Let's make a plan.

[Thorgal]

<b>Note:</b> Any additions on my side will be added to this post ONLY. Don't expect any replies from me. Oh, and if for some reason your post got deleted, we have a good reason for it. See below. We are generally open for replies though! :)
Also, feel free to join #ngemu on EFNET (use mirc, or http://www.ngemu.com/chat/index.php) if you want to give your $0.02 about all this.

<b>Note #2:</b> if your post is now removed even though you suggested something, it has been removed because your suggestion has now been included in the ".plan". Nothing personal, not at all, but by minimizing the number of posts in this thread, we keep it clean & efficient. Thanks for your reply, we haven't forgotten yer name ;)
<br>

Alright, so Emuforums has a problem. So we need a plan. Then let's make one. Let's forget all the arguments and complaints, and instead try to come up with a restructuring plan based that will bring this forum back to a respectable level.

So let's come with several statements first:<ul type="square"><li>NGEmu is a large emulation site. We have many members, a popular forum, and problems are bound to occur. Our task is to fix these problems as soon as they're detected (preferrably quicker than we usually do). As long as that happens, no one can or should take the blame.

<li>We have many members that only register so that they won't see any banners. Nothing wrong against that, we can't force them to post; no reason to ban these people. To make it clear: <b>only</b> if you have 0 posts and haven't logged in (either @ Emuforums or NGEmu) for 30 days, your account is deleted. This way, the user table stays clean, and that's the only reason. That's the way it currently is, and I don't see any reason why it should be changed.

<li>Yes, there are lots of lamers in the emuscene. Yes, Emuforums isn't exactly great atm. That doesn't mean it's a hopeless situation. Stop being pessimistic and cheer up! ;)

<li>Emuforums has more than just emulation subfora. Some of these are useful (eg. webdev/programming), others are not (eg Test/spam). Rather than making it an emulation-only forum, we need to decide which subfora need to go, and which should stay.
</ul>
I'm pretty sure I've forgotten lots of things, but it's a start. Now, here's the plan:


<b>A <b>semi-</b>clean start</b>

A semi-clean start? Yes. (rephrased it, people seemed to misinterpret it ;)). Some say it's too late for that, personally I don't think it's ever too late for a restart. Others say that some people won't be happy with this, because they'll lose posts, information, etc. Point is, do we actually <i>want</i> people who care about a high post count? No. We have plenty of decent members who are here to help and be helped, and that's all that matters to them. So that's all that matters to us.

<b>Ofcourse, we should only remove <i>useless</i> fora and threads; there's no point in removing useful threads. "Semi-clean start" refers to the removal of the former, ie. the removal of the subfora that should go and the culling of subfora that should stay.</b>

As for the information that would get lost, I wonder what the current info:lame ratio is anyway. Why not put a sticky post with all the common Q's and A's, and links to helpful sites. <b>This includes all the common Final Fantasy & other common game questions.</b>Then, after the restart, when questions are asked, there are plenty of members who should be able to help. As soon as a question is being asked that's already answered before, or has already been covered in the FAQ-sticky, simply answer 'Use the search.' and lock the topic (or delete, but not too often since people should learn from locked topics). This way, every subforum should stay clean and informative.

So, we need to stress the fact that the search option can and should be tried before asking something. We also need to make sure everyone knows the rules. Aside from the stickies you already see in each subforum, the most important rules for the subforum in question will also be placed between the post and the submit button.


So now we have the fundamentals. We now need to decide what needs to go (and what should stay). I don't know these boards as good as others, so I'll start with just one suggestion, also based on the opinion of others:<ul type="square"><li>Test/Spam subforum goes. Although its theoretic purpose seemed logical, it just didn't work out. Ah well.<br><b>In the future, you can go into the user CP and when you go into the "Edit signature/avatar" section, you get a preview button; it makes a dummy post to show you how it looks in a real environment. This nullifies all reasons for having a test forum.</b>

<li>Let's remove ePSXe->General Troubleshooting, it's kinda vague.. can be merged with the main ePSXe forum.

<li>ePSXe->ePSXe beta compatibility is kinda outdated.. we think we can make it a bug report <b>thread</b> instead, but we'll check with calb to make sure.

<li>Webdevelopment/Programming is quite succesful atm, rarely any spam, etc.. I think we can all agree that it's a forum that should stay.

