Simon, could you not incorporate this into the a registration email. Eg alot of places do a "click this link to confirm and activate your membership" type of thing in the email.
Clicking on this link would then take them to a page showing the use of smilies, posting pictures and adding urls etc, and make them check a box at the bottom to say they've read it before activating their membership and continuing?

I agree with Phil, get rid of the post count. It serves no purpose and there is no real point to keep it, perhaps as has been suggested, the first 100 posts are shown then its deactivated, but however its done we should bin it....

Hope that helps

Edit: I learned how to spell registration

[Edited by ScoobyJawa - 10/17/2002 12:30:57 PM]

 

Sorry i've only just seen this thread and thought i'd comment, bare with me!

Recently there has been some trouble with the "MLR" forum which ties in with Scoobynet, a member of scoobynet posted something about the STI7 PPP and was flamed for it. Big style. I posted a reply to aid the member and ended up getting flamed myself with personal and i do mean "personal" insults and downright nobish behaviour thrown at me and the other scoobynet members. MLR then brought it over to scoobynet and tried to make another yet "childish" thread that does one thing only, gets people wound up.

It seems that this kind of thing is spreading to scoobynet and recently there have been posts that have had some bad publicity with replies being directed at one person and basically members just tormenting others over personal views. One post i will mention is "RB5 or P1", a thread which i started asking for advice on what i should do about changing my car.

Most if not all of the early replies were helpful but then when Tony (cant find thread and dont know his last name) posted his opinion on something others started to badger him. This thread did not mention the STI7, a car which i was not considering at the time and yet it was mentioned probably more than the two cars that i was considering, so i saw no need for the arguing that went on in the thread, nor did i see the point in putting the STI7 into the equation.

The point being we all seem to be working against eachother not towards the same common goal, which is to help members on here to decide things and to generally post experiences good or bad and give advice on a particular matter.

I too agree that the "mood" thing is also a big part of starting a thread & posting replies, just because i find something funny doesn't neccessarily mean the next person will. If people just took more care on what they posted on here i feel that things could improve somewhat. I'm no angel either and confess to some "bad taste" on replies . But seriously though, i wouldn't want to see people turn against eachother and see Scoobynet and its members end up like some other forum i could mention.

A Question to the Webmaster if i may :

Why is it that you dont reply to e-mails that i have sent. I've sent three e-mails now and was just wondering why i had recieved no reply?

Gavin
(hope i dont need my flame suite)

 

I agree with some of the others on the rating issue - firstly, how many people will honestly be bothered to rate and type a quick explanation as to why, more than a few times?
However if the ratings thing goes ahead, maybe we could have a weekly "Battle of the Rated" Top Trumps styleee
I agree also that there is a danger that those who are highly rated will be the only ones a lot of people listen to....

Tech info - guru - whatever you want to label people. Personally I think this is incredibly dangerous.
Firstly - there are, IMO, far too many posters out there who claim to know what they are talking about but in actual fact know very little - including quite a few supposed reputable companies. There have been many times where information has been given out by companies that is so far off the mark it's unbelievable - at best it's dodgy information at worst it could lead to serious consequences. Ask yourself - if Company X (a known parts supplier) is rated as a guru and gives out misinformation and Poster Y, is a newbie, but ultra experienced and questions Company X, what will happen? Others have posted in a similar vein to this scenario- I can see a witchunt of this particular "Guru" where the person opposing is ganged up on.
Secondly - it has the potential to slow/reduce innovation on the technical front. Anyone remember what happened when BPM appeared proclaiming the Link as the best thing out there? His manner didn't help but everyone poo pooed him about that product - 6months later it's accepted as the norm. All the posts from "experts" saying a Scoob couldn't reliably make more than 300hp? I've (as have many others) seen so much BS about what can and can't be done it's amazing. Maybe a way to work it would be to publicly say "Person X has achieved Guru/techie whatever status, is there any reason why this person should not be titled thus" - not ideal but at least if they've given misinformation it can be voiced (privately of course)

Keywords - this is a good idea, but how do you stop people listing things they don't know much about?

Charging/"Elite" Forums/Scoobynet Plus - I think all promotes a superior attitude.

This may be a hard thing to do, but is it not possible to create a script that analyses profiles and lists by the user name Forums most visited?

No offence to moderators, but, instead of a rating system could you have a team of advisors - like Chris said for the newbie forum? Only danger of course is making sure again people know what they're talking about - and those that do know could spare the time.

I'm not keen on newbie forums - posts seem to get rarely read/replied to and if an advisor ala chrisp idea was implemented I'd imagine it's be a huge amount of work.

I agree with MarkO about swearing etc - it's an everyday occurance for most of us - we're not at school even though we often act like it

 

Ban MarkO (again) i say. The sooner the better.

There. Problem solved!!



Continue....

 

Hmmm. Am I the only one here worried about the number of posts in this thread containing the phrase "I agree with MarkO"?

