Habbox Forum Activity and Suggestions for Change

[Nixt]

I think that moderators need to check it for often, and as for reducing spam. I think not, I once made an account for the specific intention of pissing someone off once and all I had to do was make 15 quick posts in 'welcome to habbox' (then wait an hour for my user group to change) and I was able to post because it's not limited. Also having post count increase in the welcome forum seems pointless aswell because:

a) Spambots can get posting easily
b) People can boost their post count by making a 2 second post.


Basically I think all moderators should be able to allow new posts, even if not in their section and post count shouldn't increase in the 'welcome to habbox' forum.

I agree. I want to see it taken down to 5 to be honest. It will still eradicate the issues of spam bots which was the biggest problem. The current regulations on post approval is keeping people away. Why should they have to wait 15 posts before they can post freely?

A key concept of a forum is being able to discuss. If a new member is to post in a discussion their post won't be added straight away. It must be incredibly frustrating for them. Even when it is added the thread could be on the second page or something so their post is totally ignored.

They are basically excluded for their first 15 posts, which can be around a week say they make a couple of posts a day. A week is more than enough for people to get fed up and give up with the system and just stop posting altogether. It's happened and will continue to happen until necessary changes are implemented.

The first thing that needs to happen is it needs to become a bigger part of Moderation. In my opinion during they key hours - that is probably 16:00 - 22:00 no new member should be waiting any more than half an hour for their posts to be approved. I know Moderators aren't superheroes, I know they're only volunteers, I know they have a lot of work to do but Management have decided to introduce this system and therefore it needs to become just as important, if not more important, than the control of rule breaking.
Secondly it should be reduced. It seems the general suggestion is to five and that probably is the safest amount to lower it to. Nevertheless I still think 5 is too much. I think 1 is too much . However providing the performance of the Moderation team improves as per my previous paragraph we should see a considerable improvement.

Yeah, loads of people have left that were regular posters and the activity, particularly in spam has decreased loads recently.

Yeah why is it people have to go and get a life :@.

I don't think it really has the pull back factor. Unless you want to be on HxF, you're not going to stay. When I first joined I was determined to be a Rare Values Reporter P). If you didn't have such determination then I don't think you would really visit again. The community is hardly thriving.

Yes that is indeed correct. I joined because I was becoming a News Reporter. A relatively high proportion of our active users are staff and it's easy enough for us to retain them! I think Tom made the point earlier in the thread that a big problem is the elitist nature of a lot of the categories or forums here on HxF. New members are ignored or actively antagonised and it doesn't make the Forum too appealing to those without a very thick skin!

Adding onto the example you gave. HxF is seen as the harshest fan site - it's strict and this keeps people away. I know for a fact that this is true because I've heard so many people say it. This doesn't bother me because I'm used to it and don't really mind it (hence why I'm the most active member :eusa_danc) but it's bound to have a detriment'#}l,/al effect on the amount of people posting and signing up.

I agree to a certain extent that we are probably seen as the harshest Forum around, however I don't think there is a massive amount we can do here because it's what makes Habbox different to a lot of the other Forums that are quite frankly immature and annoying. However this does lead me on to my next point:

Also, what has happened to the weekly updates?

In light of the fact that Habbox might be seen quite harsh to outsiders, and indeed it is seen as quite harsh by a lot of it's members I think it's important weekly updates are used to maintain a diverse and appropriate set of rules that maintain order but aren't too strict. There are two things that we do have to appreciate though:

1) From my experience as AFM, it was occasionally quite difficult to find updates every single week - week in, week out. Perhaps then we make it every two weeks. Even if the changes are only minor, such as changes in the wording of rules, at least it makes it seem as in things are happening. When we don't see any public updates it can frustrate members who can't see everything that is behind the scenes.
2) You are never going to be able keep every member happy. Some people would only ever be satisfied if we abolished the rules altogether.

Funnily enough I actually disagree with you here. I think that the current system is better than leaving things done to discretion. Primarily because people are incapable of making decisions correctly in the related departments - it will be awful.

I don't think anyone is going to agree with me here, and I guess you are right. My opinion here is just backward and outdated .

Nvrspk4 was never keen on the idea if memory serves correctly so I doubt he has changed his mind. It wasn't handled right the first time and I think he was in charge of it so I don't see how things will get any better now that he's an even more advanced position.

That's a fair point but I do really think it is something that could work if given the proper attention and the proper power. I just think it should be done on a much smaller scale and given to someone who can be trusted to exert a lot of power. If this is to happen then it could well be the perfect solution to the problems Habbox are facing.

