The Non-Spoiler Forum - stinrab and I need YOUR help in making the best forum at the JC even better!

This thread is for regular users of the Non-Spoiler forum, and the discussion in this thread is to remain in regards to the Non-Spoiler forum only. This is not a thread to address issues relating to other forums, and we (stinrab and I) ask that those who rarely visit this forum to please refrain from commenting. This is for the Non-Spoiler forum members to tell the Non-Spoiler forum moderators (all two of us ) what works and what doesn?t within the best forum at the JC. We ask that an effort be made to keep this thread civil. (this means you Mara!!! )

Basically, we want to know how we?re doing. What are we doing right? What are we doing wrong? Why you keep coming back here, and why you consider abandoning this place? What's no good, but can?t really be improved, and what's no good that we can improve.

A few general questions to get things started:

• Are stinrab and I doing an all around good job? If not, where are we failing?



• Do we show enough of an active presence, or do we show too much of a presence? Do you think that the forum is under or over moderated?



• Are we polite or rude? Do we give the impression that we care about these boards just as much as we did while we were regular users, or do we give the impression that we spend all of our time in an ivory tower? Do our policies make sense, and do we enforce them fairly?



• What improvements do you suggest to make this forum better?



• Overall, what do you think are the best and worst thing about the way this forum is run?

Note: Special thanks to Gandolf the Grey whose literature thread I practically "stole," with his permission of course. Thanks Gandolf!



EDIT: You know, someone could have told me that there was a typo in the topic title.






Mace Windy,
instant poster, gust add wind!

 

I must applaud your guys' efforts in this forum - you keep it organized and well-maintained at all times (but this is a smaller forum).

Both of you are pretty active in this forum, especially Windy, and I have yet to see anything posted by either of you that would make me think you'd be belittling the members, and you have the best of intentions for this forum.

As of right now, I think this forum is virtually flaw-free, and has little need for improvement for the time being. But I'll let you know if something comes up.

GO 'CLONES!

 

No problem, Windy.

 

* You're doing a sufficiently windy job.


* It's not possible to overmoderate this forum. I happen to fall on the mod-happy side of things in all cases, but particularly as spoiler trolls and incidents of drama show up as we move closer to May '05, more mod presence is always good. But so far we're cool.


* MW's good; I've never actually run across a stinrab post in context of mod duties.

* Nothing comes to mind. Once E3 stuff really hits up (trailers and beyond) I'll have suggestions.


* No comment comes to mind.




Rick McCallum loves you!

 

Windy,u the man

 

Everything is perfect in this forum. No changes needed, IMHO.

Windy and Stinrab: You both do a great job!

 

Well, I would really love to present some positive criticism in order to answer your questions and help you make this place the best it can be. However, there isn't much I feel that needs to be changed. I've been coming to this board for 2 1/2 years for a reason. I love the atmosphere, and I love the people who post in here. The members of our non-spoiler community truly are unlike members anywhere else on the boards. This place has become a comfort zone of mine, and I don't know what I'd do without it.

Although I haven't had much interaction with stinrab, I've obviously had my share of encounters with Windy.

I don't know that I could ever feel this forum is over-moderated. Especially, as it was said before, when spoilers start popping up everywhere. However, I feel that everything is under control now. Things seem to go smoothly, and I fully trust the moderators to take care of any situation that arises.

I can't praise the moderators in here enough. This place is managed extremely well. We don't have any major problems, and when something does occur, it is taken care of promptly and properly.

I don't feel disconnected with the mods at all. There is no sense of aloofness, and I truly feel as though I can bring anything to them. And, that's exactly how it supposed to be. It feels good to have moderators that put themselves on the same level as the rest of us. This allows us to truly communicate in order to keep this place running smoothly.

 

Overall, I feel both Windy and stinrab are doing a good job. This thread is proof of that. Anytime a mod directly asks the users for suggestions, comments, feedback, etc, it's a sign of a concerned, involved leader.

You both are polite and respectful, especially of newbies who make mistakes in posting redundant threads. Too often I see newbies bashed (occasionally even by mods) for making an honest mistake and it's refreshing to not see that here. As for moderation, I agree that we can't have enough. Things now are fine, I feel, as there aren't any spoilers. As previously mentioned however, once spoilers do start leaking, I hope the moderation here will be increased as deemed necessary by the administration.

And even when I first started posting here, I never felt like you, Windy, were above us. Even now, you act like a regular user, albeit one with 'special powers.' You genuinely seem to care about this place, and you've always responded sincerely to any suggestions I've sent you. And I appreciate that.

stinrab, I don't think I've ever seen you post beyond locking a thread, so I can't fairly comment. But both of you have been fair, absolutely. In a small forum like this, it's imperative to have ground rules, and it seems to me that those are enforced throughout this forum evenly and effectively.

