[DocJohn]

Some people have had pretty in-depth and interesting conversations with me over the past few days about some stuff that's gone on here in the past few weeks. They also had some suggestions for change, and some suggestion that I could be more proactive in soliciting suggestions for change and giving people a chance to vent their frustrations.

So I'm going to try and do this in a thread, because that's all I have the capacity to do right now. There are some ground rules for this thread, though:

1. Please be respectful in what you write. Do not single out other single members, moderators, or administrators. (This isn't our opportunity to start a flame-fest!)

2. I'm mainly looking for positive suggestions for change. That could mean an update to the community guidelines. It could mean a suggested different manner for handling questionable posts. Try and couch your suggestion in what we can do to make the site better, not about failings we've had in the past.

3. Examples are beneficial to this exercise, but please keep them general or hypothetical if you can. For instance, "Joe Smith posted something I found offensive. I complained to the moderators, but his post remained and I never heard back from anyone. Could the person who notified a moderator be given a status update as to what happened after the complaint was filed?"

This thread will not go on indefinitely. After everybody has been heard (and I may ask followup questions of specific posters), it will be closed. Some suggestions may be implemented, others may not. The point is to learn from you what could make this a better community.

I'm listening,
DocJohn

[Kathyanita]

Perhaps an eductional notice of "meet the moderaters" and an outline as to their duties as well as their limits and a notice of current availability of each (like if someones on vacation or otherwise away, maybe in each of their own words breifly how or why they have taken on the resposibility.) Some flag at the top perhaps of if and who is "on duty" at that moment. With all the concrete thinking that all of us may sometimes regress to it might be a helpfull instructive concrete way to "see" the human beings in any authority and associate them to their words rather than avatars- respecting of course privacy and discretion of said humans. When a moderater is drafted or retires it could be occasion for an update.
I know all this is availabe info in scattered places but sometimes its too much to look for and collect for oneself here and there.

[Parker10]

Not sure I want to go first here , but here goes :-)

I have no issues with the forums. My concern is chat on DocJohn nights. There is toooooooo much conversation going on when people are asking questions of the DOCTOR. IMHO - during the chat time with the DOCTOR, we (people in chat) should not answer the question posted to DocJohn. The person asking the question has addressed the question to the Doctor - not us. AFTER DocJohn has answered the question, if WE have something we might want to add because we have perhaps the same issue, then take up a conversation in PM with the orginal question poster..........because everyone chats so much during that short hour, it seems it would be very hard for DocJohn to weed thru the chatting, and find the questions to him. I know in the past on WBS when we had chat time with DocJohn, we were all respectful to keep our discussions in PM, so that the questions and answers from DocJohn wouldnt get lost in the general chat. Just my 2 cents..........

[Overcastbutclearing]

Ya know how you get work sheets from your T once in a while to do daily affirmations, or put a face to your mood etc...
maybe there could be something like that.

Also, I am not sure how many moderators there are here to how many people regulary use this site...but, maybe somehow there could be a specific moderator we go to when we are feeling a certain way. Kind of like a buddy system. You of course would sign up for it, not that it would be automatic. But this way you would have one person to bounce things off of that were really eating away at you...
just a suggestion.

[darkeyes]

Doc,
Will this "change" have its own forum? To help prevent an overload of incoming posts/replies in the General forum?
Just was wondering, if so what will the forum title be?

DE

[DocJohn]

Nope, people should just post their suggestions to this thread... We'll try this for awhile, see how it goes, but I don't think it needs its own forum at this time.

When everyone's had their say and we've discussed possible changes, I'll outline what we can and will be willing to do, and the changes we'll implement.

Keep 'em coming!
DocJohn

[Miss_A]

How about some new improved emoticons I mean smileys to put with a message? Like Thanks, Welcome, Help, lol, Blah blah etc...

Also hold up sorry but theres another idea which has been a thought and that is a pointing system everyone who replys to a post gets 1 point them we should have a leader point of high scores to posting points. Its a cool idea theres not really a prize just the hall of fame boards kind of thing. Maybe get 3 points to PM someone witha nice person. 5 points if its your birthday or if your a new member. What do you a point system how fun!

<------- Also keep the points in total in the box here where your nick name is!

[Kathyanita]

here again- didnt finish my thought-
to elaborate on a safe swimmimg analogy i used before - the thing about moderaters "on duty" is paralel to "life guard on duty" some people would not go in the water w/o knowing first if theres someone in that chair.
OK im done. . . "I'm" done anyway. . .

