Forum moderation

[The Urban Spaceman]

So far these forums have been very clean & friendly & focused on the reason we are all here. Sui Generis!

There are however no mods present at present. As the profile of SG & MBG rises it will of course lead to many many more people in the forums & this brings with it a burden that is too much for BMG alone to carry. The never ending task of removing unwanted or inappropriate crap & redirecting noobs who are too lazy to look for themselves.

I think now is as good a time as any to start recruiting those foolish individuals who might be willing to mod in their own free time. Given the blessing of BMG of course.

I would consider it as long as I wasnt the only one lol. For the last 10 years I've been fairly regular on one forum or another & I think I have a good sense of what is & is not good etiquette. I will leave it at that for now. See what BMG has to say on the subject & if there are any other potential mods out there.

 

[The Urban Spaceman]

Hmm. In other news apparently it's not letting me edit that typo of BMG at the top. Lame.

 

[Tony]

I agree that eventually these forums will need moderators. I've enjoyed the relatively high maturity level maintained on these forums so far but all good things must come to an end. If BME do need volunteers I'd be willing to donate my time.

 

[nox]

I approve of this, and volunteer as a moderator.
I haven't been a mod before, but I'm pretty good with a hammer so banning should be nemos problemos ;P

 

[walltar]

As i said before .. i think there is need for mods. I can't volunteer ... i am childish, irresponsible and i have bad sense of humor. Moreover i hate work.

 

[Algea]

There is actually a mod here. It's Rob. He even has a nice badge under his name which states that he's a moderator.

I'm not sure if there are other moderators or if more are needed at the time.

 

[d0ct0rscarecr0w]

I've seem a few of BME's employees making messages on the forum. I think at the current time they are acting as the police force if need be.
Also, if they are going to start making moderates they will likely choose who should be one instead of taking volunteers. Most professional forums do it that way.

 

[The Urban Spaceman]

Hadn't noticed robs mod status, must be fairly recent. We have a mod! Phew.

 

[nox]

me neither, congratz Rob!

 

[Rob]

Thanks for the congratz!

Of course I will try to maintain order, and help out where possible! As has already been mentioned, this forum has a surprisingly low level of inappropriate/annoying posts/people, so the need for moderation has been relatively minimal to date. However, who knows what will happen as time passes...

Edit: Acknowledging that people (particularly MrIDK) have been previously annoyed with duplicate threads, I feel that I should address this issue. The questions is: should people new to the forum post new threads, or should they append to old ones? Interesting question. I can imagine the answer will depend on a case-by-case basis, depending on the naivety and relevance of the post. I will try to be as fair and objective as possible, but please feel free to report posts or PM me if you want any particular cases to be brought to my attention. All the best!!!

 

[The Hedge Knight]

Just saying, there was a thread about this not even like, three down from this one.

 

[Joe Moore]

Thanks for the congratz!

Of course I will try to maintain order, and help out where possible! As has already been mentioned, this forum has a surprisingly low level of inappropriate/annoying posts/people, so the need for moderation has been relatively minimal to date. However, who knows what will happen as time passes...

Edit: Acknowledging that people (particularly MrIDK) have been previously annoyed with duplicate threads, I feel that I should address this issue. The questions is: should people new to the forum post new threads, or should they append to old ones? Interesting question. I can imagine the answer will depend on a case-by-case basis, depending on the naivety and relevance of the post. I will try to be as fair and objective as possible, but please feel free to report posts or PM me if you want any particular cases to be brought to my attention. All the best!!!

Where possible, people should read/search the forum for a related topic and post there.

That would require reading and it's easier to post. Basically, people are lazy and you can't get around it. (I'm lazy.)

The problem with people creating duplicate posts, is that it creates more reading. People then don't want to read all the posts and then create new ones duplicating info in old ones. Repeat cycle.

This is a known phenomenon and no real way to fix it.

One site allows moderators to merge threads. They also have FAQs or a thread that provides a summary, much like The Hedge Knight has done.

The trick is to have moderators and regular posters ( like Mr. IDK) to refer those threads to related topics, be sure to provide the link so it's easy for them to get to the info.

At least IMHO.

 

[MrIdontKnow]

Just saying, there was a thread about this not even like, three down from this one.

Been my exact point the whole time. I hate being moaning Mary, but I'm right.

Because this thread has got more posts and attention, it would be better to delete my thread.

Where possible, people should read/search the forum for a related topic and post there.

