Major Changes To Forum Policy

amyjayne27

This is a GREAT idea, I totally agree with most of it. Newbies are made to feel like outsiders and idiots, and it is really clicky (some forums more than others). I don't even try to research and post anything just because I can't be bothered to get 'shouted' at by the clicky MSE'rs that have been around for a long time and have a established who they like and who they don't.

Its a great site, but I do think some of the people ruin it, without newbies your site would not succeed; you need new interest for it to work, and if it carries on the way it does no-one will want to join this site.

Best of luck, you've got your work cut out for you!!

Thanks

worldtraveller

magyar wrote: »

I agree that losing the "thanks" in the MSA/DT boards would be a shame. I'm not sure I have seen any evidence of someone with a lot of thanks from those boards 'abusing' their thanks on the moneysaving boards. I don't really see what harm it does, but most people do find it very useful as a way of indicating whether or not someone agrees with something in a DT discussion.

It's simply a waste of space if someone now has to reply and say "I agree"

It's my understanding from Martin's OP (as updated 11PM yesterday) that the "Thanks" button in the likes of MSA/DT will still operate as normal, however the "Thanks" will not be added to the "Thanked Count" for the user.

mewbie_2

Problem is posters who purely post for ego, funnies and thanks in return. ie. me. Difficult to get rid of us, and arguably the forum would be less fun, although perhaps also less irritating.

Removing the thanks will just lead to more reply posts - saying LOL or whatever.

A range of buttons might be better.
Helpful - click if this post was helpful, a response to a query or imparting some information.
Funny - click if the post was funny.
Disagree - click if you disagree, but don't need to type "I disagree" in response.
And hold each button click counts - ok maybe the Funny is not really required - but showing genuine Helpful AND genuine Disagree might be of some use.

BUT.

Then it just gets complicated and open to even more abuse.

So IMO stick with thanks - it adds to the forum experience, saves the extra Thankyou or LOL responses, and once you have been a regular you know where people are at anyway.

SnowMan

I think it is so important to encourage newbies onto the board and so am encouraged by the changes. :T

After perhaps a couple of months I think most posters get to realise that there are some unpleasant posts about. There is not much that can be done about that but by that stage even a sensitive soul like myself is able to just ignore these.

However as a newbie an unpleasant post aimed at you is likely to scare you away for good.

I welcome the 3 posts protection. But I think you need to look at the whole experience from what happens when you register to the opening email and so on. One idea might be a second official MSE email should be sent to newbies after they have made a couple of posts asking them how they are finding things with a link to a thread intended solely for newbies to discuss their experience of joining.

I joined when the icesave collapse happened and a lot of others did the same. It was that sharing of a common experience of people like me who had never contributed to an online forum before, that encourages you to keep posting. Hence my suggestion.


Also the ethics of the site are the main catalyst for the popularity of this forum and I don’t think there is any harm in making full use of that in all communications.

smallpackages

is it possible to thank someone even if it isnt added to you thanks count? i dont think people judge the worthiness of you post on the thanks count so much as the content tbh.
as long as we can keep the arms and dt. i think it is important to lots of people , me included.

odowdchr

Flickering_Ember wrote: »

I don't know, and am not asking, who the poster you mean is, but for example in the Competitions forum, those of us who post new competitions can rack up a lot of thanks for a single post; for example posting an ITV competition can easily earn the OP around 400 thanks. But these posts ARE useful; eg I don't have a TV so wouldn't have another way of finding out the answer to the day's competitions and therefore wouldn't have any chance of winning.

Good point.
I can't remember who it was and it wasn't a personal attack....just really strange to see.

meher

magyar wrote: »

I agree that losing the "thanks" in the MSA/DT boards would be a shame. I'm not sure I have seen any evidence of someone with a lot of thanks from those boards 'abusing' their thanks on the moneysaving boards. I don't really see what harm it does, but most people do find it very useful as a way of indicating whether or not someone agrees with something in a DT discussion.

It's simply a waste of space if someone now has to reply and say "I agree"

I agree :lovethoug

see? you could be expressive not exactly a waste of space

daviddonna

I just want to say thank you to Martin and the MSE team. This site has really helped me throughout the past couple of years. I like that it's a family site with no advertising. I really enjoy coming to the MSE website. I really appreciate all the hard work that everyone does on the threads including fellow MSE'rs that post regularly. :T

Remember: it's FREE to be kind to others.

magyar

meher wrote: »

I agree :lovethoug

see? you could be expressive not exactly a waste of space

I could be convinced.

mewbie_2

Bit more stuff if anyone is still reading this thread.

One useful purpose of Thanks count is to persuade people to be reasonable. Behave nasty = don't get thanked. Why should it matter less on some boards than others?

Newbies. It's tricky on any forum for newbies to start with, and there is always a clique or two. MSE not only maintains a post count, but awards stars as people 'progress'. This seems to add to the "I'm more senior" than you feeling. Maybe once a certain number is reached, say 20,000 then "sad internet loser" is the ultimate accolade.

tbh - I think it's all fine as it is. I'd love to see yellow cards awarded publicly though - that would be fun.