Harmonic's Blog Redux

Good ideas, really. Lists up some solutions for problems I've seen in other communities as well.

 

Do you plan on posting this in "Feedback & Suggestions", too?

Good ideas, really. Lists up some solutions for problems I've seen in other communities as well.

 

Do you plan on posting this in "Feedback & Suggestions", too?

I posted it, woohoo.

I'm gonna come out and say that I agree with you on everything.

 

...but you are missing the part where I, Lord Bababa, become the owner of this forum and all that inhabit it! I'd make the forums better by bannnnnn I mean promoting everyone to higher status!

Very well formulated, lots of good ideas here (a couple of which have even crossed my mind).  Like StatesTheOblivious said, definitely post this in Feedback and Suggestions; the more staff who see this the better, especially from a longtime, respected member such as yourself Harmonic!

"The last problem I would like to address is the staff-selection process. The problem is that only staff have a say on somebody's promotion into the staff. The reason this system will fail in the long run is that it means that if it gets to a point where there are a lot of bad mods/admins, no good mods/admins will get added. In the long run, a better alternative would be user-nomination by other members, and then the staff would vote on these nominations."

 

This part perplexes me because:

1. The only persons who truly know what qualities a mod require are the mods themselves. Members here will simply vote for the "LOL ZOMG POPULAR FRENDLY GUY XXD" kind of member and completely ignoring people who actually has the potential of being great mods/admins

2. The idea of having members nominating will only delay the process of choosing a new mod/admin. Seriously, if a lot members nominate the same member due to their qualities (helpful, friendly etc), the staff has most likely already considered making that person a staff member. A complete waste of time imo

3. It will end up being a popularity contest

 

Also, all of this can simply be solved by bringing in that User Survey that SCS suggested

You have some valid ideas, though I am curious - in what ways specifically has the public image of these forums been suffering? I've always got my head in the clouds, so I'm not exactly up to snuff on what kind of things you're referring to when you speak of issues with negative publicity around here.

"The last problem I would like to address is the staff-selection process. The problem is that only staff have a say on somebody's promotion into the staff. The reason this system will fail in the long run is that it means that if it gets to a point where there are a lot of bad mods/admins, no good mods/admins will get added. In the long run, a better alternative would be user-nomination by other members, and then the staff would vote on these nominations."

 

This part perplexes me because:

1. The only persons who truly know what qualities a mod require are the mods themselves

2. The idea of having members nominating will only delay the process of choosing a new mod/admin. Seriously, if a lot members nominate the same member due to their qualities (helpful, friendly etc), the staff has most likely already considered making that person a staff member. A complete waste of time imo

3. It will end up being a popularity contest

 

Also, all of this can simply be solved by bringing in that User Survey that SCS suggested

 

It's not that simple, like I said, the staff has the final say. Nominating is different than voting, if the mods feel like somebody only got nominated for being popular they don't mod them, simple as that.

 

A user survey would be nice but it would not fix the problem in the long run.

 

You also seem to be forgetting that it's already a popularity contest, except you just require the approval of a few staff members, thus, implementing my suggestion will actually make it LESS of a popularity contest than it already is.

You have some valid ideas, though I am curious - in what ways specifically has the public image of these forums been suffering? I've always got my head in the clouds, so I'm not exactly up to snuff on what kind of things you're referring to when you speak of issues with negative publicity around here.

Staff have been resigning often, many popular members have left or just generally grown to dislike the forums, and much more. It's just on a downward spiral, really. It's really shot up in how common it is to see users just generally abandoning the forums as a whole because of how they've come to dislike the way things work around here.

It's not that simple, like I said, the staff has the final say. Nominating is different than voting, if the mods feel like somebody only got nominated for being popular they don't mod them, simple as that.

 

A user survey would be nice but it would not fix the problem in the long run.

 

But why is that process even required? As I previously stated, if a person gets a lot of nominations because of their qualities, that person has already most likely been noted by the staff team

Staff have been resigning often, many popular members have left or just generally grown to dislike the forums, and much more. It's just on a downward spiral, really. It's really shot up in how common it is to see users just generally abandoning the forums as a whole because of how they've come to dislike the way things work around here.

I got ya. Now that you mention it, I have seen quite a few statuses and blogs dedicated to how much the admins suck (their words, not mine) and whatnot. I feel that leaving the forums over something like that is a little silly, but to be fair, there are aspects about the way things are run here that merit honest reassessment.

But why is that process even required? As I previously stated, if a person gets a lot of nominations because of their qualities, that person has already most likely been noted by the staff team

If it was already the case that people qualified to do the job are getting appointed, we wouldn't be in such a situation where people are resigning left and right.

If it was already the case that people qualified to do the job are getting appointed, we wouldn't be in such a situation where people are resigning left and right.

 

Plenty of mods and admins are resigning, sure, but they resign because of personal reasons. Mostly because they can't handle the pressure, they don't feel like being active anymore etc. Rarely has it anything to do with incompetence, and if it does, it's the mods themselves who are admitting that they aren't doing much for the forums and decides to step out

 

(based on the high amounts of resigning threads)

Plenty of mods and admins are resigning, sure, but they resign because of personal reasons. Mostly because they can't handle the pressure, they don't feel like being active anymore etc. Rarely has it anything to do with incompetence, and if it does, it's the mods themselves who are admitting that they aren't doing much for the forums and decides to step out

 

(based on the high amounts of resigning threads)

There's still the fact that users are constantly complaining about them, even if it will "always" get complained about, as of late, the frequency of these complaints has increased exponentially.