Thoughts on the recent changes to this forum

[micjer]

Originally Posted by Dood

I do most of my posting with members IN PM's.
This is how I am many others 'Network'.

???

Sorry this just strikes me as odd.

Why be on a public forum then?

[Dood]

Originally Posted by micjer

???

Sorry this just strikes me as odd.

Why be on a public forum then?

I did not say I did not post but, I still do a lot of communication within PMs.
How is that ODD?
Some people do not like airing their personal lives in the 'open' so that is what a Private Message is for.
Contactees for example are leery of sharing 'too much' in the open forum.

This is also vBulletin where mutable PMs can be turned off.

Believe it or not I have been around THIS forum from it's beginnings. Do not let the start up date on this profile fool you.

[THE eXchanger]

YUP...DOOD, is one of the golden oldies around here

[Dood]

Thank you Susan...

@Tango: Ask 'Kathleen' about me if you want to know my QUALITY!

[DoctorWho]

Dood, if you have a friend on here that can vouch for you to Anchor or Karen, you can be given full functions again. I did it for a friend of mine who joined up after the board went free again. And he is now running at full power.
Bill "the Doctor"

[Dantheman62]

Originally Posted by DoctorWho

Dood, if you have a friend on here that can vouch for you to Anchor or Karen, you can be given full functions again. I did it for a friend of mine who joined up after the board went free again. And he is now running at full power.
Bill "the Doctor"

I'll vouch for Dood anyday!

[Dood]

Thank you Dan...That was very kind!

Another member 'vouched' for me too last week and nothing came of it though.
This member that vouched for me is a decent person and I will withhold this persons name out of respect...

[burgundia]

so I'll vouch for you too..i hope they will read it here....

I am still not able to comprehend that some new December arrivals are granted "the purple colour" immediately. I could give here a lot of examples...

[no caste]

Originally Posted by burgundia

so I'll vouch for you too..i hope they will read it here....

I am still not able to comprehend that some new December arrivals are granted "the purple colour" immediately. I could give here a lot of examples...

Burgundia, I am getting tired of this. Status this, status that, new, old. Has it occurred to you that it is elitist? It makes no sense.

[Tango]

Remember we had a guy: Lenny Cravets... [Not real name] they came in here

posted like 160 times in a week... Even wanted a pity Party when he left...

Thought he was a Master.... There was S*** all ovr the walls...


Tango

Originally Posted by no caste

Burgundia, I am getting tired of this. Status this, status that, new, old. Has it occurred to you that it is elitist? It makes no sense.

[Northern Boy]

Yes the Dood has waited longer then many of those that were trouble and recieved the extras that go with membership there are several here now who have posted nothing or shared anything of value and mostly tried to stir the pot that have them. Dood should have them by now as he is a former member and Mod here I`ll vouch for him as well

[Moxie]

Any problem that I have had is about keeping up with the burst of new threads, all of which I like to check out.

It's exasperating for me as it's a full time job, but I am happy for all the new voices.

The thread starter would have worked just fine being an announcement only from the mods without the invitation for discussion... for soon, what? there is upset. Oh well.

[hollylindin]

Originally Posted by no caste

Burgundia, I am getting tired of this. Status this, status that, new, old. Has it occurred to you that it is elitist? It makes no sense.

What I thought, too, No Caste.

I think it may have more to do with when one signed up. I've been a member since August (lurking before that for about four or so months!), but I was never on a paying subscription. If they're basing it upon how long somebody has had a registration here, period, then I could see why my name would be "Senior" and mauve.

<3

[Anchor]

We had to find a way of automatically curtailing the abuse of newly enrolled accounts. It is not about our view of a persons worth or any arbitary judgements.

A..

[Surial]

Change is constant. When hands are placed in the sand we are all part of that whole, yet we tend to see if we can find a beautiful shell. Find what resonates with you to determine a productive response. If you find a post that is offensive or disagrees with you, do not respond. The forum would flow much smoother if we all take more responsibility with our communication.

Although, yes, there are few that do have loyalty and defense for others because we are part of a family. It is always good to allow the new energies to flow through and open the gates to those that also are a potential great addition to our community.

As far as trolls, they always seem to loom and destroy many sand castles in their path. This is their nature. But if you are a spirit this castle can respond to a new beauty reforming yet back again even taller even stronger as before.

The most important concept to consider is the reason you are here in the first place. Use this as your centered energy. We all have a different aspect of the Creator. Whether it be negative or positive, it is the lessons and the wisdom that we gain that make us who we are as individuals and a community. We will continue our journey regardless of our presence here at Avalon.

But what you take with you is a better understanding of yourself and your purpose of being here now in your life Journey.

[Karen]

Originally Posted by Dood

Thank you Dan...That was very kind!

