Cut out the personal attacks and over-the-top name calling

• THE4RINGZ

  

  ernest_t_bass;1049228 wrote:If we would want our HS forums to pick up, to include more local chatter from around the state, then an onslaught of new members is definitely what we would need.

  The OC has been mentioned by name probably 4-5 times in our local newspaper in the past two months. That seems to be driving some people here on the HS forums.
• ernest_t_bass

  

  sleeper;1049227 wrote:giveupalready.com
  
  Admittedly, this site is basically dead now, but I moderated it about 8-9 years ago at the height of its popularity. I went by the user name "clone".

  Link did not work.
• justincredible

  

  ernest_t_bass;1049228 wrote:If we would want our HS forums to pick up, to include more local chatter from around the state, then an onslaught of new members is definitely what we would need.

  When I talk about "new members" I am mostly talking about people that will post in Serious Business.
  
  But yeah, getting new members to post in the HS forum is always a goal. It just seems that most of those posters stay to the HS forums.
• sleeper

  

  justincredible;1049230 wrote:Ahh, gotcha. I'll take your post as bull ****, then.
  
  That's unfortunate, though. I wouldn't be opposed to having a vote for moderators assuming you could post proof of personal experience with it working well on a large site.

  ?
  
  I'm not sure I'm following. Does that link not work? I'm at work so I can't access that forum at the moment, so maybe the link has changed slightly.
• justincredible

  

  sleeper;1049235 wrote:?
  
  I'm not sure I'm following. Does that link not work? I'm at work so I can't access that forum at the moment, so maybe the link has changed slightly.

  Quite.
• DeyDurkie5

  

  Have you thought about maybe hiring a person or two to cover big time high events in this state? Such as massilon vs whothefuckever? If you eased in some articles concerning the teams/games, it would help generate new members because they will see that as a legit reason to come to the site.
• LJ

  

  justincredible;1049230 wrote:Ahh, gotcha. I'll take your post as bull shit, then.
  
  That's unfortunate, though. I wouldn't be opposed to having a vote for moderators assuming you could post proof of personal experience with it working well on a large site.

  I'm on a few large sites, mainly Offtopic.com, and the members have absolutely no say in who moderates. Sometimes if a new subforum is added, the main posters in that subforum will get a say in who become the mod, but otherwise it's totally up to the site admins. I've never had a problem on there. The only people who do are the ones who think it's cool to contact poster's employers and such.
  
  There are currently 1000 members browsing out of 237,000 reigstered names with 80,000 unique active members in the last 30 days.
• sleeper

  

  ernest_t_bass;1049232 wrote:Link did not work.

  Ok, I will link the appropriate forum when I get home this evening. I can't access the site at work but if you google it, it does exist. It's not meant to be a troll link.
• ernest_t_bass

  

  justincredible;1049234 wrote:When I talk about "new members" I am mostly talking about people that will post in Serious Business.
  
  But yeah, getting new members to post in the HS forum is always a goal. It just seems that most of those posters stay to the HS forums.

  That is the only thing that I, personally, wish this site had... more posters from my area. So we could talk HS sports, whatever. Guess I'll have to go out and advertise. I did bring Bradmaynard here!
• sleeper

  

  LJ;1049241 wrote:I'm on a few large sites, mainly Offtopic.com, and the members have absolutely no say in who moderates. Sometimes if a new subforum is added, the main posters in that subforum will get a say in who become the mod, but otherwise it's totally up to the site admins. I've never had a problem on there. The only people who do are the ones who think it's cool to contact poster's employers and such.
  
  There are currently 1000 members browsing out of 237,000 reigstered names with 80,000 unique active members in the last 30 days.

  I don't mean to say the members have a 'vote' in who moderates what, but merely the administrators of the forum actually go through an evaluation process using member feedback. I know there was plenty of times where moderators were called out for handling a situation incorrectly, and that moderator was removed for their misconduct. Also, moderators were held to a higher standard and did not add to pissing matches NO MATTER WHAT. That is not upheld here. Attitude reflects leadership.
• LJ

  

  sleeper;1049250 wrote:I don't mean to say the members have a 'vote' in who moderates what, but merely the administrators of the forum actually go through an evaluation process using member feedback. I know there was plenty of times where moderators were called out for handling a situation incorrectly, and that moderator was removed for their misconduct. Also, moderators were held to a higher standard and did not add to pissing matches NO MATTER WHAT. That is not upheld here. Attitude reflects leadership.

  Well the mods of the main forums on OT are actually paid, so they are evaluated all the time. They also engage in discussions and pissing matches all the time. They just don't break the rules of contacting ppl IRL, or using race against someone in a discussion.
• justincredible

  

  ernest_t_bass;1049245 wrote:That is the only thing that I, personally, wish this site had... more posters from my area. So we could talk HS sports, whatever. Guess I'll have to go out and advertise. I did bring Bradmaynard here!

  Stuff like that is going to require current members recruiting new members. I don't have the funds to advertise in all the areas of the state so it would have to be a grassroots kind of thing.
  
  Buying advertising at the various state tournaments would be nice, too, but I have no idea if I could afford it.
• ytownfootball

  

  justincredible;1049234 wrote:When I talk about "new members" I am mostly talking about people that will post in Serious Business.
  
  But yeah, getting new members to post in the HS forum is always a goal. It just seems that most of those posters stay to the HS forums.

  Why the desire for new Serious Business posters? I guess I don't see the difference.
• LJ

  

  ytownfootball;1049260 wrote:Why the desire for new Serious Business posters? I guess I don't see the difference.

