Member input wanted! New WS&S Rules Thread

I run some photography forums, and, in my experience, the lighter the touch with the moderation, the better.

Each of us has, by default of our actions, molded this forum into what we wanted. What we ended up with has worked well. In this particular forum, we had a several YEAR period with basically no active moderator supervision, and we did well.

My preference is that we do not pursue this course of seeing what more regulation we can come up with to impose, seeing how we can further break this up into more specific subforms, etc., to cover theoretical issues which have not really been problems, so far.
 
+ 1 for the "If it's not broke ..." position.

And personally, I really like the fact that knifemakers participate actively in the day-to-day life of the W&SS forum. I hope we don't discourage that sort of thing in the future, as it makes for excellent conversation and great eye candy. Obviously, there are fine lines between active participation and the pushing of product, but these lines are rarely overstepped.

On a different note, W&SS-specific thread headings are a great idea.

All the best,

- Mike
 
I like having knifemakers participate actively. They are just as much outdoorsmen as any of us, and know what a knife needs to do from both sides, user and maker. They benefit from the opinions of their future customers and the variety and quality of "our" knifemakers' products shows it.

We just don't want people who aren't part of the conversation to be popping in here with Gallery-style photos and then leaving until the next time they have eye candy for us.

The makers who are already W&SSers* and who have enthusiastic customers here are a very valuable resource.

(* W&SSers = offical term for participants in the Bladeforums Wilderness & Surviva Skills forum, pronounced "wusses". :) )
 
I keep seeing this in one form or another: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". It sure don't look broke to me.

No matter how many times Kevin or Brian or I have said we're looking for ideas, especially so we can put together a brief guide to the forum for new guys, we get hit with that line, which is beginning to sound like "I ain't got no ideas and I don't like ideas anyway."

We aren't going to sticky this thread and ask new participants to wade through it. We're going to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative and run through some of what has worked and what the regulars here have been talking about.

We can also come up with ideas about what else we can add, not to make subforums, but to make this forum even more diverse and productive. A while ago, a new guy asked me if he could bring a hunting experience to W&SS since he wasn't sure if it fit with what he'd seen here. You bet he could. What else can we innovate?
 
I like the participation of the Makers. I look to them for knowledge and information on sharpening and knife care. I guess there is a forum for that as well but when it pertains to Survival/Camping type knives, I enjoy their input. More How to Stuff would be nice.
 
How about an image size cap to aid loading of pages. Maybe with more usage of links to larger images if the viewer wishes to explore an image further. I know I'm a noob to this forum,but I've lurked for quite some time. The only thing that ever irked me was scrolling through very large jpgs.
 
I've come across a few pictures recently that were way too large but generally speaking, if the picture doesn't overlap the page, it's not too bad. On the other hand, a half a dozen or more page size pictures can hold up even DSL for a few minutes, so I am sympathetic.
 
Esav Benyamin said:
I keep seeing this in one form or another: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". It sure don't look broke to me.

No matter how many times Kevin or Brian or I have said we're looking for ideas, especially so we can put together a brief guide to the forum for new guys, we get hit with that line, which is beginning to sound like "I ain't got no ideas and I don't like ideas anyway."
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With all due respect, I think that's a bit unfair. The opening post:

k_estela said:
After E-mailing back and forth with Brian J, we decided to make a sticky thread for the new rules of the WS&S Forum effective 2009. Rather than creating them on our own, we are asking all of you for your input. The forum is yours and we are just here to keep things civil. Now is your chance to shape the WS&S Forum to your liking. If you have an idea for a WS&S rule, post it here. If you want to see one changed, post it here. We're looking for your input.
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There was no mention of putting together a brief guide to the forum for new guys, it does say "new rules of the WS&S Forum effective 2009" implying that the existing rules are up for change.

Doc
 
If you read nothing but the OP, you might interpret it that way. If you read what Brian and I have added since the OP, in response to what we felt was an overreaction by many people, you might understand it differently.

If you read what I posted right after the paragraph you quoted, you'll see some of that.
 
With all due respect, I also think you are being unfair. I think DOC and Evolute(Mike) have fully summarized my feelings. And I think someone owes DOC an apology. :)
 
Everybody post a general LOCATION with their posts. Its nice to know the location of your pictures without asking. When you ask a question the answer may me specific to what part of the country you live in. Ex: What sleeping bag, tent, ..... is best for me? (Do you live in Maine or Arizona?)
 
I probably should have said "updated" instead of "new". We aren't trying to reinvent the wheel here. We just want the forum to evolve into what the members want to see. So don't freak out if you think we're going to implement harsh rules or restrictions. As many have said, we're looking for guidelines.
 
Esav Benyamin said:
I like having knifemakers participate actively. They are just as much outdoorsmen as any of us, and know what a knife needs to do from both sides, user and maker. They benefit from the opinions of their future customers and the variety and quality of "our" knifemakers' products shows it.

We just don't want people who aren't part of the conversation to be popping in here with Gallery-style photos and then leaving until the next time they have eye candy for us.

The makers who are already W&SSers* and who have enthusiastic customers here are a very valuable resource.

(* W&SSers = offical term for participants in the Bladeforums Wilderness & Surviva Skills forum, pronounced "wusses". :) )
Click to expand...

