Forum Guidelines and Moderation Discussion Thread

[kryss]

Being in contact with numerous disgruntled members in PMs, etc. They feel the same way I do. These boards have gone way downhill since last Jan

It's sad, but it's the truth

i agree, this place is very clique-ish

agree

If would be great if you guys could elaborate and anyone else that feels like the forum is cliquey.

 

[electrolyte]

I don't particularly care about the banner but I do understand the desire to have it. The bigger issue for me is how attempting to get the banner leads to trash hits being reposted in bulk like fashion. I think @Kadauchi had the right idea with limiting the export of a hit from MTS to once ever 15(?) minutes. I'm not sure that's enough though. Someone with more skill than me and more time might consider making a script that uses a spoiler to hide hits that have already been posted in the last 2-3 hours. That way they are posted for people who haven't seen them yet but also don't clog up the forum as much.

If I recall, @Kadauchi's MTS script won't repost a HIT if it's been shared within the last 5 HITs? Maybe he could change it to be a longer time period.

 

[aveline]

I don't particularly care about the banner but I do understand the desire to have it. The bigger issue for me is how attempting to get the banner leads to trash hits being reposted in bulk like fashion. I think @Kadauchi had the right idea with limiting the export of a hit from MTS to once ever 15(?) minutes. I'm not sure that's enough though. Someone with more skill than me and more time might consider making a script that uses a spoiler to hide hits that have already been posted in the last 2-3 hours. That way they are posted for people who haven't seen them yet but also don't clog up the forum as much.

Yeah, choosing the best HIT Poster every month is a very tricky thing. We originally played with the idea of having the whole process automated, to try to cut down on the popularity contest aspect of holding nominations, but we couldn't figure out a way to get around people posting just anything to boost numbers. It's why we decided to just pick the top 5 and let the forum vote for one of those people because they all know who might be posting trash and who might not be. I don't know if there will ever be a perfect way of choosing a HIT Poster, but that's the best that we've been able t come up with.

 

[thedorchannel]

ok, so I stand by my comment that overall, the forum runs great, and I don't see any major things wrong.

but now that I look at the awards system, it really is the same people getting nominated and winning every other month. I don't even see a reason for having these awards for this reason.

That being said, this seems to be the main thing people complained about today which makes me feel even more like things aren't really bad around here.

I love this place.

 

[Kadauchi]

I don't particularly care about the banner but I do understand the desire to have it. The bigger issue for me is how attempting to get the banner leads to trash hits being reposted in bulk like fashion. I think @Kadauchi had the right idea with limiting the export of a hit from MTS to once ever 15(?) minutes. I'm not sure that's enough though. Someone with more skill than me and more time might consider making a script that uses a spoiler to hide hits that have already been posted in the last 2-3 hours. That way they are posted for people who haven't seen them yet but also don't clog up the forum as much.

If I recall, @Kadauchi's MTS script won't repost a HIT if it's been shared within the last 5 HITs? Maybe he could change it to be a longer time period.

It checks for a repeat HIT in the last 10 posts. The more posts that get checked, the more server resources it takes, so that is up to you guys.

 

[Peachy]

- Place is highly clique-ish

- I sometimes feel like mods/admins have a "holier than thou" attitude. Not always, but a lot of the times

- I've seen @electrolyte tell Rerun "That's enough" after HE COMPLIMENTED someone. This was a few weeks ago. Maybe you took it the wrong way Electrolyte, but it was a pretty obvious compliment. Rerun was telling another poster nice job or something after they posted their PE for the day. Hands down, absolutely the most dumbfounding post I've seen on these boards. I was laughing my ass off at how silly it was. "That's enough" kindness for the day.

- Pessimism. EVERYDAY. From a lot of members. I know not everyday is sunshine. On or off the computer. I know mTurk isn't the most exciting thing, but it pays my bills. I feel like it's the mood of the thread for a large chunk of the day. Cynical jokes, bad life choices jokes, etc. I'm grateful for mTurk. Do I see myself working on mTurk forever? Absolutely not, but it's what I have now and I make the best of it without bitching on the boards about it everyday

- I don't really have a problem with the awards because I could care less about those

 

[electrolyte]

- I've seen @electrolyte tell Rerun "That's enough" after HE COMPLIMENTED someone. This was a few weeks ago. Maybe you took it the wrong way Electrolyte, but it was a pretty obvious compliment. Rerun was telling another nice job or something after they posted their PE for the day. Hands down, absolutely the most dumbfounded post I've seen on these boards. I was laughing my ass off at how silly it was. "That's enough" kindness for the day.

I don't recall this. If you can find the post for me, perhaps I can find the context. It's possible there was previous conversation in PM or elsewhere that led up to that that may have not been public.

 

[TotalBabe]

Pretty much everyone that is really a presence over here (on and off pretty much the whole day and into the night) and really tries to help has already won an award. When that happens, you know what comes next? People pretty much start voting for their buddies. That, I think, is a big problem and doesn't really have much to do with who should win awards for being helpful or entertaining on the site. And, unfortunately, that sort of thing is human nature.

