The meaning of "rant"

[House of Mustard]

I think the difference is that the Word Sense and Muscial Sparks threads, while post-count boosting, are interesting to a large group, where the chatty posts are interesting to two or three people only.

The way I see it, TFO, Sminja and Sig really are just using the setup of TWG's forum to run their own little forum.  If threads are not intended for the forum community, then they shouldn't be posted for the community to wade through.

[fuzzyoctopus]

Exactly.

They could just as easily make their own message board to hang out on and spam about fudgesicles to their hearts' content.  Doing it here feels like they're using our resources JUST to do that, since they're not contributing to discussions that the rest of us care about.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

lol, fuzzy, I can honestly say that I have never ever thought of you as a b*tch. While I find an entrance requirement interesting, i'm having a hard time thinking of a fair way to regulate it. The only thing that comes to mind is checking after a certain number of posts (say, 100) and seeing if a certain maximum percentage of spam or troll posts has been met or not (say 50%, to give them time to acclaimmate). IF they exceed this amount, their id is deleted and their IP banned.  But then, I don't want to be the guy who executes that.

[Tage]

See, here's the thing, kids. I don't post much, but I check the forum all day during work. And the reason I don't post much is because I feel exactly the same way about most of your posts as you do about most of the newbie posts. If it were up to me, I'd be locking all your posts when I felt like they'd degenerated into mindless blather, which is generally after 3 or 4 posts.

But I don't, because this is an open forum, and I've gotten used to it being cluttered with things in which I have utterly no interest. And don't any of you start complaining about the newbs using it for private conversations. I can't count the number of times Jeffe and SE have done that. Fell and I have done it too; in fact, most everyone here has.

Now, having said that, if a majority of people want another moderator for some of these general discussion areas, I'm willing to do it--so long as that person doesn't abuse his/her authority.

[fuzzyoctopus]

Hmm.  Tage makes a good point.

*looks suitably humbled*

[Spriggan]

If you want another mod, I'm the best choice becasue
a) I've been with TWG, the website, longer then anyone besides Fell.
b) I'm the only other utah member that has regular contact with the admins (tage, EUOL, and Fell).
c) I allready have the ability to manage all the deparments on the main site.  I am the #4 guy at the site.
d) I wont be abuseing any powers becasue I'm sure by the time this conversation is done we'll have set rules that we'll have.  But I will follow said rules with extream Koala Wackin' predajuce.

I've allwayse hesatated pulling out the TWG seinority card before when it comes to things like this, usealy becaue I don't think it matters much.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

"looks"

anyway, there is, at the very least, a difference of degrees in any conversational post from "regulars" and the noobs. And majority does factor into it. There's a difference between an individual not being interested in a thread (say, if you were to post something about how cool pokemon is </jab at JamPaladin>) and noone being able to make SENSE out of it, and only 2 people caring and posting post after post after post in a few seconds. IF the conversation takes place over several days, than even a higher number of posts isn't the problem. If it takes place over an hour, and there there's three threads totalling 100+ posts between just two people, well, that is substantially different.

However, while I *did* start this thread, it was simply to help people express sentiments so we can agree what something is for. I'm frankly a bit alarmed that so many people are still hatin'. They apologized. They're doing better. Ease up folks.

I do think there should be a newbie monitor who explains the sorts of things the regulars want, and what sort of behavior will piss them off.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

if there is such a moderator, he needs to be able to
a) listen to the regulars when they have a complaint
b) TELL the regulars when their complaint is unreasonable or is just a matter of not giving someone another chance
c) communicate GENTLY to newbies what and why they're doing wrong.
d) honestly appraise changes in behavior.

edit:
I'm not sure I agree that seniority is the best qualification for this. It seems to me that an even temperment is MUCH more important, esp when the moderator is potentially one of those who may be annoyed.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

