Katt gone? Forum update/mod questions

I remember all that. I think you might have misunderstood what I said, Bradley. If you didn't, I didn't understand your reply

Btw, did you get my PM?

[added]
Now I understand. My statement that I didn't see any of that was a reply to "Katt provided that" and not to "Before Katt arrived plenty of people were crying out for better moderation."

I did get your PM, Phil and finally responded. Thanks

I too have changed my mind about the need for a lot of moderation of these Forums, just because it didn't go off the rails as I thought it would, back when Strife quit doing active moderating.

It's still not obvious to me why it didn't degrade into the rancorous free-for-all one can see in the archives. Different policies are in place since then, so that might be one reason, and AFAIK some of the most inflammatory posters from that time are still banned. But even after that point, things got pretty ugly and needed the moderating that Strife provided.

And yeah, now some threads get too far beyond the guidelines for too long, but it hasn't been disastrous. I'm glad Millie and sometimes Cybin and Strife still wield the Res Mod lock when things get bad, even though I imagine they must wonder exactly what they're supposed to be doing.

The biggest problem remains that not enough new residents know about the Forums, or perhaps too many think it's just a place to blow off steam. I'd sure rather they had the Forums as a resource for help with the vagaries of Second Life. That's really the big thing I hope will improve with the long-promised upgrade and integration of the blog and forums. I'm no longer sure that more or stricter moderation is very important to that objective.

I don't really think that Katt provided better moderation. Disemvoweling? wtf? Even though the practice exists, it's stupid. And the over-moderation in the Linden discussion threads was ridiculous. The editing fiasco in the Burning Man threads was completely inane.

Yes but you're a woman, you have no idea about the powerful feisty woman thing! Katt worked for me!

I just asked a question in the Builders Forums and it was answered within minutes. Typical of most of the questions I have asked. These forums serve a vital function for those that dare enter and it's a shame LL won't promote it more.

Amongst all the pie, a lot of residents find help in the forums, it's a very valuable resource.

The real reason is a different group of people. Much of what happened back in the old days can be attributed to a certain set of individuals - most of those people scattered to other forums when General was closed. Ugly continued throughout the Second Citizen era, but things have calmed down considerably since SC imploded and Cris has gotten a better handle on moderation over time at SLU. A good moderator makes all the difference in the world. Consistent policy of warning and eventual banning of those who just cannot learn to play nice also helps. People have to know what the rules are and the rules must be applied evenly across the board.

This is the point I have raised again and again and again, including in emails to several Lindens and it has all fallen on deaf ears including Torley's. Name one major application you have on your computer that does not have a robust, thriving forum? A place to go and get the latest news, ask technical questions and find out the direction the application is headed. We can even expand this to games, since SL is kind of a hybrid, name one game without the same.

Anyone can come to the Content Creation forums and can learn how to Script, even if they don't even now how to change "Hello World" to "Hello username". They can learn to build and can even receive guidance with Maya, 3DS Max, Gimp and so many other programs. Several of us have been faithfully answering even the silliest or simplest of questions for years now. No one asks for fame or money and as people learn and grow we see new people step in and start answering questions themselves.

Linden Labs should be extremely proud of the Content Creation forums. For the life of me I can not recall a greater, more diverse volunteer force anywhere. We have never asked for anything except for LL to perform the simple task of upgrading the forums. Such a simple request that would take at the most 40 man hours to accomplish. And yet instead of pride, Linden Labs has always treated us like crap. Strife pleaded for months for help and was ignored by the very people who had heaped praise on him for his contributions. Strife gave 2 months warning when he was finally sick of the hypocrisy from LL and no one at the lab gave a damn.

After 2 years of pleading with LL to open the forum to at least read only status to everyone so that more can learn they did. But there has not been one single, widely visible announcement to the masses declaring the incredible wealth of data that is here.

ahahaha
yes he has perfected the art of lopsided moderation, and theres nothing at all 'evenly across the board' about that. katt was a equal-opportunity bad moderator, cristiano has a clan and isnt above using his position to appease his bully mates.

fyi, i never received any sort of reprimand from katt, other than an edited post. some bad apple i turned out to be hey.

because those ppl are staining the board over the road now, thats why.