cracker
Gil Favor's Sidekick
Its great that we have an influx of a whole new set of players but for the next couple of weeks we really need a general crackdown on a number of posting spamilicious issues.
Need an Announcement and a general crackdown
- Thread starter cracker
- Start date
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- Oct 6, 2001
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If I wasn't super tired I'd almost be offended 
As you have discovered cracker, the report post function is the most effective way to deal with said infractions. We don't allow such things but we just do not, under any circumstances, have the time to read all the threads. However, several users are reading those threads and if something's wrong we need to hear it.
A few days ago IIRC, we reached OVER 2 PAGES of discussion in one day. There were topics from the current day on the 3rd page. No one is gonna be able to read all that
Please, report posts...even if it does spam the hell out of my poor inbox
As you have discovered cracker, the report post function is the most effective way to deal with said infractions. We don't allow such things but we just do not, under any circumstances, have the time to read all the threads. However, several users are reading those threads and if something's wrong we need to hear it.
A few days ago IIRC, we reached OVER 2 PAGES of discussion in one day. There were topics from the current day on the 3rd page. No one is gonna be able to read all that
Please, report posts...even if it does spam the hell out of my poor inbox
cracker
Gil Favor's Sidekick
Actually I posted this here because I could hear the beads of sweat rolling down the side of your face and making little crackling noises as the hit against the overheated keys of your keyboard.
Some of this involves being generally more agressive with the rush of new members.
There is an automated set of functions that controls announcements when they register and when the log in.
Big Flashing Letters Saying. "READ FIRST, and POST LATER or you will look like a total idiot" may be a bit too brazen but that's the general thrust of what needs to be said.
You (meaning you the wise and all knowing mod type person) should not be the first line of defense in this great battle to keep the helots in line. When times are tough, there are some other tools that should be turned up a notch to make sure the immigrants get their green cards as well as their itty bitty being citizenship pins for being able to recite the CFC scouts code of conduct:
1) I will not be a jerk
2) I will post a subject line
3) If I want an answer I will read; If I want attention I'll ask my parents for a money to buy drugs.
Some of this is herding cats with a broom, but I know we also need to make sure the end of the broom stick is sharpened and well displayed.
Keep up the good work,
Some of this involves being generally more agressive with the rush of new members.
There is an automated set of functions that controls announcements when they register and when the log in.
Big Flashing Letters Saying. "READ FIRST, and POST LATER or you will look like a total idiot" may be a bit too brazen but that's the general thrust of what needs to be said.
You (meaning you the wise and all knowing mod type person) should not be the first line of defense in this great battle to keep the helots in line. When times are tough, there are some other tools that should be turned up a notch to make sure the immigrants get their green cards as well as their itty bitty being citizenship pins for being able to recite the CFC scouts code of conduct:
1) I will not be a jerk
2) I will post a subject line
3) If I want an answer I will read; If I want attention I'll ask my parents for a money to buy drugs.
Some of this is herding cats with a broom, but I know we also need to make sure the end of the broom stick is sharpened and well displayed.
Keep up the good work,
Is it me or do all this sounds awfully familiar, just about the time Civ3 was out almost a year back? 
Shabbaman
rebuffing the rebels
I fully agree with cracker. Besides, if it wasn't for killer redirecting almost everybody to the faq and newbie threads, it would be a lot worse.
So, gonzo, the report function actually does work, and you are in fact encouraging me to report spammy threads?
Good.
That saves me a lot of frustration.
So, gonzo, the report function actually does work, and you are in fact encouraging me to report spammy threads?
Good.
That saves me a lot of frustration.
cracker
Gil Favor's Sidekick
Just so everyone knows, Gonzo is very responsive. Sometimes the report screen has barely refreshed and he has already dashed to the sceen of the crime to administer the necessary first aid. So that's great.
My post was just trying to be bigger picture.
I see Gonzo as like one of those guys that spins plates on the top of long thin sticks. He has to dash around and keep them all spinning or one may fall off a break. When the plates start wobbling someone has to apply first aid. At some point in time we need to help hold the line on the number of wobbling plates per unit time or we end up with frazzled mod ala hear attack.
My post was just trying to be bigger picture.
