STAFF MEETING

Let's have a good old fashioned, anything goes, no idea is too crazy, think tank.

There has been a lot of the usual shit lately and while overall I am not overly impressed with any of it, it has got me to thinking.

There are some points that are valid and the fact is, there is getting to be an old, tired worn out feeling to the same old shit and maybe there does need to be some changes..but what they are and how I am not entirely sure about.

It was funny, when there was a chance everything was lost when we had the upgrade it seemed like there were plenty of people almost hoping this was going to be a new start...maybe that isn't a bad idea overall.

Some initial thoughts:

1. Finding and using the new logo Scorp did that I believe a large majority wanted in the contest that went nowhere.

2. Restart at zero posts. A fresh start with blank pages. Give a couple weeks warning in case anyone wants to save anything.

3. Reset all rep to zero, lower the limit back to 15 a day sans Admins.

4. Possibly restructuring the forums again.

5. Possibly reviewing and re-writing the rules to be as short and concise as possible.

6. How do you all feel about the staff and it's structure..how could it be better?

7. Are there ways we can help make WF more fun, accessible and appealing for everyone?

The point isn't to lose what WF is about but perhaps reboot it in some ways to inject some freshness and interest beyond chewing ourselves to death, while maintaining as much freedom as possible.

Ideas? Thoughts? Comments??

I think everyone went to bed early . . .

I've been running ideas around in my head. Maybe shrinking the number of fora we have, combining some of them, stuff like that. Reworking the rules to make them more clear. Banning Packard. That sort of thing.

Can you give me a few days? Can we set it up next week?

If you say so Ms. Abrams.

Well, we're not going to jump into this without thinking it out, Chup. Wordforge isn't going to change tomorrow. Tho swapping out the logo or re-opening the New Logo Contest might be a good idea.

Considering your dual Toilet Duck is more popular than you are, you'd think that you'd appreciate the value of a bit of shaking off the complacency dust.

Although the accusations of staff apathy are beginning to seem more accurate than usual.

Aye.

Why erase the past? There are days I'd like to go back to the beginning...it's sad that's all just gone.

FROM MY COLD DEAD HAND!!!

Hmmm...

Probably a good idea.

Fourteen maidens of virtue true supplied to Paladin the first of every month. Beyond that, I got nothin'...

I'm not sure I should say it out loud.



But, if you think about it...where this board began, what it is now, the changes in ownership, it makes sense...

How about...

changing the name of the board?

Nope. Wordforge will be Wordforge. I want to nurture the community, not level it to build a shopping mall.

Just sayin'...the name doesn't really fit. And you don't have to "level it" to re-invent it a little...

Yes, absolutely, let's do this now.

No, leave the rep system alone.

I'm open to this idea.

Yes. I've offered up simplified versions before I'll see if I can dig one up.

10% increase in salary for everybody all around. Actually a set of general guidelines for the staff might be helpful.

Stuff like -

• You're a member, enjoy WF as you always have
• Only take staff action when necessary and do so publicly
• Understand the reason behind the rules
• Intro to the Mod control panel

And so on.

Also I'm not quite sure what role the Tech Admins play when it comes to moderation. Are they supposed to moderate or only provide tech support?

Plenty of ways. I'll hafta add some more thoughts later but off the top of my head the arcade seems to be a big draw, we should add more games and get rid of the ones that don't work.

Weeding out duals would help a lot. So would ensuring every flame free forum is indeed flame free.

On a minor note I've lost the option to search IP Addresses in my control panel.

Wordforge is our name and it fits fine, changing it would be a big mistake.

As long as it has a transparent background and looks good on both light and dark colors, sure. I'm not going to get behind anything that doesn't look at least decent on all of our current color schemes (i.e. the current logo does a pretty good job).

Just because five people thought it was a good idea doesn't make the site 'fresh' or inviting at all to newcomers. No matter what our history is, they'd take one look at what we've got and wonder why the hell they should join what looks like a fledgling board.

Meh, no skin off my back.

Y'know, the only section that really needs restructuring is "Knowledge," and even then, those work. It's OK to have quieter forums, and they are pretty discrete topics.

However, one thing that might help is moving the "Entertainment" section above it - it's generally a little more lively, and it keeps the more popular forums "above the fold," so to speak.

Oh, this again.

