In another topic, and via PM's folks have suggested that they personally feel a loss of community due to some antagonists.
This is unsettling to hear as that is not the spirit of this forum, and we all work hard for this to be a great place free of stress, big on enjoyment.
Let's get some solutions happening, scribble them here, name your nemesis, or PM me on what YOU would do to address any grievences you have.
Put forward suggestions on who you think would be good moderator(s)?
We can push past the finish post if we all pull together as team! This forums destiny is in our hands! We can kick another goal - we can push through the pack - it's not over till the siren rings! Our destiny is limited only by our imagination!!*
..Lozza
* Individual experience may vary
Nice one Loz
I got an idea... It's fun
What about a sin bin
Users that get consecutive negative (red thumbs) feedback in a topic, get automatically blocked from that forum or topic and blocked from starting new topics for a given period of time
My Mama always told me, son if you don't have anything nice to say then don't say anything at all.
Good rule that.
I would like to offer my services as moderator.
Once I am in charge there will be some changes for the better, to start with I will enforce stricter adherence to the current posting guidlines:
1. Be good to others. (many people are not nice to me, things will be different under my command)
2. Keep it fun. (a lot of posts are actually very boring and not much fun at all, this needs to change)
3. Keep it clean - no swearing, harrasement etc. (I get a lot of harrasement and swearing directed at me, this will change once I am in charge and there will be no more writing things like 'f%*ker' etc..allowed)
4. Keep it fun. (all posts I consider boring will be removed, the forum will be a bit quiet for a while once I take over)
5. Keep it legal! I will modify this to semi-legal, so people can adhere to guidelines 2,4 & 6 more freely.
6. Keep it fun. (boring posters will not allowed)
7. No Advertising. (no more multiple personality complex from vendors allowed)
I think I will bring about some very positive changes to this forum so vote for Red5.
Running on the concept of the thumbs down... what about if a post that gets a certain number of thumbs down it automatically gets removed. That way we all have a say in what stays and goes, not just a select few moderators. This could easily be scripted into the existing forum.
I do not know the situation that you are refering to however I think(without peeeeeeiiiiing in Laurie's pocket too much) the Forum is great. As big people(I hope we all are) there are lots of things that happen in life and we take it on the chin and move on. Some people cannot and leave
and new people come on with fresh ideas and new slants on things. No forum can be all things to all people and people will get upset in the process of chat like in most thingsin life.
I have not met a bad attitude windsurfer yet - great bunch of people to get along with but if there are any nasty boyz out there lets KEEL HAUL them.[}:)]
I dont like censorship but agree it is required when young kids are watching. Wiping people because you dont like them or what they have said would make things pretty dull around here....
I am all for some degree of moderation so as to get rid of the blatant trolling that has become more prevalent here. On the other hand, I am often very opiniated and upset people. I like to think I do not troll however.
I don't frequent the kite forum (so maybe we are as bad as them) but it seems more and more common for kiters and some others to come into the WS forum and post a derogatory remark just to sh!tstir us. EG: RED5's latest called "soon" and User's constant trolling in a thread a couple of weeks ago. Sorry for singling them out, but it is only because they are recent.... give me a while to search and I'm sure I'd find a few more!
Likewise when we had Brucie here, with obviously two different usernames being used by the same bloke in the same thread to disagree with himself and provoke argument not productive discussion
90% of the people here keep it fun, friendly and helpful to newbies but there does seem to be an increasing element of idiots thinking that lots of replies to their posts equates to popularity.
Moderators would assist greatly in this regard.
PS: RED5 before you get upset, if you meant "hey, olympic windsurfing appears not as good as formula or slalom or freestyle, what do you guys think" then that is what you should have posted, but to me it appears a blatant troll
Can't please all the people all the time, but the more you try please the wingers the more you p^ss off everybody else who was happy with things the way they were.
This is what I just posted on the "Do you want a freestyle forum?" thread.
First time I came here there was.
Windsufing - General
Windsufing - Gear Reviews
Windsufing - Buy & Sell
I STILL like it now, but liked it much better then.
There is a lot to be said for keeping things simple.
Hats of to you Laurie for continually improving the site - but it seems to have grown a little out of control.
BTW I've never felt antaogonised (you can start now) by anyone, and if there was a thread I felt was getting out of Control (eg: the rag doll incident) - I just stop reading that thread.
No censorship... I agree... This crossed my mind when I posted that idea...
If on consecutive posts, a user receives multiple negative feedback (say 6 negatives on each of 3 consecutive posts) that user is then blocked from that topic and starting new topics in that particular forum. The posts would remain... This would be specifically aimed at users obsessed with trolling...
Someone thinking of taking up windsurfing (or kite boarding) could easily be put off by some of the things written on these forums. There are some who have been around a while who have been put off by the current flavour of this forum.
If a user's only motive is to upset, offend, aggravate others... Why not have some means of dealing with this... Here's some simple options: flame on, moderators, user decides system...