I see Gonzo as like one of those guys that spins plates on the top of long thin sticks. He has to dash around and keep them all spinning or one may fall off a break. When the plates start wobbling someone has to apply first aid. At some point in time we need to help hold the line on the number of wobbling plates per unit time or we end up with frazzled mod ala hear attack.
- Joined
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Well crap. Cracker found out what I do in my free time.
And yes shabba, please do report spammy threads. When I am home and can access my e-mail I generally respond as soon as i see them.
Cartouche Bee
Appropriations Consultant
Yep, gonzo gets on things real quick. Helping him spot the problems just keeps things running as they should.
Ayatollah So
the spoof'll set you free
I have a suggestion that would be a lot of work at first, then a lot less later on.
Add a new button to each thread saying "close this thread and redirect to ___". Anyone can start a "voter initiative" to close a thread by filling in the blank with the other thread that the offending thread duplicates. Then everyone has a week(?) to vote. If the thread looks to be losing on the 6th day, the moderator automatically gets notified? And can override and keep the thread open? There are obviously some details that need thinking through.
If a voter disagrees with the previous "redirect to" location and has a better one in mind, they can introduce it. If a majority votes to close the thread, whichever "redirect-to" location has the plurality among those votes, becomes the location. "Don't redirect, just kill it" wins only if it gets more votes than all redirect-to locations combined.
Add a new button to each thread saying "close this thread and redirect to ___". Anyone can start a "voter initiative" to close a thread by filling in the blank with the other thread that the offending thread duplicates. Then everyone has a week(?) to vote. If the thread looks to be losing on the 6th day, the moderator automatically gets notified? And can override and keep the thread open? There are obviously some details that need thinking through.
If a voter disagrees with the previous "redirect to" location and has a better one in mind, they can introduce it. If a majority votes to close the thread, whichever "redirect-to" location has the plurality among those votes, becomes the location. "Don't redirect, just kill it" wins only if it gets more votes than all redirect-to locations combined.
God
God
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2001
- Messages
- 1,354
Cracker, I think you are overreacting about closing threads which repeat the same topic. This happens in all forums for all new games. Newbies will always start up new threads before reading others. Its not a very nice start, if somebody comes and closes your first thread because a duplicate is on the bottom of the page.
If we didn't have repeated threads, than we would have 1/10th no. of threads as we do now.
If we didn't have repeated threads, than we would have 1/10th no. of threads as we do now.
Like God, I also don't think the repetition of threads is a huge deal. (Now that's an odd sentence! ) Sure, if there are 5 threads asking about how slow multiplayer is, it gets a little annoying, but as long as the thread title tells everyone that it is asking about multiplayer speed, is it really that hard to just skip it as you scroll down the threads? That doesn't seem like too much of an agony to me. I guess if a moderator is in a closing-of-threads mood he could close and redirect the repeating thread (and it's always nice to redirect the thread with a link of a new one for everyone's convenience), but I don't think that repetition is really that bad of an offense.
) Sure, if there are 5 threads asking about how slow multiplayer is, it gets a little annoying, but as long as the thread title tells everyone that it is asking about multiplayer speed, is it really that hard to just skip it as you scroll down the threads? That doesn't seem like too much of an agony to me. I guess if a moderator is in a closing-of-threads mood he could close and redirect the repeating thread (and it's always nice to redirect the thread with a link of a new one for everyone's convenience), but I don't think that repetition is really that bad of an offense.
Cunobelin Of Hippo
Site Pachyderm
As Gonzo stressed, the sheer volume of posts in the Civ 3 section right now makes the notion that we should be closing any and all repetitive threads and offering links elsewhere rather far fetched - it's an absolute impossibility on my time budget.
As for the content-lacking threads from the less enlightened crowd, we will shut those down if they get out of hand, but again with the numbers - there are a LOT of new posters in there right now. We've discussed it before, and we aren't going to go around cracking down on the newbs as we would on the rest of you. Because the majority of posts are coming from this crowd at the moment the Civ 3 region does take on a spammy hue, but it will die down shortly and things will return to normal on the moderation front. As long as they aren't outright fighting or promoting piracy...
