I hope nobody takes offense to this post, i consider it constructive criticism and only post it in an attempt to improve the asp.net message boards.
Is it me or would the forum section of this website be MUCH, MUCH, MUCH more valuable if posts didn't have to be approved by a moderator before being posted? I interact on a lot of different boards and this is the only one i interact on where a post must first
be approved. It isn't uncommon on these other boards to create a post and have a conversation of 20+ posts within 30 minutes. However that would take about 24 hours+ on these forums due to posts taking an hour+ in being approved. On other boards resolutions
and information is traveling in real time at a faster rate making the forum more valuable in my opinion.
This isn't to say that doing away with moderation is the way to go, but maybe allowing posts to be posted immediately where moderators can then moderate them after being posted. I realize that by doing this the posts on these forums would increase considerably
and moderation may become an impossible task for the few dedicated people who currently moderate. So maybe making the forum so that everyone can take part in moderation and help maintain this site. If joe blow sees a post that is nothing but an advertisement
he can flag the post for moderation by the admins of the site. By doing that the moderators do not have to look through all the posts, just the posts that the other members have flagged for them as being questionable.
Just suggestions, again i hope nobody is offended, just ideas to get the information moving quicker.
Members of this site that consistently post good/clean posts will eventually become unmoderated.
True, but i would imagine that a lot of people are discouraged from posting to the point of being considered for being unmoderated. As it stands I interact on this website when EVERYTHING else fails and I have nowhere else to look. At that rate I will probably
hit 50 posts this time next year. For the most part the people who are really benefiting the most are those who can communicate with no retrictions, the rest of us have the ability to eavesdrop on their conversations but communicating with them is drastically
hampered when looking at what the potential is.
I mean, this website is composed and administrated by technical professionals. Using some very basic technology to open the channels of communication seems fairly logical to me. The excuse that trolling and spammers etc...are the reason for moderation is
absurd. Very basic technology has been around for years to curb unwanted disruptive forum posting and is used by most professional forums to take most the burded off of moderators.
When looking at the incredible technology that microsoft puts out and then looking at a site that is built on that technology one has to ask, what is the real reason for a message board that isn't real time?
This thread was moved to this forum as this is the appropriate place to post anything related to feedback on this site. Please see the following post that links to other threads where this topic has been discussed in great detail
in the past.
True, but i would imagine that a lot of people are discouraged from posting to the point of being considered for being unmoderated. As it stands I interact on this website when EVERYTHING else fails and I have nowhere else to look. At that rate I will probably
hit 50 posts this time next year.
This seems to indicate that your participation in these forums is rather one-way. You come here to ask for advice/answers. How about offerring advice/answer to others? I find it to be a great mental excercise to seek out peoples questions to see if i
can answer them. If i cant answer them, then i have identified something i still need to learn more about.
jables2011
For the most part the people who are really benefiting the most are those who can communicate with no retrictions, the rest of us have the ability to eavesdrop on their conversations but communicating with them is drastically hampered when looking at what the
potential is.
I'd tend to disagree. when i was moderated, i too needed to wait for my posts to appear. the waiting period tended to be very short. I never waitedover an hour and usually saw my posts within 10-20 minutes. i never found that the small delay drastically
hampered me or even mildly hampered me. i was looking for some free advice. my "fee" was a 15 minute wait in line.
Let me rephrase that, when having a problem and needing some advice the last thing i will do is post the problem on the asp.net forums. I haven't posted but maybe 10 times on moderated sections and probably 4 of those have been attempting to help others out.
It seems as though all of the responses in support to moderation have something in common and that is waiting for your post to be approved isn't that bad.
mbanavige, if one had your luck of having posts approved within an hour it wouldn't be that bad, however I would say that nearly all of my posts take at least an hour with an hour being best case scenario. Yesterday I posted around 1:30 and
the post wasn't approved until sometime between 8:30pm and midnight, that is an awful lot of lag when using web based technology for communication. I would say my average wait time is around 3 hours for approval. Now you can argue that this is the "fee"
to be paid for communicating but the point is we shouldn't have to wait. Its unnecessary when keeping in mind the tools we have before us. I do realize that if the owners of this site wanted to take 3 weeks to approve posts then that is their right and I
completely support it. But if the overall goal is to please as many as possible and make communication and speed of communication a priority in keeping people happy that their are ways to do it. It isn't rocket science, heck it isn't even middle school algebra.
