Appologies if this is spam, but a lot of crap gets away with being posted in this section.

You know, this thread closing is really really getting on my nerves, its almost daily. People are activly interested, asking valid questions and they all end up closed. This isnt good for the community. Please can someone make a sticky about the questions us babies are allowed to ask and those we cannot.

Hey, what about a subforum for "questions that dont like to be answered", then we could post whatever we wanted, and it could be completly ignored by those who ask for questions and feedback then dont like challenging or negative questions.. I used to be the same.

I give this thread 4 hours.

I think the first post is too generalised. You will really need to give an example of a thread that was unfairly closed, so we can discuss that. Each one is an individual case.

The moderators are trying to keep the forum reasonably sensible and with a certain level of politeness and maturity. Repetitive posts, and posts asking (yet another time) about things which are clearly shown in sticky threads, threads which degenerate into personal insults, etc, are likely to get closed.

The second post here was removed, what was unfair about that?

The threads that ask about updates or new patches, or progress.. How are they insulting or degrading?

My post wasnt about any one thread, it was meant to be general, to encourage discussion, something which is kinda the main reason for forums.. I mean is there a list of what we can and cannot discuss, cos it sure feels like it.

Closed threads to a new user present an atmosphere of overbearing control, do you not think..

People here are generally interested in the work that you guys do, yeah i know from software development things get annoying, but we (the people) are limited in the ways we can contact you (the devs), as via the forums, we cannot send a Dev a pm.

The Moderators are widely doing a great job, its not them that Im finding problematic. Anyway, thankts for the reply.

Quote from mkinnov8 :

I give this thread 4 hours.

/get time

Anywhooo... I'm all thumbs up for tight moderation. It's a stern but fair policy here and that's the way it should be, as letting the plain ol' stupidity and lazyness (use the almighty search button!) get a foothold here is a lot worse for the community than locking up a few threads that have zero informative or humour intestines to spill.

Sure occasional sillyness and plain stupidity raises their ugly heads and burning bananas are posted shortly after.

EDIT:

Quote :

The threads that ask about updates or new patches, or progress.. How are they insulting or degrading?

They are just plain stupid and there's a whole subforum where you can see the testing in action. Also... they have been requested a hundred times before and answer is always the same: "When it's done."

Quote from mkinnov8 :

People are activly interested, asking valid questions and they all end up closed.

Perhaps gross exaggeration is not the best way to make your point?

Quote from mkinnov8 :

The second post here was removed, what was unfair about that?

CSU1 deleted his own post. You will need to discuss that with him if you have a problem with it.

Quote from mkinnov8 :

The threads that ask about updates or new patches, or progress.. How are they insulting or degrading?

Again, you will need to post an example. This morning's one was addressed specifically to me in the thread title, and it was annoying, so I decided to close it. If a thread was addressed specifically to you personally in the thread title, in and you asked us to close it, I'm pretty sure we would close it on request.

Quote from mkinnov8 :

My post wasnt about any one thread, it was meant to be general, to encourage discussion, something which is kinda the main reason for forums.. I mean is there a list of what we can and cannot discuss, cos it sure feels like it.

As I said, every closed thread is an individual. If you have a problem with one of them, let's discuss it. If we must discuss on purely general terms, then all I can say is, I disagree, and most closed threads are closed for a good reason. We want people who visit the forum the first time, to think, "this is a good place to be". We don't want them to say, "this place is full of kids having arguments".

If you want me or the moderators, to discuss any more, I'd suggest you post a link to the closed threads that you think were wrongly closed. We can then discuss each one and explain to you why it was closed.

We obviously will not post a list of questions you may or may not ask. That suggestion is just provocative! It's common sense that we go by around here. The mods and devs aren't perfect but they try quite hard to be quite fair.

Most of you know how I feel about moderation (for those that don't, moderation on these boards isn't tight enough imo)...

One of the things I would like to see here is a feedback forum where users can complain to mods (if they for some reason don't feel like using PM). This way all the off-topic complaints in threads can simply be edited/deleted with a reference to the feedback forum. A lot less threads would need to be closed.

Also, editing instead of deleting a post might prove useful if you remove an offensive or off-topic post. It might just receive a bit more understanding from the users involved, and generally results in less complaints.

Mind you, moderating is not censorship. It's just the forum police force.

Anyway, all this is my opinion, what y'all want to do with it is up to you.

Yes, sorry if I caused some confusion by removing my post I didn't think that
stating "What we should have is a search button with flashing lights and alarms" was informative nor helpful
Edit: Also I can't really see what exactly you want? is it tighter moderation, less spam from users, both, to take over the world-what?

