Controversial Discussion: Direction of This Site

Originally Posted by torsten

Snap :P

Personally I pretty much ignore any thread which doesn't interest me and watch with amusement the personal squabbles between other members result in them looking like fools....

that makes two of us bro

Originally Posted by wade

If we established that damn and hell were ok, why did I get infraction points for saying “sh.t”? That is what I am talking about.

I gave a WARNING...not an infraction. No points were deducted from your profile.

As a one-time radio DJ, I go by the Pacifica training. Damn and Hell are okay on the radio and TV, sh.t is not. Furthermore, I don't feel a period is enough of a censor...hence the warning.

Feel free to PM or email me if you would like to discuss this further.

I have found if you don't argue with the mods they usually are pretty cool and if I get an infraction for one thing I try not to do it again.

Originally Posted by MohrSnakes

As a one-time radio DJ, I go by the Pacifica training. Damn and Hell are okay on the radio and TV, sh.t is not.

Hey Jeff, I didn't know that. That seems like a helpful rule of thumb for those of us that are looking for one.

Originally Posted by caz223

The fact that these discussions are even taking place is a sign that the mods and management are doing the best they can. It's a thankless job sometimes.
It's like constantly cleaning up in a high traffic area that dirties itself in minutes.
Sometimes you just want to scream "everybody WIPE YOUR FEET!".

I can't speak for everyone, but I'm here because I like it here.
There are a lot of good people here. I would assume they are here because they like it here, as well.

I agree, which is why my post count is rising steadily. I'm here almost all my "spare" waking time!

Well in the short time that I have been a member here I could have had a baby, literally, seriously though, I think this is a great community.

I feel Rich has a great site, run with well thought out rules esp. when you consider the amount of traffic this forum sees on a regular basis. His VOLUNTEER moderators are doing an excellent job. Realistically for the amount of people, threads and posts the consistency seems to be quite good.

I, too as others have mentioned believe that I am responsible for what my offspring view on the internet and feel that the "environment if family friendly/adult enough as is". My only complaint is that sometimes there are some members(very few that I have had the joy of experiencing) that insist on posting very rude, condescending, ignorant, offensive posts in response to people's questions(not that I am an angel and I have had my moments of "enough is enough" and told them so in as polite and non-profane a manner as possible). The thing is every large community is going to have it's "rotten apples" and that is why the moderators are so generous with their personal time and devote it to this great site, to help weed out the rotten ones before it spoils the whole cart!

I have made friends here, learned a tonne here and had a lot of laughs here, I think it is great! I don't know that it is said enough, thank you mods and Rich for all of your hard work, it is nice to have such a great "cornsnake" community to come to!

General Site Questions

1. Aside from pornography and Ailuropoda, where can I find a listing of other images prohibited from posting on the site? Is theree a single (one) page/post on the site which outlines all of the rules? It might be confusing for a new member to find and obey/respect all of the site rules, as there are so many "sticky"s around.

2. I read in a 2005 post http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24490 that use of animated gifs for avatar images is against the site rules. Is there a chance this might change?

3. The above signatures rules thread also mentions that signatures may not contain graphics, yet many do today. Has this changed? Are the rules different for persons with a $50.00 account?

3. Is it possible for a site member to see a list of every post he/she has given 'rep points' to, in the event said site member loses all of their bookmarks?

4. Is it against the rules to have more than one account? I had used my older one to show a few friends locally, who are new to cornsnakes, this site, (because I did not know how up-to-date their antivirus/ anti-trojan software is/was, and they can barely figure out how to turn the computer on...). To someone who is not a member they cannot see most of the pictures. I assumed if my older ID was compromised it could be deleted.

5. Is there possiblity that (cs-hosted) images, in the classifieds section of the site specifically, can be viewed by anybody, regardless of whether they are a site member (signed in) or not? Would it be possible to setup the classifieds section with keywords and submit that section of the site to the search engine robots for regular indexing?

6. Out of curiousity, I notice on the homepage HTML, the site title is: <title>CornSnakes.com Forums - Powered by vBulletin</title> . Does the 'Powered by vBulletin' have to be there due to liscensing agreement? Could more words be included in the title, such as 'corn snakes', 'cornsnakes for sale', and additional keywords and keyphrases, to increase site traffic and success for all my friends with businesses in the cornsnake kingdom?

Thank you for your time and any considerations.
dp

I'm sorry if this gets long winded (and I've only read Dean's original question, so I'm also sorry if the topic has changed away from this over time).

Personally, I have some minor problems with HOW the site is moderated. For example, a moderator closing a thread and then coming back later (no matter if it is an hour later) to post the last word in the discussion is, in my opinion, an abuse of authority. I don't mean that a post saying WHY it was closed is wrong. I mean a post to continue the argument like that person is saying, "you've had your say, here is mine. I debated your point, but you aren't allowed to debate mine. The only other thing I've seen I feel is wrong is when a moderator breaks rules they are supposed to enforce. Moderators can have their own opinions - AND argue them - but they shouldn't break the rules. It's like when a cop beats up his prostitute. It's wrong when a non-cop or non-elected official does it, but it is WORSE when they do it. A moderator shouldn't break the rules.

As far as the direction of the site and moderation, those two things are the ONLY things that I can't forget that have happened. They bothered me that much about the moderation of this website. The moderator hat doesn't mean you can't defend your positions or be human, but I believe that hat means you've got to lead-by-example...and it is something you accept when you take the moderator position in the first place.

