The "Do Nots" Of Your ProBoard

[My Kitty Twofer]

Don't Exclude
Don't make a forum that revolves aroung Canons. This makes the people who don't have canons bored, and then they leave your site. Sure, it's fun, but that's what mini plots are for.

[charoum]

I have a friend that we make RPG's together and, when they don't take off we take it down and save the idea for a later date (generally because we loved the idea too much to abandon it). Recently we made a new site that we're getting active (not the point in this btw) and I just wanted to say that, while some people do show favoritism to their friends, sometimes they try so hard not to that they get overly harsh on their friends when punishing them. Extremes do go both ways.

I, personally, try my best to make friends out of every member that joins my forum, or on a forum that I join. I like being able to rp with the different people and being able to just talk with them when neither of us has a thread to post to at the current moment. This, as I've noticed, has helped me, alot!, with being an Admin and an assistant admin (do ya'll use that term here?) for various sites. People are more comfortable talking with you, and pointing out problems. They're also more willing to sit down and correct a problem with you when you notice one.

It irks me to no end when an Admin gets mad at me because I said something that they didn't understand when, if they had talked to me once before they'd understand what I said. I've been turned away from a lot of sites because people just didn't try to make friends with each other. I don't recommend, however, pushing your members to become friends with another if they are uncomfortable about it. This won't help things. But I agree with people from previous comments that holding competitions on your forum is a good idea.

Not just IC competitions (for rpg boards) but silly little things like saying one song title/line and the next person has to say a song title/line that the first one makes them think about. There's one group in particular that I joined when it started out and have stayed a member of because of these competitions. They involve everyone and make a great atmosphere because people have fun.

As far as admin's go; don't push things on your members. If you're unsure about starting something, make a poll - just don't do that too often. Have the poll set up to ask your members their opinion on something, read any comments they make, and respond to them. They'll feel more involved with the site, especially if you use the idea that was most voted on in the poll. Ignoring your members wants is a very bad idea.

and I hate canon sites so, don't push canons on your members, and don't push plots that revolve around the canons. Some of these sites survive, but thats because they involve all their members and not just the canon characters. The ones that focus on the canons don't last very long.

don't have a set plot with a definite time line. It's hard for member to enjoy that because their rp has been written for them and they can't do much. Have a loose, open ended plot, people enjoys those better because they lead into new plots and enable them to create fun side plots. . . that's for rp's anyway.

my two-cents, sorry of some of that wasn't relevant. . .

[bluebayou]

Jun 24, 2006 18:18:04 GMT -8 laidbackfella said:

Would this be a do or don't in your opinion?

Should an Admin create a totally separate login to maintain equity?

Like have one (business) Admin login and then a separate personal login just to post and respond to messages

I have an admin account as well as a regular member account on my forum. I only log in under the admin account to do board maintenance stuff like adding/deleting codes, applying the ad-free credits, checking the security log, etc. The admin account doesn't actually post anything on the threads.

I use my regular member account to do all of my posting under. I find that members are less intimidated by me since I don't have the admin designation under my username when I post. But they all know that I AM actually the main admin on my board, so it's not like I'm trying to hide that fact. It's just not as in-your-face as it would be if I were to post under the admin account.

[``Megara Spice]

May 31, 2006 16:03:24 GMT -8 @myke said:

Do Not Go Rule Crazy On Your Members

For general chat and support forums I can see the benefit of being lax on rules (with some in place to ensure peace on the forum of course) when it comes to RPG forums, however, I find that you need to have more rules than normal to keep the board functioning effectively. Having the basic rules such as; no fighting in threads, try to keep things on topic, etc is all fine and dandy but i find i also need to enforce rules such as; no teenage pregnancies without admin approval, no character deaths without admin approval and so forth.

With regards to the "no advertising in signature" that kind of draws the attention away from the character on an RP forum, in my opinion, as such I have a rule that states members are only permitted to advertise in the board dedicated to advertising. Members have a separate board than guests so that their sites are easily viewable if other members want to see what people are up to in regards to forums.

As for the siggie/av rule; having to have both is a bit of a stretch, all I ask of my members is that they have either a signature OR an avatar showing their character's celebrity so that other members can visualise what the character looks like. They are then asked to ensure that celebrities not partaining to their character or their characters family are kept out of the sig/av to prevent confusion.

