These forums

[Jimbokav1971]

Originally posted by dafuge:

The FAQ idea has been tried before, Gav used to write an excellent one on the old CM forums. It didn't stop people from asking the same old questions like 'why is Freddy Adu ineligible?' but at least it gave something for people to point people in the direction of.

Maybe the layout may be partly to blame.

At the moment in GQ/GD we have the following.

FM2008 release info.

Fm2008 demo info.

FM2007 latest patch.

Suggestions for future versions.

Subforums, listed one after another in 2 lines.

Online now.

4 Sticky threads.

Normal Threads.

Maybe a different layout might help.

1. A link to the forum rules page that spells out bin no uncertain terms what is and isn't acceptable behaviour and what punishments are.

2. A vertical link to each forum giving a brief 1 line description of what the forum is about.

3. A FAQ that is updated on a regular basis by the assigned Mods.

4. Anything that SI want to advertise, (like FM08 and FM08 demo).

5. Links to such things as patches.

6. On-line now.

7. Sticky threads.

8. Normal threads.

The forum rules have just been added onto the other links to other forums, (almost as an afterthought it appears). If you look in some of the other forums, the layout is far clearer and the rules are far easier to see at a glance. (I'm thinking in particular of the way that LLM is laid out).

I'm not naive to think that this will stop all the negativity, but it might help.

A clearer link to the rules is a must though.

I am keen on a FAQ but I understand that not eveyone likes the idea. I have volounteered the idea that certain regular posters be invuted to answer a specif question to share the workload, but SI, the mods thought it was a waste of time then. Unfortunately we find ourselves further down the line experiencing the same problems on a bigger scale.

By the way, it might be worth reviewing some old threads on the same subject.

Thread 1.

Excellent thread started by Ranson52.

Everything that has been said in this thread has been said in previous threads. What we are waiting for is some action to happen as a result of them.

[Jimbokav1971]

It is only those two smilies I am referring two though, there are plenty of positive ones.

Whilst I agree that there are good uses for them, the majority of their use on the forum is to ridicule others.

Your example of the message not sinking in is a perfect example of what I mean. You aren't getting the message across so you use that smiley in frustration at the other member not getting what you mean.

This is taken by that other person as ridicule and then the abuse starts.

As the saying goes "A picture paints a thousand words" and in this case, the words are mostly negative.

DJdemarco. To be honest, when I get to that stage, I generally just add them to my ever-growing list and forget about it.

Most of the users on here don't even know how works and it is used by a very small number of posters.

In any case, it beats abuse.

[foxmad]

I know I'm often guilty of making short posts that aren't relevant and sometimes pointless.

But I find that GQ is very much left with all the junk now, I still tend to come on here every now and again. But it seems like people are typing before thinking. Repeatedly starting up threads which can be seen throughout the forum.

Because of this I now tend to stay on OTF and in the Challenges, even though I registered on the forum to talk about this game.

I know that a lot of the users who used to be so helpful on GQ have sort of given up, many of them are still found around OTF and when they come back and see some of the rubbish that is posted they express their opinions. Which in my opinion is not right but is not as serious as other issues. Such as an improved search engine.

I'm all for the one day banning, but it would mean moderators would be needed to look through threads, not to read them, but to look for abuse of the forums which won't have been the reason they signed up.

Can't wait for FM2008 btw

[Frankie 7]

1. Well i think new members registering should be made to do a like a pop quiz on the rules. That way we know they have read them.

2. More staff on hand. Forums seem to be without staff for long periods of time, The current mods need a helping hand maybe.

3. Mod supervision on posts/threads. This way offenders could be moderated with all their posts for a while. i know that is a pain, But with more staff this could work.

4. As someone has already said, Maybe just moving threads to the proper forums if asked in the wrong place could also help. I know what people will say, But if a question has already been asked then closing is the only solution but maybe a link gave to show that person where to look.

[crashtest01]

This will probably get me a yellow card but what the hell I recently posted asking was FM08 game finalised or was changes still being implemented this was the reply from miles

"quote" crashtest01 - way to late to add new features. And no interest in adding any new features either. So yes, a stupid question."quote"

Now fair Dues I did put at beginning of post this maybe a stupid question, but that reply was not constructive nor made me feel like my opinion was valued or welcomed, I registered a few years ago but have only recently started using the forum, and if that is the attitude of SI members then it wont stop my point is no matter what is implemented I dont think certain attitudes will change. But lets at least hope it will.

