Just my two cents here: I wonder if a word other than "spam" should be used. I've seen users bring up the argument that spam is email or food on numerous occasions... maybe it's time to find a new word, while we're doing this? If the word does not change, I agree clarification is very important here.
Also, I like the slightly muted colors, and the change away from "warning." Kind of odd we have to become this calm in our approach to the userbase but it's whatever, I guess. jmo.
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In favour of these colours personally. Slightly muted means they aren't as harsh on the eyes.
The reason why I had chosen those colors is because they are still on the same 'color scale', but they don't blind you and are 'off colors' in which most people won't use as well. That way people won't ultimately get warned/infractions for mod-text.
Plus also, I have checked them under both light and dark backgrounds. While the "red" does play a bit hard-to-read, they do stand out still to where you know what they are.
I would very much like the Mod Text to be any color but red. It makes me fearful. Clearer definitions of SPAM would be extremely helpful.
The Advertising and Backseat Modding rules should change, or at least it might not hurt to alter them a bit.
I've almost fallen into getting in trouble with the Backseat rule and I'm not 100% sure what it was trying to accomplish. (the rule.)
The OP is infractable by the current rules. In fact if we really wanted to we could suspend him. Hopefully most people think that would be counter productive to what we are trying to acomplish as a resource.
Personally I would prefer that he copy the decklist and leave the link for people to look up his source, esp since he can't copy the rest of the page.
Wow, I did not know that type of link was such an offense under the current rules. I've made a few posts with similar links, such as "Top 8 lists are up on SCG, now: <link>." I've never been warned or infracted for those. I've also never seen anyone publicly complain about such links or had any PMs condemning me, personally, for them.
I don't know, it just seems like such a chore to be required to copy and paste every deck list, especially for large amounts of decks (MTGO Dailies) or from some sites that format their lists in odd ways. Besides, hyperlinks exist for this exact reason. So I vote to seriously revise this rule.
If the colors are changed for warning could we not use the Sandy brown as suggested by Metamorph. At least on my screen with the white skin it does appear washed out/faint and hard to read.
I still don't think we need a color change, but if one happens, Sandy Brown appears washed out on my screen as well, so it seems like a bad choice.
EDIT:
I've almost fallen into getting in trouble with the Backseat rule and I'm not 100% sure what it was trying to accomplish. (the rule.)
Without the backseat mod rule, when one poster breaks a rule, the next several posts are from people just telling him he broke a rule. It junks up the thread. And then between some users, you get this petty back and forth, "He broke this rule", "Well, he broke this one."
At the least we need to do what Binary said and still prohibit those posts whose only point is to backseat mod.
I would very much like the Mod Text to be any color but red. It makes me fearful. Clearer definitions of SPAM would be extremely helpful.
The Advertising and Backseat Modding rules should change, or at least it might not hurt to alter them a bit.
I've almost fallen into getting in trouble with the Backseat rule and I'm not 100% sure what it was trying to accomplish. (the rule.)
The rule is designed to cut down on the spamlike post content of normal members acting like moderators, and encourage the use of the Report button so that a moderator can step in and do the designated job.
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Well, I am one, in such situations that feel that it would probably be best in PMs, but again, I will see what I can think of and go from there. Chances are I would post it here, but a lot of times, especially with the Market Street area, there are aspects in which I KNOW members would dislike and would prefer to keep conflicts at a minimum.
@Aurora: Can we say...ew? LOL
Maybe something along the lines of: Infraction Issued. Stupidity. (Just in case, the hex code is #570F16)
and Reminder Issued. Just Because (Color hex: #826D17)
@iRebel (below): They already have 3 threads for them here, here and here
I personally believe the muted red isn't plausible enough, you should keep it to where it's viewable on all colorschemes as i personally use the DarkBlue scheme, that muted red (and other dark colors) make it almost impossible to read without highlighting the text, not that i dont have a problem highlighting text as i do it for the nonmodtext users such as Dakmor Queen's purple.
That tan may be unreadable on the white or lighter forum backgrounds. the Red, (even if too bright, aggressive) is fine from my standpoint. Maybe adopt something that the ORCs on MTGO use, a brightish purple? It's toned down, but not impossible to read.
Edit: upon going through all the background color schemes, the red is unviewable on dark backgrounds, however the tan stands out in every single one of them.