Something else I want to add: These are MINOR problems. Really, I am still here, so obviously they don't bother me that much. They do bother me, though. This site, in general, is NOT over-moderated. There are many other sites out there that are, and we could pick from ANY of those if I wanted that. I believe our moderators are doing a relatively great job. Honest.

Perfect? No. Heck, no! Better tham most and better than expected? Yes! Heck, yes!

With that said, I think sometimes (rarely0 someone will cross the line into over-moderation, but that infraction is so minor I don't bother to remember when it does happen. (That's a compliment, guys/gals.) The site, in general is moderated very well, and i would never promote over-moderation of opinions, thoughts, and ideas.....and that leads into what I would like to see changed.

Maybe I'll sound a little like Susan here, but I'm not a fan of the profanity and pornographic comments that isn't even masked way too offer. I'd mention examples, but then I would be crossing the line that I don't like. (Granted, I'm not one to often (almost never, in fact) report a post, so maybe the moderators aren't even AWARE of the posts that I personally find offensive.) I'd rather not give specific examples, but I do not mean "heck, arse, darn, etc." That isn't what I see as a problem, but some of the things that are "said" are offensive enough that I often have to warn parents with young kids away from letting their children browse the site freely. Why? because it looks bad on ME if they see what I see and find it offensive. I'll live reading those words (and I often use many of them when I am made in person), but, I believe, many of us don't want OTHERS thinking we find those OK in a public forum with a strong younger audience. This is a good site. It shouldn't be covered in verbal filth. It isn't necessary and it does NOT improve the site no matter what. Reducing THAT does not, in any way, prevent the sharing of information and separate opinions. With that said, how could any reasonable adult really MIND all that much being told to curtail the unnecessary verbal filth?

Anyway, the short answer is, "I like the site. I like the level of moderation. I support free differences in opinions and freedom of discussion. I would like to see the unnecessary verbal filth cleaned up some more since it has been getting worse and worse over the past 18 months or so."


Those are just my thoughts. Nothing more.......

KJ, in order to help curtail that problem, I would recommend that you modify your prohibition about using the "Report a post" function. You can't assume that just because you have read a post, that a moderator will as well. I think I covered the basics of this "uniformity of enforcement" earlier in this thread. There were 852 new posts made on this site in the last 24 hours. It is just not reasonable to expect the mods, no matter how many there are, to read every one of them.

I am not sure if I am the best person to be posting here... I always feel split, on the one hand I really like it here, on the other there is a vast difference in my reality and a lot of the things discussed here- be it the distance, reality... and even the fact that I am not a -huge- fan of cornsnakes.

And still, I hope my willingness to contribute(for us, 25$ is roughly half a day's work) to a site not in my native tongue and which doesn't -really- contribute to any financial agenda I may or may not have shows plainly how I feel about this place. I like it here, plain and simple, and I find most people here level headed and relatively open minded.

A few things I'd like to add though(and I hope I don't bore anyone):

1- IMHO, an extreme approach is not the answer- I personally feel that defining many words as prohibited is going a tad too far. Common sense should provide any mod enough tools to decide if a post warrants a warning or not. The implications on such an inconsistency are extremely limited- and if there is a disagreement, one can always ask moderators to reconsider. I believe the mods should adjust accordingly and be honest enough with themselves to admit they were wrong in some cases- I have not been privy to any such event actually happening. As this is a forum where people should be able to simply enjoy themselves- these things should be governed by a "general spirit" of rules rather than actually beginning to list every word which should or shouldn't be used- yes, even at the cost of keeping track of a user...
This is a forum, not an establishment, why is it necessary to keep track of people? IMHO, the mods can decide together when's enough is enough.

2- Personally I think that indeed some people are allowed to get away with things that others do not- this should be corrected. If it's a rare occurrence I agree that positive history with the member should be taken into account- but only so far. I agree with Brent's post in this regard.

3- Personally I too would be more comfortable if pornographic comments were left outside of this forum. I am not a kid, and it sometimes makes me uncomfortable- I imagine others would feel the same. Any restriction though should include only extremely obvious comments/pictures... vague comments can be amusing... again, I feel that the mods should use common sense rather than try to legislate such things.
I agree that it shouldn't be my responsibility to limit another person's children exposure to certain content... but on the other hand I can't simply ignore the children do surf here- a middle ground should be reached.

4- I feel that this site has reached a point where there's a solid base of "elders" in it- by elders I do not mean old, but people who have been here for a long while and are a part of a certain "core". It is only natural, after long a while had passed, that their level of patience for new arrivals will become limited.
I believe that a lot of members, including myself at times, are not as tolerant as one would ideally hope to be.
I also recognize reality though- this is a natural process... but like any population on the face of the planet, unless external influence interferes, decadence is inevitable. Yeah, it sounds way over dramatic... but you get my point.
This can possibly be corrected- if a mod/member/something is chosen with a specific job to try and help new members- if they do something wrong, to "shield" them from an onslaught of possibly aggressive comments by sending them a PM, trying to explain things... someone who will try and nurture and welcome new-comers. They can monitor posts made by new members etc... said person can possibly enjoy benefits that mods do or somesuch, I dunno... and as long as you make sure no one stays in this role for too long a time... It can possibly work.

I hope no one fell asleep during this babble.

Oren