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***POLL! State Of The Union 2008!***

What is your opinion on the current state of Other Drugs?

  • I have a positive outlook on the forum

    Votes: 79 81.4%

  • I have a negative outlook on the forum

    Votes: 12 12.4%

  • I'm indifferent either way

    Votes: 6 6.2%
  • Total voters
    97
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GenericMind

GenericMind

Bluelighter
Joined
Nov 30, 2005
Messages
39,948
Location
Western New York
It appears to be that time again ODers, the time where we look to you to let us know how we're doing with our beloved forum.

Looking back I think we've made some positive changes in the past year. We rehauled the Forum Guidelines to reflect a higher regard for the purpose of Bluelight, which is Harm Reduction. We added the Other Drugs Directory with informative links to make finding the information you need easier and more convenient. We consolidated all the helpful FAQ and Mega-threads that you members have contributed over the years in the FAQ Sticky to put the forum's collective knowledge at your fingertips. We made two great additions to the Other Drugs Moderator team with Mr. Blonde and BingeBoy. We also have some great ideas in the pipelines that I'm really excited about that I believe will not only benefit OD, but other forums as well. They include large forum restructuring plans to help assure that new posters are directed to the forums they need to be posting in rather than OD.

But enough from me, let's hear from you! Vote and be heard!
 
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first!


I think you and all the other OD mods do a great job. I don't really have any suggestions at the moment :)
 
I'm also going to ask, at least for now, that we stay away from back-and-forth discussion in this thread. That means no responding to what anyone else says. We don't need this to turn into an argument. Simply vote, post your opinion if you wish, and sit back and relax. :)
 
i dont post in here much at all, so from the outside looking in i would say that a lot of the questions being asked could, and should be, in the drug basics forum. it seems that most people come in here and ask their questions before even looking at DB, or searching for that matter, in either place.

edit: GM, maybe you should sticky this so those members that dont visit often will easily be able to find this thread. you know we dont like having to work to find em. ;):)
 
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Respectfully, and without sounding like Debbie Downer, this poll is fundamentally flawed at its core, like exit polls (Ask someone how they voted, the numbers are likely to reflect Obama or pro-gay marriage so the person doesn't look racist/homophobic).

The people who come in here are going to be the people cruising around OD the most, and read the most threads. These people are probably "happy" and it will reflect their opinion, but won't reflect the opinion of those who aren't "happy" and thus don't spend as much time in OD as they used to, and it especially won't reflect those that don't visit at all anymore.
You'll also get a lot of "I love this forum" votes from people who just discovered BL and find it to be way better than TOTSE or wherever they came from, which it is.

To get a true sample, random phone calls (or in this case, PMs) would be the most accurate way to see the population's opinion. Of course, this method is silly and would be too hard to implement. And silly, did I mention silly?

Other than that, I don't have much to say. I don't want to get involved in this.
 
Let me preface with this -- you're never going to make everyone happy.

On an Internet message board, this fact rings especially true. Members get the "old bird" syndrome, in which they temporarily forget that at one point they themselves were new members just learning the ropes of the forum. This causes them to show disgust at new members posting inane topics or not using the search engine or one of the million other atrocities they believe the new members are a part of.

The fact is, everyone has to learn the ropes here. The smart ones sit and lurk until they have a better grasp of how things work. The others try and sometimes fail but in the end, everyone learns the same lessons and begin to understand and appreciate the rules here. And those that think the rules are dumb? Well they're either banned or just stop coming.

At its core, Other Drugs is what Internet message boards were meant for -- a place where people with knowledge of a similar topic can come and express views, beliefs and experiences associated with that topic in order to provide a searchable information outlet for other people interested in the same topic that might not have as much knowledge on the subject.

Is OD perfect? No.

Does seeing "I swear snorting my xanax makes me feel ten times higher!" annoy me? Yeah, a little.

Do the OD mods do a good job? Of course.

Do I sometimes question their closure of threads? Yeah, of course.

and finally, does the OD forum ultimately serve its purpose? Yes.


For the above reasons, I have to say that my experience with this site and this forum have been overwhelmingly positive and that's why I voted as such in the poll.
 
All that's needed is more moderation on bad posts (I need to consider what is and what isn't appropriate posting as well).
The mods do do a great job though.
Maybe make mega-threads sticky?
 
^ LOL

I don't know if there will ever be a way to make the 'invisible' stickies more visible/prominent. (But thats an entirely different topic.)
 
This is nothing like I was talking about GM, but I do appreciate you deleting my thread and making a poll that has little to nothing to do with the issues at hand. This is absolutely ridiculous. Yall can have OD. I was just trying to bring some positive changes to OD and this poll has nothing to do at all with what I was talking to you about GM. Goodbye Bluelight.
 
Chill out. It's exactly the same thing.

You're just pissed because your negative spin on everything isn't prominently displayed, and the votes for positive outlooks out weigh the negative ones, which is the opposite of what you hoped for and thought would happen. If you want to have such a bad attitude about everything and be pissy even when we try to accommodate you (we usually don't let threads like this happen in OD, so you can't complain when we let it happen, the only stipulation being we do it our way), then go ahead and leave. We won't get anywhere if you're just going to be angry about everything we do.

If you don't want to accept it, don't, but if you want to make the changes and find out what the people of OD really think (it was your suggestion to do this) then roll with it. It's not very different from the thread you started.

I'm not discussing this any further in this thread. Either accept it or leave it alone.
 
wiggi said:
This is nothing like I was talking about GM, but I do appreciate you deleting my thread and making a poll that has little to nothing to do with the issues at hand. This is absolutely ridiculous. Yall can have OD. I was just trying to bring some positive changes to OD and this poll has nothing to do at all with what I was talking to you about GM. Goodbye Bluelight.
Click to expand...

It's unbelievable that we went to the lengths we did to try and accommodate your requests to get current feedback on the forum and you're still acting this childish. You wanted a poll where people could vote on how they feel about the forum. They can do that here. You wanted a place where people could air their grievances about Other Drugs in Other Drugs. They can do that here. This is what you asked for. I honestly don't know what else you expect from us. I suggest you take a step back from the computer, maybe go out and get some sun, and come back when you've calmed down.
 
yeah wiggi wtf can't please all the people all the time. mods are members too man, it's hard to make a decision based on one person's input when it affects everyone else too.

on the real though, i think GM is slacking... i mean, look at these poll options. the lack of definite answers makes me feel like a magic 8 ball
 
I think that after ive talked to a bunch of you, OD has been getting better. I do believe the outcome of the site, and the OD forum, is positive.

Wiggi: Try to get on AIM tomorrow :)
 
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