And there are plenty of intelligent, worthwhile threads out there. Give them your attention and they'll stay near the top where the masses can take note of good discussion, and then attempt to incorporate elements of it (use of the capitalization feature and of commas for instance) into their own
As for the content-lacking threads from the less enlightened crowd, we will shut those down if they get out of hand, but again with the numbers - there are a LOT of new posters in there right now. We've discussed it before, and we aren't going to go around cracking down on the newbs as we would on the rest of you. Because the majority of posts are coming from this crowd at the moment the Civ 3 region does take on a spammy hue, but it will die down shortly and things will return to normal on the moderation front. As long as they aren't outright fighting or promoting piracy...
And there are plenty of intelligent, worthwhile threads out there. Give them your attention and they'll stay near the top where the masses can take note of good discussion, and then attempt to incorporate elements of it (use of the capitalization feature and of commas for instance) into their own
- Joined
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LOL....
HEHEHE....
Please emphasize some more the importance of pRoPER cAPITALIZATION. its' rell anoying to reaasd post like ths all day yo man wazzup i dont need a comma in my writing beacuse civ3 wont install for some reason it says no pirated copies
cracker
Gil Favor's Sidekick
Quote from the sign over one of the projection screens in my 130 seat lecture hall:
"Crucification continues to be a valid grading option if all other methods yield less than enthusiastic results."
(Note: the letters are set at 350 points)
"Crucification continues to be a valid grading option if all other methods yield less than enthusiastic results."
(Note: the letters are set at 350 points)
Ayatollah So
the spoof'll set you free
Which is exactly why a feature to allow CivFanatics members at large to close threads (by some sort of voting) is the only way to keep thread multiplication in check. While the "live with it" approach certainly has its merits, I think keeping all comments on one subject together has tremendous advantages. A newbie who wants to know how culture flipping works, for example, could read all about it and then not feel the need to post the 100th post asking how culture flipping works.
satchel
Prince
I am a moderator on another forum like this one - not a civ forum but one very similar in structure, with fairly rigid division of topics into subfora, and so on. (It also uses vbulletin so it looks just the same. ) Although the volume is far, far lower than Civfanatics we have many more moderators. I think the solution to the very real problem that cracker raises is to recruit more moderators. (Note: I am not volunteering! 
) I don't think you'd have much trouble finding good, willing candidates. You should really have 3-5 different moderators for each forum with as much traffic as the CivIII general discussions or strategy fora. The mods do a pretty good job here but there just aren't enough to keep up with the volume.
) Although the volume is far, far lower than Civfanatics we have many more moderators. I think the solution to the very real problem that cracker raises is to recruit more moderators. (Note: I am not volunteering! ) I don't think you'd have much trouble finding good, willing candidates. You should really have 3-5 different moderators for each forum with as much traffic as the CivIII general discussions or strategy fora. The mods do a pretty good job here but there just aren't enough to keep up with the volume.
Perfection
The Great Head.
I can go to the forum and pretty much predict all the new threads in their, it can be troublesome with a sow interet connection to sift through all the garbage
cracker
Gil Favor's Sidekick
Perhaps we need to implement the modern, Civfanatics style version of "decimate".
In Roman times, they would line up captured arimes and the decapitate, crucify, disembowel or impale every tenth person to make sure the survivors behaved and paid attention to the new rules imposed by the Roman civilization.
If we listed all the people who had an average word count of less than ten words per post but over 100 posts, we could start impaling one of them at noon GMT each day until the behavior slacks off a bit.
Its a science experiment: how many new players attracked by the PTW hype does it take to pick up on the "spam will not be tolerated" rule?
In Roman times, they would line up captured arimes and the decapitate, crucify, disembowel or impale every tenth person to make sure the survivors behaved and paid attention to the new rules imposed by the Roman civilization.
If we listed all the people who had an average word count of less than ten words per post but over 100 posts, we could start impaling one of them at noon GMT each day until the behavior slacks off a bit.
Its a science experiment: how many new players attracked by the PTW hype does it take to pick up on the "spam will not be tolerated" rule?
- Joined
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- 3,136
There are very large problems with this as it has been the topic of many debates.
1) CFC requires a LOT of time, no matter if there are 2 or 20 mods you still have tons of threads to search through. Finding posters who can spend this much time to mod is hard.
2) Trust, if TF can't trust them then forget it.
