Page 1 of Are we strangling the forums - please be honest ?

I`m a bit concerned at the threads over the last coupla days that have said that the Reviewer mods are a bit heavy handed and causing the shut-down of reasoned debate.

Are we really that horrible ?

This is your forum, guys........please speak frankly (think of this as a customer satisfaction survey, if you will) and I promise no ***THREAD CLOSED*** gags.

(P.S. no swearing please...)

This item was edited on Friday, 6th July 2001, 21:08

The boards have changed a lot since I first logged on here, at the start there were so many slanging matches. Admittedly, they started off funny, and then by the 50th entry they got boring and stupid, because everyone wanted the last say! If not we`d still have threads running from last year!!!!

So I understand if you had to stop them. Its hard to draw a line on when to end the abuse! In a way I sort of miss a few of those - but it did get boring!

For me though, I posted a few topics and they always seemed to move, and I couldnt find them, so Ive sorta given up posting in case I post in the wrong place (cos I`ll never find em again!). I know its obvious - hardware for hardware etc, but the casual user just posts and thats it really! I think that rule needs to be "relaxed"

Some people you can tell get offended by others pointing out its in the wrong forum as well..... it might put people off even bothering to look at the site!

At the end of the day whatever you moderators do someone aint gonna like it, so its a no win really!

Would it help to make the forum definitions clearer ?

Perhaps move away from the text at the top of each forum citing the benefits of other forums and just state, say :

SOFTWARE FORUMS - Discs, films, Easter Eggs, R1 - vs- R2
HARDWARE FORUMS - Players, home cinema kit, TVs, amps
RETAIL REVIEWER FORUMS - Your opinion on retailers
BARGAIN BUCKET FORUMS - Post your great deals here
HACKS FORUM (note new name) - Queries about multi-region playback and other issues (have to be careful re copyright laws here !)

and, er..

GENERAL FORUMS - Have a chinwag about stuff

Whaddya reckon ?

(would this be possible Shep, rather than the paragraph ?)

I think it`s reasonable to correct people when they post in the wrong place, but perhaps refrain from telling them how much it annoys you or "why can`t people read the rules" as it will only antagonise or drive people away.

I`m also in favour of stopping people posting identical copies of one post in more than 1 forum.

General should be for almost anything unless it is a slanging match or something which should blatantly be in another forum (ie What DVD player to get or Which amp is best)

As while some may get bored by being asked "which DVD did you most like the 2nd chapter of when you watched it for a 4th time?" it is a free world (almost)

i think you and the boys are doing a mighty fine job.a round of applause at this point please.
it can`t be easy,and must take up a lot of your time.after all these forums are about helping and pointing people in the right direction,and i think you shine a bloody big light into this confusion that is home cinema.
for me the site is perfect,every question i have asked has been fully answered.keep the swearing down,filter out the drivel and march boldly on.
well done,
mick.

Short answer - no!

Long answer: No not at all. You two have made these forums the best of their kind and a safe, usually friendly place for all to come and play. I think it goes without saying that we all look up to you two and respect what you do here. We need never fear when Clayts or Bates is near........! Like Shnozzer said, these forums have helped me a whole lot and I have had every single question I ever asked, answered (no matter how obscure). That just goes to show how superb these forums are and we have you two to thank for keeping them that way. Bravo.

Aye!

I agree. They need to be managed, otherwise it would get messy very quickly. Clayts - your suggestion of "subtitles" for each forum seems a good one.

Maybe the tone of the slapping could be a bit softer - particularly for newbies - maybe a yellow/red card system - people who do it twice get the full force of DanB!!!


Richard

I think that the mods have a thankless task at best and I certainly appreciate the time they put in to making the forum a success! What`s the chances of more mods? Also I have a suggestion. What if the mods were to use a different screen name which includeed the word moderator when moving, closing or warning threads?

It certainly took me a few postings before I realised who the mods were and what they were doing. It`s fine now but as a newbie I was asking the question "who is this clayts fella". Perhaps then the mods could separate postings related to their `duties` from their postings containing opinions and advice by using different names? Just a thought....

Keep up the good work!

That`s a very interesting idea, mate.

I think both Dan and I do try to add in "Clayts, Moderator" or "Dan B, Moderator" as signatures on our postings where we unleash the full power of the Moderator force ! On postings where we are forum members we tend not to do this.

The only downside with your idea would be that we`d both have to log in and out of our respective user names, which could become a bit onerous for each session where we `stalk` the forums !

Tricky one - dunno how feasible it`d be. Any thoughts on this, Shep ?

I think it`s a great idea to be more descriptive of each forum and what should be posted there (as described by Clayts). It will make understanding where to place threads much easier, especially for new visitors.

On the general topic, I think you guys are doing a fantastic job. Keep it up.

Steve

This item was edited on Saturday, 7th July 2001, 10:19