PDA

View Full Version : "Thanks to the Admins." needs a bump



Steve B
09-02-2008, 06:51 AM
We are at 60 members which is great. But, we can still use more and I'm guessing that the thread that was on the old forum (Thanks to the Admins - under Small Talk category) was a good source for many of us to find out about this new forum. However, that thread has dropped to page 2.

I was the one that made the last post to it. It might be nice if someone else would add a post to keep it near the top. Or, even to start a new thread about how wonderful it is to have two forums to visit for those of us who are hooked on gaining insight from others. I'm afraid to post again on that topic for fear of being BANNED like VG and some others have been.

Leatherneck
09-02-2008, 07:01 AM
Good idea Steve. It has been a long time for me on that forum, but i will head over latter and do as you suggested. I really don't care if i got banned anyway over there. There is nothing at all there for me on that forum. :rolleyes:

KristineS
09-02-2008, 11:06 AM
I still am a member there as well. I'll go give it a bump in a bit too. Can't hurt.

Leatherneck
09-02-2008, 12:34 PM
I just posted Kristine. hopefully it will help a bit. :D

billbenson
09-02-2008, 02:21 PM
I bumped it a while back. I didn't get a ban. I can only think of one or two good members that aren't here, but they hadn't been active there recently anyway. Just took a glance. It kind of seems like the moderators are signing in and making dummy posts as well although they do appear to have some new members. Didn't see any familiar names though.

cbscreative
09-02-2008, 02:49 PM
I don't really visit there much any more (banned anyway), but one thing I noticed whenever I did visit was they usually had about 60 people on the site. However, it was usually only one or two members, and the rest were guests. Not a lot of posting going on, and the titles looked pretty weak or Spammy.

Steve B
09-02-2008, 05:06 PM
I think that will help. It may not be a bad idea for someone to start a new thread. I know I stay away from threads that are multiple pages sometimes because I'm too lazy to read it all.

There may be a few more old members that will eventually check back in with them - but, we also may be able to get a few of the newer members to try the .net version of the forum as well.

Evan
09-02-2008, 06:38 PM
I'm afraid to post again on that topic for fear of being BANNED like VG and some others have been.

I'm already in that boat. Oh well :D

vangogh
09-02-2008, 07:21 PM
I have a good excuse for not being able to bump that thread. I'm no longer welcome at the old forum. Oh well.

Evan
09-02-2008, 07:59 PM
I just wonder how I "look" on the forum, lol. Does it say "banned"? I'm assuming it was because of my fabulous new signature at the time :P

vangogh
09-02-2008, 08:21 PM
It does say banned and we're no longer included in the member list. And our signatures are gone from all posts.

Evan
09-02-2008, 08:23 PM
Aww. And what about my avatar?!

vangogh
09-02-2008, 11:00 PM
Avatars are gone too. At least mine is. Just a username and the horrible shame of having been banned. I'm in therapy for it myself. I can send you my shrink's number if you want.

Evan
09-02-2008, 11:05 PM
I think I'll be able to pull through this time. Thanks for the offer :)

cbscreative
09-02-2008, 11:21 PM
LOL. My psyche is just fine in spite of the rejection.

In all seriousness though, if I were still active and didn't know what was going on, seeing long standing members being banned would alert me to a problem with the forum. It's their forum, so they have every right to ban us, but I don't think that was very smart.

orion_joel
09-03-2008, 01:31 AM
I think creation of new threads, and or bumping of the old thread will show how much attention they are paying, or if they have just set up some sort of auto post system to throw the occasional article there. Could give interesting insight, i suppose into just how important they find the forum.

I suppose one of the biggest things for me was that they decided to ban people rather then removing the one thread that could point people in another direction. To me this seems kind of crazy.

vangogh
09-03-2008, 01:36 AM
I think the one moderator is actually finding the articles and is doing the posting. He's responding to other threads too. I think the issue is that he has a full time job and is only moderating a short time each day and while he can recognize the obvious he doesn't catch the subtle things.

orion_joel
09-04-2008, 01:12 AM
Yeah, i do agree, however what i find to be quite strange is the fact that most of use that participated in the Thanks to the admins thread got banned, however the thread it self did not get edited, moved, deleted or really touched at all...

vangogh
09-04-2008, 01:19 AM
It's strange isn't it. Not exactly on the ball are they?

SteveC
09-04-2008, 01:25 AM
Well... new thread started... let's see if I get banned... LOL

vangogh
09-04-2008, 01:52 AM
Funny. I just saw your thread. Should we place bets on when a ban might be coming or if it will even be noticed?