Tage's point was going to be my next one, But I will say I dont think Saint and I have ever done 3 pages in less than 24 hours.
Which is why I thought the TWG IM style service (or chatroom) would be a neat solution to that kind of thing. Sometimes its easier and more efficent to post here to get saint to contact me than it is to call IM or email him. I know without a doubt that he will check TWG. (Which should be a tribute to the board).
I dont mind the multiple posts at all either, as long as there aren't mutliple subjects or threads created.
I can ignore a thread easily, 20 or more not so much.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

I still don't think a TWG chat or IM would solve any of those problesm. IM is available already through AIM, MSN, ICQ, and Yahoo!. If people don't use them, why would they use one from TWG? I'm not going to see chat that happened hours ago either, even if I do check it.  There's already a Private Message feature in the board too. Problem is, I don't use it. There's only one place to link to it and I don't go there. Plus it doesn't log my own responses or separate people's posts. If I could see that link on most of the pages I go to (say, up near the top menu) and it had actually useful features, I might use it.

There's no problem with a post or two being for one person, especially if that is in one of the "Hey ...." threads, which have been established as just a quick message when other formats aren't easy or available. I point again at the question of volume. That's the real issue.

[Spriggan]

I personly don't think there should be a new moderator, especialy if it's just to deal with Newbies, that's what the FAQ EUOL is working on is for.  If there is a new one, I should be it for those reasons I mentioned above and most people on you adverage forum hate mods that actualy enforce rules.  Most people here allready think I'm a jerk, so why create another person for people to hate.

As for the chat room, as I've mentioned in other threads entropy has been bugging me for about a year to add one to TWG.  If it's something you people realy want I'll whip one up, either and embeded PHP chat or an IRC chat.  I personly don't care if there's a chat because all of you I acutly want to talk with I either do in real life or over AIM.  Let me know, I'll add one if you all want it.

[Entsuropi]

Sure tage. You enjoy your ivory tower. Meanwhile, the rest of us that actually, y'know, post, will continue as we were.

While i'd make a bad newbie admin, i think we do need to set something up. I'm tired of it myself. I like the forum as it is - full of smart conversations. Having multiple threads full of newbie banter is annoying. I'm El Supremo Elitist. I require that threads be of interest. Especially in the two main forums. Some people just need to stick to MSN.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

Wow he thinks TWG is full of intelligent coversation.
Lo how the mighty have fallen.......

[GorgonlaVacaTremendo]

Alright.  Here's the deal in my point of view.

The world is full of morons.  Now, I am not saying any are here, nut the world is full of them.  Tage does a great job at what he does, so another monitor would be pointless.

I do think, however, after a certain period of time people should shape up or ship out.  We have a poll working now, how bout if you don't want someone to stay we have a vote of no confidence in that person, after they've been here, say, two days.  That doubles the time I needed, which should be plenty.

Because it's logical for people to dislike what they don't know, but I was able to shape up within a day, so doubling my time is logical.

In conclusion I think if someone is a moron, someone can start a thread for a vote of no confidence.  After that, if we get someone to third it, then we put it on the poll.  After a few days take it off the pole and you will see your answer.  This will help keep the majority satisfied with who comes and who leaves, keeping the forum intellectual and fresh at the same time!

[EUOL]

I'm already a mod.  I'll lock more topics, if you wish, but I consider that kind of a slap in the face.  I don't lock very often--I consider everyone's opinion to be valuable in this environment.  

I would make several suggestions.  First, give the newcomers just a bit more time.   Always before, when we've had complaints about people, they've cooled off after a short period.

Second, newcomers, please try and use the board respectfully.  You've been getting better, but try a little harder.  Avoid one-line posts.  Use the private messaging function at the bottom if you want to communicate with just one person.  

Third, I like Gorgon's suggestion of some hardfast rules--though I think his are a bit too subjective.  Perhaps we could say a topic will get locked if, say, a thread goes ten posts with only two people participating?  (The problem with this is that I see interesting discussions between people like HoM and myself--where we're each posting multi-paragraph rebuttals--falling under this heading.)

I would resist 'kicking' someone off of the board.  The current system--Entropy and SE snapping at people who do stupid things--has generally served us well in the past.