Logging in and posting every day? reality is real life gets to us, no-one is able to do this. I have always had a rule that says please log in and post at least a couple of times a week to show you are still active on the forum. If you are going to be away let us know either by PM or posting in the absentees board. Of course not everyone can do this and I do have some members who drop a line when they return to say where they have been (usually this happens when someone is ill) and that is fine also, just helps those who are RPing with the person know when to expect a reply.

May 31, 2006 16:03:24 GMT -8 @myke said:

Do Not Be Rude To Your Members

This is something that peeves me off to the extreme... I have had this happen to me when I was a member of a forum and it just made me want to leave...

Being an administrator myself for forums I can understand that a lot of work goes into running a forum and keeping it at top form but if there is one thing I cannot stand it is administrators who get rude and nasty towards members/other admins when they ask a simple question simply because said admin is having trouble keeping on top of things with the forum... the worst part? when they have assisting admins to help and they still act all b***hy towards the members and the other admins because they simply wont allow the other admins to do anything.

When it comes to my forum I try to get on every day or so to complete tasks that need to be done and to get it running smoothly, its also the reason I have assisting admins in different timezones; gives the site someone to monitor it at all times and ensure that questions and such are answered as soon as possible and applications are responded to; helps get things moving quicker. At the same time I know what it feels like to have things pile on top of you a little but NEVER have I taken it out on a member simply because the forum was p***ing me off.

The way I see it; its your choice to create a forum of any kind. You should be prepared for the work that comes into running it.

[jocund]

I don't use the percent warning system on my board. I give a warning via PM for one offence, a temporary ban for two offences and a permaban for three. My forum is pretty relaxed- you can post anything you want as long as it doesn't invoke the strongest language or strong sexual content or illegal stuff. I haven't had to warn anyone yet, and it'd hurt if I had to. We're all friends from various forums and LJ communities.

I belong to a forum where the admins are complete a-holes. They'll chew you out for making a joke, for instance. It took them about three weeks to ban a serial hacker as well. And a lot of the content that the admins love would NOT be accepted on Proboards.

[[*S*P*a*Z*]]

Thank you guys so much for the advice! I absolutely love it; mainly because I just created a site and I'm looking for tips, but I think that this helps ton. I have also learned, from watching other sites, that it's a good idea to tell members that you're changing something on a site. One site I was on, they changed something without letting the members know and it created a lot of problems with most accounts due to the fact that no one saw it coming. I find it a lot less stressful when you don't have members constantly asking what's going on and if the site is going to be shut down or something. Just beware that codes sometimes cause a site to go a little hay-wire and you wnat to make sure that everybody knows what's going on.

Anyway, I'm new, so is this like, a good post for this thread? Just checking... I hate being wrong.

[GRANGER DANGER]

Jan 11, 2010 12:17:56 GMT -8 jocund said:

I don't use the percent warning system on my board. I give a warning via PM for one offence, a temporary ban for two offences and a permaban for three. My forum is pretty relaxed- you can post anything you want as long as it doesn't invoke the strongest language or strong sexual content or illegal stuff. I haven't had to warn anyone yet, and it'd hurt if I had to. We're all friends from various forums and LJ communities.

I like not using the percent warning system. I would give a warning (haven't had to yet), and not include the other members on the details unless it involved them. I mean, it's happened before where the Administrator has PMed all o he members saying that thismember got deleted because of a certain reason, and that to make sure we don't do it. I think that is slightly offensive (even though the member was doing wrong). I would suggest, as you said, PMing them so it's more discreet. Every Admin has their own rules, right? So members should be able to follow them if they have signed up for the sight. But the ignorance and idiocy of oters should not be brought out upon the entire site for others to mock/laugh at/take lessons from. I just don't find that to be justifiable by any valid point, yet I may be wrong.

[``Megara Spice]

Jan 15, 2010 19:56:16 GMT -8 GRANGER DANGER said:

Jan 11, 2010 12:17:56 GMT -8 jocund said:

I don't use the percent warning system on my board. I give a warning via PM for one offence, a temporary ban for two offences and a permaban for three. My forum is pretty relaxed- you can post anything you want as long as it doesn't invoke the strongest language or strong sexual content or illegal stuff. I haven't had to warn anyone yet, and it'd hurt if I had to. We're all friends from various forums and LJ communities.

