Feedback: Post Game Basketball Threads

[CylentButDeadly]

It really sounds to me like this is a growing pain problem. The site is growing so the number of problems are growing. Why not add more mods to help combat the issues that you're seeing? I know DaddyMac hasn't been a mod very long, and I think he does a good job. Surely there are others out there that could assist and have the best interests of the site at hand.

 

[usedcarguy]

Just some ideas to toss about. Not necessarily endorsing any of them.

How about a sticky on the components of a good thread - i.e. to the point, a relevant, appropriate, descriptive, and non duplicated thread title, along with a warning that duplicate threads WILL be merged.

Mods automatic merging of duplicative threads created within a certain period of another active thread.

A thread rating system so we can ignore threads with poor peer ratings, maybe on a scale of 1-5.


Yes, it is a free country, but the first amendment doesn't apply here. CF is not a democracy or a representative republic. It's a benevolent dictatorship. :smile: There are things the mods need to do to keep the site running smooth and organized. We have to remember that there is a lot of freedom here, and that we have members who are as young as 12, and others who act like they are. Those people are going to do things that need correcting. I don't see what goes on behind the scenes, but if mods make a decision to take corrective action, hopefully a PM is being sent in an effort to "train" the member. Occasionally the member is not going to like it and think it's unfair. But if it's for the good of the site and the other members, then they are going to have to learn to change their behavior.

The problem with most message boards is that the majority of members are more concerned with their own opinions rather than the opinions of others. IMO that is the root of most of the problems, along with the freedom of being able to rant in total anonimity. Don't know if there is a cure for that kind of behavior other than having moderators figuratively beating people with rubber hoses until they conform.

Mods, you have to realize that you are not going to make everyone happy, but if your decisions are consistent and in the best interest of the majority then you are perfectly ok in my book making those decisions. (unless they are against me :smile

 

[CylentButDeadly]

Just some ideas to toss about. Not necessarily endorsing any of them.

How about a sticky on the components of a good thread - i.e. to the point, a relevant, appropriate, descriptive, and non duplicated thread title, along with a warning that duplicate threads WILL be merged.

Mods automatic merging of duplicative threads created within a certain period of another active thread.

A thread rating system so we can ignore threads with poor peer ratings, maybe on a scale of 1-5.


Yes, it is a free country, but the first amendment doesn't apply here. CF is not a democracy or a representative republic. It's a benevolent dictatorship. :smile: There are things the mods need to do to keep the site running smooth and organized. We have to remember that there is a lot of freedom here, and that we have members who are as young as 12, and others who act like they are. Those people are going to do things that need correcting. I don't see what goes on behind the scenes, but if mods make a decision to take corrective action, hopefully a PM is being sent in an effort to "train" the member. Occasionally the member is not going to like it and think it's unfair. But if it's for the good of the site and the other members, then they are going to have to learn to change their behavior.

The problem with most message boards is that the majority of members are more concerned with their own opinions rather than the opinions of others. IMO that is the root of most of the problems, along with the freedom of being able to rant in total anonimity. Don't know if there is a cure for that kind of behavior other than having moderators figuratively beating people with rubber hoses until they conform.

Mods, you have to realize that you are not going to make everyone happy, but if your decisions are consistent and in the best interest of the majority then you are perfectly ok in my book making those decisions. (unless they are against me :smile

You can't change what message boards are. Like you said, most people that sign up for message boards do so to make their opinion known. They do so because nowhere else does their opinion really matter that much, but at least on message boards, they can appeal to a larger audience.

I like your idea of rating threads, but if you take away people's ability to share their opinions, you're really going to hurt the site and turn people away.

 

[isucyfan]

Just to reiterate...NO ONE is talking about censoring opinions here. Posts will be deleted if they are attacks, contain swearing, etc. They may be merged if they are repetitive/excessive.

 

[DaddyMac]

You can't change what message boards are. Like you said, most people that sign up for message boards do so to make their opinion known. They do so because nowhere else does their opinion really matter that much, but at least on message boards, they can appeal to a larger audience.

I like your idea of rating threads, but if you take away people's ability to share their opinions, you're really going to hurt the site and turn people away.

But we hear equally as much that the mess also turns people away.

What this really is about is trying to determine the best way to control the amount of conflict. I don't disagree with you that, by itself, people should be able to post their feelings.