We have seven rules. They fit in something like 700 pixels of height. We might be able to do some wordsmithing to simply cut the number of words, but in the end, they're the same:

1. No flaming and trolling outside of the Red and Gray Rooms.
2. Anything that could cause legal trouble for the board is verboten.
3. Coming in guns blazing could get you banned.
4. Warn people before you post graphic images. Nudity is a no-no.
5. Posting personal information or communications without permissions is verboten.
6. Fucking rep bullshit, proving what a goddamn awful system it is.
7. Rules subject to change.

I mean, as I said, the number of words could be thinned down, but that doesn't really accomplish anything. It is in my opinion yet another membership bugaboo.

Eh, some could stay, some could go. I mean, hell, if it wasn't to help keep this place running sometimes, I wouldn't really need to be here. I do think, however, that moderator discretion should only be used to stop behavior that is blatantly (and effectively) destructive. Like if someone just started posting thread after thread after thread in the Red Room, with the body of each being a single LOLcat or something. I mean, yeah, no spamming rules, but it is undeniable that they were trying to prevent the forum from being used.

Oh, plenty of them. And at the back of the mind, we know what they are, too. WF is hilariously inaccessible because of laissez-faire moderation and what can frequently be described as an actively hostile user base in the most popular forum on the site. It is, ironically, a good parallel with the current Star Trek film - we either hold true to the gospel and get the preexisting fanbase that is still going to bicker amongst themselves anyway, or we make something more universal, using the gospel as a framework only and, as a side benefit, filter out those that lack the perspective as to what is really important.

There's something that I come across frequently with the free open-source software movement. The premise there is that by rejecting rules and restrictions for their software, it is truly free - you can do anything you want with it. However, having that freedom is worthless if you cannot exercise it. That's why FOSS is, in general, pretty awful in terms of usability - it's freedom for the tight-knit niche of developers, but not for the public at large.

I think it's much the same situation here. The established user base enjoys the freedom of the board, but that very same freedom makes the site less palatable to new users who don't want to deal with, quite frankly, a bunch of bullshit and infighting. That's not 'freedom' to them. That's a waste of time.

And what a lot of people here fail to really get sometimes is that there's a difference between 'calling a space a spade' and 'calling a spade a total fucking dipshit who deserves to be beaten to death with a splintery 2x4 for daring to disagree with me.' Here in Americaland, we cherish our freedoms, but we also recognize that using them to be a dick is the fastest way to put them at risk. I truly think WF has lost the distinction there. I think that a good percentage of the board has forgotten that the entire point was to not have to worry about being censored for their expression. It was not so that they could be douchebags simply because they can.

Anyway, some food for thought. I look forward to that picture of me photoshopped onto Wizard Neroon's body to resurface when this thread is made public .

Is opening the Green room to politics really the best idea or would we be better off with the other compromise floating around and tightening up the Red Room to strictly the controversial and newsy topics and opening another forum for free-for-all drama and trolling and keeping Green light and airy community goodness?

Okay, I'll say it

The Green Room sucks with political threads in it. It's not a relaxing atmosphere anymore. I think we should have a separate forum with GR rules and Red Room content. Call it the Yellow Room. Maybe even make it a sub-forum of the GR to hit home that it really does have GR rules. Thoughts?

Re: Okay, I'll say it

Hmm. You should'a put this in the Staff Meeting thread.

Yeah, I sort of agree. It's changed the whole atmosphere of the Green Room. This is something we could address with a general forum reorganization.

Re: Okay, I'll say it

K. It's in the staff meeting thread.

I am inclined to agree.

Politics doesn't jibe with the intent of the Green Room at all. It was a decent quick-fix, stop gap measure, but I think a moderated red room type forum would serve better in the long run.

The Green Room has it's own special vibe and it is a shame to lose it.

Just make it a sub forum of the Red Room, call it the Demilitarized Zone or something and call it a day.

Rewriting the rules is pointless as it will just encourage people to try and find new loopholes in them, and if we are going to say that it is the spirit of the rules that will be enforced rather than the exact wording then there is no point rewriting anyway.

Wiping the board, be it in removing old posts, rep, etc is a bad idea in my opinion.

I always liked the idea of the portal being a place for user generated articles that could link into discussion on the forums. In terms of attracting new members it would be one of the most successful, but at the same time it would involve the most work and commitment, something that would make it impractical.

