An example of why the forum has issues...

[metsbats]

Re: An example of why the forum has issues...

This kind of post is not about the game used hobby...and it does not benefit the collector. I am re-broadcasting it here because I don't think the mods will see it unless it's advertised under a different heading.

Sorry if this irritates anyone, but rarely do I get my feathers ruffled like this:

http://www.gameuseduniverse.com/vb_forum/showthread.php?t=32975

BTW, I did contact the mods...no response yet, but I imagine they will eventually take action.

The thread in question has been deleted.

[joelsabi]

Re: An example of why the forum has issues...

Just saw this post, and wanted to echo the sentiments that Andrew hit the nail on the head.

May I add, also, from experiences on gameworn.net and gamewornjerseys.com, two successful game-worn hockey forums, that issues like these have been around for years.

The suggestions regarding accountability, requiring signatures, ensuring diligent moderation, are all good ones.

But when we take into account the reality that the internet is a vast and largely uncontrollable landscape, I suggest this to those of us who respect civility, maturity and the vigorous and constructive exchange of quality information/debate/help on game-worn topics:

If you can ignore the inflammatory, or ridiculous, or pointless stuff rather than engage it, it will eventually become irrelevant. If you don't respond to a post, a thread ends. And if threads end when someone posts something stupid, or mean, or incendiary, then like a brief flame it eventually flickers out and dies.

I know it's not always easy. But it can work.

Barry

Very well said. Thanks Barry for sharing your experience with these issues. Public forums by definition can be inflammatory. Look at the mean spirited posts on many youtube videos or yahoo message boards, But once they are not engaged there is no positive reinforcement to further engage in such a manner or if they enjoy the madness they look elsewhere for it. For all we know these posters have 20 active usernames right now in the system. They will continue to be a pain until people ignore them and if certain member insist to engage, mods should consider banning those who repeatedly fuel the flame.

[BarryMeisel]

Re: An example of why the forum has issues...

Just saw this post, and wanted to echo the sentiments that Andrew hit the nail on the head.

May I add, also, from experiences on gameworn.net and gamewornjerseys.com, two successful game-worn hockey forums, that issues like these have been around for years.

The suggestions regarding accountability, requiring signatures, ensuring diligent moderation, are all good ones.

But when we take into account the reality that the internet is a vast and largely uncontrollable landscape, I suggest this to those of us who respect civility, maturity and the vigorous and constructive exchange of quality information/debate/help on game-worn topics:

If you can ignore the inflammatory, or ridiculous, or pointless stuff rather than engage it, it will eventually become irrelevant. If you don't respond to a post, a thread ends. And if threads end when someone posts something stupid, or mean, or incendiary, then like a brief flame it eventually flickers out and dies.

I know it's not always easy. But it can work.

Barry

[kudu]

Re: An example of why the forum has issues...

I think once we have moderators that are here on a constant basis, and enforce the rules, the forum will run much smoother, and the bad posters will go away. Also, I found this book online, if anyone is interested:

http://www.managingonlineforums.com/

[joelsabi]

Re: An example of why the forum has issues...

Not really sure who to ask, but I have spent about 30 minutes trying to figure out how to do a "signature" on the bottom of the post but still cant figure it out. I dont mean to derail this post by anymeans I just have seen people mention it here and how it helps regulate the forum if people post information about themselves. So can anyone point me in the right direction of how to do this? Thanks guys.

Quick Links>User Control Panal>Edit Signature


on my email solution suggestion , maybe Andrew's equifax solution can be used as the default mean of registration and those without a credit card can go the route of company email or cable bill email. Dont think they need to be mututally exclusive in use.

[ivo610]

Re: An example of why the forum has issues...

Not really sure who to ask, but I have spent about 30 minutes trying to figure out how to do a "signature" on the bottom of the post but still cant figure it out. I dont mean to derail this post by anymeans I just have seen people mention it here and how it helps regulate the forum if people post information about themselves. So can anyone point me in the right direction of how to do this? Thanks guys.

[joelsabi]

Re: An example of why the forum has issues...

on registration by email, i would hope not allowing people to register using public emails search engines would do the trick. no public registration account like gmail, yahoo, hotmail so that a person can remain anonymous. letting people register under an email such as company email or cable company email would do the trick.

on allowable emails, aol.com would not count also. you used to only be allowed to have an account if you paid for it. now you can get a free aol account with no verification.

[joelsabi]

Re: An example of why the forum has issues...

It pains me to actually get involved with threads like this, but if you want to rid this forum of the clowns just ignore their threads. The more you feed into people like yankees.stub, the more BS you're going to receive.

great point. if you ignore the post there is no positive reinforcement for these people who come with negativity. then it only takes a few dismissals by the mods to take the fuel away from these people who are only here to cause problems or target certain members. seems like a pattern of members are the regular targets and once the mods do somethings, still these members who are targeted are still lending attention to the person who was just banned, mocking them but at the same time reinforcing the person's behavior.


on registration by email, i would hope not allowing people to register using public emails search engines would do the trick. no public registration account like gmail, yahoo, hotmail so that a person can remain anonymous. letting people register under an email such as company email or cable company email would do the trick.

[allstarsplus]

Re: An example of why the forum has issues...

+1

I believe Andrew has hit the nail on the head. If you take a little bit of the anonymity away, you help create accountability. That is most likely the key if the model wants to rely heavily on self policing. The only other solution is very active involvement by moderators. I, too, frequent another forum that has no problems remotely close to what we’re dealing with on GUU. The close moderation doesn’t tolerate it. On that particular forum after reading an entire thread of two members debating a topic that I can’t even recall, but I thought there was absolutely no logic applied whatsoever. So, I posted the following quote, “What you've just written is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever read. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having read to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.” (Some may recognize that this is a modified movie quote.) As soon as I posted it, it disappeared. I thought I had done something wrong, so I re-typed the entire quote and posted it again. Bam, gone again, followed by a PM and e-mail from a mod. He said as much as he agreed that the thread was total nonsense, and that he found my post humorous, it would have potentially derailed the thread and he had no choice to delete it. I can see how that kind of moderation could clean up GUU. However, I would like to think we have the ability to show restraint and police ourselves, but even best intentions might need monitoring sometimes.