</ul><br>
Anyway, I'm open to suggestions, however, suggestions <b>only</b>. Any post that:<ul type="square"><li>includes complaints only;

<li>contains personal attacks/arguments, or saying that other boards are so much better, <b>without</b> saying how we could learn from them (if comparisons are actually fair; don't forget that NGEmu/Emuforums is quite a big project);

<li>constantly refers to single people who should do this or that ('Bobbi this', 'Bobbi that', anyone?) .. we all -and I mean all- do this together. If for some reason you still want to refer to the admins, just use the term "they" or something;
</ul>
.. will be removed right away. That's not a matter of strictness or admin-power abuse, but it's simply a way to keep this thread 100% clean and informative. <b>Realistic suggestions only</b>, and nothing else. If you don't have something you absolutely want to add, don't reply. And I know some of you have already suggested several things, feel free to copy-paste them here again.
<br><br><hr color="white" size="1" width="80%" align="left"><b>Comments on the 'inactive mods' question</b>

Yes, there's quite a list of mods that aren't active anymore. The point is, they got busy/lost interest, and we didn't remove them from the mods list. My suggestion for the future is let only the currently active mods stay mods, and put the others in an 'old friends' group or something ;) And the list also includes a lot of ngemu newsposters, which only became mods so they had more control if they required it. That doesn't mean they volunteered as mods. That's been a mistake, we know that, we won't <b>automatically</b> make newsposters mods anymore (that does <b>not</b> mean they won't be mods at all anymore).

<b>Because of this slight mess, we need more mods</b>... 'specialised' mods preferrably. In other words, 3-4 people checking off-topic, 3-4 checking N64, etc. etc.. might work better than 10 people modding the entire forum.
<hr color="white" size="1" width="80%" align="left">
<hr color="white" size="1" width="80%" align="left"><b>Comments on the 'Use the search' question</b>

... how does "<b>Please</b> use the search next time. :)" sound? Combine that with a link to the page which gives the answer to their question, and there's nothing rude about that I guess. And when someone asks a question that's already been answered several time (or already answered in the FAQ-sticky), it's still <b>his/her</b> mistake for not checking the FAQ and the older threads first. Sure, the search button can be overlooked, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't frequently stress the fact that the search option can and should always be tried first.
<hr color="white" size="1" width="80%" align="left">
<hr color="white" size="1" width="80%" align="left"><b>Comments on the off-topic forum</b>

Alright, this one's difficult. It's full of spam and useless posts, yet some of us want it to stay, simply because an off-topic discussion once in a while can be entertaining, and it helps building up the Emuforums community. That is, without all the spam and lamers...

So, we have two basic options here:<ol type="A"><li>Make sure we have 3-4 strict mods who make sure the off-topic forum is being used in a way we want it to be. An automatic ban system (ya know, the ban points thing) is already being worked on, which can aid the mods in the moderating process.<li>Make the off-topic forum accessible only to people with, say, 500 posts or more. It works on several other fora; the question is, does it work for Emuforums? Personally, I think the "X number of posts required" goes right against the "quality of posts counts, not the quantity" principle. But ofcourse, I'm not the only one here.</ol>Let's give this forum a thought..
<hr color="white" size="1" width="80%" align="left">
<hr color="white" size="1" width="80%" align="left"><b>Comments on the hardware/software fora</b>

It has been suggested to combine the Software and Hardware Discussion forums, seeing that they both show similarities. Let's give it a good look and see what we all think.
<hr color="white" size="1" width="80%" align="left">

[Samor]

I've seen this working really well on another forum: Allow access to offtopic forums only after X amounts of posts. You could say this will chase people away, but you are sure that the people around here are here because of the ng emulation, not to post all kinds of offtopic stuff. Of course you'll have people that will spam in order to reach those forums, but you can easily spot and ban them, providing there are enough mods. A possible downside is that many regulars here have to restart as well and might find it annoying that they arent able to post in the offtopic forums immediately.

Another thing....it would be very, VERY useful to have a FAQ up for the most popular questions/games, in particular Final Fantasy. I fully understand that this is a popular game, people like to talk about it and want to play it, but questions about these games are asked so often that problems with other games are harder to spot and get forgotten. IMO that's bad, since, I think, the purpose of psx emulation is to be able to emulate a large variety of games as good as possible. Now, if it is only FF I think this could eventually even hurt psx emulation. Far fetched maybe, but in any case that game needs a faq. As far as I know Lord Kane made some excellent faqs about those games.

