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Aus DD - Forum Direction and Suggestions 2011

i've only just started contributing to this forum after years of lurking, so my opinion is only that of a newcomer...but i kind of think that with a forum of this nature, less is sometimes more.

i agree with footscrazy in that a forum is only as good as its contributors, and with a board of this nature (ie providing harm minimisation info and advice) some of the off-topic stuff can be very frustrating.
as the type of person who starts reading the interesting threads from the start before even thinking about posting in them, it can get a bit tiresome to sift through post after ephemeral post of pointless chatter.
obviously, overbearing strictness does create a sterile environment, but questions about things that have been comprehensively addressed on the previous page and other tangents can really dilute the invaluable information that aus dd provides.

a vibrant community is a great thing - i definitely agree there.
informed questions and educated responses are what we need, but this can only be addressed by people who contribute to the site - i don't really see how administrative changes can affect positive change in this regard...but i could well be wrong about that.
but some of the crap people feel compelled to post? surely there'd be a better place for it?

this hasn't really been a constructive post, just my perspective. seems to me the current mods are doing a top job.
 
This is a harm reduction sub-forum first and foremost and I think too much social chatter is detrimental
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I disagree, if you look at the difference between AUDD and EUDD, it's huge, they have a much more relaxed community atmosphere there and I think it makes for a better forum overall. Obviously they're going to end up with a more active board, just because of the population difference, but on most forums like these, people come for the topic at hand (in this case, harm reduction), but stay for the community, because they enjoy interacting with the people on the forum.

As long as it's not directly interrupting HR discussion, I don't agree that preventing social chatter helps encourage HR discussion. If anything, it slows the board down as people drift away from boredom/take discussion to MSN or other sub-sections of BL, then when people 'do' come here for advice, there are less people to offer it. And if all they see is drab, boring discussion with no community and no colorful interaction, then they're less likely to stick around to contribute to the board in turn.
 
Now that I have had my coffee and don't have to worry about work today, lets see if I can make a decent post in here.

I was away from BL from 2009-2010 due to illness. When I came back I noticed that AusDD had changed; the rules were a lot stricter, people didn't seem as happy and there were complaints being made that I hadn't seen during the years before that.

When I joined staff again this year, I decided that I would be a more liberal moderator and d_m (sorry if I am speaking for you comrade) agreed with me as well, that we were fairly liberal moderators compared to previous staff members. Just in the last few months, there has been more social banter allowed, codeine discussion is back on the forum and it doesn't seem to be too stupid at the moment. Sure some members who had a lot of respect aren't posting as much anymore, but until they step up and give there reasons I am not going to make assumptions as to why and in a couple of cases at least I have some insight into why they ceased posting.

As has been said, we moderators can't force the discussion. We can just try and point it in a certain direction and if the community picks that up or not then so be it. For example, my cigarette thread. I love smoking and I thought I'd share that with everyone else and maybe other members would like to share their smoking stories as well, and it seems to have been successful; despite one former staff member making an off-hand comment in it about the direction forum.

There are some repetitive threads that come up on the first page, but they mainly seem to be from new members who I am willing to indulge and as other members have posted in here they seem to think that we need all the posts we can get and so would seem to be put up with it as well. I guess the hope is that once these new members are assimilated into the community, and learn how it works, then they will stick around and become decent contributors.

As for the current staff members; well I am not really in the mood to compile a strengths and weaknesses chart for each of us, but I think that we compliment each other nicely. Where I am lacking in knowledge or experience, d_m may know quite a bit about and same for everyone else on the staff. We all have our areas of interest, our own life experiences as well, that we bring to the table and I think that with all of us put together we make quite a team.
 
i can't post as a member from ye old days, but joining recently, i found most members to be welcoming with open arms and very eager to both help and learn.

from reading the complaints in this thread, i can only imagine that in more relaxed times, AusDD was more of a 50/50 mix between Aus Social and AusDD...

i signed up to this site for one reason, to learn, and i feel there is adequate information already posted which, possibly to some of the older members seems recycled through a bump of an old thread or a new thread being started with a slightly different topic. i've noticed members who have joined around a similar date as me are participating in threads as much as older members - both with exchange of information, or stories and banter.

to me, this shows a healthy turnover of new members, and it would be silly to expect every member to have the same enthusiasm and participation levels consistently as the years go on.

perhaps its just my previous forum experience which was much stricter, but i think there is a good balance happening here and the AusDD section and information is presented in a way that enables easy reading of a great resource specific to Australia with a great bunch of people from various backgrounds that are all too happy to do their best to answer any new queries.

i understand what it's like to lose long term members and friends on a forum, but keeping in mind how blue light is setup in terms of board structure, would changing certain aspects of how one of the boards is managed be enough to attract said older members back to the site as a whole to a degree that they would participate in AusDD as they did before leaving?

sorry for the ramble lol, but i can't see how changes in management could be drastic enough to keep the more relaxed older members happy whilst maintaining the image of a respectable forum with HR information discussion the AusDD staff are aiming to portray.
 