But what happens is one guy posts it, then another contradicts it, then that guy is called an apologist, the other a hater, and it goes down hill from there. Now put that out to 50 threads. And we have rules on attacking members, or language.

Daunting task.

And nobody wants to come to a board that is known for little more than mud-slinging. I think a few of our hawk regulars have said that's why they're here and not at a few other sites. (not sure that helped my point.... :wideeyed

And it may be informative for you guys to know, there's no standard playbook for mods on what constitutes an attack, or insult - and how to handle. I guarantee you that anyone who's ever been banned, has had discussion about it. Even the temps. And there probably are as many arguements between MODS about a subject or how to handle it, as there are anything else.

It may very well be the case that this was brought up for discussion for that very reason.... :smile:

 

[alarson]

If we lose to iowa, should probably just close the basketball forum for about 3 months.

 

[agrabes]

It's funny how many people have such different views about message boards. It happens everywhere, across every board I've ever been to. There are always the people who absolutely hate making multiple threads about the same or similar topics, just like the discussion we're having here. Then there are people who hate having only one megathread for each topic. There has to be a balance if you ask me.

Like someone said, it does make it seem like things are being taken to seriously if we are only allowed to have only one game thread, only one post game thread, or only one "i'm really ******!!!1!!1!one1" thread. But at the same time we have to think about the mods who are forced to clean up 30 threads that go something like "Title: Mac suxxors, lols. Body: Coach Mac is teh suk, discuss" Those are threads that are definitely worthy of deletion. But having one thread, "We need to improve rebounding!" and one thread "We Need to work on Post Defense" etc. seems valid to me if there is enough good discussion about each topic.

So in the end, no one is trying to censor you, they just have the message board philosophy of hating multiple threads.

 

[dbronco7sc]

I really am indifferent on the number of threads... I just wish there were a better way of telling which ones I want to read.

For example, basketball. If somebody has an opinion that GMac should be fired. Then that person goes and posts the same opinion in every basketball thread. Then the thread gets derailed quickly to be the same discussion that has been held in every other basketball thread.

We just have a problem keeping threads on topic.

I almost wish there were two forums for each topic, like a "Basketball" forum, and a "Not happy with current state of Basketball" forum. This way I can just ignore all of the people who's posts are opinions of firing people and players sucking.

Edit:
And those who want to 'vent' can do so without derailing all of the threads discussing how we "improve with what we got" or are "happy with what we got".

However, I'm sure it wouldn't work, because everybody wants to be heard by the people who don't want to hear them. There will always be people who aren't happy with the current system but probably read all of the basketball threads, and want to counter somebody's opinion with, "the root of the problem is GMac and if he were to go our program could get back to it's winning ways".

Do I respect somebody's right to have that opinion? Yes. I already understand that the opinion exists by a fair number of people. I just don't want to read that same opinion over and over when it's ususally the same people saying it again and again.

 

[LindenCy]

And nobody wants to come to a board that is known for little more than mud-slinging. I think a few of our hawk regulars have said that's why they're here and not at a few other sites. (not sure that helped my point.... :wideeyed

I know that I was disagreed with when I stated this before, but CF has definitely had a lot more "mud-slinging" and complaining the past 8 months or year compared to the previous 2. This is a size issue and we have reached a critical mass, but it doesn't make it less annoying.

 

[RoseClone]

When you have one thread it makes it too hard to get caught up with everything, then you have huge multiquotes. Maybe just cap it at 5-7 and merge new ones into related threads or something. Alot of times there are alot of different things to discuss about one game and it can get real messy inside one thread.

I agree. This "we must merge threads" is much ado about nothing in my opinion. But for some it is like a mission to point out that two threads are similiar and need to be merged. Run to the teacher and tell. Thread merge nerd police. Most of the threads turn into someone's (or more than one person's) comedy routine and stray way off the OP's point (see later in post). They usually run out of steam and a new thread is usually better anyway.

My suggestion for merging threads is any of them that deal with the following should be merged into one instantly - I mean there should only be ONE on the entire board - I could program it for you:
1. Uniforms
2. Entrance music
3. Your favorite song
4. Your favorite Youtube video
5. Your favorite anything not dealing with ISU
6. Sweet Caroline
7.

But do what you want - it really isn't that big of a deal either way to me. I'll read them regardless unless the Title deals with one of the above.