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I feel like a little clarification is needed one exactly what we plan to do regarding backseat modding. Basically, what Binary said. A post that consists entirely of telling someone that they broke the rules is still spam, and will be dealt with as such if we remove the backseat modding rule. But if a user makes a post on the topic and adds an aside about how it would be a good idea to do X, then hey, they're just being helpful. That's the sort of thing we want to make okay.
I've almost fallen into getting in trouble with the Backseat rule and I'm not 100% sure what it was trying to accomplish. (the rule.)
The rule is designed to cut down on the spamlike post content of normal members acting like moderators, and encourage the use of the Report button so that a moderator can step in and do the designated job.
Effectively this but at the moment it appears to general as any instruction on where to post something can be taken as Backseat modding. AS an example if someone where to find a rules question in an odd part of the board answered it and added something like the below:
for future reference we do have a dedicated ruling forum here
with a link to the rulings forum as things stand that has the potential to fall foul of the backseat modding rule and earn the helpful poster a warning/infraction depending on their history / discretion of the mod involved.
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I really like where you guys are going are going with this.
Edit: I'm adding to my post because I'm not sure if it will be considered spam and I'm not joking. But to further expand on my original statement I think the proposed rules modification will make these forums much more user friendly and the rules much easier to understand by users like myself.
I feel like a little clarification is needed one exactly what we plan to do regarding backseat modding. Basically, what Binary said. A post that consists entirely of telling someone that they broke the rules is still spam, and will be dealt with as such if we remove the backseat modding rule. But if a user makes a post on the topic and adds an aside about how it would be a good idea to do X, then hey, they're just being helpful. That's the sort of thing we want to make okay.
That I can get behind.
That's the exact scenario I've almost gotten into, adding a little aside.
1. This first idea seems like it's very fair in a sense, because of the simple fact most spam is just junk or useless information, sounds good.
2. I've been wondering when that rule was going to get a alteration, backseat moderation shouldn't be a huge issue at all, considering it is a rare occurence but it still happens, moderation should be left to the staff though.
3. Terminology transitions such as this might be confusing to some though, but in a sense it's a more friendly term and makes it seem less of a punishment unless one does something very severe.
4. Finally this one is a nice addition, really needed to be added last year when i was still new here technically.
5. Hey if you can make the rules short and easy for new members to read, go for it i feel.
6. This one is going to be a nice change, the red text was kinda hard on some people's eyes mine espically since well i'm used to seeing all different kinds of text, but a nice change regardless.
7. Doesn't really need to happen, but i guess it's ok.
8. An area that's kind of left in the dark a lot of the time, because there are a few artists on these boards whom link to their site to show off some of their more unique works, a nice change.
9. Sounds like it will be a fun experience with the moderators now
Without the backseat mod rule, when one poster breaks a rule, the next several posts are from people just telling him he broke a rule. It junks up the thread. And then between some users, you get this petty back and forth, "He broke this rule", "Well, he broke this one."
This, pretty much. Without such a rule in place, I've seen this happen.
I think the idea of classifying such posts as off-topic (when that's the only content in the post) and therefore filing them under spam is appropriate.
Even then, I'd really rather not a rulings post go up in Magic General with the first three repliers all starting their posts with "This belongs in Magic Rulings." Seriously, one such piece of advice is enough; there's no need to pile on.
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Re: Modtext color
I think it should stay bold red. It certainly calls attention to the post which most importantly lets newer members know about bad behavior. An warned/infracted post is a guideline of what not to do.
I do think, however, that indenting modtext might be help. The indention further helps point out that the modtext wasn't part of the original post since hardly anyone uses the [indent] tag.
All the proposed changes sound good, with the exception of 8, which sounds a tad vague, and the changing of mod-text color, which seems like we're trying to fix something that isn't broken.
and the changing of mod-text color, which seems like we're trying to fix something that isn't broken.
I don't have any problem with the bold red either, but the argument that bold red text is "too aggressive" is one that seems to come up repeatedly around here.
If the color can be changed to something else that still gets the point across ("this is a mod saying that something about this post or thread needs to change"), is visible on the most commonly used skins, and will reduce the number of complaints about it being too aggressive, then it's fine with me.