  Typically brings a different type of person in general to the website. Haven't you seen RRN's and ThinkThick's posts? :laugh:
• justincredible

  

  ytownfootball;1049260 wrote:Why the desire for new Serious Business posters? I guess I don't see the difference.

  Without new members everyone will eventually get bored with everyone else. Also, more revenue.
• ytownfootball

  

  justincredible;1049264 wrote:Without new members everyone will eventually get bored with everyone else. Also, more revenue.

  I don't disagree with that, but I think it's more difficult to gain those types of posters by recruitment/advertising then it is say through high school forums and accepting the overflow into the other forums. Seems like trying to put a roof on a house when you haven't built the basement.
• sleeper

  

  LJ;1049255 wrote:Well the mods of the main forums on OT are actually paid, so they are evaluated all the time. They also engage in discussions and pissing matches all the time. They just don't break the rules of contacting ppl IRL, or using race against someone in a discussion.

  I'm not familiar with OT. They are a much larger site so they can handle a few rogue moderators. This site is too small and moderators are way more visible to new members. Getting involved in a pissing match does little to encourage new users to click the join button, much less getting them to stay and actually post.
  
  Also, removing the prompt that requires people to sign in after viewing so many posts needs to be removed. It sounds like a good idea in practice, but you want to encourage as much page views as possible. Eventually, those people might find a topic of great interest that they are so enthralled about they will actually sign up. Having the prompt discourages people from actually having time to view the forum enough to want to join. Look at JJHuddle, a lot of people lurked there before actually joining, and I believe that allowing lurking adds to the quality of the forum and it should not be discouraged.
• queencitybuckeye

  I don't see the problem as inconsistent moderation, I see the issue as a lack of moderation. While nearly none of us would want the site to be a locked-down bore like the "other" place, the opposite of totalitarianism is not anarchy.
  
  Among all of the bullshit rules on the Puddle was one that was not bullshit - no posting just to cause trouble. The problem with this was not in the rule itself, but in the heavy-handed, random enforcement.
  
  Getting rid of the 5-10 posters whose signal to noise ratio is zero or near-zero doesn't turn Justin in John Anshole, nor does it turn the site into the Puddle, and would improve the odds of actually having a conversation here without it resulting into a string of personal attacks and/or obsolete memes.
• sleeper

  

  justincredible;1049256 wrote:Stuff like that is going to require current members recruiting new members. I don't have the funds to advertise in all the areas of the state so it would have to be a grassroots kind of thing.
  
  Buying advertising at the various state tournaments would be nice, too, but I have no idea if I could afford it.

  Advertisements will only work if you create an environment where people will want to be active in your forums. Until you address those issues, you can spend 1 million a year advertising and you will not see significant results.
• justincredible

  

  sleeper;1049274 wrote:Also, removing the prompt that requires people to sign in after viewing so many posts needs to be removed. It sounds like a good idea in practice, but you want to encourage as much page views as possible. Eventually, those people might find a topic of great interest that they are so enthralled about they will actually sign up. Having the prompt discourages people from actually having time to view the forum enough to want to join. Look at JJHuddle, a lot of people lurked there before actually joining, and I believe that allowing lurking adds to the quality of the forum and it should not be discouraged.

  I can agree with this. Good call.
• LJ

  

  sleeper;1049274 wrote:I'm not familiar with OT. They are a much larger site so they can handle a few rogue moderators. This site is too small and moderators are way more visible to new members. Getting involved in a pissing match does little to encourage new users to click the join button, much less getting them to stay and actually post.

  All the mods are about the same.
  

  Also, removing the prompt that requires people to sign in after viewing so many posts needs to be removed. It sounds like a good idea in practice, but you want to encourage as much page views as possible. Eventually, those people might find a topic of great interest that they are so enthralled about they will actually sign up. Having the prompt discourages people from actually having time to view the forum enough to want to join. Look at JJHuddle, a lot of people lurked there before actually joining, and I believe that allowing lurking adds to the quality of the forum and it should not be discouraged.

  I actually agree with this, wouldn't it cause more page hits = more money if they just kept lurking rather than not signing up and never coming back? You could also block out certain forums for visitors, like the Basement and so on.
• sleeper

  

  queencitybuckeye;1049275 wrote:I don't see the problem as inconsistent moderation, I see the issue as a lack of moderation.

  That is the problem though. Lack of moderation to some, to heavy for others. The moderators of this forum on average are not doing a good enough job distinguishing disagreements from trolling. It's much easier to label something trolling than it is to actual get involved in moderating the site. Disagreements generate discussion, period.
• queencitybuckeye

  sleeper;1049282 wrote:Disagreements generate discussion, period.

  Respectful disagreements do, absolutely.
• sleeper

  

  Look no further than the threads I start or the threads I post in. Like it or not, my views on the world generate much discussion, however I consistently labeled a troll among the moderators of this forum. I am not a troll but its much easier to label me one than actually to help moderate the forums. With few exceptions, I have never broken any of the rules on this forum, yet I am treated much differently than people who actually do break the rules laid out on this forum. This treatment does not go unnoticed and I think that inconsistency destroys the credibility of this forum and these issues need to be addressed.
• sleeper

  

  queencitybuckeye;1049290 wrote:Respectful disagreements do, absolutely.

  Respectful is a matter of perception. Outside of the politics forum(which has its own issues), there is rarely any arguments that are respectful.