My forum needs Help!

Why don't you and other moderators enforce rules and hold the threat of expulsion over inappropriate behavior? Make a list of basic rules to live by and stick to them.

How are rules enforced without making them wanting the users to leave, would a preliminary email be handy? The admin is usually very gung ho and sometimes makes it oppressive for the other users, two users got basically kicked out recently, one for making a joke about the admin and the other because he laughed at the joke!

Is anyone complaining about the problems? It sounds like there must be. Start with "In response to the many complaints we have received..." Make it helping them instead of oppressing them.

If they were acting perfectly, there would be no need for rules. They're acting like idiots and making rules necessary -- if they don't like that, too bad.

Well, sounds like you need to talk with Craven. I don't think it's fair to get kicked out for making a joke about admin. If you designed some basic rules you can post them and ask eveyone to read them. Maybe a PM or email when someone gets offensive/breaks the rules. After 1, 2 or 3 strikes, you block that user.

I really don't know much about the administrating side of forums. But, this place seems to run great. We don't have very many rules, they're just basic considerations, but they are enforced.

Garath- Looks like you have a BIG problem with the administration, that you need to deal with. A person should never be banned for criticizing any of the administrators. Before you do anything else, you need to work that out with the administrators.

Have you looked at the Able2Know Terms of Service? (You should have already, 'cause you agreed to them when you joined.) You might get an idea of the sorts of things that are no-nos on a forum site. Then the Admins. and the Moderators need to get together, and work out a dispassionate, disinterested way to deal with infractions!

Garath
listen to the folks here - can be a good mentor for you

Re: My forum needs Help!


Is this a forum on A2K? ( I'm a bit confused!)

New Haven, it's a separate forum, probably similar in look and style to A2K.

Actually quite different in look, Garath are you the author of the eddings template? It's one of the most awesome templates for this forum software.

Congrats on the template! I'd love to work with you on templates, if that's yours it's excellent.

Now as to your situation I sympathize. Moderating a forum is to be hated and loved in the same breath and to herd cats every now and then. There are hedaches in this that I couldn't ahve even imagined. And the bigger the site is the worse it gets.

I take it you are more of a tech guy and you have delegated to some mods who, frankly, bite.

When I started this forum I started with one Admin in mind and she signed on <that's Jespah> doing her job is a tough one and requires a certain mix. Some people are great enforcers but not good at organization. Others are petty. From your example it seems you ahve a lousy admin or mod.

I'd start from scratch.

Other random ideas:

Stay on top of spam. It's the quickest way to degrade a forum. If you err, err on the side of caution (with spam). Spammers are usually not there to contribute anyway so don't worry about losing members by cracking down on spam. To give you an example, had you cited a link this topic would be removed. Of course, be careful about the other user issues. If a regular does something wrong you need to treat it differently than if a new guy signed up to spam your forum.

Nip stuff in the bud. You can probably see where problems will arise. Get them before they start.

Once they start they are harder to get rid of.

Make a TOS before anyone joins. I had my TOS in place before we opened. I still plan to tinker with it but it is a good one (so much so that many phpbb people are copying and pasting it). A technical point I'd make is to skip the coppa and user agreement and simply link on every page, that way you don't turn off sign ups who see text and split but it's still a clearly referenced TOS.

And as to thoughtless posts, do you have quick reply installed? If you do it might be part of the problem. Just a thought.

I'm moving this to web development.

Humour and a bit of gently sarcastic cajoling seems to work best, in what little moderating I've seen done here. It helps to know your group individuals, then just jump in.
I think it was Phoenix I'm thinking about, thanks pal.

(I can remember many Abuzz threads which were just wasted by idiots. There is a sanction of removal here, I think.)

Jeez - the moderators on this forum are fierce.

One user was placed on the rack for 3 days, just because he failed to address them using the correct case in this post!

Don't mess with the mods! <grovel, grovel, grovel, whimper>

Down, kitty!!! :wink:

I don't feel that good in all the tar and feathers either, margo!

I think the admin will be creating a new forum to get away from the problems that we have at the moment. Would this soluve anything?

Craven, sorry im not really allowed to say anything about the forum, but I'm not that person sorry but know who youre talking about. He did a space theme for phpbb recently, it's really smart.

I do think a fresh start will help. Make sure to define your goals beforehand.


It was an awesome theme. Not well suited for a really high traffic board but pretty.

Thanks very much for the help guys