Anyway, things do have to change. I've had enough of management posting saying change will happen and they are acknowledging the problems and trying to resolve them. I actually want to see action now and things implemented and scrapped as they need to be. I'm sure I'm living in false hope that things will improve though because management seem to have adopted a "put up or shut up" mentality.

I am forced to agree to a certain extent. I think the current management team are brilliant and they have the right people in the right positions however my recent browsing of the Forum upon my return suggested that things have lost the momentum they had in the Summer. This could indirectly be part of my earlier point that it is an awkward time of year, but the people in the positions of power should be exercising that power.

I don't post much any more, just because I got bored basically :S This place doesn't feel the same as it used to be

This kind of sums up my original points, something does need to be done before it gets serious.

Mattgarner got bored of adding full stops to rules and changing forum names so he stopped

As I mentioned previously it can be quite difficult to find things to update each and every week. The Forum Manager has nothing to do with name changes, last time I checked :eusa_danc.

[lick]

I mean the names of forums like "News & Gossip" etc not user names

[Nixt]

I mean the names of forums like "News & Gossip" etc not user names

I retract my statement you sexy hunk.

[Hecktix]

I said i'd post a proper reply so here goes.

I may repeat things I said earlier but this can be my full reply which Garion has been pestering me on MSN to post

Post Approval System

As I said earlier this is something I've been moaning within the Moderation Department about as some posts are in the approval system for well over an hour - this is evidently going to lose us new members as they're threads aren't appearing! The Post Approval System currently stands at 10 posts however it's highly expected that this is going to be reduced to 5. However I agree with Garion that it should be completely scrapped - Moderators are capable of dealing with Spam Bots quickly as they always have been. Spam Bots usually attack in the morning when there aren't many members on and even saying that we don't actually get too many spam bots, certainly less than 1 per day.

I can almost guaruntee that 80% of the people I approve posts for aren't seen posting much after their 10 approvals - I suppose this is because it takes a long time to get them approved really.

However if this doesn't get removed, which i'm highly doubtful that it will, I assure it will be pushed and pushed within moderation as far as I'm concerned.

Auto-ban System

I'm not going to say much about the AutoBan system as it seems to be working pretty well as they are almost impossible to get out of. Jake made a point of him being on caution for 2 weeks unfairly, if he had appealed the infraction via the Support Tool he'd have spent a maximum of 2 days on Caution so I don't think that's an issue either. I think for the purpose of evidence and explaining bans it's a very good system.

Also it keeps the members in touch with when they are crossing the line, I know several members who have had 7 or 8 infractions and have said "how many more till i'll be permed" and have actually bucked their ideas up for fear of losing their account.

Habbox Council

I'm not too sure on how this would work so I'm not going to comment although I like the general idea of this.

Finally my contributions:

One of our problems is admittedly retaining new members and this is something that needs to be dealt with before taking anything further. However looking at the bigger picture we certainly need to figure out how to bring in new members.

Obviously we only have one source of a fanbase; Habbo.
I don't think our registration stats have been fantastic lately, I suppose Nvr or Jin will be able to shed more light on this but judging on the amount of posts awaiting approval, we aren't getting that many new members.

I'd be interested to know if ClubHabbo is getting newer members or whether it's just their older members staying around longer.

Afterall as far as I'm aware ClubHabbo have a younger fanbase than HabboxForum, naturally as has been said many times in this thread a lot of our members are getting older and going to uni or "getting lives" as Garion said. I think Leah's comment summed it up pretty well.

Maybe Habbo has hit a generation that don't like fansites? We saw Help Desks die out and they used to be the most popular rooms on Habbo? Could we be seeing the Habbo Fansite dying out? We can all comment on the matter that people on Habbo nowadays are nothing like they used to be in '05 and '06 when a lot of us used to play. I suppose it's worth adding that Habbo have their own forums on the site now?

If that theory is correct (and CH have a younger fanbase) CH will also start to suffer when their members start leaving.

