We want Forum Feedback!

[superguy16]

I dont even do original stuff and i agree with her

Edited December 21, 2010 by superguy16

[chuhulil]

I'd like to see an R rated section with a disclaimer that within reason, everything can be discussed openly and maturely. We've had a few threads closed in GD because of PG-13 guidelines being very poorly defined. The MRAA even only gives "parental guidance advised" as its criteria, from what I can tell.

This.

 

Also, just having mods answer questions would be hectic, because people have lives outside of DC. Sometimes, if they can't log on, for whatever reason, not all the questions will be answered, or it would put a lot of strain on the mods that did have to answer questions.

[LadyLyzar]

My $0.02...

 

DC does not need an R-rated section. That would be a huge hassle due to age restrictions. I would rather see a Debate section cordoned off from GD. That's where all the hot-button issues would go.

 

That being said, PG-13 rules should still apply. To have a serious debate, you do not need to use foul language, or discuss detailed sexual material. Such topics really should be taken elsewhere.

 

Now for the artists' section... I used to HATE it. Before the Suns were released and I gained access to it, I knew about this section, and was livid when prominent projects (such as La Femme) were moved into it. (That still bugs me to be quite honest, since the community was heavily involved in such projects. But that's another topic.)

 

However, it is nice for surprise projects, ideas, and discussions, such as how we can help better relationships between artists, users, and staff. I think the section should remain just for that aspect. There's no need to be paranoid about our "vision" for the site being different from yours. We love it just as much as you do - the only difference is that we make dragons for you.

 

We have an additional place to offer feedback and suggestions, but that doesn't mean that users can't do the same. All feedback is valued whether it comes from staff, artists, or the community.

 

Our word is not law when it comes to what happens on DC. We are not staff - if anything we are users that make pretties and were lucky enough to get a dragon on the site. That's pretty much it.

 

On to suggestions...

 

- I would like to see search flood control toned down a little bit, but not removed entirely.

 

- Rather than just the FAQ, a few stickied topics in Help that redirect to that area of the FAQ might not be a bad idea. Similar to how the Dragon Requests guide is laid out. The FAQ is big, and it might be easy to overlook things. Hence, seperate listings for "My egg died!", "Please clickeh meh eggies" (which would lead to a fansite list) and so on...

 

- I miss the "All About Staff Member X" threads. I think these should be reopened but with less chatter, since apparently they became spammish.

 

*edited due to silly autofilter*

Edited December 21, 2010 by LadyLyzar

[Darth Krande]

It'd be awesome if there was an option to find a forum member if I know their scroll name. There are many people who have different name here, but they have a link to their scroll in the signature.

[MisunderstoodDreamer]

As in this site we have a lot of users with different nationalities and I bet we'll have more in future, what about adding to the rule and FAQ topic the translations in the principal languages? There are a lot of kids here that wants to play but they doesn't know the english well, or at all. Translators aren't good for this, I've read a mod's post for an user from my country that doesn't know english and I understoond what he/she wrote a little, even if he/she used a translator. Or appoint a responsible for every language that will help others peoples of him/her nationality. Because if you need a mentor but you doesn't know english it will be useless. And this helps to make this site user-friendly .

[Fengari]

My one and only problem are subscriptions flooding my e-mail. Subs are useful to find threads without hundreds of bookmarks, but...

This is my first thought when I saw the opening post, so in the category 'features':

 

It would be great to be able to set how you would want e-mail notification. On another forum I frequently use, there's these options, and they can be set by thread:

- no notification (only visible when going to 'My Topics', this is the one I use most)

- weekly notification (summary at the end of the week)

- daily notification (summary at the end of the day)

- immediate notification (I use these for the really important ones. LiT would be an example here)

It would seriously reduce 'spam' in my inbox.

I've already thought about changing my e-mail to a non-existing or non-used adress, but that would keep me from getting news and PM notifications too, and I do want those.

 

About forum structure and moderating:

I don't think 'unfriendly' is the word I would use, as most people here are friendly enough, and I have no issues with the mods on that. 'Intimidating' is more appropriate.

Especially the strict duplicate policy combined with the not-so-user-friendly search make me hesitant to ask or suggest something. Having a thread closed and referred to another thread that almost, but not exactly suggested the same thing, was not a nice feeling (no hard feelings though).

Having an expanded FAQ and the 'Tiny Questions' thread pinned (maybe the person who mods the 'tiny' thread can add the most recurring questions to the FAQ when wiping?) would solve that a bit in the Help section, I think. So would a pinned list of terms and abbreviations.

In the suggestions section, maybe a pinned list of things that have been suggested (not only what not to suggest but also things that have been suggested, received well, but then died out a bit) would help.

