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A Note on Topic Titles – Be Clear & Descriptive!

Greg

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Everything posted by Greg

  1. Greg
    The wheels are in motion, I will update everyone when I have everything ready and we can all discuss everything in detail. Thanks!
  2. Greg
    Not exactly. The forum DB is over 3GB, with the rest of the website taking up another 1GB. The forum also has over 1M postings, and has an active membership posting on average 500+ postings a day and logging over 200,000 topic views a month. The site as a whole (forums plus features, etc) attracts 60,000 unique users a month. The disk-space requirements, along with the server load is considerable. No $10 a month hosting package will accommodate that type of load - no matter what the cheap web hosts say, there is no way they would provide a level of service everyone expects. The economics of providing shared hosting (at discounted prices) only work if you put thousands of domains on one server... The wheels are in motion on that very topic! I agree cybercoma, there is a important place for MLW going forward and I will be looking at different options in the coming months. I appreciate everyone's concerns and ideas and you will all be notified when I have something more concrete. To those of you who feel the moderation isn't sufficient or unfair, all I can say is that we're only human and we're doing the best we can. Are we perfect? Hell no, but this forum has existed for nearly 16 years and we've outlasted many others. I have always tried to create an environment where ideas and opinions can be discussed without fear that it will run counter to some internal or external agenda. Thanks everyone!
  3. Greg
    Ha, is that what you think I actually did?
  4. Greg
    Did you even read the rules? It's the fourth rule from the bottom:
  5. Greg
    You're being over sensitive. Take a break, go for walk and relax. Nothing in my response was "antagonistic and condescending".
  6. Greg
    Yes, cross-posting, as defined by the very clear rules and guidelines for this forum, is "posting the same information in more then one forum on the Internet." If you want to contribute to these forums, you will need to contribute original material; not something you've posted elsewhere. This is a long standing rule that has its roots in the early blogging community - where guest contributors would be invited to guest blog on a particular weblog, on condition that they would only contribute original postings. It's not a stupid rule just because you disagree with it. It's a rule that discourages members from being agenda driven mouth pieces who use the forum as a communication outlet, rather than as a place where thoughtful and original discussions take place.
  7. Greg
    Well, I now see this thread was a complete waste of my time. This is probably why I put off starting a thread about moderation; very few of you can be trusted to use judgement when it comes to posting in these forums. Seriously... go back and read this silly thread - it's pointless, full of off-topic bickering and juvenile arguments. I was looking for some constructive discussion on how better improve moderation, and I get waste of bandwidth. And some of you think I'm (and the moderators) are the problem?
  8. Greg
    I also wanted to note that moderation is something that happens in private (between the mods and the user), which at times means a user can feel like he or she is being singled out -- when in fact, more than one person may have been warned. On the flip side, to everyone else, because the warning is made privately, it may seem like no action was taken at all. Also, each moderator can have a style that does not always jive with individual members. That isn't an excuse to be rude to each other, but i imagine it causes it share of the problems.
  9. Greg
    Thanks Argus, and thanks to everyone that posted in the previous "What improvements would you like to see..." thread. I'm serious about addressing these issues, I want to make this forum as attractive and as welcome as possible. Give me a few days to collect my thoughts, and speak with both Charles and Micheal. In the mean time, everyone's input is valued, so if you have something to say relative to moderation, please share it. However, please keep your comments on topic (off-topic banter will be deleted) and don't just repeat what someone else has said. Thanks
  10. Greg
    Not sure which thread you are referring to in which you couldn't reply. Unless the thread was locked, in which case NO ONE can post, New Members can post replies anywhere.
  11. Greg
    That is also a good idea. I think I mentioned before, I'm planning on doing short video tutorials on basic functionality on the forums. This will certainly be covered. It's not just good for new members, we all could use a refresher on neat or useful functionality. New members are forced to post in an existing thread, before posting a new topic - that's to stop spammers and over-eager members from posting to quickly before getting a feel for the forums. However, I've always wondered if that discouraged new members...
  12. Greg
    I personally agree. Originally i was hesitant to let people edit a posting [x] number of days after posting - because I thought it would be abused; i.e. someone changing their position and confusing everyone. But that hasn't really happened. People seem to edit to fix spelling and grammatical errors - which I believe is, in the long run, good for the forum and good for the individual contributor.
  13. Greg
    Multiple forum themes (and the ability to select your default) is possible with IPB and one option that I am open to. I'll add it to the list of good ideas come out of this thread.
  14. Greg
    Ok, I see what you mean now. Hmm, that's not an easy thing to do. Let me look around and see what I can come up with.
  15. Greg
    Have you tried the "Follow a Topic" functionality of the forum?
  16. Greg
    I hope to use the chat function more... In fact, I'd like to book a few hours each week in the chatroom, so that anyone can ask me questions relating to the forums -- even questions moderation (publicly or privately). I want to dispel the notion that I or Charles are secretly conspiring to rid the forum of a specific poster or ideology. I'm not saying that notion is popular or widespread, but rather I just want everyone to know that I'm open to input and questions you might have.
  17. Greg
    Patience... seriously, I want this thread to stay on topic and not be about moderation.
  18. Greg
    I am more interested in hearing ways we can improve the forums for everyone, than restricting access to only paid members. I don't know of a single successful forum where you have to pay to contribute. However, I am considering certain premium features, which would be available to members who want to pay. Removing ads from the forum display, is one of those features which could be provided via a Premium Membership. However, lets not drag this great discussion into the specifics of a premium membership. We can address that if it comes up in another support thread.
  19. Greg
    Yup, this was an issue that cropped up when we did the last major upgrade. It's on my long list of to do's. Along with the integration of the social media sharing buttons. It's a internal template/theme issue, which is really a pain to edit and manipulate. But it will be fixed shortly.
  20. Greg
    That's a great suggestion and it's one I am very open to doing. I've got the software and the hardware to do some simple video tutorials. Once I have some time, I'll fire everything up and film some how-to's for everyone.
  21. Greg
    We are testing ads in the forums, similar to other sections of the MLW website. That issue will be addressed on a separate support thread. Please give me a few days, as this is only testing, nothing is set in stone yet.
  22. Greg
    Ok, social media integration is partially activated. You can now link your forum profile with your Twitter or Facebook accounts. I need to fix the issues with the social media sharing links. That's on my list of things to do. To access the social media connectors, just go to your profile and select "My Settings". You can then connect Twitter and or Facebook to your profile, and sync the forum profile with your social media profiles. If you have any specific questions or comments about this new feature, please open up a new support thread. Lets keep this thread specific to NEW features. Thanks!
  23. Greg
    I have certain considered, but when I last looked IPB was still superior to vBulletin. However, I'll take another look and definitely consider it.
  24. Greg
    There are some great suggestion already, keep it up everyone! One change however, I'm going to start a NEW thread on moderation and we can discuss that issue separately (let me start this thread, as there are a few things I want to announce first). Lets keep this thread going with non-moderation suggestions.
  25. Greg
    Ok, I'll take a closer look and see if that is actually possible with this forum.
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