I've been browsing the forums recently and have discovered that many of the rules have not been being enforced aggressively enough and many people are constantly breaking the rules that are intended to keep forum quality up.
Browsing through the forums I notice that many, probably a majority, of forums post are just fluff and useless messages not pertaining to the original thread, and it makes the forums appear boring as well as making very hard to find actual content on the site. People have been focusing on replying to a single person that post in the thread instead of keeping the original idea of the thread in mind. A key example of people responding to a thread without keeping the original topic in mind are users who are calling out other users on breaking the rules, also knows as 'Mini-Moderating'. Mini-Moderating is not only against the rules but can completely derail a thread because people will start arguing what is against the rules and what is not. If you have a problem with what a user said and believe it is against the rules report the post, that is what the report feature is there for. Users need to be aware of the original post on a thread from this point forward, and anyone not doing so will have their post deleted and be warned.
The blame for low quality post may be the boring and pointless threads many users have been creating, many people have been making threads that are intended as more as a single message than a proper start of a discussion. Threads should never target a single person and should never be intended to die out after a few posts. Another problem with threads lately is that their titles aren't informative of the content inside them. A thread title should tell me what the main topic is of the thread and I should not have to go into the thread to have some idea of what is in it. Threads' original posts need to promote discussion of a topic and their titles need to be informative of what the thread is.
The bottom line is that users need to be more aware of what they are posting and think about how it contributes to a thread and how a post will further continue a discussion. If you don't feel a post will further a discussion, do not post it.
Starting now the moderators are going to be more strict with deleting posts/threads and warning users who break the rules implemented to ensure forum quality. Note that warnings can pile up and lead to harsher punishments like a ban.
*Moderators will be getting rid of old messages that break the things outlined above, but you won't be punished for posts before this thread.*
Browsing through the forums I notice that many, probably a majority, of forums post are just fluff and useless messages not pertaining to the original thread, and it makes the forums appear boring as well as making very hard to find actual content on the site. People have been focusing on replying to a single person that post in the thread instead of keeping the original idea of the thread in mind. A key example of people responding to a thread without keeping the original topic in mind are users who are calling out other users on breaking the rules, also knows as 'Mini-Moderating'. Mini-Moderating is not only against the rules but can completely derail a thread because people will start arguing what is against the rules and what is not. If you have a problem with what a user said and believe it is against the rules report the post, that is what the report feature is there for. Users need to be aware of the original post on a thread from this point forward, and anyone not doing so will have their post deleted and be warned.
The blame for low quality post may be the boring and pointless threads many users have been creating, many people have been making threads that are intended as more as a single message than a proper start of a discussion. Threads should never target a single person and should never be intended to die out after a few posts. Another problem with threads lately is that their titles aren't informative of the content inside them. A thread title should tell me what the main topic is of the thread and I should not have to go into the thread to have some idea of what is in it. Threads' original posts need to promote discussion of a topic and their titles need to be informative of what the thread is.
Before you post something on the forums ask yourself these questions.
- Am I posting something relevant to the original thread?
- Is what I'm saying actually necessary and providing more information that what was previously available?
- Will what I'm saying allow more discussion to continue? (Not applicable to threads in the 'Questions' section)
The bottom line is that users need to be more aware of what they are posting and think about how it contributes to a thread and how a post will further continue a discussion. If you don't feel a post will further a discussion, do not post it.
Starting now the moderators are going to be more strict with deleting posts/threads and warning users who break the rules implemented to ensure forum quality. Note that warnings can pile up and lead to harsher punishments like a ban.
*Moderators will be getting rid of old messages that break the things outlined above, but you won't be punished for posts before this thread.*
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