The "Do Nots" Of Your ProBoard

[terrysibe]

Please can someone explain the "guest" thing. Can they see the forum but not post, We have had some problems with a member who said that he was a guest for 2 years and only joined and posted in the last few days, can you ban guests?? Otherwise we have a wonderful very busy forum with loads of nice people
Thanks
TerrySibe

[myke]

terrysibe said:

Please can someone explain the "guest" thing. Can they see the forum but not post, We have had some problems with a member who said that he was a guest for 2 years and only joined and posted in the last few days, can you ban guests?? Otherwise we have a wonderful very busy forum with loads of nice people
Thanks
TerrySibe

Hi, this question would be better asked on the support board, as this thread is reserved for discussions on what not to do on your ProBoard.

[Konstantine]

nilknarf88 said:

konstantine said:

I've never really seen the problem with public arguements in boards. I don't think I've ever met anyone that didn't enjoy watching an arguement between members. You may be trying to build a community of friends, but a forum with no fights is unrealistic. I doubt that if potential members see a fight, they're not going to want to join, or have an altered view of the site. I just think covering up public fights is being fake, and since it doesn't offend most people(mostly entertain) then I say let them fight.

I have to agree with xkamelx. Having a fight amongst staff members and members on a board is unprofessional. As I told you on Digital Inflection Konstantine, if the member has a problem with the staff member, or vice versa, it should be handled over PM.

But why do you feel the need to be professional? It's proboards, not a business. It's just supposed to be fun.

[myke]

konstantine said:

nilknarf88 said:

I have to agree with xkamelx. Having a fight amongst staff members and members on a board is unprofessional. As I told you on Digital Inflection Konstantine, if the member has a problem with the staff member, or vice versa, it should be handled over PM.

But why do you feel the need to be professional? It's proboards, not a business. It's just supposed to be fun.

I think you answered your own question. Fun. A lot of people do not consider a lot of drama to be fun. A lot of people visit forums to relax and have a good time. Seeing two staff members fighting in public can potentially shake the foundation of that forum in many members' eyes. It also can take credibility away from the staff if they are continuously fighting in public. I mean why listed to what mod A says if mod B will just come in and contradict him?

Professional or not, I really don't think it's a good idea for staff, or even members for that matter, to be allowed to fight in public.

[Konstantine]

Well to clear it up, I agree about the staff members not fighting. But I don't think any members or potential members will think anything of a fight between two members. People may not enjoy drama with themselves but one thing they do enjoy is drama between others, which makes member fights purely entertaining. Although I must agree with what someone said in an earlier post. If it turns into what you guys call flaming, it's not entertaining anymore.

[eagletalon]

I've seen members who hate fights and threaten to leave because of them, but usually those are the ones who RP, etc, badly, and also are against RP fights.
I've been in many fights, but if someone flames me, I tend to ignore them, since flaming is just pathetic. Many times, people insult others in real life, and make comebacks, etc, but they don't FLAME. If someone insulted you, you would insult them back, if they randomly started screaming 'YOU SUCK!' at you... Ermmm... It's just not realistic.
Most people in my school insult others for fun... I've done that as much as real fights... Though too many times the other person has resorted to flaming in them, though sometimes it can be fun. In fact, I know a few members of a site I'm in that would possiblt quit out of boredome if it wasn't for fights...
But then again, if that happens to your members, you're doing something else wrong.

[Black Lotus]

sounds good.

[myke]

seal said:

sounds good.

Please read the rules of this board before posting.

Thanks.

[Kmylove]

I thought I'd share my view on what not to do on your forum.

Regarding what has been stated in the first post:

Favoritism: definitely the worst thing that can happen. If you set up a board with your friends, then you get other member as well, remember to treat them all as equal or else you might find that the other members won't return to your forum because they don't like the way you treat them.

Public Fights/Flame Wars: it's not good to allow them stay public, that's for sure. If a fight starts out in a thread, the admin should interfere and remind the persons involved that the PM function is there for a reason. The posts shouldn't be deleted though, the admin should just reply and say such things are not allowed and that the next time things like this happen there shall be serious consequences. Depending on the gravity of the fight/flame war there should also be some warnings I think.

Rule Crazy: I would never join a forum which asks me to log in daily or post a certain number of posts per day/week/month. Thus I don't ask my members to do such a thing: if they don't log in or post there must be something I did wrong for not knowing how to keep their interest alive, why should I take action against them and not do something to improve the forum? Banning them is definitely not a way, as they might return some day. The posibility of them returning is why I don't firmly believe in deleting inactive accounts either.
Though there is a category of members from which I expect a certain consistency in activity: my staff. The main rule they have to follow is creating a certain number of threads per month (a fair number too 3-5), but that's because I feel that they should try and help with keeping the community active, and of course I try to stick to my own rule.

Warnings: I agree that there should be a well-thought and consistent warning system. It's not too good for a forum when a moderator would give a huge warning for something, while the admin would give for the same thing a smaller warning. Also, warning should be proportional to the "crime". And for small issues I think a warning should never be given from the first mistake. When a member first goes wrong you must remind him what the rules are and if he goes wrong again, you should adjust his meter.

Rudeness: I think everyone hates an admin that treats new members as noobs, and isn't willing to help out those which don't have too much experience. Just try and put yourself in their shoes, remember your early days, and be polite, it won't cost you much.

---

An issue that has been brought up was the abuse of codes. I agree on this problem. No one likes to see a forum where the admin has used 90% of the codes that exist out there, when most of them aren't even really that useful for the type of forum. Not to mention that every extra code means extra loading time, which can be a real problem for the dial-up users. Just stick to the essential codes, life a resize, a pm center, a report to admin (which I find really useful), gradients..

