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If I see a thread in the wrong forum (such as, for example, something posted in C that is highly Windows or Linux related or a poll on what movie is better in the Tech forum), how do I report it? What about when a thread goes off topic? This is just curiousity....
There's that little triangle with a ! in it to the left of the post. Just hit that
On some forums that might send an Email to all of the admins/mods, which is not usually desirable, at least for not minor infractions. I'm not sure what the settings are here, though, so this may not apply.
It does that here too but it's the only way to report a post short of PMing or IMing a mod
E-mails are the worst way of alerting mods. Some may only check their E-mail once a day or even less often and if the E-mail is flagged as junk mail, it may be even less noticeable. Giving a PM to a mod/admin is a far better way since it's more instantaneous. Thanks anyway though.
Some may only check the forums once a day as well.
I imagine the typical user checks e-mail more often than the board. And everyone who's a moderator should know enough to add the board mailer system to his whitelist.
Uh oh. I'm going to have to remember to stay on topic or ulillillia will REPORT ME.Quote:
Originally Posted by ulillillia
I'm quivering in my boots. Really.
I knew he just wanted to get someone in trouble...
How about
If a thread goes off topic:
You put it back on the right track!
If a thread is in the wrong place:
You calmly post, requesting it is moved to the right place.
...
Duh.
I'm not after getting anyone in trouble nor do I intend on doing so. Posting in the wrong forum or having a thread go off topic are minor in comparison to flame wars, using bad words, or other common forum rule violations that are much more intense. A thread going off-topic or a thread in the wrong forum is about 2 on a scale of 0 to 8, quite minor. Things like flame wars (7), bad words (6), of illegal activities (8), or just completely useless messages (4) would almost certainly get flagged, not by me, but other users as well.
Reporting flames and other rule-breaking posts that have gone unnoticed for a while is fine, but that's not what you asked.
Also... why eight?
[voice=Dave attributes="not necessarily anyone else"]Quote:
Originally Posted by ulillillia
We tolerate quite a bit here. Usually such a thing is flagged by anyone, no one in particular, by a simple reply stating this. Mods see it and make individual judgments.
I've rarely used the flagging; but I don't know that I receive all emails that are flagged either. Laissez-faire trumps the math IMO.
[/Dave]
Why eight? The origin comes from a difficulty scale I used years ago, before even Windows 98 was around.
0 - given - no challenge whatsoever
1 - very easy
2 - easy
3 - easy medium
4 - medium
5 - medium-hard
6 - hard
7 - very hard
8 - said to be impossible - so difficult that even world champs would sometimes fail
It has since been expanded to severity (for bugs and rule breaks), sizes, and pretty much everything else. A class 8 bug is a bug so severe it destroys or damages the computer. Class 7 bugs cause the computer to stop responding and only the reset button on the case can get you back. Class 0 is completely harmless such a small spelling error in text that is otherwise unnoticeable. The GIMP, when using the menus, causes an infinite loop that can sometimes make it impossible to do anything and using the reset button is the only way to return to normal, a class 7 bug in my system.
Part 2:
>Things like flame wars (7),
Threads closed after a point. [edit]Let the flame have a controlled burn within sensible bounds.[/edit]
>bad words (6),
Mod edited out.
>of illegal activities (8),
Deleted posts/threads.
>or just completely useless messages (4)
Pilloried and left as an example to others.
And we tend to make fun of the poster, too :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Dave_Sinkula
Instead of PMing or Emailing the mods/admins, can we call them at their home, place of work, or on their cell phones to report abuses? :D I could just picture how this could work out......
"Dave, there's this guy in General, and he's MISPRONOUNCING YOUR LAST NAME!!!!"
"Salem, there's a guy in the C programming forums and he won't stop posting code with gets(). Get on the forums now and MAKE HIM STOP!"