[LanGaidin]

I'm not sure I like that idea. First, I think that judging anything on post count just isn't a good idea. The users on these forums have already proven that they can't handle it (Yes, that's a generalization. If you didn't do that, don't take offense at it, I'm not talking about you. :p). Second, I think that there are plenty of people who aren't able to help out a whole lot with emu related questions, who can carry on a normal conversation in an off-topic forum, without spamming (Including yours truly).

Personally, I think that having an off-topic forum that would be open to everyone would be fine, as long as there were 3 or 4 active mods watching the chan. I think there are basically 2 problems with it right now. First, because of it's nature, it requires lots of moderation. Some people's definition of spam is different than ours, so their posts will need to be deleted, and have them informed we consider it spam. The current way the moderation of the boards work, that's just not possible, with as many posts as there are in Off-Topic. Second, the forum is such a morass right now, that there's no cleaning it up. I (And some other mods I've spoken with) do not even go into that forum, because there's no real way to clean it up with moderation at this point. If it is completely cleared out, then started over fresh once there are several active moderators for it, I think it will be fine.

[Snake785]

ePSXe->ePSXe beta compatibility is kinda outdated.. we think we can make it a bug report thread instead, but we'll check with calb to make sure.

Or how about renaming the forum to ePSXE Bug Reports?

[Betamax]

WRT the search function:

Currently we have the search function availible in the top left corner of every page. This might be immediately noticable to some. What I would like to suggest is that a "quick search" option be implemented, which could be located in the user bit on the main forum listings. It would be more obvious to ppl that there is a search system available and make it simplier for new users to use. A phase along the lines of "Having problems? Search for common answers here" would also highlight this.

I can see one problem with closing threads with just a message "use the search". If this was done a situation could arise where we have eg 30 closed threads saying "use the search" and 1 thread with the answer. In such case if anyone does use the search, they would have to look through countless "use the search" threads before they might stumble upon the actual thread with the answer.

[CKemu]

Agreed, so how about having the top 10 or so most common questions sticky in the relavent thread, this would get past a FAQ forum area, as we all know, no-one sadly seems to read the readme's or use search, so perhaps a top 10 at the top would mean that as they go into the relavent area, the question (perhaps) they are looking for is already at the top of the page, thus prompting them to look at it first.

With regards to off-topic, I believe it should be renamed to 'open discussion' that tends to lead people to discuss, rather than go way off topic, posting what quite frankly is shyte, and immature, though off-topic is more a fun area to talk, people take the off part of the title alittle tooo far.

I believe with the more private area granted to respected members (those with high(ish) post counts (this shows they post no-banned material and help out), recommended by mods/admin, or are important to the scene (eg auths, plugindevs/ etc)) will allow for sensible and good conversation where members like Shadow-lady won't be hassled, we can talk like the days of 'lonely night' without the risk of $£%£'s ruining it with spiralling crap)

The reason a post count limit on the private area would work and not be based on quantity is as follows....

Though you may hate me for this I see no reason for the screenshots area increasing post count, though it could be argued that they are contributing to inforamtion and it encourages people to post screenshots, but there is the point that a GBA screenshot aarea is illegal, not because the pics are bad, but the source of these pics, now I dump GBA games for backup, and hence take screenmies, but we all know where many of you got the GBA games from in the first place, so its like picture proof of it!!

ONLY emu specific areas may count towards posts, and so 'open discussion would not increase posts, nore would the games discussion unless u created a general games help area, but general games discussion, noramlly breaks down to what gib looks best, so not really helpfull.

The private (theoretical) respected/known members section would increase posts, as I consider that it could be used for general informative discussion and for community, and those adding to the community should have their posts count.

just some badly spelt thoughts on the matter, more to come but I won't to see what thorgal/bobbi say first, perhaps those two will TOTALLY disagree.....

[CKemu]

My idea for the structure of these forums, its only an idea, for opinions etc, and would be a theoretical look of the index of these forums

(+ Post Count) means your post count would increase.
(= Post Count) Means your post count stays the same.

