Forumtopia... join the cause!

[Wiggo]

Correct me if I am wrong wiggo.... Is beefy the 1 person??

No.
The doc and his 3 other personalities is who I'm referrin' to.

But to answer ya question Osiris I don't really care how ya want to measure things but it must be reasonable, fair, and not disadvantage anyone at all as some recent decissions have done. Plus once a decission is made after fair consultation with input from all who wish to, then it should be posted with reasonable time for ppl to know about what's happin', why and when. None of what's been goin' on lately and just makin' it up as ya go when ya please and members wonderin' "WTF is goin' on" every 5 minutes.

Sadly what's happened around here the few couple of weeks IMO has done more damage than the fire of '01 ever did.

[StormyWeather]

What is IMO if you dont mind me askin?

[Thoric]

well people post which video card i should buy, is this better than that....

maybe its time for a more designated section for this, like i know there is the "what should i buy" but people still do it in the other forums, im thinking it needs to be more suggested that the right forum is the one to use.

that should clear up the other forums of all that stuff, leaving it for general help and all that kinda stuff.


:)

[Grim Reaper]

Wiggo,
is there something that I have missed here in my absence? What's been happening as of lately?

We don't want this to turn into a flame fest, just want to know eveybody's input on the matter...if your reply of what has been happening lately is going to start a flaming session, could you please PM me it...

I think this would be best for TT, but thats just my opinion, and would like to see other opinions

[Osiris]

No.
The doc and his 3 other personalities is who I'm referrin' to.

But to answer ya question Osiris I don't really care how ya want to measure things but it must be reasonable, fair, and not disadvantage anyone at all as some recent decissions have done. Plus once a decission is made after fair consultation with input from all who wish to, then it should be posted with reasonable time for ppl to know about what's happin', why and when. None of what's been goin' on lately and just makin' it up as ya go when ya please and members wonderin' "WTF is goin' on" every 5 minutes.

Sadly what's happened around here the few couple of weeks IMO has done more damage than the fire of '01 ever did.

Well, I don't really think it's likely that any change will be effected... personally, I'd like to first off just see post counts disappear... after that, we could look at other systems, etc...


And Stormy, IMO means In My Opinion.

[Thoric]

yes i agree with Osiris

post counters are just a excuse for a competition to see who gets the most, and the quickest way to get posts is to write 1 word ones etc.

also imo sigs should be limited to just text, but thats my opinion, i got a feeling that do more harm than good, lose users etc.

[SileNceR]

I don't know how many of you recall the 3Dspotlight hosted "TweakTown Forums" - I for one do, I even recall the original URL or http://www.standard.net.au/~stealth "Wilmot's Webpage" - I recall the "new" TweakTown design, the original design for the re-opening of Tweaktown, formally known as Wilmot's Webpage - being shown to me at the first LAN I ever attended, here in Warrnambool, VIC.

The forums, way back then, started off like the site - down to earth, questions and to each, an answer. From that end, the forums grew, to somewhere in the vacinity of about 300 posts in total before it was relocated, to Cameron's new pride and joy, his own, non "3dspotlight sub-forum" home. http://www.tweaktown.com/forums was born. Ultimate Bulletin Board was what we used, way back then - it even had a default admin user and password - which someone neglected to remove.

Discovered that, I did, and into some trouble I got - nothing too harsh though, my intent was not to destroy but to make a point - which cameron realised. My moderatorship of the Networking forum began my responsibility to the site, overseeing the content in that forum and that it maintained integrity and flame-free conversation was my goal.

I recall rather well the "last" kinko-LAN, where TiMOiD connected the whole LAN to chello, introducing many, for the first time, to broadband internet. Cameron, delighted to find the download speed for a copy of the matrix, even tho he had an already downloaded sample sitting next to him on CD. The over-exxagerated postings on the forums about this "30 person lan" as being packed out with excess of 80 people, an astonishing number at that time it was!

Time passed and eventually I rose to the rank and responsibility of forum Administrator, after the arrival and promotion of Darthtanion to Administrator for his constructive posting in many forums made cameron no longer the sole administrator of the forums. The forums prospered, and not many threads could be found where less than a paragraph, much less under a sentance could be found in any one post.

Then the forums burnt down. Literally. While hosts had promised cameron that the forum database was backed up, along with the other data, cameron had made backups of what he could - the site content - so this was not lost. But the forums, somewhere along the line, unfortunately were.

