T2W Site Suggestions Please!

Sharky

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Site Suggestions Please!

Start of a new year, and an eagerness to make improvements!

So, I'd be grateful for any suggestions (just one will do), on how to improve the T2W site. This might be a particular feature or lack of, that irritates you - or it could be a wish-list of things that you think would really help improve the site.

All suggestions will be considered, and I'll do my best to provide my feedback on all of them.

We already have a long list of improvements we'd like to make, but it would prove particularly useful if we can focus on the suggestions that really would make a difference (and hopefully are relatively easy to implement.)

And as way of an incentive, we'll let the suggestions run until the end of January - and the best suggestion as decided by myself and the moderators will win a bottle of champagne!
 
A very simple one.
Much stricter rules on behaviour.
One instance of rudeness, hostility, sneering, abuse, harassment etc and a simple private warning.
Two strikes and you're out for a minimum of 60 days.
Decision to be taken on two out of four moderators agreeing.
All members accept the decision without argument - everyone enjoys this site and it's totally free; that should be appreciated, not abused.
The quality and tone of this site would immediately improve and more positive, constructive contributions would be made to everyone's benefit.
 
right - here goes!

I've mentioned this before, so if it's been addressed, then please accept my apologies from the start. If not, then please comment...

Basically, I generally don't come to this site at the weekend but as the site has grown an incredible amount, upon my return at the weekend there have been a large number of new posts and even new threads. A useful tool is the ability to just go directly to the last read post (or first unread), however this is only valid for about half an hour. This is inconvenient because it can take a lot of time to go thru these points and not always practical to open up like 20 windows.

I think it would be very useful if this can be addressed. Ideally, an option to search for all posts from a certain date (and even time if that's not too difficult - prob shouldn't be) so that I can even look at other posts when I have more time, maybe on Monday evening or Tuesday.

Hope above is clear - if not then please do not hesitate to ask....


cheers
 
Hi Paul

Would it possible to exclude (remove) the bulletin boards - and respective threads that one don't want to see or read???

In a way selective viewing of Site...
 
The mIRC trading room doesn't seem to get used much these days

Why don't you switch to using a Paltalk room instead....by doing so you'll get more net exposure.
 
A change to members titles....

These are names and numbers used on the quotetracker boards....

0 stranger
25 newbie
50 journeyman
100 member
200 enthusiast
400 addict
700 old hand
1200 veteran
1600 Pooh-Bah
2500 Carpal \'Tunnel

and dont ask me about the last two :rolleyes:
.
 
Thanks for the suggestions so far, and please do keep them coming in. I'll take each in turn briefly with my own initial thoughts..

Member: Mr. Charts
Suggestion: Stricter rules on behaviour

1. One instance of rudeness, hostility, sneering, abuse, harassment etc and a simple private warning.
2. Two strikes and you're out for a minimum of 60 days.
3. Decision to be taken on two out of four moderators agreeing.

Initial Feedback:

Difficult question this one.

I seem to get conflicting opinions about this all the time, some people would prefer a hands off approach, others a more heavy handed one. With the current warning system the advantage is it's fairly transparent, if you get a warning everyone knows about it - I think it helps to see that the mods won't tolerate inappropriate behaviour. I concede the current system is far from perfect, I don't think it's necessarily clear (particularly to new members) how the system works - and I'm still getting an idea of how many points should be assigned for a breach of the rules, and what the threshold is for banning - and once banned is it temporary or forever? Then the actual of points is subjective, particularly difficult is when a thread goes off topic and by the time a mod has a post reported to them, there may be 3 or 4 members all being disrespectful to one another. Do we hand out warnings to all these people, even those that are responding to others jibes? Of course as the number of members grows and the frequency of posting it becomes increasingly important to maintain order. That either means more mods, stricter rules on behaviour, or some form of self policing - where members actually take on some form of moderation themselves, say senior members collectively have the ability to warn or ban other members by awarding points against them (when a threshold of senior members is met then the member gets warned).

The private warning and banning suggested was pretty much the approach we took in the past - but we changed it on the feedback of the members who wanted a more transparent system. The idea being that we could not be accused of banning indiscriminately. I'd like to conduct a future front page poll to determine whether a majority of members would prefer a more aggressive moderation of the boards, it may not be to everyone’s' liking but may become a necessity as the site grows ever larger. The idea of a temporary ban (or cooling off period) is a good one, and one we've informally taken for those who have been banned on the site (but 30 days rather than 60 days) - perhaps rather than a total ban of the site, removing a members ability to post, but allowing them to continue to view posts, would also be a good compromise.

Member: dsmondi
Suggestion: Ability to search for posts from a certain date/time

Initial Feedback:

There is already a facility on the Discussion dropdown menu to "View Most Recent Threads" - this gives list in chronological order of every thread for the last 5 days. In this way it's possible not to miss any posts on a certain day - by just navigating back through the list of threads. Dsmondi, is this helpful at all in what you want to achieve? Or are you looking for a facility to search for the posts themselves from a certain day, say 3 days a go to the present day, or perhaps 2 days a go? The only difference I can see here is that it would list the posts rather than just the threads and you won't have to navigate back through the list like you do at present.

