Dysfunctional SL forums...Vote!!

Im sorry that my opinion while echoed by many for different reasons goes totaly against any of the above in the list.

I do have a sincere question of those seeking change that could possibly turn the tide for me.

A. What good is a forum that allows "Griefers" to squash the opinions of decent posters? Slash Dot is in my mind when thinking of this as those ratings can be "Gamed" and some rather intelegent people could summarly be pushed to the way side due to "Lynch Mob Griefer" Mentality.

B. Why allow a Post creator to be biased as deleting posts would be exactly that. A squelching of freedom of speech.

C. Charging can that be elaborated to only those with money have a say on the forums again a stance that is not good for the community.

Im just curious to see where the Positives out weigh the negatives. This list isnt the only option there is for change. Although listed as options people decided to post still not equitable as a whole or individually. But Please elaborate and I may change my vote.

To be honest this Poll goes hand in hand with my stance against player run governments As with the solutions offered your((<-note figuratively)) putting power in the hands of other players to attempt to control the mindset of others just as a PRG would do to members of SL if it was instituted.

Anyway I will hush for now.

Shadow

This is an interesting and successful effort to mobilize community support for constructive change, so I keep coming back to it. For me, checking the forums can sometimes be a chore that gets put off until tomorrow...or maybe the day after that.... : )

Shadow Weaver:


Thanks, Shadow. I didn't tick that option for reasons I mentioned in Aimee's discussion thread.

I did checkmark the poll option to limit wordcount, however. It's not a popular option, and some people have already mentioned why they think it would be detrimental. Certainly a L$ charge would be a reason to reject it.

In general my slant is not against vituperative posts per se; I just skip those. I want to cut down on the ability of a bandwidth-hog to hijack a thread, causing a constructive poster who is short of time to feel that the forums are not worthwhile. We need to hear more voices! Back in TSO I devoted my profile to a set of instructions detailed enough to let a newbie find his way to the forums, register and start posting. Here in SL it's far easier for a newbie to start posting, but the forums contain more problematic posts. An effort like Aimee's is needed to change forum culture so we bring in more of the thoughtful people.

Ok I said I would hush but I want to point out one last thing.

While I have been adamant about the submissions on the list I have forgotten to mention one thing.
Aimee has done an admirable job in the face of adversity.

While those "Solutions" are not her Ideas she still pushed forward with the poll to give the community some sense of "yes we can illicit change."

I want to say respectfully to her and to those that want this that I am not totally against change.
I just see where the offered solutions are not adequate for what the community is seeking in my opinion.

Sometimes asking the hard questions is hard to do.
Especially when someone that you hold in high respect and admiration is presenting an Idea.
After seeing the unhappy face I for one had to wonder if Aimee was taking this personally.
I do adore you Aimee and I admire your determination in this.
But, please don't take debating the topic personally as its the Ideas that are being addressed not you as an individual.

While the whole organization and presentation of this whole thing is a valiant effort.
I think you see now how the Lindens feel when presenting Ideas to the community as a whole.
It’s a tough job.
It’s a thankless job.
It’s a scary job.
But I want to thank you Aimee to being true to your Character and still pushing it forwards even in the face of adversity.

((Hugs))

Shadow

I voted for a "Rants and Raves" forum, as that is the only option that doesn't involve some degree of censorship...

Hi guys!

Well at this point I feel comfortable enough with the feedback to draw a conclusion. More data will come in but I doubt it will change the over all vibe of this poll in any meaningful way (if it does I will revise). Let me first summarize the events that led to this moment...

1. After hearing about and witnessing what appeared to be a forum in chaos, it occured to me that perhaps some kind of reform may be in order. My first instinct was to dream up a few solutions, and submit them to the Lindens as feature request. INSTEAD I decided to gather more input from the forum users themselves.

2. I started a poll to find out if anything should be done at all. As I stated before "I didn't want to try to fix something that wasn't broke." You can see this poll here:

/120/48/44303/1.html

With 110 participants the results were about 73% leaning in favor of "The forums are more dysfunctional now than 2-6 months ago." To me this was enough justification to discuss possible solutions.

3. I started a thread to discuss possible solutions here:

/120/7b/44410/1.html

Some great discussion and ideas from many different people emerged from this thread. Eventually I felt we had a solid list of ideas and thought it was time to gauge which ideas were most desirable.

4. I posted a poll in the thread you are now reading. I tried to be as fair as I could to each option, listing all the pros and cons for each. Unfortunately I neglected to include a "don't change anything" option. I felt I repaired that as best I could by stating the significance of the poll was to measure the favorite option among those who DID want change.


This finally leads me to NOW

5. After carefully reading all the posts and looking at the poll results I feel comfortable saying that in general, people do not want the forums to change. This also means I will not submit a feature request to the Lindens. I will also say I'm grateful that I brought this issue up with the forum community at large so that I could arrive at this conclusion rather than instantly submitting unwelcome feature requests to the Lindens as was my first instinct.

I admit, I would prefer to think that "Do Nothing" was not the ultimate victor here. Instead, I would prefer to visualize that the winning suggestions were the ones made by Rose Karuma:

/120/7b/44410/5.html#post472477

and Jim Lumiere:
/120/7b/44410/5.html#post472559

And several others. While "introspection" and "rising above" are difficult to sum up as mechanical solutions and poll options, they are great ideas and I hope they catch on!

Thanks to everybody for coming along with me on this learning experince!

The word count is already limited, to 10000. That's what the Lindens already set it to.

My posts are not "vituperative," they are defense against slander. I began my posting career with pushing back against arrogant tekkies who told me all my problems were in my computer (they changed with the game's next patch); when arrogant oldbies told me dwell was for suckers (then why are they clawing their way up the dwellopers' list?); when arrogant "creative" types slammed my residentail area builds and slandered my character as a "land baron"; when various and sundry oldbies and FIC mercilessly harassed me because I stood up to bullies and took a position against griefer builds and many other issues.

Nobody is "hijacking a thread," they are standing up to bullies. No need to adapt the "high-minded tone" -- it's all crap. People see through it far more than you realize.

Aimee's efforts to reduce, sanitize, funnell, and corral forum discussion would leave the mediocre talking to the banal. Maybe that's how we should leave it. It certainly wouldn't attract the thoughtful, and anyone who has taken part in this burning at the stake ought to be thoroughly ashamed of themselves -- they are hardly thoughtful, but pernicious and small minded.