(Somewhere along the lines of my story I have missed the other calossal loss of forum content however I cannot recall it, I believe it was somewhere along the lines of a backup plan that gave us 2 month old forum data after a massive data loss, due to laziness or forgetfullness on camerons part forgot to click the database backup button.)

Panicked about this loss of posts the regular users returned, and began the spam-fest that this forum has become today.
Originally the sub-forums maintained their integrity, and the Off-Topic forum grew in size, being renamed at some stage to the "Beer Garden" that it is today. The babe thread came and went, after the sobs of massive overdata due to external links, then came the babe forum.

The spam filled into the other forums.

I left. The spam had become too much, had erased what I once new as the Tweaktown forums, the place my brothers used to joke I spent more time than anywhere else in life, even school - true to the extent of spending 7 hours on the forums and 6 or so at school, on some days.

I know I had more than my share of responsibility in the spammings - 2500ish legitimate posts, give or take a few thousand I added with the help of my administrative access - post count without the mess, for the sake of my conscience. While spamming I did however attempt to help as many people as I could, and after the loss of all data (the last time, whenever it was), I stuck to posting only outside of the beer garden, essentially missing threads with any relevence inside. Hence my low post count.

So anyway, one day... I got sick of the spam, and... just sort of... wandered off.

Coming back to 250 odd posts and having been uninformed of my demotion from Admin to standard-poster ranks was a slight shock, although not a dissapointment, the forums had become nothing to be proud of, wheras the past had me herald myself as "proud administrator of the tweaktown.com forums". And the URL changed to forums.tweaktown somewhere in there too, after my encouragement to cameron for the idea.

The devotion of much of this forum to spam is evident in the smilies over to the left of this posting box as I type, and the memory of when the box was one quarter size brings a sense of nostalgia to myself.

I miss the old posters, people such as Phos, who I once asked in ICQ "why don't you visit the tweaktown forums any more" to get the response - "cos they're **** now", well before the second loss of forum data. people like RDR, Oldbugger, and others who have already been mentioned.

I believe whole-heartedly that if this forum were to return to its old ways, in some shape or form, then I would rebecome the TT Forum addict that I once was, and would again be proud to promote the site as a proud moderator of the Networking forums once again (should I be given that honour ;)) , or indeed, Administrator.

Many familiar faces are missing from these forums, dedicated posters who once gave their all in to contribute to lively discussion now gone, replaced by a babble of unrecognisable peeps with post counts higher than my own and many with a contribution level of significantly less than that of Ph0n1x, the post assassin of old.

My personal hit count for these forums these days is less than once per two months, and this thread would not have appeared in front of my eyes had not Beefy sent it on to me.

These forums need a change, they have already disolved more than enough.

Forget "post-count", forget endless spam filled conversations, forget NEEDING 3 word minimums on posts, forget 10 foot signiatures, Remember the OLD forum community.

--SileNceR
Messenger of the Night and the Dark.

[SileNceR]

My contribution to the spam can be quantified somewhat by the following screenshot -

http://www.ocmelbourne.com/pictures/alreadyowned.jpg

Let the forums never see this sort of posting again, lay down your excessive mouse clicks and multiple windows, and learn to type once again!

I will begin by shortening my own signiature as a motion towards less crap in the forums, and far more content - for the good of all.

[Beefy]

*stands and applaudes*

What he said. That was like reading my own thoughts...

[Thoric]

here here brilliant argument...

the whole forum needs to be restructed and promotion needs to be lifted up. mabye some of the senior members can help, if and when it gets restructed.

true, alot of missing regulars have walked off...i remember my older brother 'phantomhex' posting regulary in all parts, no more. my other brother posted regulary and too he has gone. i rarely post these days, until now.

TT is not the no.1 tweakers site these days...it has lost it badly and it needs to be go back....

[Osiris]

SileNceR, you put that extremely well, and I have to say I agree, 100%. I too could post examples of my posting sprees, I'm not proud of them, but I have to say that most of the posts I made to acheive them actually had more point and thought than a lot of the current stuff that gets posted regulary today.