Member: zambuck
Suggestion: Selective viewing of threads/forums

Initial Feedback:

Zambuck are you suggesting the ability to click a button to hide a thread or forum from view, so on the forum homepage you could work your way down to just the forums you're interested in, and likewise if you read a forum and are not interested in a thread - that's possibly gone off topic, then you can hide it - and then in the rest of the site, in searches, list of latest posts etc. you wouldn't hear any mention of it - unless you chose view the hidden forums/threads, possibly through your user control panel. Unfortunately this sounds fairly complicated to implement - I'm not sure how feasible it will be to roll out, I'll need to think through the implications.

Member: ColinRiche
Suggestion: Switch from mIRC trading room to a Paltalk room.

Initial Feedback:

I should really speak to the people who do use to determine what their needs are and whether they would be served any better with paltalk. What would you say are the biggest advantages to paltalk, and why do you think it would get more net exposure? Are there any advantages to paltalk over irc, and is it easily integrated within the website.


Member: ColinRiche
Suggestion: New user titles based on number of posts.

Initial Feedback:

I like this idea a lot and one that I've considered adding in the past. Junior//Senior Member is hardly inspiring. Will have to give some though to names and thresholds but that list you provided is a good start, although like chartman I'm not sure about the last two or what they mean?!!
 
I certainly like the idea of changing the titles-Maybe we could have poll on that different names etc and we could adopt one with the highest votes.

In regards to banning people for various things is a highly sensitive area.

Of course we know that something must be done about it and this an area of great concern -especially when it is affecting the quality of the Threads.

It must be appreciated however, that alot of us see things differently and I noticed that some people get carried away if they don't agree with someone method of trading etc.

I think banning should be weighted in some way depending on what caused it in the first place and people should only be allowed to return after the cooling off period - 30days seems adequate. Maybe 60days for subsequent offences and a total ban from site after that.

For more serious offence i.e sexual harrasment, racial abuse which I consider more serious than petty squabbling there should be a permanent ban immediately.

I don't know if this happens already but I think there should be a private place for moderators to make these decisions.

I don't think 1 moderator should decide on anything in isolation.

Just my thoughts.
 
Sharky - thanks for taking the time and trouble to think about the situation and responding so comprehensively.
IMV, the simplest solutions are the most transparent and the most effective. You can never please everybody all the time in life so I've always found the best thing - and the simplest - is to do what is right. That is, be fair to the majority, but do not encroach on the legitimate rights of the minority to view their opinions as long as they are not inflammatory or rude.
 
It may seem a little odd, having just been 'appointed' Member of
the Month, but I'm not sure the idea has been outstandingly
successful and may not have a long life ?

And I cannot see that it will do much to improve the standard of
postings on the Board.

However, what might be more 'inspiring' is to improve the quality,
creativeness or innovation of individual threads ?

In it's place I would suggest the selection of "The Thread of the
Month".

I suspect this would best be selected by Sharky and the Mods by
putting their heads together rather than a 'democracy' of opinions
from members.

The award should be a suitable bottle of something. At least that
way, somebody gets something back from the Advertisers on this
board. Perhaps they could be persuaded to sponsor the scheme ?

In which case , Champagne would be quite acceptable or even Black Label !

:LOL:
 
hmmm it maybe controversial but, as in the member of the month issue, I can't see how the voting system is of any use if you don't know how the majority of people have voted. You could either make it so people could see how others have voted for you, or maybe change from a numerical system to general tags to give a better impression

eg 10= general adoration
1 = contemptible.

obviously dont use that kind of thing but respected, etc
 
And if there was no champagne available, just a bottle of plonk, should we go for plonker of the month instead? :cheesy:
 
RGlen
The Mods do have a private board that no one else is privvy to. Mods do make singular decisions, where it is clear that there is no doubt or uncertainty in their actions- instant ban for racism, sexism, spamming, multi posting of ads. etc. Where careful consideration is required on a particular subject matter, then all the Mods enter into discussions in private before embarking on a democratic decision, which we like to think is the correct one.
Keep the suggestions coming.
 
Hi Paul

I understand what you are saying...perhaps let me explain more...

There are days when the discussions are very interesting and useful...at times in Lounge a topic crops up...that is not something I am intested in and does not pretain to TA...I would therefore not like that thread to muddle the continuity on other threads.....So best thing would be to somehow have a facility to ignore that thread...in such that it does not appear on the list...

I know it is not that easy to implement these...but a facility like this would help...

regards


Sharky said:



Member: zambuck
Suggestion: Selective viewing of threads/forums

Initial Feedback:

Zambuck are you suggesting the ability to click a button to hide a thread or forum from view, so on the forum homepage you could work your way down to just the forums you're interested in, and likewise if you read a forum and are not interested in a thread - that's possibly gone off topic, then you can hide it - and then in the rest of the site, in searches, list of latest posts etc. you wouldn't hear any mention of it - unless you chose view the hidden forums/threads, possibly through your user control panel. Unfortunately this sounds fairly complicated to implement - I'm not sure how feasible it will be to roll out, I'll need to think through the implications.

 
zambuck:

Under 'My Profile' you will see where you can Subscribe to forums and threads. If you subscribe to the ones you want, and ignore the others, then I believe this may be what you're after. :D
 
thanks Skim...

I must say after using T2W for along time I am still not well used to tweaking the settings....

I will try out your suggestion...that may provide the viewing settings that I am after...

regards
 
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