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Policies & Procedures Brainstorming Thread
Thanatos
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So, we, the mods, want to hear from you, the forumers, about things that can be changed on these, the forums. Thus, we have created this thread to hear ideas. Mostly, we're looking for things we can change with regards to policies and practices; most of the stuff we'd like to change that's code-related will have to wait until the next version of the forums (yes, there will be a thread for that, too). This thread isn't "let's vote on what to do," either. It's mostly here for the administration to mine for ideas for changes that might be good; it's a way for us to get more brains throwing out ideas than just the mods.
Now, for the ground rules: first and foremost, if you're posting in here, it had damn well better be constructive. If you're dragging the thread off-topic, being snarky, or putting in personal attacks, not only are we temp-banning you, but we're also trashcanning the post. This also goes for anyone replying to said posts. Don't do it. This isn't to say that you can't criticize an idea or a current policy/practice, merely that "that's retarded" is not really helping anything. This also means we refrain not only from ad hominems, but personal attacks altogether (yes, this goes for me, too). We don't want people to be afraid to put out just about any idea they're willing to subject to rational, thoughtful criticism. Second, no discussing the G&T chat thread or the megathreads. They're not coming back, and all such a discussion of that will lead to is a thread full of people yelling at each other, which is exactly what we'd like to avoid. We'll be using the same trashcan/ban policy with these posts, as well as with people replying to them.
Of course, we don't want to limit this merely to G&T, or SE++, or D&D. We're looking for ideas for any of the forums, or overarching ideas for all of the forums. Anything that hasn't previously been mentioned as verboten is fair game.
Just to get people started, we're currently trying to figure out some way to help PAers get together and game, aside from the standard Game On threads. One of the ideas we've come up with is AFK threads with people's DS friend codes, Wii codes, Xbox Live handles, etc.
So, get to it. Let's hear some ideas.
Now, for the ground rules: first and foremost, if you're posting in here, it had damn well better be constructive. If you're dragging the thread off-topic, being snarky, or putting in personal attacks, not only are we temp-banning you, but we're also trashcanning the post. This also goes for anyone replying to said posts. Don't do it. This isn't to say that you can't criticize an idea or a current policy/practice, merely that "that's retarded" is not really helping anything. This also means we refrain not only from ad hominems, but personal attacks altogether (yes, this goes for me, too). We don't want people to be afraid to put out just about any idea they're willing to subject to rational, thoughtful criticism. Second, no discussing the G&T chat thread or the megathreads. They're not coming back, and all such a discussion of that will lead to is a thread full of people yelling at each other, which is exactly what we'd like to avoid. We'll be using the same trashcan/ban policy with these posts, as well as with people replying to them.
Of course, we don't want to limit this merely to G&T, or SE++, or D&D. We're looking for ideas for any of the forums, or overarching ideas for all of the forums. Anything that hasn't previously been mentioned as verboten is fair game.
Just to get people started, we're currently trying to figure out some way to help PAers get together and game, aside from the standard Game On threads. One of the ideas we've come up with is AFK threads with people's DS friend codes, Wii codes, Xbox Live handles, etc.
So, get to it. Let's hear some ideas.
Thanatos on
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Posts
If I think of anything else, I'll be sure to add it later. Otherwise, I really have no gripes about anything here.
I'd imagine that most workplaces would be less concerned with text than images. Otherwise the whole forum is pretty much NSFW.
EDIT: Although a giant ASCII penis could obviously get you in trouble, and I can't offhand think of any context in G&T where that would be appropriate anyway.
As far as mod/forumer interaction, I wish that some mods wouldn't be the ones to pull the triggers on bans when it makes it look like needless cross moderation to justify their badge. The Rambozo thing comes to mind.
Edit: Thinking about this more, maybe have more regular announcements in The Monkey Den, as opposed to in individual forums. That way everyone is more likely to notice them.
-Thinatos
No.
I may not have an active session on the forums and thus show up in the online list, but I do spend pretty much my entire day in front of the computer with the forums open in Firefox, and is thus reachable via IM and IRC.
Spam threads: Personally, I'm glad to see you guys cracking down on them but I think the rules regarding them could be worded a little better, and I think some people have been getting the wrong impression. Now, I know that by bumping spam threads, you increase their visibility, increase the odds of spam links being clicked, increase the number of referals to these sites from Penny Arcade, and probably increase the odds that additional spam accounts are created here. Perhaps something like this could be added to the rules so that people don't get the wrong impression.