Quote from thisnameistaken :

I, too, would like to see more active moderation. I think in recent weeks the mods have improved the forums, and they could go further. We get a lot of mindless tripe in here.

Well mindless tripe, yes, but these people usually get the hang of things after a week or two, it's all part of welcoming "new" members and they usually quieten down, EXAMPLE: TyresHot.I would say every forum moderator has to put up with this bull, it's all part of a comunity "growing up"
All we can do is stress the importance of If you care enough about a topic
be prepared to do a bit of light reading(Search btn),because apart from
finding the answer you are looking for,
you also learn a heck of a lot along the way.

Moderators do not usually read every post in every thread that ever gets posted. If you have an issue with a post/thread you feel we have missed, simply report the post. If nothing happens still, you know we decided nothing needs doing. If no posts get reported, I can only assume the community it happy with the current content in the forum.

Ideally a mod will get to a thread before anything needs to be reported, but obviously that is never going to be possible all the time.

Quote from Bob Smith :

If you have an issue with a post/thread you feel we have missed, simply report the post.

Now now, I know I'm nitpicking, but "having an issue with something" is a very broad term. From my understanding only really problematic posts should be reported, not posts I have an issue with. I think it's often very confusing for people wether a post should be reported or not. They probably fear getting beheaded from a mod...

no, that will not happen. Far better to report one if you are not sure about it. If we think its ok we just ignore the report. There are no repercussions from anyone reporting a bit over-zealously (well, within reason).
As we well know, what is offensive or inappropriate to one person is edgy humour to another.
Vive da difference.

Perhaps us mods could create a quick guide for reporting posts to help our eyes an ears on this forum. TBH I don't really think it's needed though.

Quote from CSU1 :

@ AndroidXP:slap:

Reported for assault! :mad: :ouch: Okay, now who reports this for OT spam?

Quote from AndroidXP :

Reported for assault! :mad: :ouch: Okay, now who reports this for OT spam?

LMAO

LOL Scawen. Thanks for the replys Scawen and everyone else. I didnt really want anything, just wanted to post my opinion on the increasing number of thread closings. I agree some are just stupid, but on the other hand, I think some are just wanting some fun, its a fine line I know.

Question: The report button on posts, does it work? as in, does anyone get to see its content? Is it private.. What happens?

Ta!

EDIT: It was a monday morning rant I guess

Quote from mkinnov8 :

LOL Scawen. Thanks for the replys Scawen and everyone else. I didnt really want anything, just wanted to post my opinion on the increasing number of thread closings. I agree some are just stupid, but on the other hand, I think some are just wanting some fun, its a fine line I know.

Question: The report button on posts, does it work? as in, does anyone get to see its content? Is it private.. What happens?

Ta!

EDIT: It was a monday morning rant I guess

sorry What Report button???

Quote from CSU1 :

sorry What Report button???

That one:

Quote from AndroidXP :

That one:

:doh: thank you , I never noticed that lil' button up there will I press it???

A request to the admins and moderators.

When you move a thread to another part of the forum, please don't leave a link to that thread in the original posting area.

Quote from MyBoss :

When you move a thread to another part of the forum, please don't leave a link to that thread in the original posting area.

As far as I know, that's an automatic vBulletin function - nothing that the mods decide.

I'm quite shure that there is a checkbox that they just need to press. It have been on all forums that I have been moderator on, weird if vBulletin dosen't have it.

We can either leave no redirect, a permanent redirect, or my usual choice, an expiring redirect. Redirects are useful because it stops people wondering "where did that thread go". Having them expire is good since once people know where the thread goes, it helps keep the source forum tidy.

Ah ok

Expiring redirect makes sense. I rather see the "Moved: ..." for a while than a gazillion of complaint threads because people didn't realize their therad was moved, not deleted. Just imagine what would happen if you moved one of KiD's threads without notice. Living hell, I say.

Quote from AndroidXP :

Ah ok

Expiring redirect makes sense. I rather see the "Moved: ..." for a while than a gazillion of complaint threads because people didn't realize their therad was moved, not deleted. Just imagine what would happen if you moved one of KiD's threads without notice. Living hell, I say.

And that's exactly why editing a post might prove smarter than just deleting... And a feedback forum might have saved that thread from being closed.
Anyway... I support the mods in any (actually most) of their decisions.

You're all doing a fine job, and keep it up. I suppose that needs to be said every now and then, as well.