All Right, Time to Talk

Oh, I understand it.

I get what he's doing.

But I also remember no one liked some of these ideas when he was just floating them in the Help Desk...you think they will suddenly love them when they are implemented? Some will adapt and some won't care but some will walk and others will yell and scream.

We'll see...all I am saying is best be prepared for the worst.

Which ideas am I am talking about now that will cause people to scream and walk away?

So far we have talked about upgrading the board software, which the majority agree is necessary and Lanz already announced and adding new staff. Which of those two do you think will cause people to yell and scream and some to walk away?

The most common complaint I hear from people who have left Wordforge is that the community is stagnant and they got bored of debating with the same people over and over. Given that the number of posts has declined by 40% in 5 years, I'd say it's safe to assume that others who left did so for similar reasons.

So we can sit here and say it won't work, and watch Wordforge slowly decline year after year until all that's left is Diacanu, or we can try and do something about it.

I haven't said don't do it.

Hope I'm wrong.

If trying to get some real discussions and interesting content causes people to walk away because they just wanted to trade insults, then it was already hopeless, so there is nothing to lose by trying.

Look, I agree many WF posters are change adverse, but I'm trying to get specifics from you. Which changes have we talked about that you think will cause people to scream and walk away?

A) The upgrade. This has been discussed forever. People are so willing to get the board stable they've talked about giving up all our old POSTS being a worthwhile trade. I don't think upgrading the board will be that big a deal with most posters. I do not think it will cause people to leave.

B) Adding Staff. This has been done in the past. I don't see how adding staff will cause people to leave.

The only other change is something the average won't know about (not that it will be a secret) which is that the mods of forums will be encouraged to post content threads. I do not think people posting interesting threads will cause people to leave.

Stick to specifics please. I agree that some people will likely freak out over me becoming the new owner, but there is no reason to compound that by stoking fear about changes that aren't being discussed. Right now the only changes coming to WF are those listed above. Unless you see issues with them (if so lets talk about them and get it handled now) then lets all work together to make this as smooth a transition as possible.

The best way to do that is to NOT feed people's doubts, but to reassure them nothing major is changing. Do it openly and if you have a connection with the person do it privately as well. That's how we get through this with the least amount of drama as possible (this is WF there is no way it can happen with NO drama ).

Oh, and what we've talked about for additional staff are:

Supermods - Bick and John

Green Room - Dan Leach
Techforge - Tuckerfan
Camp Wordforge - Frontline and Rob Matter (he mentioned before he was a licensed personal trainer, we think with the Iron Room gone Camp Wordforge would be the best fit to try and get exercise type threads going again)
Workshop - Lanz
Press Start - Foil

The only people we've approached and have said yes were Frontline and Bick.

Do you (Tamar) or anyone else see any issues with the above members? Do you think membership will? Have any suggestions?

If you can mitigate irrationality, more power to you.

Well, lets try and figure out what people will likely flip out over and start working on a strategy from there.

Tamar, what do you think people will flip out about?

If we had the ability to know that accurately in advance, don't you think we would have used those powers to have the most perfectly happy BBS in the world?

I predict it because it happens every single time, for ever changing reasons both rational and insane and all I am saying is that you should be prepared to deal with some drama. There is no fixing that sort of thing, especially when it's irrational or revolution for revolution's sake or just a heaping helping of cray-cray.

Has Dan ever been a mod before? He's a perfect choice for Green Room.

He is perfect for the Green Room.

If nothing is changing, it's really not hard to be a mod and overall we rarely have anything that needs modding...he'll be an old pro by the time we get a lot of new people.

No owner has done this, but I suggest Ancalagon, since you are much more structurally minded that you write a moderator and an Administrator handbook. Give us what you want us to do, what your goals are, how you want to rules enforced...ect. Something we can reference and there is no ambiguity. Plus, some basic instructions for new staff members...we have all basically been thrown in and had to teach ourselves whatever we needed to do..I still get confused sometimes and it's been a decade.

People will still be able to trade insults. The red room will be the same red room, and if anything there might be a bit more latitude for insults elsewhere. At a minimum, there will be at least as much opportunity to call people pedophiles as there is now.

