Thoughts

[davek]

Ok, I've never used this forum much, but I've been having a think about feedback. Thoughts on these ideas, please.

• Elected President, VP, Hon Presidents of GOT (or title to be decided)
• Memorial 'garden' for fallen blues we know or have posted on here
• Book publishing to raise money for GOT. TW and NSNO and Kipper have this, why not GOT? LCAB's stuff for one could see the light of day and I'm sure there's loads more. Seems a natural extension to the mooted selling of t-shirts etc
• One day 'sin bins' to augment the period of bannings already in place - as a rap across the knuckles
• Poster of the week/month/year awards
• Scrap the pretty much unused 'upgraded member' lounge and bring back the chatbox

 

[RFUS]

Ok, I've never used this forum much, but I've been having a think about feedback. Thoughts on these ideas, please.

• Elected President, VP, Hon Presidents of GOT (or title to be decided)
• Memorial 'garden' for fallen blues we know or have posted on here
• Book publishing to raise money for GOT. TW and NSNO and Kipper have this, why not GOT? LCAB's stuff for one could see the light of day and I'm sure there's loads more. Seems a natural extension to the mooted selling of t-shirts etc
• One day 'sin bins' to augment the period of bannings already in place - as a rap across the knuckles
• Poster of the week/month/year awards
• Scrap the pretty much unused 'upgraded member' lounge and bring back the chatbox

You haven't? Could have fooled me, like.


And speaking from experience, I'd not advise poster of the week/month/anything awards. I was in charge of that on a small forum I was a moderator on, and it was a nightmare. Implementing it on a massive forum like this would be incredibly time consuming, difficult and probably cause more disharmony than it did pleasure.


Also, I can't comment on the upgraded member lounge as I'm a regular subscriber, but I know the GOT community well enough to take a decent guess at what the chatbox would turn into!

 

[davek]

You haven't? Could have fooled me, like.


And speaking from experience, I'd not advise poster of the week/month/anything awards. I was in charge of that on a small forum I was a moderator on, and it was a nightmare. Implementing it on a massive forum like this would be incredibly time consuming, difficult and probably cause more disharmony than it did pleasure.


Also, I can't comment on the upgraded member lounge as I'm a regular subscriber, but I know the GOT community well enough to take a decent guess at what the chatbox would turn into!

I meant this forum, not all the forums.

As for the response: I cant see how a poster of the year award, say, would create disharmony. It could be judged by an agreed panel. Just a bit of fun and interest to keep the pot boiling. Who in their right minds would object to that? On the chatbox: I never took part but I observed. It didn't descend into bedlam as I recall though. On second thoughts, maybe stuff like the GOT twitter page has superceded this?

 

[RFUS]

I meant this forum, not all the forums.

As for the response: I cant see how a poster of the year award, say, would create disharmony. It could be judged by an agreed panel. Just a bit of fun and interest to keep the pot boiling. Who in their right minds would object to that? On the chatbox: I never took part but I observed. It didn't descend into bedlam as I recall though. On second thoughts, maybe stuff like the GOT twitter page has superceded this?

1.) Oh, my bad. I was confused for a minute there because you're one of the most prominent members on here!

2.) I can see how, because I had to run a poster of the month/year thing. It was incredibly difficult to run, and when we tried letting the forum members vote on it it was awkward. When we voted on it ourselves, people got pissed they didn't have a say.

It can conceivably work from a members point of few, but for the staff it is really, really awkward. I know why you're suggesting it, because I was the one who suggested it and stuck with it on my forum, but I'm just saying it's not easy.

3.) Never got here in time for the chatbox myself, but I can't imagine it would add anything useful to the forum. It would just be spammed with homoerotic jibes and ironic MOYLEZ OUT crap. Surely?

 

[davek]

1.) Oh, my bad. I was confused for a minute there because you're one of the most prominent members on here!

2.) I can see how, because I had to run a poster of the month/year thing. It was incredibly difficult to run, and when we tried letting the forum members vote on it it was awkward. When we voted on it ourselves, people got pissed they didn't have a say.

It can conceivably work from a members point of few, but for the staff it is really, really awkward. I know why you're suggesting it, because I was the one who suggested it and stuck with it on my forum, but I'm just saying it's not easy.

Fair enough, but this place prides itself on being more easy going than other blues forums. I think it'd work on here, I really do.

 

[RFUS]

Fair enough, but this place prides itself on being more easy going than other blues forums. I think it'd work on here, I really do.