[Miles Jacobson]

Crashtest01 - you asked a bunch of questions that were nothing to do with the topic, despite it being clear that you shouldn't be. You then started your question with "stupid question here". I agreed with you.

If you'd posted some ideas in the tactics forum, which I had pointed you to on more than one occasion, as had someone else on the forum, then the right person would have looked at it on the right thread, in the right place. But posting that on a thread about an announcement that had just been made when we'd specificially said to not ask questions was pointless.

So whilst I'm more than happy to admit when I'm in the wrong, in this case, I wasn't, and is part of the whole conversation on this thread.

[Matthew Le God]

if you think you are funny, you aren't, however much your mother tells you you are

would this count as abuse?

[DJdeMarco]

Originally posted by Matthew Le God:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> if you think you are funny, you aren't, however much your mother tells you you are

would this count as abuse? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Nah, that's banter.

[Miles Jacobson]

Matthew - out of context, yes. In context, no. It's a way to deal with people trying to wind us up (as he later admitted), the same way you seem to be trying to do too. It worked perfectly with him.

[crashtest01]

Well Miles the question was posted on the tactics forum after you and dayle suggested however what I wanted to know is not in the game therefore as i couldn't find a thread to post my apparent stupid question i went to the only forum I had seen regular comments by yourself and other SI members. I have probably once again listed in the wrong forum again but as there is no forum for this particular scenario it is difficult to judge where we should be placing such events perhaps a new layout with more sticky threads who knows.

[Miles Jacobson]

crashtest01- The tactics forum is the right place for it. Those from SI who go in the tactics forum are the right people to see the suggestions (I am not).

But anything you do suggest is WAY too late for FM2008.

You called it a stupid question, so I can't see what you're complaining about.

I would suggest not putting in the "stupid question" pre-fix in future, then you would have a right to get upset if someone said it was (which I wouldn't as I would have just ignored it for being in the wrong thread).

[Miles Jacobson]

Can we get back to debating what this thread is about again please, seeing as it was hi-jacked for a minute there.

[B. Stinson]

I have to admit, I quite like the 'quiz' idea. Nice and simple way to make sure people have read at least the important parts of the rules.

[gavnoble]

Originally posted by dafuge:

The FAQ idea has been tried before, Gav used to write an excellent one on the old CM forums. It didn't stop people from asking the same old questions like 'why is Freddy Adu ineligible?' but at least it gave something for people to point people in the direction of.

I also did one when the FM Forum first opened but when I gave up writing for The Bootroom, SI removed it for some bizarre reason even though it was popular and busy and I certainly had no objection to it still being used. It had been fully checked with the guys at SI before it was posed so at the time nothing in it was incorrect.

I still think a FAQ thread has life in it.

[DJdeMarco]

Originally posted by B. Stinson:

I have to admit, I quite like the 'quiz' idea. Nice and simple way to make sure people have read at least the important parts of the rules.

I disagree.

In my opinion, this would dissaude a lot of people from joining the forum as it would be too much hassle to join in for the younger members of the audience.

To re-iterate what I posted above I believe that the responsibility is on the older members of the forum to show maturity.

If we set a good example and lead the way, the youth will follow.

[DJdeMarco]

Originally posted by gavnoble:

I still think a FAQ thread has life in it.

I would agree.

If only for us to point other forumites to, it would work.

[gavnoble]

I agree with DJ. A quiz isn't the way to go, however when you sign up aren't posters asked to abide by the terms and conditions, which includes the House Rules? If this is still the case then if people are punished by breaking those rules then they can't complain.

I've seen a few people mention short term bans and I think there is some merit in this idea as well. Once you've lost your posting rights for a few days you might begin to get the message that you need to change your posting style a little.

[Jimbokav1971]

If we set a good example and lead the way, the youth will follow.

If only.

In my experience you have to beat them with a big stick before they see the errors if their ways.

Tough love is the only way.

[Jimbokav1971]

That is of course a rhetorical big stick.

[Michael F]

I think there should be a couple of extra rules & short term bans added.

