Board mood meter disabled

For now, the mood meter has been disabled. It is a database overhead that we can do without until some upgrades are performed on our server. Once performance returns to where it should be, we'll bring the board mood meter back.

Your personal mood meters are still functional.

Thanks for the heads up William.
I am glad to see that ATS is receiving so much 'attention' here of late but I also hope things will return to 'normal' soon.

Great job in handling this 'crisis' of sorts William.
I am not "brown-nosing" but what I am doing is recognizing the continued "above and beyond ATS" performance for which you do...for all of us....this community.

regards
seekerof

I am also not brown nosing.

This place needs to get its # together, pronto!

Originally posted by MaskedAvatar
This place needs to get its # together, pronto!

And your opinion of "having our # together" is... what?

I have offered 20-30 suggestions while the board has been tweaked, and I understand the labor involvement in upgrading and improving the facility is voluntary and sizable, and you can't have read them..

However, I am too lazy to repeat the suggestions here, so I will instead wander off to more posting.

A succinct summary from me would be:

* Focus on content quality not bells and whistles
* Reward effective behavior effectively and discourage unproductive behavior (the latter might not be happening enough, but if it is happening privately, that's good)
* Minimize down time.

OK finally here is a piece of trivia you missed, a 2-second fix:

On Today's Posts your ranges need to be mutually exclusive.

You currently break it up as:

1-75
75-150
150 +

It needs to read

1-75
76-150
151 +

As I said when I made that comment, God and the Devil are both in the detail.

BTW, keep up the great work!

MA- i suggested to William that quality be improved by upping the word limit in posts. If people could only post 150 word or more a lot of filler crap wouldn't get through.

I also suggested an inner ring of boards (9 circles of hell) that revealed one by one when the person has a board below the next one (so like ATS is 1, and with ATS access, SUPERats access is avaible for 10,000 points) This way the board can have trival stupid post and high quality ones, which take preservance to get into.

I would wait on critiqing quality until the board revenue is stable. Big changes are happening. Moogle Boogle.

Originally posted by MaskedAvatar
This place needs to get its # together, pronto!

... the hatred continues...
I'm sorry, it is not your fault William, not really anyones,
Somethings I will give you props on:

1.)ATS Points, I had my doubts at first, bu it's working out.
2.)Opening up a secret forum for purchase.
3.)Custom mini-profile backgrounds.
4.)The blogs
5.)Rearrangement of forums.
6.)Research Projects
- as the projects progress, the site will continually improve and gain more attention and recognition (massive difference)
7.)The new color schemes flowing throughout the site, really brings it all together.
8.)Debates, new tounament system awesome!!!
9.)Fictional stories, looking great
10.)Advertisments, I due my dutiful clicks once when I show up, and once when I leave. I actually browse the sites. Great stuff....

Problems so far:
1.)Site activity overload
2.)Finances

ATS is really coming back together.
Most of the "senior" or at least not new members remember TBATS, and don't want it to come to that again, so they try to guide our newer members along the right path...
Overall...
It's GRRRRRRRRREAT!!!
- Tass

Well... I don't understand how our efforts with the debate and research forums aren't contributing to improved content... perhaps you might like to enlighten me here.

What is your categorization of "unproductive behaviour"?

Minimize downtime? no # brilliant statement there... WTF you think I've been doing?

As far as the numbers, the ranges are an attribute of functional website usability, not mathematical nitpicking.

As far as board revenue goes, we could all help in that category by simply clicking a couple of ads each time you come on and leave.

I have a hard time with that myself, as I have religiously avoided them left and right. But, if every member were to click on 2-3 a day each time they leave, I think the revenue would seriously help out ATS, and would get us an upgraded system that would work like a swiss clock!

ktprktpr

Dante and ATS could go together well!

With one William and 2000+ members (some of whom make suggestions) the feedback loop is impossible to manage totally. It will not be any easier at 20,000 members. Notwithstanding the addition of quality research forums, which I hope will have some good outcomes, I don't want to see the quality freefall any further, and be in a forum space of colored neon lights and inane irrelevant posting.

People comment more about great new colors than they do about great new information. This is the soundbite Generation Y digitally branded age. I hope it can be combined with upkeep in quality.

