We want Forum Feedback!

[AnanoKimi]

@whitebaron: I had the same issue, tried to dispute it with the mod, but instead was forced to attempt to dispute it with sock instead. I assume it's a case-by-case basis on whether they reply or not (don't expect them too -- all I tend to see are excuses made by both parties of sickness, real-life issues, etc, and I rarely see anyone trying to say "well, they are mods, they should be held accountable for doing their jobs" because they aren't being paid). At least they've sort of gotten a little less ban happy? (or were told to loosen the leash somewhere along the way? coming from FR, this place just feels hostile).

 

Just sharing my experiences before I get slapped by another warn, this wasn't intended rudely. Perhaps as a parallel, but not rudely.

I have been a mod to many forums and an admin of about 2-3 and I know just how tough it is to be a mod/admin when you have quite a lot going on out side of the place you are modding. There are weeks when you can come on and be very active, other weeks you are mostly active, on occasion you go a week or two without visiting the site, and on rare occasions the stress or just everything you have to do takes all attention from the site.

 

Real life does trump DC. I was recently concussed and yes I chose to come on regardless of my headaches but mostly because I am a user. I do not have to deal with complaints, reports, bans, warnings, users in general, etc. I can just come on and chat and be happy. Had I been a mod, I would not have jumped on at all if barely simply because all the stress would just make my headaches worse.

 

Sometimes you have to understand that these 'excuses' can be real life issues from stress, depression, work, school, family, friends, loved ones, spouses, romantic partners, etc, and I don't think its fair for you to sit there and say "Well their just making excuses and just don't want to do their job." Patience is key and if the original issuer is unable to respond for whatever reason, then take it to someone else. Sometimes they will gladly look into it, contact the mod/admin that issued said ban, and try to get it fixed.

 

Sorry, I popped in to skim it over and saw this so I thought I'd throw in my two cents.

[_Z_]

If at anytime a member wishes to discuss anything, feel free to pm a mod. Warns should be discussed with the mod that issued the warn first. (Chain of command) If you still have questions just pm any mod.

[whitebaron]

If at anytime a member wishes to discuss anything, feel free to pm a mod. Warns should be discussed with the mod that issued the warn first. (Chain of command) If you still have questions just pm any mod.

I pmed the mod, and did not get a timely answer even though the message was read, so I'll take it to a global next.

 

About real life interfering: Yes, thats the usual answers, but I feel if you are e.g. hard pressed in life, you should only mod the obvious transgressions (like spam), and leave stuff that needs special attention or looking into to others, who can make their job without outside interferences.

 

[RainDear]

I pmed the mod, and did not get a timely answer even though the message was read, so I'll take it to a global next.

 

About real life interfering: Yes, thats the usual answers, but I feel if you are e.g. hard pressed in life, you should only mod the obvious transgressions (like spam), and leave stuff that needs special attention or looking into to others, who can make their job without outside interferences.

That's assuming that one can plan ahead for illness, accident, death in the family, loss of computer/internet, etc. Certainly if one is studying for finals or other situations one has forewarning of, one can plan for the absence, but to expect people to plan for the unforseeable...

[CNR4806]

That's assuming that one can plan ahead for illness, accident, death in the family, loss of computer/internet, etc. Certainly if one is studying for finals or other situations one has forewarning of, one can plan for the absence, but to expect people to plan for the unforseeable...

Whitebaron did not suggest planning ahead of the unforseeable. He merely suggests that mod should refrain from modding things that require more attention than "this is obviously spam" when they feel unfit to mod at that moment.

[AnanoKimi]

Whitebaron did not suggest planning ahead of the unforseeable. He merely suggests that mod should refrain from modding things that require more attention than "this is obviously spam" when they feel unfit to mod at that moment.

They might not be unfit to mod at the moment. Things don't happen when we want and one moment we may be fine and the other we are suddenly overwhelmed with a problem or problems. As it has been said its a matter of patience. Do not say "Oh that mod is just making excuses" Just contact them and if after some time (days to a week) they do not respond then contact another mod. You never know what that person is going through at that moment so it is best not to judge and call them lazy or say they are not doing their job.