[SS8282]

Parker, you do have a point that:

a) A lot of conversations are happening during Doc chat nights
b) It might be hard for Doc to find all the questions and answer all of them
c) People can talk in PMs so other people won't be distracted and can follow only the conversation they are interested in.

This is the part where I open my big mouth (and answer for doc) ...

1) I think some people are looking for answers to their questions, and it doesn't really matter from whom. They just want answers.

2) People might have different perspectives or answers to questions, and as a result, the poster can pick and choose.

3) Perhaps answering some questions might help Doc out, because so many people have so many issues and qustions I don't think it is fair for the good doctor to have to answer every one of them. In fact, he might not be able to answer some of them if he's the only person who is 'allowed' to respond first.

Perhaps people can be more patient when they ask their question(s), or ask the question again.

We should all remember that questions can be posted in the forum. We don't have to wait until chat-night with Doc.

OK, I've said my piece. Can shoot me now.

[SS8282]

A suggestion. Can we have a 'Venting Room'? It can be a place where people can just vent (yell, scream, cry) and requires NO REPLIES. I noticed that some people posted and asked that people not respond back, but some did anyway.

[darkeyes]

I don't know if this will help, I don't go to chat much, too busy with 3d stuff.
But so often, I would forget to type the person's name to whom I was talking to, but when I remember to (if I am not too lazy, ha!ha!) it helps prevent cross-talk/confusion, not all the time but helped.
It would be so funny, when we'd get like 8 people on, some of us would be saying "who?", or "what"?
Funny too, when we'd be on different topics, someone talking about another topic, and have to pause to catch up on everyone's conversation.
I type so slow that chatroom is almost emptied out by the time I say "goodnite", ha!ha!
All and all, I always use to love to go to chat, I hope my 3d world lets me have more "me" time to come back to chat
Take care,

DE

[hereiam]

My only suggestion would be that when a thread/post gets locked, deleted, edited, or altered in any way that there is an explanation for the change. This has never happened to me, but I know a few posters were upset when left in the dark about why their post/thread was changed or deleted.

Good idea, Doc.

I'm thinking on the lines of Kathyanita.... one time- when I had only been here for about 3 weeks- there was a thread started that was very descriptive in the violent abuse that occurred... however it had no warning on the beginning- that little "post icon". I contacted a moderator of that particular forum but I didn't hear back until the next day --- it would have been helpful if I would have known who was an active moderator at that time. Like what Kathyanita said:

"Some flag at the top perhaps of if and who is "on duty" at that moment. "

I don't know if this would be possible but it would help to steer those of us that have concerns to the fastest response. I understand that mid-night hours might have a gap--- but my PM to a moderator was at 6 in the evening. ( the only one I've ever sent )---

And it would be helpful to know which moderators will be off-line for a bit of time. ( like-- due to illness, vacation..etc ) That way someone reaching out with a concern doesn't go unanswered for a long time.

Thanks DocJohn for letting us be a part in making this place better, though I do think it's a great place now!!

Mandy

[DocJohn]

Just to clarify how moderation works today...

Right now, we have 8 moderators (Rapunzel, __zh, darkeyes, nerak, Fuzzybear, silver_queen, kimmydawn, and the occasional CamW) and 2 administrators (DocJohn and Ozzie). We get approximately 450 new posts a day.

Everybody in this list is 'active,' that means they are responsible for maintaining order and peace in the forums they've volunteered to oversee. Because we're all a little different and have our own personalities and ways of behaving, everybody (today) moderates a little differently. Some are more conservative than others, and some forums are more liberal than others in terms of what is allowed. For instance, I tend to a lighter hand in the Creative Corner, as I like to nurture creativity whenever possible.

Everyone here volunteers their time to help out. We all have our RL lives (as the members do too!), so this is nobody's full-time job. Sometimes moderators take a weekend or week or more off here and there, and others will cover for that person. Nobody is online 24/7, so although we try our best to respond to things as soon as possible, there will always be a delay from a few hours to even a day or so before something may be taken care of or answered.

DocJohn

[h0kie]

First, I would like to state that your openness to at least hear our suggestions speaks a lot to your character (in my book). I, personally, really appreciate the chance to be heard. So thank you for that.

I agree with yesitsme. Putting something at the end of the post as to why it was changed/removed/locked would be appreciated.

I would prefer something more than "this post violated community guidelines" as that doesn't give much info - that could be just about anything!