Scrap the whole warnings/yellow card system in profiles as some people see them more of a trophy than a warning (especially in OTF)

Maybe having 4 'categories' of offenses and each rule will fit into the category depending on the severity.

Category A - 1 week ban

These are the minor offenses:

Constantly posting in text speak, all caps & bold.

Post boosting/spam

Advertising in wrong forums

Category B - 2 week ban

These are the more serious offenses:

Flaming (e.g do a search ffs posts etc)

Trying to get another user banned

Abusing members, mods & SI staff

Posting pornography

Posting fixture lists/copyrighted info without consent

Category C - 1 month ban

These are the v. serious offenses that we dont want here:

Racism/Bigotry

Libelous claims

Constant harassment etc

Category D - Permanent Ban

This would be really serious offenses that would be a permanent ban:

FM Piracy

Advertising piracy

Admitting to using a crack (any gme)

posting links to illegal download sites, evading bans via alias accounts etc.

You get the idea.

Im not saying that those rules above should be in those categories but im just trying to help put an idea accross, the yellow card system is not really effective imo.

[gavnoble]

Racism/Bigotry should be category D I think. There is no place for that in today's soceity in any form be it spoken or written.

[Michael F]

Originally posted by gavnoble:

Racism/Bigotry should be category D I think. There is no place for that in today's soceity in any form be it spoken or written.

yeah i agree, i was just using that as an example thought gav

[DJdeMarco]

Originally posted by Jimbokav1971:

That is of course a rhetorical big stick.

I'm not suggesting that there shouldn't be a discipline system. Every community needs one and this is no different.

What I am suggesting is that when a new user comes in and their first post is what some would deem annoying, rather than get upset and have a go, show a little maturity and point them in the direction of the already existing answer whilst pointing out the error of their ways in a polite and informative way.

Obviously, repeat offenders should be punished with the proverbial stick.

[DJdeMarco]

Originally posted by gavnoble:

Racism/Bigotry should be category D I think. There is no place for that in today's soceity in any form be it spoken or written.

[The Game]

I Think more mods is definatly the way to go.

if you need anybody to be one im always up for it.

[Jimbokav1971]

Drom the post on page 2 by Michael Foster.

Trying to get another user banned

I report loads of people for anything that I believe is against the rules.

At the moment I want some eegit called drox banned because he is just ignoring every rile and becoming a nightmare. What am I doing wrong?

Advertising in wrong forums

I thought there was no advertising anywhere .

Posting fixture lists/copyrighted info without consent

This isn't against any rule that I've ever seen.

Category C - 1 month ban

These are the v. serious offenses that we dont want here:

Racism/Bigotry

Libelous claims

Constant harassment etc

Forget 1 month ban.

Instant life ban for racism/bigotry and constant harrassment. End of.

As for libelous claims, I can't really see in what context that might occurr but isn't that what our justice system is for ?

Category D - Permanent Ban

This would be really serious offenses that would be a permanent ban:

FM Piracy

Advertising piracy

Admitting to using a crack (any gme)

posting links to illegal download sites, evading bans via alias accounts etc.

So that sort of stuff is more serious than racism and constant harassment.

I don't think so.

[Ter]

What I am suggesting is that when a new user comes in and their first post is what some would deem annoying, rather than get upset and have a go, show a little maturity and point them in the direction of the already existing answer whilst pointing out the error of their ways in a polite and informative way.

Completely.

I don't like the way users are greeted with the usual "ffs" replies when they ask a question that gets asked a lot.

[Jimbokav1971]

Originally posted by Michael Foster:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by gavnoble:

Racism/Bigotry should be category D I think. There is no place for that in today's soceity in any form be it spoken or written.

yeah i agree, i was just using that as an example thought gav </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Sorry, hadn't seen that .

[Jimbokav1971]

Originally posted by Ter:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">What I am suggesting is that when a new user comes in and their first post is what some would deem annoying, rather than get upset and have a go, show a little maturity and point them in the direction of the already existing answer whilst pointing out the error of their ways in a polite and informative way.

Completely.

I don't like the way users are greeted with the usual "ffs" replies when they ask a question that gets asked a lot. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

To be honest, I think a nebwies posts, (and by newbie I mean someone who has signed up in the previous couple of day), are usually treated differently than someone who is just being a lazy arse.