I like not using the percent warning system. I would give a warning (haven't had to yet), and not include the other members on the details unless it involved them. I mean, it's happened before where the Administrator has PMed all o he members saying that thismember got deleted because of a certain reason, and that to make sure we don't do it. I think that is slightly offensive (even though the member was doing wrong). I would suggest, as you said, PMing them so it's more discreet. Every Admin has their own rules, right? So members should be able to follow them if they have signed up for the sight. But the ignorance and idiocy of oters should not be brought out upon the entire site for others to mock/laugh at/take lessons from. I just don't find that to be justifiable by any valid point, yet I may be wrong.

You're definately not wrong when it comes to ridiculing members by PMing everyone about their misdeeds. Personally, anything that can be handled discretely should be. The rules are there and any member who doesn't follow them has to deal with the consequences but no where on the board does it state that this includes being made a mockery of. If I saw this happen, personally, I would leave a site. Its just not right.

I can understand PMing members about it WITHOUT mentioning names but even then I am a little skeptical about it.

[Shark bait]

I have to agree with the "do not's" here. I have a question in regards to rules. Is it against Proboard's Term of Service regarding freedom of speech if we do not allow members to speak-out or trash talk a product which we create threads for? I don't think I would go as far as saying we're promoting a developer's product by allowing developer content posted on our board. No advertising involved at all mind you.

[aaronm]

Oct 13, 2009 14:51:31 GMT -8 My Kitty Twofer said:

Don't Exclude
Don't make a forum that revolves aroung Canons. This makes the people who don't have canons bored, and then they leave your site. Sure, it's fun, but that's what mini plots are for.

I agree with this one.

To me, it depends on the RPG I'm looking at. I'm not too fond of canon for a role-playing board itself, but if it's good, I'll consider it. I've known one too many users on another RP hub where canon was strictly enforced, providing no creative freedom. Any idea I did have wound up going through a lengthy 'board room' discussion and usually had my ideas turned down even if like five prominent people who weren't in charge loved the idea and supported it. The basic setting was to abide by mere joke role-plays two dudes set-up that were only like a few posts long and sentences in length. They might have been major, but I just wasn't willing to hamper down my RP's to someone's amusement and rather droll sense of humor... not to mention the dark nature of the storyline pretty much didn't work for me at all. At that point, I kinda figured I could do a whole lot better.

With me, the only canon I would prefer is if the characters stick to in tune with the events of the movie or book. It keeps things contained without going out of control and having characters superpowered or invincible to everything. The result of the above mentioned had characters being able to do as they pleased without sticking to something simple and fair, which also turned me away. Sticking to canon within a film isn't so hard; maybe boring and limited, but perhaps it's just a personal preference for me.

[amaranthine]

Don't go rule crazy.
Treat members equally.
Don't go warning/ban crazy, either.
Log in/ posting daily isn't very good idea either. Everyone has a life out side of the computer (hopefully). I just have 10 posts a month, and your good to go.
uhm, exclusion = a no-no to me.

[Ellis]

Do not blend in.
This can signal a death knell for your site more than anything I can think of other than inactivity.

Whether there are 5 sites on your subject among the 'Boards or 500, if it doesn't stick out, potential members will probably disregard it as yet another X site (or even another pre-this, or post-that site as the case may be). The solution would most obviously be the plot or spin you put on it. This can be subtle, focusing on side characters; it can also be major, taking it in a different direction while keeping the flavor of the original work either storywise or plotwise (say a mass gender swap or something).

[The Maniac On Wheels (The MOW)]

The first two things mentioned in the first post in this thread is exactly why I left a board that eventually died out (started by the majority of the "clique" that gained control of the forum deciding to focus on the general conversations board).

I am a professional wrestling fan, and posted on the forum's Sports board related posts because that was the closest thing pro wrestling was. Yes, it's scripted entertainment, but if you are in a area where a major show like this coming Sunday's WrestleMania is taking place (Miami, you're the host city, so people there can back me up on this), the local news (TV/Newspapers) put the report about the show in the SPORTS section.

The head of that forum then made a separate board for pro wrestling because, as the board's description stated it "doesn't fit anywhere else." I had no problem with that. I had a problem with the fact that the Admin told me that people were complaining that my posts were taking over the board, and pushing other posts down (I was one of the most active members, even when the board was on life support as when I left it).

I was made a moderator for the pro wrestling board until people complained of the way I was running the board. The admin said I was not listening to him about the complaints was was total B.S.