Ok, so the shit in my life has died down a bit and I can consider these issues. Personally I think the following:-

I am all for a new logo and have wanted to see one for a long time. If people aren't happy with Scorp's then lets run a proper competition.

I'm split on this. I understand why this has bee proposed - basically to rid the board of all the dross its had in recent times. But, I also agree with Kyle. If you remove everything then what is left for new members to enjoy? Mind you, that said it would only take a matter of days for new topics and threads to start, during which it is unlikely that there will be many new members, if at all.

I would be against resetting member's post counts though as people would still want some link to the past.

I have advocated this for a long time. If people are so concerned about rep why not actually make it fun again? Sure, there will be a shit storm for a week when it is reset, but afterwards people will actually begin to enjoy it and I very much believe that the amount of humourous and constructive posts will increase as people try to "win" rep for other users.
4. Possibly restructuring the forums again.

"As possibel" is very important here. Nothing should be left out. I very much believe though taht the rules should be re-written. They are vague and ineffective at present.

Leave it as it is. Although, I very much feel that the staff needs to show a united front to the rest of the board and I have seen other mods and admins passing judgment publically in regular threads about whether or not my actions or those of other staff members were appropriate. That just feeds shitstorms and dvisions and I think its very important that staff opinions about other staff's actions should be restricted to the Shelter. That's how it works in professional outfits in the real world.

Rotate the arcade game choice.

Bring back news bulletins.

Have a Star Trek sub-forum in Media Central in line with most of our fan origins, and also in an attempt to draw more people over from Trekbbs, the link to which we will never get rid of.

Have contests.

Have "official" threads like an official picture thread, or stickied threads on popular topics.

You know, with the freedoms we have I think this is very difficult to do with the membership as it is. I felt that a few years ago we had lightening in a bottle. There was asuch a good balance of people and from many parts of thr world. Now we have a very polarised board with the same old characters spouting the same old shit. Problem is that if you introduce rules to stop the shit then people will possibly leave.

A board is very much the sum of its members. I think the biggest problem we have is that the membership isn't as good a mix of people as it was and a lot of the veterans, including myself, have gotten bored with the repetition of the usual suspects.

Oh, and the Green Room should not be used for political debate. It is the area in which people are most likely to become passionate and it will make the mods' jobs twice as hard as people begin to forget what they are posting in.

We need to re-classify the diarrhea that baba spills in every thread as trolling and boot him out.


Seriously.

I must have missed the "no trolling" rule.

I mean in places like MC where's he constantly shitting all over the place.

So, what, can't get traction under spamming so we'll reclassify it as trolling?

We don't get to claim seven simple rules and then to play Internet Lawyers ourselves to find some loophole for this.

If we want to make it trolling, and frankly, I certainly don't, then we have to have the balls to actually codify it. If we can't live with it applying to everyone, then we damn well can't live with it being bent to fit one person. At least, I'm pretty sure that's not what we're supposed to be about.

Trolling, spamming, I don't care which.

Either baba does not have the mental/social skills to interact with others in a halfway coherent manner or he's putting us all on.

Either way, I'm sick of it. I'm totally fucking sick of it.

And I'm sick of "Welp, we can't prosecute him 'lessen we prosecute other people, too." Well, show me any waterheaded imbeciles on this board that post the diarrhea that he does, and I'll GLADLY prosecute them.

You know the ignore feature exists for a reason.

Aquehonga and Starguard are not much better than Baba. I've run Baba-related searches into the ground, and I think so has Tamar, and as far as I can tell he's not a dual. He may be play-acting, but he seems to be a real person.

I know what you mean about being fed up. He keeps popping in to Media Central threads that are going well, generating actual discussions, and posting his drug-addled crap.

But here's the thing: I don't want a spam rule. It's way too subjective, and "I know it when I see it" is no kind of standard for doing anything. We'd wind up "punishing" Baba and a couple others, then it would morph into anyone we didn't like. So we're going to have to deal with it. I've edited out a couple of Baba's more egregious posts, trying to get his attention.

The trolling rule covers quite a bit of questionable Baba posts.

Supreme court justice Potter Stewart disagrees.

I don't see this as a slippery slope affair.

Understood.

Would you mind affording other staff members the same discretion?

Not at all. If there's a discussion going on in Media Central and Baba pops in with "Trio should have bene lipsitck lebsian", go ahead and edit it out. DON'T delete his post, just edit it to blank.

Ignore feature and modding are incompatible.