Proposed updates to rules -- A discussion

Discussion in 'Announcements & Contests' started by MannDude, Dec 9, 2014.

  1. MannDude

    MannDude Just a dude vpsBoard Founder Moderator

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    MannDude
    For the past month or so we've discussed some possible updates to rules privately and have decided to get the community's input. We do not want to make any rule change without first consulting the community that they would impact, and this is more or less an attempt to just gather some feedback and opinions.
     
    The proposed changes are shown below. I believe this is it for now, though if any more come up I'll add them to this thread or create a new one.:
     
    Minimum post counts for offers.
     
    Ideally, I would like the providers who solicit their services here to contribute something positively to the community in form of posting and sharing wisdom. Unfortunately not all providers contribute much quality, and instead come and quickly make the required amount of posts before submitting an offer. Right now the post count requirement varies per offer forum (between 10-25, should be uniform but is not[yet]) and requires one week, and five posts between offers to be made.
     
    I'm not very interested in quantity of posts here, I'd rather have quality and others have reflected the same opinion.
     
    The proposed change to the offer post counts would be to instead to have those forums off-limits for new sign ups until their accounts are at least one week old (for example). After that time their user group would automatically change to that of a regular member and can then access/post in those forums. Offers will still be moderated as they are now so ones lacking the proper information won't be approved, but this may cut down on some poor quality posts. I trust that the members here and visitors are capable of determining who uses this site only for soliciting services and who are contributing, helpful, quality and active members here. May still require a minimum limit for initial postings but remove the limit required between postings. Thoughts?
     

    If you have any suggestions unrelated to this, please use the appropriate thread here: https://vpsboard.com/topic/208-this-is-your-community-how-can-we-make-it-better-for-you/
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 30, 2017
  2. KuJoe

    KuJoe Well-Known Member Verified Provider

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    I've always gone with 10 quality posts and 7 days before posting ads on my forums in the past, but the times are changing and, like you said, the phrase "quality posts" is subjective and won't curb spammers. One feature that MyBB added to their promotion system was adding reputation in the mix so you could promote an account with 10 posts, that's been registered for 7 days, and has no negative or neutral reputation. I don't know how IPBoard does things, but it would be nice to have some sort of reputation system in place so the community can help be a part of the process.

    Another thought it having different requirements for Verified and Unverified providers. If a company doesn't go through the process of getting verified (i.e. not a legitimate company), make them jump through hoops to be able to post their offers.
     
    HalfEatenPie and MannDude like this.
  3. Leyton

    Leyton Member Verified Provider

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    I've run several forums in the past with a similar problem of lower quality posting from a subset of new users; and also enacted a similar split usergroup system based on both time and number of posts (somewhere around 5-7 days and 10+ posts). Once the criterion had been met, the users would be moved to a "Full Member" group on a cronjob.

    While this was effective at stopping those who don't want to wait (not wanting to be members of the community), it is a fine line on how you restrict the "New User" group. You want to make it hard to contribute in low quality, but not so hard to deter genuine members of the community.

    I like @KuJoe's idea of reputation (I'm assuming it's part of their karma system?) coming into the mix; and on XenForo there's a nice post rating system for members, I wonder if there's something similar for IPB.

    All in all, I think it's a good idea, but I imagine that striking the right balances of settings will take some time to get right.
     
    MartinD likes this.
  4. drmike

    drmike 100% Tier-1 Gogent

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    Reputation is a consideration.   Subject to abuse nonetheless.

    With wanting posts, offers, etc. you take the good with the bad. Being involved in promoting companies, I understand the rapid ramp up folks do just to place an offer.  Little that can honestly be done about it.   Some people just are sales douches and don't care.  Other folks perma participate with shallow content (hell most of the humans on the planet are doing such these days with their SMS sized comments everywhere).

    There are reasons to split offers out of vpsBoard onto their own.  This is one of the biggies.

    I think we have enough rules per se as-is.  Hurdles equal annoyance and smarmy RTFM comments by us regulars.
     
  5. XFS_Duke

    XFS_Duke XFuse Solutions, LLC Verified Provider

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    I can't say that I would agree with more rules. A lot of what @drmike said is true. If you want this community to grow, it needs to be able to. The extra rules would be good for the unverified providers, but those of us who decided to get verified properly, we should be able to post offers every 3 days... JK on that one, but yea. I wouldn't add much more rules for the sake of making it more annoying for new users.
     
