forum improvements

[James]

Alright guys.

It's not necessary to take sides, I think we're going through some learning pains and we're learning as we go.

Let's remember why we're here:

To learn, share and make friends...

Well that's why I'm here anyway....

Bubudi represents the djembefola.com and as such any decision he makes are in with the best interests of the site and community at large...

e2c and bubudi wouldn't agree on this subject if bubudi wasn't a moderator.

The fact that bubudi is a moderator and changed the thread title, caused an additional problem here.

Issues as I see them:

Should it be mulilation or cutting?
Dunno
It's debatable, so I don't wan't to go near this part of the issue.

Is the original title of the thread offensive?
To the people who come from this culture it could be.

Should bubudi have changed of the threads title?
I don't doubt that he did so because he thought it correct to do so. His intention was to avoid sensationalism and retain a neutral stance. He has made all this clear in the thread, so I won't over hash it again.

Thread titles need to changable by us for obvious reasons.

In this case it is debatable as to whether or not he should have done so. I will make a final call on this and we will review and publish our intended proceedures and processes in the near future.

Should a moderator have the power to decide about what should and shouldn't be editted?
Individual moderators need a certain amount of autonomy. It's unfair for him to have to put is head on the line for his opinion on contentious issues though. As such we will soon be appointing a second moderator and potentially contentious issues will require a huddle between the 3 of us.

Is there too much editting going on and is it taking the forum
Not in my opinion or the majority of the people I have spoken too. If threads have been lost it has been accidental. I apologise for this, we are improving our workflow and backups all the time. We will soon running daily backups to allow us to restore lost data!

Is it ok to flame moderators if you don't agree with them.
No. If you have a problem you contact me and I'll review the situation. Remember a moderator's intention should be the best intentions or the community. To doubt a mod is to doubt their intentions or judgement. In either case, talk to me and I'll review it.

Is it ok to make personal attacks on people?
No flaming is not allowed at all.

What constitutes a personal attack?
See the rules forthcoming!

Do we need rules?
Nobody likes to be told what to do, but we need an agreement amongst each other so that we can all get along...

[the kid]

Let's remember why we're here:

To learn, share and make friends...

I love you guys..

Cheers to james and bubudi and everybody else who makes djembe fola so much fun...

yee ha

[Dennis103]

As a forum owner, forum developer and moderator myself, my 2c:

Topic titles should be descriptive of the topic content itself, so that you don't need to read the topic to figure out what 'Help' means, for example. And also so that you can search on topic titles.
So I always edit topic titles if necessary (also for spelling) and move topics if they are in the wrong subforum. In some larger forums I use title prefixes, for example [Book] Author: Title for book reviews etc. or [Class] Teacher: Title for classes.

Posts themselves I usually do not edit, other than correct faulty links, bbcode etc. and (accidentally or intentionally) misspelt forum member names or other commonly known names. If the post is too far away from the rules, netiquette, common decency and so on, I remove it, send it back to the poster and ask them to rephrase.

Over the past 5 years I have found that these simple rules work very well. The extremely rare case where people don't agree with a change, they can approach me back-channel and present their case. Overall they keep the forum manageable, legible, searcheable, and that way you build up a decent archive, instead of having only disposable content.

Hope this helps,
Dennis

[e2c]

Alright guys.

It's not necessary to take sides, I think we're going through some learning pains and we're learning as we go.

Let's remember why we're here:

To learn, share and make friends...

Well that's why I'm here anyway....

Bubudi represents the djembefola.com and as such any decision he makes are in with the best interests of the site and community at large...

e2c and bubudi wouldn't agree on this subject if bubudi wasn't a moderator.

The fact that bubudi is a moderator and changed the thread title, caused an additional problem here.

Issues as I see them:

Should it be mulilation or cutting?
Dunno
It's debatable, so I don't wan't to go near this part of the issue.

Is the original title of the thread offensive?
To the people who come from this culture it could be.

Should bubudi have changed of the threads title?
I don't doubt that he did so because he thought it correct to do so. His intention was to avoid sensationalism and retain a neutral stance. He has made all this clear in the thread, so I won't over hash it again.

Thread titles need to changable by us for obvious reasons.

In this case it is debatable as to whether or not he should have done so. I will make a final call on this and we will review and publish our intended proceedures and processes in the near future.

Should a moderator have the power to decide about what should and shouldn't be editted?
Individual moderators need a certain amount of autonomy. It's unfair for him to have to put is head on the line for his opinion on contentious issues though. As such we will soon be appointing a second moderator and potentially contentious issues will require a huddle between the 3 of us.

Is there too much editting going on and is it taking the forum
Not in my opinion or the majority of the people I have spoken too. If threads have been lost it has been accidental. I apologise for this, we are improving our workflow and backups all the time. We will soon running daily backups to allow us to restore lost data!

Is it ok to flame moderators if you don't agree with them.
No. If you have a problem you contact me and I'll review the situation. Remember a moderator's intention should be the best intentions or the community. To doubt a mod is to doubt their intentions or judgement. In either case, talk to me and I'll review it.

Is it ok to make personal attacks on people?
No flaming is not allowed at all.

What constitutes a personal attack?
See the rules forthcoming!

Do we need rules?
Nobody likes to be told what to do, but we need an agreement amongst each other so that we can all get along...

Thanks so much, James - points taken. You guys have both gotten some off-list communication going on this, which I deeply appreciate.

My apologies to all. I think James is absolutely correct in saying that this is a learning process for everyone involved. To all of you who post here - and who moderate - I want to say "thanks." I've learned a great deal from everyone, and I'm anxious to learn more!

All the very best,
e.

[bops]

Group hug!

[e2c]

I wish we could all get together and play - maybe one of these days!

[James]

[Dennis103]

Links

Hi Bubudi,

Normally on a phpBB forum all links to other forum pages use the same window, and all off-site links open a new window. I notice that on this forum all off-site links too use the same forum window, which is a nuisance (because unexpected) and also if you follow a link in someone's post, you have to track back again - that is, if I haven't closed that window yet grrrrr.

So could you change this? I'm sure the original phpBB code had this to start with. I don't know if version 3 changed it although it seems unlikely. Or are there special reasons it is like this?

Regards,
Dennis

[bubudi]

hi dennis, if you want a link to open in a new window or tab, right click it and select how you want it to open.

[James]

Hi Dennis,
This behaviour is standard with phpBB3.

Latest usability guidelines are to not open new windows for users clicking links. Us web veterans may expect it, but to the average Joe it would be a suprise for a new window to open.

Perhaps this is why the phpBB crew decided to go this direction.

You can also ctrl + click to open a new window on a pc...

James

[bops]

...or click w/the scroll wheel of the mouse.

Programmers... sheesh!

[Garvin]

Whoa! I haven't been on the forum in a while, but my first reaction was to hug whoever finally installed the "new posts" search feature. That was the one thing that I always wished we had. So glad to see the new layout. I love it. I've definitely missed this place and will try and catch up on some reading now...

[James]

Hey Garvin,

Great to see you back...

Stick around, there's plenty more to come