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Post by Cybermortis on May 26, 2014 17:48:48 GMT
Having an 'exclusive' group is one of the pitfalls of message boards (or any other area of life for that matter). Usually this is 'senior' members who've been around for a while, but it can also apply to staff on a board. On one hand this can be good, as such a group is more cohesive and tends to work better. On the other such groups can be rather intimidating to newcomers, and they can also occasionally talk down to those outside the 'group' even when they didn't intend to - easy to forget that new people may not be used to or know how members usually talk to each other, and as such something that was intended to be helpful can come across as dismissing them. The problem is that if the MiD is too easy chances are that a lot of the existing membership would end up with one. This would reinforce the 'outsider' view that some people might have. On the other hand if the MiD is harder to get, then a new member is not faced with talking to people who have a lot of letters after their name. If they can see that not everyone has such an award, they will (hopefully) reinforce the idea that such things as post count and membership titles are not as important as overall content of posts. (Except for the titles of 'Moderator' and 'Administrator' of course...  ) |
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Post by the light works on May 26, 2014 18:54:06 GMT
Having an 'exclusive' group is one of the pitfalls of message boards (or any other area of life for that matter). Usually this is 'senior' members who've been around for a while, but it can also apply to staff on a board. On one hand this can be good, as such a group is more cohesive and tends to work better. On the other such groups can be rather intimidating to newcomers, and they can also occasionally talk down to those outside the 'group' even when they didn't intend to - easy to forget that new people may not be used to or know how members usually talk to each other, and as such something that was intended to be helpful can come across as dismissing them. The problem is that if the MiD is too easy chances are that a lot of the existing membership would end up with one. This would reinforce the 'outsider' view that some people might have. On the other hand if the MiD is harder to get, then a new member is not faced with talking to people who have a lot of letters after their name. If they can see that not everyone has such an award, they will (hopefully) reinforce the idea that such things as post count and membership titles are not as important as overall content of posts. (Except for the titles of 'Moderator' and 'Administrator' of course... ) the question is whether we are better off having everybody have one or few people have one. I don't know the answer. I was in a group where the entry level award was relatively easy to get - and still people beefed if they didn't get it quickly enough. |
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Post by silverdragon on May 27, 2014 8:40:04 GMT
Reply to that post, immediate thoughts.....
For a start, when the awards are announced, have nominations put in for each award as a "Posthumous" for past actions, and draw the line after that has been done, as in, give it say one week or so for the full board membership to cast votes.
Then the line is drawn, and all awards after that time MUST be from after this date, or in very exceptional circumstances.
No n00b can posthumously claim an award on joining by stating "That was my idea", and unless it can be proved beyond doubt.........
All awards should be notified, and voted.
This may[will?] require a "Wipe clean" section of the board to set up.. a Voting section....
The posts that support an award may stay, but the discussion as to who should be nominated my be swept away after the votes are counted.
For instance, I nominate Loki for the award of being Loki and creating chaos, if it gets more than half a dozen agreed votes he gets it (The award, not a custard pie...)(Or maybe both?....]
(On reflection, I think Both)
[Edit, SD], on post posting reflection, I think he should get a custard pie anyway, just for the fact he is ESM....]
If at the end of the week all votes for are counted.
If after a certain number of votes "Black-ball" the award it is to be cancelled.
[side note, if voting against an award is awkward, can someone volunteer to open mail box to receive PM's for black ball votes?.. I say this in the interest of board harmony.....]
No one is allowed to nominate themselves.
Just a few idea's, open to other suggestions?...maybe someone has a better plan?....