That sounds like a great idea. One little issue though, I've no experience being a WF mod or admin. The one board where I do have similar powers is very different.

Would you be willing to help? Or maybe more of a group thing where you start off with a basic outline, post it here in the Shelter and then as a group we add to it/modify it etc.

As I said originally, we want to keep most things relatively the same, so lets first put together a written guide to current modding/adminning and then we can tweak it from there.

Sound good?

I concur that the moderator and administrator panels can be a little daunting at first. One of the first things I would stress is when it is okay to pull the tigger on a ban and when it is not okay. There have been more than a few times where a user needed to be shut down quick, fast, and in a hurry. Is the staff still going to be able to use their judgement? Sure, it'd be subject to later review, but sometimes it has to happen quick.

Also, try the changes. If the users hate it, the changes can always be reversed. But, be prepared to ignore a few taunts. There will always be a vocal minority that dislike not just change, but anything the authority figures do. You'll try to engage them, listen to them, and perhaps even try to persuade them to see it your way. Then, two years later, when they're still complaining, you'll look back and think, "Wow, that was a stupid waste of time. I shouldn't have even bothered. Let them whine."

Hey fellas,

Congrats on inheriting the madhouse. Charlton Heston was right, "it's a madhouse!"

As you guys have probably observed, I'm not around here much anymore. A combination of school, freelance work, and parties related to school (which we will officially call "industry networking" ) has drained my free time like a Thai ladyboi drains Volpone. And this is not counting hockey season, which starts in October. It's likely I'll not have any time to moderate this place.

So yeah, keep me on if you want. Or don't. I'll do my usual contributions to the new animal discovery threads, reviews of movies, etc. I'm in my first year of a potentially four year communications degree for design, so I'll probably get a chance to work on some new skins.

Other than that, good luck and have fun.

This. You WILL get bitched at, and it will be a rare day when you don't. Any decision you make or action you take will be "wrong" to at least half the membership.

Bans. I personally tried to be very light with the ban hammer. Even let Tasvir back in several times. There were only two I absolutely would not let back in: Borgs and Ted. Ted because he's an evil motherfucker and Borgs because he actively tried to destroy the board AND involve people in an illegal torrent site without their consent. That said, there's always gonna be a spambot or what have you that manages to sneak in and wreak havoc. Your staff need to be able to respond to shit like that without calling back to Starfleet Command.

You all know, or should know, that there were very few things that tripped my trigger. Blatant racism and/or messing with personal information were the two biggest ones. That's called "Owner's Discretion" and must be used sparingly, else you're capricious.

Also, don't be afraid to pull goofy shit sometimes, like when we made Face and Baba into "admins" for a while as a gag. Livens things up.

holy balls - that's a lot of smilies to move over. what would I need to do - just "save picture as" each one and keep them all on my computer until we transfer over?

That would work, but Nick might have another idea about copying the data. I must admit, I'm overwhelmed by the number of smilies. If you are prepared to keep helping with them, that would be absolutely awesome.

yepyep. i'm kinda invested in the smilies. they are one of the best features of wf, imo.

ok, i'm gonna wait til I hear from nick to see if there's an easier way before I start.

Oh, one other thing. New users.

Wordforge gets multiple new user requests every day. Lately it's been a bit slower, but there are times when we'll get over a hundred in a single day. They're almost always spambots and shit. So whatever your process for new sign-ups, you'll need to be aware of that.

I can pack up a zip file of all the smilies, but other than that there's no easier way to do it sadly.

EDIT: I should add I'm looking into alternative options for importing, but nothing definitive has been found yet.

I saved all of them but the flags.

ok I saved 204 of the 296 flags. if i'd never heard of it or couldn't pronounce it, it didn't make the cut. but I've got all the united states, all the Canadian ones, and all major countries that I've ever heard anyone talk about.

if anyone wants Eritrea or Maldives they will just have to about it.

Your dedication is appreciated.

If PMs are not going to make the migration, we ought to tell people to download theirs if they want them.

Okay to release this one?

It doesn't seem to be active, no reason not to do so.

That's what I thought, but given the subject matter I wanted to run it by someone else before I moved it out of here.