Controversial Topic #6: Making This Site Better

[kathylove]

..."And something for the Canadian/European For Sale forums...the regular For Sale forum is limited to contributing members only...a privilege of our contribution. Not implementing similar restrictions in the Canadian/European forums simply wouldn't be fair. Leaving it open to all would also be an open invitation for all kinds of For Sale threads that would be inappropriate."

I hadn't even thought of that one! I suppose that somebody could also start an American "For Sale" forum too - then everyone would be able to get around the Contributor status requirement for ads. I don't see how you could allow it only for the foreign forums and not for one based here. I don't know how Rich will handle that - guess it is up to him to figure it out.

 

[Roy Munson]

I agree with most of Susan's points, so I'll use her post as a checklist for presenting my opinions.

1-2 Day Waiting Period for New Members: Good idea.

New Member "Catch-All" Forum: Bad idea, for the reasons Susan cites.

Forum Mods: Not needed at this point. Could this change? Sure.

Chat Mods: With the link between cs.com and Fauna's chat system severed, there may not be a need for this (at this time). I need to spend some time in the new chat system before I form an opinion.

Non-U.S. "For Sale" Ads: They have to be consistent with the rules of the U.S. "For Sale" forum (i.e. contributors only). This would be tough to enforce in the private forums. I'm guessing that the best that could be done would be to have the private forum owners/mods responsible for enforcing this. These owners would have to commit to some heavy-duty presence here to make THAT work. I'm not convinced that it's really necessary to have sales outside of the existing "For Sale" forum anyway. Can't non-U.S. sellers put their location at the beginning of the thread title: "Canada: 2.3 Bloodreds Available"? For a good reason and a selfish one, I wouldn't mind seeing a single, separate non-U.S. "For Sale" forum. The automatic contributor requirement would still be in place, and my ads won't be bumped down the thread listing by those darned Canadians!

Approval of New Member Post Content: I don't see it as a constitutional issue-- this is a privately owned forum, but yeccccch. There's still something unpleasant about it, and as Susan pointed out, good luck finding a qualified volunteer for that one. And I highly doubt that Rich will be willing to assume this responsibility.

Thanks for the replies, everyone.

OK...I've seen some good ideas...and some not-so-good ideas.

 

[tricksterpup]

Ok folks i am going to push it one more time. The universal front page.

On this front page, you do not have to log into any forums. If the FAQ is done correct, you do not have to be a member to read the information there. If the person wants to become a member then they can click on a link to take them to the Forums to join.

I personally do not like the waiting period before someone can post. Really think about it. If you are a new member and you tried to join a forum and you can not do anything for over a week, would you ever go to that site again? This is a great way to chase off new members.

Plus if you do not like a poster here at Cornsnakes there is an option called Ignore and it is located in your control panel on the left hand side. I am familiar with this option from other sites and I have used it. It saves many head aches.

All in all i think this is a pretty good site, good people and I think Rich does a Pretty good job at running it for only one man. So he gets a thumbs up from me.

I have not problems with this site, except for not being able to edit my posts. But if I donate then I can have that option, so its my choice. I still stand behind the Front page since It can alleviate many headaches for Newbies with out even joining the Forum.

 

[Jimmy Johnson]

I DON'T like the idea of a general newbies catch-all forum for them to post all their newbie questions. Husbandry questions should stay in the husbandry forum, feeding questions in the feeding forum, etc. Otherwise, everybody is going to have to wade through a huge mess before they get what they want. A newbie with a feeding question, while waiting for a response to their post, will more than likely start looking at all the other feeding threads and perhaps learn something during their wait.

Problem with keeping "newbie" husbandry questions in husbandry, breeding questions in breeding etc...etc is the same as happens now.
when a newbie asks a question people feel they should already know they get treated like crap.
Why would they have to wade though anything if they ask their questions in one place?
They simply ask their questions, go back and look for their own post and click on that to see any possible answers.
No different then it is now.
And like I said earlier, if people do not wish to help or waste their time reading newbie questions they won't have to. They can just avoid the new member question section.
As it is now, everyone has to do exactly what you are saying would happen. They have to wade through all the newbie questions in husbandry, feeding, breeding and cultavars to get to ones they are interested in or willing to help on.
The New Member Questions section would take all of that out of the general sections.
Less trouble not more.

