Suggestion Box

Talk about anything under the sun or stars - but keep it civil. This is where we really get to know each other. Everyone is welcome, and invited!
Hegemon
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Suggestion Box

Postby Hegemon » Mon Nov 27, 2006 3:36 pm

The other day Eriador made some pretty solid suggestions about how things should be run around here, and I would like to see what else you guys think. Naturally not everthing can be done, since certain things on the board cannot be customized, but send us any of you suggestions here.

btw if you find downloads that might work for the forum, like the bday stuff fris found, post them here. It would be better to consolodate the modifications in one place so that when we can do something about it we don't have to go around searching for it.

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Postby eriador » Mon Nov 27, 2006 4:11 pm

Thanks for calling my suggestions "solid" :)

For those of you who don't want to try and dig up the recommendations I made here they are:
I know that I've had rocky relations with the mods here, but I think that the mods could do a better job. Perhaps they are doing their best, but in typical me fashion, I can find plenty of faults. However, I do understand that I often gloss over the good things that they are doing. My couple of complaints:

1. Lack of warning:
The way I see it, it's not fair to lock up a thread like that without giving at least a couple strong warnings and seeing if it's going to sort itself out. The role of a Mod is to stop things from getting too far out of hand. Personally, the breakups thread was getting out of hand, but I think that a strongly worded warning would have been more appropriate than locking said thread.

2. Unclear rules:
I've never seen formal rules. When I have been warned by the mods, they made sure to point out what rules they were working on, but providing a rules sticky (at least in the Town Square and Religion forums) would be a good way of making sure everybody is on the same page rules-wise.

3. Mod solidarity:
I haven't seen any evidence of mods collaborating in making decisions. My view of mods excercising their power has been that it is a unilateral decision and that mods don't get involved in something that another mod brings up. I would like it if we could get a second opinion on every mod decision that is made. Just having another mod post a backup of the first's decision would make me much more confident in the decisions that are made. Hopefully, no drastic action will be taken until two or more mods agree that it should be done, and if there are objections from other mods, they should be considered before any actions are taken.

4. Mod Hat vs. No Mod Hat
Because the mods participate in our forums, I find it difficult to separate the "mod voice" from the regular voice. This caused me a lot of consternation in a couple of cases, where I was debating with a mod and got warned by the same mod for saying something potentially offensive. I saw it as an abuse of power, where the mod was using their position of power to silence a voice that disagreed with them. If the actions I suggest for mod solidarity above were followed, I think that some (if not all) of these problems could be eliminated. It might also be possible to register a "mod" account that can be used to eliminate any confusion in this vein.

Those are my suggestions for the mods. Feel free to take them or not, I have no power here, but hopefully other people feel the same way I do and would appreciate the same changes that I'm looking forward to.

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Postby fawkes » Mon Nov 27, 2006 4:32 pm

When the "Answer in the form of a question", "last post", and "word association" threads were deleted, a lot of people (including myself) had their postcount go down. Perhaps next time long threads like that could be locked or something so people could keep their postcounts, while also keeping them from getting too long. Also, there was no warning (if there was, the threads were deleted too quickly to notice anything), and the new threads don't have rules listed in the first post, so noobs who may not understand the point of the thread might get confused and start posting things that don't fit with the rest of the thread, which could frustrate other posters. When game threads are restarted, please remember to include rules, or quote the first post of the original thread, so as to reduce confusion.
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Postby eriador » Mon Nov 27, 2006 4:39 pm

I concur. Please do your best to preserve postcount, it is useful (to me) in sizing somebody up. Plus, it's rude to decimate somebody's postcount without any warning and without a good reason.

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Claire
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Postby Claire » Mon Nov 27, 2006 4:41 pm

I think you two are in the minority on that issue. Most people here don't want game threads affecting post counts because they aren't really a good measure of whether a person has become a member of the community.

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Postby fawkes » Mon Nov 27, 2006 4:43 pm

Actually, most of my posts take place in Milagre Town Square, but I do enjoy the Game Room as well. Also, why don't posts in the game room make you more of a member? I'd rather not discuss this here, since it's meant as a suggestion box, but I'd like to hear why you don't think so.
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Postby zeroguy » Mon Nov 27, 2006 5:23 pm

Actually, most of my posts take place in Milagre Town Square, but I do enjoy the Game Room as well. Also, why don't posts in the game room make you more of a member? I'd rather not discuss this here, since it's meant as a suggestion box, but I'd like to hear why you don't think so.
Some people see post count as one's contributions to the community. A post saying "moo" is a lot less substantive than a detailed rebuttal to some heated debate or whatever.