3) Maturity, if they don't show maturity and a knowledge of the rules TF cannot trust them(see rule 2)
4) Overmoderation, probably the biggest. Conflicting moderating styles causes SEVERAL problems and actually decreases the efficiency of the mods. With tons of mods the number of conflicts could be astounding.
As it is now we use a system of a few efficient mods rather than a large number of efficiency destroying mods. It works
I originally came to the Site Feedback forum to post a few compliments concerning CFC, but upon reading this specific thread, I feel I need to respond critically as well.
First of all, as was my original intent, I want to commend Thunderfall and the hard-working mods. Being fairly new to the game, and lacking the time to play for hours on end, my ability to advance to higher levels was slow in coming. However, after joining this site, and reading the outstanding advice layed out by many of the more advanced players, my game improved tremendously. I can dole out the kudos based simply on this fact alone.
When I joined, I read the forum rules, and have been trying to the best of my ability to abide by them. I'll be the first to agree that the forums would be a lot less cluttered if my fellow newbies would follow suit, but as both willj and god point out, one can still easily navigate through the forums to find interesting content. We newbs can be a nuisanse, but I think the mods are doing a pretty good job in keeping it to a minimum.
Of course, like the author of this thread, there are a few grizzled vets who strongly disagree. These people are certainly entitled to their opinion, however, I would hope that the mods are even-handed in monitoring these forums to ensure that they too follow the rules. It seems many of them are so annoyed at these "itty bitty" beings, that they feel it is their right, or perhaps duty, to belittle, insult, and essentially flame these naive "immigrants," in order to keep them in line.
I find it ironic that not only do these people voice their opinion often (spam concerning spam), but they also voice it in such a draconian manner as to be contrary to the very forum rules they claim to be defending.
Let's compare the above quote in context with a few taken from this very thread...
I'm not a mod by any stretch of the term, but I still think it's pretty obvious how cracker's quotes, in many ways, run contrary to the spirit of your first forum rule. Frankly, I find his attitude towards newbies such as myself offensive. Herd me like a cat with a pointed stick? I don't think so, cracker.
Anyway, just like the newbie clutter, I'll admit that aristrocratic vet attitudes are yet another minor annoyance that can ignored. The main point was simply to request, if you must use the rod, use it democratically, applying it to green newbie and grizzled vet alike.
Thanks again for your fine work on this site, and keep it up!
_
First of all, as was my original intent, I want to commend Thunderfall and the hard-working mods. Being fairly new to the game, and lacking the time to play for hours on end, my ability to advance to higher levels was slow in coming. However, after joining this site, and reading the outstanding advice layed out by many of the more advanced players, my game improved tremendously. I can dole out the kudos based simply on this fact alone.
When I joined, I read the forum rules, and have been trying to the best of my ability to abide by them. I'll be the first to agree that the forums would be a lot less cluttered if my fellow newbies would follow suit, but as both willj and god point out, one can still easily navigate through the forums to find interesting content. We newbs can be a nuisanse, but I think the mods are doing a pretty good job in keeping it to a minimum.
Of course, like the author of this thread, there are a few grizzled vets who strongly disagree. These people are certainly entitled to their opinion, however, I would hope that the mods are even-handed in monitoring these forums to ensure that they too follow the rules. It seems many of them are so annoyed at these "itty bitty" beings, that they feel it is their right, or perhaps duty, to belittle, insult, and essentially flame these naive "immigrants," in order to keep them in line.
I find it ironic that not only do these people voice their opinion often (spam concerning spam), but they also voice it in such a draconian manner as to be contrary to the very forum rules they claim to be defending.
Let's compare the above quote in context with a few taken from this very thread...
I'm not a mod by any stretch of the term, but I still think it's pretty obvious how cracker's quotes, in many ways, run contrary to the spirit of your first forum rule. Frankly, I find his attitude towards newbies such as myself offensive. Herd me like a cat with a pointed stick? I don't think so, cracker.
Anyway, just like the newbie clutter, I'll admit that aristrocratic vet attitudes are yet another minor annoyance that can ignored. The main point was simply to request, if you must use the rod, use it democratically, applying it to green newbie and grizzled vet alike.
Thanks again for your fine work on this site, and keep it up!
_
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