Forum Changes Consultation - Now Closed

Re: Important: Forum Changes Consultation - Please Read

I'm really unsure about a Current Events forum – we already sometimes get problems in the current news one. I'm trying to remember what I put on the survey! It'd be interesting to see people's opinions on current stuff, but there are other places on the Internet to discuss that. I'd rather keep it the way it is, especially with the Dan82 newsfeed!

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What would happen with existing threads in Support and Advice – would they be split according to where they belonged in the new layout, or would they be kept in the misc. place?

You guys are doing a lot of hard work for all this; many many thanks and cookies to the staff team!

 

Re: Important: Forum Changes Consultation - Please Read

Standard procedure is to split all of the recent threads (going back several days to weeks depending on the subforum) and recategorise them. We're not going to go back 5 years, however. Older threads will be left sleeping undisturbed. They'd still be able to show up on a search, though. So they aren't really lost. Just not optimally categorised.

 

Re: Important: Forum Changes Consultation - Please Read

I know how you feel, I've done the same.

Fair enough. Honestly, part of my side of this issue is me purposely trying to look at the worst-case scenario; even though I stand by what I was saying, I do severely doubt it'll happen. Like you said, we've got a good group of people around here, and I'd doubt the system would be abused.

I think part of my concern lies from the difference in the two systems. The current anonymous forum is there with the intent of having everyone be able to post honestly, bluntly, and anonymously. Usually it isn't rude, but I can see how some people might get offended. I think if anonymous posting was seen sporadically through S&A, while people would post the same, I think there's potential for people to be more easily offended, if nothing else beyond the fact that if you're coming to S&A to post a problem you're probably feeling a little vulnerable to begin with.

The point I'm trying to get at is the last thing I want to see happen with S&A, since it works wonderfully the way it is now, is to have the quality of support decreased because of potentially offensive anonymous posts. Kind of an "if it isn't broken, don't fix it" thing. Like you said though, it probably wouldn't happen.

True true. Though honestly I forgot the report function even exists... <_<

Of course, that's why I love EC, you can come and discuss/debate nearly anything since most people (given that we're minorities to begin with) are more open to hearing every side of the story.

 

Re: Important: Forum Changes Consultation - Please Read

I wrote a heckuva lot in the suggestions boxes, but the gist of my suggestions are thus: more mods (if possible) for a potential current events/world news forum, an all-encompassing LGBT advice/discussion/news section with appropriate tags for each forum, and an entire section devoted to anonymous discussions (including anonymous LGBT-related discussions) with appropriate tags for each forum.

As for the reporting system, I think that there's a possibility that it will be abused in a forum with the potential for many heated or overly personal discussions in which the parties involved might report posts simply due to strong disagreement with their content. The mods might get swarmed with reports, some of which don't even violate the rules and terms of use--a possibility which would make the addition of more mods a beneficial move.

 

Re: Important: Forum Changes Consultation - Please Read

I don't really like the current post reporting system, besides the fact that it's missing the possessive apostrophe in "moderator's". I don't know what it can be used for, when to use it, how soon it gets read, if it's for thread moves as well as rude posts, whether or not to use it when I'm not sure... It would be nice if there was a thread or guideline somewhere easy to find explaining about it.

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Edit: Also only just realised: To promote this thread, you moved it through all the forums on EC so it'd show up, before letting it rest here. Clever!

 

Re: Important: Forum Changes Consultation - Please Read

Filled in the survey! I think most of the things stated in the survey are good changes and yes - the Support & Advice definitely needs to be split into sections because there are just so many threads. And I like to point out it's great that you guys ask what we think would work instead of just shoving changes upon us.

 

Re: Important: Forum Changes Consultation - Please Read

I would like LGBT news separated from world news, because I don't to see much LGBT news here.

 

Re: Important: Forum Changes Consultation - Please Read

Now I won't be able to unsee it. :dry:

It can be used for all of the above things. Thread moves, rude posts, rule breaks, spam, duplicate posts, accidentally posting on your own wall--generally, anything you want to bring to the staff's attention, you can use the post-report feature to do that. All post reports get dumped in one section that only the staff has access to, so it'll get read as soon as any given staff member checks that section, or when they use the "New Post" button, since post reports show up there for us, too. And since there are usually at least a couple of staff members online at any given time, it'll get seen pretty quickly.

Generally, if you're unsure about whether you should report something, report it. The worst that can happen is that a couple of staff will comment on the report saying, "Looks fine to me," nothing else will happen, and we'll all go on our merry way. What's far more likely, though, is that we'll act the report and be very grateful to you for bringing the reported post to our attention.

 

Re: Important: Forum Changes Consultation - Please Read

i post several items a day, do you not see them?

 

Re: Important: Forum Changes Consultation - Please Read

Lol, exactly. I think all threads on the first page are LGBT related right now.

 

Re: Important: Forum Changes Consultation - Please Read

I apologize that was came out more condescending than I intended

 

Re: Important: Forum Changes Consultation - Please Read

We tend to not close really old support threads that have been bumped on the off chance that someone with a similar problem might find the thread and benefit from the advice and posts in it. This is something we try to do in the news sections, and is definitely something we could use help with—identifying threads which just don't need to continue anymore so we can lock them.

I agree on both points.


This survey was a result of staff brainstorming different ideas, so it's possible that there are some more things that might be good for EC. So if anyone has any new ideas about how threads should be organised, then please do share them!

 

Re: Important: Forum Changes Consultation - Please Read

im so excited

 

Re: Important: Forum Changes Consultation - Please Read

Just did the survey. It seems like these steps will improve EC overall.

I do agree that separating coming out "later in life" stories is a bad idea. Everyone that visits EC comes to terms with their sexual/gender identity at different points in life, so it seems pointless to introduce some arbitrary age cut-off that deems someone as having come out later in life. Shit, I feel like coming out at 24 was "later in life" compared to the many that are now coming out in their teens! I think keeping an all-inclusive coming out advice/stories forum would be much more useful to EC members where people of all ages and situations can share their experiences.

Also, I think that the idea of a "mental health" issues forum would be hard to filter, since most of the other proposed forum topics (e.g. relationships, coming out) are necessarily going to be root causes of mental health issues like depression. Therefore, posts dealing with mental health should be placed within the forum topics within which the issues are based. However, maybe a miscellaneous support/advice forum might be better for some posters where multiple issues are contributing to mental health problems?

In regards to anonymous posting, I think it would be better to allow it in all support forums, but as a box to be checked before posting (rather than the current format in the anonymous forum where you have to uncheck the box to not be anonymous). Anonymous posting would be a bad idea in a current events forum though, for the reasons cited by others on this thread.

 

Re: Important: Forum Changes Consultation - Please Read

Maybe it wasn't made clear in the servery, but we're only considering expanding the anonymous feature to the other forums in the Support Area (coming out advice, gender and sexual identity, miscellaneous support and advice, etc.), not to the forums in the General Chat area (fun and games, chit chat, news and events, chit chat).

 

Re: Important: Forum Changes Consultation - Please Read

I'm gonna use that all the time.

 

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