• Responding to email notices you receive.
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  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

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    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

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    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

A ban-free environment

Should I take the high road and not ban anyone?

  • Yes, but don't throw away the keys quite yet.

    Votes: 13 24.1%

  • No, too much chance of abuse here.

    Votes: 20 37.0%

  • You're the boss, do what you want.

    Votes: 21 38.9%
  • Total voters
    54
fueds between a few certain people i wont mention names because i think it is obvious.
Click to expand...

You aren't talking about me are you? Haaaa, no I know you were.


I think some people, like myself have a hard time with aspects of the BOI. Many of you lucky ones don't and maybe don't get why the others do. For myself, the BOI has taught me more about people and myself then anything else.


I think people learn, it's easy to get mixed up trying to stick up for yourself. Understanding the other person is key and that part of the BOI I have a hard time with. I rush to post and almost never read what I'm saying twice. Because of this not only do my posts have too many errors but they're all emotion.


I personally have a hard time walking away knowing that even if I don't stick up for myself I'm still okay and it doesn't make what the other person said true. Something I've started to learn, and while slow, still learned.


Rich, I think letting Neil back was a good thing. He's a good guy and I think has learned from the past. Some never do but I think he has, and I have as well. Sometimes you all may doubt that but time tells no lies.


Here's what I would do.

1) Give 24 hours bans! I think that's fine and would be a good idea, if you feel somebody is being too emotional ban them for 24 hours.

2) I don't know if this is possible but give a punishment like 20 good posts in the forums helping with new herpers questions.

3) Limit BOI posts to something, limits force people to use what they say wisely, you have no limits. eBay feedback is the way it is for a reason, and it works very well. It forces people to make and get to the point. Nobody reads posts as long as mine is now anyway so keep posts to say 1000-5000 words or to a number of posts you allow each user to have in any one thread.


The draw is and always will be the BOI, emotions are here to stay but do what you can to keep them down when you can.
 
Well, okay I'm wordy too, I wouldn't like it but thought it should be mentioned.

I think a wise option may be to give people a BOI time out. That's where the BS is and that's what you should give time outs from.
 
Yes, I like the idea of a timeout, but it will take a certain change in attitude about how it is administered. The warning point system is good for reminders and a record visible to the person being warned as well as people seeing what sort of infractions the warned person has inflicted upon him or her self. But I think I will not be using it much as the direct yardstick of giving someone a "timeout".

For one thing, when two or more people get into a heated discussion and it becomes apparent that they all need to be taking a break from it, then I have to start assessing warning points to each of them, and heaven forbid if one person gets more points than the other. So I believe the timeout will have to be pretty much spontaneous, or at least after a suitable warning has been issued within the thread. Perhaps the warning of an impending timeout ban should be in the warning system itself, to be kept on record, as should the temporary ban itself. The warning system could be a very effective means of providing a visual record of someone's actions on this site.

Except in an emergency situation where I have to shut someone down NOW, I do not want the warning point system to automatically trigger a ban based on accumulated points. Or do I?

This is going to take some thought on my part. But you know, sometimes this site is a really big pain in the rear for me.
Just the fact that I have to have a warning system in place to try to keep people acting like adults is rather depressing.
 
I have been very busy of late and pre-occupied so I did not vote, didn't even see it as a matter of fact. I have voted on some. Had I had to to be looking and did see it I would not have said any of the three, but stated more of a "time out" so to speak. IMO there has to be rules and there has to be consequences. I think a "time out" would be good as it would give people time to think, with no access at all, zip, for like, say, two weeks. Or one thru four weeks depending on the severity of the rules. With that being said and with out full banning perhaps the points should be less than tweny five. Perhaps ten.
Just throwing out my opinion and ideas



I just cut and paste to continue here :)
 
You do have some good points of the warning points vs. the immediate "time out" and I can only imagine the the frustration of this site at times. I am making some webstites and it is very frustrating at times, so your position has to be a huge pain.
Perhaps, as and idea only, as I am sure there are a lot of people who would like to help on this site, you could appoint, not moderators per se' but "time out umpire" or "referee". People who you have seen to be fair yet firm and could possibly take time slots of "donation time"????
Just throwing things out here.
 