 

I would also like to see a Dragon Cave-related 'chat' section where people could go to share successes (I know there's the Congrats thread), vent about things that didn't go as planned (is there a thread for that now?) or just say other non-important things about their experiences on Dragon cave. It would help build even more of a sense of community, and would keep those topics of of the general Site Discussion section.

 

In the News section I would also like to see news topics closed for reactions, except from the topic starter. That way additions could be made to the original post without editing it (so people who track it see something's up without having to read every 'thank you') and there could be a link to a seperate questions-thread and reaction-thread for those who feel the need to Yay!.

 

Finally, I would like to add that I really appreciate how well-written most posts are on this forum. I am relieved not to have to try deciphering entire posts in chat- and SMS-speak. I assume this is the result of active moderating because it is the first forum frequented by a lot of youngsters I see that isn't plagued by those. So a big thumbs up for that!

 

[MisunderstoodDreamer]

(1) Maybe the person who mods the 'tiny' thread can add the most recurring questions to the FAQ when wiping?

 

 

(2) I would also like to see a Dragon Cave-related 'chat' section where people could go to share successes (I know there's the Congrats thread), vent about things that didn't go as planned (is there a thread for that now?) or just say other non-important things about their experiences on Dragon cave. It would help build even more of a sense of community, and would keep those topics of of the general Site Discussion section.

 

(1) This! You don't know how many times I thought about it! Someone before mentioned about the plenty of duplicate Zombie questions, and I'd like to say that if users read the Wiki before ask, they will find easily their answers without annoying other users. Maybe more advertising to this site, even in the first post of Tiny Little Question, and possibly in the FAQ?

 

(2)Why don't add a tag (I hope that this is it's name) in the home page like other forums?

[Quinney]

a pinned list of terms and abbreviations.

I would love to see this as well.

[Zeekaice]

There should be a section where anything goes (stuff like being mean to other members not included). On the forums of Aywas, there's a "Junk Pile" section and people can make a thread about anything, and they put "M" for Mature if there's swearing or anything, well, mature. This would help with what's considered not enough discussion, spam, etc. It works great there, we always have a lot of fun in that section.

[Emmejo]

As in this site we have a lot of users with different nationalities and I bet we'll have more in future, what about adding to the rule and FAQ topic the translations in the principal languages? There are a lot of kids here that wants to play but they doesn't know the english well, or at all. Translators aren't good for this, I've read a mod's post for an user from my country that doesn't know english and I understoond what he/she wrote a little, even if he/she used a translator. Or appoint a responsible for every language that will help others peoples of him/her nationality. Because if you need a mentor but you doesn't know english it will be useless. And this helps to make this site user-friendly .

I believe the Mentoring project has a number of folks who speak languages other than English and help new players in their native language. They may still have trouble reading the instructions on requesting a mentor, but if they can see that one of the mentors has a note labeled "French" or "Chinese" next to their PM link on the thread, I would hope they would know they can contact that person in a language that is more familiar to them for details.

 

Posts have a length limit, so posting everything over again in translation (even in just a handful of languages) would take up a lot of room. It might also encourage hasty people to skip reading them even more frequently because it seems longer when they glance at it.

 

 

 

 

Perhaps the website FAQ's could have an option for multiple languages at some point, but this thread isn't really the place for talking about it as it wouldn't be part of the forum.

[pokemonzoo]

I would go on these forums a lot more if there were R-rated sections. I feel restricted, and that's why I don't post. I can't swear like I do.

 

Just putting this out there for the sake of feedback; I'd love to see the mods really cut down on people who are causing drama. If they really do take care of it like they should, I certainly have not seen it.

I don't mean to be rude to the mods though :x

[Khallayne]

Even if we did get an 'R' rated forum. Swearing would still not be allowed. It would raise the actual rating of the forum. >.>

 

Being free to swear isn't considered mature.

[dragon_mando]

I support a more mature section for sure, but please, swear-filters still fully intact. A mature discussion does not have swearing in it anyway and a post full of curse words only cheapens the argument.

[Syaoransbear]

However, it is nice for surprise projects, ideas, and discussions, such as how we can help better relationships between artists, users, and staff. I think the section should remain just for that aspect. There's no need to be paranoid about our "vision" for the site being different from yours. We love it just as much as you do - the only difference is that we make dragons for you.

 

We have an additional place to offer feedback and suggestions, but that doesn't mean that users can't do the same. All feedback is valued whether it comes from staff, artists, or the community.

 

Our word is not law when it comes to what happens on DC. We are not staff - if anything we are users that make pretties and were lucky enough to get a dragon on the site. That's pretty much it.

Don't you think that a better way to discuss how to improve relationships between artists, users, and staff would be to include all of those groups in the discussion so everyone is represented instead of just speculating what another group may be thinking?