That's my penny, enjoy

[StefanWolves]

Also it keeps the members in touch with when they are crossing the line, I know several members who have had 7 or 8 infractions and have said "how many more till i'll be permed" and have actually bucked their ideas up for fear of losing their account.

was you thinking about me?

and yes, i agree, this forum is dying, slowly. things need to change, or else goodbye habbox.

abolishing that stupid post thing when you first register would help things, i'm sure, it's a pain, and often when the posts do get approved it's not relevant to the thread anyway as the thread has moved on, so it's just pointless.

i don't think we should get rid of the auto-ban system, but i think it needs t be revised, as sometimes people do get banned for infractions that were not worthy of an infraction, and even if we try to appeal the ban, it still takes ages, and often when you appeal they don't check the last infraction you got anyway to see whether it was fair. (i speak from past experience).

you do need to lure more members here, i for one have never been on chf or whatever it is, as i don't play habbo and haven't done for years. but it's obvious they are now competing and bettering this forum.

i don't know what you can do to get more people here, but i hope the things that i have said above will contribute to getting rid of some stupid things that this forum has, the stupid things that do eventually push members of this forum away.

also, ALL subforums on this forum need updating, they all need to be re-structured and re-thought out in my opinion, change is good, when something is broken, fix it.

edit; and while i'm at it, DROP THE OFFICIAL STATUS, for christs sake, your loosing money and members because of it, if VIP is brought back so that you can buy it, members will get more features, and will probably stay here longer.

[lick]

was you thinking about me?

and yes, i agree, this forum is dying, slowly. things need to change, or else goodbye habbox.

abolishing that stupid post thing when you first register would help things, i'm sure, it's a pain, and often when the posts do get approved it's not relevant to the thread anyway as the thread has moved on, so it's just pointless.

i don't think we should get rid of the auto-ban system, but i think it needs t be revised, as sometimes people do get banned for infractions that were not worthy of an infraction, and even if we try to appeal the ban, it still takes ages, and often when you appeal they don't check the last infraction you got anyway to see whether it was fair. (i speak from past experience).

you do need to lure more members here, i for one have never been on chf or whatever it is, as i don't play habbo and haven't done for years. but it's obvious they are now competing and bettering this forum.

i don't know what you can do to get more people here, but i hope the things that i have said above will contribute to getting rid of some stupid things that this forum has, the stupid things that do eventually push members of this forum away.

also, ALL subforums on this forum need updating, they all need to be re-structured and re-thought out in my opinion, change is good, when something is broken, fix it.

edit; and while i'm at it, DROP THE OFFICIAL STATUS, for christs sake, your loosing money and members because of it, if VIP is brought back so that you can buy it, members will get more features, and will probably stay here longer.

This i 100% agree with. I dont see why so many graphic sections are needed when they are hardly used? 1 with a few subforums would be ok, and please please please please please get new userbars the ones you have are **** ugly

[FlyingJesus]

edit; and while i'm at it, DROP THE OFFICIAL STATUS, for christs sake, your loosing money and members because of it, if VIP is brought back so that you can buy it, members will get more features, and will probably stay here longer.

Fairly sure it was mentioned a couple of hundred times when the whole VIP problem originally blew up that official status had nothing to do with it and we'd be forced to remove all Habbo-related content or something along those lines if we wanted to literally "sell" anything. You could argue that many of us don't use the forum for Habbo any more but especially at a time when we need new members it would be a bit daft to take away the theme of the place which we get people from

[Immenseman]

edit; and while i'm at it, DROP THE OFFICIAL STATUS, for christs sake, your loosing money and members because of it, if VIP is brought back so that you can buy it, members will get more features, and will probably stay here longer.

regardless of official status habbox will never be able to sell VIP again unless sulake change their minds, which they won't. all fansites official and unofficial have to stick by exactly the same rules. the only difference is official ones are checked out a bit more. habbox will always be used by staff.

[Hecktix]

Fairly sure it was mentioned a couple of hundred times when the whole VIP problem originally blew up that official status had nothing to do with it and we'd be forced to remove all Habbo-related content or something along those lines if we wanted to literally "sell" anything. You could argue that many of us don't use the forum for Habbo any more but especially at a time when we need new members it would be a bit daft to take away the theme of the place which we get people from

This is right tbh.

A VIP return would be a fantastic change. Maybe if Sulake can be made aware that it's most popular fansite is actually suffering like this then maybe they'll do something.

I know things have been tried before but would a Habbox-generated petition be a good idea? Although we aren't as active as we have been in recent years we still have a lot of members. Well lets see how much support we can get?

Idk...

[StefanWolves]

The whole forum needs looking at, it needs updating, it needs re-forming, and re-structuring. Keep staff as they are now but update the forum, to suite both new HABBO members and old time non-habbo members. Re-structure the sections. (e.g. runescape has 4 subforums, and it's ALWAYS inactive, why are they needed? Sports section could do with subforums ect.)