Who should be a new moderator in the forum?

[eurobrat]

Do we have enough moderators here? Fschmidt is a pretty laissez-faire moderator. Should we get Jester to be a moderator too?

Winston try me. I'm Sorry that now you have inbox spam from the h8ters on here insisting that they will leave h.a. If I become a moderator. Lol!!!

I don't have any PMs from people saying that they will leave HA if you are a moderator. lol

Thanks, but I don't read your posts enough to know what kind of person you are yet.

If I were a moderator, this is what I'd do:

(1) Create a sub-forum called "Straight Jacket"....It's the purgatory to being permanently-banned. If they want to come back by re-animation or be revived at a chance for life again, then can be let back into the regular forum.
Social caste tiers would be Expat VIP Forum -> Regular Forum -> Straight Jacket Forum -> Perm Ban (from the most priveleged to the least). In the Straight Jacket subforum, the posters relagated there cannot create their own threads, but all they can do is make posts underneath the same thread calling me a s.pic, cursing out H.A. for whatever eason, etc.

(2) People will become permanently banned if they don't do a Skype call with me within a 168-hour period (one week) after they are put into the Straight Jacket subforum (video or not but audio must be mandatory so they can state their plea). I would hold court on Skype in this manner.

That's an interesting idea. They would be put into a group called Straight Jacket, and then that group's permissions would be set to participate in only one board. Do you really have time to screen people on Skype? Most internet posters would not be willing to shows their face on Skype to anyone anyway.

The blatant spammers are ex-communicated ASAP; they would be no 168-period. The ones whom aren't spammers but are trollers will be held to court. They would be PM'ed my Skype and one other moderator's Skype in order to balance out the load. I think this can be done with me and two other moderators.

NOTE: The specifics of how we run this HA court system must be confidential. We cannot let the trolls be on their A-game.

Once again I agree E Irizarry, there's a fine line between "free speech" and trolling

[Ghost]

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[Yohan]

...what are you going to do when trolls start using software/proxies to appear from different IPs? It isn't hard to do...and banning won't be able to stop it. ...How about a troll only forum?

This is what we are doing with the Niceguy-Forum since a few years.

There is a section called 'trollville'.

Troll-threads will be moved to that section, and the troll, abusive feminist etc. will be able to post comments only in this section. If members want to reply and to have fun, it's up of them to post their follow-up comments too into 'trollville' too.

I noticed that trolls expect to be banned and their comments to be deleted.

They do not like to be exposed with all known details, with their IP number and other data like avators, possible location etc.. After exposing them they leave quickly and never come back.

Since introducing 'trollville' the Niceguy Forum is almost free of trolls and other disruptive comments.

[E Irizarry R&B Singer]

What part of the Straight Jacket subforum concept did Yohan and Ghost BLATANTLY miss out here? Are we competing for the "yes I'm the originator founder ego maniac" slot here? Don't be so selfish; I wasn't with my suggestion. Ghost, you couldn't do it by yourself so dismount yourself from that horse, papi. This is a retaining/recurring 2-3+ man job.

[Rock]

I threw a few ideas at Winston and he told me to post them here. I don't know about you guys but I get tired of random newbies and anonymous not-so-newbies w/out an ounce of credibility posting all kinds of crazy claims or downright silly stuff here. It's easy to pose, talk tough, make claims, disrupt, etc. when you are invisible.

Reality is, we only have a small handful of active posters at any one time. Majority of these have been verified to some degree by others so are not invisible and have some real skin in the game so to speak. If they go off the deep end, they may just end up being accountable.

A high percentage of newbies turn out to be trolls, frauds, loonies, and other non-desirables.

It probably would not hurt but very likely might help things to make more radical changes to sign-up procedure and granting posting rights. Here is some initial food for thought.

1. Apply Roosh's idea of only allowing new sign-ups at the beginning of each month to streamline things and make filtering a beginning of month task only.

2. Add to No. 1, some sort of approval/interview stage where forum mods and assistants would chat with prospective new posters to decide whether or not each one of them is an asset to this forum or not. Add to that some other non-transparent checks and due diligence to see if person is credible and honest or not. Posting on HA should be a privilege, not a right granted to anyone.

3. Perhaps those who get approved start with posting rights only on a segregated probation section of the forum and only after a certain amount of time and/or number of productive posts (as judged by mods and admin) do they get full posting rights on main board and expat board.

As for main board mods, both E_Irrazary and Jester get my nod to try for awhile and see how they work out, zboy1 remains a solid nay.

If these ideas sound unpractical to apply in reality, please speak up. But maybe also throw up some alternative ideas. We need to get rid of posers, braggarts, fakes, trolls, haters, and generally toxic posters. Let's make this a more authentic and positive place

[Ghost]

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[eurobrat]

A high percentage of newbies turn out to be trolls, frauds, loonies, and other non-desirables.

It probably would not hurt but very likely might help things to make more radical changes to sign-up procedure and granting posting rights. Here is some initial food for thought.