And I don't think any complaints/suggestions about post count are going to be heeded. An easier solution is: stop worrying about post count, since it doesn't matter.
Please do your best to preserve postcount, it is useful (to me) in sizing somebody up.
Then your attempts at sizing people up are inherently flawed anyway.
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Postby Gravity Defier » Mon Nov 27, 2006 5:53 pm

Just wanted to add my two cents on post counts. (Even if it's already been suggested.)


If it's possible to disable posts in all the game threads, not just the more popular ones, that's my suggestion. I don't want those counting because you get people who post garbage just to post something.
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Postby Jebus » Mon Nov 27, 2006 6:57 pm

I concur. Please do your best to preserve postcount, it is useful (to me) in sizing somebody up. Plus, it's rude to decimate somebody's postcount without any warning and without a good reason.
You're pathetic.

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Postby anonshadow » Mon Nov 27, 2006 7:26 pm

Just wanted to add my two cents on post counts. (Even if it's already been suggested.)


If it's possible to disable posts in all the game threads, not just the more popular ones, that's my suggestion. I don't want those counting because you get people who post garbage just to post something.
My understanding is that that was possible on the old forum, but is not possible here.

As far as my feeling about the game room threads--personally, I don't understand why post count is such a big deal, especially when what you're posting is "cat" "dog" and "rat." There's no reason for them to be archieved.

Come on. Don't you want your post count to actually reflect what you *contribute*?



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Postby ValentineNicole » Mon Nov 27, 2006 7:31 pm

I think you two are in the minority on that issue. Most people here don't want game threads affecting post counts because they aren't really a good measure of whether a person has become a member of the community.
I agree with that...
I don't know. I used to like the gameroom, but mostly I see it as pointless now. *shrugs*

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Postby v-girl » Mon Nov 27, 2006 7:34 pm

My understanding is that that was possible on the old forum, but is not possible here.
I was wondering if that was the case. If so then all this talk is pointless, huh?

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Postby VelvetElvis » Mon Nov 27, 2006 7:34 pm

I like to procrastinate on there. I wouldn't really mind if it were disabled, but I'm not sure why it matters enough that people mind that they do count.
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Postby mr_thebrain » Mon Nov 27, 2006 8:24 pm

honestly i don't give a fig about post count, as i think i've made pretty clear. my main problem is that i have no idea what happened to the threads. was there an argument was rahl just being an ass? i understand that it may not mean much to anyone else here, but i would like know what happened.

it's not very much of a courtesy or service to the people who frequent this forum to give some sort of explanation and/or treat us with a little bit of respect. yes i know you don't have to. and i know some of you are terribly overworked being mods and maintaining the forums integrity. or whatever bulljive you may wish to pass off on us. you're not gods and your job is not hard no matter what you say. *gasp* the secret is out!

and i might add that the game room does have some good posts in it. its not all inane.

personally i don't respect post count. it means nothing about a person except that they are opinionated. i tend to feel that a person's activation date is a better indication as to their contribution to the board. of course that's askew too considering how many incarnations there have been.
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Postby Jayelle » Mon Nov 27, 2006 8:36 pm

Just a note about the deletion of the threads. There was a long discussion about it in the super-secret mod fortress, and the consensus from all involved was to periodically delete the Word Association and the Last Post threads.

I agree with what many people have said here- posts that are one word long don't reflect a contribution to the community and aren't important for archival.

(I think I spelled about a million things wrong in that post...)
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Postby eriador » Mon Nov 27, 2006 9:56 pm

Please do your best to preserve postcount, it is useful (to me) in sizing somebody up.
Then your attempts at sizing people up are inherently flawed anyway.
I will find myself glancing at postcount as a "how much has this person done?" I only count it as a "how active" meter, nothing else. I don't use it as a basis for determining how much they contribute, I look at content for that. I see postcount in (very roughly) three catagories:

0 - anwhere between 25 and 60: Not very active member, or new here

mid/high double digits - between 150 and 250: Good, substantive poster. Probably "old timer" or discriminating poster.

high: good poster. very active.

ONCE AGAIN, THIS IS JUST A ROUGH GUIDELINE THAT I USE AND IT IS A VERY SMALL PART OF MY OPINION OF SOMEBODY. MY LARGEST FACTOR IS POST CONTENT, NOT COUNT. I USUALLY ONLY USE THIS ON PEOPLE WHO I DON'T IMMEDIATELY RECOGNIZE. I ALSO DID NOT CONSCIOUSLY COME UP WITH THIS, BUT RATHER IT DEVELOPED AS I KEPT SEEING POSTCOUNTS UNDER USERNAMES.

I think that posts in the game threads should count, given the way I consider postcount.

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Postby VelvetElvis » Mon Nov 27, 2006 10:01 pm

I think, fetus, that the whole bone of contention is whether the gameroom should count towards being "active." A person with epilepsy might move a lot during a seizure, but one would hardly say that counted toward having an active lifestyle.
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Postby ValentineNicole » Mon Nov 27, 2006 10:03 pm

I suggest we remove post counts from the lefthand column, due to all the drama it appears to be causing, lol.

