Forum Moderators: rogerd
I have a phpbb board up that i started for my small group of friends to keep in touch post high school. currently i have about 10 core members i have to keep. 73 registered members and about 5 active posters. the problem is that all the posts have degenerated to mear flames and I cant seem to get it to stop. I have several members that really like the site but left because of this. i have attempted to seed diffrent topics but these just lead to empty topics.
I need a little advice on a few things
1)opinions on getting rid of flames w/o banning the member?
2) how to get more members to the current site to make it better and stop flaming(catch 22 anyone)?
3) scratch the site and make it new and hope it doesnt end up the same way
another thing would be that with the current members/topics/posts(minus flaming) we are a breeding ground for intelectual debate as the majority of us concider ourself the intelectual type. I would hate to lose all this content.
Thnx in advance
Bissquitt / Mike
P.S on a side note i was thinking of increasing the community-ness and having the owners profile be a blog/small personal site etc to get rid of the boring profiles. any ideas on such mods for phpBB or other forum software for that matter?
Trying to clean up a forum that has degenerated into flaming is tough, but if you have some good members, it might be worth a try.
First, I'd suggest you set out your new expectations in a public manner. Add an announcement or sticky post to the front page and/or each main topic page, for example. Explain in simple, non-judgmental language what you are doing and why.
Second, communicate with your key members - thank them for their contributions, and explain the policy.
Third, nip problems in the bud - edit problem posts, perhaps leaving an edit reason behind for others to see. If you do this, though, keep your comments positive. Communicate privately when you delete a post or make a major edit.
I'd guess that the majority of your members will respect your rules. Some will be uncooperative, and you'll have to remove them. Good luck!
People are (unfortunately for forum operators) a lot less inhibited on the web. In person, you may not call a person a jerk to his face; from the safety of your PC, though, it's no problem.