Time out vs Points

Webslave ,

I have a guy writing me a system for points on my forum. i have advised him id like it to be sort of a "self governing system"
To the point i as the admin can asess points where deemed fit. after a certain number of points are assesed the time out would go into effect to that person.To lessen the personal interaction on my part hes going to incorporate that when points are assesed to a individual that a auto repson email goes out to the person who is warned , after he is warned a second violation would incorporate the point beining assesed to that person then the auto respond will alert them of the violation and the point.As the admin i would have control to set how many points will be allowed before the get the time out.I would also have the ability to after set the length of the time out applied to a person. so say you get your first time out for say 24 hrs , then the second will be 48hrs this would all be preset limits by the admin as to how long each timeout period would be and would keep track of the timeouts given to any person and there lengths.

i think that esp with in the relms of your site with the volume of people and potentially explosive attitudes that can flare very fast would be something to look into as a self governing system i know you have expressed that you do not have the time to spend here to "babysit people" and be the parent figure for them nor should you have to. It can be very consuming for you to ramble through tons of threads each day to see whos being bad when you have a ton more stuff to do.Ithink also assigning someone or more then one to act as "Hall monitors" for theforums would be a good idea. If you didnt want to give them permission to they could atleast act as a go between for you and these boards by letting them be able to give out warnings to people that with in a thread have the potential or have already exploded into something that should not be . While they could either post with in the thread as a "first warning to the people that have got out of hand to either cool out or they risk being pointed. and have theat moderator then forward you the thread , page and person/s involved in the warning .If then at that point they do not adhere to the warning they could be locked out of that thread versus the entire thread being locked ? not sure if that is feasable or not to lock out a indivdual user overthe entire locking of the thread... just some thing i have been lookingto have incorperated in to my forums and i have it mainly to thank from my time here . to be able to see what could possibly be a alterntive to a all out ban of a user . i would also suggest that people have a warning given to them for taking a thread off course of the orginal topic with that you could also have a potential moderator have the access to be able to warn them or those who are driving a topic off its intended course to either stay on track or start there own thread to continue there debates.If that wasnt enough that Mod could then have the authority to move the threads into a topicical discussion of its own to advert many pages og garbage not realivant to the topic. I think and i will admit i have probably done some of this myself as well as id say anyone who posts can be guilty of that.But when as in the Neil Gubitz Guud guy thread it took such a train wreck effect it just makes anyone reading it to have to go through way to many un-needed reads to get out of it what they need
just some thought of some one whos just getting there legs wet in doing what you do and have done .. not sure if it would be practical or even something you would want here but just thoughts ?
:confused:
 
Well now, after a few hours of no responses I am getting the picture of your frustration at times.
Perhaps it is only the BOI.
 
How about you leave the site wide open and just charge for the rope. At $.50 a foot it sounds like it would be the VERY economically viable :D
 
LOL, just picturing a little hangman under the persons name instead of how many point they have. First the head, body, arm, ect......
 
Hah! You know, that hangman icon is not a half bad idea at all!
 
I believe the majority of the people here are adults, and as adults we all know that life has rules and that breaking rules means paying the consequences. Consequences are what make us (well most of us anyway) think twice before we do something that has been deemed unacceptable.

My personal opinion is that there is no need to indulge anyone who has broken these rules, especially to a point where they have been banned. They chose their actions knowing full well what the consequences were, and their actions are not dependent on anyone else other than themselves. And with this point system, it isn't like they aren't given plenty of warning/chances to redeem themselves.