That would require reading and it's easier to post. Basically, people are lazy and you can't get around it. (I'm lazy.)

The problem with people creating duplicate posts, is that it creates more reading. People then don't want to read all the posts and then create new ones duplicating info in old ones. Repeat cycle.

This is a known phenomenon and no real way to fix it.

One site allows moderators to merge threads. They also have FAQs or a thread that provides a summary, much like The Hedge Knight has done.

The trick is to have moderators and regular posters ( like Mr. IDK) to refer those threads to related topics, be sure to provide the link so it's easy for them to get to the info.

At least IMHO.

I've just read your post fully, some people just do make the general mistake of not reading something thoroughly, for example. I made a thread called Realistic Gameplay, now, from reading the title, that opened it up to a large area of topics, it could be anything, but in that particular thread it covers large object destruction, buildings and whatnot, Madoc replied and said not fully buildings, maybe the odd wall. Thanks Madoc! Appreciate it. Then you get a new guy that most likely didn't read anything and went straight to posting Buildings and Destruction, didn't read The Hedge Knights awesome Dev Tracker/F.A.Q on what we know so far.

There's a search bar, he could have saved a lot of his type by typing in, destruction, click advanced search and type in building destruction. Bingo!


Now you can solve this in many ways:

An active mod like Rob could lock, link, and pm saying please use the search bar.

You can make all new comers have to read the F.A.Q page that The Hedge Knight created.

You could even have a newbie tutorial on how to use the search bar, if that isn't created tomorrow I will create the most detailed tutorial on how to use it properly.

But, you still get posters duping thread and asking questions that can easily be found out using the search bar, so in the end of the day, it comes down to just small acts of ignorance that will eventually build up, the first 100 will be yeah he's new, then eventually it will get annoying, and the new poster 101 will ask the question and he'll probably be told to search but in a more harsh and brash way, which isn't a community what we want, but will eventually get there.

You think I'm blabbing, but you just wait.

 

[Joe Moore]

I've just read your post fully, some people just do make the general mistake of not reading something thoroughly, for example.

Yes, I didn't mean to imply that being lazy was the only way this could happen. I was composing on my cell phone and it was painfully slow. Plus, I'm lazy.

Then you get a new guy that most likely didn't read anything and went straight to posting Buildings and Destruction, didn't read The Hedge Knights awesome Dev Tracker/F.A.Q on what we know so far.

There's a search bar, he could have saved a lot of his type by typing in, destruction, click advanced search and type in building destruction. Bingo!

Yes, both of which require the user to know about them, and to take the time to use them. There's also the time to peruse the forums and get familiar with them and see what's there. This again requires the user to do some work.

Now you can solve this in many ways:

An active mod like Rob could lock, link, and pm saying please use the search bar.

You can make all new comers have to read the F.A.Q page that The Hedge Knight created.

You could even have a newbie tutorial on how to use the search bar, if that isn't created tomorrow I will create the most detailed tutorial on how to use it properly.

These are all good things. Have the Search Tutorial a sticky. Have an FAQ as a sticky and the Hedge Knights Grand list of dev quotes on features thread (Maybe rename it Dev Quotes On Game Features?). Have those stickied in General Discussion.

Sadly, you can't make people, aka new comers, read anything. You can strongly suggest they read it and then make what you want to read easy to find.

But, you still get posters duping thread and asking questions that can easily be found out using the search bar, so in the end of the day, it comes down to just small acts of ignorance that will eventually build up, the first 100 will be yeah he's new, then eventually it will get annoying, and the new poster 101 will ask the question and he'll probably be told to search but in a more harsh and brash way, which isn't a community what we want, but will eventually get there.

You think I'm blabbing, but you just wait.

No, I don't think you're blabbing. I see this issue in other forums as well. Some are really well run, like Grim Dawn's forum, but I wonder if part of that is they currently have a small community. They have several moderators, aka community volunteers, that do a really good job of moderating the forums without being heavy handed.

I think you have presented some great suggestions, and this would help reduce duplicate post, but it won't stop them.

 

[fluffydino2000]

I just had an idea of how to make duplicate posts less of an issue. What if the title of new threads were searched when the person clicked create. Then, it pops up saying, the title has been mentioned X many times in Y threads and presents the usual search results. Then, people cannot so easily overlook poorly named threads or forget to search for something.

I don't know how easy this would be to implement, but if XenForo can support it and BM have the time this would likely really improve the quality of discussion and prevent any more "Dev Videos for everyone?" posts.