So the unmoderated users, who seem to be the only ones who support moderation, want to argue that waiting isn't so bad. I agree with you, maybe it isn't but why wait when waiting isn't necessary? Why wait in line to have your post approved when the work
of moderation could be distributed to all the users in essence destroying the wait in line and turning this forum into a real time communication gateway where EVERYONE can help or get help within moments rather than days.
Again, I know that the moderators do their thing voluntarily and am in no way criticising them, i just think that a better model could be implemented to better leverage the technology and manpower available in this community rather than putting all the weight
on a few people.
In an attempt to improve the flow of communication here on the forums, we've just (as in ten minutes ago) instituted a rule that only posts creating a new thread will be moderated. In other words, we will not moderate any replies.
We have also put in place SPAM filters so posts deemed by the system to be SPAM will be moderated (regardless of whether or not it is a reply or thread starting post).
Thank you all for the feedback and we hope this is the start of a much more open and free flowing forum community.
Well, we all gain space-time here, but we lose clear distinction between proven-unproven users. How will you know now? No system is perfect, but more quantity without more knowledge usually brings less quality. We now miss something new...
To discuss, maybe. Or maybe let's just see what happens?
-LV
P.S. I don't think the user's posts count is enough. That's quantity, not quality.
P.P.S. Sorry, not to mention the fact the a forum shouldn't become a chat, and discussing/learning is different than seeking solutions. The old system someway helped towards these "good practices". Now we are open market, so to say.
jables2011
Member
100 Points
20 Posts
Forum Moderation, good or bad?
Apr 20, 2006 07:14 PM|LINK
Is it me or would the forum section of this website be MUCH, MUCH, MUCH more valuable if posts didn't have to be approved by a moderator before being posted? I interact on a lot of different boards and this is the only one i interact on where a post must first be approved. It isn't uncommon on these other boards to create a post and have a conversation of 20+ posts within 30 minutes. However that would take about 24 hours+ on these forums due to posts taking an hour+ in being approved. On other boards resolutions and information is traveling in real time at a faster rate making the forum more valuable in my opinion.
This isn't to say that doing away with moderation is the way to go, but maybe allowing posts to be posted immediately where moderators can then moderate them after being posted. I realize that by doing this the posts on these forums would increase considerably and moderation may become an impossible task for the few dedicated people who currently moderate. So maybe making the forum so that everyone can take part in moderation and help maintain this site. If joe blow sees a post that is nothing but an advertisement he can flag the post for moderation by the admins of the site. By doing that the moderators do not have to look through all the posts, just the posts that the other members have flagged for them as being questionable.
Just suggestions, again i hope nobody is offended, just ideas to get the information moving quicker.
mbanavige
All-Star
134971 Points
15423 Posts
ASPInsiders
Moderator
MVP
Re: Forum Moderation, good or bad?
Apr 20, 2006 08:10 PM|LINK
Just an FYI:
Members of this site that consistently post good/clean posts will eventually become unmoderated.
jables2011
Member
100 Points
20 Posts
Re: Forum Moderation, good or bad?
Apr 20, 2006 08:55 PM|LINK
True, but i would imagine that a lot of people are discouraged from posting to the point of being considered for being unmoderated. As it stands I interact on this website when EVERYTHING else fails and I have nowhere else to look. At that rate I will probably hit 50 posts this time next year. For the most part the people who are really benefiting the most are those who can communicate with no retrictions, the rest of us have the ability to eavesdrop on their conversations but communicating with them is drastically hampered when looking at what the potential is.
I mean, this website is composed and administrated by technical professionals. Using some very basic technology to open the channels of communication seems fairly logical to me. The excuse that trolling and spammers etc...are the reason for moderation is absurd. Very basic technology has been around for years to curb unwanted disruptive forum posting and is used by most professional forums to take most the burded off of moderators.
When looking at the incredible technology that microsoft puts out and then looking at a site that is built on that technology one has to ask, what is the real reason for a message board that isn't real time?