Then, after ProBoards added the YouTube tag button, I came up with an idea to post music videos on the forum's music board. I made the rule that anything was acceptable -- from videos that showed pictures of a family pet with music to YouTubers sitting in front of the camera singing while playing their guitar.

I am a YouTuber, and pro wrestling related videos popped up on my recommendations page frequently -- including videos of music set to video of pro wrestling match and others. So, after that music video thread, which I expanded the idea into its own board in my own forum, became several pages long, a moderator PMed me and told me that people were complaining that I was posting pro wrestling related videos in a thread I created for MUSIC VIDEOS (even if they weren't "music videos" as defined by the ones once played on MTV). I told the moderator that I posted on the first post in the thread that ANY video set to music, but that went on deaf ears by a moderator who said that wrestling videos needed to be on the wrestling board -- even if they could be posted on another board as well (wrestling-related music videos could be on that thread I created for music videos on the music board).

This was the final straw, and posted a not-so-nice post complaining about how I was treated by the clique that controlled the board. But, what I did not mention that I knew that the moderators had a separate board where they would complain about members (a then-former moderator I befriended told me it existed, and she left that board and the moderatorship of the original board after they started talking about me and others she befriended in an unkind way). I was never invited to this secret board when I was a mod for the pro wrestling board.

I noticed a lot of patterns showing that there was a clique in the board. They would respond to each others posts, rarely responding to non-clique member posts. Admins and Mods would favor other clique members over those who were on the outside. It got pathetic.

When I asked somebody I still talk to who is a member, I decided (big mistake) to offer an olive branch and asked him to post a link in their "Cool Links" board. People saw "the-mow" in the link (I was "The_MOW" originally on the board until I figured out how to make a name that was seen by other members. The_MOW was the name I registered under), and responded with comments like "No thank you" or "fat chance."

A few migrated over, and eventually (like the majority of the members) stopped posting altogether (grrrr!!).

I will not treat the members the way I felt treated on the original board. I will be neutral in any problems that may arise (if people started to post that is), and won't come down hard on people (I will issue light warnings at first that will be seen on the members' profiles, and slowly increase the severity of the warnings).

I've always hated favoritism. Always will. Those people who ran the forum I left made me feel like I was ignored in my complaints about how my posts were being singled out.

[the infection____]

One thing I find that irritates members is when others copy their work. So, 'Do Not let things become un-original' is one that could be taken into account. To add to that, it often seems that things become quite boring when everything is the same.

Do Not be rude: This is a wide topic, I know, but think about it. If a mod were to come to you and be completely rude to you, what are the odds of you sticking around on the site? One of my biggest peeves (and I certainly hope I'm not the only one!) is when any member, and especially staff, consider the others their lesser or treat them with disrespect. Honestly, a little kindness goes far.

[duecalione]

Favoritism
-- This can run potential members off. Showing favoritism to members who've been there longer, or staff members, is a big no-no.

Public fights
--This is definitely a bad thing to have on a site. It shows that tensions aren't as low as everyone wants, therefore setting up a place of drama. That will then make it so that potential members go "ewwwww, drama...." and run away.

Rule Crazy
-- This is an extremely hard one to moderate for staff members. For one, it is sooooo easy to post up a rule about something a staff member doesn't like. What staff have to do is keep an open mind, and keep their rules wide and open, allowing people to make honest mistakes.

Abusing the punishment/warning meter
-- this should be moderated. If someone makes an honest mistake, and doesn't do it again, then why give a warning? Also, for those RPG's who, as a punishment to the whole community, raise the word count from 100 to 200 or 250 or higher, this will drive away members!!!! That is cruel, and a horrible abuse of power.

Another thing, if the warning meter is in use on a member, be the bigger man, and a helluva lot sweeter by not letting the whole world to see. Keep it between staff and that one member. Not all the members, and guests, and all sorts of other people. It really shows those that you have the power to humiliate them, but you won't because that is overstepping the boundaries of professionalism and trying to be a lovable staff member. I mean, would you want to join a site that has an admin who is happy to humiliate someone with an 80% warning because of some honest mistake like posting in the wrong place? Seriously.

Rudeness
-- There is NO place for this. Who wants to be part of a forum with a rude staff member? no one does. Rude staff people do not encourage a good community, do not try to make guest/new members feel welcome, and etc. Be nice.