Forum Improvements

[blommer]

There has been some debate in other threads regarding forum improvements, such as the use of real names instead in place of usernames. I thought it would be good to have a separate thread to talk about this.

I'm a bit ambivalent on usernames vs real names, I guess real names overall may slightly help things. But just go on twitter or facebook to see real people saying absolutely heinous, hateful things. Also, some of the most memorable jerks and thread-derailers on any of the *-user forums are people who use real names.

"Free speech" is a stupid argument. These aren't public forums run by the government. If any adult has spent any time on reddit, they can tell you that racism, misogyny, and other hate has spread like a cancer throughout that site in the name of "free speech."

In my opinion there are two things that can help:

1) Extremely strong moderation. Some of the meandering threads should have been nuked long ago or at least a temp ban-hammer brought down on some users. There are legitimate criticisms to air regarding Blackmagic Design but the mods here seem to be pretty tolerate despite any fool that sees "censorship." Also, if several legitimate posts stray from the original topic, they should be moved into separate threads. Easier said than done.

2) A $5 donation upon registration would deter a lot of trolls.

[DPStewart]

Agreed on all counts.

With a strong favoring of the Real Names. It doesn't stop all silliness..but it seriously deters much of it.

I've sent emails requesting to be a site sponsor, but never heard anything back.
I don't see how there could be any reasonable objection to a $5 entry free.

[vicharris]

Yes and this belongs in another category. If you did a search, you'd find the very old thread where I'm sure we've been asking for the same changes for a long time.

Just one of many asking the same things for years.

http://www.bmcuser.com/showthread.ph...um-Suggestions

[DPStewart]

Heh..
Does this site even have active moderators?
Or do things like this just disappear into that same place that socks go to in the laundry?

[vicharris]

Heh..
Does this site even have active moderators?
Or do things like this just disappear into that same place that socks go to in the laundry?

I think they would prefer to have the users "self moderate", so to speak, the forum. It's been said over and over again that they need users to report bad or unethical behavior on here but for some reason, people rarely do.

And as you see, we've been asking for sub forums for years so............

[Jared Caldwell]

Heh..
Does this site even have active moderators?
Or do things like this just disappear into that same place that socks go to in the laundry?

Active doesn't necessarily mean constantly changing stuff. We check the forums every day. Feel free to keep sending feedback (or even PMs).

[John Brawley]

Yes. I agree. The best thing is to report a post you want to bring attention to. I think the general idea has been to have pretty loose reins on the moderation, but we can only judge by the feedback we get.

I think the $5 donation is a really really interesting idea. Anyone have a problem with that ? A forum that's free to look at but it costs you $5 to join and post ?

I guess another way to go would be having a like / don't like system for posts and if a user gets too many strikes ???

JB

[DPStewart]

Yes. I agree. The best thing is to report a post you want to bring attention to. I think the general idea has been to have pretty loose reins on the moderation, but we can only judge by the feedback we get.

I think the $5 donation is a really really interesting idea. Anyone have a problem with that ? A forum that's free to look at but it costs you $5 to join and post ?

I guess another way to go would be having a like / don't like system for posts and if a user gets too many strikes ???

JB

I think it's NIKON-User that charges $5 to join and be able to post. Also some articles are restricted to paid members.
Didn't bother me one bit.

[NorBro]

I guess another way to go would be having a like / don't like system for posts and if a user gets too many strikes ???

DVXuser has their 'helpful post' system and it's being taken advantage of lately.

Someone disagrees with something you say and they down-vote your post. Another person comes across it, may not agree with you either, sees it's been down-voted, and may feel obligated to down-vote it as well (or at least it's very easy to just press the thumbs down button)...and then your post gets hidden.

It's a flawed system.

[Steven Abrams]

DVXuser has their 'helpful post' system and it's being taken advantage of lately.

Someone disagrees with something you say and they down-vote your post. Another person comes across it, may not agree with you either, sees it's been down-voted, and may feel obligated to down-vote it as well (or at least it's very easy to just press the thumbs down button)...and then your post gets hidden.

It's a flawed system.

Wouldn't it be balanced out by others agreeing and up-voting that post? If the general consensus is to down vote a post because others disagree, then it's not a popular opinion with the greater community and getting hidden makes sense because they don't want to see it. It's only flawed for those who post things most don't agree with, which is what the system wants to protect against. So it's actually working.