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Posted: Mar 21 2011 05:55 pm

Here's the thing. We have a clearly defined set of rules. The rules are enforced, in that when a post that breaks the rules appears, it is moderated with all due expediency.

However, when you read the rules, you'll also notice that there is not a clearly defined set of punishments. At times when the rules were being broken every day by multiple people, severe punishments were handed out. In current days, the rules are rarely broken and people don't need much more than a friendly or not-so-friendly reminder to knock it off. I've seen the worst the internet has to offer, and this place is far from it.

Now, I think we have a pretty good community here. I think we play nice for the most part, and I think we're generally able to resolve our issues like adults without bringing down the banhammer. If you guys want more from rules enforcement than what you're currently getting, let me know. If you don't, let me know as well.

One last thing. We had four "stupid" threads over the course of the weekend. My Thursday thread, the New York thread, the Friday thread, and the Sunday thread. Of these four, three of them were locked. The one that wasn't was created by me, and the only reason no one tried to lock it is because I would have simply unlocked it again. Now, none of these threads were against any actual rules we currently have. Either all of them should have been locked or none of them. Which would you prefer?

UsaSatsui's Youtube Channel · Posted: Mar 21 2011 06:07 pm

Syd Lexia wrote:

One last thing. We had four "stupid" threads over the course of the weekend. My Thursday thread, the New York thread, the Friday thread, and the Sunday thread. Of these four, three of them were locked. The one that wasn't was created by me, and the only reason no one tried to lock it is because I would have simply unlocked it again. Now, none of these threads were against any actual rules we currently have. Either all of them should have been locked or none of them. Which would you prefer?

Mods should do more than just "enforce the rules". Cleaning up crappy threads should also be a part of it. As I said earlier, the kind of response a thread is a good indicator...if it's a bunch of "Huh?", "This is dumb", " No... just no.

", or the like, it should probably should be killed.

And I don't think it should have been an "all or nothing" on these last few. In this situation, the first thread (yours) I probably would have locked, but then again I didn't quite get the joke, and I would have been wrong, the thing eventually kind of took off, in the end, that one probably should have stayed open. The other two "day" threads were just completely unneeded spam, and deserved the boot. The New York thread was just plain troll-bait (assuming the worst) or inane (assuming the best), so it should have been locked too.

Posted: Mar 21 2011 06:43 pm

Syd Lexia wrote:

However, when you read the rules, you'll also notice that there is not a clearly defined set of punishments.

Basic rules for the Sydlexia forums 13, 18, 20, and 22 actually do have clearly defined punishments. 18 has been violated like a billion times and there hasn't been a single suspension for it. 13 was violated many times as well, mostly be FNJ, and there was never any suspension for it.

Syd Lexia wrote:

One last thing. We had four "stupid" threads over the course of the weekend. My Thursday thread, the New York thread, the Friday thread, and the Sunday thread. Of these four, three of them were locked. The one that wasn't was created by me, and the only reason no one tried to lock it is because I would have simply unlocked it again. Now, none of these threads were against any actual rules we currently have. Either all of them should have been locked or none of them. Which would you prefer?

The Thursday thread had the potential to exist because it was related to a song that has become a viral hit. It should, however, have been moved to Music. The Saturday and Sunday threads were pure spam trying to capitalize on the Thursday thread. This is happening entirely too much these days. Someone will start a thread that's either serious or goofy but harmless, and suddenly there'll be 8 parody threads. That's not necessary. As moderators, our job is not only to enforce the forum rules, but to remove spam (Why there isn't an actual rule about posting spam is beyond me). Spam not only exists in the form of threads and posts from freecreditreport999 and other such users, but from our actual members.

Posted: Mar 21 2011 06:53 pm

I'd like to jump in and say that if we had actually been given the chance to be told the story of why the Turkey ended up in the cop car the Upstate New York Thread would have been OK (at least in my opinion. )

Posted: Mar 21 2011 06:58 pm

Blackout wrote:

I'd like to jump in and say that if we had actually been given the chance to be told the story of why the Turkey ended up in the cop car the Upstate New York Thread would have been OK (at least in my opinion. )

lol i too am curious about that

Title: Titlating Joined: Dec 17 2007 Posts: 5042

I think there is a big difference between being the master of unlocking and simply asking about it. More often than not I see the latter.

Joined: May 22 2008 Location: Goshen, VA Posts: 6544

NO, YOU SHALL NEVER KNOW. Cease and desist your inquisition on the subject effective immediately.

Posted: Mar 21 2011 07:56 pm

Optimist With Doubts wrote:

I think there is a big difference between being the master of unlocking and simply asking about it. More often than not I see the latter.

The rules explicitly state that you may NOT ask in a public venue. You may PM the moderators to ask.

Title: Titlating Joined: Dec 17 2007 Posts: 5042

And again there are usually not threads started up asking why threads were locked. A lot of time its people bringing it in the pisses me off thread or elsewhere.

And really this isn't a super active forum, if it was I could see why something like that would need to be enforced, but curiosity checks shouldn't be punished.

Posted: Mar 21 2011 09:07 pm

The rule was written and explicitly worded in response to a rash of "where'd my thread go?" threads. Then they stopped.

Posted: Mar 21 2011 09:40 pm

For a while...

Posted: Mar 22 2011 10:57 am

Syd Lexia wrote:

Either all of them should have been locked or none of them. Which would you prefer?

You should have to leave them open. In a way, they were entertaining. Maybe they didn't make to much sense but the threads would have went down anyway in a day or two because of the lack of response.

