I hope you are getting OLD Veefour , we cant have you get a ump on the rest of us .



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Quite suprised that the OP feels like that. Everyone however is entitled to there own opinion.
As has been mentioned previously, if the other forum had been run like Malcom runs this one, it might not be in the situation it is now.
But you know what? I for one am glad that that they didnt, and it has now closed.
We have ended up in a far better position than we were before.
They dont deserve the trafic and the buisiness that came with it, this site does.
I have note seen anything that could in anyway be deemed to be heavy handed, qite the opposite, for me, its like a breath of fresh air.
We all need to support the site, and the vendors that advertise on here.
We dont always have to agree with everything that has been posted ( did anyone mention the seeding of riders?) but hopefully, it can be debated in a polilte manner without poster resorting to personal insults knowing that admin will do nothing about it.

The last site had some very unpleasant characters at times who engaged in what is known as cyber bullying. Never bothered me, but it did apparently put a lot of people off talking - to me that was a major flaw, all we're on here to do is talk about bikes.
If Malcolm decides not to tolerate anything that isn't keeping the subject on track, that's up to him. I prefer it this way, a free for all has the habit of encouraging that type of character to have a floor all of their own.

Sadly many sites get unpleasant characters and I think we can take comfort in knowing that, should any appear on here, they will get short thrift from Malcolm.
There is a clear line between banter and cyber bullying as we all know.
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I am sitting on the happy fence with most of the other forum users, and it looks bright from where I am sat.

I run several forums and strongly feel the secret is to mark out the boundaries clearly, the same you do with children.
If a member breaks the rules, they have their knuckles rapped or some similar punishment befalls them.
One feature I added to both forums was particularly well received and it allowed members to rate each post in a thread with 'Agree' or 'Disagree'.
Each thread displays the result but only as a tick or a cross to reflect the majority of how people view each thread.
You can see at a glance how people feel about a particular thread.

(20-12-2014, 09:06 PM)cpt_pants Wrote: I am sitting on the happy fence with most of the other forum users, and it looks bright from where I am sat.

I'm happy to join you CPT on the happy fence. I am also impressed with how Malcolm laid down certain standards from the outset. On a diffferent note many other forums are quieter at the moment, their being a lack of racing and the TT being a fair distance away. I am pleased to be here and a subscriber to this forum.

(20-12-2014, 09:21 PM)studiosoft Wrote: I run several forums and strongly feel the secret is to mark out the boundaries clearly, the same you do with children.
If a member breaks the rules, they have their knuckles rapped or some similar punishment befalls them.
One feature I added to both forums was particularly well received and it allowed members to rate each post in a thread with 'Agree' or 'Disagree'.
Each thread displays the result but only as a tick or a cross to reflect the majority of how people view each thread.
You can see at a glance how people feel about a particular thread.

I like that idea of being able to just tick a box showing a like or dislike on each post ,giving people the chance to show their views with out posting as many do not like posting but still have a point of view on what is being said and they would be able to show their view anonymously with the likes and dislikes just being shown as numbers of  , ye good idea wonder what Malcolm thinks of it 

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(20-12-2014, 11:06 PM)Steady the Edward Wrote:

(20-12-2014, 09:21 PM)studiosoft Wrote: I run several forums and strongly feel the secret is to mark out the boundaries clearly, the same you do with children.
If a member breaks the rules, they have their knuckles rapped or some similar punishment befalls them.
One feature I added to both forums was particularly well received and it allowed members to rate each post in a thread with 'Agree' or 'Disagree'.
Each thread displays the result but only as a tick or a cross to reflect the majority of how people view each thread.
You can see at a glance how people feel about a particular thread.

I like that idea of being able to just tick a box showing a like or dislike on each post ,giving people the chance to show their views with out posting as many do not like posting but still have a point of view on what is being said and they would be able to show their view anonymously with the likes and dislikes just being shown as numbers of  , ye good idea wonder what Malcolm thinks of it 

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OK,

I have listened to the suggestion of a Posting Rate function on the Forums and I have worked out how to put a Poll onto the Forum (at the top of this set of postings), to get an overall opinion from people on this matter.

The Poll will run for seven days, you have one attempt at registering your opinion, and it is "anonymouse"
 


Malcolm.

I'm a bit unsure about the purpose of the voting.

Is the intent that we are;

a. Voting to show displeasure at perceived abusinve or bully behaviour

OR

b. That we disagree with a persons point of view?

If its the former then great - If its the later I don't think it will encourage debate or enhance the forum content if people feel that the very active forum clique shoot them down whenever they post something that doesn't meet with the usual.  This is pretty much where this forum was a few years ago - when rather than being of forum for TT related discussion it became a social meeting place for 10 or 12 friends who shared the same circle of friends and general opinions (albeit based around a common interest of the TT).

To clarify - no critisim of Admin is intended - I'm just wondering if there will be unintended consequences.

I suppose we'll find out the first time someone posts something opbjective about MD (I love him btw). 