Site Discussion

Announcements and Rules (+ post count)
Site feedback (+ post count)
News Submissions (+ post count)

NG Emulation

ePSXe (+ post count)
VGS (+ post count)
AdriPSX (+ post count)
Plugins (+ post count)

PCSX2 (+ post count)
Plugins (+ post count)

Project 64 (?? do we need to bother until someone else takes it up to 1.5 or higher) (+ post count)
Nemu 64 (+ post count)
1964 (+ post count)
Apollo (+ post count)
Plugins (+ post count)

Visualboy Advance (+ post count)
Boycott Advance (+ post count)

DC (emus- divided like the others by different emulators) (+ post count)

Saturn (emus - Divided like the otehrs by different emulators) (+ post count)

Genral Emulation (Just a few to start?)

Master System (+ post count)
Mega Drive (+ post count)
SNES (+ post count)
NES (+ post count)
GameBoy (+ post count)

Discussion

Open Discussion (= post count)
BATARD section (don't know what to call it, but it would be as mentioned in other posts for the recognised/respected members to chat) (+ post count)
Game Discussion (= post count)
Technical Dission (+ post count)
Development (+ post count)

Art/Graphics

Screenshots (= post count)
Graphics (there seems to be many artists out here), it would be for Avatars, personal work, opinions, portfolio, and arty questions. (+ post count)

[sithspawn]

What about the (currently) next gen consoles, CKEmu (such as GCN, PS2, XBox)? I know it might still be too early to hope for any kind of emulation on these, but people who have ideas about emulation of those consoles can post there, which may lead to some new emulator project. Those ideas might even be implemented in other areas, including the currently available emulators.

[CKemu]

Well PCSX2 covers the start of PS2 emulation (here's to the future), and with regards to the GC, and XBox, I think they 2 could be added, but I wasn't sure about adding them as only authors or experienced programmers would be able to make relative comments, and frankly u would get lamers saying when will a Xbox emu be out, will it support blah blah, and I think we should have, but to be frank until a emu is started then there is no point, and it will be awhile before one is started/publicly anounced, so when it is relavent I think they should be included.

[Shiori]

Because of this slight mess, we need more mods... 'specialised' mods preferrably. In other words, 3-4 people checking off-topic, 3-4 checking N64, etc. etc.. might work better than 10 people modding the entire forum.

it might... but then again I think the current practice of promoting 3-4 people to admin who universally moderate the entire forum is still a better idea, as iirc they can only act on the subfora they have mod priviledges, NOT the other forums. Something REALLY lame can be happening on the other boards, yet the mod can't do anything, because he's moderating off-topic only... so the most he can do is notify the mod who's supposed to be modding it, or an admin (whenever one's around, that is). We need REAL ACTIVE admin, though...

Or a super mod designation could be another alternative.

We have to think about the different timezones too... for example, I and some other people live over here in Asia, some guys live in Europe, some in the Americas. You need to assign mods so that there'll always be at least one admin browsing the boards during free periods/work (:p) [aka daytime] while others take a nap/work a night job, etc [aka nighttime]. Kinda like working in shifts, i guess. I hope you got what I meant in that statement. :p

[CKemu]

^ Good idea, complex but something to consider, perhaps 1 mods from each time zone (America/Europe/Asia) + 1 admin mod, making 4) for each section??

[Shiori]

Well, let's see the breakdown of it:

Europe:

Bobbi (Germany)
Thorgal (The Netherlands)
Betamax (Armagh, Northern Ireland)
EmuManiac (Germany)
dixon (Belfast, UK)
calb, galtor (Spain)
Lewpy (So. England)
lu_zero (Italy)
Pete Bernert (Germany)

USA/Canada:

Bgnome (At School [:p when are ya gonna graduate dude? j/k])
RVWinkle (Virginia, USA)
sxamiga (North Highlands, California USA)
Keith and Sandie
LanGaidin (Indiana)
kairi00 (49° 11' N 123° 10' W - That's Canada :p)
CD (I think)
Ryos

South America (same timezone as North America, i think, give or take 2-3 hours):

Shadow Lady (Colombia, Shadow World)
Roor (Argentina)

Asia/Oceania

fluffy (Australia)
Evil Squall (On earth [actually he's now on a ship to Colombia ;))


So in a nutshell we have a lot of admin/mods from North America and Europe, almost none from the Asian/other regions.


If you find this irrelevant to the discussion, feel free to take note of it and delete it. ;)

[Keith]

You forgot one part of the calculation .. out of those who actually mods anymore. :p

[Shiori]

That's true, but I gave them the benefit of the doubt. Like Bobbi said a few days ago, some of them work in the NGEmu BackOffice, others probably just needed some time off.

