CPAPtalk.com

CorgiGirl wrote: I also agree that having volunteer admins is a good thing.

I agree, volunteer admins are a good way to go

Good luck with that, people. Blarg and I suggested that (volunteer moderators) a few years back and got drawn and quartered for it. (I should specify: Not by Johnny or his staff, by other CPAPTalk users.)

I changed my mind. Linking to an old thread like that one will just dredge up old, bad feelings for everyone. But like I said above...tread carefully. We've had more than one very heated (and very painful) debate on the moderator topic. It was the last one that caused me to stay away from this forum for more than a year.

Babette wrote:None of the other forums I belong to allows access to a Spam delete function by members. Perhaps this forum would mind it's manners better if there was no access to community deletion, and that function was kept solely by the moderators.

I agree with this wholeheartedly! Giving everyone access to deleting messages just seems like asking for trouble to me. Spending a month here doesn't guarantee you're fair and level-headed in any way.

I'll weigh in with my couple of pennies here....
My inclination would be to go with the "volunteer moderators" as has been suggested. The volunteers would have the ability to eliminate spam and also the ability to pass questionable posts on to the "king moderator" whomever that might be, for final disposition.
I really don't think one month is a very long period of time in which to determine someones participation, and I would think a post count would be a more valid determination.
I've seen the spam button abused, and I've seen where it should have been used and wasn't. I don't feel that so-called objectionable posts (for whatever reason - subject matter, language, lack of maturity...etc...) need be deemed as "spam" and eliminated. Most times they are indicative of the posters true person, and if others would learn to ignore those types of posts instead of fueling the fire they would simply die on the vine without any intervention being required. Besides what is objectionable to me (very little actually) may not be objectionable to someone else and I, for one, wouldn't want to have to make that judgment.

Spam is spam. "Profanity" is profanity - they are not the same, but the button treats them the same.

So I think I would assign a few "trusted" members, some names have already been mentioned, however, I would ask whether that member wanted to participate in that function (Johnny - I'm sure you would anyway!!!). I also would keep it between you and the volunteer member. The "masses" knowing who they are would be pointless and could lead to some animosity on the part of some.....

Couple of pennies worth -- Thanks for the opportunity to suggest Johnny. I think that attitude, in and of itself, is very indicative of why this forum is and will continue to be so successful!!!

Take care
cheers
goose

LoQ wrote:People tend to be strongly attracted to what they know, and most forums have moderators. So the crowds will clamor for it, whether it's good or not.

So true, and worth repeating!

I love the ability to delete spam. These viagra and cialis sellers get only a few short minutes on the forum due to the ability of members to delete them. I would hope that we are all adults and only use it to delete SPAM and not posts that we do not personally agree with. This forum members for the most part seem to be very g9ood about this. If you can only report it and an administrator or moderator has to actually delete it then the spam stays for a considerable period of time and then becomes worthwhile to post. This is a very clean forum for such an open one. Do not destroy it.

Dale

Well, the button says "Report Spam" and that's how I think it should be considered. Kind of like files on the computer when you "delete" them.....they go to the Recycle Bin to either be deleted or restored. And, I think since the Administrators ultimately make that decision, I don't think that people should necessarily lose their reporting privileges for it. Yes, there have been some incidents in the past, but I'd like to see many of those people who previously lost their Report Spam buttons.....have them restored. There have been a number of posts that I considered "reporting", but was afraid of getting my button removed.

I also don't think a time limit for new users (if it's even feasible) needs to be implemented. The vast majority of us are "adults"......at least as far as age goes.

Those are my thoughts on the matter.

[color=#FF0000]forumadmin[/color] wrote:Frankly, my head is in the clouds lately bracing for all this change I can believe in......,

Yeah, I know what you mean, Johnny.

Den

Could those of you lobbying for citizen moderators please give us examples of forums that work better because they have moderators?

could it be set up to where it takes say 3 people to use the button and then it goes away??

boston wrote:could it be set up to where it takes say 3 people to use the button and then it goes away??

They could each wear a special anti-spam detonation key around their neck. Then if we drew a Dr. Strangelove type spam moderator, he'd be dilemma struck vying for two out of those three three keys.

I personally liked the original suggestion the best. It's by far the easiest of all suggestions to trial.

I haven't had a spam button around here for eons. Foolishly deleted my own posts when the message board software was accidentally "guesting" people all the time. So Babbette and I would actually be looking up to many of the highly trusted 31-day old veterans for much-needed guidance.

forumadmin wrote:I recently received an suggestion from a respected CPAPtalker that the delete spam button not to given to new member until they've been registered for a month.

Sounds like a good idea to me.

It is actually a "report spam", and reported messages can be reinstated, and have been, by the admins.

The problem is not bona-fide newbies coming for cpap help - it's not a "let newbies grow up" suggestion. "It's lets protect our discussions from malice". The "report spam" function has recently been misused by trolls who registered as members and started creating havoc by making their own posts totally disappear - after those posts were already responded to. And then registered again to do some more damage. This is different from deleting all the words you wrote in you own post.

To clarify: Any registered member can delete their own post if it has not been responded to - you have an X for that on the message, as long as your own message is the last on the thread. Once there has been a response, any registered member can still edit out every word in their own post and leave a single character (a period) if they no longer want their text there. Both these options are not affected by the suggestion.

The forum is not monitored 24X7, and a group of bored trolls on the weekend can cause quite a bit of disruption... so by the time nuked posts are reinstated, and and the registered poster's "report spam" button is revoked, some threads become truly bizzare - and rational discussion stalls. Maybe we need an emergency alert button...

Limiting newly registered members from "report spam" based on time and number of posts would leave less of an opening for trolls to cause havoc in threads.

O.

P.S. And keeping guest from posting links will make policing the streets of our fair cpaptalk city easiser too.

LoQ wrote:Could those of you lobbying for citizen moderators please give us examples of forums that work better because they have moderators?

Better than this one (hard to be better) because they have moderators, or a forum where they didn't have moderators, then they implemented that and it made the forum better? The only forums I'm a member of have always had moderators (except this one). I'm kinda easy to please, as I like all the forums I'm a member of and they all do things differently. Usually, if I really find a forum a problem for me (whatever that might be), I just find another one instead of complaining. Don't know whether that's good or bad.

Pam

So, I read through the whole thread and the only thing that kept crossing my mind was a simple question: How on earth did Babbette find a thread that Johnny posted originally on Fri Aug 20, 2004 2:32 pm AND, if that weren't enough of a demonstration of her Search Skills, she then has the honor of being exactly the second person to post on the thread?

I think that's as close to resurrection of a Dead Thread as Ive ever seen LOL

Babette, you're great--nice having you around.