 

[Shade]

In response to Trickster's post; I've seen the universal Front Pages on many forums (on the invision system it's called a 'portal') and if it's done correctly, it can be very, very useful. ESPECIALLY if you allow a little user-side customization. For example, there could be a box in the righthand corner where the user could add links to his favorite forums or something. The UFP would be a lot more efficient at conveying important news posts, because they'd be right there in the middle of the page when you go to CS.com. And if you don't like the UFP, you could just click the link that takes you right to the forums.

I definitely thing this is an idea that needs to be looked into more seriously. It's a very, very useful tool.

 

[Susan]

Problem with keeping "newbie" husbandry questions in husbandry, breeding questions in breeding etc...etc is the same as happens now.
when a newbie asks a question people feel they should already know they get treated like crap.
Why would they have to wade though anything if they ask their questions in one place?
They simply ask their questions, go back and look for their own post and click on that to see any possible answers.
No different then it is now.
And like I said earlier, if people do not wish to help or waste their time reading newbie questions they won't have to. They can just avoid the new member question section.
As it is now, everyone has to do exactly what you are saying would happen. They have to wade through all the newbie questions in husbandry, feeding, breeding and cultavars to get to ones they are interested in or willing to help on.
The New Member Questions section would take all of that out of the general sections.
Less trouble not more.

OK...let me rephrase things a bit....

I just looked at both the Husbandry and the Health/Feeding forums. Most of the 20 threads that come up first are from newbies. Now...when do their questions stop being "newbie" questions and start being "other" questions that should be in those forums?

And instead of an opening page with nothing but 5 new husbandry threads (for example), you would have one with 5 husbandry, 6 health/feeding and 4 genetics threads. That won't create more confusion? It will end up like the General ChitChat forum, which Rich is currently considering breaking up into sub-forums because of all the confusion and multiple topics.

 

[MegF.]

Holy Cow this turned into a long thread. I'd like to say that I have and continue to enjoy this site. I still think it's the best resource for things cornsnake! I love the idea of a separate chat although I did enjoy chatting with some of the members of Fauna. I can always go there if I want to chat with them though. I still go to chat now and will in the future. I think a 24 wait period is great. As someone who has received 3 spam messages on my forum, I think it would be a big help and one day is not that long. A week is excessive. An easy link to general questions about care is also great. I try to be polite to everyone who comes on here but if I get one more "is it o.k. to keep my corns together" I'm going to scream! I haven't really noticed the ads since they first appeared so it's really not an issue. Great topic Dean!

 

[chibitamalove]

Holy cow

I swear, everytime I hear that saying, I just think of being on the bus driving to Astrocamp with cows in the scenery, and my friend saying "Holy cow!" :grin01:

Okay, back on topic: Another idea is to also make the Search function more prominent. Then some of the newbies might get the idea. I honestly don't know why it's so hard for those peeps to use the search funtion.

 

[Taceas]

Has anyone ever thought that perhaps most of these points have been brought up in past discussions with the owner/admin of this forum and the forum has largely remain unchanged?

It's all nice to talk and discuss, but what this site really needs is implementation of new things, period. I'm sick of feeling like we're in an archaic rut.

1. A forum moderator or two is needed, imho. Rich seems to think its rude to bother him about petty things that need taking care of (spammers), some things that need done don't know when he's on an unannounced vacation.

2. A 2-3 day waiting period to post in the more serious sections might be nice, but someone may have a legitimate emergency and then what? Who do we deem they email if they're in dire need? Or what about the rare jewels of new members, those that have done their homework, type legibly, and aren't a complete moron?

3. FAQ's need to be implemented all together and up in the top sections and in bright-ass colors tuboot. No one sees them at all now. Heck, most people don't even seem to see the stickies at the top of sections based on how many new people are breaking the retarded signature rule.