^ Thanks for the input misk, I have to admit sometimes I forget you are a relatively new member... it seems as if you've been around for longer. :)

I don't know how to explain what AusDD used to be like; my memory is very terrible. For some reason I remember things I learn, but I don't remember much about what happens in my life. Like I said before, when I joined I don't remember it being that much different to how it is now. Things like the actual drug scene have changed, and some members who were regulars back then aren't now, but for the most part I don't think that's because of how the forum has been run. There was a period where the place was run pretty strictly, as I said in my post though that was after I had stepped down as a mod for the first time and left BL for about a year. That strictness continued probably until d_m and I joined the staff again this year.

I think we probably have more social chat in the forum now then we have in the last few years, with the exception of the social thread which I wasn't around for so I don't know how bad that was.
 
^ I'm just a bit of an ass dag with too much time on my hands and alot of random questions, i probly blended in pretty easily after a few weeks :D

in regards to your comments, fair enough, i might have missed anything that was too different by a few months by the sounds of things.

i think you touched on a subject that has a lot to do with how the forum is perceived to be run and what may be the difference between some people coming and going, lurking or having an active input etc... - changes in drug culture, laws and different views or opinions of the general public and society on all things drug and medication related, especially the users of substances - legal or not.

as a few of you have said, this site is here for a reason and i think at times it represents the many varied aspects of the drug culture - not specifically AusDD alone, bluelight obviously works as a whole, but its also rather obvious that having a browse through AusDD can give you a snapshot of drug users and trends (amongst many other groups of people who post here) in Australia, discussing many things that are illegal and deemed to be inappropriate by some people that are not a part of this site.

what's being discussed at any one time isn't planted by the mods of this section as a seed of personal interest being forced upon forum users, it's simply what people want to discuss, again, regardless of whether they are old topics bumped for more discussion or new topics that may reflect current trends, hazards or something as simple as medication available in Australia for various conditions.

from the reading i've done through alot of random threads, - in AusDD and also other sections of BL - i think things could be alot worse and the mods have a hell of a job keeping the balance of users discussing often illegal substances and filtering out the few posts that take things that one (or two =D) steps too far so things stay HR themed at least most of the time.

there are alot of people in this section with great personalities with a wealth of knowledge to share between us all.
lets keep things moving forward so AusDD can continue to be a great place to learn, help others and share some friendships along the way :)

again sorry for the rambling lol, i promise it wont happen again :D
 
^ Don't be sorry, another great post, especially this part:

what's being discussed at any one time isn't planted by the mods of this section as a seed of personal interest being forced upon forum users, it's simply what people want to discuss, again, regardless of whether they are old topics bumped for more discussion or new topics that may reflect current trends, hazards or something as simple as medication available in Australia for various conditions.
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Juvenile said:
Just out of interest, what do you consider worthwhile discussion? Any links to noteworthy old threads?

I miss the days when we had a separate new thread of pill info for each state every couple of months. Not like we can do anything to fix that one though. (unless we want a pile of empty threads!)
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I cant give you any right now, I've had a lot of clonaz throughout the day.

But I think there should be more relaxed threads and some threads purely for more intelligent and advanced discussion where any posts that dont contribute to the information removed, almost like AdvancedDD.

That way information will be easy to find and we can still have a balance of information and HR and still have some lighter threads on less important things, like the cigarette thread.
 
^Definately ironic... what's more ironic is that given my perceived intelligence, that i'd rather talk to a druggie than someone who's straight edge at any given moment of my day.

I don't know why - but people who aren't drug addled seem to be seriously lacking something in my social spectrum.
 
Busty St Clare said:
Fucking lol, that just about sums up BL right there. If you want intelligent, coherent information, a place populated by drug addicts is probably not the best place =D
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Pretty sure its the weekend and I am a weekend warrior.

I'm sorry for starting this thread, it's obvious that it doesnt matter what we say on the matter.

Addict = more experience.
 
MrIbis said:
^Definately ironic... what's more ironic is that given my perceived intelligence, that i'd rather talk to a druggie than someone who's straight edge at any given moment of my day.

I don't know why - but people who aren't drug addled seem to be seriously lacking something in my social spectrum.
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So true. You get some serious straight edge fuckers who are like militant vegans when it comes to drugs. All you want to do is eat your burger and they have to get in your face and tell you how the meat was slaughtered and how terrible the fur jacket you are wearing is. If the fuckers want a mono chromed life so be it, but I like the taste of C major and the sound chocolate sauce makes on my tongue ;)

Then again you get the other lot, what I like to call the drug geeks. They know far too much about a hell of a lot of three and four letter chemicals and can not spend a night without talking about getting fucked up. They seemed lost without their brain being stirred. Life is full of lots of different experiences. Sometimes sunsets are really awesome straight.
 