Originally posted by MaskedAvatar
I don't want to see the quality freefall any further, and be in a forum space of colored neon lights and inane irrelevant posting.

Further? In what way?
Inane irrelevant posting? I'm just building the nut-house... it's up to you nuts to post what you want.

You know what, MA, William, if you really wanted to do like user awarded points on quality you could do it like Slashdot, have karma points which are moderated up or down by members and given modifiers like +5 Informative, etc. With enough people it works out well. But I'm sure William doesn't want to revamp the point system. Just another marble rolling outta my head...


edit- one more thing, William's right, (of course), he is in no way responsible for the content of the board. If you see stuff that's off, contact the other moderators and explain your position. Yes, you have to u2u, but this is no time to be cute.

[Edited on 24-9-2003 by ktprktpr]

In this thread, I notice five of ATS's most active quality posters.
We can make the difference ourselves, set the example.
Like on the playground, if the fifth graders listen to their teachers, the second graders will too (in theory, you should see the elementary schools nowdays...) because it's the "thing to do".

Don't make crappy threads.
Whenever you respond, not only should you include facts, sources and evidence, but also personalized analysis you have as to your view on the issue/topic at hand.

For example,
I noticed member **** created an abortion thread in the mudpit (what the hell), and her thread was simply "abortion, yay or nay?" four pages of responses of yes or no later, an argument of each post with aproximately three sentences per post arose, ending with member ********* finally typing an entire paragrah! WOW!
These are not the threads we need, we need heated analytical, factual "debate" (or at least discusson) in every thread....

Come on, let's be more than that,
make ATS a better experience for everyone...
- Tass

Unproductive behaviours:

1. Countless topic reposts (some inadvertent, some consciously in pursuit of points reinforcement)

2. Topics started with no clarity or forethought or direction

3. Posts in serious forums adding no value whatsoever, 1-line 'me too' statements or disparaging remarks

4. Useless, prankish, off-topic subject matter

5. (Recent development) Spamming of loosely relevant material across multiple topics in a short space of time, and not returning to the topics at all to discuss member comments or queries on that content - the original behavior probably in pursuit of points reinforcement.

Some of these behaviors are managable by a clearer statement, in one place, of the responsibilities in starting a Topic.

Some are managable by Moderator intervention.

Some may not be managable at all.

Good thoughts Tassadar.

I think lots of second graders should follow the examples set by masked figures and reptilian assassins.

I agree with MA on the definition of "unproductive" in all but one thing:

"Some of these behaviors are managable by a clearer statement, in one place, of the responsibilities in starting a Topic."

People are simply ignoring what is being stated on the 'post reply' page. I mean it is in bold white writing at the very top......folks are simply ignoring it.

Just my opinion anyhow on the "unproductive" post by MA.


regards
seekerof

OI !!!

Are you calling my post "unproductive" ?

The most important measure of a discussion board member's value: Their patience with newcomers and understanding of their unfamiliarity with the topics of the discussion board.




deny ignorance

By no means....I know you were kidding MA, at least I hope you were.

"Just my opinion anyhow on the "unproductive" post by MA."

I certainly could have reworded this differently...my apologies though I know you hopefully did not take no offense to it and knew what I meant....thanks.

regards
seekerof



[Edited on 24-9-2003 by Seekerof]

I guess I mean a clearer statement, that everyone must have read before they ever post, that goes like this:

At ATS, our mission is to deny ignorance. As part of this, we value the introduction of valuable new content to the Forums, and we monitor its quality carefully.

Your responsibility before you create any new Topic is to: * I'm not wording these, just suggesting *

1. Ensure that you are posting on the right Forum. A brief description of the Forums is here (link)

2. Check that the Topic does not already exist, or if it does exist, ensure that you are bringing new info to light

3. Never post a news article from another source, but instead...

4. Frame the topic in a way that encourages discussion, including pertinent questions and suggestions

...

Blah blah blah. It may be overkill, but if people are forced to read the material in an expanded FAQ's section before they begin posting, then they will be the better off, and will have no excuse if a Mod throws their Topic out five minutes later. Deny ignorance.