Um....Solo?

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21

I totally agree, the Panzer community is awesome.

So, a more stricter Holy District but a more laid back Liberal District, is that what you’re trying to say, Neil (and Arc, Scott, and Al3x)? Because I could do that. Perhaps have a time restriction on how long you have to be a member of these boards before you’re given a Pass?

[quote=“Al3x”]It’s not just your opinion…these forums looks more like a chat session on irc rather than a discussion board most of the time…
I’d say what I’d like to see here but it will only cause more spam hehe ;)[/quote]

Aye. Unfortunately it’s very difficult to seperate the spam from the worthwhile posts without taking away people’s freedom.

22

Far be it for me to try and turn the Holy District into an elitist club, but you could have a discussion among its members as to whether they want new people to be allowed in. Example:

Step One: New member joins the forums.
Step Two: After they’ve been here for at least a month, they can apply for Holy District citizenship.
Step Three: The current Holy Disctrict members discuss (discuss mind, not vote) whether this person should be allowed to join up. Final decision is, of course, the mods’.

Perhaps you and Geo could decide on who the first members would be, and then go from there.

23

You’ll neva take me alive coppers!!

Anyways maybe it would be easier to let everyone enter and then IF necessary “take them down”.

We can’t give this so much importance.

24

[quote=“Shadow”]Far be it for me to try and turn the Holy District into an elitist club, but you could have a discussion among its members as to whether they want new people to be allowed in. Example:

Step One: New member joins the forums.
Step Two: After they’ve been here for at least a month, they can apply for Holy District citizenship.
Step Three: The current Holy Disctrict members discuss (discuss mind, not vote) whether this person should be allowed to join up. Final decision is, of course, the mods’.

Perhaps you and Geo could decide on who the first members would be, and then go from there.[/quote]

umm, well now that I’ve read a little, I’ll try not to go off topic at all in Holy District…for some reason…which might be true I dont know, I remember reading that the Holy district is a little more laid back than the other two and we can have disscusions about things not completely to do with panzer dragoon. I dont know, but I’ll try and stop…because I probably have somewhere along the…posts:P I guess most of these ideas are good ones as I’ve read them. ahhhhh, dont want to be taken downO_O I better behave from now on!

25

Neither do I, but that’s a pretty good idea you have. After all, posting on the off topic boards isn’t why anyone should come to these forums in the first place (right?)… it is something that should be sought after once you’ve gotten to know the people here; off topic is really to discuss other things besides Panzer Dragoon with a community you’ve become fond of. The main focus should always be Panzer Dragoon, so with that reasoning why should anyone need to post here if they’re new to the community?

I think we should hear Geoff’s views/ideas before going ahead with anything though, since he is a mod too and should have his say on how he wants the boards he mods to be run.

Don’t worry, we were all newbies once. I think you have the Liberal District and the Holy District mixed up though. The descriptions are as follows.

The Liberal District: “An off topic board for light hearted discussion where you can get to know other members of these forums. This board is a good place to introduce yourself to forum members if you’re new around here. Please keep unnecessary posts to the minimum.”

The Holy District: “A more serious off topic forum for members who have been granted permission to post here. If you’d like permission to post here, send a private message to a moderator and we can give you a pass. Off topic does not mean “post rubbish”, so please don’t spam on this forum.”

Don’t get worried about it though, at least this way I’ve come to realise that the way these forums are run needs a few changes :slight_smile:

26

Yes, and Gehn should be banned from both =P

Seriously though, I’m glad you like my idea ^^ Do you think you’d merge both Districts into one? You could also make the Holy District a completely private forum by making it unreadable to anyone without access.

27

You mean you don’t want a sp… er, I mean conversation forum?

28

Ah. Good point. Carry on 0=)

Dammit… get Geoffrey to reply when he comes online… I wanna get this show underway.

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[quote=“Shadow”]Ah. Good point. Carry on 0=)

Dammit… get Geoffrey to reply when he comes online… I wanna get this show underway.[/quote]

I’m actually going to go to sleep pretty soon, but I’m sure a satisfactory modding formula will be arranged in the near future.

30

Nah, I think you should stay awake and keep me from doing my college work =P But yeah. I’m just impatient =P

31

So, going back to that idea, what about having all off topic forums completely unaccessable to new members? I don’t know if that would work… I feel there is a need for a place for new members to introduce themselves. But it’s just another possibility for the idea pool.

32

I think the Stronghold and the Liberal District are pretty good as they are right now. I only think the Holy District needs to be changed.

33

Yeah, I think they’re alright too. It can be difficult to post something serious here though.

Anyway, bed for me, g’night.

34

Noooo =P Well, goodnight.

35

Just long as Holy District membership doesn’t become as coveted and wanted as Shadow-Corp citizenship.

36

I strongly feel that at least 1 non panzer forum should be available to new posters - it might be panzer that brings people to this place, but it is getting to know the other posters that keeps them here. If people had to wait a while before they could join even the liberal district I think they might lose interest in the community.

I think the Liberal district works well as it is, however the holy district and liberal district are becoming too similar. The holy district does need stricter rules although thats not to say it should become too restrictive so that people dont want to post here. Some posts do naturally flow off topic while keeping the coversation serious, I dont think that that is a bad thing. However the holy district should remain serious, people should not be allowed to turn the topic into a joke or mess around.

