Fixing the Forum - Hang tight

[kopakalady]

Well as you can tell, I'm an Admin again, and you may notice some odd things here or there. Well, we are finally updating on rules, staff and other such things. We're not becoming super strict if anyone is concerned, just actually settling some issues. I am not going into detail, since a lot of things will be behind the scenes. But I have PM'd/IM'd/etc with people and from what I tell there are a lot of things that need to stop and we're working on it.

So, I mainly wanted to make this announcement before people PM me asking what's up, if they see any random moderating or some people becoming moderators without notice or even the forums closing down for a bit; its all a work in progress and may take a few days to settle.

Post here if you have any suggestions for moderators, rules, or other things. Any rude, off topic, or spam posts will be deleted.

[carbunicle]

My advice would be to keep a light hand. To the point of invisibility, if possible. A skillful admin is not even noticed.

[LORD INTERNET DOT COM]

I notice that the staff:member ratio is again increasing...

[Nate]

whats going up, staff or members?

[LORD INTERNET DOT COM]

>_> Staff

If it were the opposite there wouldn't be an issue.

[Nate]

i personally don't think we need more staff, just staff that is on the forum everyday.... and actually posts to be a moderator. i mean seriously, all that our mods do is warn a member when they do something wrong and close topics, and there is more of the latter. I think that a really good mod should actually help the topic along and solve problems instead of simply closing topics.

[Imatron]

Well, thats the plan Scholzie, We get few people trained to know what to do who are willing to do it that way. Were going to try and get a moderator for each section, and give him that small area to look over each day, with a couple global mods to watch thier backs. If they dont have much to do, in theory, they can easily give the section a once over a couple times a day without much stress and go back to whatever they were doing, rather than one overworked staffer going at it for a few hours a day.

[carbunicle]

ratios are always read from left to right. So it would read as "staff to members ratio is increasing". The inverse (members:staff) would read "members to staff is decreasing".

[kopakalady]

People really think there are a lot of staff now, and there are, but none are active. And one really does not know how much work it takes, especially the stress sometimes pulled along with the job. Its easier to have some extra staff. Once we organize it, we'll have it in a way where there will be the admins who will do the technical work. Then a global mod to be the mini admin and keep some order between moderators. Then we have our normal moderators who will do most of the moderating itself.

We're also working on a system of warning and suspending, so hopefully no more random or loose rules and regulations. We'll state them firmly, but still in away where hopefully everyone will be happy, and if people wont follow them they will be warned and eventually suspended, and if they want a second chance we'll give it to them.

Thats why I wanted to make this topic, to give a warning to what we're up to.

[LORD INTERNET DOT COM]

....But like half our members are staff. We don't need that many. Do some job sharing if this is what you claim, just set a few people as admins with suspension abilties. Imatron did pretty much fine by himself in comparison to the mass of staff we have now.

[DEATH PANDA]

kopakalady said:

I'm an Admin again,

Well, I guess I'll have to find a backup in case this place goes down

As for suggestions... WATCH OUT FOR TROLLS.

AND TERRORISTS, LIKE THE ONE HERE, POSTING THIS.
*fires Kalashnikov randomly*

[LORD INTERNET DOT COM]

So is there any chance of non-MSN clique members becoming staff?

[Bepura]

So is there any chance of non-MSN clique members becoming staff?

Elaborating on this, I'd be happy to moderate one of the sub forums. I'm usually on here once or twice a day.

~Bepura.

EDIT: I'd also like to suggest a rule against sledging people for making mistakes. It's really becoming annoying these days.

[Imatron]

Im working on a rule for stuff like that, Bepura. Aegis, three potential news staffers Im connsidering dont have MSN, so I understand. If they do they'r not on often enough for me to notice them or I dont have them on my contacts. I think one of the mods Im connsidering doesnt have it either.

[DEATH PANDA]

Here's something I learnt from my old forum-

If it changes gender, it uses poor grammar, it makes and posts utter s**t, It makes normal topics which instead are used to annoy people, and it persistently does so, it's a troll and a flamethrower should thusly be applied to it.

[Kate]

I've never heard the gender one, interesting. We did at one stage (not here) have a person who about two years in decided they now wanted to be known as 'Donna'...but then they were going through some personal issues, and eventually BECAME Donna...

Wierd and random anecdote aside, is there a way to obtain spoiler tags for this forum? They're quite handy for art-type topics where it's just neater and kinder to one's internets to have things hidden until you want to look at them, and good for hiding the random babble in story topics before you actually get down to posting the actual chapter.

[Imatron]

Ill look into spoiler tags while Im investigating adding a report button. Problem is the process of doing so means working with the site's codeing rather than using built in functions to add a feature, and many of the codes are made by other forum users, so Im trying to ensure they arent sneaking something else into thier premade code...

[Kate]

I know proboards are intending to add a proper spoiler button (as well as a better PM system - YES!) in the next software update but from what I read they're not even going to start testing until July-ish

Guess it's just a case of picking a more reputable coder?

[LORD INTERNET DOT COM]

Coders? On MoD? Ha, we haven't had staff who could code for years.

[LORD INTERNET DOT COM]

kopakalady said:

Serious life issue came up. I'm gone.

Lol what

That's this thread down the pan then

[DEATH PANDA]

On my old forum, they had about two people who shifted genders- one was a major troll but lasted only a few months- the other has been on the forum for years and everytime he/she/it makes a topic someone gets angry, despite how close to normal the topic is.

[Rekky]

Apr 10, 2008 3:40:40 GMT -5 DEATH PANDA said:

On my old forum, they had about two people who shifted genders- one was a major troll but lasted only a few months- the other has been on the forum for years and everytime he/she/it makes a topic someone gets angry, despite how close to normal the topic is.

And what might that demonstrate to us to further enhance our-oops I mean-their services as moderators?
I believe this is one great step to getting our-I mean-your services to prevent us from doing bad and naughty (XD) stuff. How are the moderators being selected if I may ask?

[magnus]

Using the background without my permission.. is that some violating rules ?

[Monasti]

Magnus... i remember thee....

Rekky, are you a mod by any chance? You gave no subtle hints in your posts, btw.

[Timekeeper]

Bumping a months old topic without my permission?

is that violating some rules?

[magnus]

I wonder which violation will be more problematic~

[Timekeeper]

I'm just messing with you

[Primus]

Apr 29, 2008 5:13:37 GMT -5 Rekky said:

How are the moderators being selected if I may ask?

I'd like to know too. If I'm allowed.

P

[magnus]

Jul 26, 2008 18:15:13 GMT -5 Timekeeper said:

I'm just messing with you

Is that how you take responsibility for your actions? telling your messing with them?

[Timekeeper]

Did you not read my post, Mag?

I took your post and changed the words jokingly informing you that the topic was bumped from h*ll.

It's not an action that even requires taking responsibility for. It hardly constitutes as an action.