I've seen many many people go out of their way to help necomers and I would even go as far to say that it is the norm.

The type of post that seems to be causing a problem is when the original poster is not recently registered.

[Michael F]

Originally posted by Jimbokav1971:

Drom the post on page 2 by Michael Foster.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Trying to get another user banned

I report loads of people for anything that I believe is against the rules.

At the moment I want some eegit called drox banned because he is just ignoring every rile and becoming a nightmare. What am I doing wrong?

Sorry i didnt mean getting people banned through reporting them, i sometimes report people if they are being a right pain. i meant posting things like OMG ban him, ban him etc, its like players waving imaginary yellow cards.

Advertising in wrong forums

I thought there was no advertising anywhere .you can advertise your website/forum in FMS forum but yeah i know what you mean.

Posting fixture lists/copyrighted info without consent

This isn't against any rule that I've ever seen. Its not a rule on the forums but you cant post full seasonal fixture lists due to licencing iirc

Category C - 1 month ban

These are the v. serious offenses that we dont want here:

Racism/Bigotry

Libelous claims

Constant harassment etc

Forget 1 month ban.

Instant life ban for racism/bigotry and constant harrassment. End of.

As for libelous claims, I can't really see in what context that might occurr but isn't that what our justice system is for ?

As i said that was just an example (see reply to gav's post)

Category D - Permanent Ban

This would be really serious offenses that would be a permanent ban:

FM Piracy

Advertising piracy

Admitting to using a crack (any gme)

posting links to illegal download sites, evading bans via alias accounts etc.

So that sort of stuff is more serious than racism and constant harassment. See above

I don't think so. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Cheers for feedback

[dafuge]

Originally posted by Jimbokav1971:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Posting fixture lists/copyrighted info without consent

This isn't against any rule that I've ever seen.

</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

We are not allowed to post full fixture lists since we do not hold the rights to them, it has been publicised in OTF in the past but I suspect there are many people who are unaware of the rules on it. I remember the mods having to go through all the club threads and remove them at one point.

[Jimbokav1971]

Michael Foster. Yeah, sorry, I saw your response after I had posted.

dafuge. I never knew that. That's a strange thing to copyright isn't it .

[Michael F]

Originally posted by Jimbokav1971:

Michael Foster. Yeah, sorry, I saw your response after I had posted.

dafuge. I never knew that. That's a strange thing to copyright isn't it .

So in general (ignoring which rules i put in the categories) what do you think of my idea, personally i think the yellow card system needs scrapping.

[The Enforcer]

I think it an inevitable trait of such forums that as they grow, they become harder to manage and more unwieldly and before you know it you've got a real monster on your hands.

With the best will in the World, you're not going to be able to stamp out the worst excesses of human nature. An internet forum is an easy target for 'keyboard warriors', therefore in terms of discipline, I would favour a simple "three strikes and you're out" system.

As regards making the forums more user-friendly, maybe some restructuring is in order. Firstly, I wouldn't allow any replies in the sticky announcement threads, so that they remain just announcements. I'd then be inclined to have more sticky threads at the top of the page to cover the most commonly raised subjects falling within each sub-forum. I'd then be a lot tougher on posts that are a>inappropriate or b>in the wrong place by a>deleting or b>relocating to the correct place, whether that is one of the stickys i've mentioned or to another sub-forum entirely.

In my view, this would cut down on the numbers of duplicate threads and also remove posts that are offensive or irrelevant to the discussion topic. Moreover there would then be no need for anyone to reply to such posts, thereby preventing minor midemeanours from spiraling into raging arguments.

Obviously, this would be a resource-heavy approach, but in my experience forums with stronger policing are usually more useful/enjoyable places than those with a slacker approach to moderating.

[Jimbokav1971]

The Enforcer. good post .

Michael Foster. To be honest Michael, although I am in favour of a 1 day ban for small rule infringements, (I hate text speak), I think that the system we ahave at the moment is fine if we had people to enforce it.

There is nothing wrong with your rule system per se, but it gives us nothing that we don't already have now, and still requires the same resources to moderate.