---

Two things which I really consider that shouldn't be done:

Appointing staff: never appoint a member to being staff just because they are your friend, they beg you to, or most of all, because they won some competition. This might sentence your forum to death. If you don't fully trust your moderators or global moderator be cautious with the powers you give them, you don't want to log in one day and discover they deleted your boards or the entire forum, that they banned members for no reason. This won't make them look bad, but it will make you, as admin, look bad for choosing the wrong persons.

Never treat your members as inferiors: never ever abuse your position. Your members are very likely to leave if they are constantly reminded that they are just plain members and you are admin/global moderator/moderator, that you are always right and they are wrong, that you have extra powers and they don't. Extra buttons don't give you status nor make you a better person. Always remember that above all you are a member of your own forum, and only in special situations you are staff.

[rat]

These are some very improtant points I also have to point out that its really rude to even flame in pms regardless whether u can see it or not it is of course a better alternative than banning them but it still makes u look very bad if u do not have controil over ur board. Also it might be a practical joke to change each otehrs names when ur a mod, ect be it must be kept within reason and that about all I have to say right now.

[Gamoc]

kmylove said:

I thought I'd share my view on what not to do on your forum.

Regarding what has been stated in the first post:

Favoritism: definitely the worst thing that can happen. If you set up a board with your friends, then you get other member as well, remember to treat them all as equal or else you might find that the other members won't return to your forum because they don't like the way you treat them.

Public Fights/Flame Wars: it's not good to allow them stay public, that's for sure. If a fight starts out in a thread, the admin should interfere and remind the persons involved that the PM function is there for a reason. The posts shouldn't be deleted though, the admin should just reply and say such things are not allowed and that the next time things like this happen there shall be serious consequences. Depending on the gravity of the fight/flame war there should also be some warnings I think.

Rule Crazy: I would never join a forum which asks me to log in daily or post a certain number of posts per day/week/month. Thus I don't ask my members to do such a thing: if they don't log in or post there must be something I did wrong for not knowing how to keep their interest alive, why should I take action against them and not do something to improve the forum? Banning them is definitely not a way, as they might return some day. The posibility of them returning is why I don't firmly believe in deleting inactive accounts either.
Though there is a category of members from which I expect a certain consistency in activity: my staff. The main rule they have to follow is creating a certain number of threads per month (a fair number too 3-5), but that's because I feel that they should try and help with keeping the community active, and of course I try to stick to my own rule.

Warnings: I agree that there should be a well-thought and consistent warning system. It's not too good for a forum when a moderator would give a huge warning for something, while the admin would give for the same thing a smaller warning. Also, warning should be proportional to the "crime". And for small issues I think a warning should never be given from the first mistake. When a member first goes wrong you must remind him what the rules are and if he goes wrong again, you should adjust his meter.

Rudeness: I think everyone hates an admin that treats new members as noobs, and isn't willing to help out those which don't have too much experience. Just try and put yourself in their shoes, remember your early days, and be polite, it won't cost you much.

---

An issue that has been brought up was the abuse of codes. I agree on this problem. No one likes to see a forum where the admin has used 90% of the codes that exist out there, when most of them aren't even really that useful for the type of forum. Not to mention that every extra code means extra loading time, which can be a real problem for the dial-up users. Just stick to the essential codes, life a resize, a pm center, a report to admin (which I find really useful), gradients..

---

Two things which I really consider that shouldn't be done:

Appointing staff: never appoint a member to being staff just because they are your friend, they beg you to, or most of all, because they won some competition. This might sentence your forum to death. If you don't fully trust your moderators or global moderator be cautious with the powers you give them, you don't want to log in one day and discover they deleted your boards or the entire forum, that they banned members for no reason. This won't make them look bad, but it will make you, as admin, look bad for choosing the wrong persons.

Never treat your members as inferiors: never ever abuse your position. Your members are very likely to leave if they are constantly reminded that they are just plain members and you are admin/global moderator/moderator, that you are always right and they are wrong, that you have extra powers and they don't. Extra buttons don't give you status nor make you a better person. Always remember that above all you are a member of your own forum, and only in special situations you are staff.

I agree with you a whole lot there, and if I may add something to a couple.

added stuff.

Warnings
Never keep the entire warning up for more than a month unless they leave or continue to do bad things, this will actually get members mad, especially if you have a no by request warning reduction rules.

Favoritism
yes, this can get members to leave, but it can also get future members to never come, if someone says that you only like a couple of people on the forum and are very very strict on the rest of your members, this will make leaving members tell other people to not join your forum.

Staff
Do not, whatsoever, assign more than a couple of people as staff on a medium sized forum, larger forums do need larger amounts of mods, but if you have 36 members, you do not need 22 mods.

[VoodooBlue]

I am a member of a board where the favouritism is real bad. And yeah, I am considering leaving that place. It's just that I haven't been there that long yet, so I'm still willing t give it a little chance.

But what I noticed is, yes, I feel ignored and out of place because a) a lot of the members know each other outside the board or have known each other before and they have thisinsider thing going on and b) it's a role play and my posts are being totally ignored, because all these friends only rp with each other as it seems.

So, yes, favouritism is maybe the absolute worst thing.

[Peekaboo]

I think there shud be rules. It enforces ppl to look at who and what your forum is about.
Does that make sense?
I agree with the rules here.... 100%!

[VoodooBlue]

Of course there should be rules, they are important. For the members and for the board's existance in general. Certain rules are needed so that the members feel comfortable there and so that the board can be successful. But one shouldn't over-rule. If there are too many rules, members might feel very watched and they might be shy to post or even join at all. Also, the more rules there are, the more you can do wrong, and really, if thre are too many rules, no one can really keep them all in mind all at once.

[paulbennett]

Can anyone tell me why tri state hunt club was removed