 

[kryss]

- Pessimism. EVERYDAY. From a lot of members. I know not everyday is sunshine. On or off the computer. I know mTurk isn't the most exciting thing, but it pays my bills. I see posters throughout the day (everyday). I feel like it's the mood of the thread for a large chunk of the day. Cynical jokes, bad life choices jokes, etc. I'm grateful for mTurk. Do I see myself working on mTurk forever? Absolutely not, but it's what I have now and I make the best of it without bitching on the boards about it everyday

I think you're right about the pessimism.

I think we can all work together to be a bit more positive, I know I can be pretty negative about the forum/towards the forum when I'm frustrated with things.

 

[bxpretzel]

If would be great if you guys could elaborate and anyone else that feels like the forum is cliquey.

see my post above

 

[bxpretzel]

Pretty much everyone that is really a presence over here (on and off pretty much the whole day and into the night) and really tries to help has already won an award. When that happens, you know what comes next? People pretty much start voting for their buddies. That, I think, is a big problem and doesn't really have much to do with who should win awards for being helpful or entertaining on the site. And, unfortunately, that sort of thing is human nature.

i completely disagree with this

 

[loki3404]

- Place is highly clique-ish


- Pessimism. EVERYDAY. From a lot of members. I know not everyday is sunshine. On or off the computer. I know mTurk isn't the most exciting thing, but it pays my bills. I feel like it's the mood of the thread for a large chunk of the day. Cynical jokes, bad life choices jokes, etc. I'm grateful for mTurk. Do I see myself working on mTurk forever? Absolutely not, but it's what I have now and I make the best of it without bitching on the boards about it everyday

- I don't really have a problem with the awards because I could care less about those

As someone who has a pretty dry, sarcastic, sense of humor I probably contribute to this. I'm honestly a fairly happy guy but I understand that may not come through on the internet. Truthfully my irl friends get more concerned about me if I'm not making sarcastic jokes. I'll try to cut back on it a little bit or at least balance it out with some quality, uplifting, puns.

 

[kryss]

see my post above

Is it just how the awards work? We really tried to make it is a fair as possible, spacing out how often you can win an award. Do you think stretching HIT Poster to a year instead of 6 months would be more appropriate? I'm just not sure what you're getting at.

 

[thedorchannel]

Pretty much everyone that is really a presence over here (on and off pretty much the whole day and into the night) and really tries to help has already won an award.

umm... not exactly

 

[electrolyte]

I'll repeat what I kind of said earlier: if members want other/different people to be winning the awards, it's under the control of community members to be nominating different people (for Crowd Pleaser) and voting for different people (for both awards).

 

[bxpretzel]

Is it just how the awards work? We really tried to make it is a fair as possible, spacing out how often you can win an award. Do you think stretching HIT Poster to a year instead of 6 months would be more appropriate? I'm just not sure what you're getting at.

yes, i think that would be more appropriate. honestly i think the most appropriate thing is, you win once and that's it. why would you be able to win again? if you limited it to one time per person you would really see people around here getting excited about it and then the award would go to someone new every time. the way that it is right now seems very clique-ish and exclusive and just rotates between the same people all the time

 

[Vanyanka]

As someone who has a pretty dry, sarcastic, sense of humor I probably contribute to this. I'm honestly a fairly happy guy but I understand that may not come through on the internet. Truthfully my irl friends get more concerned about me if I'm not making sarcastic jokes. I'll try to cut back on it a little bit or at least balance it out with some quality, uplifting, puns.

It is hard sometimes to read sarcasm over the internet so I'll try to be more mindful of that too. I also apologize if I ever come across as clique-ish. I truly enjoy getting to know new people.

 

[Kat8mouse]

The awards don't mean anything to me personally, but if it is causing a lot of drama maybe just do away with the monthly awards all together and just do special awards every now and then. I guess I live in a cocoon because I really haven't noticed that the forum has been having issues. I think you all are doing a great job

 

[It's Gamera!]

I'm going to start off by acknowledging that I'm probably one of the lesser blights of the forum, as my posts are 85% made to inject some form of levity into the work thread.

I don't feel that the forum is all that clique-ish. I mean sure, around 9pm EST some really eye-rolling self referential replays of the same jokes get played over and over, but I feel anyone willing to join in the conversation would be accepted. I generally don't even like forums for this reason, and would probably scuttle off sooner or later if I thought this was the case.

@PeachyRider

Dark humor is kind of funny in a way that it serves to deflect all of the nonsense of daily grinding. I'm probably not the biggest perpetrator, but I think I can explain it as such - It's kind of like wadding up your anxieties into a big ball and throwing it into the wastebasket. Sometimes it misses, sometimes it lands next to the Burger King wrapper and fry box. Either way you're still throwing it off because some things have to get done, and it's easier to just be glib about certain troubles.

 

[jml]

honestly i think the most appropriate thing is, you win once and that's it. why would you be able to win again? if you limited it to one time per person you would really see people around here getting excited about it and then the award would go to someone new every time.

Not gonna speak for any other mods but I personally don't hate this idea