Ways to Make The Forum Better - Suggestions

[brimstoneSalad]

I agree, Dan is probably the most active person right now (and he has a profile of Naruto, you can't ignore that).
No but seriously, since the admin didn't come since 29/05 it'd be a wise deicision to nominate some mods (obviously trustworthy ones, that don't abuse their power). If it's going to happen that the admin has an inconvenience and can't log in for some days, there must be a mod/mods that take/s over.

Or what would be even better, is to have an abuse flag system that creates automatic action on new members' posts when senior members flag them- like a probationary period, where every senior member has some partial moderator powers over them.

If it gets flagged by, say, three members, then the post gets hidden, and if they have three posts hidden, they are temporarily disallowed from posting until the admin can evaluate the situation.

[thebestofenergy]

I agree, Dan is probably the most active person right now (and he has a profile of Naruto, you can't ignore that).
No but seriously, since the admin didn't come since 29/05 it'd be a wise deicision to nominate some mods (obviously trustworthy ones, that don't abuse their power). If it's going to happen that the admin has an inconvenience and can't log in for some days, there must be a mod/mods that take/s over.

Or what would be even better, is to have an abuse flag system that creates automatic action on new members' posts when senior members flag them- like a probationary period, where every senior member has some partial moderator powers over them.

If it gets flagged by, say, three members, then the post gets hidden, and if they have three posts hidden, they are temporarily disallowed from posting until the admin can evaluate the situation.

I agree, good idea. It's much less flawed. Altough, there's still one flaw: it can be easily abused. A senior member isn't necessarily a trustworthy one. One could flag a post just because it expresses different opinions/argues against him. With the 'senior member' thing you avoid the possibility of someone making new accounts and flagging the post, though. It sounds as the best solution possible right now.

[brimstoneSalad]

Altough, there's still one flaw: it can be easily abused. A senior member isn't necessarily a trustworthy one. One could flag a post just because it expresses different opinions/argues against him.

Right, but that's why it would need to be flagged three times (e.g. by three different senior members) before anything actually happened. So, a single rogue member couldn't do anything unilaterally.

[Neptual]

Altough, there's still one flaw: it can be easily abused. A senior member isn't necessarily a trustworthy one. One could flag a post just because it expresses different opinions/argues against him.

Right, but that's why it would need to be flagged three times (e.g. by three different senior members) before anything actually happened. So, a single rogue member couldn't do anything unilaterally.

A nice basis to a member report system, hopefully when TheVeganAtheist comes back on he'll see these suggestions. He just released a new video but he hasn't updated the website with it...

[TheVeganAtheist]

Like just in the debate sections, maybe. Each IP address can make one guest post without registering.
Then when somebody replies, it will encourage them to register to continue responding.

Also, as I mentioned in my intro post, maybe we could come up with some challenges with rewards, to further incentivize original ideas, and advertise the forum.

Anyone familiar with phpBB and know if this is possible?

What kind of challenges, and what possible reward?

[TheVeganAtheist]

Also, less is more.

It's much easier to keep track of fewer forum sections. Particularly when there's a small population of posters on a forum.
Fewer sections, with more posts per section = more activity.
Forums with low activity but a dozen forum sections tend to look kind of silly- forums only naturally build up more sections when they have the population to support it, and need to divide topics.

At the very least, it would be good to combine:

Vegan support + transitioning to vegan

Atheist support + transitioning to Atheism


General forum rules is not needed as a forum section- instead, make that a single thread in the forum support section, and put a link to it on every page at the top.


In general discussion, it would be good to merge:

Off-topic + Entertainment

Fan suggestions/requests -> merge into forum support


Doing all, or even some, of that would streamline the forum a lot, and make it much easier to read and follow all of the threads going on.


When the forum is much larger and more active, then it would be time to consider whether it makes sense and serves the community to subdivide the forum into more sections.
Otherwise, it's kind of putting the cart before the horse, and it can inhibit growth through excessive subdivision and dilution of traffic.

All good suggestions. I will implement that within the next few days.

[TheVeganAtheist]

I agree, Dan is probably the most active person right now (and he has a profile of Naruto, you can't ignore that).
No but seriously, since the admin didn't come since 29/05 it'd be a wise deicision to nominate some mods (obviously trustworthy ones, that don't abuse their power). If it's going to happen that the admin has an inconvenience and can't log in for some days, there must be a mod/mods that take/s over.

Or what would be even better, is to have an abuse flag system that creates automatic action on new members' posts when senior members flag them- like a probationary period, where every senior member has some partial moderator powers over them.

If it gets flagged by, say, three members, then the post gets hidden, and if they have three posts hidden, they are temporarily disallowed from posting until the admin can evaluate the situation.

I would consider that. Is that possible with phpBB 3 forum? Anyone know? Im new to running a forum and what is and is not possible (without intimate knowledge of coding).

[TheVeganAtheist]

A nice basis to a member report system, hopefully when TheVeganAtheist comes back on he'll see these suggestions. He just released a new video but he hasn't updated the website with it...

Was super busy trying to finish the most recent video, and then when it was released, i had a very bizare issue logging into my website and forum. All day yesterday I was on the phone with my ISP, host provider, and Apple because for some strange reason I could not access my website from my computer or phone when on my wireless network at home. The site would refuse to load. Finally last night after hours on the phone, I resolved the issue.
I typically log in each day, so if I dont, its because of a video launch or technical difficulties.

[brimstoneSalad]

Anyone familiar with phpBB and know if this is possible?

What kind of challenges, and what possible reward?

You can allow guest posting by forum section,


If you use an add-on, you can create accounts automatically by IP.

And with another setting or add-on, you can limit a certain group of accounts to only post once a day.

This would take a bit of searching and poking around.


Possible challenges and rewards, I discussed at more length here (in reply to Dan)

http://philosophicalvegan.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=81

[brimstoneSalad]

I would consider that. Is that possible with phpBB 3 forum? Anyone know? Im new to running a forum and what is and is not possible (without intimate knowledge of coding).

Almost anything is possible, it's just a question of coding it.

I searched and I didn't find any addons/mods that would make that convenient to do.

It might be something you'd need to request on the PHPBB site.


3 reports by senior members for a new user's post, it gets hidden
Three hidden posts for a new user, the user is temporarily banned until an admin can take a look at what's going on.


That might be useful for other people. There's a good chance somebody would make it.


Also:

Auto word censor (this can be done easily):

Replace "bacοn" with "penis"

Let's see how much they like telling everybody how much they love bacοn now.