And Lewpy, Roor, Pete and lu_zero simply never found any reason to use them. ;) it's probably more of a courtesy to them, a honorary designation.

[Bobbi]

Heh, keep in mind NGEmu is being restructured ... the current admin system and many of the admins won't work in the new system any more (of course for others, nothing will change).

A mod for one section is listed on the top as responsible mod and his main job is to look after that section ... that does *not* mean he doesn't have enough rights to perform actions in another part of the forum, it's just not his main responsibility.

This finally seems to work out to something ... ;)

[Kane]

I think that a lot of interesting points have been raised here.

I agree that the Spam forum should go. It seems to attract undesirable people for some reason.
I believe that a more agressively moderated 'Off-Topic' is the answer, rather than a post count delimited forum. As you said, It goes against the whole idea of Quality of posts
I think that the specialised mods is a good thing, as long as they still can act in the other forums, otherwise there will be times when only one mod is online, and there may be an issue in a forum which is not under his/her control
Like CKEmu said, the Off-Topic also seems to be a Spam magnet, so a rename mighht not be a bad idea.
A quick search on the main forums page is a good idea, as the search button isn't immidiately visible to those who are in something of a hurry to fix an issue
Private forum. Hmm I like this idea, but I don't know if it shoudl be post count delimited. Saying that however, I fail to see how else it can be done other than having it 'by invitation'
Countering that, however, I only joined in January, yet I joined and would hope to join in with, the BATARD discussion. Yet it got ruined soon after.
Making it private would prevent another person, like myself, from joining in, even though said person might provide 'a worthy contribution to the cause'
I agree that FAQs, or links to FAQs, should be provided in a sticky or something, to hopefully reduce the number of duplicate postings. (on that note, if people want to PM me thier configs for games (with expainations if possible) which I haven't yet done, I will try to post them up on my site when I get back from holiday)
Next generation consoles. Putting up forums for any of these is lamer bait IMO. The PS2 one is cool as there is a PS2 emulator or 2 in the works that are showing some interesting proigress. Other such forums should be added as and when real emulators begin to appear
I agree that the screenshots forum shouldn't raise your post count. There are a few people who make worthwhile posts in that, with games we haven't seen before, but half the time, people are just showing off.
Mods for each time-zone. Not nessacerily, but mods who are here when no one else is. For instance, myself and Betamax are in the same timezone, but the times I am online often differ.

Just my comments on those few points.

[JAZ]

Something I personally find annoying on this forum is the fact that a lot of posted questions are answered in the first 1 or 2 replys then certain members insist on replying with the same info as whats been posted in a reply above, this I feel should be frowned upon and if someone does this they should be encouraged not to do it.
I assume they do this to up there post count but as far as Im concerned it makes them look like idiots.
I have more respect for members who have a low post count but reply with relevent usefull infomation than people who reply with things that have all ready been stated or even worse seem to have very little idea what they are talking about.
I'd like to see the mods being a lot more ruthless and harsh with members, not by banning them or PM'ing them but by giving them warnings in threads so everyone can see and hopefully take note themselves.
I think the best way to get people to use the search is to try to reply to as many posts as possible with a search pointing to the relevent answer then hopefully more people will think to think use it before asking.
ok thats what I think anyway :)
good luck whatever you all decide...
Jaz

[Shiori]

I'm SOOOO sick of all this finger-pointing.

Who's to blame, who should've done something... all that is history, and no amount of blaming can put the boards back to what it once was, unless things are acted upon right away.

And here's what I think you red star guys should do:

I think all slacker admin should be fired on the spot if they do not report by Sunday, 12:00 midnight GMT, no exceptions, no "psxemu family" or whatever crap that's exempting them from doing their job. Hey, you don't want to do it? I'll do it. Gimme your red stars. If Bobbi decides to shut the whole thing down anyway, at least I'll go down fighting them lamers that is the cause of it all. I don't have this reputation in here for nothing.

If only the lamer situation was put under control right from the start by hawk-eyed, dedicated admin, then this popularity contest going on wouldn't have started in the first place.

Besides, if they don't do anything by then and still let the situation stagnate, it's likely there'll be no NGEmu to visit soon anyway.