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For once I actually kinda dig where this is going. It's subtle, but at least it feels like a step in the right direction. MTGsally and it's mods, at least IMO have always given off a VERY cold and condescending vibe and anything that helps remedy that is great.
If I could make a suggestion, along with the colour change thing (Which is cute, but yeah I admit it doesn't really change that much) I really think the mods should be strongly discouraged from trying to be "cute" when they leave warnings and infractions.
I'm talking about stuff where they'll see someone say something like admittedly spammy like "Oh, hey this is my first post!" and respond with "And oh hey, this is your first spam infraction!". I know a lot of users think this is cute, but it personally makes me cringe. And mind you, this isn't coming from someone who's had to deal with many infractions/warnings on here.
If your goal is to be able to maintain the same rules without encouraging as much backlash from the users and not coming across as abrasively I think this would help a lot. A lot of their lil snarky post-infraction comments really do nothing but put the user who received the infraction on edge, encourage him to start conflict with the mods and honestly give the mods a bad image.
Given, this isn't as bad as it was in the past now that certain mods have stepped down but It's definitely something I'd love to see gone forever. I'd definitely rather the mods not just "seem" less aggressive but actually "be" less aggressive. Painting your Swastika pink and putting a lil Hello Kitty sticker in the middle doesn't make you any less of a Nazi.
As for the backseat moderation thing. IDK, but I can't help but think that dropping it altogether would turn this site into a hellhole. You'd get all these fevered egos here, looking to prove themselves right and vent all their condescending energy just searching for things to possibly complain about and catch people on. You'd see misplaced threads followed by half a dozen posts of "Wrong Forum, read before you post" within seconds. New users would start to get confused who is and isn't a moderator. Call me crazy, but I could honestly see users who would dedicate their entire time on this forum to "backseat moderating". Hell, we already have users who seem dedicated to doing nearly nothing but post "That idea won't work" without much constructive feedback or offering any ideas of their own.
I could understand not busting someones chops for politely suggesting that someone might be in the wrong place and offering a link to where he could get more help. But straight out dropping the backseat moderation rule imo, would RUIN this site.
EDIT: Oh okay, I kinda see that Viper sorta covered that on the lack of backseat moderating rule. Still though, I think it's perhaps not a great idea to get into the users heads that they should be encouraged to "try" to do it correctly. I'd just leave the rule as is and let the mods make a conscious decision to not be as heavy handed when a user is constructive with their "you might wanna try this posting this somewhere else/different format/etc...."
I guess that's my main point. I'd love to see the mods just chill out a lil more. I'm not saying we should let the place dissolve into some lawless chan site or anything, but just a lil more common sense leniency. Like I don't think the sight will suffer any if you let someone get away with bumping their trade thread a minute or 2 early, that sorta thing.
What if we went a graphical route using the vBulletin smilie system to get the point across instead? Below I'll give you an example of an idea I had. Basically, I think the color red works well in getting the point across, it can just be misleading by itself. Using a graphic icon at the beginning of a warning easily accessible via the smilie system, using an Orange border for "Reminders" (not-so-serious offenses) and retaining Red for "Infractions" (you screwed up). I broke up the borders a bit on the examples below that I whipped up in photoshop in a couple minutes, into a sort of dotted outline type deal to make them seem even less in your face, but still get the point across. Granted they could be edited with a different font or resized or whatever, and the text following explaining the reason would need to be centered horizontally with the reminder/infraction icon but I'm pretty sure all that would be pretty easy to figure out. Again these are just suggestions, it's not like they can't be edited further if the staff would decide to go that route (and I'd gladly fill any request for such).
I think a large part of the problem would be solved by just making the yellow and red cards on warned/infracted posts publicly visible again. They used to be, but at some point became visible only to mods and the person receiving them.
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Do you mean that it was visible, not just somewhere in the profile but right beneath the Avatar or what?
It was visible in the lower right corner of the post where it was issued.
It would change something because it would provide a relatively unobtrusive way to signal to other users that something was done to a post without requiring any modtext at all. Exactly which rule was broken could not be reflected in this way, however.
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It was visible in the lower right corner of the post where it was issued.
It would change something because it would provide a relatively unobtrusive way to signal to other users that something was done to a post without requiring any modtext at all. Exactly which rule was broken could not be reflected in this way, however.
