Anyone else not liking the forum changes? (answered)

[Art Andrews]

Re: Anyone else not liking the forum changes?

Sale or no sale of the RPF, there has been a shift of power and many do not like it.

While phrases like "shift of power" make for dramatic reading, the reality of what is happening is much more mundane. As has been the case countless times before, this is nothing more than some longtime RPF staff members retiring after years of service and some new staff members stepping in to fill the void.

As with any change, there will be concerns, misgivings and some unease and that is to be expected. However, to paint the situation as "many" not liking it may be a bit presumptuous considering the number of active members we have and the relative minor number of those who are hostile about it, especially considering many of the most outspoken have an axe to grind.

Fortunately, we have reached out to quite a few members, asking for input and asking for them to express their concerns and their hopes for the site. The reactions have been interesting (as for many it was the first time a staff member had ever contacted them or asked for their input) but their input has been priceless. We have seen a number of repeating themes within their concerns and are working to address those concerns wherever possible and reasonable. We will continue to reach out to members and get their input and where we see trends, we will try to make changes that will improve the member experience.

If any member wants to respectfully discuss specific concerns or have specific suggestions, please PM myself or any other member of the staff. We're listening and have already made tweaks based on the good feedback we've received but remember, no one, including staff, responds well to digs, lies and innuendo.

 

[ONEYE]

Re: Anyone else not liking the forum changes?

If your opinion was acknowledged and you are still unhappy with the changes, you have only three options:

1. Leave.
2. Stay and comply with the changes.
3. Stay, beat a dead horse, and possibly be censored, suspended, and/or banned.

 

[Walter]

Re: Anyone else not liking the forum changes?

It is really unhealthy and a little bizarre how rumor and innuendo are considered fact and how people latch on to sensationalism and allegations of conspiracy and treat it as gospel. It's like people who sit and believe everything they read in the National Enquirer. I guess it is all some kind of social voyeurism, but in my book the above comments have been out of line and Def I respectfully disagree with your interpretation of baiting.

This thread has been all about feedback until some started using conjecture to provoke a conversation that is not relevant to the user experience. So... lets stay on topic, which is the the user user experience and how functional changes are affecting that experience either good or bad.

We were discussing the language filter which I enjoyed testing. We have spent years looking at the OT as well as other areas of the board and decided that an update was overdue... that and a new version of vBulletin was made available and has prompted us to start looking at the board as a whole: see my previous comments in this thread.

Having a language filter has become a necessity, I agree that most members do not have this issue, but some do have a problem with finding other words to express themselves beyond four letters. How many people scream the f-bomb in the middle of a mall? Well, why do that when you can drop the f-bomb online and have a record for all to see your vast vocabulary.

I don't have an issue with curse words personally, but I do believe that the heart of using appropriate language is about respect and courtesy being a standard.

 

[defstartrooper]

Re: Anyone else not liking the forum changes?

It is really unhealthy and a little bizarre how rumor and innuendo are considered fact and how people latch on to sensationalism and allegations of conspiracy and treat it as gospel. It's like people who sit and believe everything they read in the National Enquirer. I guess it is all some kind of social voyeurism, but in my book the above comments have been out of line and Def I respectfully disagree with your interpretation of baiting.

This thread has been all about feedback until some started using conjecture to provoke a conversation that is not relevant to the user experience. So... lets stay on topic, which is the the user user experience and how functional changes are affecting that experience either good or bad.

We were discussing the language filter which I enjoyed testing. We have spent years looking at the OT as well as other areas of the board and decided that an update was overdue... that and a new version of vBulletin was made available and has prompted us to start looking at the board as a whole: see my previous comments in this thread.

Having a language filter has become a necessity, I agree that most members do not have this issue, but some do have a problem with finding other words to express themselves beyond four letters. How many people scream the f-bomb in the middle of a mall? Well, why do that when you can drop the f-bomb online and have a record for all to see your vast vocabulary.

I don't have an issue with curse words personally, but I do believe that the heart of using appropriate language is about respect and courtesy being a standard.