The other problem with it, is what constitutes a good post? You'll find most people will prefer funny posts, rather than informative ones or well thought out arguments. There will be a divide and usually the most hilarious post wins out. So I'd expect awards for people like Heat, Chico and so on, but none for Toccy, the executioner's bong etc. That's one of the ways disharmony can arise.

Admittedly not many people will take it so seriously as to be bothered by the outcome, but if your post that you'd put a lot of thought and effort into, lost out to a gay joke, you'd probably be a little bit annoyed. Not that I'm criticising gay jokes, because then I'd essentially be saying my existence on this forum is pointless and destructive. Which actually it might be, but shhh.

 

[Muggins]

Some good suggestions there mate.

 

[davek]

The other problem with it, is what constitutes a good post? You'll find most people will prefer funny posts, rather than informative ones or well thought out arguments. There will be a divide and usually the most hilarious post wins out. So I'd expect awards for people like Heat, Chico and so on, but none for Toccy, the executioner's bong etc. That's one of the ways disharmony can arise.

Admittedly not many people will take it so seriously as to be bothered by the outcome, but if your post that you'd put a lot of thought and effort into, lost out to a gay joke, you'd probably be a little bit annoyed. Not that I'm criticising gay jokes, because then I'd essentially be saying my existence on this forum is pointless and destructive. Which actually it might be, but shhh.

It's an Everton forum so would be judged on things concerning Everton. It's not about cracking jokes or posting funny pics. It would be judged from the Everton Forum only. The criteria would be simple: who, in the judgement of a panel (made up of admin and/or the honourary posts I suggested), contributed most to that particular forum - based on rational support for the team, and the understanding they give to others about the club (off-field as well as onfield). I'm just booting this around atm. Butn the criteria isn't that much of a difficulty if you think about it.

Any resonse to the other suggestions?

 

[Tubey]

* Elected President, VP, Hon Presidents of GOT (or title to be decided)

Cheesy to the max ^^

* Memorial 'garden' for fallen blues we know or have posted on here

Nice idea, but don't really know how it'd work. I know you don't literally mean a garden But I don't know what function would work best - a stickied thread, separate forum... dunno.

* Book publishing to raise money for GOT. TW and NSNO and Kipper have this, why not GOT? LCAB's stuff for one could see the light of day and I'm sure there's loads more. Seems a natural extension to the mooted selling of t-shirts etc

I always thought this was a sort of "if and when" kind of thing. If someone approached GOT and asked for book exposure, I'm sure it'd be allowed, but as a money-making project it seems a bit limited.

* One day 'sin bins' to augment the period of bannings already in place - as a rap across the knuckles

The infraction system sort of deals with this, but basically temp bans are easy to do. Problem is people on here are banned for consistently being complete you-know-whats, not for an outburst, and being frank I reckon a lot of people enjoy the odd rant on here for the Eastenders of it all. A temp ban when somebody just gets going would be boring

* Poster of the week/month/year awards

Cheesy ego-trip idea again, but no problem with it really.

* Scrap the pretty much unused 'upgraded member' lounge and bring back the chatbox

Chatboxes are toxic for forums. The inane banter you get on the threads go to the chatbox, and on a site like this the chat would be off the scale and people would struggle to keep track anyway. The Ale House already does that duty.


My idea - a "Legendary Threads" forum. When you get the odd whopper of a thread which is just classic, when it is locked move it into a separate forum so that people can easily access them when they want to remember what happened.

For example, I was utterly confused by accusations of being BB and Ghost - if someone could have easily referred me to a classic thread of those two being tossers, then I could have found out!

 

[davek]

Some good suggestions there mate.

Cheers Muggins

 

[davek]

Cheesy to the max ^^



Nice idea, but don't really know how it'd work. I know you don't literally mean a garden But I don't know what function would work best - a stickied thread, separate forum... dunno.



I always thought this was a sort of "if and when" kind of thing. If someone approached GOT and asked for book exposure, I'm sure it'd be allowed, but as a money-making project it seems a bit limited.



The infraction system sort of deals with this, but basically temp bans are easy to do. Problem is people on here are banned for consistently being complete you-know-whats, not for an outburst, and being frank I reckon a lot of people enjoy the odd rant on here for the Eastenders of it all. A temp ban when somebody just gets going would be boring



Cheesy ego-trip idea again, but no problem with it really.



Chatboxes are toxic for forums. The inane banter you get on the threads go to the chatbox, and on a site like this the chat would be off the scale and people would struggle to keep track anyway. The Ale House already does that duty.