But until then I'm not giving up on NGEmu yet. There is still hope, and the boards as well as the site itself needs our support. This is where it all began, let's not make it end this way.

[edit by Thorgal] erm, no offense, but if you don't want to blame anyone, then don't blame the admins either. ".. then this popularity contest going on wouldn't have started in the first place." is quite contradictory to "Who's to blame, who should've done something... all that is history" if you ask me.

[Ultragunner]

i really agree on that point, Shiori. something must be done, and must be done ASAP or more terrible things will happen in the near future.

[Hanamichi]

Is it possible to implement a user rating system that works something like this : If a member with a certain amount of posts puts a negative rating on A , A gets a -1 in his rating, and if it reaches to like -20 and hasnt gone down for 3 days or something ( by those who put the rating taking it off ) then he'll be banned. Im no actuarist so I dont know if it will help to control the offensive/annoying people on the boards and to give them an early warning, just a suggestion.

[Kane]

I don't think that would work.
Some people might have disagreements simply based on personality, and might end up being poorly rated, while most people can't be a**** to rate someone.

[zero0w]

I am still thinking about many of the points raised above. There are several issues I would like to address.

First, message trolling should be warned (for eg. someone started a thread about how to begin emu-coding, and then some others troll the thread by saying non-sense stuff such as emulation being illegal or accusing them 'cheap' without paying for the system), as it deteriorates and hampers the discussion and will become counter-productive. If the situation doesn't improve (which the mod will help to judge) after warning by post(s), the thread should be locked. It must be shown clear that nonsense is NOT wellcomed nor tolerated. To keep the quality of post in check.

Second, if it's not already implemented, moderator-access only forum is needed. The decision made on permanent ban or 'not allowed topic/message/forum' are not just personal distaste of some admin or mod, but rather for the interest for the whole emu-community. Other moderators can also give their thought about banning a particular member (even for a temporary ban as a warning) in that forum. Decisions on permanent ban and forum structural changes can also be discussed there. It should be made clear that these decisions are legimitate, resulted from informed discussions. Members who disagree on being banned could still appeal on IRC chat. But the point being, we don't make tough (and important) decisions for no reason. It is needed and already being discussed by the responsible admin and others - and so will be the issues upcoming in the future.

Third, I agree the word 'Spam' is triggering many uncontrolled behavior (such as personal flaming), either the forum is to be removed or please rename it as Open discussion or any word other than 'Spam' as Lord Kane suggested.

Fourth, (maybe more than one) super Mod/Head Administrator who can moderate any forum is needed. With the forum growing in member population, the chaos need to be managed more effectively.

Last, I think something like Board support forum will be useful. Other members might state their suggestion on forum changes (actually feedback forum should serve similar purpose I suppose). Again we are not ignoring members' request or question, but we engage it thru sensible and effective discussion, while other measures such as sticky posts and FAQs will reduce those redundant topic/posts/issues letting the admin and other mods to focus on their task given their OWN time to this forum and community (remember they are unpaid).

[Hanamichi]

Well, thats why I also suggested that only people with a certain number of posts like 300 or so be allowed to vote. But it may still fail anyway, oh well :p

[CKemu]

@ zero0w : U will find thatI suggested that spam should be removed and Off-Topic renamed Open Discussion.

As with regards to appealing on open discussion, I feel it perhaps would not work, this is because u will find most 'lamer' types just to spam up the IRC with 'pleae let me back, please......' etc etc, or they will simply sign in with a new account!

[zero0w]

Sorry, CKemu, I might get it confused.

As for the point of new account, you mean browse thru proxy I suppose. Yes, it is a problem, that's why only heavy-handed approach (behave or ban!) is not enough. The practice I've seen from other forum is discussion thru the IRC and forum threads, and makes it public who is banned. Of course other members need to stick up against spammers (reporting them or rebuke their unfound behavior). As a forum with such a scale as Emuforum, probably more mods are needed if the spammers are till out of control. Still, it must be made clear we don't ban on haste, but that we do it out of reasonable discussion and judgment, according to the rules.

[liquid]

I'm just curious when all these supposed changes will occur?
I know people are busy and all, but some small things can & should be quickly addressed.

1. the spam/test forum needs to be closed
2. we need to have guys like shiori, fivefeet8, samor, and lord kane to become mods becuase they frequent these boards very often and know what needs to be done.

anyways, most of the regular guys are gone and probably will never comeback, time is going by and yet nothing is being done.

