Need help from active members

[fishin4cars]

Folks, There has been some discussions between the moderators and Ian, and we have been discussing some things and need the active members to help with.

1. Keeping threads on topic. This is suppose to be a forum of discussions, but almost every single post a member makes here has 50% useless chatter that has nothing to do with the actual postings. None of us care how much you all post, In fact we welcome you to post all that you want but lets try to keep topics clear of unnecessary chatting. There is a thread already in place that got set up for the good banner thread, What a great idea, If only everything that is just talk would end up there. We can move all the unneeded posts to a thread and let everyone figure out what is going on or we can all do our part and leave the threads alone where the members need assistance and give them useful information and leave it at that. Most here are adults. But there are some that are even younger in age, and yes some of us are older in age, This makes for a huge amount of information to dig through to find what is needed to be found for other members to benefit from. How many of you have thought about a old post and wanted to refer to it but can't find it. Is it because it has 20 pages and only two that stayed on topic? Please, We need your help. Trying to keep up with what's going on has gotten to be HUGE for us as moderators. It gets very frustrating trying to keep up with 1000 posts a day to read 40-50 threads.

2. We need members to help with reporting posts. If you see a post that is made and it's offensive, foul language, or spam with advertising we need each member to help and reports these. This will help us tremendously in deciding if it needs to be removed, warned, or other action needs to be taken. Remember, these are only viewable by moderators and administrators and you will not be disclosed for reporting. this does not matter if it is one of us either. If it is reported we can decide as a group what needs to be done.

3. Forum ideas and feedback. I discussed today with Ian about a group getting together and talk about improvements that can be incorporated into the site. I've suggested maybe a group of members that can be put together that can work up improvement ideas.

There is a group of us that are regular members that check and post daily or at least multiple times during the week. We need this group's help. Since the site has changed format it has become a time consuming JOB to read through all the posts. Myself, I'm not much help with computer programing, But I try to help members with questions. There are several ponds I can answer questions about because I have read enough about them to have a sense of what is going on, But then there are those that are new and with the new layout there isn't a way to tell what size, how much experience, sometimes the location, etc. Trying to help when your already tired of reading all the little chat takes from those that need the help the most. We're open to suggestions to improve. We don't want to moderate posts, We want you all to have open discussions but at the same time. Keep in mind what goes on behind the scenes as well. If you would like to volunteer to help, such as moderate, computer program assistance, layout improvements. Please feel free to contact us. I promise there is always more going on behind the scenes as well. We are open to looking into areas of improvement and will continue to help grow and improve the site and if you think you can help, we're all ears!

 

[DrCase]

I want to give this a bump ,
we do need some help to make each thread more centered on the question asked

 

[Ian]

It looks like this thread was put in the moderation queue and so appeared invisible to all but moderators, so this should now be visible to all .

 

[sissy]

The thing is even if we go off topic we are still posting something and most enjoy the going back and forth .Thats what makes the forum more friendly then just those hard core I need to talk only about ponds forums .The laughs some get are what keeps it real and keeps it interesting and keeps people wanting to join .If you make it dull and boring people will loose interest and it will be just like all the other pond forums .We have fun and still get our ponding questions in there .I have seen most people comment that is why they joined .Why not take a vote on it .Most will say they like the friendly banter back and forth .It makes it more real not hard edged and unfriendly .I have joined several pond forums and do not go on them very much because they don't seem as friendly .Here you can talk about ponds but make friends and get a laugh that makes your day and makes ponding more interesting .

 

[j.w]

The problem is Larkin, that we all are doing it and it's hard to stop. When someone starts a thread and they talk about something specific but then add another comment about something different it is hard for us to just ignore the comment. We would feel like we are ignoring the comment and might hurt their feelings by doing so and it happens w/ new peeps too so we try not to discourage them from being friendly. And it's human nature to chat back and forth a little. I know lots of times we really get off topic and like my hubby keeps telling me that the people that start these forums are in it for the serious business of ponding and not the chit chat. How to do want us to approach this when someone posts a comment say about the weather or whatever in a thread about say.......what liner is best, or how to plant a lily? Do we just ignore or say go to the Good Banter thread for that? We need specific's here not just stop doing it................understand what I'm getting at?

