OT reforms

[Zombie]

So, I thought OT isn't going really well as of the late, the distortive and unnecessary rainbow message indicates that adequately. In light of that, I'd recommend some reforms, to easen the work of the moderators and handle (not nullify) the level of stupidity.

• Reopen SE. I know it's still in ML, so moving the subforum back can't be that much of a pain. It's not that I want the spam back, but it's definitely better than having to put up with all the bullshit in OT, giving a hard time to the mods. SE should be a "post whatever you want" section, the way I see it. That gets me to my next point.
  
• "Stupid threads will not be tolerated," as the title says. The points explaining the headline stand, but this one: "Any other sort of thread not considered useful by the staff." That can mean a lot. Someone might think that a certain thread is useful, but gets negrepped as it turns out that his case does not apply. That's where SE comes in handy, the mods can dump a thread without causing drama by the said actions.
  
• Goodbye and return threads, why aren't they tolerated? I realise that it can become a cliché, if everyone announces his departure, but what if it becomes that? If someone cares about an individual leaving, then he will post, it's not like the anyone will abuse it to increase a postcount that's not even relevant in OT.
  
• Medivh's Tower, is there a real need for that forum? It's not like any of us is a born philosopher, shit like that can be easily debated in OT aswell, and the way I see it the two forums are pretty much becoming the same anyway, as there's literally no distinction between the users let in and closed out (?).
  
• Get an active, full-time OT moderator, while SE should be moderated from little to no extent. What if there's a "count to 10,000" thread with 4,000 posts in it when developing maps are being frowned upon? If that's what the community needs, it's their loss.

So much for now.

 

[Deleted member 157129]

I agree, except for the part about Medivh's Tower, because even if it's pretty much the same users, the discussions are taken more seriously (or someone is moderating it very well so I didn't notice the spam).

 

[Zombie]

I somehow suspected putting this up was useless.

 

[Deleted member 157129]

It's inevitable that if you have criminals (just to use a term for it) located in one area, closing down that area will cause the criminals to move, they will not become law abiding citizens just because their shelter got smashed. In this case, they flooded the Off-Topic section. If you do everything in your power to remove them from there, they will have to find a new home. In all seriousness, it's better to let the criminals keep their shelter, at least you then have some degree of control, you know where they are, at least - they won't spread if they don't have to.

It's just like what they did to drug-addicts here in town. They were originally located around the "Castle Park" (Slottsparken), which is the park around our royal palace, in Oslo. Then people decided they didn't want them to be in the park, because it was a tourist attraction (the park, I mean). Thus they chased them all out of the park, and set up strict control in order to keep them from coming back. What happened was basically that the addicts found a new spot, one even more annoying for the local population. Thus the police moved in again to get rid of them, resulting in scattering everything all over town, and now they got a hard time keeping control. The moral of the story is that they shouldn't have touched them in the first place.

 

[The_Taxidermist]

I think you put forward some good ideas, zombie.

 

[Ralle]

A thread being stupid is common sense.

I don't want stupid threads on the site (Not in SE either). I don't like the idea of a huge spamnest bogging the server down.

The big text is a nescessary meassure to put down all that crap from the SE'ers.

 

[Elenai]

In all honesty...it really is not necessary, if you can maintain proper presence, control, and a sense of authority.

A gigantic rainbow neon sign that says "Don't Enter " is sure to get people entering...

Goodness...a sign that says "Do not steal this diamond" doesn't [replace/do the job of] a decent security guard at a museum.

 

[TheDivineBoss]

^{This proves Ralle uses a totalitarian system to control us. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU!}

Consider the OT as a landfill: You dump all your stupid stuff on it that doesn't belong anywhere else. It's a messy and stinky place but it needs to be there. Remove it and you'll have junk and waste all over the place. We don't want to find used condoms and plastic bottles between our carrots now do we?

The SE is just a radioactive waste dump, here is where the very dangerous stuff is stored.

 

[Pyritie]

What about just having SE hidden from the forums so the only way to get to it is via a bookmark? People could still spam it there and it wouldn't really be a problem.

Consider the OT as a landfill: You dump all your stupid stuff on it that doesn't belong anywhere else. It's a messy and stinky place but it needs to be there. Remove it and you'll have junk and waste all over the place. We don't want to find used condoms and plastic bottles between our carrots now do we?

http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/recycle-bin-368/

 

[Deleted member 157129]

What about just having SE hidden from the forums so the only way to get to it is via a bookmark? People could still spam it there and it wouldn't really be a problem.



http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/recycle-bin-368/

I want some of that stuff you're smoking, Py.

 

[Pyritie]

Well I'm eating doritos does that count

 

[Hakeem]

Yeah, so I'm back again. After a long forum absence. <_<
>_>

Reopen SE. I know it's still in ML, so moving the subforum back can't be that much of a pain. It's not that I want the spam back, but it's definitely better than having to put up with all the bullshit in OT, giving a hard time to the mods. SE should be a "post whatever you want" section, the way I see it. That gets me to my next point.

I've started thinking of ways to get the, not so much spammy or stupid, threads out of OT. There was a "Post your videos here" thread awhile back, but the concept of that kind of thread is sorta spammy and stupid. It's not so much of a moderation problem or anything, it's just sorta pointless... And I recently realized, the purpose of such threads exists already. It is called the chat. Yes, the chat. The place people go to socialize. The place perfectly suited to word association games, not to mention many other types of forum games. The place where people post links to things they find funny/awesome/stupid/notable in some way. The place for spam. The place for everything SE was meant to be. The place a lot of threads should have been.

SE? Why not the chat?