I'll bet if there are enough new posts behind it by the time the lone moderator arrives tomorrow the post will stay.

billbenson
09-04-2008, 02:21 AM
Well... new thread started... let's see if I get banned... LOL

Uh oh Steve. Now you have my curiosity. gotta take a look. :)

Steve B
09-04-2008, 04:58 AM
Nice thread Steve C.

I'll bet there are still some of the regulars that hadn't visited the old forum in a while and will be glad to see there is another option available to them.

Paul Elliott
09-04-2008, 09:02 AM
Does the moderator/s monitor PMs? I suppose they could but probably don't.

If we see someone who hasn't gotten the message, we could PM him or her.

Paul <trying not to get banned--deployed to the rear for the 3rd wave>

vangogh
09-04-2008, 10:36 AM
Paul you can't see anyone's PMs on the admin side, which is the right way for vBulletin to treat them. I think the only info about PMs we can see are total numbers. So we can find out that 24 PMs were sent on such and such a day or that X number of members have sent 1 PM and Y members have sent 10 PMs

Just general stats, no details.

cbscreative
09-04-2008, 01:21 PM
Yeah, i do agree, however what i find to be quite strange is the fact that most of use that participated in the Thanks to the admins thread got banned, however the thread it self did not get edited, moved, deleted or really touched at all...
They did delete several posts that were the last ones at the time, but that was weeks ago when they started banning. I didn't notice any modifications to posts up to the point where they deleted off the last ones though, except for sig files deleted on banned members.

KristineS
09-04-2008, 04:49 PM
They deleted the link out of Steve C's post, but they left the post intact. I think I'll try posting something there in a few days, just to see what happens.

cbscreative
09-04-2008, 06:05 PM
I noticed something I found kind of interesting. They show a decent sized list of mods, but some of them haven't been on the forum for several months, even years. Hmmm.

vangogh
09-04-2008, 06:43 PM
I think most of the people you see listed work for the company that's behind the blog. There are 4 mods and 2 admins. Of the 2 admins one is the person we've always referred to as the owner and one is the person curretnly moderating.

Of the 4 moderators listed, one posts here, one we don't know where he is, and the other 2 haven't been around in quite some time.

I think the rest just work for the organization behind the forum, but otherwise have no connection to the forum.

billbenson
09-04-2008, 07:20 PM
I can only think of a couple of members there, that would be nice to have here, and most of those haven't been active in a long time. The one's that haven't been active will plop in, see that there are no good responses to questions and leave. I kind of doubt they will see the original thanks to the admins thread. There are a couple of posters that I think are upset about this forum because they had good post counts or whatever there and won't follow.

It is a good case study on forum management. I would assume this correlates to blogs as well to some degree.

I am a member of another forum and the main administrator of a forum owned by a company promoted an affiliate. Turns out she was taking a new job and relocating to that affiliate. At the same time that affiliate became a member and was making a lot of posts attacking everyone on the forum. The affiliate poster was allowed to chase everyone away from the forum by the company and the forum administrator.

Today, well over a year later, that forum is still just a shell of what it once was. Another case of forum owners not managing their forum well. Some of the good people stayed, however, and I check it every day.

In the case of this forum, all the good people left. It's going to take years for them to recoup from this error if they even care.

vangogh
09-04-2008, 09:06 PM
There are still some people left that would be nice to see pop in here. A couple dropped by today. I know some don't post often, but do consistently visit every few months. Hopefully they'll manage to find us.

I think what people miss about forums that leads to mismanagement is that a forum is only as good as the community there. Members always come and go, but there's still a consistent community through it all.

The forum admins and moderators lead things in the rules set and the way we post, etc, but still it's all about the community. Those now in charge of the old forum didn't see us as a community of people. They viewed us as a commodity for their business. They assumed that we'd always be there regardless of what actions they took. They were wrong.

KristineS
09-04-2008, 09:11 PM
I think you're right vangogh. Moderators and admins can set the tone and police the spam and such, but the real heart of any forum is the members. If you don't appreciate them and listen to them and make the forum a welcoming place for them, they'll all move on.

A forum is only as good as the people that post on it. The danger comes when those who own and run the forum forget that.

orion_joel
09-05-2008, 12:59 AM
How do you see a list of admins and moderators, it seems to only be a members list without an option to search by the type of member.

vangogh
09-05-2008, 01:01 AM
On the home page look just below the threads for the link "Forum Leaders" You're still listed as a mod.