I also suggest, as a reminder, that we change my title from Soldier to Princess Pweb. :D :wink:

I <3 Pweb's mods.

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Postby eriador » Mon Nov 27, 2006 10:10 pm

activity in the game room is just a different kind of activity

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Postby Young Val » Mon Nov 27, 2006 10:58 pm

and yet again, goddamn do i miss the old laughing emoticon!!!!


:lol: :lol: :lol:


with no disrespect intended toward eriador at all, Helen, i canNOT stop laughing at the fact that you refered to him as "fetus."

i would have bet everything i own that i would be entirely unable to find anything to smile at, let alone laugh at tonight.

you WIN.
you snooze, you lose
well I have snozzed and lost
I'm pushing through
I'll disregard the cost
I hear the bells
so fascinating and
I'll slug it out
I'm sick of waiting
and I can
hear the bells are
ringing joyful and triumphant

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Postby VelvetElvis » Mon Nov 27, 2006 11:01 pm

I'm glad I could make you laugh.

I call him fetus because I can never remember his real name.
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Postby Jayelle » Mon Nov 27, 2006 11:20 pm

His real name is Horace.
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Postby VelvetElvis » Mon Nov 27, 2006 11:21 pm

I will not believe such lies. He is now and forever "Fetus" in my eyes.
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Postby Young Val » Mon Nov 27, 2006 11:29 pm

I will not believe such lies. He is now and forever "Fetus" in my eyes.
she rhymes!
you snooze, you lose
well I have snozzed and lost
I'm pushing through
I'll disregard the cost
I hear the bells
so fascinating and
I'll slug it out
I'm sick of waiting
and I can
hear the bells are
ringing joyful and triumphant

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Postby VelvetElvis » Mon Nov 27, 2006 11:35 pm

*insert reference to The Princess Bride here*


of course, I rhyme, I WIN.


Could something be done about the post display below avatars?
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Postby AnthonyByakko » Tue Nov 28, 2006 12:16 am

I concur. Please do your best to preserve postcount, it is useful (to me) in sizing somebody up. Plus, it's rude to decimate somebody's postcount without any warning and without a good reason.
You're pathetic.
You can do better than that. I have faith in you.

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Postby suminonA » Tue Nov 28, 2006 7:44 am

Just a note about the deletion of the threads. There was a long discussion about it in the super-secret mod fortress, and the consensus from all involved was to periodically delete the Word Association and the Last Post threads.
I have a suggestion: Why not publicly announce* what threads are going to be deleted periodically (or not) so the people who want to preserve their “precious” post count could avoid them altogether?

edit:
* by adding a [mayfly] or a [TBD] (=To Be Deleted) to the title

A.
It's all just a matter of interpretation.

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Postby fawkes » Tue Nov 28, 2006 9:37 am

You know what? I'm sorry I brought this up at all. I just thought maybe some people might enjoy looking back on those threads and seeing just how ridiculous some of the things people wrote were. I didn't mean for this to turn into a "hate on the people who like trying to get their post count up" thing.

So, please, forget I said anything at all.
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Postby Ela » Tue Nov 28, 2006 4:14 pm

I think you two are in the minority on that issue. Most people here don't want game threads affecting post counts because they aren't really a good measure of whether a person has become a member of the community.
I agree with Claire. I will go even further and suggest that post counts are not that important. I remember a time when we did away with post counts, because people were posting nonsense that added nothing to the community, just to increase their post counts.

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Postby Eddie Pinz » Tue Nov 28, 2006 5:11 pm

Post count or no post count...it would be nice to know what threads are going to be deleted...because I agree we do not need a 80 page long thread of one word posts...but simply for the fact that we don't have 80 members going "WTF??? where'd that thread go???"

Also...I don't know how the deletion was handled...but I think it would be a good idea that if a mod deletes a game room thread that is just going to be made again...that the mod recreates the new thread with the last post from the old thread...thus we don't have crazy long, one-word threads and the game goes on uninterrupted...

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Postby Yebra » Thu Dec 07, 2006 3:03 pm

Yebra: A cross between a zebra and something that fancied a zebra.

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Postby Jebus » Thu Dec 07, 2006 3:08 pm

Wazzitdo?

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Postby Yebra » Thu Dec 07, 2006 3:26 pm

Means you can see what's been posted through an RSS reader instead of coming to the page. For lazy peeps.
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Postby Jebus » Thu Dec 07, 2006 3:32 pm

I tried to find out what an RSS reader is, but wikipedia's entry was so very boring and so very technical that I gave up and no longer care.

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Postby Fris » Thu Dec 07, 2006 4:49 pm

I'd like to second that one.
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