[Grim Reaper]

/me claps..

extremely nice post...agree 200%

[PrairieDawg]

I'm fairly new to your site and I don't know if my opinion is of any real importance and I may not understand all of the nuances of what all is going on. I enjoy this site very much and have learned alot from your forums and actually been able to make helpfull suggestions a time or two!
My suggestion is this: although it is somewhat entertaining reading about all of you admins and mods bickering and discussing possible solutions to the probs I don't think it is doing the site any good! Might it not be better to discuss solutions in a private admin discussion and if you wish input from the general members to put the basic suggestions to a vote in public? In this way you don't need to display the "dirty laundry" to all.

[RDR]

wow - I got mentioned twice in this thread...I wasn't sure anyone remembered me.

I agree with most of what has been said...I scan through most of the different forums generally skipping the Beer Garden...but rarely post anymore.

I problem I see - is that a year or more a go we had a small but solid core of regular posters, they made the forums good - good forums attract more users - eventually what you have is the same as every other PC enthusiast form on the Web, a huge impersonal forum, with rampant spam & flame wars (actually the flame wars are not to bad here - yet?).

I lament the loss of what made the forum enjoable to me - but I think this is an inevitable progression.

this forum belongs as much to the spammers & beer garden dwellers (no offence intended) as it does to the original core posters - who are we to say a change is in order?

...also, I'm not really sure what Beefy & Wiggo are talking about either

[JediAgent]

Ok, after what has just been said its hard to direct my opinion anywhere. With what PrairieDawg said about his opinion and how only the admins and mods should really be discuss ing this, i feel like i should just walk away, but im not going to.


I came to TT in Early '02, after the move, after the fire, after the Beer Garden. I posted what i considered alot in those first 4 or so monthes. I love TT. Before i was here i hgad only built three PC's and broke more. Now i work for a small PC store, i've gotten my Network+ cert, and am working on my Server+ cert. Im not saying TT did all that for but it was here that i found a community of computer ppl that motivated me. I used to only get help here, now i feel like i can bring something to the table. I used to post alot in the beer garden, now i've balanced my focus and increased my post quality. I used to want a title really bad, now i have one.

Im no senior member, im probably still looked apon as a newb because i took a 4 month sabatical. But RDR is right, the forums belong to everyone who has the taken the time to make TT theirs. There is no way to revert TTF to the good 'ol days. But something has to be done about the caliber forum presented.

I think ForumTopia has a good idea with no post counts. I don't even think there should be a voting system in which ppl get stars or whatever because another person likes them. There should only be titles. And the titles should be, simply put, the only defined way of setting apart the "better" members. The reason i say defined is that by nature TT is always going to be a place where we shall know other members by their fruit. Isn't the first thing you look at when judging the caliber of another member is that members previous posting quality that you've encountered? Its not a title around here, its not a post count, its not the length of membership. Its your praise from other members. That should be the system of setting apart the "better" members. When enough ppl HONESTLY prasie the quality of your membership here, there should be a title reward.

And if this means that i have to give up mine, so be it.

My possible plan of action goes as such:
1. TT should be closed for a short period of time, this would almost immediately weed out a large amount ofspamers and flamers.

2. All Titles should be dropped. Period. The new TT is a fresh start, and EVERYONE will be expected to display their membership caliber to everyone else.

3. Topic groups should be reorganized to handle a large number of members because many ppl are going to want to join and post here at TT if we choose to step up our expectations for ourselves in this place.

4. All topic groups should be strictly monitored by devoted mod's (who titles will be hidden until they are voted into one) so as to weed out unwanted thread starting.

5. Unwanted threads should not be deleted, they should be closed and moved to a new Topic Group called "How not to behave at TT"

6. Off Topic areas such as the Beer Garden should be totally rethought so as to keep the focus on what TT is all about, the computer-related sections. While still providing an area to post without having to think about your damn PC for awhile.

I like posting about cars, i like bul****ting in the beer garden, i still glance at my post count every once in a while. Thats OK IMO. But what we choose to do post about in here should be thought through simmply because we CARE about the caliber of the TT forums.



Im NOT going to ForumTopia, Im NOT going anywhere else. Period. TT's is the first forum i ever saw, the first and only one i ever joined. And i am thankful it was TT that i did join. I going to stay here. Im going to keep posting helpful thing, im going to keep asking questions, but most of all im going to keep understanding that the caliber of forum i am in is not defined by the creators, or the admin, or the mods, or the highest posters, or anyone else. I believe the caliber of TTF is my responsibility, and nobody else's. And that is what i hope you should think, every time you press "New Post"