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Post by silverdragon on May 27, 2014 8:51:45 GMT
Having an 'exclusive' group is one of the pitfalls of message boards (or any other area of life for that matter). Usually this is 'senior' members who've been around for a while, but it can also apply to staff on a board. On one hand this can be good, as such a group is more cohesive and tends to work better. On the other such groups can be rather intimidating to newcomers, and they can also occasionally talk down to those outside the 'group' even when they didn't intend to - easy to forget that new people may not be used to or know how members usually talk to each other, and as such something that was intended to be helpful can come across as dismissing them. The problem is that if the MiD is too easy chances are that a lot of the existing membership would end up with one. This would reinforce the 'outsider' view that some people might have. On the other hand if the MiD is harder to get, then a new member is not faced with talking to people who have a lot of letters after their name. If they can see that not everyone has such an award, they will (hopefully) reinforce the idea that such things as post count and membership titles are not as important as overall content of posts. (Except for the titles of 'Moderator' and 'Administrator' of course... ) the question is whether we are better off having everybody have one or few people have one. I don't know the answer. I was in a group where the entry level award was relatively easy to get - and still people beefed if they didn't get it quickly enough. If the poster is beefing that they do not immediately get Evil Senior Member, then the mighty psot count applies. In that, if they are that impatient, is that a good poster to have about, and if they have no interest in "Long term" membership, then they are drive-by. "Senior" status on this board IS all about long term...?... you dont get it after the first week, and even TLW took a few days............. In all seriousness, if its still here in another 10 years, and all of us survive, and keep posting, then I say Job Well Done.... But in that, we will welcome new members to share our success... They have to have "some" form of respect for long term members. I dont think anyone ever joined a new board and immediately wanted to take over... Ok, let me amend that. I dont think anyone Who Ever Survived The First Month....?... n00bs usually, if they are going to stay around, ignore the fact of their n00bishness, dive straight in, are interesting, amusing, intelligent, and have that certain amount of likeability. If they comment on n00bishness, they usually make jokes. They of course will ask how long that lasts.... For consideration. Maybe we should alter the structure, and make the first 20 posts for "Welcome new guest" instead of "n00b" status kind of thing?.... Perhaps the n00b thing should only be mentioned after so-many-posts, and maybe a jokey "No longer a n00b" status?.... And can we actually lock the ESM thread from view until they know the score.... Or put a warning notice in somewhere that its a joke thread and not ever to be taken seriously. |
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Post by the light works on May 27, 2014 14:03:45 GMT
I am thinking as it may be a matter of years between an idea posted and reaching the show; any cutoff on "awards can't happen for before this point" should be based on the show's airing date, rather than a post date. also, Mrs TLW has now started watching soaps, so there need to be more psot count titles developed...  |
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Post by Cybermortis on May 27, 2014 14:47:30 GMT
The entry level 'status' message is 'Oompa-Lumpa', I changed this from 'NooB' about two weeks after the board opened because it could be seen as offensive rather than funny - I also think that changing it only requires 5 posts. Been a while since I checked on that.
I'll take the idea of changing it to 'new member' under consideration, although my first thoughts are to revamp the listings anyway.
I can't prevent members from viewing individual threads on boards without setting the board itself to 'staff only'. Nor is there any option to restrict access to threads or boards based on post count. Board access is 'everyone', 'Members and Staff' and 'Staff Only'. The Drop Box is open (everyone can read and post there), Valhalla and Limbo are locked for anyone but staff to see or post in those sections (The former is the staff room the latter a place to hold posts or threads while the staff decide if any action needs to be taken). While the Announcements and Graveyard Boards are set so that only staff can start threads there and for the latter only staff can post there too. All other sections are open to viewing by anyone, but you have to be a member to post.
Backdating awards was meant to refer to the top two, based on the fact that as noted it can be years between an idea being posted and it being picked up, filmed and aired. These would relate only to those who get ideas on the show they posted on TC (Of course if a member of TC ended up on screen that would probably count even if they hadn't posted any ideas)
I'll consider board-wide 'votes' for awards, or some of them anyway, but that would need to be handled carefully to avoid ill feeling. I'll need to have a long conversation with the rest of the staff so we can figure out what would work best.
What I will probably do is have two threads in the announcements, on listing the awards and who has won them. The second specifically for 'Mentioned in Discussions' with (hopefully) a link to the thread/post in question. The Announcements thread is Staff only for posting, which would make it 'official' (I don't have to and wouldn't sticky those two threads board-wide)
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Post by blazerrose on May 28, 2014 5:03:40 GMT
I thought Oompa Loompa was cute, and completely non-offensive. Everyone knows when they sign up for a message board that privileges only come after a time - either X number of posts or a certain amount of time as a registered member. I wouldn't worry too much about titles.
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Post by silverdragon on May 28, 2014 6:25:34 GMT
Strange, no one commented on this part.
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