Forum Control

Right, it?s New year?s Day and a good time to take stock of the year gone by and what we?d like for the coming year.

Last year we had two members ?resign? from FM because they could no longer tolerate what they referred to as racist abuse on the forum. Not bad considering we have about 23,000 members.

Then we?ve had other members who have not graced us with their presence as much as they have in the past and others threatening not to use the forum any longer, or at least to cherry pick the threads they get involved with.

And finally we have quite a number of complaints from various members who say that various issues/posters should not be allowed.

It?s me in the hot seat who has to actually do the banning, the deleting and the editing, and let me tell you, it?s not easy. It?s me who has to decide what is a friendly wind-up and what is a malicious one, and whether it?s a wind-up at all or a serious thread. It?s me who has to decide what is acceptable language, in context with the thread, and what isn?t. It?s me who has to read the private emails, moderator alerts and posts from members who don?t like the way some threads are going.

Now I?m not looking for sympathy, I?m looking for help, for every time I read these comments I wonder if I?m doing my job properly. Should I ignore the pleas from those who claim the forum is going the wrong way? Should I be more tolerant or less tolerant?

Or is it all the occasional storm in a teacup, when someone gets their nose pushed out of joint and spits the dummy in a sudden rush of pique when, generally speaking, all is all right on the forum considering the sheer number of messages?

What do you think?

Comments and suggestions please.

And don?t hold back. Tell me where I?m going wrong, if you think I am, and how I can make things better.

Now's your chance to make a positive and constructive contribution towards making this a better forum.

I have some ideas which I will share but first of all are you under any pressure, from any 3rd party to get x number of hits per day?

Good idea by the way!

Firstly I would like to see the ?single species? forums dissolved into 1 'coarse fishing' forum.

The reason I suggest that is if I ask a question, say about about boilies related to barbel fishing, I don?t know if Rik, Frothey etc read the barbel forum, as such are they solely looking at the carp forum or do they ,like me, continually click latest posts? I would like their input, vene though its for barbel but posting on carp forum might then lead experienced barbel anglers to ignore my post.

Also how about a 'political' or 'angling ethics' section which covers ethics, club rules, potential contraversial issues etc.

These issues I am certain have contributed to some leaving the site and sometimes take over the other forums, as such, if you want to talk about politics keep it in that forum.

Just a thought.

Cant something like a BANNED/SENT TO THE NAUGHTY STAIR be implemented, like the report to moderator thing, So many hits, say 10, by offended members then its a ban for 24 hours, then a 30 hit gets 3 days, a 50 gets a week. Something like that anyhow, auto bans, something you can overule but at anytime by members. Members abusing it i.e. trying to get a member a 24 hour ban for a larf will get an instant week ban.


Barbel Forum, hmmmmm, not sure about it, think it would be far better going back and anything Barbel related should be in the Coarse forum.


Anyhow, Happy New Year Graham, you've done a superb job throughout 2005, looking forward to a good 2006 on FM.







Barney........shut it.

I think amalgamating the different sections would lead to a lot of people not bothering to look. If a angler is only interested in reading the Carp threads then he will not want to trawl through all the threads. As you Eddie I always go to New Discussions. The problem is there are a lot of members that just read and do not contribute and the advertising review is dependant on the number of hits the site gets.

A idea would be a button you can select that will show the same thread in all sections this would save the situation we have at present were the thread is posted separately and discussed in different places.

Graham
i think you are doing a good job,you are always going to get the whingeing set every newspaper in the land has them,just look at Letters to the Editor in the nationals.
Personally i reckon you would loose a lot more if FM was boring sugary and watered down.Maybe we should cut out the bad language maybe not but take a look at other internet fishing websites and fall asleep because most are boring
Two out of 23000 cannot be bad and i say ask for a rise you deserve one

You could kick the Monk off Graham,that might help

I think this is still the best angling related site on the web. The problem Graham is that you will never satisfy everybody all the time. As long as the "heated discussions" for a better description stay in the Baitbox I see no need to change anything.

As Warren says above have a good new year and keep up the good work.

i enjoy this site its helpful on hinys and tips good site

As one who's been involved with one or two disagreements, only recently, after 4 years(?) on the site. I think generally it's ok.

But,I still go back to a thread I proposed earlier, that Baitbox encourages some unwelcome guests,who then tend to infiltrate other sections, purely for spoiling.

