So, about the Update forum rules

[Null]

The biggest change regarding the forum structure (that has now been shoved through, as I'm sure everyone's noticed) is the rules regarding post quality. I really want to go over why this change is being made and what it means for everyone. I also want to continue collecting input on if people think it's a good thing or not.

To put it simply, a lot of people think the Chris forum was complete shit and getting worse. There's a large sense of community amongst posters on the forum, but at the same time a lot of people that I (and a lot of others) really like were posting things that are nonconstructive. Even though Thetan is pushing out a lot of great content and Marvin/ABL are providing their own accounts of contact with Chris, those posts are getting lost in 100 pages of circlejerking in-jokes, snarky one sentence comments, gif images that are supposed to be funny, and angry rants about how Chris is a welfare leech/doesn't take care of his mother/doesn't take care of his dogs/needs to die/etc. It's gotten to the point where even long-time forum goers are no longer keeping up to date because the Content to Fluff ratio is low high to be worth the time.

As a result, the Update forum is going to be more stringently monitored. Keep in mind that everything I am about to mention only applies to the Update forum.

• Only VIPs and Staff can post in the Update forum. This now includes Thetan.
• Any post that doesn't contribute to discussion will be deleted at a moderator's discretion. This doesn't have to be a post that violates main forum rules; anything that any purple deems nonconstructive will be silently deleted. This isn't a personal attack, we just want to keep things tidy.
• Any off-topic conversations taking place in the update forum will be split out into their own thread in Discussion.
• All moderators can moderate the Update forum.

Again, the end result here is to raise the overall quality of important discussions and keep things on topic. I want someone who lurks to be able to read a thread from start to finish and never feel like people are just posting for the sake of posting. This isn't a personal issue with any person or any group of people, the idea is to just trim the fat and have threads be more legible and clean.

And to make it perfectly clear: this only affects the Update forum. Everything else remains unchanged.

 

[rocket]

I've already been pretty vocal about my support for this in chat but I'll throw my thumbs-up in here too

My only concern is that jokes and snark and funny pictures still have a place - someone said there's a certain level of sarcasm to be had when discussing Chris and I agree. But spergy derails and over-the-top tryhard posts/a-logging definitely tank threads pretty damn quick and it's time people had a clearer idea of what exactly constitutes that, so godspeed mods

 

[Null]

My only concern is that jokes and snark and funny pictures still have a place - someone said there's a certain level of sarcasm to be had when discussing Chris and I agree. But spergy derails and over-the-top tryhard posts/a-logging definitely tank threads pretty damn quick and it's time people had a clearer idea of what exactly constitutes that, so godspeed mods

I'm not too concerned about that, as long as it's in the right place. I think that most threads on the forum flow like a human conversation, and sometimes people make off-handed comments or one liners that aren't that funny. It happens. People get over it. In a thread that's not so important it doesn't matter.

And just an FYI, this isn't a really easy thing for me either. I'm deleting posts by well known users which have the one fault of just not being that great. There's nothing wrong with them, but there's nothing right either. It really bums me out to remove something that doesn't really have any faults just because it doesn't add anything.

I'm going to start moving posts instead, I think. I deleted a post by PCA I could have easily just merged into the Scabies thread I started. That'll probably help the "hurt feelings" factor on both ends.

 

[Watcher]

I mentioned this in chat a few times, and while I do disagree with this new policy change I really don't think it benefits most people in the long run. I also feel a little discouraged to post in Update since I know I run the risk of getting posts removed.

Even when I lurked on this board prior to joining I didn't read the entirety of a discussion thread, not because it was full of spam comments but because I just didn't wanna read through dozens of posts. I've joined a lot of forums that have imposed similar "anti constructive post measures". If I had just joined the forum to post a few things about Chris Chan and found them removed. I wouldn't come back.

Most of my other arguments are slippery slope fallacies and I'll refrain from wasting your guys's time with them. I won't make a big fuss about these new rules since there have been complaints about them in the past, I just feel like this is a nuclear option for an admittedly harmless problem. Especially since people will be tempted if say CWC posts a big update.

 

[Null]

I mentioned this in chat a few times, and while I do disagree with this new policy change I really don't think it benefits most people in the long run. I also feel a little discouraged to post in Update since I know I run the risk of getting posts removed.

Well, to be frank, that's what's desired. I don't want people to post unless they feel like they actually have something to add. I'm trying to remove the gut instnct of just replying because you want to throw in your reaction to something. There's other places to do that.