That's exactly the kind of thing I had in mind.
 
tenkara said:
How about an image size cap to aid loading of pages. Maybe with more usage of links to larger images if the viewer wishes to explore an image further. I know I'm a noob to this forum,but I've lurked for quite some time. The only thing that ever irked me was scrolling through very large jpgs.
Click to expand...


I'm not convinced that is an appropriate way to proceed. Go down that path and you needlessly pander to the slowest at cost to everyone else. That's even more pronounced when we consider the direction technology is heading – monitors are getting bigger than ever before, cameras are getting better, and bandwidth is getting greater and greater. We should be exploiting these things.

True, there are people on dial-up with little monitors for whom big images [both in terms of file size and dimensions] can be problem. I've got a couple of those on my forums. I suspect they'll migrate to broadband about the time the rest of us are getting the teleport. Still, with a few pointers it is easy to keep them on side. As I mentioned above with the comment about “client side” regulation. You can choose by the way you run your browser how information gets displayed on your monitor. That a site makes it available to you doesn't mean you have to see it that way. It is under your control.

Here's a couple of solutions for the deservedly popular Firefox browser -

On bandwidth and file size:

Image Like Opera is a device that allows you control over images in a similar manner to how the Opera browser does. It has several features including turning off images, regulating images on a site by site basis, and of particular note 'only allowing cached images'. The latter completely does away with the whine about images being posted again in quotes as your browser will not get them when that feature is enabled.

On file size and dimensions:

Image Tweak is a handy little feature, most notable here is it has a function to resize any image to the screen size available. That's great for stopping large images from pulling a thread out of shape when I'm using small portable devices. Hold down right click on the big image then left click.

There are loads of other routes too, I just posted those up as an example because I use them and I also use the Firefox browser the most often. The point is, these things can be under your control. It would be a shame to make a forum march at the pace of the slowest by dulling down information that could be available.
 
Esav Benyamin said:
I keep seeing this in one form or another: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". It sure don't look broke to me.

No matter how many times Kevin or Brian or I have said we're looking for ideas, especially so we can put together a brief guide to the forum for new guys, we get hit with that line, which is beginning to sound like "I ain't got no ideas and I don't like ideas anyway."

We aren't going to sticky this thread and ask new participants to wade through it. We're going to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative and run through some of what has worked and what the regulars here have been talking about.

We can also come up with ideas about what else we can add, not to make subforums, but to make this forum even more diverse and productive. A while ago, a new guy asked me if he could bring a hunting experience to W&SS since he wasn't sure if it fit with what he'd seen here. You bet he could. What else can we innovate?
Click to expand...

1) Remember you are a guest here act accordingly.
2) If you wouldn't use those words talking to your grandmother or kids, don't use them here.
3) Be consious of the fact that we all meet here with different experiences and backgrounds, what may be funny to you may be offencive to others.
4) There are many ways of addressing an issue, just because yours works for you dosn't make it the only right way.
5) Try and keep posts on topic
6) When loading large pictures , remember some are still on dialup, use the thumbnail view. People can then open them to full size if they wish.
7) If you post a link or mention a company, say a few words about it and why it would be of interest to the forum members. Don't post links and run, you could be considered a shill if done to often.
8) Have tolerance for other forum members, people post from all over the world on here. English may be their 3rd or 4th language.
9) Use forum prefixes, when appropiate to give members a heads up of whats inside.
10) HAVE FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK I got it started, and yes I still think we need a "personal Preparedness" subforum.:D
Just my 2 cents,
Jim
 
Esav Benyamin said:
I keep seeing this in one form or another: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". It sure don't look broke to me.

No matter how many times Kevin or Brian or I have said we're looking for ideas, especially so we can put together a brief guide to the forum for new guys, we get hit with that line, which is beginning to sound like "I ain't got no ideas and I don't like ideas anyway."
Click to expand...

On the contrary, I think it might be better interpreted as input from people who are pretty content with the status quo - and who feel that you might want to bear that in mind while developing new rules and guidelines. These comments reflect an appreciation of good forum moderation and a healthy community.

I'm always open to new ideas, and there have been some good ones here. I look forward to seeing the final product of this conversation.

All the best,

- Mike
 
Esav Benyamin said:
I've come across a few pictures recently that were way too large but generally speaking, if the picture doesn't overlap the page, it's not too bad. On the other hand, a half a dozen or more page size pictures can hold up even DSL for a few minutes, so I am sympathetic.
Click to expand...

i'm guilty of multiple images. I'm in the middle of setting up a BF member accessible off site gallery to reduce the bandwidth.
 
I don't know if anyone has mentioned it yet, but I would like to see a useful topics topic. Even better if it could be edited by all, wiki style.

Even if search is re enabled for non-paying users, searching can be difficult just due to the nature of a forum. Searching solely on a topic's title can be unfruitful if the OP did not title the topic in a meaningful way. Searching on the thread content can also be time consuming since most searches seem to come up with 500 unrelated topics, not matter how you phrase the keywords.

Ideally, we would have a list of the better topics, along with a brief description. This may be totally pie in the sky, but I think it could work. I'd be more than willing to host the wiki page if the moderators would not be interested in maintaining such a list. I know that some forum software have a wiki feature built in, but I am not sure what VBulletin has enabled by default.
 
I have no complaints. This is one of the most active forums of it's type out there with alot of great info. I enjoy reading more then posting.
Scott
 
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