I also have a problems, with the inability to answer back articles or postings which contain ill informed/incorrect FACTS.
Which leads some members thinking it's purely spoiler tactics and then complaining, that the act of trying to get things corrected is spoiling the Fishing Magic ethos.
This could not be further from the truth,as far as I am concerned.
The old addage that, he who shouts loudest,maybe, because they are 'known' is the only one that is heard, appears to come across as the gospel according to FM.
Comments like, why don't you carry out your arguments elsewhere are not helpful.
If you don't correct misinformation, everybody will accept it as fact.
Even ,the Anglers Mail was able to do that this week.

I don't know the way out of this,because I am certainly not going to pass on information, that is of no business of the person or persons concerned,even if it corrects them.
They appear not to hear what your saying or, choose not to, anyway.
I will not accept misinformation on public media,where I know it to be wrong.
So,if that means my reaction is unacceptable, so be it,strike me off.

So,what's wrong with conducting an argument on FM anyway.It's been said before if you don't like what you read,don't read it.

There are plenty of other interesting threads on here, without having to go back to a thread, to see how it's developing and then having the cheek to complain about it.

Sorry if I've spouted,but that's straight off the top of my head.

There's nothing wrong with FM,Graham,but only if it's allowed to be used, like any other media, with a right to reply.

Maybe I haven't made myself clear, but I was thinking more in terms of how do I make the forum better in terms of pleasing those members who claim it is going worse due to thread hijacking, abusive, insulting and generally silly posts on the more serious threads.

I'd like to hear from those people who think the above is true, as well as those who don't.

The question is: what would YOU do about it if you were me?

Or do you think there isn't really a problem?

Oh yes,I think all bad language should be stopped,whether asterisked or not.

Graham,this site could be almost self editing, if people did not react to the daft posts.But, many appear to enjoy that part of it and react,so I would leave it in.

You could kick the Monk off Graham,that might help haha

nice one John


No Graham I think we have many on here like John, Ed, Ron,Baz, myself and many more who are impossible to insult even by the best of them, we just basically treat life as a big joke and don`t take trivial things seriously, by the same rule I dont think any of us intentionally set out to upset anyone, although as FM is a section of the general public we do have those in society who tend to be over sensitive. In a nut shell Graham you can`t please all of the people all of the time and personally I think you do a very difficult job really well, indeed much better than other sites I`ve been on. It is however difficult posting on a website amongst strangers and its difficult to get a picture of everyone, although many of us regulars know one another, I feel a lot of the guys who do occassionally come to loggerheads, put together in a pub over a pint, they would have no problem with each other.

No, FMs fine Graham, its not broke so don`t try to fix it!

Just as an idea, I do go on one site which has a system in place that operates when you post and cuts out all programmed swear words, I recently tried to post the word Crap and it immediately added two stars to the middle letters!

Graham, some so called serious threads are started by people who have no interest at all in contributing positively to this forum, for example those by Eddie Street!

They don't care about the other members, they contribute nothing except to come on and slag of an individual or group making their poxy little 'political' point , they then disappear into cyberspace for 2 months they then make a re-appearance coming out with the same old kak.

As I've posted elsewhere, to me at least, these people and their threads should be treated with total contempt.

Thats different to someone who contributes daily/weekly but every so often makes a controversial or alternate point which other members strongly disagree with.

Could be because you did not spell crap correctly Monk after all it is more than three letters

Good point John, I must learn to use the spell checker?

I am in total agreement with everthing the Monk has said.

From what I have seen, most people on here have done their share of thread hijacking and name calling themselves at one time or another.

I think you are doing an excellent job as things are.

Appart from what you have the power to do, we all know where the moderator button is if we think things are getting out of hand.

Oh yes and get rid of the Monk or in the very least defrock him.

Graham, you're doing a very difficult job and you're doing it great. You'll never be able to please all the members so keep up the good work. I'm not a 'real' regular contributor as I only only comment when I've actually got something I want to say about certain topics. By all means cut the abuse and the foul language - there's no need for it here. And friendly banter or the craic between mates is always acceptable.
Here?s wishing all of you Health (throughout your lives), Wealth (but not too much to distance you from your friends) and Happiness (in great big bundles). All the best, Terry D.