I worry that if the requirements are too high for people to enter the holy district it will become somewhat elitist and just turn into a liberal district for long term members, this would alienate newcomers. I believe that the main difference between the liberal district and holy district should be in there uses. That is that in the liberal district anything goes(as long as it doesnt violate the forum rules e.g. abuse porn etc) and that the holy district should be used for discussion of serious topics. For example the 9/11 topic we had in the holy district was very serious and I think we had a good discussion, this is not the kind of topic that people should raise in the liberal district - people could be offended if members spammed it or messed around in it.

I think that the current system of entry works well enough, that members request entry shows they are interested enough to join and if it turns out that the member messes around in here the permission could be revoked. As far as the different uses of the forums I believe if you change how the forum is Modded it can work quite well, e.g. if I started a topic in the holy district like “share your favorite joke” a mod could move the topic to the liberal district where it would be more appropriate. Such a move wouldnt require removal of pass of the original poster so it wouldnt be that serious and would be able to be done by 1 mod without consulting the others.

To sum up what I think would help is:
-Liberal District remains as it is.
-Holy District request for pass stays the same.
-It is made more clear that the Holy District is for serious topics.
-Mods involved more heavily in Holy District and given power to move topic from Holy to Liberal.
-If a poster messes around pass to Holy District can be revoked.

This wouldnt alienate new posters and should keep the Holy District organised.

Let me know what you think!

37

On my forums i have to use “split topic” a lotttttttttt - in fact i have a hidden “moderation” forum where i move useless posts too. I’m pretty sure this isn’t the case here.
The Holy District is good as it is - but there are a few things i’d like to respond to.

[quote=“vyper03”]I strongly feel that at least 1 non panzer forum should be available to new posters - it might be panzer that brings people to this place, but it is getting to know the other posters that keeps them here. If people had to wait a while before they could join even the liberal district I think they might lose interest in the community.

I think the Liberal district works well as it is, however the holy district and liberal district are becoming too similar…

…I worry that if the requirements are too high for people to enter the holy district it will become somewhat elitist and just turn into a liberal district for long term members, this would alienate newcomers…

…To sum up what I think would help is:
-Liberal District remains as it is.
-Holy District request for pass stays the same…[/quote]

A very well thought out post by vyper i feel - and i agree with all the main parts that I quoted apart from the last bit. I don’t think you should let anyone join it straight away - for example - a new member joins and asks for a pass within a day and you give him it. You may not know how he posts or if he will be able to cope with the holy district rules (some people just can’t help excessive posts/spam/flood). I i think who you give the pass to should be based on your (Solo) and Geoffrey’s opinion. This also leads to…

[quote=“Shadow”]Step One: New member joins the forums.
Step Two: After they’ve been here for at least a month, they can apply for Holy District citizenship.
Step Three: The current Holy Disctrict members discuss (discuss mind, not vote) whether this person should be allowed to join up. Final decision is, of course, the mods’.
[/quote]

A month is waaay too long in my opinion - and can lead to the “alienation” problem that vyper thought of. If you would go along with Shadows idea of voting for members to join - then why not make a hidden forum seen by only holy district citzens (no topics allowed to be created - just replys and votes). But of course thats only if you decide that. I however feel that it would be easier to just choose for yourself or Geoffrey who to give passes to, or if really needed - just create a temporary poll in the holy district itself.

This would cause a problem - for example… people would not be able to read topics and become curious just to see whats inside. They may be granted a pass and have no intention of ever posting there. The way it is now; letting everyone read it - there is no harm as they can read what they like but just not post. It will also give the user a chance to see if they would actually like to post there (they may not be the type of person that likes serious discussions)

Enough from me now woahhhhhhhh that was long post - i never realised ^_^;

oh yeah one last thing about the Seeker’s Stronghold - in Saga it is spelt Seekers’ Stronghold… :slight_smile:

38

ohhhhhhh, I guess I am getting them mixed up then! trust me and my impatience:Pwell, I’ll try to be more serious now, duh I should have realised ages ago!

39

Ralax everyone. I have no problems with the current system as it is.

Members can post as much as they want here in the Holy District as long as they keep their posts in the same serious vein set by the topics here. By all means, post to your heart’s content; just remain serious.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with going a little off topic either. If someone was discussing a particular racing game, comparing it to another racing game or bringing real cars into the discussion is perfectly fine. Any digression can be considered off topic but not if it is related to what is being discussed somehow. I don’t see any harm in going off topic, unless a poster is contributing nothing but spam (but even that can be funny at times).

Now, I’ve been a part of messages boards that have, after a time, been gripped by excessive moderation. It isn’t a pretty sight. Whole communities have been destroyed because people feel they cannot freely discuss anything. That won’t happen to the forums here.

40

I agree that excessive moderation is bad, one of the things that attracted me to these boards is how free they are. At some other boads topics are only left open by the mods until the original question has been answered then they lock it, here it is much easier to have a proper conversation.(The excessive moderation at SFC is the reason i dont return). I still think that the differences between the forums should be stressed more, if someone doesnt read the forum descriptions(which are fairly small) they appear almost the same at the moment(well, pre this topic anyway).