[Shiori]

Let's just say the spam king has a better chance of being mod than I do. ;) I got that from a reliable source, btw.

If any, I'd like to suggest that a vote should also come from the regular members themselves, and not only limited to the current admin. Don't you think we should have a say as well on who should mod us?

[sxamiga]

Just found this and thought I'd reply. I think that the suggestions are excellent, especially the ones concerning removing the Test/Spam forum, but I also think that the Off Topic Forum should be strictly watched and regulated. I have never cared for that forum and I don't go there much for that very reason. If the Off topic Forum gets out of hand, again, it should be removed. I also think that the idea of assigning Mods to certain forums is a good one. It is easy to see where someone "turns up" the most and if they are assigned there, then they will be most likely to catch trouble before it starts. Of course, I still think that Admins should still retain power over the whole of the forums and that is because then, if they happen to visit a forum that they don't usually goto, they can still stop touble that might be starting. I think that the Amins should be the ones to select the new Admins/Mods w/Bobbi having the final say so. I think that if we let the members vote on it, as Shiori suggested, there would be to many squabbles and arguments. Keep the picking of the Amins w/the Admins. I also agree that posting in the screenshot froum should not raise your post count, except if you are starting a new thread (the first message) or if you are replying to (but not posting screenshots) someone's screen shots. Thre only exception to this would be if the screenshots, themselves, were replies like in the RPG Screenshots Thread. I feel this way because when I post screenshots, I hit new reply so I can post the next one. Since these replies are just my way of getting the shots up, I don't feel that I should get post counted for every one. It doesn't seem fair.
The rest of the suggestions are good ones and I think that if we can figure out a way to implement them, then this site will continue to be great.
sincerely,
sx/amiga

[Arpanet]

Good to see that some progress is being made on this. sxamiga, I have to disagree on the voting issue. I think all the users have a pretty good idea of who is and isn't responsible and fair. Perhaps I'm putting too much faith in humanity, but there it is.

I agree with CKemu's proposals WRT post counts and forum names 100%. Perhaps people have forgotten that this is first and foremost an emulation site, not a chat room. Informative posts about emulation should be rewarded; off-topic stuff or general discussion should not. I'm not saying that O-T discussion is inappropriate; it certainly has its place, and God knows I've done more than my share of O-T posting. But O-T doesn't help people solve their emulation problems, and that should be why people come here in the first place.

Also, I like the idea of "valued members" or a ranking system, based not only on post count but also on the mod's opinion of how helpful you generally are. This could be abused, if for example the mod gives all his friends "priveleged" status regardless of their behavior, but in such an occurance the mod would (hopefully) be reported. These "valued members" would be allowed certain priveleges, like voting on changes to the site. Such a system would be very useful right now; implementing one could be preparing for the future.

So there's my $.02. I hope all this turns out right in the end. :)

[Shiori]

Originally posted by sxamiga
I think that if we let the members vote on it, as Shiori suggested, there would be to many squabbles and arguments. Keep the picking of the Amins w/the Admins.

You speak of squabbles and arguments where there have been none before.

How would you feel if one day you woke up and read in the newspaper that only employees of the United States government can vote for the next President of the United States? A hypothetical question, but a valid one nonetheless.

I'm sure you won't like that, unless you work for the government.

This is just my opinion, and it does not construe an attack on anyone else's ideas around here. I just like to spot loopholes in counterpoints I guess. :p

[Keith]

The main reason to keep it within the admins is because they don't want to get peoples hopes up. Lets say some of you want someone to be an admin, that person gets a lot of votes, then doesn't get picked. There is a chance that this person might get upset and might start a lot of users questioning why that person was not picked. It just makes it easier for the admins to do it to avoid troubles. Trust me it is getting talked about a lot and people are being considered for the positions. Each person that has been brought up is being closely looked at and I am very positive the right people for the job will be picked.

Members are more then welcome to give their input, but I don't think they need to rely on the members to pick the mods.

This is just my opinion for this situation for this forum. I do think something needs to be done asap though.

[Shiori]

I'm sure those candidates who "lost" will be good sports. :p After all, being nominated is a great honor in itself.

