general questions Testing Forum - What Is It?

[Rikifive 24,795]

This question may sound silly, but what exactly is the Testing Forum area?

 

 

Okay, I know it's pretty self-explanatory, though I still have some questions out of curiosity.

 

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Who can view these threads?

We can view only our own threads - Can moderators and administrators view them as well? I'm pretty sure they can and that's fine, but it brings next questions.

 

Would making tons of threads and posting spam be an issue there?

No need to worry! I'm not going to do this, but I'm just curious.

For example, what if I'd like to store some links or something like this in there? Ability to keep the BBcode may come in handy sometimes.

I know it sounds silly, but making a thread in there could be neater than a special text file somewhere around PC or some sites etc..

Having a little corner that is easy to access - would it be okay to use it that way?

 

Would multiple threads look problematic from your point of view?

I assume, that threads in here are displayed for you just like in most of other sections for all of us. If that's true, does anybody care what's happening in there?

 

Can we moderate these threads?

Since we can view only our own threads, deleting posts/threads wouldn't be confusing for the others.

Can we manage these in that section?

 

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Personally I find that section useful, because it's a nice and quick way to store some information online-onsite that would not spam the forum itself.

 

Thanks in advance! 

[Fhaolan 4,494]

Heya,

 

The basic idea behind the Testing forum is so everyone has a space where they can check how the various BBCodes and other formatting works, as well as draft posts on a longer-term basis than what IP.B (our forum software) allows normally.

 

To answer the other questions:

 

1) Yes, Admins and Global Mods can see the testing forum, mainly so if anyone asks for help we can go in and help them with whatever they're working on.

 

2) Like Personal Messages, the Testing forum is still covered by the Global Rules, so NSFW stuff, real spam, etc. is a no-no. Creating lots of test posts to store info though is fine. When I think 'spam' I'm thinking more along the lines of bot-produced advertising spam.

 

3) Yeah, it looks like a normal forum to us. I know I go in there occasionally to check for spam-bots, and of course just to use it for testing.

 

4) I... honestly don't know if we can set that forum up for self-moderating threads. I'll see what I can dig up on the technical side, and see what the consensus is among the Admin-types about it from a process point of view.

[Rikifive 24,795]

Hello!

 

So it exactly works as I thought. 

 

Fair enough, no more questions. You've gave answers, that I hoped for. 

 

I know my questions sounded like I was about to post .. I don't even know what, but I wanted to get as much accurate answers as possible. Giving ridiculous examples usually works.

 

As for self-moderating, I was thinking, that it would come in handy to be able to remove threads, once their purpose would be fulfilled. Otherwise it could lead to pages of old testing threads, that basically would be a copy of the original ones with the final state. Hiding could work as well, but that still would leave these unwanted traces. On the other hoof, we could always reuse one thread instead... Either way asking a moderator for assistance wouldn't be bad. 

 

Thank you for replying! 

[Fhaolan 4,494]

No problem.

Oh, and I've dug into the self-moderating bit, and the forum software we're using (IP.B ) doesn't natively allow that, at least not in the version we have or without an add-on of some kind. Which is annoying because it's something I've wanted to spin up for the RP section as well. Pity.

[Rikifive 24,795]

I believe it was possible in v.3, though I may be mistaking. At least that's how setting permissions for local-mods worked. I mean allowing them to manage only selected forums, not instantly the whole forum etc..

I'm honestly not sure about v.4 though.

 

Either way it's not a big issue. It was more like a silly question just for my own information, rather than suggestion/complaint. Even if we'd make a silly mistake like.. I don't know .. posting something twice, then we can always count on moderators, right? 

 

 

Thank your your time anyway. 

Edited November 11, 2016 by Rikifive