Geekhack might do better taking a note out of Deskthority' book

[RougeR]

im not here to argue or flame blah blah, im just saying....it does seem to work for us lot.
http://deskthority.net/deskthority-related-f17/reorganising-marketplace-t2396-60.html#p69832

and given recent err events it might be worth considering.

There are a lot of people who want rules to prevent other people posting stuff they don't like, but I find most of this is just a matter of opinion.

The four founders specifically set up this forum as a no-rules, free-opinion board except what is forbidden by law, because this hobby mostly attracts intelligent people who like to engage in their hobby without, for example, some crazy duck or other admin policing what they may or may not say. This has worked well so far with few exceptions (glossywhite and ripster spring to mind for endless spamming) which can be handled. The idea is that if you don't like a certain post, you can speak your opinion or ignore it, but forbidding it leads to all kinds of problems. You may agree with the moderators on one rule. You may not on the next. And one moderator may be good at his job, while the next may not. Also, I don't think a lot of admin is interested in moderating your ass (well maybe with one or two exceptions, but I don't see them moderating). We have better things to do, like obsessing over keyboards.

A good example how this cannot be divided is the problem of people editing out completed sales. I hate that. But people own their own posts. And may have a different opinion. We can have some guidelines stating it is frowned upon to edit out the prices and such, but people still own their own posts. The alternative is that -I- and the other founders own your posts. Do you want that? This is really a flat community in terms of hierarchy. It's just a bunch of guys obsessing over keyboards. Some take care of hosting and such. See it as a bunch of guys who meet in a pub to discuss whatever they obsess over. Do you really want two *******s to "lead" and tell you what you may or may not say or do? Or do you want equality, and if you think someone is an *******, you deal with it, either by speaking your mind or by ignoring?

There are similar problems with ranking. With a relatively small community, in the end what you'll have is a bunch of people ranking their keyboard friends, with one or two exceptions, which are well known. I don't want to rank my buddies. Maybe that is not realistic with growth. But with this size it will be mostly anecdotal. Like one guy gives another a bad rating over some fight, and who's gonna judge who was right. Not me, please. Make up your own mind, without some rank attached to it.

a nice civilized discussion now please...

[baldgye]

I think most forums should ad-hear to these kinds of rule's.

I'm more speaking from experience of other forums rather than GH because I've not been here too long, but mod's have (in general) a problem with how to read rules and how to balance that out depending on who the user is.
Black and white rule sets simply don't make sense and in the long run don't work.

The best example of this is GameTrailers... it's a forum of millions of registered users but is now a spam filled mess of total morons who barely game and are barely over 15yrs old. It's complete trash, but it wasn't always like that.
As forums grow people grown with them and certain members pop up, these members are in fact more important than the people moderating the forums, but mod's have the power. This inevitably leads to a clash, and the key member being banned.
This happened time and time again to many members there, and it's partly why it's a complete mess.

Personally I don't understand the role of moderators, or why they exist. Forums have rules, but why are there rules so strict about things which, really don't matter?

I've been trying to work out for a long time how you could properly police a forum (of a large size) without it being dead, or full of spam and nonsense, I've yet to work it out but given the size of the community DT's stance on it makes allot of sense and is rather refreshing, but it's not a policy that works well to invite new members who simply see a niche little club where everyone knows each other.. there is a language barrier.

So while I like DT's stance and modding policy more than GH's... GH's is allot easier to get into and started at.





EDIT: Dan being banned isn't the end of the world!

[longweight]

Visit forums.bit-tech.net to see a properly and well policed yet vibrant and interesting community with many more members than this site.

[sth]

great, deskthority members can't just whine about geekhack on their own forum, now they come over here to do it?

[tp4tissue]

great, deskthority members can't just whine about geekhack on their own forum, now they come over here to do it?

and you call me a troll...

[keyboardlover]

He has a point though, what webwit is saying sounds a lot better than how it actually works in reality. Just look at how many posts their mods have edited and how many of their members they have banned, for instance. It's really not that different.

[RougeR]

great, deskthority members can't just whine about geekhack on their own forum, now they come over here to do it?

<3 you to sth

[longweight]

great, deskthority members can't just whine about geekhack on their own forum, now they come over here to do it?

<3 you to sth

That doesn't make sense.

[RougeR]

makes perfect sense

edit- or did i use the wrong too

to
too

?

i always get confused

[longweight]

too is the correct one for that sentence. It really confused me for a minute.

[keymaster]

im not here to argue or flame blah blah, im just saying....it does seem to work for us lot.
http://deskthority.net/deskthority-related-f17/reorganising-marketplace-t2396-60.html#p69832

and given recent err events it might be worth considering.

