Locking threads

Locking threads

Postby Flip » Thu Oct 02, 2008 1:00 am

Not sure if its possible, but when a thread gets out of hand, or too off topic would it be possible to ban the users that caused the thread to get off topic? There are some decent threads that get locked because of a few clowns. You don't need to perma-band them either, first time offense just ban them for 2 days or something, 2nd offense a week. I know of another forum that does this. Just a suggestion.
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Re: Locking threads

Postby Hinsa » Thu Oct 02, 2008 9:28 pm

Flip, your suggestion is a good one. We are always trying to strike a balance between keeping the site civil and letting people have fun and argue and trash talk a little. A little, being the key thing. But people need to heed warnings when they are posted. Schwab tries to do this - he posts things like "Enough" or "Bring it back on topic" but when posters don't comply, the topic is locked.

And it is just standard practice to stop Bison-Sioux, or Sioux-Bison, trash talk before it gets started due to past history with this.

We do ban people for a week, or two weeks, or a month. Typically we will do that before a permanent ban. We also sometimes issue warnings before banning.

Suffice it to say we are doing our best to keep the site fun for everyone. And intelligent feedback like yours is always welcome.
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Re: Locking threads

Postby NDSportsFan » Fri Oct 03, 2008 2:17 am

It's gotten to the point where any topic about UND or NDSU that mentions the other school will have the entire post deleted, so they might as not waste their time typing it out. Some members cannot be trusted to post about certain schools without baiting their fans. Sorry, we are not a school bashing site.
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Re: Locking threads

Postby Flip » Sat Oct 04, 2008 12:08 am

does red mean you're a mod and blue means you're a super-mod or something?
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Re: Locking threads

Postby Hinsa » Sat Oct 04, 2008 12:26 am

Mods are red, Blue means you are the super Kahuna!
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Re: Locking threads

Postby NDSportsFan » Sat Oct 04, 2008 10:20 am

:roll:

Obviously nobody wants to lock any topics, we'd rather everyone just have post intelligently.

This forum is different than most you will find anywhere on the internet. We invite the fans of teams that have a rivalry, and ask them to post without provoking each other. Sometimes that doesn't work, for whatever reasons. If we allow people to call each other names, complain about the refs (after every game), or discuss who got a minor in possession, that is all that that you will see as people begin to come here strictly to complain. The moderators and myself spend a lot of time looking through various posts and topics, even though nobody gets paid anything here, with the goal of trying to keep it fun and informative for everyone. I might be the administrator, but currently there isn't enough revenue from this site to say it's anything more than a time consuming hobby, that I really enjoy. (on most days) I've edited lots of posts, warned a few members, and deleted lots of posts. However the most effective way to get the point across that something is not welcome is to lock the topic and show everyone they type of behavior that will get your topics locked. There is a "report post to a moderator" function, that almost nobody ever uses, if more people took advantage of this we would be able to stop some problems before they run amok. There isn't any fancy company behind running this website, it's just a few of us guys who take a few minutes out of our busy days and try to keep it going because when it's done right it's a lot of fun to read. Thanks for understanding everyone.
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Re: Locking threads

Postby baseball » Mon Oct 06, 2008 10:11 am

thinkin about this whole thing and how it kinda seems like the site is slower now then it has been in the past seem to go hand in hand. the reason the site was so hot in the past ,imo, was contraversy and a little smack talk. didnt it used to be that as long as no names were thrown out it was all ok and in fun game. NDSU-UND is a huge rivalry even if they havent played in some years. Im not saying these topics dont deserved to get locked, thats up to the mods. it just seems like you guys are alot quicker with the trigger then you were in the past...just my 2 cents. look back at the class b topics about recruiting and four winds, etc...them threads went 15+ pages because of difference of opinion.
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Re: Locking threads

Postby NDSportsFan » Mon Oct 06, 2008 10:42 am

The trigger is about the same as before. The smack in that one area has been a little bad lately, it's just a spillover from the fan forums of the two Universities. The policy has always been no UND/NDSU smack because it will just get out of control quickly and will be sure to offend nearly everybody. As far as the rest of the topics, it hasn't been too bad for the most part. There is always going to be some sniping at other members for comments they make about another team, but I'm seeing that the majority of people who are frequent posters respect the fact that there is a limit to what they will get away with.

As far as the site goes, I didn't really trust the forum software from the old site anyway. It was essentially developed by one guy from India and it was filled with security problems. The new format that we have now is at least secure and I trust the numbers that we are getting as far as people who are online. Our daily totals are around 1800-2000 unique visitors each day, with most returning 2-3 times. Our busiest days last spring, during basketball tournaments, we were just under 3000 unique visitors, averaging about 2700. So looking at the trends of the monthly totals, and page views, we should probably average at least 3000 per day during February and March, and that would be a decent increase in viewers over last year. Considering our only advertising is organic (not paid) search engine results and word of mouth, I'd say that's pretty good. Personally, I'm more interested in quality of posts, rather than quantity, anyway.
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Re: Locking threads

Postby baseball » Mon Oct 06, 2008 12:28 pm

yea...maybe im just thinkin the trigger is quicker because the quantity of posts is alot smaller so it seems like a lot higher percentage get locked/deleted
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