[Nameless]

Hmmm, great feedback. Allow me to help aswell.
First, Game disscussion should count as it really helps alot of people and making the posts not count will disscourage people from going there and so from helping. I suggest we add a sticky "mem cards" thread for those people who "just can't do it". This way we'll avoid people who r asking about one thing too many times and those who reply with the same thing already said.

Second, like "quick reply", we can have "quick search" in every sub-forum and leave the good ol' "search button" for power seaching or user searching.

Third, the "private forum" is a good thing. But I think it should be half-private ; only mods can post but everyone can see them so everyone will know what's going on back-stage. Disscussions about the things discussed in the "private forum" will not be allowed in other forums including "open discussion". That way, no one stays in the shadow.

Well, that's quite it 'till now. Feel free to disagree ;)

[SnakeBite]

The Emuforums may need some cleaning, yes. Just don't remove the Programming forums!! Here's one suggestion:
When I'm browsing the Game Discussion forums, it's difficult to find what I'm looking for due to all those threads... (this makes more subforums, but easier to browse) Why not add subforums like "Action Games", "RPG Games" (like FF... there's LOTS of threads out there) "Racing Games" etc, etc. You see what I mean? That would be great! But if the admins don't like subforums, that's ok... I'll browse it myself combined with searching.

[Quatro]

I agree with snake bite on the game discussion. so that you could segregate the games concerned. Sometimes the game discussion is flooded full of RPG that it put the other games discussion down the line. Well its just a suggestion.

[Nameless]

Hmm, but that's the problem. Game discussion has so much about RPGs (Which is a good thing for me ;)) that putting up sperate sub-forums for other genres will be hard. Because they won't have much threads compared to RPGs and also because people always disagree what genre the game belongs to. Zelda games for instance r considered RPGs while IMHO they're action-adventures......see what I mean

[Carnage]

mmm...i really think that with some subforums(is this the good word?) like "offtopic "you would have to lower the "only people
with 500 post"thing ,comon!500posts???thats just way to much...
And snake bite his idea sounds also very good to me,
There is one thing i would like to ask...you may not flame anyone
or say words like **** *** but then why is there a smilie that
raises his finger??? you now ,this smilie :embl: if i am rong about
this smilie please tell....

please keep up the good work and ideas,
THX!!!

[Carnage]

by the way,when we all start off with 0 posts again,do we still need
15 posts to pick your own avatar???and what with our ...thingy that hangs beneth our user name and just above the avatar??

(feel free to delete this post)

[K.I.L.E.R]

Here is the problem with that, I have destroyed my post count and for that I will never be able to post in the OT forum.
I have not spammed, I requested it be cut. On top of that I dislike the "more posts the more benefits" thing. It not only encourages spam (you know what happened when post count was brought back again in OT. 1 person banned the next day and many others told off) but makes users like myself disadvantaged.

2. Make the off-topic forum accessible only to people with, say, 500 posts or more. It works on several other fora; the question is, does it work for Emuforums? Personally, I think the "X number of posts required" goes right against the "quality of posts counts, not the quantity" principle. But ofcourse, I'm not the only one here.

Let's give this forum a thought..

[Ninjaa]

Originally posted by Nameless
Hmm, but that's the problem. Game discussion has so much about RPGs (Which is a good thing for me ;)) that putting up sperate sub-forums for other genres will be hard. Because they won't have much threads compared to RPGs and also because people always disagree what genre the game belongs to. Zelda games for instance r considered RPGs while IMHO they're action-adventures......see what I mean

I think a sub-forum specially for RPGs would be a good idea though, as the lack of anything but RPGs in that forum does scare some people away.

[K.I.L.E.R]

I believe a private forum should be made and only seen and usable by members that mods deem suitable.

Software/Hardware forum merge is a very good idea.
Stricter modding in OT should be done. I agree.

Anything involving rewarding post count should not be included IMO.

[Betamax]

Originally posted by K.I.L.E.R
1.I believe a private forum should be made and only seen and usable by members that mods deem suitable.

2.Software/Hardware forum merge is a very good idea.
Stricter modding in OT should be done. I agree.

3.Anything involving rewarding post count should not be included IMO.

1. That already exists. The is a private section of the mod accessable only to admin,mod and members given contributor status.

2. I don't really mind either way.

3. Couldn't agree more.

BTW this thread is quite old now. Most of the issues in here have been put into action or abandonded.

[Napro]

Originally posted by K.I.L.E.R
Anything involving rewarding post count should not be included IMO.
i agree