The social discussion is a tricky balancing act, much like Mr Blonde when I first made staff earlier this year I decided that personally I was going to let a bit of social banter slide and for the most part thats what I have done. In general I think the current mods have been a bit easier on social discussion for quite a while now, but there is only so far it can go, like not long ago I know Belarki had to remove a bunch from the meth thread because it was virtually a whole page of banter and that really does start to impact on the quality of the discussion.

You have to remember that while being a fun and entertaining place is obviously important in getting members to stay, having easy access to the relevant information is neccessary for both drawing in new members and also just keeping credibility in a HR sense. If social banter gets to the point as spacejunk has suggested, that it at times has an impact on how easily one can find the information they seek, then that really is a problem.

I had thought in recent times we had managed to reach a nice balance and most of the posters tend to know how far they can take the social aspect of things without a mod usually needing to step in, but perhaps some are less satisfied than I thought? I mean the restriction of social banter has been an issue for as long as I remember and while I wholeheartedly agree you cannot and should not eliminate it from the forum there definately does have to be a line drawn somewhere...

I would also like to add that I totally agree with Belarki in terms of there being some threads which have no thread for social discussion such as the ones he mentioned in his post.
 
Is it that time again, already!!!!

This is the perennial discussion that will come up no matter what the moderators do to maintain the forum or the balance they try to achieve. The task of moderating a forum is never easy and the work that Psilo, Belarki, footscrazy, d_m and even Lefty have been doing has been nothing short of top notch. These guys can't be expected to provide all the stimulation within the forum because there are always developmental issues occurring behind the scenes that we as members are not privy. The community itself is only ever as good as its members and if the quality isn't there then it becomes increasingly difficult for these guys to facilitate meaningful and quality discussion.

The continuing issue these guys face is trying to find the perfect balance - of which doesn't actually exist. No matter what balance is achieved there will always be members who are not happy with the content and will invariably vote with their feet. If the content has too much of a social aspect then you will lose the members who are primarily interested in HR and further drug education. If the content is too serious then you run the risk of losing the fantastic characters who add colour through their amazing characters. No matter what though, as the balance changes from time to time, you will lose these varying members and they will move into other areas of Bluelight or even to other forums that better suit their needs.

Is there an easy solution to these problems - in short, no!!! The perfect balance does not exist and the moderators can only move with the ebb and flow of the current community. The members we lose through these changes - whether they be the die hard serious HR heads or the more socially needy - will not generally return, other than to have a peek from time to time to see how the forum they once loved is moving.

There is a choice, however, and that is to be flexible to the changes we experience and accept them as just a part of life. If you're not willing to do that then just know that the world and the interwebs are vast and they have something out there for everyone.

On a final note - I take my hat off to Psilo, Belarki, footscrazy, d_m and Lefty who are doing a fantastic job in maintaining AusDD. Is it different, yeah, but it's still a great forum with fantastic members. I thank you all wholeheartedly for providing your time to provide us with a well maintained forum. It's not an easy job and it often goes unappreciated for all the time and effort you put in - So, I thank you. :)
 
lil angel15 said:
the work that Psilo, Belarki, footscrazy, d_m and even Lefty have been doing has been nothing short of top notch.

...

I take my hat off to Psilo, Belarki, footscrazy, d_m and Lefty who are doing a fantastic job in maintaining AusDD.
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I think Mr Blonde is pretty alright too? ;)
 
cold clinical discussion is what will drive regular members away
not everyone is as smart as nano- and the likes of nano
and even nano doesnt type in cold clinical scientist way...

and there's no reason we cant combine fun and HR
nobody posts on a forum regularly just for the HR info
they do it for the community
 
I was a regular member and have been driven away by the crap, as have alot of older members.
AusDD needs to set and maintain a standard for HR as it's the only real aussie forum that deals with such matters, it's constantly being monitored by not only LE but the press, and needs to be taken seriously.

Crankinit: I mean Aus Social, no ones been banned for rambling about drugs while on drugs as far as I've seen and have been an active member since 2002


And btw Belarki knows a hell of a lot more than you give credit for Jakeperson, I note you didn't put out the warning about brephedrone, if you're so up on rc's why didn't you?
 
wow this is getting out of hand.

perhaps there IS room for a social thread, purely for community purposes? It keeps the off topic shit in one place - I know it goes against what we stand for, but if it's give-and-take then surely something must be given up by the staff for the greater community?

Whilst I digress that I am not all that interested in social banter, the period last year a lot of us came together as mates through the social thread, it tightened the more deepseeded community we have here.

This is an issue of epic proportion to our community, and I think it needs better handling than a few deciding it's not right for greater community. We need discussion, perhaps a poll, even poll possible guidelines as to our social aspect.

I for one am not interested in Aus Social at all, and find social drug related chatter far more interesting than going to the botanical gardens for cheese and wine.
 
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