 

I can understand a need for a private section when you are making surprises, but for everything else I don't see why users need to be left out of the loop. If worthless comments from users interfere with the artists work, couldn't their secret board be made as read-only to people who are not artists so we at least know what's going on and what your thoughts are?

 

I also agree that the Mature board should not allow swearing. I think the board rules of no swearing and no NSFW pictures should still apply. I also dislike calling it the R-Rated board. Usually, an R rating means there is nudity, excessive swearing, and depictions of extreme violence and drug use. If, say, a person in a movie only talks about a mature theme, that would not make the movie R-rated. I really wouldn't consider the board an R-Rated board. Plus new members might see that and get the idea that this is the place for them to post graphic pictures, not that it's a place to discuss mature topics.

[~!~]

However, it is nice for surprise projects, ideas, and discussions, such as how we can help better relationships between artists, users, and staff.  I think the section should remain just for that aspect. There's no need to be paranoid about our "vision" for the site being different from yours.  We love it just as much as you do - the only difference is that we make dragons for you.

I suppose that makes sense. You know better than me what the artists think, being, you know, one of them, and if you say there's not much difference, I'll take your word for it. My impressions came from reading some DR threads and hearing arguments and long discussions about things that I really didn't care about. I see dragons being released that (imho) aren't as cool as some dragons on the completed list, and I assume someone other than TJ09 has a say in which dragons get released when. But if that's not the case, then I'll shut up about it.

 

EDIT: I have an idea that could solve all our problems. More specific user groups. Like, a user could be rated from 1 to 5 (or something) in terms of maturity and general niceness, and would be given permissions accordingly. Of course, to prevent people from freaking out and being all "omg why isnt my lvl higher im ttly mature," this would be hidden.

 

I also like the "karma" suggestion someone added before. There wouldn't even need to be abuse filters, because if someone rates a user really low because they're pissed off, the other users will notice and fix it. (Or, you know, there could be abuse filters. Like, you can only bump a member's karma up or down once per period-of-time.)

Edited December 22, 2010 by ~!~

[LadyLyzar]

AFAIK, artists have about as much input in which completed dragons get released as the cheerleaders have on the score of a football game.

 

Syaoransbear, I see your point. However keeping such discussions out of the public eye IMO is the best way to avoid rampant dramaflakes and hard feelings. We have enough drama among ourselves. But that's kind of getting off topic.

 

That being said, I like the read-only bit for large projects if things are getting hairy. Again, I wasn't happy when things like La Femme were pulled in, because the community had been so involved in them. However if you were to limit posting in such a section to in-cave artists, that does exclude new artists who might want a piece of the action. Hence it has issues all its own that would be more work for the mods.

 

As for the rated user groups, I see that having the potential to degrade into a popularity contest, and also for abuse if you don't agree with someone's views. It's an interesting idea, nonetheless.

 

For swearing filters... there is no reason whatsoever to use foul language in text. Really. It doesn't just 'slip out' because you have to actually take the time to type and submit your post. Regardless of the topic, I believe filters should remain.

[purplehaze]

 

EDIT: I have an idea that could solve all our problems. More specific user groups. Like, a user could be rated from 1 to 5 (or something) in terms of maturity and general niceness, and would be given permissions accordingly. Of course, to prevent people from freaking out and being all "omg why isnt my lvl higher im ttly mature," this would be hidden.

My only question is who would do the rating? Is that a responsibility that the mods could, or would even want to, take on? And if not the mods, then who?

[~!~]

My only question is who would do the rating? Is that a responsibility that the mods could, or would even want to, take on? And if not the mods, then who?

I was definitely, absolutely thinking the mods would handle who was in what group. It wouldn't be, like, a caste system thing, but a more subjective way to keep obnoxious people out of serious discussions, or keep people who are prone to causing drama out of sensitive areas. (In fact, a 1-5 rating might be too one-dimensional. After all, someone who's reasonable and intelligent to debate controversial issues, but be harsh and blunt when it comes to helping out new users.)

[SickSoul]

I was definitely, absolutely thinking the mods would handle who was in what group. It wouldn't be, like, a caste system thing, but a more subjective way to keep obnoxious people out of serious discussions, or keep people who are prone to causing drama out of sensitive areas. (In fact, a 1-5 rating might be too one-dimensional. After all, someone who's reasonable and intelligent to debate controversial issues, but be harsh and blunt when it comes to helping out new users.)

No. im sorry but as much as I love mods, they do have friends here.

Again, it will become a popularity contest.

[skauble]

EDIT:  I have an idea that could solve all our problems.  More specific user groups.  Like, a user could be rated from 1 to 5 (or something) in terms of maturity and general niceness, and would be given permissions accordingly.  Of course, to prevent people from freaking out and being all "omg why isnt my lvl higher im ttly mature," this would be hidden.