I will again point out i stated nothing as fact that is why i used the term alleged, that term in itself negates the possibility that my statement was stated as fact, it was something i had been told and even the person i recieved this information from did not state it as fact.
Given that the ownership of the forum is not public record this allegation can neither be proved or disproved.
You can disagree with my interpretation of baiting if you wish, perhaps you would like to share yours ?
Ifact why not ad what the staffs interpretation of what constitutes baiting to the CoC so as to avaoid confusion.
To me baiting requires at least intent and as i have made it clear on several occasions i had no such intent, if you feel my explanation of the intent of my posts is not truthful or plausible again i'd prefer to be told why.
Yes we were discussing the language filter along with other changes made recently to the board, the thread title couldn't be any clearer as far as i can see.

I agree a language filter is a useful tool that's not what anyone is disputing, the point of contention is that the majority of people think the new filter is too strong and blanks out what they see as harmless unoffensive language which is contrary to the staff statement that they have added other what they describe as severely offensive words to the block list.

 

[defstartrooper]

Re: Anyone else not liking the forum changes?

While phrases like "shift of power" make for dramatic reading, the reality of what is happening is much more mundane. As has been the case countless times before, this is nothing more than some longtime RPF staff members retiring after years of service and some new staff members stepping in to fill the void.

As with any change, there will be concerns, misgivings and some unease and that is to be expected. However, to paint the situation as "many" not liking it may be a bit presumptuous considering the number of active members we have and the relative minor number of those who are hostile about it, especially considering many of the most outspoken have an axe to grind.

Fortunately, we have reached out to quite a few members, asking for input and asking for them to express their concerns and their hopes for the site. The reactions have been interesting (as for many it was the first time a staff member had ever contacted them or asked for their input) but their input has been priceless. We have seen a number of repeating themes within their concerns and are working to address those concerns wherever possible and reasonable. We will continue to reach out to members and get their input and where we see trends, we will try to make changes that will improve the member experience.

If any member wants to respectfully discuss specific concerns or have specific suggestions, please PM myself or any other member of the staff. We're listening and have already made tweaks based on the good feedback we've received but remember, no one, including staff, responds well to digs, lies and innuendo.

Why don't you publically ask all members instead of a select few ? layout your proposals for changes along with a poll and ask for all members input ?

 

[GrenadeKing]

Re: Anyone else not liking the forum changes?

I agree a language filter is a useful tool that's not what anyone is disputing, the point of contention is that the majority of people think the new filter is too strong and blanks out what they see as harmless unoffensive language which is contrary to the staff statement that they have added other what they describe as severely offensive words to the block list.

This.

I don't find ***, or **** to be on the same level of offensiveness as some of the nice f-word related and other overtly sexual phrases.

For the last several days I've seen posts with the censor stars in them, and they have almost all be followed with an edit consisting of "Is *insert word* really blocked?" So I don't think I'm the only one.

A filter in general isn't bad, it's just that this particular one reads off like a list of "potty words" you don't want kids to say in school and it happens to have been implimented upon a community consisting mainly of adult males.

If your having problems with a couple of garbage mouths, punish them, not the entire community.

 

[Art Andrews]

Re: Anyone else not liking the forum changes?

GK, PM sent regarding the censored word list.

 

[Kronus]

Re: Anyone else not liking the forum changes?

Well this site has the same feel as the SySy forum (No I ment to type SySy and not SyFy). So did SySy buy the forum?

Since I go to their forum I like the way this one is laid out. Makes it easier for me to locate and get around.

 

[Art Andrews]

Re: Anyone else not liking the forum changes?

Not familiar with SySy but will certainly be checking them out!

 

[YenChih Lin]

Re: Anyone else not liking the forum changes?

Art, I've encountered another problem I have: I can't post a new thread, because it needs more than 6 characters to be in the post, but I wrote a short introduction with more than 6 characters and had added lots of links to the pics on my imageshack account. Done it twice and I'm not going to the whole procedure again, because of the many c&p I had to do... Preview functions suffers from the same problem...

 

[Art Andrews]

Re: Anyone else not liking the forum changes?

I am out of town right now, but as soon as I get back I will test it and see what is going on and see what it will take to resolve the issue.

 

[YenChih Lin]

Re: Anyone else not liking the forum changes?

okidoki!

