts gone, they've no excuse not to keep the Spam to General Chat.

If I'd run a poll on post counts, we could have ended up with more members wanting to keep them. Some would have voted to keep them because they like seeing how many posts they've made, fair enough. Others would have voted to keep them because they're in love with their post counts and they like trying to boost it to as high as possible. So we'd have had a vote, we'd have been stuck with post counts, and the problems would have continued. How would that have solved anything?

Sure, for some problems, an official vote might work. For post counts, a subject which I actually thought had blown over, it wouldn't have.

I'm sorry you see us as over-moderated and egotistic. I do want that to change though, and am going to do my best to try and make that happen. Starting this thread was one tiny, tiny step towards that, to show we can have casual, fun discussion here. However, you then "told me off" for starting it, and look what it's turned into.

Cookie?

Nah, wasn't slamming. Started as observation, then I felt I had to justify. Having said all that, I'm not just referring to post counts, there are other situations. I also saw the excuse of the 'newbies' copping flak. Taking post counts away won't counteract that, you can tell who is new and who isn't.

Personally, I have found that the more liberal a postboard is, the less likely for childish stuff. On FooFighters, if you start the stuff you mention there, you will be called on it. In fact, I have seen intelligent debate, and silly stuff. But no one there cries to a mod if they don't get their way. Why? Because they know most likely they'll be called upon, and mods will generally tell them to suck it up. The thing is, some things that were changed really shouldn't have, everyone knows it's impossible to please everyone, but the tighter the rules, the more trouble you are going to have.

I just think that sometimes people don't get a proper say here maybe even testing a poll option for major changes might work, then the poll results will speak for themselves, and you will have less hostility over it.

[ilovekateritchie]

I think it might be chaotic, but why not try it and see? But really, we're supposed to be eating cookies here, not arguing.

[Elise]

No worries, Tess

We've talked a bit about this, mostly as a joke, but... what about no modding for a while? With that I mean, no merging, no editing, no closing. Rules still apply.

Wanna see if things will change?

Why don't we make general chat mod free? A free for all, however, put a disclaimer that you enter at your own risk?

I also find it extremely ironic that we have a girls room where anything goes, and we go into gory detail about periods and whatnot, but no swearing? I do find it funny, not complaining - seriously - but I always found that hilarious!

Oooh, ETA: I may take you up on that cookie Chris, but would rather a Krispy Kreme! (I actually had a dream about that last night)

[Jess]

I understand that maybe the board has "issues" that need to be aired, but we have kinda just played into the hands of whoever wrote that article. They're going on about how this place is full of Nazis and control freaks and we're just basically proving their theories to them 'cause what started out as a fun thread has decended into arguments.

At the end of the day, no one's forced to come here. As much as people try to protest otherwise, I'm sure people have other things to do with their lives and wouldn't spend half as much time here as they do if they really hated it that much. This isn't aimed at anyone in particular, but just an observation that something must be going right if discussions are still staying so active.

[Elise]

Actually, I'm not arguing. This is a classic discussion. We are bringing this to light. That is a good thing, because obviously the admins would like to make it the place it used to be. Although I did find that page funny, others took it a bit harshly (which is ok). The good thing I feel it has done has bought it to light, and all those involved in this discussion have contributed with one thing in mind - what can we do to improve? If anything it is positive, because lets be honest here, there would have been a legit reason for doing it. I wouldn't resort to that, but obviously to one person, they felt it was a way of expressing themselves.

I'm quite proud that this forum has not resorted to name calling or trolling, it shows that there is something to salvage here. I just though handing out "cookies" wasn't the answer to prove them wrong. That's all. It's like someone spreading rumours about a company, instead of denying it, they work on how this happened and look at ways of improving - all internally of course. I just hope that was a wake up call to everyone here, I'm sure it hit home for a lot of you.

[MarMar]

My take on the girls thread is that those who read and post are ok with what's being written. We don't have rules on posting goo, but there has been occurrences where the majority of readers have reacted to what's been said in there - one post comes to mind, and from what I can recall, it took the tone further than done before, and it was not posted by a girl/woman. I know, when I post in there, that guys will also read it (several of them has been caught doing it and owned up), but I still feel safe posting there because I know that those who read it it will reply to it in a respectable manner. I don't know how to describe it, but there is a silent agreement of what's ok and what's not. The post I have in mind broke this agreement and was edited or deleted due to it. Several of the readers reported it to the mods.

Not sure where I'm going with this, so I'll stop.