Major Changes To Forum Policy

Zara33

Martin can I ask, the yellow/red card how will this be done via pm or on post/thread?

Personally I would hope it would be via pm, so other posters aren't able to taunt someone to get a rise out of them.

furndire

Would it be an idea to have some sort of a button to click to keep track of where you have read to on a thread. I often subscibe to, and read posts, and use the thanks button to make a note of where I read to.

michaels

Thanks for the clarification Martin. Hopefully 3 is just a formalisation of what already happens. 2 looks like a sensible first step to protect new posters (don't like newbies - sounds a bit patronising). There is a concern that some 'new' posters are simply some of those antagonistic posters looking for a rise - hopefully there are technical solutions to pick this up?

For 1 I think there may be more thought needed. People put a lock of effort in to sharing information and I guess do feel they are having their glory stolen when a new 'official' thread starts up - this can be compounded of this then becomes the main place for discussion and the original thread gets duplicated or discussion becomes fragmented over more than one thread. I'm afraid I'm not saying I know the answer but I can see why there are isses and I'm not sure thie will solve them all - sorry I can't be more constructive.

Finally, please could you clarify the 'thanks' issue - I think a good post anywhere should be 'thankable' even if that thanks doesn't add to the posters total thanks count (reputation).

MSE_Martin wrote: »

1. MSE team on the forums.

I've noticed that on the back of many of the official MSE threads, often the first post is a quite antagonistic post saying "its already been discussed" or "you're too late."

This forgets two things...

a. Often these links are deliberately so there will be detailed info, propritory researched and checked out in MSE's official name for the mass of people coming from the weekly email.

Sometimes its a new threa because the nature of the discussion (due to arguments, or potentially dodgy codes etc) aren't suitable for the mass audience from the email.

The biggest complaint we get about the whole site is people don't like the forums and can't undersand them. That's why we do a special format. Then when the first post says "why've you done this, there's already a thread" and sends people elsewhere - it can be destructive and puts people off using the forum community.

b. MSE news and articles are very detailed and take time to write, many times people think we simply spot it on the forum, then don't credit it to the first poster. Actually its commonly that we've been working on the detail for hours or days (we get embargo'd info which we can't publish until certain times) but haven't published until its 100% confirmed.

Yet a good chunk of the blame is the fact I think my team and I ignore some of the forum rules and etiquette.

So we're going to try and improve, as well as asking regulars to cut us some slack.

i. We will check to see if there are existing threads, if there are and its not appropirate to insert our post atthe top of them we will link to them in our original posts

ii. When we first spot something its likely we're going to write a forum post or news story on (e.g. Newcastle 5% bond) we'll pop a quick heads up in the forum saying "we're about to check this out, thought you'd like a look" type think.

iii. We are looking at having a comments system in the news story, which will work with, but seperate from the forum

aliEnRIK

Whats your thoughts on the 'techie' thread Martin? The way I read that REALLY sounded 'exactly' like the techie thread in parts to me. Id just like it to be known that whilst I help on the techie thread doesnt directly save someone money as in saving 1% off their mortgage or whatever but ive certainly helped a lot of people save money by not having to pay for security or taking their computer to a shop for repair etc (As have a lot of us on the techie board)

Id ask you dont just 'discount' us

MoaningMyrtle

Great ideas and improvements suggested, many thanks. Most forums have cliques that can be off-putting for newbies don't they? They post a couple of times and can be scared off by bullying behaviour.

ThinkingOfLinking

Zara, I assume it would be done via PM and/or email. When volunteering as a moderator elsewhere, and having to suspend or ban members, we PMed them the warnings, but the suspensions and bans were both PMed and emailed as they were not able to log in for 2 weeks/forever so wouldn't otherwise get the message for 2 weeks/ever. I don't see Martin as being the type to want to put a forumite in the stocks so to speak...

danandjens_worldtravels

I also think its a good idea to have a be nice to newbies. I have had several usernames over the years, through changing homes/jobs/email addresses I have a habit of losing my passwords and can't reset or re-use the user name, and so all the thanks and post counts go.

When I come back on as a newbie, I sometimes feel a bit apprehensive about asking questions as a newbie because that built up history is no longer available.

I feel apprehensive and I know you people, so a real newbie could be put off.

Good idea. I also like the yellow cards idea. Is there a time limit on how long a yellow lasts? Does it get removed after a period of say 3 months?

ThinkingOfLinking

furndire wrote: »

Would it be an idea to have some sort of a button to click to keep track of where you have read to on a thread. I often subscibe to, and read posts, and use the thanks button to make a note of where I read to.

I know we're going a bit off topic here, but slightly differently, yes, I'd love an option of marking a thread as read. It would save a lot of time.

gwinnie

It all sounds more than reasonable, particularly the tough line on unpleasant behaviour. However, I would say that there's some good stuff that gets posted in DT, that may not be moneysaving but does add to general knowledge on current affairs. I've certainly learnt a lot in my time here, and it would be a shame to lose the thanks facility. (Nothing to do with the fact that my post&thanks count would be decimated :A )

fire**fly

Blackpool_Saver wrote: »

Bigger forum, more mods....simple, well not simple, but doable.....

I do agree they need another Board Guide in the Competitions forum, there are/have been lots of repeated comps & the BG's on there have their hands full with repeated merging of comps posts,
there's only 3 now as to 4 when i joined but the forum has got bigger & moves a lot quicker than it used to, so we're 1 BG down but more members, comps being posted etc