Limit new user capabilities?

[Guest]

i wanted to follow-up on what i brought up in the Fall Out Boy thread. and with the 2019 VC Mod Election right around the corner, i figured what better time?

 

mr. sincere and I went back and forth on this subject, and while I respect his end of the debate, I would like to make my case and see what you all think.

 

i'm tired of people joining the forum and asking questions that we've all answered before. what's even more exhausting is how poorly we respond. I'm not pointing fingers at anyone, because it would be hypocritical and useless. but the popcorn gifs, the vinylzzzz comments, the "i don't know about you but i like to LISTEN to my records lululululululz!!!!" responses. ENOUGH.

 

the blame falls on two parties: 1) the person who can't take two damn minutes to google search, or even four minutes to forum search. 2) the rest of us who can't seem to let dumb questions slide.

 

in the discussion, a few different approaches were brought up.

 

isavedlatin kicked it off by suggesting we close the forum's open entry, and limit it to invite only. going further with this would involve deciding how many invites each member gets, and how they would go about earning more.

i followed up by suggesting a waiting period for users to start new topics. this could be approached 2 ways... basing it on post count or a time period.

mr sincere suggested we all just grow the fuck up

and finally, we just forget it and continue down this same annoying, unfunny, unoriginal path.

 

 

 

my reasoning behind the waiting period is this:

i've come across a handful of forums across the web that include this. it's obnoxious, but it makes sense. if you're serious about being a part of the community- whether it be to stay up on vinyl news, buy/sell/trade, make friends- whatever. if you're serious about joining, a few extra days to ask a question or even start a conversation shouldn't matter. and honestly, those people probably won't even be the ones guilty of what i'm bringing up.

fending off day 1 questions will likely bypass all the crap. it might make this person actually READ a discussion or two, and maybe get a feel for things before we all mock them into oblivion, making sure they are never to return again.

i also imagine it might help dissuade all these guys who love popping up with their 'WTB: the most sought after and expensive records you guys are talking about' threads. ok, probably not.

 

ok, i've gone on long enough here. i'm sure i have more to say about it, but i like to believe some actual conversation/debate will come out of this.

 

it's no secret that i love this place- this community. i just want to do my part to make it a little better.

and in closing, i'm no politician. i think beer should be cold, and boots should be dusty. and i think 9/11 was bad.

[Guest]

oh my god, i can't believe i just wasted so much time on that. 

the admins can't even set an avatar... how the hell could i expect them to follow through on anything of this magnitude? POP POP!

[jhulud]

GTFO with your new ideas that actually make sense!

[amnstypls]

the "mock them into oblivion" part was fucking hilarious. I agree completely.

[hudsoncomplex]

NO RUDOLPH!

[Brock N Roll]

I vote for the invitation only option.

[thebiglebowski]

My initial thought was that restricting the forum might hurt the amount of business in the sale threads but I don't deal with people who have really low post counts anyways.

 

I think invite joining only is a bad idea. I don't know a single person in my non internet life that collects vinyl. We are too few and far between for invites to make it around, unless we are just inviting random internet strangers (then, whats the point?).

 

A waiting period isn't a horrible idea but another would be to just have these new mods lock threads. When someone asks how to ship a records, they just say "duplicate thread, read the stickies", lock it, and let it drift off into the sunset.

[Guest]

 

A waiting period isn't a horrible idea but another would be to just have these new mods lock threads. When someone asks how to ship a records, they just say "duplicate thread, read the stickies", lock it, and let it drift off into the sunset.

that was one of my first points earlier. if they're looking to add a new mod, why not assign this very easy job to them?

[LPancakes]

the "mock them into oblivion" part was fucking hilarious. I agree completely.

 

i dont think this is hilarious. its kind of cruel and intimidating.

 

i think the invite idea is a bit silly. i dont know anyone on this forum and i cant remember how i found it originally because it was a long time ago, but it certainly wasnt through any existing members. i think this would just perpetuate the sense of exclusivity that a lot of people are uncomfortable with. your other ideas seem reasonable.

[amnstypls]

i dont think this is hilarious. its kind of cruel and intimidating.

i think the invite idea is a bit silly. i dont know anyone on this forum and i cant remember how i found it originally because it was a long time ago, but it certainly wasnt through any existing members. i think this would just perpetuate the sense of exclusivity that a lot of people are uncomfortable with. your other ideas seem reasonable.

should I be surprised that a brand new member doesn't find this funny?

edit - oh god, I'm seriously dying now. I reread that paragraph and the "making sure they are never to return again" is just too much.

granted, I'm stoned off my ass right now, but still... too good, Ry.

[Guest]

i dont think this is hilarious. its kind of cruel and intimidating.

 

i think the invite idea is a bit silly. i dont know anyone on this forum and i cant remember how i found it originally because it was a long time ago, but it certainly wasnt through any existing members. i think this would just perpetuate the sense of exclusivity that a lot of people are uncomfortable with. your other ideas seem reasonable.

i don't agree with it either. it was just what kind of brought me to this idea, and i wanted to at least credit him by giving it a fair chance.

[elgato48]

2019??? Also agree with everything especially on the post miniumium before thread starting

[chamb117]

if we're doing member invites (which i don't necessarily endorse), i suggest you could earn more with each positive feedback point you receive. i know some people have thousands of posts with no feedback, and for that i have no answer. but i know there are people who just troll all day because their existence is meaningless.