Joined: Dec 06 2007 Location: Connecticut Posts: 11244

i'll_bite_your_ear wrote:

Syd Lexia wrote:

Either all of them should have been locked or none of them. Which would you prefer?

You should have to leave them open. In a way, they were entertaining. Maybe they didn't make to much sense but the threads would have went down anyway in a day or two because of the lack of response.

Or, more people would have continued to make them and the spam would have lasted another few days. It makes sense that this wasn't a long term thing, but clearing the spam set a precedence. Spam isn't tolerated, therefore it will hopefully be reduced.

Posted: Mar 22 2011 12:44 pm

My understanding of the situation was that someone made a thread about the Rebecca Black song in the music thread to discuss it's value as music. Syd's thread was started to discuss the resulting meme that was created. The rest were just spam.

Banned Joined: Sep 13 2008 Posts: 3129

Syd Lexia wrote:

Now, I think we have a pretty good community here. I think we play nice for the most part, and I think we're generally able to resolve our issues like adults without bringing down the banhammer. If you guys want more from rules enforcement than what you're currently getting, let me know. If you don't, let me know as well.

One last thing. We had four "stupid" threads over the course of the weekend. My Thursday thread, the New York thread, the Friday thread, and the Sunday thread. Of these four, three of them were locked. The one that wasn't was created by me, and the only reason no one tried to lock it is because I would have simply unlocked it again. Now, none of these threads were against any actual rules we currently have. Either all of them should have been locked or none of them. Which would you prefer?

My thread was justly locked, I personally didn't expect or envision it staying unlocked, and the sunday thread was just stupid

Most of the reason we have those topics is because this forum is so laid back. We have a fairly small community here, and it's good. We all know what each others posts are like and we all (Well, in most cases) have a degree of respect for one another.

Issues with locking have really died down, yes occasionally a thread gets really weird and needs to be locked, but most of the time these "stupid threads" die over time or actually evolve into something worthwhile. Personally I have the "Why lock a thread if it's not horrible" A thread called "GAY PORN LOLOLOL" Probably needs to be locked if not deleted, but a thread talking about New York doesn't need to be locked, a little stupidity in General takes away from some of the seriousness of the political threads and other topics.

Simply put, why lock it if it doesn't break the rules? Threads die down over time and that's that.

Also, something that does need to be changed is when people go into a pointless thread, and bring down it's potential by posting a picture of a facepalm or Donkey Kong shaking his head, or saying something with the effect of "This thread is pointless". Pointless posts in pointless threads just push it to the top of the list and actually increase it's success as far as overall pages and posts go.

If it sucks or you don't like it, leave it alone. No one makes you post in it and if you don't it's chance of dying becomes higher

Posted: Mar 22 2011 02:09 pm

That's not only the most that I've ever seen you post, but the most concise and even-handed thing that I've seen you write. Salutations and respect, Hacker.

Posted: Mar 22 2011 02:11 pm

The board is way overdue for a software upgrade. Maybe we can add in some sort of moderation by democracy failsafe, where if none of the mods are around, a thread can be moved to moderation by user votes.

Banned Joined: Sep 13 2008 Posts: 3129

I think we should keep the software as it is, save security issues.
New things tend to break and the forums are down enough as it is.

As for that suggestion, maybe we could add in a plugin to do that?

also thank you Aeonic

Joined: Dec 06 2007 Location: Connecticut Posts: 11244

Hacker wrote:

I think we should keep the software as it is, save security issues.
New things tend to break and the forums are down enough as it is.

As for that suggestion, maybe we could add in a plugin to do that?

PHPBB2 is old and insecure at this point. The update Syd is suggesting is necessary if any features are to be added or modified with success.

Posted: Mar 22 2011 02:24 pm

When the forums go down, it's server issues not software issues.

We'd simply be upgrading to a new version of PHPbb and maybe adding some new modifications. I wish PHPbb allowed for plugins, the way Wordpress does. So user friendly!

Banned Joined: Sep 13 2008 Posts: 3129

GPFontaine wrote:

Hacker wrote:

I think we should keep the software as it is, save security issues.
New things tend to break and the forums are down enough as it is.

As for that suggestion, maybe we could add in a plugin to do that?

PHPBB2 is old and insecure at this point. The update Syd is suggesting is necessary if any features are to be added or modified with success.

Then hell let's upgrade

Posted: Mar 22 2011 03:40 pm

Hacker, if you didn't think your thread would remained unlocked or undeleted, why create it in the fist place? It only creates more work for us and pisses us off.

Syd, mob rule is an awful idea. However, you can have a feature that allows users to report posts.

Joined: Dec 06 2007 Location: Connecticut Posts: 11244

Hacker wrote:

GPFontaine wrote:

Hacker wrote:

I think we should keep the software as it is, save security issues.
New things tend to break and the forums are down enough as it is.

As for that suggestion, maybe we could add in a plugin to do that?

PHPBB2 is old and insecure at this point. The update Syd is suggesting is necessary if any features are to be added or modified with success.

Then hell let's upgrade

It isn't a simple one. Not even a little bit. This forum has ~220,000 posts and ~900 members.

Migration also means giving up the interface and slowly having it rebuilt to look identical. The initial experience will be a bit rough around the edges for at least a week.

Posted: Mar 22 2011 03:50 pm

I think people are entitled to tell a poster if their post is dumb. That's how people learn. If we hadn't chastised Hacker every time he was being a moron, we would have never had that eloquent post he just made here.

Posted: Mar 22 2011 03:51 pm

I once saw a forum set up a copy of themselves on a separate domain, and grant every single user admin level access, it got ugly fast. Let's try that! This Is A Joke