Forum Feedback! (what, again?)

[Lucretius]

Yeah, I'm tired of imagining I know what's best for the forum and I know the other mods agree. But some mashed together feedback thread isn't the trick. So this thread will stay locked untill one thing happens (this is the fun part)...

I want e-mails from anyone and everyone with a gripe about this forum. Is it no fun anymore, is it too full of spam, are things not helpful? Tell me in an e-mail NOT PM. Ah-hem, let me repeat...tell me in an e-mail NOT PM. I'll compile all the gripes togther and choose the top 3. And between this thread and a chatroom I'm going to set up, we're gonna lick this funk the forums are in or my name isn't gannon. No wait, it's not gannon...er...

So send me thouse e-mails...and no hate-mail, or that will count as a violation of rule #1, alright? Cool...

[Lucretius]

Alright, 41 reads and 5 e-mails...come on people, get invloved...

[Lucretius]

Alright, I got a total 14 e-mails and I figure that;s where we can stop. I'll be going through them with the other mods today and possibly tomarrow to find the three biggest issues! Once we have the three biggest, we'll post them here and unlock this. Then you, that's right YOU, can post and comment on them.

Stay tuned for more! We'll be back after a word from our sponsers...

[Lucretius]

Alright, I'm nearly ready to get this party started, but I need one last favor from you guys. I want to make the top three credible, so please PM me as soon as you can IF you e-mailed me telling me you don't mind me posting your e-mail, with your name or anonymous or if you don't want me to. No PM will mean you don't, so it's alright.

Please hurry, I want to get the community involved as soon as possible!

[Lucretius]

20 days. That's how long it takes and over worked procrastinator to get to the bottom of his to do list, and finish the project. (number increaes highly if you are gannon)

Alright, the three main issues arrrrrre: (drumroll and cymbal "pish")

1. TOO MUCH SPAM!
2. MODS ARE TOO NICE!
3. MODS ARE TOO MEAN!
Extra: NOTHING IS WRONG!



Don't believe me? Take a look!

Please note that the reply address to this email has been set to that of Skyone.

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Hey Luc, it's Skyone, and you asked for it:



It seems like there aren't enough mods on the job. For instance, the only mod in the NES forum is G-Force, and he hasn't been on for 11 days. If you take a look in the NES forum, you'll see "THANK YOU BEN!!!!!" If you peep in it, you'll find that it's all spam...



Mods are taking to much crap? It seems like you guys are getting easier on people that deserve punishment, aka: the sam fisher problem.



To put it frank, Ben isn't to wise when it comes to suggestions and his site. There have been quite a few recommendations of bot-prevention and smilies...



I think we oughtta have a nomination for another mod or two, to control more spam. And hopefully we can eliminate the existance of mini-mods, I think that all mods should moderate all forums. And hopefully we can get Ben to admin the forums a bit better....



-Skyler (Skyone)

Please note that the reply address to this email has been set to that of ganonbanned.

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I think that Forum 42 is a good Forum, but there are some bad things about it. There are to many people that think they are moderator and get pissy at dumb things. Also, to many topics lately have turned in to a flame war because of these people. It is sad because F42 is a great place but some idiots use it.

Please note that the reply address to this email has been set to that of Harshboy.

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Hey Luc,



Personally, i see a few things wrong which if not fixed could possably turn the forums into a complete mess. The list as follows (In no particular order) are my main concerns:



1) For some of the Newbies joining our Forum, they have been AIMing me with a need of help (Such as LHOT for his crazy 3-64p) I have been working hard on making "noob" friendly diagrams for the people that need them.



The Fix: Possably add "noob" Friendly daigrams of much more detail (Such as Skyones level of detail) to the forums instead of 2 second MS-Paint works. I know this would have helped me more on my GCp. Some areas on the forum need more diagrams. I can't stress that enough.



2) You and i both know there is way to much spam in F42, even some in the other forums. Such threads as "Dude, WTF" are pointless since we all already knew the site was down. Some other threads are ok, but then just get spamy from returning spammers. We need to stop them, they are part of the problem. Ever since you enforced the new rules and stuff i've seen less, but its not gone yet, we cant lie to ourselves and say it is.



The Fix: Actually, i have no idea. I cant help but say, rid of the spammer(s) They have been warned enough, and its time to do something about them.





I have a few simplier ideas and thoughts, but im sure others will be my sender. Anyway, Peace.



-Harshboy

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Well Luc, to me the forum has kind of lost it's appeal. There's no more, "Hey, look what I made!" it's becoming more of a "blog" for everyone. I just think we could have a little bit less of the threads where they say *serious topic* or "sorry if this is spammy" B.S.



I know you can only do so much I'm just saying I want to see stuff done, not about how much your day sucked.