 

my recommendation is to move all of the "how to" and "what if" and "what do i do when" threads into a general FAQ section, and if a new user posts an ignorant thread, have a mod (or anyone who can act respectfully) refer him or her to the correct thread, lock it down and issue a warning point. (thebiglebowski basically already said it. but i think the warning points should be used more liberally by moderators.)

[thebiglebowski]

Another thing we need to make the forum better is "VC local", with subforums based on geographic location. The most repeated thread on this site is "I am going to ... for a weekend, recommend me what to do". I've posted it a couple times and get "great idea" but it never happens. Am I supposed to PM an admin?

 

And it doesn't take a masters thesis to figure out a system to set it up. By state for the US, province for Canada, country for Europe, and then "everything else". Simple.

[LPancakes]

should I be surprised that a brand new member doesn't find this funny?

 

 

 

i don't agree with it either. it was just what kind of brought me to this idea, and i thought it was fair to at least credit him by giving it a fair chance.

 

for sure. its cool that youre facilitating discussion.

 

re: the mocking thing. i didnt mean to sound like a dick in my original post. however even if i wasnt a new member id still feel a little uncomfortable about it. a lot of people here have each others backs, which dont get me wrong is awesome, but from what ive seen there can be a bit of a pack mentality when theres an easy target.

[thejesseb]

I feel like a lot of these dumb threads could be curtailed with the help of new mods. Juan does a good job but he is the only one at the moment. Now we just wait for them to actually select a few more. Also I like the idea of a short waiting period.

[thebiglebowski]

if we're doing member invites, perhaps you could earn more with each positive feedback point you receive. i know some people have thousands of posts with no feedback, and for that i have no answer. but i know there are people who just troll all day because their existence is meaningless.

 

move all of the "how to" and "what if" and "what do i do when" threads into a general FAQ section, and if a new user posts an ignorant thread, have a mod (or anyone who can act respectfully) refer him or her to the correct thread, lock it down and issue a warning point.

 

Newbies don't need a warning point unless there are repeated offenses. A "hey, read the stickies" is fine. You don't want to scare people away.

 

And let's be honest -- invite only isn't going to happen. SRC bought this site to bring customers to their distro. Making it exclusive and limiting traffic isn't what they are about and just isn't going to happen so why discuss it?

[LPancakes]

FAQ section is a great idea. maybe if some posted a question that already had a dedicated answer a mod could post "see FAQ" and immediately lock the thread before it gets out of hand. ive seen this implemented on another forum and it kept things pretty tidy.

[Guest]

if we're doing member invites (which i don't necessarily endorse), i suggest you could earn more with each positive feedback point you receive. i know some people have thousands of posts with no feedback, and for that i have no answer. but i know there are people who just troll all day because their existence is meaningless.

 

the feedback is fairly new. years of buying and selling went without record.

[amnstypls]

for sure. its cool that youre facilitating discussion.

re: the mocking thing. i didnt mean to sound like a dick in my original post. however even if i wasnt a new member id still feel a little uncomfortable about it. a lot of people here have each others backs, which dont get me wrong is awesome, but from what ive seen there can be a bit of a pack mentality when theres an easy target.

you're right. and I think that's what Ry is trying to accomplish. I just found humor in the way he stated it.

many people on here are awesome and have helped me out a lot. shit, in the last two days I've sold two records, bought two, and agreed to a trade. the people on here are good once you've earned trust. those same people (myself included) will rip a n00b a new asshole for asking a dumb question. I was on the receiving end of that at one point too.

I REALLY can't wait for if and when this system goes into effect, and someone STILL posts a dumb thread.

three, maybe even four new assholes will be ripped on that poor soul.

[bigbruise]

I feel the invites would decrease new user traffic to an almost extinct point. Which some of you may love. But you never know when a band member or label owner wants to chime in on a subject you're invested in. We're pretty fortunate here with the amount of inside info we get.

Wait time would be nice, requiring a low post count makes sense. Seeing you need 5-20 posts to make a fresh topic will encourage searching and decrease bullshit faq threads.

[nobodybrokeurheart]

20 posts to make a topic sounds fair as hell.

[GradedOnACurve]

I think there is a general consensus that invite only is a bad idea.

 

I think a waiting period for creating new threads and/or a moderation queue is good for two reasons

 

1) Keeping variations of theusedguy from creating threads to find more colors of The Used

2) Keeping various incarnations of JennyMiller182 and TheDrewskiMonster from ripping people off

[LPancakes]

you're right. and I think that's what Ry is trying to accomplish. I just found humor in the way he stated it.

many people on here are awesome and have helped me out a lot. shit, in the last two days I've sold two records, bought two, and agreed to a trade. the people on here are good once you've earned trust. those same people (myself included) will rip a n00b a new asshole for asking a dumb question. I was on the receiving end of that at one point too.

I REALLY can't wait for if and when this system goes into effect, and someone STILL posts a dumb thread.

three, maybe even four new assholes will be ripped on that poor soul.

 

i realized after i posted that you might have been talking about how he worded it. i apologize for that. 

 

i agree. theres an awesome fraternity aspect to this board and i understand why one would be protective of that. theres just a little bit of light hazing... although maybe this strengthens the community, i have no idea. i also didnt realize there was only 1 mod; what are you, socialists?

[sjb2k1]

the thing with setting a post count for making threads is then you have a bunch of shitbirds posting useless things to get their count so they can make their shitbird thread