StrongTypes
All-Star
30801 Points
6013 Posts
ASPInsiders
Re: Forum Moderation, good or bad?
Apr 21, 2006 01:59 AM|LINK
This thread was moved to this forum as this is the appropriate place to post anything related to feedback on this site. Please see the following post that links to other threads where this topic has been discussed in great detail in the past.
http://forums.asp.net/post/1256238.aspx
Ryan
jables2011
Member
100 Points
20 Posts
Re: Forum Moderation, good or bad?
Apr 21, 2006 04:57 AM|LINK
Thats cool, thanks for the reply!
mbanavige
All-Star
134971 Points
15423 Posts
ASPInsiders
Moderator
MVP
Re: Forum Moderation, good or bad?
Apr 21, 2006 02:51 PM|LINK
This seems to indicate that your participation in these forums is rather one-way. You come here to ask for advice/answers. How about offerring advice/answer to others? I find it to be a great mental excercise to seek out peoples questions to see if i can answer them. If i cant answer them, then i have identified something i still need to learn more about.
I'd tend to disagree. when i was moderated, i too needed to wait for my posts to appear. the waiting period tended to be very short. I never waitedover an hour and usually saw my posts within 10-20 minutes. i never found that the small delay drastically hampered me or even mildly hampered me. i was looking for some free advice. my "fee" was a 15 minute wait in line.
jables2011
Member
100 Points
20 Posts
Re: Forum Moderation, good or bad?
Apr 21, 2006 06:38 PM|LINK
It seems as though all of the responses in support to moderation have something in common and that is waiting for your post to be approved isn't that bad. mbanavige, if one had your luck of having posts approved within an hour it wouldn't be that bad, however I would say that nearly all of my posts take at least an hour with an hour being best case scenario. Yesterday I posted around 1:30 and the post wasn't approved until sometime between 8:30pm and midnight, that is an awful lot of lag when using web based technology for communication. I would say my average wait time is around 3 hours for approval. Now you can argue that this is the "fee" to be paid for communicating but the point is we shouldn't have to wait. Its unnecessary when keeping in mind the tools we have before us. I do realize that if the owners of this site wanted to take 3 weeks to approve posts then that is their right and I completely support it. But if the overall goal is to please as many as possible and make communication and speed of communication a priority in keeping people happy that their are ways to do it. It isn't rocket science, heck it isn't even middle school algebra.
So the unmoderated users, who seem to be the only ones who support moderation, want to argue that waiting isn't so bad. I agree with you, maybe it isn't but why wait when waiting isn't necessary? Why wait in line to have your post approved when the work of moderation could be distributed to all the users in essence destroying the wait in line and turning this forum into a real time communication gateway where EVERYONE can help or get help within moments rather than days.
Again, I know that the moderators do their thing voluntarily and am in no way criticising them, i just think that a better model could be implemented to better leverage the technology and manpower available in this community rather than putting all the weight on a few people.
AlexLowe
Contributor
4460 Points
890 Posts
Re: Forum Moderation, good or bad?
Apr 22, 2006 03:52 PM|LINK
We have also put in place SPAM filters so posts deemed by the system to be SPAM will be moderated (regardless of whether or not it is a reply or thread starting post).
Thank you all for the feedback and we hope this is the start of a much more open and free flowing forum community.
Alex
jables2011
Member
100 Points
20 Posts
Re: Forum Moderation, good or bad?
Apr 22, 2006 06:08 PM|LINK
LudovicoVan
Star
9692 Points
1935 Posts
Re: Forum Moderation, good or bad?
Apr 23, 2006 02:55 AM|LINK
Well, we all gain space-time here, but we lose clear distinction between proven-unproven users. How will you know now? No system is perfect, but more quantity without more knowledge usually brings less quality. We now miss something new...
To discuss, maybe. Or maybe let's just see what happens?
-LV
P.S. I don't think the user's posts count is enough. That's quantity, not quality.
P.P.S. Sorry, not to mention the fact the a forum shouldn't become a chat, and discussing/learning is different than seeking solutions. The old system someway helped towards these "good practices". Now we are open market, so to say.