Sincerely,

Cows

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Well I saw your sticky so I thought why not tell him how much I love this forum. I love the people on this forum as a family. Really. Only spammers ruin it sometimes but thats not a big problem with all the mods around. (Also I stil want too apolize for the game1ver thread) Well I think we have too ditch all the zero post users. You can say well they can be reading it. But they can also read it without an acount. And if they want too post they can make a new acount in 3 min. Well thank you for allowing feedback.



Your forum pal,



Jeroen

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Ok forum 42 is turning into a help forum. "I need help on this and am to lazy to google it!!!" People don't put any good stuff in this forum anymore. I admit I do ask for help when I can't find an answer but not for everything and every little problem. Well then now that I got that out of the way I would like to thank you for doing somthing about this. Thanx

Please note that the reply address to this email has been set to that of bicostp.

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My forum gripes:



1. People can't get over their petty feuds.

2. People bicker over nothing *coughsamfishercough* sorry, allergies.

3. we don't have a modbot. I'll ask gannon about what kinds of security flaws it would open.

4. some people are generally mean

5. We've already had 2 people come back from permabans under assumed identities... How many more? :O

6. I really hate the "help me get a free psp" things in people's sigs.

7. There's no way to set a maximum avatar and sig size

8. Long links aren't automatically turncated (sp?). There's a plugin for phpbb that fixes this

9. We should have a "geezer forum" for people who have been here for a long time so they can shoot the breeze about how the forum is starting to suck, how things were back "in the day", name brand vs store brand denture adhesive.... I know this hasn't been accepted warmly before but who knows how it would go down now?

10. People complain if the mods are too strict, calling them nasty things, but then complain when we're too lax. *to them* Duh!

Please note that the reply address to this email has been set to that of SpearMan74.

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All these stupid posts about how "downhill" the site is going is reallllly starting to get on my nerves. They're just contributing to all the crap that they complain about!



Also, if most the "I'm going to create a portable, what should i get?" threads could be stopped. Look at N64 forum. Half of them are either "progress threads" or "i'm going to start" threads.



There, thanks for reading this.

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hi man, thanks for the feedback thread. anyway since you're now welcoming gripes, here's some of mine:



1. the mods act like there's some kind of spam epidemic. there's been no more spam recently then there was when i joined. there are just a little over 3x as many people as there were back then and almost 5x as many F42 mods as there were, that's more than enough mods to cover everything so no mod needs to take it upon himself to clean up the whole place. there's room to chill out and be cool with a little modding here and there



2. shooting everybody's face off is no more effective than warning the problem guy and giving a good reason of what rule they broke and how they broke it. i follow rules by reasoning, not fearing the enforcers.



3. crackdowns don't work. what they are is over-reacting to 1 or a few people and punishing everybody by making the rules stricter and tougher to follow. the only times i break the rules is when they're easier to break and more provoking. this kinda goes with gripe #1. crackdowns cause more problems than they solve



4. what happened to guidelines instead of rules? guidlines are better because it makes the mods use common sense instead of "don't do this or i'll kill you."



5. i need a bill of rights. it's not fair to have a huge list of what i can't do and then nothing saying what i can do. without a list of rights, the mods can twist the rules however they want to make it seem like i break a rule and it'll seem perfectly legal to them



6. over-worked mods should have some time to cool off and get temporarily (or perminantly, whatever works best) replaced by a more user-friendly and level-headed member. when a mod gets tired of modding, he should retire. an exhausted grouchy mod is not a good mod and makes everything must more hostil than it needs to be.



7. mods should act more like the rules apply to them. sometimes a mod will flame me repetedly and break rule #1 over and over again and i can't do anything about it simply because i'm not a mod. it gets very irritating and seems like they're just asking me to break a rule. lead by example.



most big problems are caused by mods over-reacting to small problems.

Please note that the reply address to this email has been set to that of Klefmung.

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I am raping an atari 7800 (tell noone! >_<) and I think it would be appropriate to set up a 7800 forum. Because there is nowhere to pose my 7800 related questions. Not like anyone knows the answers, but meh. <_< So, yea.....

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These forums aren't that bad, the only thing I don't like is how a lot of people will attack other people for saying stupid things. Most of the time that doesn't help at all and can make things worse. There is nothing that can really be done about that but thats what i don't like. Also people will post a new topic saying something like "N64p!" and when you open it up that person will say "almost finished!" or just getting started. I feel that this is too misleading and should changed.



-Garrett

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Dear Luc,

The forum is in pretty good order in my opinion luckily there aren't too many porn bots coming in anymore and what little spam we have is usually from the newer members and it goes pretty quick



I believe all the mods are doing their jobs and there are no major flaming issues



All in all I am happy with the forum and plan to be a member for years to come



~Krepticor

David McIver

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Hi



Seeing as you requested feedback i thought i might say that i find nothing wrong wit hthe forums at the moment, sure there is spam but it is being kept under control from my point of view.