 

[jumbopackage]

I really am indifferent on the number of threads... I just wish there were a better way of telling which ones I want to read.

For example, basketball. If somebody has an opinion that GMac should be fired. Then that person goes and posts the same opinion in every basketball thread. Then the thread gets derailed quickly to be the same discussion that has been held in every other basketball thread.

We just have a problem keeping threads on topic.

I almost wish there were two forums for each topic, like a "Basketball" forum, and a "Not happy with current state of Basketball" forum. This way I can just ignore all of the people who's posts are opinions of firing people and players sucking.

Edit:
And those who want to 'vent' can do so without derailing all of the threads discussing how we "improve with what we got" or are "happy with what we got".

However, I'm sure it wouldn't work, because everybody wants to be heard by the people who don't want to hear them. There will always be people who aren't happy with the current system but probably read all of the basketball threads, and want to counter somebody's opinion with, "the root of the problem is GMac and if he were to go our program could get back to it's winning ways".

Do I respect somebody's right to have that opinion? Yes. I already understand that the opinion exists by a fair number of people. I just don't want to read that same opinion over and over when it's ususally the same people saying it again and again.

That's really easy to fix. Have the mods tempban (2 hours, 4 hours or something like that) anyone that derails a thread. It won't take long for that to stop.

It all goes back to making rules, and having penalties for violating them that make sense, and then enforcing those rules fairly and consistently.

 

[MadCy]

Maybe limit the number of threads that can be started in an hour. If only 5 can be started, then the mods can just watch over those. Otherwise people will have to fit their thoughts into the currently open ones. As hours go by after the loss, people will be going to bed etc, and by morning more people will be cooled off. I don't know, something like that.

Post game is a perfect place for a chat room option. People can just go wild for a few hours after the game. Yet, I suppose there are those that wouldn't write in there because they wouldn't get credits for it, so they would start a thread anyway.

I don't know, all I can say is Good Luck.

 

[jbhtexas]

1) Create 3-5 postgame threads for the game, something like:

Postgame: general
Postgame: offense
Postgame: defense
Postgame: injuries
Postgame: ???

2) Disable thread creation in the MBB forum until 7:00 AM the next morning. Unless there is some major breaking news, likely any threads created during the time that thread creation is disabled would be about the game in some sense anyway.

3) If people try to create MBB threads in a different forums, delete them without worrying about merging, and ban the person who did it, unless the thread has some breaking news or other worthy value.

 

[kilgore_trout]

you wanna be paul clarK? go nuts.

 

[CloneState1028]

This really would work if you'd be willing to do it......

Make a separate forum entirely for post-game threads. Make it a sub-forum or something inside the MBB forum if you need to make it look better. Then, set the privileges in that forum so that ONLY admins are able to MAKE threads, but all members can reply to them. That way, you set up ONE post game thread, and people have no choice BUT to post in it if they want to voice their opinion.

They can't go off and create another thread and such. I guarantee you this would work. It would have to.

EDIT: Seems very similar to jbhtexas idea. It would work.

 

[Cyclone62]

I'm trying to imagine how it could be limited, other than simply rolling all the repetitive threads into three or four, and dishing out reminders, warnings and then temporary bans. I'm sure that kind of thing would keep the mods quite busy.

I suppose you could limit thread creation during the postgame for whatever forum's team just had a game, to only mods being able to do it.

TO be honest, I think that if we want the site to be beneficial, it should go warning to ban or temp ban.

To be honest, I think something like a "do not drink and post" rule would be hugely beneficial (especially for post game threads). If you're hammered, you get a ban for not thinking your idea through before posting it. It keeps people honest, and orderly.

 

[Gizmo]

Why do we come here? I want news and inside info we can't get via the local hawkeye biased media. Rant if you must but just label the thread accordingly so I can ignore it.

 

[Cyclone62]

Why do we come here? I want news and inside info we can't get via the local hawkeye biased media. Rant if you must but just label the thread accordingly so I can ignore it.

How does this contribute to the topic at hand?

 

[Gizmo]

Just saying we don't need complicated ways to segregate posts, just label them for what they are, something rational or a rant so I don't waste my time reading rants.

 

[Cyclone62]

Just saying we don't need complicated ways to segregate posts, just label them for what they are, something rational or a rant so I don't waste my time reading rants.

That makes sense, I just read your post wrong. I thought of the "we" as being Iowa fans.