1. Apply Roosh's idea of only allowing new sign-ups at the beginning of each month to streamline things and make filtering a beginning of month task only.

If these ideas sound unpractical to apply in reality, please speak up. But maybe also throw up some alternative ideas. We need to get rid of posers, braggarts, fakes, trolls, haters, and generally toxic posters. Let's make this a more authentic and positive place

I agree with Rock.

I think the verification method is best. Maybe have them right a sample trip report to register. Knowledgeable moderators will be able to weed out the trolls easily, combined with the once a month registration would make this forum perfect.

Plus I bet all the crap SEO is hurting the ranking and reputation of this place.

[Ghost]

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[eurobrat]

Circles within circles within circles....come on, guys. Look. It's impossible to have a forum without some trash. That's why we just "need" a trashcan. Put the trash in the trashcan. The trash still has a right to speak. If anyone wants to communicate with the trash, they can click on over to the trashcan.

Banning won't work. Trolls can easily start posting under different IPs.

A trip report can be faked. Identities can be faked. Any "test" can be faked.

Deleting posts means destroying free speech and moving this forum towards authoritarianism.

I think some of you are blowing this "problem" out of proportion. Just make a troll forum, Winston. Move troll posts there. If you're going to do anything, it should be no more than that.

What's wrong with a one paragraph sample writing to check up on what they plan on posting?

[Billy]

I am going to take over the forum in the future as I am a true Euroasian:). No not really I would like to be moderator only to ban Repatriate. This is already been done so I have no real aim.

I think Rock would be good moderator. Yes also Jester for shure.

[Rock]

Circles within circles within circles....come on, guys. Look. It's impossible to have a forum without some trash. That's why we just "need" a trashcan. Put the trash in the trashcan. The trash still has a right to speak. If anyone wants to communicate with the trash, they can click on over to the trashcan.

Banning won't work. Trolls can easily start posting under different IPs.

A trip report can be faked. Identities can be faked. Any "test" can be faked.

Deleting posts means destroying free speech and moving this forum towards authoritarianism.

I think some of you are blowing this "problem" out of proportion. Just make a troll forum, Winston. Move troll posts there. If you're going to do anything, it should be no more than that.

Yes, why ban. Prevent the garbage from joining in the first place. Scrutinizing new sign-ups and putting them through a trial period would probably redirect most bored trolls and posers to easier forums. Why rob a locked and guarded house when there are other exposed targets available? Path to least resistance.

[Ghost]

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[Winston]

See my poll here about whether we should screen new members.

viewtopic.php?f=33&t=24938

[Winston]

Do we have enough moderators here? Fschmidt is a pretty laissez-faire moderator. Should we get Jester to be a moderator too?

Winston try me. I'm Sorry that now you have inbox spam from the h8ters on here insisting that they will leave h.a. If I become a moderator. Lol!!!

Fschmidt wouldn't ban anyone--even flat out trolls; I think either Jester or E_Irizzary would make a good moderator.

I really appreciate that you're starting to crack-down on the cesspool invading the forum; it was solely needed, so don't listen to the 'Free-Speech' complainers because we already have plenty of non-P.C. topics and discussions here on the forum, already. It's just that the trolls have really ruined the forum, lately.

Also, Winston, I think it's time for you to let me be the moderator that I used to be on HA: even let me moderate on the non-expat VIP forum--because the trolls have infested the forum--and as a result, viewership is down and many members have left. Thanks.

So why hasn't expat VIP forum become a lot bigger and more successful if your moderating style is the answer to the problems of this forum? You got your own platform so why not concentrate on making that work instead of coming back here to where all the trolls you so loath hang out and complaining? Vote by actions, not words. You seem to enjoy it here more than the venue under your own control lol.

Viewership is down, really? Based on what data or information source. Winston tells me that traffic seems about the same these days as before and anyway, depends on search engine rankings and many other factors.

Drama is neither a draw or hindrance to new posters and traffic. It simple incites regular posters to post more.

Good point Rock. Yes, Zboy is wrong about traffic here. I just checked Google Analytics and it says it has gone up in the past 30 days. Not down. Here are the stats from Google Analytics. As you can see, our traffic has risen from 60,000 to 80,000. However, our bounce rate is high at 71 percent, which means that most people are only viewing one page in the forum and then leaving.

Sessions
103,969

Users
80,945

Pageviews
308,653

Pages / Session
2.97

Avg. Session Duration
00:03:56

Bounce Rate
71.70%

% New Sessions
75.42%

[Jonny Law]

I Nominate Cornfed as Moderator

Thanks and enjoy

I support either Contrarian Expatriate, Jester, or DJforumoney to be an additional moderator to the forum. I'm leaving for China next week--and I won't have time to checkover the forum as much as before, and JamesBond rarely visits the forum these days...so an additional moderator is needed.

I don't know if Winston really cares anymore, so I'm making this thread to see who wants to be a moderator. Anyone interested besides the people I just nominated?

Are you f***ing serious? That would result in a massive exodus of contributing members, just like if I were to be made a moderator.