How would you improve the EAB?

[Dastardly]

Originally Posted by Jim

NOBODY LIKES YOUR LAMEASS IDEAS

This is a perfect example of the arrogance I mentioned earlier. Since when did you speak for everyone?

Originally Posted by Dastardly

This is a perfect example of the arrogance I mentioned earlier. Since when did you speak for everyone?

Right. To give you the benefit of the doubt I invite you to find a idea you posted (before now obviously) where people have not rubbished it and/or you have not got upset about it and held personal grudges.

So for the next 1 hour consider my statement Dastardly quoted above null and void. But unless he finds such an example it auto-activates.

[Dastardly]

Easy. I suggested that the moderaters be elected. I posted a poll and some went for it and some didnt. After the poll results clearly stated that this wasnt the wish of most members I accepted the decision gracefully.

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?...1&page=1&pp=40

To quote myself

Originally Posted by Dastardly

Well it was democracy I was suggesting and democracy has spoken. It seems more people dont want this than do so Im happy to go along with the majority.

As I said at the end of the original post, it was just an idea

OK. Then I give you credit for that Dastardly.

And you get one extra point seeing as with the relevance of the current events of this thread it is very much on-topic.

Still a crap idea though - hence the reason why it wasn't undertaken.

But on the other hand the current method still does need some improvement.

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Freckle

Someone has started a thread with the intentions of making this a better board

This is untrue, the real reasons behind this thread starting have surfaced just now. I will not post explaining myself any further until at least 4 hours time, starting now.

tick....tick.....BOOOOOOOM !!!

[fisken uno]

Originally Posted by Freckle

I think that any fears that this board is 'too nice' have been completely wiped away now.

You do!? I'm not as convinced as you are. I'll still refer to how a lot of other boards on the internet work. I'm telling you these discussions won't be found there because if anybody raised such a question the thread in question would be closed and the member starting it might even be banned. You have no idea how some people change into devils when they achieve mod super powers [tm] and this is something I strongly dislike (people abusing their pathetic internet power to act like assholes). BUT I've grown to understand that some of it is indeed necessary in order to have a working messageboard. I've seen the opposite as well, where mods don't do shit when 1000 threads about the same topic pop up and the result is a board where information is close to impossible to find. Also, a lot of people who register don't really have any interest to stay for a longer period and that might explain why some n00bs tend to be obnoxious.

What I DON'T like is namecalling and people ganging up on certain members (or mods). We have, however, seen all of this in this thread. Flamewars only produce even more useless pages of nonsense and personal conflicts. We'll just have to accept that we sometimes have differing opinions - which is EXACTLY why we should leave some decisions to mods or ultimately to RCK. And rules are rules, without them the board would be a place of anarchy. I have accepted the rule not to discuss politics too (some people might know that I've had problems with this in the past ) and I understand that it has nothing to do with suppressing the freedom of speech but just that people will start flaming each other to the left and right over it so it's better left at the doorstep.

Maybe it would be useful to tell n00bs upon registration that patience, humor and self-distance are required as well. You just can't take everything that seriously! If Akira slags you off, it doesn't mean that he hates you. Just take it for what it is and learn from yer mistakes, n00bs!

Ok that was my two useless cents.

[Peanutuk]

Nothing useless about what you've said at all fisken and you know it. You are one of the few people (not including myself sadly) who have managed to actually reply to this thread it the spirit that I intended. Thankyou.

Originally Posted by Freckle

I find that the search function can be way too sensitive when I am searching for a particular thread.

vBulletin 3 "problem" but it is probably there to reduce server load. Search function was perfect with vBulletin 2.x

[Mr Creosote]

I've always been a supporter of allowing guest posting in certain sections of the board. It makes sense not to force people to register at yet another site just to shoot out one single technical question. If someone wants to take part in the actual community, he/she should register, of course.

There's one thing everybody has to keep in mind here: Stupidity / lameness exists, and there's no way to 'turn it off' completely. There is no way you can avoid threads like 'lol where can I d/l romz', not by a thousand links to the FAQ, not with additional welcome e-mails, not with checkboxes one has to tick before starting a thread, because people who don't get the idea to check a FAQ by themselves will also ignore these extra measures.

On the topic of how to treat people who post these things, I agree with the many people who said they shouldn't be flamed, called names and whatever else. I can understand the urge to do so as I've dealt with the endless stupidity of 'newbies' myself for years. However, it simply doesn't do any good. Nothing positive can come out of it. It's not going to stop similar people to ask more stupid questions, it's not going to 'enlighten' the original poster. The best thing it can achieve is to effectively end the thread. The same could be achieved way faster by simply ignoring the question, though.

As for the rest, I perfectly agree with this:

I don't know why all common decency is disredgarded when matters move to the internet - I am sure that nobody would speak to each other like this through any other media. If there was a large meting of Amiga users/fans in conference centre or large hall somewhere, I am sure that we would not speak to each other in the same disgusting and often pathetic way that some people voice themselves here.

Getting away from the flame-fest, here are a few thoughts on the subforum structure:
"New to Emulation / Amiga scene" seems pretty pointless to me as by far the most questions asked there would perfectly fit into req.* or prb.*
"Amiga websites reviews" isn't used for actual 'websites reviews', but it's a pure promotial area where people advertise their own sites. If you want to have one, why not call it like this?

One thing I also never understood is this rule about auto-deleting member accounts. I've had to register twice here because of it, and the second time, I seriously thought about not doing so because of it. Very discouraging to newcomers. Then again, it's not something I feel about strongly, so I guess it doesn't matter much.

Last, but not least, I still don't think this 'reputation' system is a good idea, even though it hasn't been abused here as far as I can see. I already turned it off for my account numerous times, but for some reason, it keeps appearing again after some time for no apparant reason.

[Peanutuk]

Great post Mr Creosote!

In regards to the auto-account deleting, a balance has to be made between deleting accounts that are simply never used adn perserving those that just haven't been active for a while. Obviously this requires a human to decide what account should stay and what should go. Unfortunately to delete accounts manual would probably take up a lot of the mods' time. Unless there is another way?

[Amiga1992]

Users can be marked as "undeletable".

[fisken uno]

Originally Posted by Akira

Users can be marked as "undeletable".

Ooooh EAB can grant us eternal life! Heureka! Who cares about the holy grail when you can have EAB?

[Peanutuk]

Originally Posted by Akira

Users can be marked as "undeletable".

Maybe Mr Creosote should be marked thus?

[Amiga1992]

We'll ask RCK

[Mr Creosote]

Heh. That wasn't exactly what I had in mind, but I won't protest

[Amiga1992]

I want to point you all to the latest two "name of game" requests. Look at how they have paid attention to guidelines and used them accordingly. This is what we need from new users:

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=16948
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=16950

Marvellous

[Peanutuk]

I agree, but this kind of request isn't common amongst new users. What matters is how those who don't provide such detailed and structured responses are received.

This thread alone shows how tricky some find formulating their posts into a pre-structured format, but these posts are encouraging, as are the way they are dealt with.

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Peanutuk

I agree, but this kind of request isn't common amongst new users. What matters is how those who don't provide such detailed and structured responses are received.

I think the idea is to show them THIS IS THE WAY it SHOULD be done.

These two posts are brilliant. I was amazed. It made me happy. It shows how great the EAB community is.

[Fred the Fop]

Originally Posted by fisken uno

Ooooh EAB can grant us eternal life! Heureka! Who cares about the holy grail when you can have EAB?

All you want granted to you is