Tell Me What You Want

[admin]

[quote name=‘mmoon’ timestamp=‘1511917535’ post=‘351906’]
... interesting and unique forum topics here get poached by a few responders and sent into a crazy direction so quickly that it becomes almost worthless to participate.
[/quote]

Tell me, guys, what is it that you want? Collective moderation? Anderson Cooper as a moderator? Professional writers who know how to engage the audience and always stay on topic?

Collective moderation is doable. The other two things - probably not . Basically, there are some drawbacks that are imposed by a forum format by itself. There will always be meaningless chatter to some extent. On the other hand, thanks to the people who participate in this forum, it has remained relevant and useful for more than a decade. And I think this is quite remarkable.

 

[ben]

I'm volunteering my own two cents, which may or may not coincide with the views of other members.

There are really 3 steps:

1. Let people know the rules.
2. Enforce the rules.
3. That's it. There is no step 3.

Instead, people with a solid track record of positive contributions are busy misspelling certain words to avoid your filleters (see what I mean?), knowing that any flagged post will not be resolved in a timely manner - by the time you get around to approving it (if ever), the conversation has moved on.

As well, many posters have brought up threads that were locked and/or dissapeared, without any discernible reason. That is a sure way to make people unhappy.

Meanwhile, people are putting up all sorts of inane things without any meaningful moderation where it could be necessary.

If you want people to play by your rules, let people know what those rules are. And if you want longstanding contributors to feel at home, let them have a say in what the rules are. Example: Is BS posting about Ferraris, and scientology events that may or may not take place and cost 8000 pesos to attend, something you want? Decide - or, even better, let some subset of the "community" decide.

And when intervening into forum activity, do so transparently. Who is doing it - you or a cadre of trusted members - is irrelevant.

That would probably address 90% of people's complaints.

 

[admin]

[quote name=‘Serafina’ timestamp=‘1511831121’ post=‘351878’]
1 in 5 posts I write get plocked by forum filters.
[/quote]

I don't think it is more than 1% on average. For the majority of active posters automatic moderation has been disabled for many years.

Now I've taken it off completely. Rejoice!

You can now say words like scum, Herbalife, puto, moderator, asshole and nothing will stop you.

 

[Vagrant Violet]

The daily URL listings have not been updated for nearly 12 months... why?
Not only is the community missing out on some potentially cool blog posts, but it makes the forum look very outdated and poorly maintained.

 

[admin]

The daily URL listings have not been updated for nearly 12 months... why?

Blogging activity is also down significantly. So, it was kind of difficult to get Daily URL section filled with something interesting. Any suggestions?

 

[Pensador]

A lounge forum where any topic within reason could be discussed relating to what ever. A sort expat chit chat forum that needs not always be related to Argentina or expat life might be nice.

 

[Vagrant Violet]

Blogging activity is also down significantly. So, it was kind of difficult to get Daily URL section filled with something interesting. Any suggestions?

Umm... I don’t necessarily believe that you couldn’t find just a few relevant links in an entire years’ time, but anyway...

I have continued to blog about life here in Buenos Aires. This can help get you started:

http://vagrantviolet.com/2017/12/tis-season-contraband/

http://vagrantviolet.com/2016/08/calle-florida-que-quilombo/

http://vagrantviolet.com/2016/03/fashion-bashin-buenos-aires-good-bad-fugly/

http://vagrantviolet.com/2016/05/wave-inflation-drowning-argentina/

 

[khairyexpat]

Thank you for reaching out. Great and awesome that you are asking !!!!!
Few Xmas wish suggestions:

1.
Very clearly distinct Forums, to make things easier to find and to know where to post.:
Financial, Work, Health, Immigration, Transportation, Travel, Housing, Food, ...., etc

2.
Some way (or work around not necessarily wiki) to have a post updated in place.

3.
A "Personal Attack" Button. Similar to "Like" button.
Members can vote with this button if a reply is a direct personal attack unrelated to the topic discussed.
4.
If a miracle could be worked out to entice some of the Legendary Super Stars former members to come back.
They proactively and cleverly kept BAExpats ALIVE and ticking. They knew how to get members on diametrically opposite sides of each conflicting (even crazy) issue to participate together. It was happier times, pleasant, interesting and so much fun. They are sincerely missed.
(They never took the hostile approach to express an opposite point of view)

 

[admin]

A lounge forum where any topic within reason could be discussed relating to what ever. A sort expat chit chat forum that needs not always be related to Argentina or expat life might be nice.

People are coming here with certain expectations. They know that this site is about expats and about Argentina.
Forcing them to read about, say, "How to breed livebearing tropical fish" would be a disservice.

Why do you want it to be here? I know of one site that is actually a giant off-topic forum, where pretty much any topic can be discussed. Would it suit your needs, by any chance?

 

[admin]

A "Personal Attack" Button. Similar to "Like" button.
Members can vote with this button if a reply post is a direct personal attack unrelated to the topic discussed.

This is what I call "collective moderation". And it can be applied to any type of posts that crowd does not find desirable. To general spam, for example.

And I agree with the two other suggestions.