A legitimate user who signs up and makes a post is going to be trying their best to acclimate themselves to the community by actually contributing. If they can't even manage this grace period, there's probably little chance of them fitting in long run and they're a shitposter anyways.

 

[spaps]

Null, this is a forum about an autistic guy that shits himself. Is quality really that necessary?

 

[exball]

Null, this is a forum about an autistic guy that shits himself. Is quality really that necessary?

We have to have some form of standards. How else do we keep the ween babies and a-logs out?

 

[TastyWoodenBadge]

Null, this is a forum about an autistic guy that shits himself. Is quality really that necessary?

Like exball said, we have to single out and purge the A-Loggers and kids.

 

[José Mourinho]

Null, this is a forum about an autistic guy that shits himself. Is quality really that necessary?

I think it's necessary because I don't want to see hundreds of posts dedicated to unfunny joking (or serious) attempts of A-Logging and posts which can lead to some more posts way off-topic from the main topic.

And with that said, I really need to improve my quality of my posts.

 

[CatParty]

where can we joke about any update? or can we joke while contributing to the discussion?

 

[José Mourinho]

where can we joke about any update? or can we joke while contributing to the discussion?

I think it's okay to do so as long as it's actually good. The recent E-mail update has some posts containing some good jokes.

 

[ChurchOfGodBear]

I'm willing to try and raise the bar. I see it as a challenge. :-)

 

[Null]

Null, this is a forum about an autistic guy that shits himself. Is quality really that necessary?

Just because Chris shits himself doesn't mean you have to.

 

[Chrus Chundlur]

Ah, well, I was seeing this as too drastic, until I noticed the "disscusion" forum, where we can still sperg to our heart's content. At first I thought that everything that wasnt a legit update was just deleted!

A subforum strictly for updates is a good idea.

 

[Uzumaki]

It's working already. I was going to post something irrelevant in the e-mail update about it being impossible to overreact to scabies and kept it to myself. We have concrete proof now that the new policy is avoiding shitposts.

 

[Null]

It's working already. I was going to post something irrelevant in the e-mail update about it being impossible to overreact to scabies and kept it to myself. We have concrete proof now that the new policy is avoiding shitposts.

Sweet.

There's a lot of "ew, gross!" posts that I had to delete, which is why I started the discussion thread. Feel free to post gut reactions there.

 

[Pikonic]

It's working already. I was going to post something irrelevant in the e-mail update about it being impossible to overreact to scabies and kept it to myself. We have concrete proof now that the new policy is avoiding shitposts.

Sweet.

There's a lot of "ew, gross!" posts that I had to delete, which is why I started the discussion thread. Feel free to post gut reactions there.

I'm actually glad you're taking the time to make the discussion threads for these posts. I'm also assuming its you who's moving some posts from the update thread to these ones. That way people can still say something that isn't total shit but not having it lost forever. This whole thing is still new so once we get used to what gets posted where, you'll probably have to do this less.

 

[Male]

Maybe we can cut the spergy tryhard posts down if we got rid of the thanks feature.

 

[Watcher]

Maybe we could have an "I disapprove" feature and if a post gets 3 or more disapproves it gets automatically removed.

Then the moderators don't have to police threads and it is all settled democratically.

 

[Null]

Maybe we can cut the spergy tryhard posts down if we got rid of the thanks feature.

that might actually be a culprit as to why zingers are so popular, but I really like the feature.

I've switched the board to Mod Approval. Mod approval's a bit of a pain in the ass, but I think that if people know what they post has to be read and considered because it shows up for anyone, they'll think actually give their messages more thought. All moderators can handle approvals and it's really obvious when a forum has pending posts, so it shouldn't delay conversation too much.

It's a bit of a middle ground between letting everyone post all the time and stressing me out because I have to deal with the human side of things when posts get deleted, and only allowing VIPs to post to begin with. Basically what I want is for everyone to be able to chip in, but only if they actually have something worth saying. Everything else can go into discussion. I don't even care if people just create mirror topics to allow free flowing opinions on everything.

Maybe we could have an "I disapprove" feature and if a post gets 3 or more disapproves it gets automatically removed.

Then the moderators don't have to police threads and it is all settled democratically.

If this was a feature on the board, yeah I guess. However I think it's even worse to know your post got deleted because multiple people decided they didn't want to see it, rather than just not meeting whatever strainer rules apply on the given board.