What can we do better here at ODJT?

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I've actually thought about this thread all day -- and honestly, I can't even think of anything to do better (other than flash ads).

There's a great group of folks that frequent, a great group of mods who are tolerant. Everybody knows how to read between the lines between goofs and serious (those that don't learn quickly). Those that can't handle it, leave quickly.


Let's face it -- this is the local bar, where DJ and music people hang out and shoot the shoot, talk the talk, and walk the walk :)


http://www.softjock.com/videos/odjt2008newyear.htm
 
Briar said:
All joking aside Dan,

Coming from someone who rarely posts but has been here a long time, if you can find a way to END the FLAMEING (I think the Bose posts are a good example), BAITING and THREAD DERAILING, it is of MHO it would be a better place.

It sucks to make an honest post only to only be belittled because someone is asking a question.

It sucks to make a post and have to wade through 5 pages of garbage just to get an answer. (Look as this thread. 5 replys and 3 are off track already. I am not pointing fingers as I know the above were jokes but really, it happens in alot of posts)

I believe the quality of the conversations and quality of Q&A would go up along with the number of members if you can fix what I see as problems.

Look back at all the members that you have had leave even in the last 6 months. You know why most of them left, they told you. Those are the same problems that I see.
To use an example: Papa left (even though he came back). Look at what lead up to that. I can't be the only one who saw that.

Don't get me wrong, I have been here 3 years and plan on coming back daily but these are some of the reasons that I don't post more. Makes me wonder how many others feel the same way.
Click to expand...

Thanks, Briar. I'll try to address your concerns.

Flaming, thread derailing and the like, while not desireable are part of forum site life. Staff here does an excellent job of keeping on top of issues that cross the TOS. To be honest, if we pushed TOS to the letter there'd be very little posted here. So we try to maintain a balance that suits the majority of our active members.

The Bose posts are an anomaly that we've been dealing with for years. Part of the issue comes from promoters of the brand themselves, interrupting threads that have nothing to do with Bose, to promote Bose. Then, when asked to cease and desist, these members cry foul. Gimme a break, please. When forum staff asks for a stop, just stop. It's not too much to ask.

Belittling is a coward's way out. I doubt that many folks here take that kind of post seriously. ODJT is a business forum after all.

We all tend to post when we really have nothing to say. If you're having to slog through several pages of crap, let us know and we can split the thread to keep it on topic.

True, some members have left on their own. Others had to be ushered out. I really wish ODJT could be all things to all people but in the real world, no single forum site can accomplish that. Most of the members who have moved on did so because they couldn't stand to be told that the TOS applies to them. That's the cold, hard truth.

I hope this has been of some help. :)
 
Thanks folks. I'm really glad to see that overall most feel we're doing a great job here. It's easy to fall into a rut (it's comfortable like an old pair of slippers) as the webmaster and not look at what could or should be changed to make the site more friendly to both regulars and new folks. I wasn't going to directly answer anyone's thoughts was just going take it as more of a constructive feedback thread, file it in my brains, and work on things over time but there's a few things I wanted to answer talk about.

On the Flash (Dynacord & EV) banners: I really don't know what the problem is, I'm lost when it comes to flash and since the files are compiled (or I just don't have the right editors ) I cannot see the source to change things by trial and error. We only have one flash banner at a time I cannot tell if the flash file itself is causing the the whole line to be linked or it's a problem with my template, my template looks fine but again I'm not very good with flash. I will try and hunt down the problem and work with the Bosch guys to see if we cannot get it fixed.

@Joe: I haven't the foggiest idea what can be causing the attachments popup not work for you as I've never seen it happen before and I've worked with lots of other vB powered boards. I believe we tried to hunt this problem down last year.. we can try again though.

On the derailing/off topic posts: I agree to an extent sometimes I get a little annoyed with it myself BUT I do agree with the bar analogy and once a conversation starts the starter has little to do with keeping the same topic on going and more often than not the conversation ends 180 degrees from where it started. I cannot think of anyone conversation longer than a couple minutes I've had where we only talked about one specific thing. I believe it's more of a technology not matching the way humans think; The forum layout (thought mapping if you will) is threads go into topic driven boards and posts go into more specific threads and all of these are part of a bigger forum on one general topic. People just don't think like that and I think that's a big part of the problem. That being said we do spilt at the request of the original poster or even someone who has posted an offshoot in the thread. The problem with splitting is it throws off the chronology and can look a bit messy out of context so we don't going around splitting threads unless asked to split.

Baiting/Bashing: Overall, I see very little of it when compared to some of the other boards. We strive to be friendly to everyone which has gotten us accused of everything from coddling to supporting copyright infringement to being the devil's unwanted stepchildren. For what it's worth on some issues I think we've been to touchy feely and I've made a point to lay off such things. There's a good balance in there somewhere and I'm confident we'll get to it sooner or later. Other than that there's a few sets of people who go around hounding each other, I'm guessing for kicks.. My view so long as each holds their own and it's not disrupting the rest of our members why do should we play kindergarten teacher?

@Ruben (newsletter): We tried the newsletter, there's a poll around here somewhere. Between who didn't get it (there is no one newsletter system that 'just works' from what I can see) and those who didn't like it because for regulars it was just a duplication of forum content to people who wisely suggested interviews with our members which sounds easy but in practice it's a lot of work for me especially since I'm not the best writer in the world. It's not work that I'm unwilling to do, I just haven't had the time to sit down and map it all out. Perhaps over the winter I'll figure something out. :)

I think I got just about everything. Rob and Fred spoke a bit on the derailing and bashing. I'm glad overall people think we're doing good.
 
Kudos to all for a fine job on these forums.

I learn something everytime I stop in here, and find the posters to be a fairly personable and agreeable lot. Sure, I've seen a few things that irked me to some degree, but I just pass on that thread and keep on going...no biggie to me..."ain't nobody forcing me to be here" !!

Honestly, I do think this is a great forum and enjoy the casual banter that occurs at times. I enjoy reading the different DJ experience aspects to the debate between Behringer and Meyer and everything in between.

It's all good.
 
Well, let's see...

Wiz is gone so that helps.:sqwink:





















Gee, I can't think of anything else.











Carry on...
 
Poll Changes

The ability for the Poll/Post Creator to edit the Polls he/she created.
 
I'm sorry to bump an old thread but I'm VERY happy to report the EV banner issue is fixed. They sent me a new banner to put up which had the same problem, the whole area around the banner was clickable which lead me to believe it really had to be a problem on my end. It turns out it was! For those interest it turned out to be an extra DIV (CSS issue) in the template.

Whoo, I'm glad that's over that annoyed me for quite sometime!

Happy Surfing,
Dan
 
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