For suggestions, continue what you're doing. Continue to lock redundant threads quickly, continue to create official threads when neccessary, continue to update the index, etc. Windy, continue to be in touch with the regular users of this forum. stinrab, you might want to try to get more involved. I know you're a manager, however I'm not sure everyone knew before this thread that you were one of the mods for this forum.

One thing I think might be nice, though, would be to ressurect the 'Welcome' thread. Every once in a while it seems to pop up, but I think it should be on the first page most of the time. This thread is a small community, and having people introduce themselves and welcome the new users is a good way to foster that sense of community, help everyone get to know each other better, and make this forum more welcoming to newbies. As Ep. 3 gets closer and closer, I think it will become increasingly important to preserve the 'closeness' of this forum even though there will undoubtedbly be more people posting here.

Best thing: as implied above, the sense of community. While I post at the JCC, for example, I often feel like I'm swallowed by the sheer number of threads and people there. I really enjoy the smaller size of this thread. I know everyone who already posted in this thread, for example, and that's a nice feeling.

Additionally, I'm a fan of the 'one social thread' policy. Having more than one (and there really are two: the cantina and the countdown) would divide the community and create cliques. In a small forum, as everyone has said, we need to be one all-encompassing clique. And I know there have been attempts to start new social threads, and I pleased that they have not been allowed.

Worst thing: As we don't know anything about Ep. 3, there isn't all that much to discuss. I post in the Fate of Padmé thread, for instance, and we would debate ourselves in circles over there. We've touched every theory possible on her fate, I think and there isn't really anything left to say. At times, it just feels like there isn't anything much to discuss. Hopefully this year we'll get more and more official information and pictures to help fuel the speculation.

So overall, Windy and stinrab, keep up the good work! And sorry for writing so much...

 

[color=663300]I think you guys are doing great so far. Of course, we are in the slowest time for this forum so only time will tell how it may need to be changed. For now though, I think the most important thing is to keep the 3NS Forum Index updated as new topics start to pop up.

that should do it for me. [/color]

 

So far, I think you guys are doing great. No redundant threads, no flame wars, friendly replies without a touch of despotism ...

I agree with everyone else that this forum is great. It'll get crazy though, in a year or so.

But I have confidence that you'll still keep it cool.

I think that Windy and stinrab are the coolest, most disciplined, incredible, wonderful, ultra-coolie mods ever.

Is that enough compliments for ya?

 

Remember, if any of you ever have any threads which you believe should be added to the index, please feel free to PM me, and I will strongly consider them.




Mace Windy,
instant poster, gust add wind!

 

Everything's running nicely, as far as I can tell from my lurking.
My only suggestion would be, once more spoilers are released, to have more mods from the spoiler forum periodically check here to make sure we don't have any spoilers. Someone could give away the entire plot to the film, make it sound like it was their idea, and we wouldn't know. I know I've seen some of the spoiler mods in here from time to time, but it could never hurt to have them come in more often. There's no reason for stinrab or Windy to have to get spoiled, just because they chose to help out and become a mod.

 

Good point, YodaJeff. Grilled-Sarlaac, a mod for the spoiler forum, is more than willing to help out here. He's been there for me when I haven't been able to reach Windy.

 

You hit the nail on the head with the comment "and we wouldn't know." Believe it or not, in the past, spoiled mods have actually done more harm than help to the NS forum by their actions.

stinrab and I are currently working on a new plan, which I believe, will work wonderfully in keeping us all spoiler free.



EDIT:

In order to further clarify the current administration's stance on spoiled mods, I am going to repost a post that I initially constructed in the mod forum on this very subject:


Just as the majority of non-spoiler mods who came before me, I am going to attempt to remain as spoiler-free as I possibly can. I, of course, understand that this is easier said than done, as I was probably about 40% spoiled for AOTC, and that it will be even more difficult this time around considering the position that you guys so graciously allowed me to possess.

That being said, don't panic. I know that this is sometimes very difficult for spoiled members to understand, but when a spoiler appears on the non-spoiler board, and you come across it, you know it. You know. Take it from a member who lurked in the Prequel NS forum for four months prior to the release of TPM, and then visited the AOTC board on virtually a daily basis from the day that the Episode II & III Non-Spoiler forum opened, when a spoiler is posted, you know it instantly. I don't know exactly how, or why, but nearly every member in that forum will instantly recognize the material as a spoiler, and contact a moderator to remove it as rapidly as they can. Once again, I ask you to trust me, I have been in that very situation on several occasions. Far too many, actually. It is a shame that we are the forum that trolls seem to want to pick on. The trolls are easy to spot, and the accidental spoilers by new members are easy to locate as well. Normally, the newer members will start there posts with, "Didn't you guys read that...." or "I can't believe that you guys don't know that..." Obviously, both trolls and accidental spoilers are easy to spot, and take care of.