I'm obviously being far too sensible. Now, where did I put those flashing letters....?

PS: Thanks for restoring the balance, Telboy.

[Edited by MarkO - 10/17/2002 12:21:45 PM]

 

Hi,

from my expereince of a wide range of BB and forums over the last five years or so, the general run of things is cyclical. Over time the standards (however you want to define these standards, be it the general content, spelling, theme etc etc) tend to fluctuate, and at the moment there is a perceived increase in the amount of baiting going on.

edited to change drop to increase - maybe I'll wake up in a minute
the normal scenario is that you get trolls, punters, baiters (or what ever term you want to apply to these people) who come along with the only intention of bring threads down to their level, either by being bloody minded, sarcastic, insulting or whatever. The only real means to deal with these kind of posts is to leave the thread. You can ban the person, but you cannot stop them rejoining under a different name (assuming no fixed ip).

vBulletin 2 (I think) allows you to specify particular users you wish to ignore. Its a great way to just send these people to oblivion. It dosen't remove the problem, but on a personal level it works. The other option is for people to step back from the board and take a few weeks off. A fresh perspective is always gained with a little time away from the computer.

The best solution is to take the moral high ground and not enter into debate with the punters who are out to wind you up. Post around them, keeping the thread on topic and away from the flaming. If you have nothing constructive (or at least funny without being offensive) to say, then don't say it.

Punters sometimes just end up posting random crap just to build up their post count, thinking that the number of posts somehow indicates their higher perceived stature amongst the community. There should be no need for this, so why not lose the post count?

Anyway, I've rambled on enough, I hope that whatever solution is found to the current problems, SN gets stronger and better and even more informative than it already is.

[Edited by Dave_A - 10/17/2002 1:30:20 PM]

 

You think we need more baiting ? Go Go Go, Fire in the hole, Bring out the hunting horse...

Deano

 

On a serious not for a sec...

I got into a war of words over in Muppets recently, with a few individuals whose "humour" i perceived to be misplaced.

In the end though, i think i got more stick for telling them to go elsewhere than they did for their postings.

Now, i just ignore them. It is SO difficult, but i can tell you, i feel a lot better for it - i don't go home re-running ill-tempered threads through my head. It takes will-power, but it can be done.

Bottom line - self-discipline. Anything else will eventually not work either a) any more or b) as originally intended.

Terry

PS Mark, are you still here..???!!! [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

 

Still here. Why isn't the thread updating/moving BTTT in the forum page?

 

I see a great similarity to what happened in the office where I work and what is currently happening on Scoobynet.

I joined the company in 1992 there was a staff of around 98. Everyone attended all the organised Social functions and there was a great general companionship between everyone.

I recently spent 4 years on our social committe trying to find a way to get people to get on/socialise etc and I left the committee as it was an impossible task, and believe you me, we all tried.

Now 10 years on, staff numbers are 403 and nobody knows anyone. I see strangers in the lift and think 'do they work here' and genuinely nobody ever meets up with anyone else.

My point being that this is simple growth and evolution and there is very little that can be done. This type of TRASH behaviour and attitude is prevelant wherever numbers grow.

Just ignore the cuplrits and enjoy what really made scoobynet what it is.

And mods.... best of luck trying to sort this out.

 

An idea, might work, might not ...

Regarding someones rating, User X starts a thread, User Y responds in a positive fashion which helps, while User Z responds in a negative and aggressive fashion.

Why not allow the thread starter, ie. User X to adjust/vote/affect the ratings of Users Y and Z ? I'm not sure if allowing User X to drop User Y's rating is a good thing, but increasing User's Z rating would surely encourage good thread replies, which I believe is what we're all after. You might need to limit the number of user votes the thread starter can apply, and quite how they apply to the general rating is questionable. Allowing a thread starter to lock/delete a thread might be useful as well.

Thoughts ?

Paul Houbart

 

This is an excellent idea. It would allow people to moderate threads that they've started, and would take some of the workload off the forum mods.

Regarding the ratings issue, I don't think it matters who rates people or how contrived or sophisticated the rating system is, the fact is it won't make a blind bit of difference to the content....

 

So in theory the thread starter gets a delete button next to each reply. If they dont like something that has been posted they can vape it. Sounds like a good idea to me

 

I was more thinking on a per-thread basis. If the thread gets muppetised, or just plain out-of-hand (for example, some tw*t posting pictures of a person in a thread in an attempt to ridicule them ) the 'thread owner' can just consign the lot to the bin or the muppet forum.

 

I mentioned an idea a while back similar to what BOB.T has suggested whereby you pay your membership of say £10 but your three strikes and your out rule stands, if the mods decide something deserves a strike then once all three are gone, you lose your tenner to charity. To register, another tenner is required.

Also instead of ratings would it be possible to say 'this user mostly posts in <general>' or even better list percentage of posts on a per forum/section basis.

 

LOL @ MarkO ironic that you should post that at the same time I was writing my guff...