Frankly, if there is a new section for more mature/serious/rated R (not sure which we're going with) discussion, then I think that it should be 18+. Yes, I know that leaves some people out of using it, but that's kind of just a part of life when it comes to these things because it's the best way to protect a site or business from complaints and negative fallout. Especially in a site with so many younger kids. I think asking moderators to judge maturity is actually going to make it worse for the site if a parent, who let their kid joined when the forum made it clear that it was PG13, finds out that a higher rated forum was added and staff decided that their kid was mature enough for it.

 

A birthday can be requested during registration (don't know if that's done now) with the ability to show or hide it, and if people register with a false age, then the site has done all that it can do (well, except for not having a forum like that). And if anyone is caught re-registering to circumvent the age restriction then that can be warned/banned.

 

For the record, I still don't see the need for it. I see serious subjects in the GD section a lot. Maybe someone would be willing to share what the limitations are or what kinds of things have merited warnings there so that there can be a greater understanding of what people would want a new forum to entail.

 

As for karma, I was on a site that had a (admittedly hilarious) karma drama over negative karma and how people were using it to get back at people that they didn't like. It caused a tremendous amount of trouble. I can only think that it would be a hundred times worse here where people are going to start massively trading and negative karma might actually have an adverse effect. I would suggest that if we had a karma system it be restricted to giving only positive karma as an encouragement for appropriate or helpful behavior (which is still open to abuse, but far less, IMO).

[Fengari]

I also agree that the Mature board should not allow swearing. I think the board rules of no swearing and no NSFW pictures should still apply. I also dislike calling it the R-Rated board. Usually, an R rating means there is nudity, excessive swearing, and depictions of extreme violence and drug use. If, say, a person in a movie only talks about a mature theme, that would not make the movie R-rated. I really wouldn't consider the board an R-Rated board. Plus new members might see that and get the idea that this is the place for them to post graphic pictures, not that it's a place to discuss mature topics.

 

This. I have the feeling people in this thread are actually talking about two seperate things here.

 

If what they ask for is a seperate section where more serious topics (politics, religion, sexuality) are discussed in a mature way, I'm all for that. I don't think there need to be different rules that apply. It is perfectly possible to have a serious and mature debate about those topics without resorting to swearing or graphic language. Having those topics seperated from the rest of GD will ensure that people who don't like to be confronted with other people's politic views, religion or sexuality will not accidentally stumble on these posts, and should also ensure immature people will automatically stay away as generally they won't be interested. Just in case, this section needs to be actively moderated (shouldn't be a problem here, the whole forum is) and people who repeatedly disrupt topics with immature posts, swearing or flaming could get banned from that section. But no restricting system that requires 'proving' maturity or 'getting selected' should be there, as that will only cause drama.

 

If what is asked is really a R-rated section, where R-rated material could be posted and people could swear freely, I don't think there needs to be a section like that on this forum. If this is what you want to do, find another place to do it. Remember this is the forum of an innocent dragon-collecting game that a lot of children play.

 

 

As to Karma, I like systems that let you show appreciation for someone without having to spam a thread or mailbox to say it. Only positives should be possible, though.

And to completely rule out drama, it could be post-related as opposed to person-related (meaning you could mark a post as 'helpful' instead of marking the poster).

[TikindiDragon]

Can the GD mods please go back to the way they were doing things before the beginning of December? We still had a really good atmosphere, and thing were working rather well from the introduction of the new mods right up until this month began... in the last few weeks I've seen several people having a problem with how some things have been handled.

[soupnazi]

Can the GD mods please go back to the way they were doing things before the beginning of December? We still had a really good atmosphere, and thing were working rather well from the introduction of the new mods right up until this month began... in the last few weeks I've seen several people having a problem with how some things have been handled.

What is their new way of doing things? I haven't noticed much of a difference (though I don't take part in many of the GD debates).

[Khallayne]

Can the GD mods please go back to the way they were doing things before the beginning of December? We still had a really good atmosphere, and thing were working rather well from the introduction of the new mods right up until this month began... in the last few weeks I've seen several people having a problem with how some things have been handled.

Can you please PM me a description as how it is different, or even PM TJ, and he can bring the feedback to all the moderators? It'd be great.

[skinst]

I can understand a need for a private section when you are making surprises, but for everything else I don't see why users need to be left out of the loop. If worthless comments from users interfere with the artists work, couldn't their secret board be made as read-only to people who are not artists so we at least know what's going on and what your thoughts are?

Too many cooks spoil the soup, to put it simply.

 

Also, if the section was made read only, where would the artists work on group secret projects?