My only gripe is that occasionlly i cant post in certain topics for no reason, it just doesnt load the page when i click post



but thats a personal gripe



So all i have to say is keep doing what you're doing because it seems to be working

All I see is that there is a spam issue in 42 (and some other forums, sorta), that the mods are too kind and giving, and that the mods are being to uptight. Also, according to others, everything is fine, I guess...

Okay, go nuts. Comment away!

[Skyone]

I can't say I'm surprised at the responses... Except for Klefmung's 7800 forum request. To add onto that, I think that the 2600 forum should just be changed to general Atari, due to lack of people actually making Atari portables.

Other than that I totally agree with cowsgoquack. Even though it's cut down ever since you first made this thread, there's still blogging going on.

[sgtpepper]

Well first of all I meant to e-mail about this a long time, but school needed top priority at the time. But I must say, some great points were raised that I wouldn't have thought to include in an email.

First, I think it would be helpful to "instate" another mod (or 2 or 3?), because that would take some of the weight off the current mods, but only if the new mods could do the job well. So obviously this would totally depend on whether anyone is "worthy" enough for the position.

Second, I there should be two subforums added. A "n00b forum" and an "Old Timers forum" (taking the idea from bicostp). The n00b forum would be the place where people in need of basic help could get started. Clear diagrams and explanations, and a Mod with a LOT of patience would be required. The Old Timers forum would be a place for experienced members to be able to congregate and talk about whatever (no blogging). The major problem would be regulating who could post in the forum. It would have to be entirely up to the mods, and in no way based on post count. Users would PM a mod for permission to access and post and the forums and it would be up to the mod to decide who is allowed. (I doubt I'd even be considered an old timer! )Definitely a shaky idea, but it could work!

Third, NO BLOGGING. This is the most vile and foul-tasting spam in the forums. People posting, needing help with something technology related is fine, but the problem is when people start asking about situations in their life blah blah and that's when it goes straight to the blogosphere. This is a technology-related forum, not the story of your life! I know this is already a rule, but it seems to me to be the most problematic as far as spam is concerned.

Last, I think the mods are currently doing an amazing job, if anything they should be harder on people.

I think with a few more mods instated, and their effort and consistincy matching (if not surpassing) the current mods, the forum will be a better place!

[*o*]

I have just one gripe...I got a warning for posting in a spambots thread, i thought seeing it will be deleted why does it matter?

comments?

[Sparkfist]

I have just one gripe...I got a warning for posting in a spambots thread, i thought seeing it will be deleted why does it matter?

comments?

It matters as that kind of posting is spam. Responding to a spam bot is about as useful as having a conversation with the wall. On top of that all it does is add to the wasted bandwidth and pointless posts. So don't respond to spam bots.

Also changing the Atari 2600 forum to just the Atari forum would help. For the few times people have asked about the Jaguar they've been confused about whether or not to post in the Atari forum or the SNES or the PSone. This will really simplify things. So Gannon if you're read just drop the 2600.

[madc0w]

Second, I there should be two subforums added. A "n00b forum" and an "Old Timers forum" (taking the idea from bicostp). The n00b forum would be the place where people in need of basic help could get started. Clear diagrams and explanations, and a Mod with a LOT of patience would be required. The Old Timers forum would be a place for experienced members to be able to congregate and talk about whatever (no blogging). The major problem would be regulating who could post in the forum. It would have to be entirely up to the mods, and in no way based on post count. Users would PM a mod for permission to access and post and the forums and it would be up to the mod to decide who is allowed. (I doubt I'd even be considered an old timer! )Definitely a shaky idea, but it could work!

On another forum I go one, we have a "New member area" and that seems to be able to tell people how to act and other basics. Also, maybe we should have it so you can only post in the new member area the first time you sign up, or stickies.

[bioniclebert]

I can't say I'm surprised at the responses... Except for Klefmung's 7800 forum request. To add onto that, I think that the 2600 forum should just be changed to general Atari, due to lack of people actually making Atari portables.

I was thinking either that, or a Classic gaming type forum. And yes I totally agree that there aren't many atari portables anymore, so I think a 7800 forum would, how to put this, specify the forums more, where-as I believe a Atari/classic gaming forum would be more generalized.

[Metroid fan]

Well if you guys want a mod thats on a lot I could do it as i'm on here A LOT! But if you guys think you got it then I don't know what else to add.

[CronoTriggerfan]

I also think we should have a few more mods around. Of the mods we have, few are on a lot, and even fewer are active.

CTFan

[vskid]

Well if you guys want a mod thats on a lot I could do it as i'm on here A LOT! But if you guys think you got it then I don't know what else to add.

I get on about an hour a day (thats how much my parents allow me, I'm usually on more), I could handle being a mod.

[Lucretius]

Let me make one thing VERY clear. There will be no more mods. Okay? We've got 16 mods, including the newly appointed skyone. That's pleanty. You'd be surprised how few of us are inactive.