I spend most of my time in LLM now, (I'm all GQ'd out), and it's so refreshing to see Iaj dishing out proper punishment for serial offenders. An example of what is wrong at the moment is that if you are found to be operating multiple accounts at the moment, you only get a life ban on 1 account. Now I appreciate that SI want to use this forum as an advertising tool, (and we must remember that that's essentially what it is, not a community forum), but they honestly don't do themselves any favours.

Have a look at one of my long posts on page 2 and the links in it to 2 threads on this very same subject just over a year ago.

[Kris]

Ill post this again as it was removed from the FM2008 thread (perhaps rightly so).

We have a userbase of over 100,000 users, it was over 200,000 before the SEGA community change.

We get over 5,000 posts a day, we also remove/delete a vast majority of idiotic posts or those that are breaking the house or forum rules.

a lot of the mods work is involved in the background which the enduser doesn't necessarily see.

Ill respond to a few points

1) Post moderation, whilst this is useful, it would be too cumbersome to use for a lot of cases. Once a user is on post mod he/she is free to abuse it by posting a lot of rubbish continually. This takes mods time away from the forum by having to read every post.

2) Targetting of nocd/piracy over generic abuse/breaking of rules. This is easy as a number of users will use the report post feature to highlight this. The report post feature helps us mods look at the posts we miss (afterall if we review one new post every minute of the day, we wouldnt cover 20% of the new posts). Please use the report post option, albeit sensibly.

3) New mods, we are always looking to people who show themselves to be a good contribution to the community to help out. There are some basic requirements though, so we are unlikely to take on someone who has been here a few weeks/months. Also the mod recruitment is via recommendation from existing mods.

4) We try to treat all users fairly, I dislike the "jump on the newbie" approach shown by a lot of people. The people who have been here a long time are under the same rules as those who who have been here 1 day.

5) Alias accounts are tracked by software I wrote about 3 years ago, just because we no longer need to "authorise" your membership doesn't mean the system is open to abuse.

6) Moving threads takes time and is a bit dubious under this forum software in updating its indexes. We'd rather close the thread and where it's not immediately obvious why, try to post a reason.

[Kris]

An example of what is wrong at the moment is that if you are found to be operating multiple accounts at the moment, you only get a life ban on 1 account

Alias accounts if registered with my software properly results in all related accounts being lifetime banned (as per house rules) and tracked.

Repeated offense is dealt with automatically by the software with a stock automated email to the abuse@ address of the users ISP.

[Jimbokav1971]

Kris, I don;t doubt anything you say, but, there was a poster carded over a year ago, who signed back in under an alias and who then posted a pic of his game with his real name, so it was obvious who the alias was. Obviously it was reported and the new account was banned, but he received absolutely no penalty on his original account.

A year later and he is back again, only now he is testing FM08 and poting on here about it.

When this got mentioned to the Mods they were less than....... we got told in the end to mid our own business.

Maybe your software needs updating.

[Kris]

I was unaware of that situation jimbo. Ive been a bit busy with a new kid as of late but am now back with a bit more time on my hands.

As I say, if SI override the procedure or its not adhered to properly then the software doesnt keep a track.

[birdy123]

It's good to have a reason why no moderators are around atm.

So more mods is a suggestion from me.

Another suggestion I have is for the ability for the opening poster in a thread to edit the opening post. As has been said, it is things like this that are taking up the moderator's time, and it would be good to fix a broken code or something without having to wait for a moderator to get time to do it.

[Jimbokav1971]

Kris, it's really not the issue. It was just an example of how frustrating things are from this side.

What made it all the more galling was that he was testing FM08 and we weren't .

Look, none of this is meant to be a criticism of an individual. Not you or your system or anything or anyone else. Glyn is the most common mod in here and he does a great job when he's here, but there is only so much that 1 man can do. On the suject of Glyn, I would love to see a before and after picture of Glyn. 1 of him before he became a Mod and 1 now. I bet he's aged .

Anyway, congratulations Kris .

[Jimbokav1971]

I have loads of people on my ignore list, (approaching 300).

I constantly find myself responding to opening posts by them though, because the opening posts of threads by people on my list aren't hidden.

Please someone sort this out .

[Kris]

Originally posted by birdy123:

It's good to have a reason why no moderators are around atm.

So more mods is a suggestion from me.

