Announcement: Upcoming Site Changes

I want to announce a number of changes coming up over the next several weeks.

Many of them have been under discussion for a year or more, and some of them have been developed just in the last several weeks. Some of them are structural changes, having to do with thread creation and forum layout, others are design features that we hope will make the site easier to use and navigate, and others are policy issues that have to do with staffing levels, clarification of the posting guidelines, and improving the way staff and ownership communicate with the membership.

Over the last few months, we have facilitated focus groups and roundtable discussions between members and staff, in which around two dozen posters have participated. I want to thank those members for their time and effort; many of the ideas here originated with those members, and even those which we were already considering were improved greatly by the input from the posters. Other ideas that we were considering were abandoned when the focus groups made clear that they probably weren't as effective as we had hoped. Their assistance in this effort was literally invaluable, and perhaps one of the most important things we learned from the process is that we need to make these focus groups and member-staff roundtables a permanent feature here on Political Forum. Member input is going to be a significant component of all policy changes going forward.

So. With that, here are the changes you can expect to see over the next few weeks:

1. The first step will be to merge the two largest forums, "Latest US and World News" and "Current Events." They're redundant; there's no point in having two forums that are basically about the same thing. The combined forum will be called "Latest World News."

This master forum will serve as an appropriate starting point for most topics; this will be where most people will post threads about the latest, breaking news stories from all over the world, just as they now do in "Current Events" and "Latest US and World News." As the story develops, and is no longer breaking news, threads will be moved to appropriate sub-forums - usually anywhere from 24 to 72 hours after the thread is created.

I know this is a departure from what most of you were accustomed to, but this was always the intent of the forum designer. This was the system she had in mind when she set up the hierarchies, and over the years, the board drifted away from that original intent. I know that it will be an adjustment for many of you, and I'm sorry for that, but I think most of you will soon find that the forums make more sense when the discussions are distributed to more appropriate sub-forums.

2. The names or descriptions of some of the sub-forums will be clarified, to make it easier to identify the purpose of that particular forum. You won't notice many changes in that regard, because most of the sub-forums are already clearly named, but a few might have slight alterations to their titles. Some of the least-active sub-forums may eventually be eliminated or merged, but that won't be an immediate change.

3. We're going to be placing a greater emphasis on thread creation guidelines. Rule 11, the rule governing thread creation, reads (in part) -

Over time, this standard has become very loose, almost to the point of being meaningless. We're going to start taking it more seriously. Too many of the one-liner, "drive-by" OPs wind up being nothing more than flamebait, and if we can get people to put just a little more effort into getting their thread off to a good start, it'll be much easier to keep those threads on a proper, productive course.

If you want to start a discussion, you're going to need to say something about why you think this is a subject worth discussing. You're the one who thought it was worth talking about; what do you think about it? What do you have to say about it? You need to offer something substantial of your own, even if it's just a clearly articulated question about the subject.

We aren't going to ask you to write anything lengthy; just something substantial enough that when someone reads the OP, they know why you wanted to bring it up for discussion. Keep in mind when you're writing your OP that the points you emphasize in that first post will help determine to which sub-forum it is eventually moved. If you start a thread about the Affordable Care Act, for example, is your OP mostly about the political implications? Then your thread will probably end up in the "United States Politics" forum. Is it about how it will affect heath care costs? Then it will probably wind up in "Health Care." Your OP will determine the focus of the discussion, which in turn will determine where the thread eventually winds up.

4. As part of the effort to clarify the opening posts of threads, thread titles in some forum hierarchies will need to be the title of whatever article you're linking as the source for your OP. For example, if your source article is titled "GOP Sees Health Care Law As Big Opportunity in 2014," that needs to be the title of your thread - not, "Republican Vultures Line Up To Pick The Carcass Of The Law That They Undermined," or something of that nature.

I know that's going to take a lot of the fun out of creating threads, and I'm sorry about that. It's not something we want to do lightly. But too many threads are posted with titles that are borderline flamebait right from the beginning, and this is a trend that's getting worse and worse as time goes by. People are going to have to save their editorializing for the OP itself.

The forum hierarchies in which this rule will initially apply are:

General Political Chat
Political Issues
Politics by Region

All forums in these three hierarchies will be covered by this rule beginning December 1st.

5. On our end, we're going to make a much more concerted effort to save the good discussions in threads that have been derailed by trolling, insults, or flamebaiting. If you take the trouble to compose a good OP, or a lengthy reply on a subject that's important to you, it's not fair to have the thread closed or the reply deleted because the thread was trashed by people who weren't interested in discussing the topic. That may mean that some threads will be closed for a while to give us time to clean them up a bit, but if there was a good discussion in there before it went off the tracks, we will do our best to save it for you.