  6. MannDude

    MannDude Just a dude vpsBoard Founder Moderator

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    MannDude
    What I am proposing is more or less a removal of a rule, not more rules. But open to input.

    I just want to prevent more "lol, that is funny" and "yes, I agree" type responses from those who have nothing positive to contribute but want to post an offer before disappearing for another week. ;)
     
  7. KuJoe

    KuJoe Well-Known Member Verified Provider

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    It would be nice if there was a way to replace the "X posts" requirement with an "X number of characters" one. Now that would be a nice plugin that enforces posts with substance and thought put into them.
     
  8. HalfEatenPie

    HalfEatenPie The Irrational One Retired Staff

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    Haha and square away people.

    "We demand a minimum of 1000 characters"

    Sounds pretty scary, but this post is already 110 characters.  
     
  9. serverian

    serverian Well-Known Member Verified Provider

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    lol, that is funny
     
  10. DomainBop

    DomainBop Dormant VPSB Pathogen

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    VPSB has an offers section?
     
  11. Kayaba Akihiko

    Kayaba Akihiko New Member

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    Someone said something about reputation, how about instead of that we impose a little rule that requires you to have x amount of "thanks" before allowing people to post in the offers section?


    (I know you said something about wanting to remove this rule, but just my 2 cents)
     
  12. KuJoe

    KuJoe Well-Known Member Verified Provider

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    I thought about that but spammers wouldn't be above buying "thank yous".
     
  13. dcdan

    dcdan New Member Verified Provider

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    Karma will probably be the most effective, and more often than not it is a good addition for smaller forums. However as communities grow Karma eventually starts driving new members away (my karma is bigger than yours sort of thing).
     
  14. wlanboy

    wlanboy Content Contributer

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    I would remove all rules about post counts, thank counts, karma counts, etc.

    Whatever you do they will find a way to get that counts.

    So why not create a new group for people who are not allowed to post into the marketplace and virtual private servers section and get a visible lable (avatar override, title, color) as spammer?

    Whenever a member is doing bad things he/she gets into this group for one month.

    Both preventing spam posts and a public kind of pillory thing.
     
  15. Kayaba Akihiko

    Kayaba Akihiko New Member

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    How about instead of posts we count threads? Like maybe 2 threads in sections that are meant for people to contribute(like tutorials and guides & reviews etc.)
     
  16. AnthonySmith

    AnthonySmith New Member Verified Provider

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    Personally I always thought the posts between offers rule was a bit odd, if anything it encourages fluff posts, the board has a commercial element let it be commercial.

    I have to admit I often come here, have a quick browse think, hmm nothing catches my interest and I move on, perhaps a better "plugin" would be something that says you need at least 5 visits before being allowed to post, obviously some logic built in so someone cannot do that all in 1 day would be needed.
     
  17. HenriqueSousa - WebUp 24/7

    HenriqueSousa - WebUp 24/7 New Member

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    I would agree with the visits counter, but it should be for example visit the site at least 1 or 2 times per day, 5 consecutive days a week.

    Most of the time I visit VPSBoard, just make a quick read of some threads if I think I can contribute with something meaningful, I will drop a quick line.

    - Henrique
     
  18. mojeda

    mojeda New Member

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    I think posts should be over time instead of just "7 posts" or however many it is now.

    IPB has a warning system that might be a good idea to utilize this, in this type of situation. If a provider fails to follow the guidelines give them a warning. Once they reach 100% warn level then they lose their permissions to post offers for an X amount of time. I would say the second time they reach 100% they should just no longer be able to post.

    This should hopefully encourage people to contribute more. In addition to that, it is possible to make a specific group a moderator of a single forum, allowing you to create a specialized group of people who are willing to help verify the posts. People ideally, who are not providers and those who contribute to this community in a positive way. This is not to say there can't be admin/global mod oversight of this process.

    In the past I had reported a few offers but ended up giving up as I didn't have the time to keep doing it, spreading this among a group of trustees might be beneficial.
     
    switsys likes this.
  19. zed

    zed Member

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    You can't force people to contribute, all you can do is minimize the # of offers available.
     
  20. Licensecart

    Licensecart Active Member

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    Why not make it verified providers only, as aren't they moderated anyway? Well mine was (never accepted) and I have over 30 posts.
     
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