Hi All,
From Friday 3rd January 2014, we will be implementing a few changes which we hope will assist the moderation of GrandOldTeam.
Why
GrandOldTeam has grown remarkably in 2013.
To give an indication - there was 1,697,112 posts made on GrandOldTeam in the six years between February 2007 and February 2013.
From February 2013 until today, we've had 1,746,101 posts.
So we've had more posts on here in the past 11 months than there were in the preceding 72 months...
Now we currently have 7 moderators, so that's 249,443 posts per moderator in the past 11 months to moderate. It's a big ask.
Perhaps unsurprisingly then, it's a fair shout to say posting/moderating standards have slipped recently and in an effort to address and improve, we've made a few improvements which will be implement from tomorrow.
None of these changes are set in stone and they're all being implemented with a view to review.
Forthcoming Changes
1. Moderation Queue
- All new members, registered from Friday 3rd January will now be placed into a moderating queue, meaning all their posts will be moderated for approval prior to featuring on the forum. The intention here is to give new members a steer as to what is acceptable, and also prevent wind up merchants/SPAM.
Once a new member has 5 posts moderated, or they reach a particular reputation level afforded to them by the forum membership, their posts will appear without moderation.
I'm also trying to configure the forum to automatically place members with a particularly poor reputation level back into a moderation queue.
Now, clearly, this is a massive resource drain, and admittedly, we may not be able to sustain it. The thought behind it is, investing this time early, will set a standard and help later. We may look to appoint forum supporters who aren't moderators but know the forum well to help us with new member moderation.
2. Advanced Reporting System
- As mentioned. Each moderator already averages 249k posts each to moderate in the past year, I'm anticipating increased traffic/posts in 2014 and and I'm now asking them to moderate even more as above...
We can and do miss some posts and we absolutely rely on the community to alert us. So, we've improved the post reporting system;
The reporting system will now allow for;
- Pre-defined reasons for report.
- Report tracking for the reporter with a Commenting / Update System. In the past, you would send a report and never hear an outcome. Now, you'll have "Report tracking" and see the outcome of each report you make.
3. Reputation System
- Negative reputation no longer prompt a report. The reputation system, and reporting system are now treated entirely separately.
To explain, negative reputation used to prompt a report so we could ensure there was no tedious abuse of the system but it would clog the post report system with reports that were genuine negative reputations. "I don't agree with your post" and the like. This is no longer needed as;
- Moderators now have a Reputation Board which allows us to oversee all reputation comments at a glance - abuse can now be easily viewed and stamped out.
4. Force Users to Read a Thread. We can now specify a thread that we would like users to read. They would not be able to do anything else on the forum before reading it - a useful tool for us if we notice any negative trends.
5. Highlighting Moderators. I've been advised it's not particularly easy to find someone to contact on the forum if there is a problem - I'll be making some tweaks so that moderators are clearly identified.
6. Ban User from a thread. Moderators now have the ability to ban users from selected threads.
7. New Moderators. For the first time, we will be accepting applications to moderate GrandOldTeam, with a view to selecting 2 or 3. Send me a private message if your interested, I'll then collate all, for the moderators to vote.
... Our priority will never shift, please help us protect the websites ethos, one which we think accurately represents the Evertonian community as the very best in the World.
I'll be using this thread to review all above changes, so please only reply to this with any constructive feedback.
From Friday 3rd January 2014, we will be implementing a few changes which we hope will assist the moderation of GrandOldTeam.
Why
GrandOldTeam has grown remarkably in 2013.
To give an indication - there was 1,697,112 posts made on GrandOldTeam in the six years between February 2007 and February 2013.
From February 2013 until today, we've had 1,746,101 posts.
So we've had more posts on here in the past 11 months than there were in the preceding 72 months...
Now we currently have 7 moderators, so that's 249,443 posts per moderator in the past 11 months to moderate. It's a big ask.
Perhaps unsurprisingly then, it's a fair shout to say posting/moderating standards have slipped recently and in an effort to address and improve, we've made a few improvements which will be implement from tomorrow.
None of these changes are set in stone and they're all being implemented with a view to review.
Forthcoming Changes
1. Moderation Queue
- All new members, registered from Friday 3rd January will now be placed into a moderating queue, meaning all their posts will be moderated for approval prior to featuring on the forum. The intention here is to give new members a steer as to what is acceptable, and also prevent wind up merchants/SPAM.
Once a new member has 5 posts moderated, or they reach a particular reputation level afforded to them by the forum membership, their posts will appear without moderation.
I'm also trying to configure the forum to automatically place members with a particularly poor reputation level back into a moderation queue.
Now, clearly, this is a massive resource drain, and admittedly, we may not be able to sustain it. The thought behind it is, investing this time early, will set a standard and help later. We may look to appoint forum supporters who aren't moderators but know the forum well to help us with new member moderation.
2. Advanced Reporting System
- As mentioned. Each moderator already averages 249k posts each to moderate in the past year, I'm anticipating increased traffic/posts in 2014 and and I'm now asking them to moderate even more as above...
We can and do miss some posts and we absolutely rely on the community to alert us. So, we've improved the post reporting system;
The reporting system will now allow for;
- Pre-defined reasons for report.
- Report tracking for the reporter with a Commenting / Update System. In the past, you would send a report and never hear an outcome. Now, you'll have "Report tracking" and see the outcome of each report you make.
3. Reputation System
- Negative reputation no longer prompt a report. The reputation system, and reporting system are now treated entirely separately.
To explain, negative reputation used to prompt a report so we could ensure there was no tedious abuse of the system but it would clog the post report system with reports that were genuine negative reputations. "I don't agree with your post" and the like. This is no longer needed as;
- Moderators now have a Reputation Board which allows us to oversee all reputation comments at a glance - abuse can now be easily viewed and stamped out.
4. Force Users to Read a Thread. We can now specify a thread that we would like users to read. They would not be able to do anything else on the forum before reading it - a useful tool for us if we notice any negative trends.
5. Highlighting Moderators. I've been advised it's not particularly easy to find someone to contact on the forum if there is a problem - I'll be making some tweaks so that moderators are clearly identified.
6. Ban User from a thread. Moderators now have the ability to ban users from selected threads.
7. New Moderators. For the first time, we will be accepting applications to moderate GrandOldTeam, with a view to selecting 2 or 3. Send me a private message if your interested, I'll then collate all, for the moderators to vote.
... Our priority will never shift, please help us protect the websites ethos, one which we think accurately represents the Evertonian community as the very best in the World.
I'll be using this thread to review all above changes, so please only reply to this with any constructive feedback.
Last edited:
