Controversial Discussion: Direction of This Site

Is this place how you want it to be?

What (if anything) could be done to improve it?

Is the moderation too strict, or too lenient?


(Note: I won't tolerate interpersonal bickering in this thread. I'm growing less tolerant of it elsewhere too. With this note, I may have succinctly answered the questions I posed above. Silly frivolity or pandas in this thread will earn penalties. You've been warned.)

If I remember right, you pose a similar question before.

Why you ask???

Because I have considerable time and energy invested in this site. Now please answer the questions, or find amusement in other threads. Thanks.

I can only answer from my own perspective. I have spent years over on Fauna watching the fine tuning of this very question. My personal conclusion is that moderation is best useful 'medium rare'.

Too much, and the forum is stilted, not natural, and not enjoyable. Too little and the place becomes a bloody mess, with loud illmannered and/or annoying people driving away many of the quieter types who came for community, not a fight.

However I'm always mindful of those old science fiction stories where you change some little thing and the future is totally unrecognizable as a result, so change can come back and bite you.

Right now,I think this is a good place to be. I also think that Rich trusts his mods to be sort of like cops in a way- their good judgment is what can prevent a conflagration; we see some pandas but there are a boatload that never materialize because of moderator intervention.

A mod can issue a gentle reminder to some and that is enough; others need a trip out to the woodshed. And it takes a good mod to know which is which.

My forum is mostly non cornsnake related. I would be happy to gift the fee to the site and shut it down if people think it is too off topic and if they feel only cornsnake material is appropriate here.

Personally I have been posting less, though I still read a lot of the threads, TBH I have been tending to go check out the "other" place when I actually want to read about corn snakes or find pictures of morphs and stuff. There is a lot of non corn snake related threads here
Not that some of that stuff isn't interesting as well, but since it's a corn snake site the focus could be a lot more on corn snakes
I hate the political bickering a lot so if I could change one thing it would be take the politics elsewhere.

Originally Posted by ghosthousecorns

Personally I have been posting less, though I still read a lot of the threads, TBH I have been tending to go check out the "other" place when I actually want to read about corn snakes or find pictures of morphs and stuff. There is a lot of non corn snake related threads here
Not that some of that stuff isn't interesting as well, but since it's a corn snake site the focus could be a lot more on corn snakes
I hate the political bickering a lot so if I could change one thing it would be take the politics elsewhere.

^^^^^^
Ditto that!

Originally Posted by dwyn127

^^^^^^
Ditto that!

You say Ditto that! Danny, but don't you think people are already posting as much about cornsnakes as they can? What is there to talk about? New morphs? Won't be any of those till spring. Photo Gallery? So take some pictures! make the thread more interesting by commentating on your snakes. Right now, people can post their quint homo whatever, and maybe five people will comment on it. I made the discovery that the developmental stages of snakes and the mice they eat match up. I did a new product review today. What else, that isn't the same old how-to, is there? OTOH, there is everything else that isn't cornsnakes! Boas, pythons, dragons, spiders, dogs, kids, whatever. Just to mention the critters. I love cornsnakes the most of all the snakes in the world, but how many exciting new things can you say about them? I'm just saying...Maybe if people would _participate_ more in "cornsnake" threads, there might _be_ more cornsnake threads.

I agree that this seems to be the time of year when boredom takes its toll. There's no breeding at this point, there's less money for buying this winter, so people get into things other than cornsnakes.

I only read the threads that appeal to me. I avoid politics, I avoid certain members' threads, I don't pay attention to all the personal vendettas that seem to be going on. I do wish people would stay more on topic in threads. A little humor isn't a bad thing, but I for one get irritated when my own thread goes haywire because people aren't focused on the topic I started. I started it for a reason. I'm also not one to run to the mods unless its a pretty blatant issue. I frankly think that we as adults should be able to PM another member with whom we have an issue so that it can be resolved between members without involving the mods. I try to stick to my own business.

I wouldn't mind the mods being more strict, I just wish individuals would keep a closer watch on themselves.

Here’s and idea. Go over to KS.com. First of all pick any forum and start a new thread that says CS.com is a great place. If you come back tomorrow you will find that post has been deleted. If they don’t like what you say, you disappear. Then go to the cornsnake forum and post a question. “Help my snake won’t eat”. The last post on the cornsnake forum was three days ago, I just checked. They have really strict moderators there and they stay on topic. They don’t have a dyk and they don’t have a general chitchat. And they don’t have me. Sorry Rich, that last statement will start a stampede to the dark side.

I don't have any problems as yet. I think the sandbox I grew up in was a tad rougher than this one.

The interesting thing to me, thank you for asking, is what people consider serious enough to warrant action by Mods.

That's it.