Question/Comment

[Sui Generis]

[COLOR=Indigo]I've been going here for a while, thats safe to say, and although I haven't come here much in the past months I couldn't help notice something.

What happened to that friendly open door OB? I mean OtakuBoards is still my favorite message board, its still the first message board I ever went to, and it still is a place I really do enjoy going, but something has changed.

You can call me crazy if you want, it won't be the first time, but to me it seems alot more clichier or tight than it used to be. The mods seem to be alittle bit more snappy.

Now look I'm not blaming the mods, lord knows they do everything they can for this site, and I understand that its a hard job, but what happened to the friendly reminder? Instead of the "Its not allowed, sorry if you have questions you can contact ****** or me." its more like "Hey idiot, this isn't alowed, clean up your posts or else you'll be banned!"

I don't know to me it just seems different. Its something that I've just gradually noticed, it seems a sarcastic remark is more in place now than a helping hand.

I've been thinking about this for a while, and it says Feedback so I thought I'd just share my thoughts with you guys.

You guys do a great job, I guess I'm just complaing for a lost cause, but thats my side of the story.[/COLOR]

[Semjaza]

The only people I honestly ever notice snapping at other members like that aren't even mods.

I can't speak for others here, but I don't feel I treat anyone unfairly. I don't think anyone in my section does either. I think all of them are very polite about the way they go about things in the Gaming areas.

[Dagger]

Nice avatar! ^_~

This is an important point, Lalaith. In the months after I first joined OtakuBoards, I noticed several members undergoing marked improvements--mainly because the mods were patient enough to point those people down the right path and not scare them away. Lately, however, I think we've started giving such members fewer chances... and while that's a good thing on certain levels, being over-vigilant is also undesirable.

Frankly, members are a big part of the problem (making people feel unwelcome, that is), and I'm not talking about newbies. One can't blame them for not knowing how OB is run. Few things aggravate me more than people who post in topics which they [i]know[/i] will be closed, simply to inform members that the mods don't tolerate that sort of thread--even though they aren't mods themselves. Far from helping, this only serves to make things worse.

On a side note, I try not to do much modding when I'm in a crappy mood. :whoops:

~Dagger~

[Shinmaru]

I don't really snap at people and I don't really see other mods snapping at people...we might be stern from time to time, but that's only with members whom we have already warned and whom have broken rules more than once. And even when we're being a bit stern, it's never "Hey asshole, get the ******* rules right!"

On a side note, I was a less than impressive member my first couple weeks, so it shows how much people can improve if they want to :p

[Sui Generis]

[COLOR=Indigo]I'm really not trying to put all the blame on the mods, sorry if I did. I'm just showing an example, and I'm not saying its any of you guys either.

Like Dagger said in the ol' days alot of the "oldies" were just pathetic spammers as well, but through patience they developed into a better poster.

I just don't see as many people getting those chances, now granted this may because of the more amount of people that are on and how many newbies there are. So I guess you could consider this a mute point it just seems people arn't being as friendly now a'days.

OB is still better than a lot of boards, just giving a comment.[/COLOR]

[James]

[color=#707875]I don't think that things are any different really. People who join the boards and immediately start spamming and writing posts like "omg how ru pplzzz!!?!!??" are probably going to be banned on the spot. But that's no different to anything we've done before.

It could simply be that you've been visiting while we've had a [i]lot [/i]of those members. Afterall, nothing about it is totally linear -- some weeks we'll get a huge amount of spammers, some weeks we will get a huge amount of awesome members who respect the rules.

A big part of the problem is definitely when members step in and "play mod". But there's really nothing I can add to that, because I think we all know that it's a problem.

As the guy who actually runs the site, I look at a [i]lot [/i]of closed threads and things like that. So I frequently keep staff in check and make sure that they're as courteous as possible in any given situation. And honestly, I haven't discovered staff snapping at members. And if they do, it's often because a member has repeated an offence and hasn't listened to warnings or advice from staff.

So, I think it's a bit difficult to take a quick snapshot and say "this is how the site feels", because things change on a day-to-day basis. I'm pretty satisfied with where we are right now, though.[/color]

[Desbreko]

[color=indigo]Well, sometimes I get the feeling I'm not being quite as polite as I could be, but it can be annoying when you've given multiple warnings in multiple threads about the very same thing and almost everyone seems to just ignore you. (Favorite threads, anyone?) Still, though, I try and make sure I'm not sounding pissed off or snapping at people. . . . But that can be hard to do when you're trying to make people pay attention to the rules. Punctuation only goes so far in showing how any given post should be read; you don't get things like tone of voice when you're typing out your messge. (Unless you want to use a lot of italics, but that just gets annoying). So if people happen to read a post in a different way than what was intended, yes, it could be taken as snapping at whoever is being warned, but from what I've seen, that's very rarely intentional.[/color]

[terra]

[quote name='Desbreko][color=indigo']Well, sometimes I get the feeling I'm not being quite as polite as I could be, but it can be annoying when you've given multiple warnings in multiple threads about the very same thing and almost everyone seems to just ignore you.[/color][/quote]
Yes, I thought I noticed plenty of people coming in and not reading the rules before I ever became a moderator. When I did have a section to be responsible for, I realized there were more people who didn't bother reading the rules than I would've guessed.

Part of being a mod is feeling responsible for your section, which I think all of us do. And because I, for example, feel responsible in some way for the Arena, I wouldn't want other members' experiences to be detracted from because someone decided not to read the rules. Of course there's a fine line to be drawn between firmness and ... something a bit more rude, but from what I've seen most to all of our moderators can be and are tactful.

Also, keep in mind that a lot of moderating goes on in Private Messaging, for myself at least. So some of the more public posts you see may be after a good bout of PM warnings.

I know you weren't trying to blame mods, but I hope this explains some of what occurs.

[G/S/B Master]

I don't know how the registration goes now but here's my suggestion....

On one of the steps on registering on the message board, put the whole rules. Then at the end of the page put up a question about the rules. Or just put an oath that says "If you break 2 of the rules listed here, you're banned for so and so days or permanently".

Some people like me can't help being a mod once in a while. It's too tempting. But please, don't try to stop it. I know you discourage it, but don't put an instant ban on it.

[quote name='Lalaith Ril']Like Dagger said in the ol' days alot of the "oldies" were just pathetic spammers as well, but through patience they developed into a better poster.[/quote]

I remember my very first post.

[quote name='Silver Master 64/Me']LOL!!! Did you know that PIKACHU KILLER has no life like Thimoc LOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!!!!![/quote]

Or something along the lines. Bleh.