Yeah, I've always wondered why this change was implemented in the first place, as I too also remember when everyone could see warnings/infractions. I don't like the idea of "silent" warnings/infractions at all, especially when trying to follow a practice of "This is an example of what an infraction looks like so the rest of you can avoid this type of post." Hell, I've seen mods just delete posts entirely after I report them!
It was visible in the lower right corner of the post where it was issued.
It would change something because it would provide a relatively unobtrusive way to signal to other users that something was done to a post without requiring any modtext at all. Exactly which rule was broken could not be reflected in this way, however.
Would it be possible to add a "green" card when a post is reviewed (after being reported) and not found to break any rules?
That might raise more issues than its worth, though.
I don't have any problem with the bold red either, but the argument that bold red text is "too aggressive" is one that seems to come up repeatedly around here.
If the color can be changed to something else that still gets the point across ("this is a mod saying that something about this post or thread needs to change"), is visible on the most commonly used skins, and will reduce the number of complaints about it being too aggressive, then it's fine with me.
I don't think there's anything wrong with the red text. If the people find "Infraction issued" on a post intimidating, or whatever, then they're probably not going to break the rules that poster broke. Where's the issue?
And to those saying it's harsh on the eyes, why are you staring at computer screen then? Mod text doesn't show up often enough to be a bother. Plus, if the text is on your post, you'll get a nice, nonred PM about it. If it's on another user's post, it doesn't actually pertain to you, so complaining that it's hard for you to read is silly. Sure, it's there for people to learn from, but in theory, we all read the rules to begin with anyways, and if you didn't, harsh red text is exactly what you need.
That said, I'd be ok with something other than red for things that aren't infractions. Dark Orange for the reminders seems good, as it's still bright and noticeable like the red, but not quite as "red," but I'd rather keep all of it red than go off on goofy tiered burgundy and sandy tan tangents. In the end, they are, even when just leaving a reminder, moderators adding to a post to enforce the rules, not people who stop by your rule-breaking post to drop of a cuddly, rose-colored slap on the wrist that you won't take anywhere near as seriously as bold red or orange text.
I really think the mods should be strongly discouraged from trying to be "cute" when they leave warnings and infractions.
I'm talking about stuff where they'll see someone say something like admittedly spammy like "Oh, hey this is my first post!" and respond with "And oh hey, this is your first spam infraction!". I know a lot of users think this is cute, but it personally makes me cringe. And mind you, this isn't coming from someone who's had to deal with many infractions/warnings on here.
If your goal is to be able to maintain the same rules without encouraging as much backlash from the users and not coming across as abrasively I think this would help a lot. A lot of their lil snarky post-infraction comments really do nothing but put the user who received the infraction on edge, encourage him to start conflict with the mods and honestly give the mods a bad image.
1,000,000x this! You have no idea how much I hate this. This is seriously the only problem I've ever had with the mods here, and it's not even on my own posts. Mods should be there to moderate, not flaunt their authority sarcastically.
Perhaps if the mod text was all in a quote box of an actual quote of the applicable forum rules, in the appropriate color, instead of mods just saying what they will, this would be corrected. Putting colored text of an actual quote of the rules could then also solve the "editing after a mod" thing. Instead on infracting a user for editing his post around the quote, infract those who remove or change the quote.
It would change something because it would provide a relatively unobtrusive way to signal to other users that something was done to a post without requiring any modtext at all. Exactly which rule was broken could not be reflected in this way, however.
I'm not sure what the point of hiding it was, since the mod text is still there. Mod text should stay, as it does help people who don't bother to actually read the rules, but I think bringing this back in addition to the text would be nice because:
Would it be possible to add a "green" card when a post is reviewed (after being reported) and not found to break any rules?
This would not only help users, but prevent mods from getting piled up with reports on a post they already reviewed and found to be within the rules. Anything that helps keep users from inadvertently pissing the mods off is a step towards cleaning up the mods' image.
May or may not be rules:
Is there a way to force updates on primers? Like say for example, if someone new wanted to start playing legacy burn... they have to go through the 230+ pages of posts, just to catch up. I'd say something around like keeping the "Primer" part of the section, then compressing/archiving all but the last 20 or so pages. All the while updating any major changes in said archetype on the "Primer".
Not trying to be picky or anything, just figured since we're able to make suggestions to rules and whatnot... I'd throw in my 2 cents.
