Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post

JumpinJesus · 03-08-2009, 07:38 PM

I've been giving this a lot of thought in recent weeks in light of some of the discussions we've been having and some of the changes that have already been made. How do we make the community more welcoming and less stratified?

I think removing the join dates was a great start, but I think there could be a few tweaks to that as well.

I've been toying with a few ideas and I'd like to see how well they go over here for possible implementation.

Get rid of signatures. We've had a few issues with signatures in the past and removing them altogether would alleviate the issues of having to wonder if someone is being deliberately offensive in them. Think of all the person-hours spent trying to determine if perceived offenses are real or perceived. Getting rid of signatures prevents anyone from distinguishing themselves in any hoity-toity fashion.

Remove custom titles and go back to default custom titles. If you think about it, this is just another way for members to create social groups that could exclude other members and make them feel bad. Everyone should have the same user title, though, because giving various user titles is just another way for people to feel left out. Something like "member" would work great. Plus, it lets all the guests know what they're missing out on.

10 post minimum before posting. It seems a lot of newbies are coming in and not following proper posting protocol and it's making it impossible for anyone to respond appropriately when they don't create the proper content first. If we institute a 10 post minimum requirement for all new members before they're allowed to post anything, we will do away with a lot of the newbies posting questions the veteran members are unable to answer because they're not formatted correctly.

Granted, these won't solve all our problems right away, but I think they will set us on the right track to helping get TFP right where we want it.

I hope I posted this in the right place. I did a search and I hope I'm not creating a thread that's already been discussed a hundred times already.

03-08-2009, 07:38 PM	#1 (permalink)
JumpinJesus Junkie Location: Chicago	Improving the forums I've been giving this a lot of thought in recent weeks in light of some of the discussions we've been having and some of the changes that have already been made. How do we make the community more welcoming and less stratified? I think removing the join dates was a great start, but I think there could be a few tweaks to that as well. I've been toying with a few ideas and I'd like to see how well they go over here for possible implementation. Get rid of signatures. We've had a few issues with signatures in the past and removing them altogether would alleviate the issues of having to wonder if someone is being deliberately offensive in them. Think of all the person-hours spent trying to determine if perceived offenses are real or perceived. Getting rid of signatures prevents anyone from distinguishing themselves in any hoity-toity fashion. Remove custom titles and go back to default custom titles. If you think about it, this is just another way for members to create social groups that could exclude other members and make them feel bad. Everyone should have the same user title, though, because giving various user titles is just another way for people to feel left out. Something like "member" would work great. Plus, it lets all the guests know what they're missing out on. 10 post minimum before posting. It seems a lot of newbies are coming in and not following proper posting protocol and it's making it impossible for anyone to respond appropriately when they don't create the proper content first. If we institute a 10 post minimum requirement for all new members before they're allowed to post anything, we will do away with a lot of the newbies posting questions the veteran members are unable to answer because they're not formatted correctly. Granted, these won't solve all our problems right away, but I think they will set us on the right track to helping get TFP right where we want it. I hope I posted this in the right place. I did a search and I hope I'm not creating a thread that's already been discussed a hundred times already. __________________ "I can normally tell how intelligent a man is by how stupid he thinks I am" - Cormac McCarthy, All The Pretty Horses