 

In terms of feed back, I have not seen anything wrong in this forum and quite frankly this is one of the nicest places I've ever had the pleasure of posting in.

[whitebaron]

If at anytime a member wishes to discuss anything, feel free to pm a mod. Warns should be discussed with the mod that issued the warn first. (Chain of command) If you still have questions just pm any mod.

I pm'ed a mod, then when i got a week of no answer, i sent it now on to you, as your other co-global-mod is currently in a status of

"This member has chosen not to be contactable by the board Messenger"

 

Thats a new suggestion: If mods are supposed to answer you (are they?), then disallow them to use this feature. Its really not building confidence in being heard if you can't even send messages to all of you.

[Fuzzbucket]

I pm'ed a mod, then when i got a week of no answer, i sent it now on to you, as your other co-global-mod is currently in a status of

"This member has chosen not to be contactable by the board Messenger"

 

Thats a new suggestion: If mods are supposed to answer you (are they?), then disallow them to use this feature. Its really not building confidence in being heard if you can't even send messages to all of you.

Life can mean they have to take a break. EVERY board I am on, when mods are on holiday, at a funeral, sick or whatever, they are allowed to use that feature. And if a mod has no computer at some point, what else can they do, come to that ?

 

Though I can't see any global who ISN'T accepting PMs ATM... I sent one to the other one earlier, and there was no problem.

[AnanoKimi]

Life can mean they have to take a break. EVERY board I am on, when mods are on holiday, at a funeral, sick or whatever, they are allowed to use that feature. And if a mod has no computer at some point, what else can they do, come to that ?

 

Though I can't see any global who ISN'T accepting PMs ATM... I sent one to the other one earlier, and there was no problem.

This.

 

People need to understand that Mods/Admins/Owners are human too. They get sick, fall undres stress, an can have things more important to do than to deal with strangers on a site they are not even getting paid on. If someone is unavailable, then something has come up and we have to understand and respect that. Being unavailable is not that mod being lazy or ignoring users, it is them being unavailable.

 

I say this as an ex mod to 3 different sites/forums. I know how hard it is to deal with life and users at the same time. My life is pretty darn stressful and demanding, and I made time for the site but when I couldn't, I couldn't. I wasn't being lazy, I wasn't ignoring my duties as mod, I needed a mental health day because I was way too pissed off or too depressed to deal with people.

[Shelybear]

This thread has got too many replies and I failed to go through all of them to see if this have been brought up before.

 

I would like to see a Project section/forum separated from Site discussion (but under it,of course), in order to find projects thread easier.

[Concept]

Wow this is actually a really interesting topic and as far as I've read (I don't think I can read 140something pages in one sitting, my eyes would be melting out of my skull) has some really cool insights. My two cents here? I've had both iffy and pretty good experiences, as with most forums, but this is also the largest forum I have ever seen run so well and kept up so consistently. My feedback is all kinds of positive; despite everything working against forums this place keeps on it's feet.

 

There are only two things that bother me/don't make sense. Maybe this has been asked before, or suggested, but I don't know why polls have to be removed by a moderator? It seems like a lot of extra work for everyone involved, and it never really clicked with me why. It's probably explained somewhere or has been brought up earlier in this thread though so no real worried about it I just don't make polls so I neatly skip free of any of that.

 

The other is signatures X-X oh man I run on dial-up internet, and oftentimes I have to spend a good 10-15 minutes trying to load a page just so I can see a picture someone posted in the -original post- because the sigs take up all the loading time/decide to load first. My pipe dream is an option to turn off sigs so I can browse the forums speedily but that is such a pipe dream. People like me with dial up are so rare nowadays.

 

 

In conclusion... I really like this place. I never would have come back... gosh three times now... if I didn't.

[Rhynn Collins]

The other is signatures X-X oh man I run on dial-up internet, and oftentimes I have to spend a good 10-15 minutes trying to load a page just so I can see a picture someone posted in the -original post- because the sigs take up all the loading time/decide to load first. My pipe dream is an option to turn off sigs so I can browse the forums speedily but that is such a pipe dream. People like me with dial up are so rare nowadays.