Oh ya, can we just have the orange and red cards back? Maybe with a click-able status to show why the post was infracted/warnable?
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Would it be possible to add a "green" card when a post is reviewed (after being reported) and not found to break any rules?
That might raise more issues than its worth, though.
I really like this idea. I've been trying to reply to reported post PMs when I don't take action (so the users don't think we're ignoring them), but that could easily get out of hand, and it's hard to be consistent in subforums with several moderators if you forget to BCC all of them in the PM.
Also, I like the slightly muted colors, and the change away from "warning." Kind of odd we have to become this calm in our approach to the userbase but it's whatever, I guess. jmo.
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The reason why I had chosen those colors is because they are still on the same 'color scale', but they don't blind you and are 'off colors' in which most people won't use as well. That way people won't ultimately get warned/infractions for mod-text.
Plus also, I have checked them under both light and dark backgrounds. While the "red" does play a bit hard-to-read, they do stand out still to where you know what they are.
The Advertising and Backseat Modding rules should change, or at least it might not hurt to alter them a bit.
I've almost fallen into getting in trouble with the Backseat rule and I'm not 100% sure what it was trying to accomplish. (the rule.)
Wow, I did not know that type of link was such an offense under the current rules. I've made a few posts with similar links, such as "Top 8 lists are up on SCG, now: <link>." I've never been warned or infracted for those. I've also never seen anyone publicly complain about such links or had any PMs condemning me, personally, for them.
I don't know, it just seems like such a chore to be required to copy and paste every deck list, especially for large amounts of decks (MTGO Dailies) or from some sites that format their lists in odd ways. Besides, hyperlinks exist for this exact reason. So I vote to seriously revise this rule.
I still don't think we need a color change, but if one happens, Sandy Brown appears washed out on my screen as well, so it seems like a bad choice.
EDIT:
Without the backseat mod rule, when one poster breaks a rule, the next several posts are from people just telling him he broke a rule. It junks up the thread. And then between some users, you get this petty back and forth, "He broke this rule", "Well, he broke this one."
At the least we need to do what Binary said and still prohibit those posts whose only point is to backseat mod.
Sandy Brown is a bad choice.
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I personally believe the muted red isn't plausible enough, you should keep it to where it's viewable on all colorschemes as i personally use the DarkBlue scheme, that muted red (and other dark colors) make it almost impossible to read without highlighting the text, not that i dont have a problem highlighting text as i do it for the nonmodtext users such as Dakmor Queen's purple.
That tan may be unreadable on the white or lighter forum backgrounds. the Red, (even if too bright, aggressive) is fine from my standpoint. Maybe adopt something that the ORCs on MTGO use, a brightish purple? It's toned down, but not impossible to read.
Edit: upon going through all the background color schemes, the red is unviewable on dark backgrounds, however the tan stands out in every single one of them.
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Effectively this but at the moment it appears to general as any instruction on where to post something can be taken as Backseat modding. AS an example if someone where to find a rules question in an odd part of the board answered it and added something like the below:
with a link to the rulings forum as things stand that has the potential to fall foul of the backseat modding rule and earn the helpful poster a warning/infraction depending on their history / discretion of the mod involved.
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Edit: I'm adding to my post because I'm not sure if it will be considered spam and I'm not joking. But to further expand on my original statement I think the proposed rules modification will make these forums much more user friendly and the rules much easier to understand by users like myself.
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That I can get behind.
That's the exact scenario I've almost gotten into, adding a little aside.
I'm trying to be helpful, I swear!
1. This first idea seems like it's very fair in a sense, because of the simple fact most spam is just junk or useless information, sounds good.
2. I've been wondering when that rule was going to get a alteration, backseat moderation shouldn't be a huge issue at all, considering it is a rare occurence but it still happens, moderation should be left to the staff though.
3. Terminology transitions such as this might be confusing to some though, but in a sense it's a more friendly term and makes it seem less of a punishment unless one does something very severe.
4. Finally this one is a nice addition, really needed to be added last year when i was still new here technically.
5. Hey if you can make the rules short and easy for new members to read, go for it i feel.
6. This one is going to be a nice change, the red text was kinda hard on some people's eyes mine espically since well i'm used to seeing all different kinds of text, but a nice change regardless.
