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Originally Posted by
Saurav
1) Mass unban. That's one way to bring back quite a few regulars, even if they were idiots or broke the rules, give them all a second chance. It will increase posting and activity, that's guaranteed. You might hate it, but hey, an easy way to do is put all unbanned users in a temporary usergroup. If they get 3 infractions in 6 months, it clear they are still morons and should be perm'd. But hey its one way to increase posting.
Not something I am keen on. Certainly not unbanning every member who have ever broken the rules, that would seriously undermine the rules and the foundation on which we ensure a stable community at Habbox. However, watch this space. There is something I mooted to Jamesy last night which, although not a complete removal of all bans, will certainly make people happy. I'm not going to go into too much detail on the matter yet for two key reasons - 1) It will need approval from the highest levels, and as such may well get rejected, in which case I don't want to outright say something so big will happen for it to get rejected (thus pissing everyone off) and 2) it's in the very early stages and needs a lot of expansion before I go about talking about it.
But put it this way - a lot of people will be happy and it will benefit a lot of people. As well as creating an awful lot of work for us. Give me a day or two and you may well see a lot of stuff happening that surprises you.
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2) Tell the moderators to use common sense. If they do not have it, get rid of them. I cannot believe some people were picked as trialist moderators :S.
Your personal vendettas against individuals are irrelevant. However I do agree that Moderator's ability to evaluate individual circumstances and act upon that needs looking at, we need to make sure that they are not becoming robotic and following a perfectly set procedure each and every time. James has already communicated this to the Moderators (today) and we will continue to hone this skill to ensure it starts happening.
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3) Relax the rules. Two main ones are:
3.1) You cannot post links to your site in Spam :S. Its spam, so seriously wth? The excuse is that the forum was being spammed with links, however when I asked for examples, they couldn't provide none and admitted its not the real reason. If someone posts the same link more than 2 times in a week in Spam, them send them a PM. The second excuse was there is a Show off your site forum. Well there is a education forum yet people post HELP ME WITH MY HW in there and thats not moved. Its silly excuses.
From the other thread: Saurav has also mentioned the advertising rule in the spam forum. Essentially disallowing you from posting such things as "HI I'M DJING ON SOMEHABBORADIO.COM TUNE IN". I don't think it is so much a problem with the rules, rather a problem with the way it is applied. Shameless advertising should be dealt with but not necessarily casual linking.
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3.2) A8. Leave moderating to the moderators. Seriously what? If someone in the Habbo section (main part of the forum for new users) reposts a news which has already been posted and a different new user tells them "heyy :) its already been posted here ;) [link]" they will be warned. Its pretty silly. Warning someone for being helpful. Obviously if someone else just replies with the same thing again in that thread, it should be classed as pointless posting.
From the other thread: Regarding the "leaving moderating to the moderators" rule - this seems to be applied too harshly in some situations, for example when someone says "already posted - link here" in Habbo News and Rumours. I think this rule should only be applied where someone interrupts a discussion by say, quoting a rule breaking post and doing the whole "TUT! YOU WERE RUDE TO ANOTHER MEMBER". Posting "oh this has already been posted - xx" is essentially a way of helping members and maybe should not be penalised. However I do think, if a member were to post "already posted - xx" and someone replies "yeah it's already been posted", the second poster should be approached for pointless posting. What do you guys think?
Regarding other rules I said:
The pointless posting rule could also be reviewed (and is being reviewed). The first thing James has looked at is the way in which the "one word" rule is applied and we will be altering this slightly to make it more fair. Essentially we will be stopping people posting threads that can only really justify one word answers rather than targeting people who reply to them.
I think the key problem is actually that some of the forum specific rules have become too draconian, rather than the main body of rules. Notable examples are:
Graphics rule 1 - I hate the way members aren't allowed to say "I really like this, it's awesome +rep!" I feel this rule is far too harsh. Members should be penalised for saying "Good alt" but not for clearly and fairly expressing their appreciation for an alt or graphic. I do think they should be penalised however, if they just say "this is really bad". It's unfair and rude to outrageously criticise without backing that up (some people in feedback should perhaps take note of this point!) but I don't think it's wrong to say you like something, as long as you say it in earnest!
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4) A total re-vamp of the forum structure. Get rid of stupid things like the "Welcome Committee". Habbox has done fine without it for 6 years and so have CHF. It will get rid of two forums and will only help speed up the forum.
What you need to do is make index.php smaller. Why? Quite simple really. Right now its so organised with forums for everything, it means that they all look empty. But if you cut down on a lot of them, merged a lot of them, it will still get the same number of threads but it will look more active and prompt people to post more. Looking at a empty forum is just off-putting.
So basically (just an example) 20 forums with 100 threads looks less active than 10 forums with 100 threads.
In light of recent feedback and obvious complete lack of faith (the fabled quote) on the part of almost everyone on the forum, it seems likely the Welcome Committee will be removed and the roles of Committee members stressed as part of a Moderator's mandate.
Regarding the index, it was repeatedly cut down under Oli's Management and I think currently works quite well. Do you have any suggestions on what forums we could cut down? Because I, personally, can't think of anything but I am sure as hell ready to listen to member suggestions on the matter.
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5) Remove crap from the top for new members.
See above.
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6) What we need is on Habbo to try and have atleast one games room on top with [Habbox.com] at the front of the room name. Now new users will constantly see it there and will come to the site. I just loaded Habbo now and I saw a HFFM and TryHabbo room on top. Not a single Habbox room.
We are currently in the process of a "Habbox Central" project, where there are a number of Habbox rooms linked to a centrally connecting room. We aim to popularise this central room and the rooms linking from it, so we have a number of rooms regularly popular on the client. I do think the community departments need to step up at this time of Habbox recession, as it were, and I am quite keen to hold another "Habbox Promotion Week" similar to one held recently that involved a lot of giveaways and events.
Thanks, Saurav, this is the kind of feedback I like to see.