Another member 'vouched' for me too last week and nothing came of it though.
This member that vouched for me is a decent person and I will withhold this persons name out of respect...

One has to take the vouching to PM, email, or skype - because if you just post it on the forum - I can barely keep up with one thread now let alone all posts. (never could keep up with all posts.)

[Shairia]

Thank you for your reply exchanger.

What is this vouch system? This is the first I've heard of it? I know there have been many problems here but this seems like an extreme measure. How can a forum be open if you need someone to vouch for you to gain full member privaledges?

[Karen]

Originally Posted by Shairia

Thank you for your reply exchanger.

What is this vouch system? This is the first I've heard of it? I know there have been many problems here but this seems like an extreme measure. How can a forum be open if you need someone to vouch for you to gain full member privaledges?

A new "member" made it through our screening process and before we could stop them had spammed in PM to 43 people ... a full-on sex act porn video. The opening shot was a still - but we lost at least one member over that.

And that is where this new system of senior members came from ... you can thank a porn spammer for that. Now new members are limited in the number of PMs they can send, until they reach 30 days or 50 posts (or whatever it is now, as we keep refining it.)

I objected to that solution for dealing with the problem, so the number of PMs was bumped from 0 to 6 or maybe it is 15 now. Gareth knows.

[Shairia]

Wow! I had no idea. Thank you for explaining that to me. Had anyone though about maybe an option to the PM system allowing the recipient to decide wheather to open a PM? Especially if they don't know the member sending it to them? Just a suggestion but it sounds like a more interactive solution.

[Tango]

I like the sponsorship

[14 Chakras]

Any idea what's up with the thread voting buttons? It seems once one person votes on them, no one else can, so they are pretty useless at this point representing one persons opinion only it appears.

[Karen]

Originally Posted by 14 Chakras

Any idea what's up with the thread voting buttons? It seems once one person votes on them, no one else can, so they are pretty useless at this point representing one persons opinion only it appears.

Most things get abused. Someone was handing out 1 star ratings. So I think it was disabled.

[Dood]

Originally Posted by Karen

One has to take the vouching to PM, email, or skype - because if you just post it on the forum - I can barely keep up with one thread now let alone all posts. (never could keep up with all posts.)

Well that member did PM another staff member. Which one I have no idea.
BTW: It was Majorian that 'vouched' for me.
I did nominate him for a Mod position here.
I think he would be a good one even though I never asked him if he was even interested in it...

Here is an Idea. Remember it is ONLY an idea....nothing more.
Set up a sticky for 'White Members' (hehe...lack of a better term)
That way they can speak and it would be easily seen by anyone. Especially staff. Also, other members can 'see' if someone they know is online now.
Because there is no way for a White New Member to reach staff other then the Admin Email (I tried that) or Reporting a post.
Now I almost reported one of my own posts knowing it would send out an email to all staff.

Also I am pretty certain you can 'Turn Off' the multiple PM feature so no members can spam PMs.
Or you can make another User Group that allows older members to still use multiple PMs and new White Members can only PM one at a time...
For those that do not know what User Group means is that we all are in a User Group. Mods have there own.
What it really entails is X amount of permissions allowed for each user group.
For example Red Mods have a lot of permissions, then Yellow Mods have less permissions and my guess is the Yellow ones cannot delete posts.
However, it is all based on how the Admins set them up.
vBulletin is very versatile. I like vB because you can do so much with it.

Also can the PM amounts be kicked up? 50 PMs is really 25 PMs if you take in account saving PMs to your outbox like I do.
(The Saved PM is 'counted as a PM' so you only have 1/2 of the total)
That way I can remember what was previously said in an older PM.
Make sense? I can fill that up in a short amount of time.
I figure the Admins have 2K PMs, Reds have 1000-1500 PMs, and the Yellows have 500 PMs to work with.
So asking for 200 PMs is not that much of a deal I would think...
Downloading them and starting over is a pain. Not near as easy to read back when one is on the fly so to speak.

@micjer: Its ALL good. No hard feelings here. Yer OK...I will vouch for you!

EDIT: Oops..I forgot to thank the staff for making me a Minnesota Viking!
Many will not understand that reference. Many will! It is from the 1970's-80's. Think NFL!

[SuperManny]

I'm sure these things will iron themselves out with a little help from our super team of mods.

Let me take this opportunity to say a huge "THANK YOU!!" to Anchor and all the rest of the gang!

[Shairia]

I wish someone would post exactly what the criteria for being able to PM is. I was not able to. It appears the original proposal has changed. Do I have to be a member for a minimum of thrity days regardless of their post count? I do not like the idea of just posting for the sake of gaining privaledges and I fear that is what will happen.

ps: I think the moderators have had their hands full of late and are doing a wnderful job dealing with the changes and subsequent problems. I've noticed a remarkable change on the forum, save a few exceptions.