7. Doesn't really need to happen, but i guess it's ok.
8. An area that's kind of left in the dark a lot of the time, because there are a few artists on these boards whom link to their site to show off some of their more unique works, a nice change.
9. Sounds like it will be a fun experience with the moderators now
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This, pretty much. Without such a rule in place, I've seen this happen.
I think the idea of classifying such posts as off-topic (when that's the only content in the post) and therefore filing them under spam is appropriate.
Even then, I'd really rather not a rulings post go up in Magic General with the first three repliers all starting their posts with "This belongs in Magic Rulings." Seriously, one such piece of advice is enough; there's no need to pile on.
I think it should stay bold red. It certainly calls attention to the post which most importantly lets newer members know about bad behavior. An warned/infracted post is a guideline of what not to do.
I do think, however, that indenting modtext might be help. The indention further helps point out that the modtext wasn't part of the original post since hardly anyone uses the [indent] tag.
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I don't have any problem with the bold red either, but the argument that bold red text is "too aggressive" is one that seems to come up repeatedly around here.
If the color can be changed to something else that still gets the point across ("this is a mod saying that something about this post or thread needs to change"), is visible on the most commonly used skins, and will reduce the number of complaints about it being too aggressive, then it's fine with me.
If I could make a suggestion, along with the colour change thing (Which is cute, but yeah I admit it doesn't really change that much) I really think the mods should be strongly discouraged from trying to be "cute" when they leave warnings and infractions.
I'm talking about stuff where they'll see someone say something like admittedly spammy like "Oh, hey this is my first post!" and respond with "And oh hey, this is your first spam infraction!". I know a lot of users think this is cute, but it personally makes me cringe. And mind you, this isn't coming from someone who's had to deal with many infractions/warnings on here.
If your goal is to be able to maintain the same rules without encouraging as much backlash from the users and not coming across as abrasively I think this would help a lot. A lot of their lil snarky post-infraction comments really do nothing but put the user who received the infraction on edge, encourage him to start conflict with the mods and honestly give the mods a bad image.
Given, this isn't as bad as it was in the past now that certain mods have stepped down but It's definitely something I'd love to see gone forever. I'd definitely rather the mods not just "seem" less aggressive but actually "be" less aggressive. Painting your Swastika pink and putting a lil Hello Kitty sticker in the middle doesn't make you any less of a Nazi.
As for the backseat moderation thing. IDK, but I can't help but think that dropping it altogether would turn this site into a hellhole. You'd get all these fevered egos here, looking to prove themselves right and vent all their condescending energy just searching for things to possibly complain about and catch people on. You'd see misplaced threads followed by half a dozen posts of "Wrong Forum, read before you post" within seconds. New users would start to get confused who is and isn't a moderator. Call me crazy, but I could honestly see users who would dedicate their entire time on this forum to "backseat moderating". Hell, we already have users who seem dedicated to doing nearly nothing but post "That idea won't work" without much constructive feedback or offering any ideas of their own.
I could understand not busting someones chops for politely suggesting that someone might be in the wrong place and offering a link to where he could get more help. But straight out dropping the backseat moderation rule imo, would RUIN this site.
EDIT: Oh okay, I kinda see that Viper sorta covered that on the lack of backseat moderating rule. Still though, I think it's perhaps not a great idea to get into the users heads that they should be encouraged to "try" to do it correctly. I'd just leave the rule as is and let the mods make a conscious decision to not be as heavy handed when a user is constructive with their "you might wanna try this posting this somewhere else/different format/etc...."
I guess that's my main point. I'd love to see the mods just chill out a lil more. I'm not saying we should let the place dissolve into some lawless chan site or anything, but just a lil more common sense leniency. Like I don't think the sight will suffer any if you let someone get away with bumping their trade thread a minute or 2 early, that sorta thing.
Oh my gosh! How funny would it be if the mods used rainbow text when they went off on the users!
Seriously, I vote for rainbow text! It'd be like seeing cops wearing clown shoes.
