Heads Up and Member Feedback - Your opinions on the future of the site :)

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An Officer of the Deck

It has occurred with me that I've observed something that would benefit from the attention of a staff member but had problems locating any who are online. Sometimes, I've seen multiple online staff members but had a hard time deciding who is an appropriate contact. On two occasions contacting Felix resulted in immediate attention, but I don't want to contact admins in the first instance on issues that any staff member could handle.

What I'm thinking is that a staff person could sign in as officer of the deck, and they'd be a contact point for issues that might need to be considered in the relative present time.

I usually use the forum link and look to the bottom to see who is available, from there I don't necessarily recognize every staff name. Its covered in other threads that staff, like everyone else, may choose to have their online status displayed, or not.

Just an idea, I'm happy with BL and this isn't bitching. I'm impressed with many things, but it would get really boring for me to make a list of all of Bl's virtues.
I chose Officer of the Deck cause my whole life I've loved nautical analogies. I'm sure there is probably an acceptable name that isn't nauticle, though other names will not receive my endorsement.;)
 
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psyly, your best bet, honestly, would be to send a PM to all of the moderators of the forum. many mods/smods/admin do not wish to have people know when they are online, as sometimes it doesn't matter as they may only get online if they receive an email notification or what have you.

i'm kind of one of those mods, but i'm almost always online someway.
 
Roger the Cabin Boy reporting for duty ;-)

psyly - you got lucky with me because i'm unemployed and i've got fuck all better to do. ;)

i can see the reasons behind your idea and why it might seem like a good thing for the users. but in addition to what eras3r correctly said... from our perspective it would be a bit of a bind. we already spend a significant proportion of our free time working on this site - for nothing, of course - and to feel that we had to clock in and out would make it a right old chore. plus there's the fact that our Online status times out after 15 minutes of inactivity. if we mess around on youtube for 20 minutes, or go and watch a TV programme, it'll look like we've gone off duty. or should we 'sign out' and try and get someone else to handover to?

i hope you see where i'm coming from here. :)

to reiterate what eras3r said: sending a PM to all the mods of the forum in question is the quickest way of dealing with something 'in-forum'.

but most importantly - and by far the most effective way of having a problem dealt with - is to hit the report button on a problematic post. every report is visible to every member of staff. an email of the report is immediately sent to all the mods of that forum as well as all the senior mods, who can moderate in any forum. the receipt of that email is quite often all that's needed to bring a mod online to look at the problem. (they might just be having a youtube session. ;))
 
I like psyly's idea. When I've gotten PMs offering me drugs or asking me for drugs (both stupid, I'm well stocked and I'm definitely not nice enough to share) it's been a pain in the ass trying to figure out who to send it to. Instead I'm stuck sending it out to 5 people, when 1 would have done. Then I get 4+1pms back, one that took care of it, and 4 that were too late, so I have to send out 4 more to explain this.

Anyway...

50USD is insane for a name change. Haven't you guys been watching the news? Our economy is in the drain- and even if 50USD is less than a Zimbabwean Dollar, it's plenty for yanks who work for their living (it's still nothing for those who don't).

(btw, in Zimbabwe, inflation is running at something like 1.6m% impressive, eh?)


plus there's the fact that our Online status times out after 15 minutes of inactivity. if we mess around on youtube for 20 minutes, or go and watch a TV programme, it'll look like we've gone off duty. or should we 'sign out' and try and get someone else to handover to?
Click to expand...

Agreed, but when you're on the site, mods and smods don't show up in the "who's active" portion at all (AFAICT), which has been the main problem for me.
 
don't forget the report feature. some of us are lucky enough to get an email for every single bl report site-wide and forum moderators get an email copy of all reports for the forums(s) they moderate.

if i'm online but not surfing bluelight, i'm often still alerted to troublesome issues by the email report.

alasdair
 
1. PM problems are unlikely to be mega-urgent. just send them to the mods of the forum.

2. as stated previously - hit the report button on any problem posts.

3. if you go here, you can see which mods are online: http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/ (but yes, when you look at the forums themselves it doesn't show them as being online or not - but then again they might be online but browising a different forum anyway?

4. i'm probably here more than anyone at the moment - but there's still no fucking way i'm clocking in and out. ;)
 
Psyly, thanks much for the suggestion - as ever, any and all ideas are worth tossing about, that's why we posted this :)


I'll give my personal opinion - utilize the report function. There are many staff (myself included) who tend to have spotty hours when we can tend to the site (no set schedule), and I usually remain 'invisible' when I'm online so I can focus on specific tasks. However, any post which gets REPORTed will send a flag to the entire staff - appropriate forum mods, senior mods, and admin (and yes, all the other forum mods who don't care ;) ). Point being, we all check those RPs frequently, the mods looking for anything related to their forums and the sr staff for anything they might be able to help out on. So, by using the RP function, you in fact flag all appropriate personnel and the first to respond can.

To Hammie's point of multiple responses, the RPs allow the staff to make notes and discuss with one another if something ought to be done and what that might be, and as such, it gives all who read it an idea of WHOM is responding and what action they are taking. If no response is visible, then we assume nobody has looked into it and we'll start in if we can. I should point out, however, that sometimes an RP gets no public response whatsoever...simply because the situation doesn't need attention (ie, a whinging nut case on a meth comedown feels butthurt about a comment in the Lounge :\ ), though we'd like to think the mods would at least PM the person who made the RP to let them know that nothing will be done....this isn't always (or often?) done due to the nature of a volunteer board, not everyone has the time felix does for responding to any and all notices.


note to felix, get a job man...GET A JOB!!!

Edit - heh, true TLB fashion, alasdairm and felix replied whilst I composed my response :o
 
Thank you all for your replies. I was throwing an idea out.Its really cool that even though my idea is weak in many respects all of you have kept the door open. I am grateful for all the volunteer efforts that keep BL going and I don't want to tie any fellow humans to a time clock. I'll use the report button, but use it judiciously. Really I was here for months before I saw anything that needed attention. Things happen in clusters for reasons I haven't ever been able to discern. Also, I didn't know how the report thing works from your end, now I do. For all I knew the mods of an individual sub-forum got them next time they logged in.

Well I think you've all had enough good, productive user relations that you should go and safely indulge in a perfect quantity of your DOC.
 
hoptis said:
What sort of cost do people think would be appropriate for a name change?

I'm all for ideas like this, though it's more a funding issue but it's a relatively easy thing to do for an admin and it's a good, quick way to bring funds in.
Click to expand...

vote 1 name changes - i'd pay about AU$50.

let's get this shit going! i'm well sick of my lame mhm!
 
some forums have a "metals" program, where admins hand out "metals" for something that a person stands out for, such as tech support or drug knowledge. This will help people get good information, as well as reward members who are knowledgeable in various topics.
 
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