Burn wrote:Rodimus Prime wrote:Honestly, I think the lack of traffic is a direct result of too many rules and regulations.
The fudge? We have four rules. How is that too many? By all means,
have a read of them and tell me how we can improve on them.
I have not seen those. Until now. And perhaps I worded my statement poorly. It's not the rules themselves, it's how they're interpreted. And please don't take that as an attack on your position, I wasn't really speaking of a specific moderator. (This is kinda tough to explain, because when this came up I thought back to 2001-2002 and how it was and the answer I gave was what came to mind. It was just different. Kinda like the wild West.)
Back in the day we could get away with a lot, it was a more free and mature place to come to.
I also seem to remember more warnings being issued and bans occurring on a regular basis.
Yeah. And it made things much more interesting. People got banned (temporarily and permanently) because they posted what they thought, without thinking "OK, maybe I don't want to say this, because it might offend 1 of the few thousand members." It made for interesting reads, and yeah, sometimes people pay the price for being individuals. I offer myself for example. Just in the last year, I've wanted to tell a few posters on here what I thought of them and to F**K OFF. Simple as that. I kept it to myself, because any time something is said that might be offensive to the most sensitive among us, what happens? Posts get
reported! Back then I would have done it (and did) in a heartbeat, and what did a mod say? "Work it out between you 2." It took a LOT of animosity between 2 posters for a mod to step in to resolve personal issues.
We can't have any arguments without someone stepping in and saying "Oh no, you hurt his feelings! You have individual opinions that might differ from ours? You can't do that!"
When people report a post, staff are required to step in and say something.
I can't see the statistics regarding this, so I will just say that in my opinion, I think that happens more than it should. Why? Some people are wimps.
There's been times when we haven't and just closed the report, and people have complained about the lack of action. So we either do something, and apparently get damned, and do nothing, and get damned.
One way to fix that? Establish a set of requirements for reporting posts. And a supposedly offensive post has to meet ALL of them.
Admittedly some of the reasons for reporting is because some people are too sensitive and they really should just toughen up.
OK, so at least we agree on that.
We do let a LOT slide, but as I said above, and you know all too well, we're open to discussing on how to improve things.
Again, perhaps I worded my previous post wrong. Maybe it's not the rules themselves, but the atmosphere they promote. I hate to say this, but I this of this place anymore as kind of a kiddie-site. Understandably, Transformers are
toys for
children, and kids learn earlier and earlier these days how to use a computer and a message board. But my statement regarding the differences in how this place was 15 years ago and is now still stands. It's my answer to the question by the OP.
But, considering the content of the site, and that the message board is but a small part of it, being more kid-friendly is better for the site (and thus for Ryan, as it's no longer his hobby but his actual source of income) so it's the way it is.
Social media has had an impact though, there's a bunch of Toy Fair pics, and no doubt people head to FB before heading to their favourite sites.
I do.
Not always...