Re: Mod text:
What if we went a graphical route using the vBulletin smilie system to get the point across instead? Below I'll give you an example of an idea I had. Basically, I think the color red works well in getting the point across, it can just be misleading by itself. Using a graphic icon at the beginning of a warning easily accessible via the smilie system, using an Orange border for "Reminders" (not-so-serious offenses) and retaining Red for "Infractions" (you screwed up). I broke up the borders a bit on the examples below that I whipped up in photoshop in a couple minutes, into a sort of dotted outline type deal to make them seem even less in your face, but still get the point across. Granted they could be edited with a different font or resized or whatever, and the text following explaining the reason would need to be centered horizontally with the reminder/infraction icon but I'm pretty sure all that would be pretty easy to figure out. Again these are just suggestions, it's not like they can't be edited further if the staff would decide to go that route (and I'd gladly fill any request for such).
I liked the idea. You smell like elephants
(Also known as Xenphire)
It was visible in the lower right corner of the post where it was issued.
It would change something because it would provide a relatively unobtrusive way to signal to other users that something was done to a post without requiring any modtext at all. Exactly which rule was broken could not be reflected in this way, however.
Yeah, I've always wondered why this change was implemented in the first place, as I too also remember when everyone could see warnings/infractions. I don't like the idea of "silent" warnings/infractions at all, especially when trying to follow a practice of "This is an example of what an infraction looks like so the rest of you can avoid this type of post." Hell, I've seen mods just delete posts entirely after I report them!
Would it be possible to add a "green" card when a post is reviewed (after being reported) and not found to break any rules?
That might raise more issues than its worth, though.
I don't think there's anything wrong with the red text. If the people find "Infraction issued" on a post intimidating, or whatever, then they're probably not going to break the rules that poster broke. Where's the issue?
And to those saying it's harsh on the eyes, why are you staring at computer screen then? Mod text doesn't show up often enough to be a bother. Plus, if the text is on your post, you'll get a nice, nonred PM about it. If it's on another user's post, it doesn't actually pertain to you, so complaining that it's hard for you to read is silly. Sure, it's there for people to learn from, but in theory, we all read the rules to begin with anyways, and if you didn't, harsh red text is exactly what you need.
That said, I'd be ok with something other than red for things that aren't infractions. Dark Orange for the reminders seems good, as it's still bright and noticeable like the red, but not quite as "red," but I'd rather keep all of it red than go off on goofy tiered burgundy and sandy tan tangents. In the end, they are, even when just leaving a reminder, moderators adding to a post to enforce the rules, not people who stop by your rule-breaking post to drop of a cuddly, rose-colored slap on the wrist that you won't take anywhere near as seriously as bold red or orange text.
1,000,000x this! You have no idea how much I hate this. This is seriously the only problem I've ever had with the mods here, and it's not even on my own posts. Mods should be there to moderate, not flaunt their authority sarcastically.
Perhaps if the mod text was all in a quote box of an actual quote of the applicable forum rules, in the appropriate color, instead of mods just saying what they will, this would be corrected. Putting colored text of an actual quote of the rules could then also solve the "editing after a mod" thing. Instead on infracting a user for editing his post around the quote, infract those who remove or change the quote.
I'm not sure what the point of hiding it was, since the mod text is still there. Mod text should stay, as it does help people who don't bother to actually read the rules, but I think bringing this back in addition to the text would be nice because:
This would not only help users, but prevent mods from getting piled up with reports on a post they already reviewed and found to be within the rules. Anything that helps keep users from inadvertently pissing the mods off is a step towards cleaning up the mods' image.
Is there a way to force updates on primers? Like say for example, if someone new wanted to start playing legacy burn... they have to go through the 230+ pages of posts, just to catch up. I'd say something around like keeping the "Primer" part of the section, then compressing/archiving all but the last 20 or so pages. All the while updating any major changes in said archetype on the "Primer".
Not trying to be picky or anything, just figured since we're able to make suggestions to rules and whatnot... I'd throw in my 2 cents.
Oh ya, can we just have the orange and red cards back? Maybe with a click-able status to show why the post was infracted/warnable?
Current Capt. of Team "Ju"
I play this:
Rotation is coming...
Modern: GGGSTOMPY
ZOO (Goyf-less)
Legacy:
Brewing
EDH:
Too many to name.
I really like this idea. I've been trying to reply to reported post PMs when I don't take action (so the users don't think we're ignoring them), but that could easily get out of hand, and it's hard to be consistent in subforums with several moderators if you forget to BCC all of them in the PM.
I don't think vBulletin has the capability for something like that built-in. So you'd be looking at a forum software update/switch to add that.