It's actually possible to turn it off If you go to My Controls, then down to the Options section, into the Board Settings. In the section Board Display Settings there, the first option should be to no longer view signatures

[Concept]

It's actually possible to turn it off If you go to My Controls, then down to the Options section, into the Board Settings. In the section Board Display Settings there, the first option should be to no longer view signatures

Oh my gosh really? ....goes to show how deep I've looked pfft thank you so much. I am trying that asap.

[diaveborn]

I'd love to see a sticky thread in the news subforum that had a list of changes to the forums - that would help the problem of people thinking things are bugs or whatnot, when instead it's an intentional change.

[TJ09]

I'm not sure what you are referencing. There haven't been many (if any) significant changes to how the base software works. Do you have examples of what you mean?

[olympe]

And here I thought I missed some changes - and never even realized it.

[diaveborn]

Basically I'm thinking of polls no longer being an option in the suggestions/requests subforum - I'd had some trouble with it, and I've seen one of the suggestion threads (I forget which one) wonder where their poll went. But if there aren't a lot of changes it probably doesn't make sense to have a whole thread for them. And, come to think of it, with the polls example it would probably create a lot of people wanting to argue the change, which would perhaps overshadow benefits from announcing the change. So.. pretty much never mind, haha.

[Shelybear]

I'd love to see a sticky thread in the news subforum that had a list of changes to the forums - that would help the problem of people thinking things are bugs or whatnot, when instead it's an intentional change.

Like this?

[LibbyLishly]

Question for the mods.

 

Do people who accuse other unnamed players of 'hoarding' and of being 'greedy' during new releases in the new release threads get warns?

[TJ09]

I believe if it's clearly directed at a specific person (or small enough group), then yes.

 

More general cases are probably less clear-cut.

[Fuzzbucket]

I wanted to find a thread I started way back in the dark ages.

 

I can only search for "posts by member". This makes it, frankly, a non-starter, and I had to find it the very hard way.

 

In profiles, is it possible to add "threads started by member" please ? It would also help when I want to find other threads and know who started them but not always, even, which subforum they were in. I think it can be done in invision, at least for the ones I started myself - I just looked on another invision forum.

[Obscure_Trash]

I wanted to find a thread I started way back in the dark ages.

 

I can only search for "posts by member". This makes it, frankly, a non-starter, and I had to find it the very hard way.

 

In profiles, is it possible to add "threads started by member" please ? It would also help when I want to find other threads and know who started them but not always, even, which subforum they were in. I think it can be done in invision, at least for the ones I started myself - I just looked on another invision forum.

There used to be a whole thread for this, but I guess I must have cleaned it - it didn't get a lot of attention. =X

 

You can do this with the main search if you want, though. o3o

 

For example, you for this section: http://forums.dragcave.net/index.php?act=S...opics&highlite=

 

In the search at the top of the forum, put in your member name and chose "Search titles only" under "Search Where". :3

[Fuzzbucket]

There used to be a whole thread for this, but I guess I must have cleaned it - it didn't get a lot of attention. =X

 

You can do this with the main search if you want, though. o3o

 

For example, you for this section: http://forums.dragcave.net/index.php?act=S...opics&highlite=

 

In the search at the top of the forum, put in your member name and chose "Search titles only" under "Search Where". :3

WOW !

 

*tests*

 

 

OK - thanks; I take it back

 

 

[edwardelricfreak]

Personally I would still like what fuzz suggested. I'd like a "find all topics by member" next to the "find all posts" link. You CAN still search for that in the main search, but I think it would just be easier if it was also on someone's profile page, too, maybe?

[Cinnamin Draconna]

Very annoyed here. Another thread disappeared completely with no explanation. And the discussion was still on topic and mostly civil as well.. I think it was probably the topic: Trading Adult Dragons.

 

It's pretty obvious that it was removed too, because several topics got bumped by Sock in the wee hours of last nite, and haven't yet been responded to by anyone else. I can't swear that it was an attempt at distraction of the removal, but that's what it looks like to me.

 

I have no problem with a thread being locked.. permanently or temporarily.. while the Mods try to calm down or sort out a thread. But removing them without explanation is NOT acceptable. We've had this censorship problem before, and I would prefer not to repeat it.