4. The forum could use a set of plain and simple rules that everyone has to follow or you get in varying degrees of trouble. Right now, the only rules we have are made up on the fly it would seem.

Ultimately I would like to see a decline in labels and name calling, especially by those who don't have much to do around here anymore other than stir the pot.

We all act like we own this place because we all help make the forum what it is. It's not some anti-Rich conspiracy by power hungry people. If a place has no pride of ownership, nothing ever gets done. Similarly, if a place has no members that speak up, what's the point? Rich said so himself, he created the site to take a burden off of himself from repeatedly answering the same repeated questions year after year. A few older members police the forum because sometimes it needs a little policing.

 

[carol]

Well I object to your...you automatically treat me like an inferior!

Well I *am* king...

Oh, king, eh, very nice. And 'ow'd you get that, eh? By exploiting the workers! By 'angin' on to outdated imperialist dogma which perpetuates the economic and social differences in our society. If there's ever going to be any progress...

.... I didn't know we 'ad a king! I thought we were autonomous collective.

You're fooling yourself! We're living in a dictatorship! A self-perpetuating autocracy in which the working classes...
:rofl:
Sorry, just joking around tonight.

Bloody Peasant!

 

[MegF.]

Now we see the violence inherent in the system!! Help, help, I'm being repressed!!!

 

[DAND]

Now we see the violence inherent in the system!! Help, help, I'm being repressed!!!

Maybe some antirepressants are in order. :crazy02:

 

[jazzgeek]

Hey, I'd be happy if I could just find me a watery tart somewhere in these forums. Until then, hana will have to do. :sidestep:

(The serious reply will be along shortly. I gotta run the dog first.)

regards,
jazz

 

[Joolz68]

MegF. suggested I post this here-
It was in response to a newbie asking about putting two snakes together:

I realize that most members hate seeing this type of question again and again. But until I came to this forum and saw another newbie ask the question, I wasn't familiar with the term cohabitation. If you were to do a search using more common terms like 'snakes living together' or ' two snakes in one tank', you may get one or two threads- the first one on page two.

The Husbandry and Basic Care FAQ doesn't mention this term (could it be added?), and really just stresses not to put hatchlings or newly acquired snakes together. It does mention cannibalism, but says it's unlikely, and pretty much leaves you with the opinion that you could go either way. Could the FAQ be tweaked to stress not to keep snakes together period if you are new to the hobby?

 

[carol]

Hmmm.... I just did a search on keeping two snakes in one tank and the first thread to pull up was this:
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43730

Note the first response.... It's not that hard. In fact it's much easier than forming the response that question requires.

With that said, adding "cohabitation" to the FAQ's would help, as I think most of us are done answering that question unless some new developments have taken place that I don't know about. There are pages and pages full of info on the subject, and I'm sure every knowledgeable breeder that participates here has added their opinion at one time or another.

 

[Joolz68]

the thread you site is this same one and that's because I used those terms.

 

[MegF.]

For the heck of it I typed in "Keeping two snakes in one cage" in the search and came up with about a million responses. Didn't bother to check how many pages but there were at least 15 threads on the subject.

 

[Joolz68]

OOPS! I can't edit yet.

I meant the same one my post was originally in before MegF. said to put it here. but the next one (before today's date) is one the 2nd page of threads listed.

 

[Joolz68]

Sorry for not being clearer. A lot of threads come up. but if you read them, they don't all answer the question. They just have one or two of the words used. The thread that answers the question (before today's date) is on pg 2.

 

[MegF.]

O.K. went back yet again and punched in "Keeping two snakes in one cage" and came up with more than 4 pages....lots more. Only going by titles that would appear to have an answer I had no less than 3 responses on the first page-which also gave links to about 6 other threads and at least three on page two. That wasn't even looking in threads that I figured wouldn't have any info, just contained the word keeping or snakes in it. There were three titles of "Keeping 2-in-1 cage" or something similar to it. Most had at least 6 pages of responses attached to each thread. There's plenty of info about it without even sweating a little bit....