"Stupid threads will not be tolerated," as the title says. The points explaining the headline stand, but this one: "Any other sort of thread not considered useful by the staff." That can mean a lot. Someone might think that a certain thread is useful, but gets negrepped as it turns out that his case does not apply. That's where SE comes in handy, the mods can dump a thread without causing drama by the said actions.

"Take it to the chat."

Seems to not be too harsh/drama-inducing to me.

Goodbye and return threads, why aren't they tolerated? I realise that it can become a cliché, if everyone announces his departure, but what if it becomes that? If someone cares about an individual leaving, then he will post, it's not like the anyone will abuse it to increase a postcount that's not even relevant in OT.

We have profile pages now. I'd personally like to see people start using them. Of course they've been using them right along, but people have still been posting threads about things they ought to just post on their profile, really.

Medivh's Tower, is there a real need for that forum? It's not like any of us is a born philosopher, shit like that can be easily debated in OT aswell, and the way I see it the two forums are pretty much becoming the same anyway, as there's literally no distinction between the users let in and closed out (?).

Not necessarily, though I don't yet know Ralle's opinion on MT. It was Shados' brain child, as far as I know, so perhaps moving it off-site would be what's best for everyone. It doesn't really do any harm in its current state though, so I don't consider it of high priority.

Get an active, full-time OT moderator.

Working on it.

The big text is a nescessary meassure to put down all that crap from the SE'ers.

What? You too? Am I going to have to delete it myself? :|

In all honesty...it really is not necessary, if you can maintain proper presence, control, and a sense of authority.

A gigantic rainbow neon sign that says "Don't Enter " is sure to get people entering...

Goodness...a sign that says "Do not steal this diamond" doesn't [replace/do the job of] a decent security guard at a museum.

You're absolutely right.

Especially when Pyritie posts the sign. *cough*

What about just having SE hidden from the forums so the only way to get to it is via a bookmark? People could still spam it there and it wouldn't really be a problem.

Actually, that's not a half bad idea, though I'm still not sure I like it over just getting people to use the chat for pointless things instead of threads.

 

[Pyritie]

I don't want the chat to be full of stupid spam >___> video linking, fine, but not crap

 

[Hakeem]

Is that another way of saying you want crap on the forums? (Even if it's just SE.)

 

[Pyritie]

'S long as it's out of the chat, then fine >__>

 

[Hakeem]

It's not that crap moves into the chat; we remove crap globally. My point was that some threads are things perfectly suited to being in chat.

 

[Elenai]

Atleast chat spam is far more temporary, and quickly forgettable.

Of course, I've seen a great deal of spam in chat anyway, from the very staff as well...It doesn't do significant harm in the long run when kept in moderation.

But I want to bring up the whole purpose of Off-Topic, and a phrase I've had shoved down my throat as of late.

"lrn2havefun"

If minor "spam" isn't wanted in the chat...and "spam" forums/threads aren't allowed in Off-Topic (a forum dedicated to decent social amusement), being discouraged, and forbidden by this:

http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/off-topic-478/announcements.html

Which...Apparently was put up for the sake of a staff member "having fun" with the off-topic forum, hyped up for the sake of "having fun"...and when complained about was greeted with the response "Lrn2havefun" (which is what lead me to believe its purpose was more for having fun than being a professional warning due to the obvious evidence), which links to a thread post stating "don't have fun" (No lolcats?).

Then how are we supposed to "have fun"? Why can a staff member play with the whole announcement, and perhaps even the whole off-topic forum, yet a normal user has to squelch their love of lolcats, or can't even really say goodbye, or has to deal with the possibility of his thread being deleted because someone by the mere flip of his whim doesn't find it useful?

Does anyone else see the hypocrisy, and also how illogical this is?

You don't want the chat full of "spam"...but you want to have fun...so you remove alot of what could be considered amusing from Off-topic, and expressive mediums that would cut down on chat spam by removing SE (forums which are much more easily moderatable than chat), and by warning people not to have fun (what ever the mod doesn't feel might be fun/useful by his whim) with the statement "What ever the mods see as useless - do it and be punished", then you proceed to convey that message via this Spam/Luls infested sign that glares at you unless you stick yourself uselessly at the very bottom of the page, a sign that was put up 'for fun', and any attempts to have it made into a decent sign were met with "lrn2havefun" then a defiant increase in the sign's spamminess...a sign put up by a moderator, then hyped up by a moderator, who purposes to have fun, yet limits it for the normal user, while reveling in sign spam, and other such manipulative methods of having fun in his post, but a normal user is not allowed to have a goodbye thread...

I see a Pharisee.

Seriously...reform off-topic...the hive can do a far better job than it is currently doing now.

 

[Pyritie]

You can have fun without being spammy. That's the point. We want to encourage the non-stupid, non-spammy kind of fun.

 

[Elenai]

Yet you engage in it. That is my point.

 

[Devine]

Do you guys really care?
OT is fine D;

 

[Hakeem]

No lolcats?

What? That can't be right...

 

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

I say we cull the stupid people.

 

[dead-man-walking]

I say we cull the stupid people.

Agreed.

 

[Kwah]

The rainbow text is a serious measure. People don't read. This will increase the number of people who actually read it, hopefully increasing the number of people who actually do it.

The problem lies in the fact that OT is intrinsically spam. Nothing that occurs here is related to the actual purpose of the site. We need to either accept this fact, and let the stupidity run rampant, deleting only the blatantly offensive/adult/etc, or remove the forum entirely.

I'm fine with either approach, but it needs to be one or the other (or some other suggested compromise, but I can't think of any).

 

[Deleted member 157129]

You just can't claim a fucking rainbow announcement to be serious. NONE will take it serious.

The spam will always be, and if it can't be one place it will be another, or several other places. It will not go away, and certainly not because of a rainbow.

 

[Ralle]

Let's just start banning people when they spam.