Forum Moderators: phranque
I recently posted a couple or things at another Forum, stuff not relevant to here of course ;)
I got some very short/rude replies on one of them from a senior member.
I'm inclined never to post again, I'm extremely offended. Perhaps WebmasterWorld has spoilt me? - We don't burn newbies here, we encourage them and gently point out different guidelines/rules.
Maybe I have 2 choices:
1. Live with it - I need this Forum.
2. Become an authority and kick that <naughty word>'s ass!
I'll opt for no.2 'cos I can see he's an idiot but I'm too new to pull it off.
Forum etiquette seems like a 'free for all' on almost everywher I go. I never liked Forums till I found this place, I preferred mailing lists but, given the right kind of encouragement/guidance I think most folks can be productive members of a community.
How do you find Forums other than WebmasterWorld? - (no specifics ;))
Nick
<edit>Clearly a bit hot under the collar :-)</edit>
[edited by: Nick_W at 11:48 pm (utc) on Feb. 28, 2003]
You actually could blame this forum for spoiling you...you are known and respected, ppl don't read into everything you say...
I'd certainly like to think so ;) But, not in the beginning. We all start somewhere: My first post got snipped by Brett. Classic url drop in Google...
But no-one was rude to me.
Nick
It is a bit of a rarified atmosphere here, and I dearly hope that continues. It allows members to feel free to speak, and makes it a very 'relaxing' place to hang out.
I find we also don't have the "high post count snobbery" here that, face it, is absolutely ridiculous on a professional forum - having just found the place doesn't mean you don't already have a wealth of industry or sector knowledge.
You mind your manners, and you are assured that others will mind theirs. I like that.
....and as for whether to kick that other guy's butt? "When in Rome......" :)
On a couple of them (sports related) most of the people who post are very friendly. The moderation seems to be good and most of the posts have been friendly. Occasionally a flame war develops when some says "your team sucks" or something like that but nothing too bad.
Another forum is a lot of fluff and very little good information. It is kind of annoying because of the crazy signatures, multiple images, etc. and other stuff that just clogs the board up. Most of the people there are very friendly and helpful though.
I have good luck with forums overall and haven't stumbled into any of the bad forums that you describe.
That's exactly what keeps me from other forums. One sig per page per user might be fine in some forums. But every single post that the same user posts on a page has to show their sig? You can't even read half the threads because there is more link text than topic content.
______________________
I agree
Blah blah 11111A 5000,0000 Search Engines [domain.com]
Oh and don't forget our other link AAAAA1243 Toilet Bowl Cleaners [domain.com]
Wow You Got That Right
Wheeee 11111A 9999,0000 Search Engines [domain.com]
Oh and don't forget our other link AAAA111 Septic Tank Vacuumers [domain.com]
Yep I know I got that right.
Blah blah 11111A 5000,0000 Search Engines [www.]
Oh and don't forget our other link AAAAA1243 Toilet Bowl Cleaners [www.]
That's why I said it
Wheeee 11111A 9999,0000 Search Engines [www.]
Oh and don't forget our other link AAAA111 Septic Tank Vacuumers [www.]
____________________________________
2. Become an authority and kick that <naughty word>'s ass!
I went through the early BBS wars, the Prodigy Pseudo BB Wars, Usenet and many other forum wars, including religious fundamentalist boards and nothing gets through to the other people that read the forums like knowledge.
As for sigs, I used the same one forever, "sapere aude". I don't miss using a sig and I certainly don't miss having to read geek blocks and the haiku or whatever else people append to their posts.
I've had some problems with the 'sigs', so I simply set the maximum sig length to '1'. I haven't tried '0' yet, but as I write this, it might be a good idea.
For some reason the 'sigs' setting in the admin panel doesn't work that well.
Regarding forum members attitude, smilies, monster images, links, etc - I have a personal experience in such. I along with several other merchants run two similar forums.
Habitants of the first are mostly young kids - 13 to 25. We let them do pretty much anything they want. They feud with each other endlessly. That is what keeps them coming back every time. And as long as they buy whatever we advertise to them as "cool", we are very happy.
The other forum attracts an older audience. Except occasional post corrections and extremely rear removal we do not have to moderate that forum at all. Most members are adults and behave accordingly, respecting one another as they were taught throughout their lives.
Now, my example is an artificial creation of environment to make users feel as comfortable as we possibly can. Brett created this forum and attracted "similar" minds who behave similar to Brett ( for exception of endless Google update thread - nothing is perfect ), those who don't do not stay for long.
So my point is - you should be where you feel comfortable, not worry about other forums and if you don't like digging though members signatures to read quality text, you shouldn't.
I know of one forum where the owner is a raving lunatic, I gave that one up when he started literally frothing at the mouth ;)
In that kind of situation, it all filters down to the senior memembers -> junior members -> newbies. It creates an awful atmosphere and seems like every other post is some kind of presonal attack.
Thank goodness for this place...
Nick
Forum etiquette seems like a 'free for all' on almost everywhere I go. I never liked Forums till I found this place,
How true. Perhaps the real test of "civilised" forums is how ODP questions are handled.
We do actually get some quite reasonable discussions here, with both "sides" (usually) being able to handle the debate with a certain amount of decorum.
One still gets the "loony" wing of both for and against camps, but on the whole those blistering rows are avoided, as is heavy handed censorship.
I am glad that Brett makes the Moderators Bible and such available, as I used that as a basis for my own list of what I expected from my moderators. My mods are knowledgeable about the subject, but most have never been a Mod... so that helped a lot. I also have pointed my mods to an occasional post here for background.
We ALMOST had a flame war a couple days ago (and wouldn't you know, that was a day I was out skiing all day, so I got in to fix it a bit late!) But for the most part, things have been going well.
I would like to think that is because I was inspired by and learned from a couple of the best!
dave
I allow 100x100 Avatars (I almost have to, in my subject area!) but no images in the sigs. I have a differnt feeling about URL's in sigs, and I allow ONE in the sig, and a sig a max of three lines. Most people respect that (well, everyone does, I enforce it!)
dave
