@Finn dAbuzz,
Finn dAbuzz wrote:As much as I like the idea of "free speech" in a forum, stricter regulations do encourage civility. The problem with such "moderation" is that can be very subjective and, in some forums, censorship tends to include unpopular opinions rather than simply rude and obnoxious behavior. So it's a tough balance to strike. Maybe the Block is the answer.
It isn't. Blocking is just a minor detail really, it's getting a lot of attention because it causes people anxiety about not being able to post somewhere (even just conceptually).
The real answer to this problem (which is really not that the right balance to strike is hard, but that people desire different things) is to decentralize moderation. Right now there is one moderating team and that's that. In the future there will be many and users will have the choice of moderation styles within the community.
Quote:It will be interesting to see what you have in store and if it turns out I can't abide the changes, I'll move on. I went cold turkey for a couple of months recently and found life was still worth living.
Yep, that's ultimately what I pay the most attention to. Cold, hard, engagement metrics.
Quote:It's your site so do with it as you think best, but it seems like rather than soliciting suggestions you've pretty much made up your mind what you plan on doing. I don't imagine that a loud chorus of "don't add the block feature" will dissuade you from implementing it, any more than the loud choruses of "get rid of the thumbs down feature" persuaded you to do so.
Please don't take this as criticism (well, maybe a gentle jab ).
No, I am not building this site by committee no. Both because the costs are not shared by committee and because that is not the right way to make forward progress on any project like this anyway. Asking people what they want and then building that is a horrible way to go about software design. People often have no idea what they want but have strong opinions about the question they see in front of them, what they actually do is a much more truthful source of feedback and what I pay more attention to.
So I listen to feedback and am interested in getting it (though unfortunately most people do not enjoy this process unless their feedback is immediately adopted) but unless it has an argument that I find convincing I'm going to follow my plan, I've thought about these issues for hundreds of hours and am not going to throw that all away based on a couple of opinions that were hastily considered. The real data is in what people do. Some people here have cried the sky is falling for nearly a decade and how every single change ever proposed will completely ruin the community for them. Yet they are still here, their opinions are just loud noises after thinking about a complex problem for a few seconds.
Quote:I do appreciate that you've provided this forum for our use. I still can't figure out how you might be making any money on it, so maybe it's a labor of love.
It has lost $500-$1000 a month on average over its lifetime. Another reason why I don't sweat it when people get angry that I don't build it their way. I don't tell them what to do with their time and money so when they do it to me I give it all the consideration that it is due.