My idea - a "Legendary Threads" forum. When you get the odd whopper of a thread which is just classic, when it is locked move it into a separate forum so that people can easily access them when they want to remember what happened.

For example, I was utterly confused by accusations of being BB and Ghost - if someone could have easily referred me to a classic thread of those two being tossers, then I could have found out!

Thanks Tubey, and a lot of that makes perfect sense.

Just pick you up on these:

• A memorial garden would be just somewhere for people to post stuff they might be embarrassed of doing within the rough and tumble of, say, the Ale House.
• Book project: how do you know this would be a Ltd money-spinner? I would have thought that other web-boards/forums doing it suggests it actually does make money for the board.
• I take your point on the one day ban suggestion. It could lead to a bit of a problem - just trying to get around the cracking a walnut with a hammer potential that 7-14 day bans have for some misdemeanours.
• Your suggestion is a good one for the 'legendary thread', but admin would say it'd need monitoring time they dont have...maybe anyway.

 

[Tubey]

The Memorial Garden thing seems good going by what you're saying there. Would be quiet though, which I guess is the point.

The books... well, it's like if GOT used a generic Cafepress thing for GOT merchandise; sure GOT is selling T-Shirts, but the profit is minimal as they only get a tiny cut as profit, the rest go to the manufacturer. Plus, authors on the subject of Everton aren't exactly numerous, so it seems like a very niche market.

If GOT self-authored, self-publish and self-marketed a book, the profit is still pretty crap. I'm a wannabe author myself - check out Lulu.com; fun and all, but not exactly a moneyspinner.

The banning thing... I actually like how GOT has the balance between moderation and open discussion. Perhaps a new 3 day ban would be an idea.

The Legendary Threads forum would require zero monitoring! All the Moderator does is lock the thread when it's done with, press like three buttons to move it to a seperate forum and it's done. Nobody can post on the topic anymore, it's read-only, so nothing can happen in the forum. The Admin can make certain parts of the forum view-only so that nobody can start new threads in it either.

 

[davek]

The Memorial Garden thing seems good going by what you're saying there. Would be quiet though, which I guess is the point.

Yes. But If you think about it - the number of blues who actually mention things in this respect - it is quite frequent. I dont think it'd be a desert or anything. Not suggesting a forum, either. Maybe a scroll of honour with names and short message from close associates and then that's it. If you see some of the official Everton books they have lists of subscribers to the tome. I got me arl fellers on a few of them. Something like that but with a short message attached.

The books... well, it's like if GOT used a generic Cafepress thing for GOT merchandise; sure GOT is selling T-Shirts, but the profit is minimal as they only get a tiny cut as profit, the rest go to the manufacturer. Plus, authors on the subject of Everton aren't exactly numerous, so it seems like a very niche market...no dialogue, just dignified.

If GOT self-authored, self-publish and self-marketed a book, the profit is still pretty crap. I'm a wannabe author myself - check out Lulu.com; fun and all, but not exactly a moneyspinner.

Well, it's currently on track to sell GOT merchandise, so maybe Danny has done the figures and it flies? As for books: what about ebooks? The cost for that would be less than hard copy I'd suspect. Plenty of people have kindle etc. I dont know the technicalities of doing this and protecting the copyright/protecting it from unlawful download, but maybe that's a way forward?

The banning thing... I actually like how GOT has the balance between moderation and open discussion. Perhaps a new 3 day ban would be an idea.

Sounds like a good half-way house.

The Legendary Threads forum would require zero monitoring! All the Moderator does is lock the thread when it's done with, press like three buttons to move it to a seperate forum and it's done. Nobody can post on the topic anymore, it's read-only, so nothing can happen in the forum. The Admin can make certain parts of the forum view-only so that nobody can start new threads in it either.

Tbh, I couldn't see a forum with locked threads getting much interest. I'd suggest a 'legendary' or 'gold' thread that was just left to garner more posts - adding to it rather than a museum piece. It'd take moderating though, that'd maybe be a sticking point.

 

[Tubey]

If Dan has got an excellent deal on production, merchandising can fly. eBooks... well, maybe. Who'd be writing the books though - GOT or independents? It'd be worth doing "market research" via a poll to see how many people would buy an eBook, but coming up with an original idea for an Everton book would be a 'mare.

I've seen the "legendary threads" thing work on forums I've ran myself. It's used primarily as a reference point though, and it's not a major thing. It'd just be an addition but not exactly vital.

 

[RFUS]

I like the idea of having a forum gold section. Where all the best threads go to play.