Thread assassination: I've never really liked this rule. I know that nobody likes to see legit threads sidetracked by asshats, but there IS such a thing as a bad thread and it is a shame--nay, an OUTRAGE--that we can never have a broken microwave (open in IE) or where is the internet stored thread ever again. They gave this forum a lot of personality.
Poll threads: These have been a point of contention for a while. I don't think there was ever an official rule about them, but I remember Raijin cracking down on them some time ago and with good reason, so maybe it's time something was set in stone. Basically, any time a thread becomes a question-and-answer list topic, like "Wut is ur favorit game muzak," followed by people rushing to give their input without really participating in any kind of discussion, have it locked and done away with. Don't ban any kind of topic outright, but make it apparent that threads must have substance in order to survive.
It just looks really bad to me.
Well, admittedly I've only tried to contact you on AIM once, and you were offline that time, so :P
I expect you guys to play nice together and with new posters. Lets face it most people who are visiting the PA forums for the first time are fans of games. The least intimidatingly named forum is G&T so they will probably head there first (WTF is an SE++? Why is there a Den full of Monkeys?). G&T regulars should consider themselves ambassadors and act accordingly.
We have a thread called "forumers to watch." This is where we post forumers we want to keep an eye on, for whatever reason. For instance, if we suspect forumer X is a shill, we'll mention it in there, and make a point of checking his IP occasionally, to see where he's posting from. If we were to make that post public, it would defeat the purpose, because forumer X could simply avoid logging in from any revealing IP, or make a point of mixing up his shill-like behavior, so we couldn't make as solid of a case.
AFK is a good idea in theory but it's underused and so much information there is outdated.
The thread is mostly about Elkamil, though.
I don't spend a lot of time in G&T so I can't really speak to any problems they might have. I really like D&D and SE++ at the moment. Lots of good threads in both. Or maybe I've been drinking more, whichever.
That reminds me, it hasn't been much of an issue recently with the next gen stuff, but I imagine it will be again soon enough...
I detest those "I just bought an X, what games should I get for it?" threads with a passion since they immediately just devolve into the most generic of generic poll threads despite popping up four or five times a week at their worst and there are mostly duplicate AFK threads, but they're completely out of date and nobody would bother to look there anyway. I'm not really certain what would fix it, but making AFK more visible/used would be delightful.
And showing it in public probably wouldn't make him stop, it'd just make him be more careful about it. And that's an example, not the only example.
Doc was kidding. There's plenty of stuff in the mod forum that isn't particularly inflammatory but isn't really for public consumption either. Discussing of new mods, various policies etc...
Making the forum public means that discussion of any controversial policies (that may never come to pass) is impossible without drama explosions. I can say pretty certainly that the mod forum is not going to be made public in the forseeable future.
It would probably be good if both Admins were more visible. Whippy does a good job making appearances into the SE++ side of things, but he's probably scarce elsewhere. I think alphamonkey is rotting away somewhere.
One of the reasons why it is in private is so we don't have to worry about the politics of constant scrutiny for our views in the public eye. More communication would be a good thing, between mods and forumers (as this thread is intent on doing). But opening the window entirely would make everything much more political than it needs to be.
G&T was the first forum I was inclined to visit when I first arrived here, and I was treated just like any other user. I've met a pretty wide array of new users and seen others' reactions to them in my time here. From what I've seen, it always, always, always follows the same pattern; act civilly, everyone treats you normally/well. Do something completely moronic, you get smothered with insults for it.
I'm not seeing this "Oh man a new person hide the booze party's over" stuff that everyone seems to think is so abundant around here.
It just seems a little unfair that people on one forum are supposed to follow some higher standard than all of the others just because of the board's name, even moreso because usually the only time that people *don't* follow this higher standard is when someone breaks a rule. This indicates to me that a person with a more recent join date can get away with more things without consequences, creating a double standard.
Not only that, but we also have things like an off-duty thread that explains when we are taking off, and asks other mods to keep an eye on our forum for us. I'd just as soon not have this information publicly available. I remember what happened to substitute teachers in high school.
If it solves any problems, it would just create others.
The standards G&T are held to aren't any higher than those of the other forums, except perhaps SE. And really, isn't most of the world expected to behave better than people in SE do?
Haven't seen him since.
Agreed.
And yeah, there are different standards for all the subforums. The most authoritarian of which, I'm fine with admitting, is probably H/A. That's because each subforum has a different atmosphere, and a different context from which people should be posting. I'd say that probably the hardest one to come up with an appropriate standard for is G&T, but it's a constantly ongoing project, there.