Some More TWoP Thoughts
I've been thinking some more about being banned by TWoP. And here's the thing. I deserved it. I mean I basically told current members that I was the reincarnation of staygold, who had been banned before. If the bannings are going to mean anything, then they had to ban me for that. I get it.
I did have good intentions. To let a friend -- Maka -- know that I was still out here since she had asked about me. But at a deeper level, the problem is still the first banning. At that time, I was an active, happy, mostly respected (I think) member of the VM TWoP community. From nowhere, Sars banned me for being rude. No explanation beyond that. No reference to an offending post. No warnings indicating a pattern of bad behavior. Just banned. People I talked to had no idea what I did that was rude.
That's hard to take. The people on TWoP were my friends. I was an old dude jumping into the internet world and loving it. Then, someone yanked it away in a way that felt arbitrary. Yes, I could sign back up with a new username. But that broke lots of the friendships I had built. I probably could have fixed that here on LJ, but I was an old guy who didn't know the internet well enough to know that. I couldn't totally let go of the old friendships. So I reached out to one and got banned again. Ouch.
Still, it's caused me to be reflective. And in that reflection I have a few honest, constructive criticisms for TWoP and how they handle things. They're trying to accomplish the very difficult task of running a site for discourse about TV without being a fan site, while letting that site double as an online community rather than just a commentary on shows. It's the best thing out there for all of that. But it would be better if:
1. Let there be a positive rating system to go along with the warnings. Run by other posters. People can give thumbs up to posts, and if a post gets some number of thumbs up (5?), the poster gets a credit. People love the new nicknames (channel surfer, stalker, etc.) on TWoP, so reserve some for people whose posts are well liked. Reward contributions to the discussion, rather than just punishing problems. It simply has to be relevant to a banning decision to know if someone has made lots of well-loved contributions, so the mods would benefit from this information. I think people miss good contributors who are banned, and would be willing to forgive many more transgressions from the people who make good posts. Let people be edgy and difficult IF they have intelligent things to say.
2. Recognize that a banning is a big deal. People have friends online. Internet era/virtual friends, but still friends. To arbitrarily take that away is a rough move. So, give clearly written warnings. Document problems. Make sure people know what they're doing wrong and only ban them if they don't fix that. It's a community with its own rules, and while they may seem like second nature to the mods, they can be confusing to posters (ask posters what it means to "not talk about the boards on the boards" if you want to see mass confusion). So, help the learning curve before banning.
3. Reduce the rules to 2. Don't divert threads from their topic. And don't make personal attacks. That's it. The "talking about the boards on the boards" type stuff is confusing. The issue is when people take things off topic. Fan squeeing is off topics. Just tell people that and warn them if they don't catch on. And ban them after only 1 warning for any personal attack. That's it.
4. With that, tell people when they sign up, that they have to be grown ups. Ideas will be attacked. I have no problem with people saying an idea is stupid or crazy, as long as they don't say the poster is stupid or crazy, since smart, sane people say stupid, crazy things all the time. But even if you want to limit those words, people have to know that ideas will be dissected. Characters you love will be ridiculed. That's the nature of the site. As long as it's on topic and not a personal attack against a poster, it's fine. In all cases.
I did have good intentions. To let a friend -- Maka -- know that I was still out here since she had asked about me. But at a deeper level, the problem is still the first banning. At that time, I was an active, happy, mostly respected (I think) member of the VM TWoP community. From nowhere, Sars banned me for being rude. No explanation beyond that. No reference to an offending post. No warnings indicating a pattern of bad behavior. Just banned. People I talked to had no idea what I did that was rude.
That's hard to take. The people on TWoP were my friends. I was an old dude jumping into the internet world and loving it. Then, someone yanked it away in a way that felt arbitrary. Yes, I could sign back up with a new username. But that broke lots of the friendships I had built. I probably could have fixed that here on LJ, but I was an old guy who didn't know the internet well enough to know that. I couldn't totally let go of the old friendships. So I reached out to one and got banned again. Ouch.
Still, it's caused me to be reflective. And in that reflection I have a few honest, constructive criticisms for TWoP and how they handle things. They're trying to accomplish the very difficult task of running a site for discourse about TV without being a fan site, while letting that site double as an online community rather than just a commentary on shows. It's the best thing out there for all of that. But it would be better if:
1. Let there be a positive rating system to go along with the warnings. Run by other posters. People can give thumbs up to posts, and if a post gets some number of thumbs up (5?), the poster gets a credit. People love the new nicknames (channel surfer, stalker, etc.) on TWoP, so reserve some for people whose posts are well liked. Reward contributions to the discussion, rather than just punishing problems. It simply has to be relevant to a banning decision to know if someone has made lots of well-loved contributions, so the mods would benefit from this information. I think people miss good contributors who are banned, and would be willing to forgive many more transgressions from the people who make good posts. Let people be edgy and difficult IF they have intelligent things to say.
2. Recognize that a banning is a big deal. People have friends online. Internet era/virtual friends, but still friends. To arbitrarily take that away is a rough move. So, give clearly written warnings. Document problems. Make sure people know what they're doing wrong and only ban them if they don't fix that. It's a community with its own rules, and while they may seem like second nature to the mods, they can be confusing to posters (ask posters what it means to "not talk about the boards on the boards" if you want to see mass confusion). So, help the learning curve before banning.
3. Reduce the rules to 2. Don't divert threads from their topic. And don't make personal attacks. That's it. The "talking about the boards on the boards" type stuff is confusing. The issue is when people take things off topic. Fan squeeing is off topics. Just tell people that and warn them if they don't catch on. And ban them after only 1 warning for any personal attack. That's it.
4. With that, tell people when they sign up, that they have to be grown ups. Ideas will be attacked. I have no problem with people saying an idea is stupid or crazy, as long as they don't say the poster is stupid or crazy, since smart, sane people say stupid, crazy things all the time. But even if you want to limit those words, people have to know that ideas will be dissected. Characters you love will be ridiculed. That's the nature of the site. As long as it's on topic and not a personal attack against a poster, it's fine. In all cases.