One of the tools we'll be using a lot more often to keep good discussions on track will be the thread ban option - the tool that allows us to ban a particular user from posting in a certain thread. Posters who are particularly disruptive will suddenly find that they're unable to post in a thread at all, and this may happen without warning. The rule of thumb to abide by is, "if you don't want to discuss the topic of the thread, stay out of the thread."

6. We're also going to be making a major commitment to responding (whenever possible) to people who report posts. As it stands, when a member tries to help the community by reporting a post that they feel violates the rules or posting guidelines, they rarely hear anything back from us, and that's not fair. I'm sorry about that; we're just so busy, we don't have time to personally reply to every reported post. But we're going to make more of an effort to reply to these, even if it's only to thank you for taking the time and trouble to help out. And in many cases, we'll try to use it as a opportunity to explain to a poster how a certain rule does or does not apply in the case that they are reporting. If a member is taking the time to report a post, I think we owe them at least this much.

7. One of the ways we'll be making it possible to do that is by adding more staff. We've already begun this process; we started adding more admins several weeks ago, and have been adding Greeters and other staff members for a week and a half. We expect around a dozen more greeters, as well as several Advisers and Moderators, by the end of the year - and many more in the months to follow.

JohnnyMo is the newest Adviser, having been promoted today. Johhny's worked very, very hard over the last several months (both as a member of our focus group discussions and as a Greeter) to learn our moderating guidelines and procedures, and if he works even half so hard as an Adviser as he did in learning how to become one, he'll set a stellar example for the other new staff we're bringing in. Thanks, Johnny; you've more than earned this, and we're honored to have you on the team.

As we bring in new staff, they'll be led by a much stronger administrative team. Falena was already announced as a new administrator a few weeks ago, and she has since been joined by newer admins Himmjered and Flounder. All three will set an example to new staff with their moderating philosophy, and as a group, they bring to the table a strong blend of historical background and technical skills that will strengthen the site across the board.

These 3 new admins all have final-call authority on any member-related issue, empowered to make on behalf of the site any decision relating to any membership or procedural question. Each of them will be responsible for addressing member's concerns and questions, along with training and supervising moderators, advisors, and greeters. As a group, the 4 of us will have final say on all policy decisions, subject to the wishes and preferences of the owner.

Alon with our other veteran mods, this is the group who will take the new staff forward into 2014. Having a stronger, well-trained staff presence will make everything else we're trying to do with the site possible. Without adequate staff, we can't go anywhere, but with these people (and our other veteran staff members) leading the way, the staff will be ready for any task.

8. We're updating and rewriting the FAQ. It's way out of date, and needs a great deal of work. We're going to make it more current and relevant, and make it (and the TOS) more accessible and easier to use.

9. We're also simplifying the language on some of the posting guidelines. Shangrila has already done some major preliminary work on that effort, and I think it will be a big improvement. We're not changing the substance or the intent of any of the rules, but they will be more clear and more simple. I don't think we need half a page to say, "don't insult one another," for example.

10. We're making some minor layout changes that will make it easier to navigate within the forums. Many of you may not even notice the change in appearance, but for some, it will make navigation from one forum to another a couple of mouse clicks or keystrokes quicker.

11. We're creating a "best thread" feature, a "thread of the month" award. We haven't finalized all the details yet, but we'll be naming about 6 threads each month, one in each of the major forum hierarchies. Stay tuned for more details on this.

12. We're also beefing up the debate section. I know this has been tried before and hasn't really led to anything, but we're going to take another run at it and see if we can stir up some more interest. If we can't, we can't, but at least we'll know we tried. Again, on this one we'll give you more details when we're ready to implement, because we're not sure yet how much of this is going to be practical. But for the time being, we just want to make it known that we have big plans to try to liven up that forum.

13. A new feedback forum, dedicated to technical issues. The current Feedback Forum is private, which means that the only people who can read a thread are the staff and the member who created the thread. We'll still keep that forum as it is, but the new Technical Feedback forum will be a public forum, so that members with technical questions can browse the archives for a possible solution. Hiimjered has offered to take the lead on facilitating this forum.

There will be more changes announced and implemented as we head into the new year, but these are going to be the most significant. Most of the rest will be features that we hope will enhance the overall experience for our membership, such as games and other diversions and entertainments. Our target for everything that was announced in this thread is the first week of December, and most of it will be implemented on December 1st. Some of the changes (specifically those which involve new coding, or extensive rewrites of the FAQ and that sort of thing) may take an extra week or so if we run into unforeseen problems, but most of it will be pretty straightforward.

I want to thank you all for your patience as we roll these changes out, and I hope you all find that the sum total of the changes makes your overall experience on Political Forum a more positive, productive, and just plain enjoyable one.

 

It should.

I bought some Peak Beer. Its made in Maine with organic ingredients.
I thought of you when I was drinking it.

It was warm.

lmao