The Planetcricket Downfall : The members thoughts!
Over the past months I have seen a downfall in the patience and willingness from staff members. Both Staff and Members are obviously aware of this problem else this wouldn't be posted. I have thought for a long amount of time about what is happening and why generally the way the forum is run is going downhill.
Now it would be foolish to say that you didn't think things have changed at PC as it obviously have done, those who have been here for more than 6 months will be aware of changes in members and staff tolerance. Lately I’ve been seeing nearly every staff member closing threads without prior notice, now i understand, and i feel many people do that off-topicness can be a killer in a forum is handled badly, but if handle over-well as most staff are doing lately it can also cause a forum to die down. We have seen the older characters die away, James, Sam (Muel) as well as others. I believe the two mentioned haven't been as active due to the closure in the Super thread, I'm not going to talk about that here due to it being a very different topic and i believe that was closed for good reason.
With working with a staff member in Duff we know both sides of the arguments, Duff the staff and me the member and we both agree on one main thing, the Forum is for members not staff...Of course staff are also members but they are there to keep the forum in check and they are of late being very harsh with closing threads, just lately Kev closed one thread in the feedback forum which wasnt justified as i can see, im not going to go mod-bashing as it isnt fair and every staff member is in place due to them having qualities which make them good to keep the forum ticking over but rules and way to staff needs to be again told to staff as the closure of topics is getting beyond a farce and is starting to annoy members.
Why is it that members are fustrated?
? Closure of threads is becoming a farce as i said earlier, its becoming so bad that people are speaking out which is making staff annoyed and less likely to help. There needs to be a system in place which says that one warning is to be given by any member of staff and then its to the next staff member who sees the ongoing problem to either close it or re-warn, now after one warning no one can complain.
? Staff need to learn that its them who are leading the forums and doing things the way they are currently they are putting people off coming to the forums.
I said earlier i wasnt going to mod-bash so i believe i should say something which is good what they do, most are friendly, reletively good when modding the forums and also great people to talk to with a genuine interest in Cricket. Another good thing the staff have done is keep the forums up to date with the upgrade in the forums effecting every staff member who has apperently done there part.
PlanetCricket Corruption Crisis
-Freedom of Speech (
http://www.planetcricket.org/forums/showthread.php?t=32307) Zim's closure is bad working practice.
-Corruption of Power the fact globies now feel after there upgrade from moderator to globie they have to be stricter and close more things etc. Comment on Kev and his techniques since his change to green.
-Too Strict (consistency shouldn’t prevail) Threads being closed without proper good reasoning
-Forum is for the members, not the staff Staff should understand that the forum is a lot for members, not just for staff, due to there being a lot of new members joining every day, it can be increasingly difficult not only for staff but members as they are interacting with all sorts of new people (COMMUNITY FORUM)
-Forums should be fun the whole point of a forum is for it to be fun and enjoyable else no one will join, the closure of the super thread is one example where moderators and admin could have given warnings and guidelines on how to keep it open, that way THE MOST popular thread on PC would still be open
-Interaction with members during our time on PC we have encountered many times when members havent really been treated fairly (you say you want consitancy but members dont recieve it) and things like closing threads is a bad thing (there are good things with staff, like Kev gave me a second chance with not giving me a sig ban)
-Listening and acknowledging feedback, views and ideas. in the forum which is specified to feedback mods and admin are too easily closing threads they feel have had there say but mods and admins have understand once its closed people are too scared to create another thread to have there say in things
-Accepting peoples point of view The forum has 24,700 members (correct of 13th April) and it is obviously true that some of these members are either going to have a slightly differnt point of view or an outragoues on, it isnt a mods or admins duty to close it when someone says something out of order, it is infact there duty to understand it, and if needs be make it clear that members are entitled to points of views (instead of just closing a thread)
-Deterioration of the quality of the forum in my year and a bit on the forums people have come and gone, usually after they have gone they have been replaced by other quality members, but of late the forums has hit a spam-infested waters with new members bringing this metality into it (obviously difficult for staff, but closing, deleting and banning members and there posts can be better handled with polite reminders of the rules and warning via PM - this way more threads can stay open)
-Respecting members no matter what race, religion or age they are This is a very good forum for anything racist is very rare, but on the rare occasions disagreements happen staff should sort it out in a quick and good manner, usually staff first close the thread then delete (members would like to to see deleting the bad posts then the members involved given warnings, again this way threads can stay open)
-Accepting the fact that people cannot type in Proper English this again goes along with spam, it is increasingly difficult for staff to read both spam AND members like WORLD_CHAMPIONS not being able to type proper english, this also contributes to a lot of threads being closed, which isnt right, members who cannot type proper english should be advised BY PM on the correct way to say things, even members can help by helping those who cannot do proper english - its a community forum, help people
-Forums are for mainly teenagers, not adults (although we do respect the forum is open to any age) again, looking at the forums there is a massive percentage of 13 - 19 year olds, and there are not that many older than 20, but all members respect that it is a community forum which can bring in any amount of people at any age, this is tricky, as i would say the Forums are mainly for teens, which in that case the fun side is only usually fun to those of a similar age group, older mods should be aware of that (humour is a difficult thing, things such as the gay talk in the superthread is unacceptable, which is agreed by most members)
(in terms of posts not age) recently has gone to pot (still there but the regulars have gone) as the mods were making silly decisions (on a completely different level to here btw, some of you may not agree with what the mods do at times but it's on a completely different level) the forum has had very little activity in the last 2 weeks. It'll probably bounce up again but not with the same members.