Cheers


Sam

 

(21-12-2014, 01:23 AM)Sam Pato Wrote: I'm a bit unsure about the purpose of the voting.

Is the intent that we are;

a. Voting to show displeasure at perceived abusinve or bully behaviour

OR

b. That we disagree with a persons point of view?

If its the former then great - If its the later I don't think it will encourage debate or enhance the forum content if people feel that the very active forum clique shoot them down whenever they post something that doesn't meet with the usual.  This is pretty much where this forum was a few years ago - when rather than being of forum for TT related discussion it became a social meeting place for 10 or 12 friends who shared the same circle of friends and general opinions (albeit based around a common interest of the TT).

To clarify - no critisim of Admin is intended - I'm just wondering if there will be unintended consequences.

I suppose we'll find out the first time someone posts something opbjective about MD (I love him btw). 

Cheers


Sam

 

Irrespective of whether a Posting Rate function is to be used in the Forums or not, Abuse, Bullying, or just simply unwanted and/irrelevant postings will never be tolerated. 

Postings I have made recently quite clearly identify that I will not tolerate ANY misuse of these Forums by anyone, hence the Warning system in operation to provide a fair system in the event of any misinterpretation or misunderstandings,  but clearly showing that offenders are identified and that consistent misuse can and will lead to banning from the site for either a set period of time, or forever.

If anyone has an objection to a posting, they can already report this to me, via the existing Report function located via "Report" in the lower tool bar function within each post.

Malcolm

I think that we have many people that like to read what people have to say but do not like putting their name to a point of view for what ever reason but would participate in a anonymous tick box , there for contributing where they would not have before , and as long as each member can only click once on each post then I don't see how it could be abused or be abusive to any one , so I would have thought it can only be a good thing or at worst do no harm to any one ,
The other thing is that if it was found to be un wanted for what ever reason it could be removed just like that so no real harm to any one , just more work for Malcolm setting it up (and I would have no idea how difficult that would or would not be ) and as I said as long as members could only tick once on each post I don't see how it could be abused , so has my vote for inclusion

The 2 main forums I run are closed membership ones for several thousand users, therefore I cannot give you links to them to see the function in action.
We came to the conclusion that an 'agree/disagree' option was preferable to like/dislike (as on Facebook etc.) and don't publish the numbers, only the general trend. The purpose is to allow visitors to get a feel of what the majority of members feel about each post and it is the post itself which members are commenting on, not the person who posted. Mods are automatically alerted when a member reaches a preset number of disagree's and is privately warned if it is felt that the member is abusing the system. No such system is perfect and we continue to develop other rating levels.

I agree with the options being agree/disagree as this fits better with the board being a discussion forum.
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(21-12-2014, 10:25 AM)TTNeb Wrote: I agree with the options being agree/disagree as this fits better with the board being a discussion forum.
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How about the same set up as the iomtoday newspaper site, it has little thumbs up and thumbs down icons next to comments on its stories which can be clicked on, I always find it interesting to gauge opinion on posted comments

We have the thumbs up/thumbs down facility on our local newspaper site (York Press). The facility is somehow abused/manipulated/hacked by some posters, (particularly political viewpoints); which causes it to lack credibility. I'm not saying that this would be the case here, however, just stating that it can, and does occur elsewhere.

I'm not especially for or against bringing such a system in here; however, if it merely becomes a "popularity vote" in favour or otherwise of any particular posters, (regardless of their contribution), then I think you will see a downturn in those wishing to contribute to the discussions.

As for the O.P., I think Malcolm is doing an excellent job moderating the forum - remember at the "other place", there were regular outcries for some moderators to maintain some order, regulate silly postings etc.

We have found that the majority of users respect the facility on our sites and use it as intended. There will always be the odd few people who select the wrong option but we find that overall, the average fairly represents members opinions.
Malcolm has quite rightly set out the rules of what is and is not acceptable on his forum and as far as I am concerned those rules are fair to all.
Anyone who wishes to abuse those rules is probably not the type of individual, the majority of members, wants on this forum any way.

I'm ok with Malcolm moderating and policing the posts as he does, the "other" forum had got a bit ridiculous with constant exchanges of insults and drivel (course improvement thread for example degenerated into a slanging match between a few individuals). I eventually spent about 30 secs on it about once a week n logged off bored.
As to OP's original post, the old forum had sometimes nobody at all on it at this time of year, and obviously even less banter, I'm sure this forum will be better and more fun as list of users online grows in equal measures as the excitement.

(21-12-2014, 10:25 AM)TTNeb Wrote: I agree with the options being agree/disagree as this fits better with the board being a discussion forum.
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I agree  for I think that provided it was members only that could click one or the other and could only click once per post  , I don't see how it can be abused , but would encourage more feedback on discussions by people that normally don't bother posting because they don't like typing and putting things into words with their names attached , but would happily show anonymously their agreement or disagreement on the post , 

kept simple one tick pur member  pur post  ,  merely shown as numbers of people agreeing or disagreeing , and a prize at the end of the year for the member with the most disagrees  me me me no competition jobs a gooden 


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still time to vote!