Proposed enhancments from the mods...

[bssage]

Dear PF (Crowd gather) Admin's

Hello and I hope all is well for you and your families around this holiday season.

My PF mod peers and myself had recently been thinking aloud about things we could possibly do to help make the PF more friendly and appealing to our crowd at PF and the public. Please don't think of this as anything other than some people hoping to help. I (we) are admittedly not "Big Picture" forum people. You are. This is in no way meant to be adversarial or disrespectful. If for some reason is interpreted that way. It would only be because of my limited ability to articulate the message properly.

We would like to modify the posting requirements in a effort to help legitimate poster and ourselves (mods) who are trying to sort out the elements that take away from the experience that is PF. These are the challenges we hope to overcome and the changes we are thinking about.

Take away the 5 post min.

The reason is, that it does not appear to reduce the occurrence of posters needing supervision by any significant numbers (from what we see). It lengthens the reaction time between the initial post +4 to modded post, by 6 total post. And increases the amount of threads need to be deleted.

Most posters legit, or not submit 5 one word post. This creates a situation that requires us to view and decide or delete each individual thread.

It also requires new members with legitimate urgent questions to fill the 5 post minimum and causes a lot of old post "bumping" Which we address individually. In the parenting biz some of our poster are looking for help, support, or answer right now. I think it would be far to say this is a frequent situation. We believe the 5 post min may discourage some from joining in just for that reason.

We believe an effective alternative to the 5 post rule would be a. Must post first in the Intro section. Keeping the number of "bots" down and giving a little background goes a long way to both sorting legitimate members and giving effective advice.


We would also like to see if is possible to help some of the smaller scale business <U>specifically</U> stay at home mom's or dads. A lot of them are struggling to both raise their children and make ends meet. We as a group understand the desire to stay as close to our children as we can. I have seen several forums that make considerations for site specific, small scale (Mom and Pop) type of links (I can supply some sites for examples). Not so much endorsements. More as a way to let them link. Of course some type of application for permission would be required. Maybe some of the Mods would volunteer. I myself would not be apposed to researching the applications or to helping maintain this area in order to not burden yourself or staff.

And last. If we could have a sub-forum in the "general" category for polls and surveys. These are generally from students and professionals. We field a lot of request but would like to have a reasonable place to put them

I wont pretend to know the liability or any of the other consequences to this. Its all of course your call

Thanks in advance for your consideration
Sincerely
Bssage and PF mods

 

[cg stephen]

The 5 posts minimum can easily be modified. I just need a welcome message that educates new members of the requirement.

we can do the poll section also, just need a sort of consensus from the staff on the site as to what they want to do.

I'll need a little more time to evaluate the links section.

Just let me know when it has been discussed among the site and I'll start planning the changes.

 

[bssage]

Stephen

Thanks for the quick reply.

We discussed everything in the OG post prior to asking for your help. I dont feel comfortable using words like <U>We</U> or <U>Us</U> unless I know everyone agrees so that is covered.

I will ask someone to write the welcome message to send to you.

The poll section we would like to be just a subcategory under the general board. We dont really know what to expect from it. So it may be a work in progress type of thing.

The image I have in my head for links . Several of the forums I am a member of have a board for members that mod or otherwise somehow support the main effort of the specific forum itself.

Generally these are either self modded or modded by proxy. I.E They would request moderation from an existing mod to remove a post or warn a specific poster. I am not saying this is the best way. Only that I am familiar with this setup.

I think if you would like, several of the mods would likely volunteer to screen the links to ensure it was small scale SAHM type of sites and not redirects or something inconsistent with the theme of PF/CG. If that is better handled by your team I understand.

Thanks again
Bryan

 

[Xero]

Do you need us to come up with the welcome message? When will it show up?

As for the new subforum, we were talking about it in the Mod Talk area and we would really like to have a new subforum titled "Surveys and Polls" so that the people who come here wanting to post surveys or ask multiple choice (poll) questions have a specific and relevent place to put them. If that sounds okay. This idea can also be presented to the forum members, if you'd like to see their responses. Let us know and it will get posted.

Also, I can't remember if this is simply up to us mods or if we should ask... we were thinking of allowing links/ads in signatures only (as long as they are harmless, and not offensive or inappropriate). Is that something that we can just make the decision to start allowing? The rules of this place have been handed down to us from two different sets of mods over quite a few years so I don't know if they are set in stone by CrowdGather or just something a set of mods a long time ago came up with.

