How to improve

Kratos

New member
If I carry on posting, I'll have a postive (I hope:p ) bias to this place in a few days/weeks, so I'll just add my first thoughts early on, if that's OK. Ironically, because I'm "new" my ideas might not carry as much weight as some of the older posters. Make sense? Yes? Good here we go.

The first thing I noticed was the number of boards... so few! What's going on, :eek: It just seems, either it's MITM or Off topic. There is only four main areas, and I guess that puts me off posting, simply because it would feel like spamming. Moving on to my second point;

The Chatbox! I dont like it at all. Sorry but I dont, it sucks in members to post in that rather than a thread, in part I think that's to do with my first point. If its a post count thing, could you not just disable post counts in certain (new) areas to stop spamming? Also I always see forums as a place to store the past, after a few hours the chat box comments are lost :(


Well that's it for now. Dont kill me please *begs* it would be great if you could change my view on the above stuff. I love it when people make you think, its so cool. :)
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
Don't worry, we're friendly and won't kill you. We appreciate your feedback.

About the number of forums, we used to have a few more, but the forums went through a dry spell a few months back, and David read something that consolidating the forums often helps to encourage additional posting. It did help and, among other things, help to put life back into the forums. Although it seems like it works oppositely well for you.

The shoutbox has had its controversies, but as for right now, it makes a good place to talk about something that should be talked about, but maybe isn't worthy of its own brand new thread. We used to have a few additional skins from which to pick, and some didn't include the shoutbox, but people didn't use them, mainly as a result of the lack thereof.

I can certianly understand yoru confusion, and hopefully I've cleared a bit of it up. Keep the suggestions coming and have fun posting!
 

arach

New member
Kratos said:
The Chatbox! I dont like it at all. Sorry but I dont, it sucks in members to post in that rather than a thread, in part I think that's to do with my first point. If its a post count thing, could you not just disable post counts in certain (new) areas to stop spamming? Also I always see forums as a place to store the past, after a few hours the chat box comments are lost :(
The comments aren't lost. The link to the archive is at the top right corner of the Shoutbox. You can even see the first entry ever made in it:
http://www.malcolminthemiddle.co.uk/forum/shoutbox.php?do=archive&page=229&pp=10
 

tjpeople

Site Administrator
Staff member
the shout box is v usefull, i mean its stupid to create a threads saying 'come into flash chat' or 'why isnt wilkerson times showing up' just small things that would be a waste of time/space as a thread. i feel its essential.
 

Amigo22

Super Moderator
tjpeople said:
its stupid to create a threads saying 'come into flash chat' or 'why isnt wilkerson times showing up' just small things that would be a waste of time/space as a thread.
I agree TJ.

I've frequently noticed new threads with small things that only last one or two posts before the mods lock them. And using the Shoutbox for inviting people to go into the flash chat will mean that anyone else who logs onto the forums around that time will see it straight away, unlike if it was posted as a thread in Wilkerson times because if people added new threads afterwards nobody would see it unless they went into Wilkerson times.
 

Kratos

New member
:) They are cool reasons. Thanks for explaning them. :)




:mad: bit peed off that everytime I come here now something else has been taken away until I "have a high enough post count to use it." :rolleyes: It might work for some members, but for me it just annoys the hell out of me. Too much inequality and the basic feeling of having to earn something that almost all other boards have as default.
 

admin

Retired Administrator
Kratos said:
:) They are cool reasons. Thanks for explaning them. :)




:mad: bit peed off that everytime I come here now something else has been taken away until I "have a high enough post count to use it." :rolleyes: It might work for some members, but for me it just annoys the hell out of me. Too much inequality and the basic feeling of having to earn something that almost all other boards have as default.
Sorry about that, but we had so much abuse of the system a while back, that we had to restrict new members esentially until they had built up enough trust within the forum. This means that posts/reputation are a key thing.
 

admin

Retired Administrator
samboo1 said:
What are the things that new members cant do, that long term members can?
There is an entire list.

New members can't
Post polls
Have a personal avatar
Have a pesonal profile picture
Post Calendar Information
Give members reputation
Give members negative reputation
Use 90% of the avatars in the system
Have a signature (I think)
Have a 5 PM storage maximum

There are loads more, over time you gain all those privalleages until you become a level 4 member when you have them all. The mods don't gain much more than that. They have 500PM storage instead of 250 for normal members (basically they recieve more PMs thats why!, they have the powers to merge/close/delete/edit etc, and thats about it.
 
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