Good members dealing with Bad Posts

[scrawnybob]

hi all

OK thanks to all the good members for trying to help with the crappy post thing -
but I dont think pointing it out to them by making confrontational / statement posts is going to help

Please use the "report post" button (red triangle top right of all posts) rather than post up replies pointing out how pointless / lazy their posts are

I dont mean to seem ungrateful as I know as good active members your all trying really hard to help me out with these either complete idiots or lazy posters.

but having had some pretty stroppy people on PM's after I edit posts etc / argue the toss with them over their post quality etc ...

I dont want to inflame it on the forum - I think I touched on this in the past in the forum that it was counterproductive to "out" them on the forum - as this just gets them stroppy (with me) and also makes the site look negative rather than friendly

hope you know where I'm coming from -

I definately appreciate your great posting and also when members send me a report post / thread warning - as then I can deal with it off the forum and contain the "bad vibe"

from a members POV I hope the good members can just keep posting good stuff ... Just ignore the duff stuff (or report posts / threads) and post the good stuff you have been - the quality posts will attract quality posts etc

please bear in mind that whilst we want members and new members to make decent posts from the start - this isn't 100% realistic

look at it like this - if members post zero (as many sites have massive amount of zero posters and also zero posting requirements for passwords) then there will be no activity

if we get some members posting 10+ decent posts and continue to post due to a good experience - then this is great

if we have members that wouldnt have posted anything posting 10 marginal posts that are ok but not amazing - AND they get a feel for the forum being a friendly place - they will be more likely to post more and become part of more active crowd

if we have members that post the 10 min for passwords and dont post anymore but are so so posts or pretty poor posts - then we know where we stand with these members - we can hope and ENCOURAGE (not berate) them to post more quality posts if they feel welcome but are aware that others are making much better posts

if however we berate "bad" poor quality posts - we will not only put off those members but more importantly we will give the impression to other borderline / shy members that this isn't a forum to post in - WE DO NOT WANT TO SCARE OFF GOOD / OK POSTERS AS A RESULT OF JUMPING ON "POOR" POSTERS

For every "bad" poster we bully I would guess we loose 10 or 20 shy posters from taking part for fear of not coming up to scratch - this is very very counterproductive

SO please no slagging off in the forums - just report a post / member that concerns you and I WILL look at their posting and edit accordingly (usually somewhere between total delete and leaving nothing untouched)

Spending the time replying to a good post rather than replying to a bad post IS MUCH MORE USEFUL ;-)


Hope this all makes sense

cheers scrawnybob

ps. I will and do edit those poor 10 post posters down under 10 - so they WILL have to start looking back to see if they still cut the mustard to get the passwords

when they find they have been edited under 10 - they'll pretty soon start to make the effort - or they wont get passwords very consistently

pps. DONT reply to bad posts - all this achieves is keeping it in the limelight which means other new members see poor posts and follow suit - SO DONT REPLY - just report post / member and I will deal with it - by replying to bad posts it just increases my dilema of editing out others posts when if a single duff post would become a very easy decision affecting only one member

by replying to and taking part in good threads with good replies - new members / inactive old members will see we have good threads and contribute better replies - Good stuff attracts good stuff

[jeffsbabe]

thought we could use a reminder of this. I know there are times I'd like to say something to the people that abuse this forum. I have to remember it's not my job. Bob will deal with things. I try to remember not to write anything here that I would not say in person. Sorry, don't mean to sound like a school teacher

[scrawnybob]

hi JEFFSBABE & all

I can only really say that our good members are great members - and I know that everyone who is active always have the best interests of the forum at heart which is what makes the forum what it is - I try to post as much as I can but always feel its my responsibility to do the sometimes less than exciting part of the admin - so that you can all keep posting which is the fun and rewarding part

As most of you know I do tend to take as moderate a direction on everything as possible - if there is a compromise option or a 2nd chance to be given to members etc - I always try to take that route

I know that alot of you would rather the forum was run with an iron fist - but from experiencing the forum from behind the scenes we are often able to turn those less than great posters into semi active half decent posters ...

this has lead me to take the view that if the forum is seen to be postive and is seen to be active with decent posts - those decent posts will attract more good posts

but with negativity maybe pointing out bad posts publically we dont see those we put off that would have posted - we only see the bad that we have turned away

with the introduction of Room 101 - where I will now be putting the posts that fall short of our hopes for good posts I think we should be able to clean up those good threads and encourage better posting - without throwing the baby out with the bath water

I know sometimes is very tempting to vent ... and I have been guilty of my fair share of that in the past but if we sort out the wheat from the chaff by giving everyone a second chance then this is probably a good thing in the longer term

cheers scrawnybob