Suggestion Crystal's suggestion thread!

The Catboy · Feb 25, 2017

I have a lot ideas, why made a lot of threads for them? Here's my thread where I will be throwing ideas at the Temp! Some good, some bad, all mine!
I normally avoid suggesting new rules, but seriously these kinds of threads are spreading like cancer and I report them every single time they popup. The staff removes one word/no word posts when made in threads, but never touch these kinds of threads.
I don't want to tell the staff how to do their job. But if we don't allow these kinds of posts in already made threads, then there's no reason to allow an entire thread to be made like this. I'd list reasons, but the same reasons they are removed in already made threads, should apply here.
If not remove them, add an actual text limit to the posts. Basically only allowing threads to be made if they meet a text limit. Even if something as short as 15 words. Just something to encourage people to actually add some content to their threads.

Crystal the Glaceon said:
I hate double posting, but I came up with another idea. Thread screening for newbies. I know several sites that screen newbie's threads (sometimes posts) before they are allowed to be published. If they find the thread has been made before/recently, they redirect the person to that thread.
Considering most of threads I am seeing are from newbies, it could easily help cut down on some of the clutter. Not to mention, I am seeing way more newbies asking for ROM links. This could easily stop them before they can post that thread and prevent a banning.
Add the word limit to the idea and will see more quality posts being made.
I am noticing a lot of issues and I am just trying to give some suggestions that I've seen other sites use in the past.

p1ngpong · Feb 27, 2017

FAST6191 said:
That is OK when you have a few new members/posters joining and posting a day but at peak times here even if you good all the staff onboard and doing nothing but that is still going to be a lot of work, far easier to be a reactionary force. You can do some measure of automation like number of links but that is more for spam.

What fast said and everything Issac has said. Thread screening and automated systems have been suggested a million times and have been dismissed as bad ideas a million times. Do you seriously think we wouldn't have considered these things by now?

I would go on and elaborate as to why these ideas are good in theory but bad in practice but we have already publicly addressed such ideas loads of times before so there is no point. You would have known that already if you bothered to search instead of recreating a thread that has been made multiple times before.

Oh shi.....

The Catboy · Feb 27, 2017

p1ngpong said:
What fast said and everything Issac has said. Thread screening and automated systems have been suggested a million times and have been dismissed as bad ideas a million times. Do you seriously think we wouldn't have considered these things by now?

I would go on and elaborate as to why these ideas are good in theory but bad in practice but we have already publicly addressed such ideas loads of times before so there is no point. You would have known that already if you bothered to search instead of recreating a thread that has been made multiple times before.

Oh shi.....

I would search, but the search function for GBATemp is kind of shit.

The Catboy · Feb 28, 2017

p1ngpong said:
What fast said and everything Issac has said. Thread screening and automated systems have been suggested a million times and have been dismissed as bad ideas a million times. Do you seriously think we wouldn't have considered these things by now?

I would go on and elaborate as to why these ideas are good in theory but bad in practice but we have already publicly addressed such ideas loads of times before so there is no point. You would have known that already if you bothered to search instead of recreating a thread that has been made multiple times before.

Oh shi.....

You know what, I am actually rather tired of this dismissive attitude. I've made suggestions in the past that could easily help with controlling these problems. I suggested bringing back the old Moderating team. Why? Because threads like this were allowed to stay open for nearly 3 hours
https://gbatemp.net/threads/sky3ds-rom-sites.462494
But of course that idea didn't go anywhere.
There have been several suggestions to use custom google searches, even a drunken one from myself. But we are still using the same broken search function. At the same time belittling everyone who can't find the information they are looking for.
I suggest a word limit to threads, why? Because threads like this continue to remain unlocked
http://gbatemp.net/threads/will-a-16-gb-micro-sd-work-with-a9lh.462217
So glad one word posts are against the rules, but despite me reporting threads like this, nothing happened.
I am not barking out my ass like I haven't been watching these issues. I've been trying to give suggestions to help the site, but instead I am met with this extremely dismissive attitude. Would really be that hard to add a basic word/character limit to posts? Would it really be that bad an idea to add the Moderating Team back? Would really be that bad an idea to focus on fixing the search function? Are these really that bad of ideas? Maybe moderating new threads wouldn't be such a good idea, but at the same time we can't continue to have 5 of the same threads popping up in a day and nothing being done about them. And yes, I report repeat threads or at least I did. I stopped because nothing was getting done.

FAST6191 · Feb 28, 2017

The old moderating team was not fired or anything, people move on and many are actually still here in various capacities.

3 whole hours for a non issue thread during a busy time. Had it kicked off and turned into a silly one then squeaky wheel but nobody was really troubled by that.

Why report that thread? It asks a sensible question (many devices and hacks are limited in size of SD card used). I would have preferred it to have the same question in the post, or at least "subject", or better still for it to be in the noob paradise thread but it is not harming the discourse at all. Rules is rules is one way to set about life, just keep it moving is another and it seems to be the preferred one for here.

I still maintain the search engine works well for what I want from it, and would be genuinely upset to lose it. Though at the same time I can see how it might trouble those that do not already know. Maybe we need some more stickies, even if they point to a wiki or something. Maybe a selectable option to use an external engine instead for those that do not know to use one anyway.

Meliodas2255 · Feb 28, 2017

I somewhat agreed with Crystal on limiting post priviledges to members. Newcomers should only be allow to comment until they can make the 100 limit posts. This way users would be encourage to ask new questions in the sticky posts which most of the time contain the information to what they are asking.