Another suggestion I have is for the ability for the opening poster in a thread to edit the opening post. As has been said, it is things like this that are taking up the moderator's time, and it would be good to fix a broken code or something without having to wait for a moderator to get time to do it.

We have disabled that feature due to abuse (people posting abuse and then editing it).

[DJdeMarco]

Another suggestion, rather than banning for minor infringements, would be to place a restriction, timewise, between posts of offenders.

Essentially this would restrict them to only one post for a set amount of time (say 10 minutes) for a 24 hour period.

The amount of time could depend on the crime.

[DJdeMarco]

Originally posted by Kris:

We have disabled that feature due to abuse (people posting abuse and then editing it).

Could it be implemented where the post could not be modified for 24 hours but could after that time?

This would give plenty of time for offenders to be found out and aid those people who would use it sensibly.

[Jimbokav1971]

No just bloomin ban em !

There's an eegit now posting in a thread about a free player databse. I give him polite directions to the Editors Hideaway and he says he's posted in there already but this thread in here will be seen by more people.

He knows the rules and doesn't care if he breaks them because nothing will be done about it and he knows it!

I give up .

[Rashidi]

Let's see its 3am where I'm at...so please excuse me if sound a bit light-headed.

I'm probably one of the newer mods been doing this for what seems like 2 years...and one thing I've noticed is that the really good posters have disappeared into OTF. GQ was meant to be a one stop shop to help people with general concerns about the game and make general observations.

Every season a new game is about to unfold the same predictable thing happens and we expect that as mods. We know we'll be closing a fair number of threads or pointing people in the right direction. And sometimes as I appear to be one of the few mods who wants to be in Tactics, there is a deluge of destructive comments about the engine.

The forum exists as a conduit for SI to garner ideas for the future development of the game, at least that's what the forums used to be like in 2003. The forums now have to some extent become a venue for people to make sweeping comments about the game without working together to come to some acceptable conclusion.

This is a game, and for it to develop well, both sides of the argument need to be heard. When FM2008 comes out, I'm fairly certain we'll have the two go head to head again. Its good for the game, and it can be bad too if not managed well.

I for one believe in letting both sides 'duke' it out provided they provide the necessary facts to back themselves up.

In essence going forward perhaps if people want to comment on the engine for example, they should do so with detailed pkms listing out the particular "cheat" events that happened so that the game can improve.

These forums can't be too obnoxious as well, and people who genuinely find the problems with the game should be allowed to speak. They must also be made to understand why certain things may not work the way they expect.

The challenge to handle them emerges when they start asserting themselves. How do you then handle them? Yellow cards don't work, let's face it. Post-moderating can work, it just leads the mods to read a string of emails and to have to respond to them. Banning them is too extreme.

Does having more moderators help, yeah it might. There have been far too many tasteless posts and the list of OPs under post-moderation keeps growing

In my point of view...we should exercise some flexibility here. I have on occasion been one to explode, perhaps that's understandable with having to work and then moderate the forums and find time to help people who want to play the game.

We should encourage people who post well and give them unique titles as well. We should have awards for the most constructive posts and the most helpful poster, we should reward those who do well and we should denigrate those that post badly by identifying them. Public recognition is always the best way to influence behavior and a forum is no different

I made some sense i think towards the end I hope.

R

[Kris]

Originally posted by DJdeMarco:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Kris:

We have disabled that feature due to abuse (people posting abuse and then editing it).

Could it be implemented where the post could not be modified for 24 hours but could after that time?

This would give plenty of time for offenders to be found out and aid those people who would use it sensibly. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

This outsourced forum software only allows editing in X minutes after the post not after X interval :/

[DJdeMarco]

Originally posted by Kris:

This outsourced forum software only allows editing in X minutes after the post not after X interval :/

Shame.

[Kris]

We should have awards for the most constructive posts and the most helpful poster, we should reward those who do well and we should denigrate those that post badly by identifying them. Public recognition is always the best way to influence behavior and a forum is no different

I tried that in 2002

Works ok, but a lot of extra work for us mods.

OTF isn't capturing the good users, whilst it's a good forum for some debate it has very little to do with or very little benefit to SI as a whole.

Rather the good users are being diluted by the surge in registrations and thus the ratio of good to bad users decreases.

I remember house-keeping the members of this forum to below 20,000