Thanks.

 

[Xero]

Sorry, I didn't know you were here bssage!!!! My fault!!!!

 

[cg stephen]

It would be great if we has a site rule. Here is an example:

http://www.digishoptalk.com/boards/announcement.php?f=10[/url]

Since we are looking to implement new sections/features, it might be a good idea to start compiling information like this an posting it.

based on what we know, is there a chance that the all of you can work together and come up with at least the following items:

-General forum rules (What type of conduct is preferred and what is not allowed)
-The Signature standards. (What is allowed and any formatting guidelines)
-Sections explaining special forums that fall outside of the general forum rules and what is/is not allowed (The poll forum for example. what can be posted and what kind of linking.)

I like the idea of the polls being posted and the associated threads, but will need a decision form the content folk as far as what kind of links we can allow in the threads and sigs. I'll put that ball into motion and can suggest that a draft of the site rules be drawn up.

Members will be directed to look at that thread when they sign up.

What do you think about all of this?

 

[IADad]

That sounds good to me. We do have a rules post, it just needs updating.

Stephen, if you don't mind, I think we can just conduct our discussion here, and then maybe ping you with a PM when we're complete or need direction on what's possible. How's that sound? That way we have a trail of our discussion and you can pop in and see how we're coming along if you're so inclined.

Group - I'm fine with adding a URL and a professional description (i.e. if someone want to give themselves a title etc. in their signature. I'm not sure what I'd disallow, other than obviously nothing rude or explicit. Shoudl we allow links in sigs?

As for polls/surveys. I'm happy with them in their own sub forum. Maybe post a sticky that responding is voluntary and they're not associated with the site. I'm really not sure whether to allow links to surveys. Part of me says if you want a survey, create a poll here, but I know all those college researches are going to want to link to their surveys, and it makes sense that they want to collect data in one place....thoughts?

 

[mom2many]

I think links in surveys should be allowed since they tend to use sites that help compile the information.

Allowing sites in sigs would also be good but maybe only allowing a link, nothing to large or obvious.

Forum rules...overall I think we have a good set of rules. Adjusting the 5 post rule would be my biggest thing simply because it is the most annoying thing to me.

 

[bssage]

I am sleepy been working a lot. Need to peculate on this for a bit.

I am a little concerned with the poll links.

IMO I would like to have one of us approve the poll links before exposing the members to them. I think most of us have taken a innocent looking poll and ended up in hell before we knew it.

I know a few sites I liked but it seemed like each time I visited I would have to clean up my computer. I dont want PF to become one of those sites.

 

[IADad]

not sure I'd be much good at previewing sites...kind of the blind leading the blind. Also what happens if we review and endorse then somebody gets a virus or something, not sure we want to take on that responsibility. Sure we can and should review to keep complete crap out, but not thinking a formal review is good. Responding to survey links is at your own risk.

 

[bssage]

not sure I'd be much good at previewing sites...kind of the blind leading the blind. Also what happens if we review and endorse then somebody gets a virus or something, not sure we want to take on that responsibility. Sure we can and should review to keep complete crap out, but not thinking a formal review is good. Responding to survey links is at your own risk.

Good point. Maybe a disclaimer like that would suffice. Whats everyone think?

 

[mom2many]

I think a strongly worded disclaimer would be enough. I have done quite a few of them and have never had any problems.

 

[cg stephen]

That sounds good to me. We do have a rules post, it just needs updating.

Stephen, if you don't mind, I think we can just conduct our discussion here, and then maybe ping you with a PM when we're complete or need direction on what's possible. How's that sound? That way we have a trail of our discussion and you can pop in and see how we're coming along if you're so inclined.

Group - I'm fine with adding a URL and a professional description (i.e. if someone want to give themselves a title etc. in their signature. I'm not sure what I'd disallow, other than obviously nothing rude or explicit. Shoudl we allow links in sigs?

As for polls/surveys. I'm happy with them in their own sub forum. Maybe post a sticky that responding is voluntary and they're not associated with the site. I'm really not sure whether to allow links to surveys. Part of me says if you want a survey, create a poll here, but I know all those college researches are going to want to link to their surveys, and it makes sense that they want to collect data in one place....thoughts?

Works for me.

I'll shadow the conversation and try to put the items in place to open up the sections soon after it is finally decided what the site wants.

 

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