The Catboy · Feb 28, 2017

FAST6191 said:
The old moderating team was not fired or anything, people move on and many are actually still here in various capacities.

3 whole hours for a non issue thread during a busy time. Had it kicked off and turned into a silly one then squeaky wheel but nobody was really troubled by that.

Why report that thread? It asks a sensible question (many devices and hacks are limited in size of SD card used). I would have preferred it to have the same question in the post, or at least "subject", or better still for it to be in the noob paradise thread but it is not harming the discourse at all. Rules is rules is one way to set about life, just keep it moving is another and it seems to be the preferred one for here.

I still maintain the search engine works well for what I want from it, and would be genuinely upset to lose it. Though at the same time I can see how it might trouble those that do not already know. Maybe we need some more stickies, even if they point to a wiki or something. Maybe a selectable option to use an external engine instead for those that do not know to use one anyway.

I know the old Mod Team weren't fired. But it's that we used to have a separate Moderating team that used to moderate over different sections. And by "bring them back" I don't mean the members themselves, but bring back the concept of the Moderating Team, instead of just relying on GMs.

Because one word posts are already against the rules. Even adding something "Hey, I am 3ds.guide to install A9LH, is 16GB enough for that?" would be better than "-"
If one word posts are removed from threads, then making an entire thread with one word shouldn't be acceptable either.

I'm sorry, but I can't find anything with the current Search Function. Because it searches based on words in the thread vs titles of the the thread. I often end up finding more threads related to my search, instead of the thread I am actually looking for.

FAST6191 · Feb 28, 2017

So find domain experts (all the wii u mods really know the wii u, 3ds section the 3ds....). There is merit to the concept but it seems like things are ticking along.

One word posts like lol, thanks, fail and what have you are against the rules because they serve no purpose and clutter up the joint. A person asking a question about a device and method the forum covers is pretty much the thing the site was founded upon and has continued upon for however many years this is now. Was the execution ideal? No and that was already covered. Again though this is the difference between "follow these rules, do not deviate" and "try to make this a nice place to be, here are some rules that tend towards that". The first kind is fine when someone gets hurt if someone that does not understand goes astray, I would usually treat forums as the equivalent of having a laugh down the pub or in a workshop though.

On the search there is a nice "Search titles only" button if that is what you were heading towards. I use it when I need that, and sometimes to narrow things down as well. My main problem with that is when I remember the title and something someone wrote, a more conventional search engine might be able to treat them all and combine a search (a username is just a word on the page to the engine and thus can be in the normal search) where the inbuilt one is more restricted.

The Catboy · Feb 28, 2017

FAST6191 said:
So find domain experts (all the wii u mods really know the wii u, 3ds section the 3ds....). There is merit to the concept but it seems like things are ticking along.

One word posts like lol, thanks, fail and what have you are against the rules because they serve no purpose and clutter up the joint. A person asking a question about a device and method the forum covers is pretty much the thing the site was founded upon and has continued upon for however many years this is now. Was the execution ideal? No and that was already covered. Again though this is the difference between "follow these rules, do not deviate" and "try to make this a nice place to be, here are some rules that tend towards that". The first kind is fine when someone gets hurt if someone that does not understand goes astray, I would usually treat forums as the equivalent of having a laugh down the pub or in a workshop though.

On the search there is a nice "Search titles only" button if that is what you were heading towards. I use it when I need that, and sometimes to narrow things down as well. My main problem with that is when I remember the title and something someone wrote, a more conventional search engine might be able to treat them all and combine a search (a username is just a word on the page to the engine and thus can be in the normal search) where the inbuilt one is more restricted.

The whole point of the original moderators was to spread out the responsibility. Basically easing a lot of the unneeded work put onto the GMs. It basically allowed fewer GM's who would oversee all of the forums. As the Mods were mostly there to oversee different sections. It also created more of a staff presences on the forums. Since going to the GM's only, there have been a lot more times when there were no staff online and spam threads were allowed to be bumped for several pages. Now this is a community issue, but it also made it impossible to properly warn members who were doing this and basically gave the spam more attention. I am not blaming the Staff for this issue, since we are all human here and can't spend out entire lives on the forums. But at the same time it's still something worth looking into.

That's understandable. My issue is the growing number of these threads though. That causes just as much clutter as a single word posts. At some point repeat offenders need to be talked to. It's one thing to see a few of these threads, it's another when several members threads are only these kinds of threads.

We could add an option to have both, I don't know how easy that would be to make. But it would make everyone happy.

Chary · Mar 1, 2017

I totally agree with the whole search thing being pretty crappy. Although I usually just google "gbatemp *whatever I need to look up here*" instead of the site's search function. But I...assume? that it's more of a forum-based thing, cuz a lot of other forums I'm on also have craptacular searches.

I genuine suggestion I have here, is could we maybe limit the amount of threads one can make per minute or something? I really don't know how it works, and I'm not temped to try it out if there actually is a limit. But the other day during the Zelda leak, lots of people were posting dozens of threads with nothing but a MEGA link to warez. Each time I closed one thread, he had created 10 more. Of course, I reported them and moved them out of sight, and mods were still on that in an instant, but maybe some sort of limiter on things could work? idk. Just a sorta rambly suggestion.

Suggestion Crystal's suggestion thread!

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