 

It wasn't you I was referring to, Rich.

 

Personally, I think the ratings system would help : it may not help with aggressive/offensive postings, but newbies coming onto the main forum will at least have some idea of whether or not someone's opinion is relevant. Having a method to reflect wether a user is a "good" replier or not would hopefully encourage better net behaviour. Think of the system on Ebay for leaving feedback via rating numbers.

I think it's important to remember that SDB is trying to encourage good behaviour, not put in place methods to enforce it.

 

In which case the best solution might be to put a big reminder to that effect just above the 'message' box in the 'reply-to' page.

 

Not read all of this.

But rating fellow members looks horible. Who wants 5 *'s next to their name? I think people are inteligent enough to make their own mind up as to who is a fcukwit and who is genuinely helpful.

 

Hi All

THANK YOU for keeping this going.. sorry I haven't been able to reply, having a really busy day.

Will study everything tonight when I get home. Apologies for not being able to participate today.

All the best

Simon

 

Damn - the cat was away, but we didn't play.

 

Maybe all thats needed is a thread like this for everyone to vent their frustration with stuff! Thread therapy - just start a new one every month

 

Simon you didn't see my post or e-mail then??

Have another look if you would, thankin you ta!

 

big up john felstead, all of a sudden we will have teachers pet v's the boy who had to stand in the corner at school!
agree that thread starter has right to modify threads - although over zealousness with the delete button must be monitored to keep things fair.
weava

 

I feel that Ricky several pages back had a good idea, which is a sort of positive /negative voting system on each thread - why not allow people to have one vote per thread, either positive or negative, which does not come up on screen but is visible only to the moderator. Then if the balance is seriously negative (10, 20, 50 negative???) the moderator can lock or delete the thread without fear of "breach of human rights accord etc.."speeches and all the other trite nonsense like "why me, Mr Moderator"?

I'm sure the right headed individuals on here would have helped shut down many threads on here, without providing the rockapes a target to shoot at, as the moderator would have been merely obeying the community's request.

In addition, and despite Simon's utopian ideals, any good psychologist will probably tell you that to condition individuals you not only have to praise them, but also be prepared to criticise/punish them at times.I fear that the sort of people on here who have been annoying most of us would not really respond to being blanked as they will always get a rise out of someone, whether a newbie or whatever. Much better to be able to "vape" them at the unseen behest of the community, eg "This thread was deleted due to the number of complaints received about it exceeding the threshold"....

I also think that the star/guru system would be dangerous to have as would not the guru open themselves up to possible legal issues - "M'lord, an equally learned individual to yourself, a guru no less,on SN told me it was alright to do X and that's why I'm suing etc". It's pretty obvious pretty quickly usually who knows what they are talking about and newbies could encouraged in their starter pack to ask for several views on their early requests or to ask in their thread who we think is a good source.

The originator's ability to delete their thread could also raise blood pressures eg "you're an ugly whatever, and that's my last word on the subject" <DELETE>.

Just my tuppence ha'pennyworth

John Higgins

 

Seems strange their are so many diverse opinions on here. If we are to foster the goodwill of the community then it is obvious that quite a few people are going to be upset by the ideas so far.

Seems that a lot of people know who the main troublemakers are but nothing is done to get rid of them. Surely it would be easier to lose these people rather than change things for all the rest. Can we apply a football analogy here with a yellow card/red card and then banned. I know they may come back but at least they and all others know it has happened as the card(rather than ratings) would be shown against their names. I have posted for nearly 2 years on here with the majority of replies being very helpful and informative. I also contribute to threads such as the hunting horse which are a good laugh. Seems a shame to have to make changes just because of a small minority.
Alasdair

 

Having browsed scoobynet for many months and only recently had the nerve to introduce myself I feel there is an important issue here. I think we all agree that this BBS is a good thing and so it has become very succesful. The growing number of participants represents a cross section of society and therefore there will be those with extreme views and inadequate means of expressing themselves who resort to abuse and posting 'crap'. Having read a few of the responses to this thread it is clear that most people here can sort out the wheat from the chaff. We are all 'adults' and can make up our own mind about others views and opinions. Members who flame and abuse are succeeding in attention seeking and if that is their motive for posting that's fine - but let's not filter out these views as they are entitled to them. We're all big boys and girls so we should not worry about what clearly is a minority of members.

Rant over...vive la difference

 

Simon : Delete negative posts ruthlesly and three strikes and you are off this board. Thanks for a very useful and helpful BBS even if the tone has been lowered a bit in more recent times. It is a natural consequence of the success you have created.

 

I must admit, i do wonder sometimes whether people have anything more productive to do with their lives, when they just slag off poeple on this forum for hours on end with not a constructive comment in sight. I for one have just learned to ignore it.

The forum must have a massive amount going for it otherwise it would not be such a success. I for one i found it invaluable, considering this is my first scoob. There are alot of bright funny people on this forum so we should be able to weed out the morons.