Now, on occasion, a spoiled member will post a spoiler that goes undetected because he/she masks that spoiler, wording it in such a way that it sounds and looks like harmless speculation. Honestly, that's fine. There is such a wide variety of speculation occurring in that forum at any one given time, that nearly every angle is taken at some point or another. To give you an example, I remember that the idea was "proposed" in a thread dedicated to the Mystery trailer, that it was a Tusken Raider that Anakin was killing at its conclusion. The member then "speculated" that the sandpeople would have something to do with the death of Shmi. Was this member trying to shrewdly spoil myself, and my fellow forum members? I don't know. Perhaps it was just speculation, or perhaps he had intentions of giving away a major piece of the plot. In any case, all the members of the forum treated this member's comment as speculation, some agreeing that the idea would be "cool," others not convinced that it would come to pass. Some believed that Shmi would die some other way, presenting alternative speculation of their own. In the end, a spoiler was release, be it intentionally, or not, yet none of the members of the forum (myself included) thought for a moment that the speculation could be a spoiler. There is just too much speculation about the forums to worry about being spoiled by it, everytime you read a thread. I mean this in the nicest of ways, but the members of the NS forum are very ignorant, which is a good thing in this circumstance. Ignorance is bliss, afterall.

I remember several occasions in the past, in which a mod from an outside forum would enter the NS forum, see a spoiler buried in speculation, and remove it. As a result, every member of that forum who had read that post which they believed only contained speculation now knew that that what they had read had been a spoiler. They weren't spoiled by the post

 

stinrab, I don't think I've ever seen you post beyond locking a thread, so I can't fairly comment.

Heh, yeah I need to step up my presence a touch. I've been thinking that for a while. I usually only post when I have something fairly decent to contribute (and sometimes people steal my responses! )

 

Well, speaking of stolen responses , everyone seems to have covered nearly everything I wanted to add!

But, I do have one more compliment to offer. I am constantly finding myself speaking very highly of the atmosphere and mods presense in 3NSA. I work with a lot of newbies, and I am frequently telling them that if they want to see SW discussion at its best and the friendliest board here, this is the place to come. The mods here step in when they need to, but the forum is generally so pleasant that mod activity is rarely needed.

I don't post here much, lately, because I am all speculated-out until production on III gets into full swing, but I do read and lurk. Its a real shame that the rest of the JC isn't more like 3NSA.

 

I think things are been run quite well as it is right now. There isn't a huge amount of traffic here compared to the other forums. What we have is working fine. I see both Windy and stinrab on a regular basis, but not too much.

Things may start to change as spoilers start filtering out. Most people, I believe, go to the Spoiler forum since it's not much more than speculation at this point (I don't go there, personally). We may see an influx here in a while and then may have to look at things closer. But it seems alright to me right now.


- Smoov

 

Are stinrab and I doing an all around good job? If not, where are we failing?

I think so, yes, but it's hard to tell at this point. Closer to the film, it will be easier to tell how quick you are at editing out spoilers.


Do we show enough of an active presence, or do we show too much of a presence? Do you think that the forum is under or over moderated?

Your presence is perfect. And you, Windy, are doing a great job staying as as much a normal member as you can.


Are we polite or rude? Do we give the impression that we care about these boards just as much as we did while we were regular users, or do we give the impression that we spend all of our time in an ivory tower? Do our policies make sense, and do we enforce them fairly?

Polite. The First. The First.


What improvements do you suggest to make this forum better?

BRING MARA BACK!!!!1111!1111!!!1


Overall, what do you think are the best and worst thing about the way this forum is run?

That soon it will become spoiler-ridden.

 

"BRING MARA BACK!!!!1111!1111!!!1"

I'll just pretend that I didn't hear that...



Mace Windy,
instant poster, gust add wind!

 

*cough*

Ummm, Windy, did I ever apologize for hurting your pride in my Mara campaign?

 

I think the mods here are doing a good job, but honestly, the real test will come when the spoilers start hitting the internet. Right now I wouldn't have you change a thing.

One request, though: Can you please all of Mara's socks?

 

I think all is well at the moment.

The only problem I had here was during the build up to AotC, where I found nothing specific could really be discussed without being branded spoilerific (the fact that I mentioned Jango looked like Zam was frowned upon, for reasons I still don't know).
I understand it's better safe than sorry, it just became a little too paranoid in here.

For now, it's a nice place - good work

 

"I understand it's better safe than sorry, it just became a little too paranoid in here."

On a related note, the mods are going to have to decide on the rules of what's a spoiler and what's allowed and stick to them. Already there have been newer members complaining that some Episode III tidbits have spoiled them, even though the insignificant tidbits were from official sources and well within this forum's rules.

 

[color=663300]I wish they'd change the rules to not allow even "official" information in. [/color]

 

So where will people go who want to discuss info that Lucasfilm want discussed?