John

John - Thanks for the feedback. It's funny that in order to bid on Game Used Universe's auction you have to provide a phone number and the other information I thought was needed.

http://www.guuauctions.com/site/users/useradd.asp

The next step would be of course to do some great advice from Ronald Reagan "Trust, but Verify".

Anybody can put in a fake phone #, fake name, etc. Crosschecking the information is crucial and yes, time consuming.

Imagine how many people will have more trust in the Collectors to Collectors site knowing that their identity has been verified. The auction site should also do better based on a stronger quality Forum.

The dozens of good members that left will come back I believe.

[mwbosoxfan]

Re: An example of why the forum has issues...

Equifax has an ID Verify system which supposedly works, but I would suggest a simpler system of registering with a valid name, email, address, phone number.

The mod in charge of registering members should not activate the member until they crosscheck the information provided and then physically call the person.

When you start taking away the levels of transparency on the internet, people will behave themselves better when everyone knows who they are. I also think everyone should have their real name on the signature line.

This site shouldn't be about the quantity of members and the quantity of posts rather the quality of the members and the quality of the posts.

+1

I believe Andrew has hit the nail on the head. If you take a little bit of the anonymity away, you help create accountability. That is most likely the key if the model wants to rely heavily on self policing. The only other solution is very active involvement by moderators. I, too, frequent another forum that has no problems remotely close to what we’re dealing with on GUU. The close moderation doesn’t tolerate it. On that particular forum after reading an entire thread of two members debating a topic that I can’t even recall, but I thought there was absolutely no logic applied whatsoever. So, I posted the following quote, “What you've just written is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever read. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having read to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.” (Some may recognize that this is a modified movie quote.) As soon as I posted it, it disappeared. I thought I had done something wrong, so I re-typed the entire quote and posted it again. Bam, gone again, followed by a PM and e-mail from a mod. He said as much as he agreed that the thread was total nonsense, and that he found my post humorous, it would have potentially derailed the thread and he had no choice to delete it. I can see how that kind of moderation could clean up GUU. However, I would like to think we have the ability to show restraint and police ourselves, but even best intentions might need monitoring sometimes.

John

[transam9572]

Re: An example of why the forum has issues...

It pains me to actually get involved with threads like this, but if you want to rid this forum of the clowns just ignore their threads. The more you feed into people like yankees.stub, the more BS you're going to receive.

This is the BEST point made. Just ignore those people you do not like or agree with what they say.

I do think that if this site has more mods , that will help. But that will also depend on WHO is chosen. There are still the same people on here getting away with stuff like flaming and FALSE accusations about other members and nothing happens to them.

[skyking26]

Re: An example of why the forum has issues...

Equifax has an ID Verify system which supposedly works, but I would suggest a simpler system of registering with a valid name, email, address, phone number.

The mod in charge of registering members should not activate the member until they crosscheck the information provided and then physically call the person.

When you start taking away the levels of transparency on the internet, people will behave themselves better when everyone knows who they are. I also think everyone should have their real name on the signature line.

This site shouldn't be about the quantity of members and the quantity of posts rather the quality of the members and the quality of the posts.

Well said....

Robert Koppel

[allstarsplus]

Re: An example of why the forum has issues...

Let's take suggestions then for ID methods. What is yours? Leaving things the way they are is unworkable. Let's provide solutions instead of more obstacles. This place has proven it cannot be left to self-police so who has suggestions?

Equifax has an ID Verify system which supposedly works, but I would suggest a simpler system of registering with a valid name, email, address, phone number.

The mod in charge of registering members should not activate the member until they crosscheck the information provided and then physically call the person.

When you start taking away the levels of transparency on the internet, people will behave themselves better when everyone knows who they are. I also think everyone should have their real name on the signature line.

This site shouldn't be about the quantity of members and the quantity of posts rather the quality of the members and the quality of the posts.

[jobathenut]

Re: An example of why the forum has issues...

Lastings-Again you are right on and i have to agree with you.And i just have to say it's not just young people who don't have credit cards as it was said on here.Some older adults don't have them.But thats off topic.I also belong to other forums and they have more members and you don't see the outcry as you see on here.But that's because the mods are watching over it and active members on those forums.I think once chris puts this 5 member team together things will get better on here.And i agree about the "pm" thing and i think all "pm's" should be open to cut down on the public garbage on here.If you have a problem with someone you just send them a pm.But alot of members on here dont have thiers on.

I have no suggestion at this point, but there are two other forums I am involved with (not sports related), and there has never been an issue. One forum is very large, and complex (with editing features!) but no problems and posting is easy. The best part is that everyone receives pm's and when one is received you get an email alerting you. I have no problem if someone is banned, and they want a second chance. But if you get that second chance, PLEASE take advantage of it and just work with everyone. I cannot tell you how helpful this forum has been to me, and couldn't be more thankful as a buyer and enthusiast.

[jobathenut]

Re: An example of why the forum has issues...

Lastings-I am with you also,as i don't have one either.

You cannot go te credit card route though because there are people that do not have a credit card, like me. This forum, is fine but you do have people that just like to cause problems. It's too bad, and I have no idea why this has to be the forum where people get so personal with attacks and all. So the next question is, what's the next username for yankees.stub?