There are a lot of people who want rules to prevent other people posting stuff they don't like, but I find most of this is just a matter of opinion.

The four founders specifically set up this forum as a no-rules, free-opinion board except what is forbidden by law, because this hobby mostly attracts intelligent people who like to engage in their hobby without, for example, some crazy duck or other admin policing what they may or may not say. This has worked well so far with few exceptions (glossywhite and ripster spring to mind for endless spamming) which can be handled. The idea is that if you don't like a certain post, you can speak your opinion or ignore it, but forbidding it leads to all kinds of problems. You may agree with the moderators on one rule. You may not on the next. And one moderator may be good at his job, while the next may not. Also, I don't think a lot of admin is interested in moderating your ass (well maybe with one or two exceptions, but I don't see them moderating). We have better things to do, like obsessing over keyboards.

A good example how this cannot be divided is the problem of people editing out completed sales. I hate that. But people own their own posts. And may have a different opinion. We can have some guidelines stating it is frowned upon to edit out the prices and such, but people still own their own posts. The alternative is that -I- and the other founders own your posts. Do you want that? This is really a flat community in terms of hierarchy. It's just a bunch of guys obsessing over keyboards. Some take care of hosting and such. See it as a bunch of guys who meet in a pub to discuss whatever they obsess over. Do you really want two *******s to "lead" and tell you what you may or may not say or do? Or do you want equality, and if you think someone is an *******, you deal with it, either by speaking your mind or by ignoring?

There are similar problems with ranking. With a relatively small community, in the end what you'll have is a bunch of people ranking their keyboard friends, with one or two exceptions, which are well known. I don't want to rank my buddies. Maybe that is not realistic with growth. But with this size it will be mostly anecdotal. Like one guy gives another a bad rating over some fight, and who's gonna judge who was right. Not me, please. Make up your own mind, without some rank attached to it.

a nice civilized discussion now please...

I think the highlight of the post and what needs to be understood here at Geek Hack is:

The idea is that if you don't like a certain post, you can speak your opinion or ignore it, but forbidding it leads to all kinds of problems.

[keyboardlover]

Yea but what he's not saying is the mods there do that too. He sounds just like a politician.

[tp4tissue]

Censorship only protects children... Adults know what's going on whether or not you censor... it's only a matter of time before "revolt".. pick policies wisely...

I'd prefer the 4chan route.. you can say whatever you want, "in a separate section."

and then before you enter the page, there will be an "agree" page that says, Geek hack in no ways condone the ........ that you're about to read.

[Krogenar]

Visit forums.bit-tech.net to see a properly and well policed yet vibrant and interesting community with many more members than this site.

From the referenced well-run, well-policed, vibrant forum, this:

To gain full access to the community you must first register a free account. As a registered member you will be able to:

    Participate in a diverse and passionate community.
    Discuss bit-tech.net editorial content.
    Enter in bit-tech.net competitions and gain access to exclusive promotions.
    Create your own threads and add your own replies to topics.
    Become eligable for Free Delivery on orders from Scan Computers once you've made 20 posts.

Seems as though they managed to ignore the socialists and succeed! I would be curious to know the special relationship that 'Scan Computers' has with the forum owners. But how? How did they manage to allow people to interact economically ("exclusive promotions and free shipping") and not collapse under capitalism's weight? (That was sarcasm.) I'm sure the socialists here at GH would be suitably horrified. Mods, owners, Admins -- reach out to this forum and ask for some pointers. Or register and scope them out.

[tp4tissue]

Visit forums.bit-tech.net to see a properly and well policed yet vibrant and interesting community with many more members than this site.

From the referenced well-run, well-policed, vibrant forum, this:

To gain full access to the community you must first register a free account. As a registered member you will be able to:

    Participate in a diverse and passionate community.
    Discuss bit-tech.net editorial content.
    Enter in bit-tech.net competitions and gain access to exclusive promotions.
    Create your own threads and add your own replies to topics.
    Become eligable for Free Delivery on orders from Scan Computers once you've made 20 posts.

Seems as though they managed to ignore the socialists and succeed! I would be curious to know the special relationship that 'Scan Computers' has with the forum owners. But how? How did they manage to allow people to interact economically ("exclusive promotions and free shipping") and not collapse under capitalism's weight? (That was sarcasm.) I'm sure the socialists here at GH would be suitably horrified. Mods, owners, Admins -- reach out to this forum and ask for some pointers. Or register and scope them out.

I don't think GH is big enough to sell yet..... don't know who's fault that is...