Even something as simple as "this post violated the community guidelines regarding religious discussions" or "this post violated community guidelines regarding private message discussion".

While not a lot of explanation is needed publically, I also think the member who began the post and/or the person's post that got it shut down should be notified via private message too.

1) Mods are folks with issues just like us so I try to understand when I see one have an off day. But the fact is that posters look to the mods for how to act. If a mod is critical of a poster or a post in public....imo, that's just makes the whole situation here unstable. Just remembering how important their actions are during stressful times here is important. People look to them as role models for interactions with others....even when one might not wanna always BE a role model. So, perhaps some work on phrasing things more positively would help?

2) Regarding chat - I like it when other posters try to help answer questions. What I don't like is all the chatter in the background which is not related to the topics posed to DocJohn. And perhaps keep the "hi xyz" in PM rather than in chat. It's REALLY distracting to me.

3) I know that there are people here who feel that there is a clique here who get special treatment. Acknowledging that this feeling exists is an important part of resolving this issue. There are people here who feel that the "in crowd" gets special treatment. (Apparently I'm part of the in-crowd! That was a surprise to me honestly. I've never in my life been anything but an outsider). Anyhow, I don't know what to do to fix this, except to bring it out on the table for discussion.

Emmy

[kimmydawn]

kathyanita, i think that's a great idea. i don't know how or if it could be set up. at the bottom on each page in a particular forum is listed the moderators. wouldn't it be great if i were online, it would state it next to my name so that members would know i'm here for them if they need me for whatever reason?

just like it says next to our name beside a post, it could say it next to our name when we're listed as moderator of a forum.

kd

[nothemama8]

I don't think there is a clique some ppl are more vocal and some ppl are more apt to joke, this is how it seems to me

[neri]

(popping in )

Maybe there could be more moderators, so it'd be easier for them? Or how does the system work? How does one become a moderator? (that'd be nice to know too ) More moderators would also mean that it'd be more likely to have a mod online.

The "hello's" in tuesday night chat have bothered me too, and the common "oh haven't seen u in a while, how have u been?" -chat is distracting also and seriously could be taken to pm's.

This is probably just me, but posts with only a "hug" have bothered me... It just feels like people did that only to get more posts so they'd move up on the title list... Feels like cheating. And it's frustrating. Like, if u don't have anything to say...

[LMo]

I don't really have any suggestions for administrative or design changes. I think this is a great place as it is, and very organized and professional.

Kathyanita's suggestions are really good, and point taken about Parker's (I'm very guilty of that!).

Great job, everybody!

i'm going to address the "in crowd" thing first. i think that there are people online, who are the same way they are IRL...they are out there, with posts, questions, suggestions, support, etc,etc. some people are more conservative and tend to not jump right in. what is the saying, "fools jump in where angels fear to tread"...plus some of the posters here, came from another forum, so we already knew each other.

that being said, i have a suggestion for the posters. i've noticed that when someone new is welcomed into the community, not a lot of people acknowledge the "kudo/affirmation" thread for them. i'd really like it, if people did open up more and make the newbies feel at home. AND, before you know it, you'll be jumping around all over the forums, starting threads and kicking it! that's how it's done. the more active you are, the more attention you get.

Doc, the above was more of a general suggestion than something to "change" the forums. i do have one wish, i would like to see a forum where people could discuss topics of their choosing. i know that would be hard to "monitor", but i do agree with some people that there is a need for something a little "harder" than the hugs and such. NOT THAT THERE IS ANYTHING WRONG WITH HUGS!

Thank you, for giving us the opportunity to offer suggestions. Pat

[LMo]

I agree -- I don't see an "in" crowd -- just loudmouths (like me and Sept) and quiet people (like... well they probably wouldn't want to be singled out).

Pat has great suggestions for the posters who feel left out, though. Yay Pat!

[nothemama8]

Hey Professor Catnip Breathe what about little shy me
Angie

[LMo]

shy? YOU? HA!

[gardenergirl]

Thanks for making this opportunity available, Doc John
!

Regarding the availability of moderators:

I may not quite understand how this works, so if this doesn't make sense, it's probably due to my ignorance and lack of experience contacting mods.

But what if there were one link or PM address that one could send a message to the moderator team with? That way, whoever is online at the moment could read the post/request to see if it is an urgent situation or more specific to one of the mods. I guess I'm saying what if there were one "clearinghouse" link to get a mod's assistance that all the mods had access to? Would that help with response time and availability?

gg