Post #72716 by Kono on Mon, Jan 26, 2004 6:55 PM

On 2004-01-26 18:27, hanford_lemoore wrote:
Tiki Central’s been going through a lot of changes recently. I’ve heard a lot of praise for these changes, and some complaints, too.

Praise from me...for the record.

We’ve tried it with virtually no moderation and censoring. We’ve tried it with “user-supported” moderation, where I would not moderate anything unless I got a PM or email from a user about. Well these days, we’re trying a little more pro-active approach to moderating.

I've been on a lot of boards over the past several years and I must say that I prefer the "user supported" moderation. If there ain't a complaint...don't fix it. Pro-active moderation is like Pro-active policing in the real world, not good for anyone IMHO.

Locking a thread will usually always be perceived as punishment to most posters as it is a punative measure on most other boards.

I'd suggest that "moderating" be kept to a minimun (invisible if possible). I'd also suggest that no members know who the moderators are.

That does mean a lot more topics will be moved or locked. It’s different than the techniques I’ve used before, and it’s easy to dismiss it as “offensive” of “ineffective”, but the fact is we don’t really know if it will work better or worse than previous techniques until we try.

If this method bothers you, please let me know. But please remember that nothing here at Tiki Central is permanent. We change rules, methods, and policies all the time. If this does not work, we may try something else.

Now some advice:

• Don’t be offended if someone posts a reply that says “we’ve discussed this before” or, “you posted in the wrong forum” or “try searching”. There is nothing inherently offensive in someone informing you of his. I really wish we could coddle all new users, but it’s not possible.

• Don’t be offended if a topic you started or participated in is locked. Really, it’s no big deal. It’s not an attack on you, and it’s not a slap to your face. If you’ve done anything wrong, you’ll be told, either in the topic itself or in a PM or email. But don’t worry about it … have a Mai-Tai. If you disagree with a topic being locked, please PM me about it and we can discuss it.

• If you don’t want to read and memorize rules, then Tiki Central is not the place for you. It’s grown too big to not have rules in place. If abiding by some rules is not your thing, then please visit some other website. If you don’t like a rule, PM me about it; I’ll be happy to hear what you have to say.

• If you’re not aware, the Search tool has been greatly improved. While it is still slow when searching big forums (and esp. ALL forums), it now gives more accurate results that target the exact posts where your search terms appear. And a message suggesting a search automatically appears when new users go to post.

Thanks for reading,

~Hanford

Hanford, you're one of the best forum owners I've ever run across. I'm confident that you'll make this forum an outstanding place to hang out and shoot the tiki talk...