 

[sissy]

lets put it this way if this was a really really hard core pond sight would most of these people join or would they just look as by standers get the info and never join .I know I am guilty of that on a couple of pond sights I have seen .They all talk over my head and are to serious .Gosh you would think there lives depended on there ponds and fancy fancy expensive fish .How boring can that be and would this sight really have all the members it has .Go on some of those other sights and see how busy the sights are NOT .I saw some that are lucky they get 4or 5 postings in a couple of days .Do you realize how popular this sight is with people who feel comfortable and want to join because we act real and down to earth not huffy puffy .They feel like no matter how small or big or what kind of fish they have we do not look down on them .So hooray for that .Do you notice just how open and friendly people are on here and that attracts new joiners ..We are real not fake stuffy stupid stuck up people .Look at us addy jw mogsie country tmann malak rebel cjspond even new members like beewrangler and dachmom and I could go on and on and so many more ones from all the different countries

 

[sissy]

I talk as much as I type I know

 

[addy1]

I talk as much as I type I know

OH REALLY! LOL

 

[sissy]

yeppers breaking news huh addy .My father taught me well big mouth means maybe as a women you will get your point across .Like Mogsie inventing the good banter thread ,don't we just love it .think it may have been his wifes idea cough cough

 

[stroppy]

got to smile even this threads gone off topic !!!

 

[addy1]

got to smile even this threads gone off topic !!!

never happens stroppy never nope never

 

[sissy]

NEVER NEVER NEVER .I agree with addy .This keeps this sight going right stroppy .I had joined other pond sights and they are to stiff and stuffy

 

[j.w]

Too bad there's not some way to allow for the off topic stuff to be visible in a cloud like thingy in each thread where only the people who want to see the banter can see it. Like a hover type deal only visible when hovering over it w/ a mouse. Is this too far out space technology? That way the ones who are just seeking technical stuff could see that part and all of us others could just chat away to our hearts content. My DH always says if humans can think of it then it can be done! You could actually have a button you click before you post an off topic remark so it goes to the cloud. Others could see a # or something and then click to see the remarks. Gosh I'm brilliant aren't I. No need to respond to that last comment. The End!

 

[Ian]

It's technically possible, but it would need a huge amount of coding - so it would be impractical to implement (although it's a clever idea!). However, it's also hard to separate the off-topic stuff from normal content as you mentioned in your first post. We've already had a chat in the mod area about how some element of drift in inevitable as a topic evolves, but there are some threads that have gone off on a real tangent before. For example, some of the latter posts in this thread are more chat than adding to the original topic - so when that happens in a tecnical topic it can become frustrating for the orginal poster. This doesn't happen often, but it becomes hard for moderators to separate things once things have split off.

We're trying to get a balance between a friendly forum but somewhere that is also informative. Most threads are fine, but there have been occasions when things have drifted from technical topics to general chat. We just want to make sure that everyone that posts a question can get their problems answered .

How to do want us to approach this when someone posts a comment say about the weather or whatever in a thread about say.......what liner is best, or how to plant a lily? Do we just ignore or say go to the Good Banter thread for that? We need specific's here not just stop doing it................understand what I'm getting at?

Larkin's post was more of a heads up to make people aware of keeping things on topic within threads, so it's aiming to stop things drifting off in the first place. We don't want things to be unfriendly and understandably there will be some drift, but sometimes things turn in to chat quite early on before much discussion has happened. For example, some of the posts in this thread are more chat room style comments rather than adding to the main topic - so it's makes it harder for people to keep things in focus. We really don't want to stifle discussion or stop this place being an active forum, but we need try and keep the quality high as well as maintaining the friendly atmosphere (as people would come here for both things). We're primarily a pond forum, so we want to try and keep the technical sections full of on-topic help, but the general chat section is for anything else.

I would be very interested in hearing from other members that haven't yet added any thoughts (even via PM if you wanted to keep things private) as there is a genuine desire to make GPF even better.

 

[DrDave]

Even this thread has had some detours. If you cannot intelligently comment on the subject of any given thread, then you should move on to a thread that you can contribute to. or go to the Banter thread and babble there.