EDIT: the quick-reply works, just making a new thread does only work in FireFox 3.5 not in Opera 10.1

 

[DrStranglove]

Re: Anyone else not liking the forum changes?

What ever happened to the old language filter that altered stuff like (paraphrased) "fraking piece of shiznet" to "dog gone piece of do-do?" Some of the things it would alter to were hilarious!

 

[SurferGeek]

Re: Anyone else not liking the forum changes?

So much passive-aggressiveness...

Any idea when the COLOR tags will be brought back on line? So many signatures and past posts contain color tag codes that some are close to impossible to read now.

I just want a little color in my life! Please!

So you don't have to continue to play "guess the censored words" here again is a link to a text file with all of the censored words.

http://www.therpf.com/censored_words.txt

I did find it a bit funny that the vast majority of the words in the file describe male and female genitalia or other body parts.

 

[James Kenobi 1138]

Re: Anyone else not liking the forum changes?

I still think if you nuked the OT section 95% of all the board problems would go away. Most (not all) of the heated topics start there, most of the un-necessary topics get started there just to get locked, and without the OT most of the troublemakers would move on to another forum because they don't usually post in Prop Threads.

 

[EvilRocketeer]

Re: Anyone else not liking the forum changes?

I still think if you nuked the OT section 95% of all the board problems would go away. Most (not all) of the heated topics start there, most of the un-necessary topics get started there just to get locked, and without the OT most of the troublemakers would move on to another forum because they don't usually post in Prop Threads.

And 95% of the active members would barely come around if you nuke the ot.

The ot is place where the active members can get to talk to each other about other things besides props..Yes, you can argue that this is a replica prop thread and it should only be about props, but I'm sure the majority of the active members would like to talk to other members about other things as well. Some people see the rpf as a way to be open..talk about their problems and a place to get advice. We are a community, and communities need to stick together.

Yes, there are hoodlums that cause problems, but that is one of the reasons why the infraction method is around, so we can get rid of the people that dont take this site seriously. To over-exaggerate and say they mostly come form the ot is ridiculous. I see a lot more good standing active members posting in the ot than the trouble makers.


Also, the ratio of open threads versus lock threads in the the ot is like 80/1
I barely see any lock threads. They do happen,. but not as often as your portraying it to be.

pLUS, i am certain that the OT is the second most popular thread on this site.

 

[exoray]

Re: Anyone else not liking the forum changes?

I still think if you nuked the OT section 95% of all the board problems would go away.

The OT is the most active forum, remove it and I suspect you will start to hear crickets around here...

And regardless, no OT means that the same conflicts and friction will simply then arise in the other forums as it was before the OT was around...

 

[Art Andrews]

Re: Anyone else not liking the forum changes?

JK 1138, you are right that a lot of the board's problems crop up in the OT, but I believe that the last two posters are absolutely correct that removing the OT (as tempting as it might be at times) would leave a gaping hole in this community. The OT, for all of its faults and problems provides a significant cohesive element for many members and for better or worse, it is here to stay.

 

[DrStranglove]

Re: Anyone else not liking the forum changes?

My forum was born out of the last time the OT was removed. PM Nikki and Cliff or any of the mod team from back then to see how it worked out for them when the OT was dissolved. I dont make any money from it but if ya'll want to send me some more traffic.....

 

[gokarosama]

Re: Anyone else not liking the forum changes?

I suggested in another thread a toggle where unsavory words could be "unseen" if desired, but apparently that is beyond the technical features of the current board or the prowess of the staff. I think the former, from what I've been told. Anyway it's certainly beyond me, but I've been on boards where this was a feature.

I'd like to pipe in, however, and say that although I find racial slurs and disagreeable language as tedious online as anyone else (I particularly dislike netspeak, if u no wut i mean) but in some cases without the seasoning, you don't taste the potroast. In the case of online banter, sometimes you don't know who is the true ******* until he's posted something up there for everyone to read that really brings it out in him (I'm thinking racial slurs, in particular.)

Just a thought. I think this kind of policing just puts a coat of paint over problem areas without fixing them--fixing them, which in this case would mean identifying outliers who have no business here or are unwanted here by the majority, should rightly be up to the boardmembers, the community. Just a thought, once again.

Good luck!