Now, THAT would be fun. ;)
Heh. It would be fun if we had a direct line to Quzah on a bad day :) I seem to remember someone suggesting that before ... Am I making that up?
Well I think what everyone's been trying to say is that, as a group, we really like cboard the way it is.
I will admit that your color contrast suggestion was better compared to what you've talked about lately. More recently, it's been suggested that cboard adopt a color pallete for syntax highlighting. Color is one of the things that the board has a history of discussing, but it generally decides that the complete spectrum has an equal opportunity to be used. You're free to participate in the syntax highlighting debate next time it comes up provided that you can explain why it should matter to us.
Suggestions have their time and place of course but they are often presented with grace: it's explained what would be done, doesn't require a lot of work (webmaster is probably the only one around who messes with the sites PHP - don't get too close to bare bones), and explains how it would improve the community. And the good improvements, ones worth doing, weren't suggested every week, and normally not by one person. The board is really democratic: It's generally a community effort that makes the forum keep going. The forum leaders tend to humble themselves ad populum.
So basically, you need to pick what you're going to fight about. You're going to have a tough time selling us on things that we understand differently than you. All the reasons that you find animated gifs distracting may be valid, but you're lacking a rationale that works from our point of view: that we only see a few avatars per page and the ones that are animated aren't big enough to be distracting or cause slow load times. We don't understand why further restrictions matter.
Usually, if something is wrong with the board it becomes apparent all by itself. The last change that was met with any success was the implementation of forced code tags. Moderators and long-time users concurred that it was a pain to read code that didn't preserve its indentation. Moderators also hated the fact that they were stuck wrapping code tags around posts, distracting them from the more important things that they should be doing like reading threads for the problems you mention. Those are the kinds of suggestions that work.
> Instead of PMing or Emailing the mods/admins, can we call them at their home, place of work, or on their cell phones to report abuses?
I called the webmaster one time - I think I scared the hell out of him
>> I called the webmaster one time - I think I scared the hell out of him
I think I've heard that before, didn't remember it was you. Is it actually true? I thought you were joshing before. Heh. You tell him about people posting on the wrong forums? Did you plan to call him?
No, I really did. There were a bunch of people spamming the crap out of the forums (pretty much the worst I had ever seen) and I couldn't get ahold of kermi on AIM so I called alex
And you just happened to have his number? You've gotta give us a run down of the conversation!
G: Hello, Alex?
A: Yes, to whom am i speaking? // I always imagined him with a British accent.
G: /* Fill in */
A whois search, perhaps? Though the number listed on the admin contact is for someone named Lynn with the same surname as Alex... wife/mother/daughter/sister? I might just call to wish her happy mothers day :pQuote:
And you just happened to have his number?
> And you just happened to have his number?
It's not that hard to look up someone's phone number
> I always imagined him with a British accent.
Nah, he's from New Orleans. It did sound like he had a little bit of an accent though.
> /* Fill in */
Basically:
G: Uh, you don't know me but I work for you
A: ... Govtcheez? (he actually called me that and got it on the first try)
G: Yeah. Anyways there are a bunch of people spamming the crap out of your boards and here are their IP addresses
A: OK, I'll deal with it
That was about it.
HAHAHAHAHA!!
To be honest you've freaked me out.
Never contact me.
Ever. Even if the boards are getting spammed.
Look out your windowQuote:
Originally Posted by twomers
We need a button - "Send SMS to the mod..." ;)Quote:
Instead of PMing or Emailing the mods/admins, can we call them at their home, place of work, or on their cell phones to report abuses? I could just picture how this could work out......
Where did Quzah go anyway, his signature is "Delete this account and my posts. Thanks."
Well I can never tell when he's serious reading his posts... :\
Then it'd be a race who could create a bot to send the most SMSs first ;), At least people would think your popular when you go out in public ;)Quote:
We need a button - "Send SMS to the mod..."
Does not the ICQ SDK give this possibility?Quote:
create a bot to send the most SMSs first