I think "un-banning" has sent the message that the consequences aren't real/serious, therefore, they can continue their unacceptable behavior because they can then turn around and say "sorry" or "it's not fair" and they will be let back in to do it again. In fact, I find unbanning very unfair to those who are very carefull about respecting the rules. If these people are going to be allowed back time and time again, why should anyone pay any attention to the rules? And if the rules don't matter, then why be here because the purpose of these forums is lost.

I understand that this is not a simple issue for you Rich. I realize that this forum has taken on a life of it's own since you started it and like any child, it can be difficult to keep up with at times. Perhaps if you enlisted the help of a couple more moderators it could help relieve some of the burden that comes with being Cult Leader.

Speaking of which, is it time for oreo cookies yet? :lick:
 
Wendy, I hear what you are saying about adding moderators, but I have seen far too many examples of hiring bad moderators being much worst than no moderators at all.

I think temporary bans will be the way I will go, unless I see the reason to change my thinking. Of course, if someone is a pain in the butt enough, I can just ban them every month until they get tired of it and just go away.

Heck, if I were smart about it I would make the requirement be that a request to be unbanned would need to be attached to a $100 PayPal donation...... Maybe I need to smack myself alongside the head and become a bit more mercenary in nature. :firedevil
 
Rich, speaking of money. I think you should have a $10 yearly fee to post here, or at least the BOI. Hell, if I were you I would do it just to see who would stay and who wouldn't.

Come up with a fee for something, stop being stupid about it all. Time to get greedy :kaboom:
 
Well Adam, I have thought of this as a possibility when things got kind of slow with the banner advertising a while back. But I figured this would be just another can of worms.

What happens when someone has a bunch of negative stuff said about them on the BOI and wants to respond, only to find that they have to PAY in order to defend themselves there? They will be screaming bloody murder that it is extortion for them have to pay for that right to post a rebuttal. They will absolutely demand that I let them get on there and post for free.

So what do I do? Tell them no? Yeah, THAT will go over real well, I am certain.

As far as the numbers of people that would remain? Heck, it probably would look like a fox had jumped into the hen house!! LOL!!
 
Hadden't thought of that! Rich, I think you're just funked no matter what you do!

I think then you need to work on other ways of getting income. I'll think about this..
 
Rich

while i understand your point in having people gripe about there "right to defend themselves" to post in the BOI here is how i look at it .

If someone is doing buisness and puts them self in the postion to have to defend them selves ,chances are that they plan on selling more then just as a one time thing.I would say that it is no different then that person paying to have the right to sell there stuff on a paying classifieds ( you know where ) so i think a $10 fee to be able to come on here to defend your self would serve a good thing.If someone plans on staying around in this buisness as a good person they would have no problem in paying the $10 fee to defend / protect there name in there defense. The person that is not willing to pay the $10 to do so more then likely really doesnt care what people think of them anyway so the fact of not defending themselves doesnt matter , and probably must know what was said is true so why should they pay $10 to come in to lie about it anyway.I think if you set up something like that to let people know as of 1/1/04 that this would go into effect you would be surprised in a good way in the number of people willing to do so.
JMHO
Alan
 
Alan, if you check, you will see that many of us donate regularly to this site. Not only dollar amounts, but time and energy promoting the site and helping out "behind the scenes" so to speak. I think if it were to become a mandatory pay site, alot of that support may disapear.

You could look at making an "Idiot tax" or fining someone a set monitary amount for certain infractions however I am not sure that would work either.

There would be only one way to enforce it = banning until amount was paid

This might be a plus, but there would be people who would be breaking the rules simpley because they only have to pay a few $$ for it so not much detourant there.

It is any of our responcibilities to teach people how to behave in a public forum. We are adults and we should all know by now. If someone can't behave, why should the rest who can, have to deal with them?

Personally, I weed these types of people out of my personal life as well as my business life. Why would I do all that just to come "hang out" with them on a public forum? If I wanted that, I would just move to a trailer park and get cable tv so I could watch Jerry Springer.
 
hangs up his thinking cap

well i guess back to square one Webslave... its your site drive it how you see fit .

Respectfully Alan
 
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