Soooo.....
How are ya, Bubs.....let us know
Not gonna get caught in the Crow-Eaters forum!
e.g. if you go to a supermarket and some tosser noticed what food choices you had and they said loudly "hey everyone this wackers eating gay soggy spooge"
your immediate response is to avoid conflict and walk away.
forums need appropriate moderation to retain normal peoples interest.
abuse should be axed like graffiti.
effective moderaters breed healthy forums.
2c
Moderation is best done by the community itself by reporting stuff.
Perhaps the way to report stuff is what needs improving/promoting.
The sub forums for each state are good as far as organising where to sail but I hope it doesn't get too fragmented: wave/longboard/formula/beginner/professionals/women/high wind/young/old/upwind/downwind/Mistral/JP/Blue sails/Red sails etc.
I'm still thinking sub-threads/sub-comments might alleviate some of the pain some people seem to feel as you can just skip all the replies and banter for said comment. Of course this is easier said than done for you Laurie.
I mean sub-threads ala the 'Replies' on say digg.com:http://digg.com/odd_stuff/Holy_Mother_of_God_PIC_2
You'll see there also after a certain number of 'thumbs down' the comment is hidden (but can still be viewed).
Sorry Laurie, all I've really suggested is more work for you
The forum is great as it is. Yes - there are twa.ts on here that will overstep the mark - but mostly its in good fun. And remember this forum covers a wide age group - ie from teenages to grandpa's... ... all of us are going to have different levels of whats acceptable and whats not - and its up to us to know what to read and what to ignore. Nothing should be taken personally on the internet or on forums. If you do take e-things personally - Get off the internet now... you;re headed down a road of misery.
Moderation or censorship will spoil this forum. Laurie does a good job as it is ... and it should stay as is.
Laurie - dont listen to a minority of people, if they cant hack it on the forum then they should go elsewhere. We already have enough of this bull.sh.it in real life.
There's a pretty simple way to deal with Trolls. Just ignore them, if you don't fan the fire, it ain't gonna burn very well.
Not really sure it's possible to come up with the perfect solution to suit everyone, so probably not worth trying.
I think the trolling and negativity on here has probably prompted people to get more tribal, and request niche forums with smaller communities. Therefore it's partly how forums evolve, some of the biggest forums worldwide have lot's of small niche groups.
What to do about trolls, and the usual suspects (we know who you are!!), the best policy is either to ignore because what they are seeking to do is get a reaction/attention so when they log on to have a look and no-one has reponded to them, this will be a lack of reinforecment for their pathology and they will look for their next fix elsewhere, or fade away even if temporarily which you also see here.
Banning them is another option, does that stop them rejoining under another name such has been done here, with one of the usual suspects. Maybe at least you rob them of a favoured identity, but I would suggest banning occur only when some severe boundary has been crossed., such as harrassment and threats, unless a specific code of conduct specifies when banning would occur.
I think the major problem with this forum is it's trolls and the insidious negative behaviour (I think these issues are predominantly a personality problem) of the usual suspects. The major positive about the forum is that it has become our meeting place and it is big enough to be found by newbies, and I don't think we should ever lose this. The forum is evolving, I think trolls and insidious negativity are part of life, and we must choose a way to deal with what happens everywhere. Laurie is a good listener, so he tries to meet peoples needs, and so far I think he's got it as good as is possible. We all need to take some responsibility to make this what we want it to be, and develop a culture/code of conduct to deal with the problems. Ignoring is the obvious, but many just don't seem to be able to do this simple task and want to get in their and fight? Therefore people will seek respite or refuge in smaller safe communities hence the niche subgroups in the forums.
To ignore the bad and negative behaviour here is not Laurie's job, that is our job it's also very powerful, however, I don't think the majority of us can do this including me, I know I have responded at times and though why did I do that, I just fed the troll, no matter how brilliant my argument or retort was
trolls just wanna be fed, starve them.
I love this forum,
I love the SA section as well, some good things happening in SA as far as windsurfing goes, this SA section gives us a notice board for coming events, GPS, SLalom, course racing, etc......
The feedback sin bin, not very popular anyway, will not work. It will give users motivated by (negative) feedback a target or goal
I find i'm reading just as many topics now as I used to with the old system. It's just that I can read the stuff I'm interested in (There are a lot more users and posts now, I just don't have time to read everything (like I used to ).
It's been good, the WS General forum has been full of general windsurfing stuff. No more "How good was Perth yesterday?" and "Who's going to the train?" (cos it's going in the state forums). That's the stuff that alienates people if it's in the General section.
My vote for moderators:
- Poor rellie
4843 post's gotta count towards something! And we all know he's a top bloke
- Grumplestiltskin
Cos he's always lurking 
- Hardie
He knows his stuff on community building. Get him busy on the moderating and he won't have time to write 3 page essays in every post (that I can't be bothered reading )
