Hey Ben...Hope all is well.

I know you must be tired of hearing my recommendations but, I gotta ask a favor. Please consider the following:

There seems to be a current fight between those who enjoy freedom with their public forums and others who would appreciate a more structured and narrow topic to discuss. I, personally, feel that a compromise could be reached by redesigning your homepage.

How do you ask? Well...for starters, take a look at two websites that have very large and active online communities:

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/

and

http://www.bjork.com/unity/

okay...now look at your homepage. notice something different? both of these websites put very little attention to their Forums on the homepage...but inside, both have much larger communities existing with not nearly as much drama as your site.

Why? Pretty simple...for a lot of people a website is a place to get information. By paying so much attention to your forum section you are drawing people into it..And what do they find? Discussions that have very little relevance to Prince...Then they get upset and pissed off and flame wars start...

Now, I do think that some of the extra moderation you kids have been doing is needed. And Im sure that you will bring the GD back somehow and things will get better. However, you aren't going to stop all the complaints unless you de-emphasize the forum all together.

A lot of people want the old org back..Well, give it back to them (to an extent). Create a homepage that is similar to it and let them ignore the Forum section all together. But, by having it all over the homepage, it sorta taunts them to come in and see all the stuff that's good AND BAD about a forum group.

You will never change the dynamics of an internet forum group...and all the monitoring in the world wont change that...


just my drunken two cents..

-nicholas

Way to choose a forum skeletonkee!

I agree and re-state my vote for this. It can still be a fan community. Just take away all the stats and have one free forum and the rest heavily moderated. I'd say keep doing what you're doing as what you are doing is still very good and very appreciated, but I can tell that there is stress being placed on YOU and the crew. Half the jokers here who act all dramatic and teary eyed are not truly stressed and do not understand or do not care.

The other half just want things to be fun. There's gotta be somewhere in the middle; in fact, I'm sure of it. Maybe not my suggestion, maybe so, but somewhere.

Seriously, I think it's a good idea to approach this as a design challenge. That's what I was trying to do in my thread too.

SkletonKee said:

On both of those sites you need a shovel to dig through the shit.

This site is bone simple.

Perfect for glancing at to see what's new.

Keep it clean Ben.

squirrelgrease said:

True...but thats not the point I was trying to get across...Both have a lot more content and much more of an agenda then the org...thus creating the need for all the clutter...

I stand by my initial post. Good observation though...

by the way...this homepage is looking rather cluttered too...all the type is starting to bleed into eachother...dont cha think?

wow...no comment from the org, huh? damn benm, stop having a personal life...DAMN IT!!

bump because its just as relevent as ever and Ben seemed to miss it the first time out...


can i submit one more recommendation?

Why not encourage people to use the "Report To Moderation" function more often...How many people know that there is a function within this function that allows people to report a thread as *newsworthy*...

The news section here is completly dead...I know Kevin used to spend much time and care but had to stop doing it cause of time constraints..Why not find someone who is willing to take the time and care that Kevin used to... That (plus the before mentioned recommendations) would stop those news seekers from even having to visit the forum sections for their news...

I would really like to hear a responce from you, Matt or Kevin on my recommendations...endulge me here.

Good reccomendations SkeletonKee
I have a new respect for you

Blue
Dont play me

I don't think the forums should b burried, but it mite b a good idea to move the news section to the left top of the main page and leave the new and most frequented GD-threads from the main page, mayb even the music non prince threads also. Further i think moderation should focus on keeping topics in the correct forum, attracting news to the news section and perhaps repetitive personal unprovoked attacks, or intentionally highjacking a forum or something. A limit of one new thread a day per person might help also. Same goes 4 one nickname per ip adress. Thread deletion won't work cause, well, it's always subjective in the first place, it's frustrating for posters as well as moderators and u cannot have strict rules about it. I'd say if u have the possibility to easily move threads from one forum 2 another, delegate some authority 2 frequent and long time posters and give them limited permission to move, not delete or modify threads.

im bumping this b*tch until ben responds to it..

while i dont agree with everything spcms recommends...i like where he/she is coming from...

In best Barbra voice:

"Benny can you hear me? Benny can you hear me? Benny can you hear me, dearly?"

Interesting suggestions, I will definitely consider many of them. Thank you for bringing them to my attention.

Look for changes of some sort in the next few weeks.