To admin - Page 4

Frankly, some of us never missed ya, LOL

I would love it if Oli went to real names. It would take out most trolls and people who don't want to be known so they can sit back and post crap. It would also calm all this down considerably. Maybe even to the point of not needing admins or very few admin actions. It is hard for people to have multiple names now but that doesn't mean people don't it just means it is harder.

Jen how does the forum you mod on verify these are real names? Or is it on the honor system. In other words what is the verification process of these names. You can PM me if you like.

Because honestly I would love to see real names. I think I have always said this and I mean it. Like you said we all see who is doing what and those members who think otherwise are kidding themselves to what the majority of the members feel about them. I think their are a few members who think no matter what they do all they have to do is put back on their fake halo and everyone forgets and from the PMs I receive I think they are deluding themselves. Knowledge does not change the way people feel about you if half the time you can't control the personal vendettas you have against people, it shows a total lack of control.

Let's be truthful here over the last 18 months we have took out some of the most difficult members in hopes that the KNOWLEDGEABLE could get past the trouble makers but instead what happened is these people just found new targets. That is the truth as seen by this admin who has witnessed most of all of this same game with just a new cast of the people who are ruining the site/ruining the breed and it truly needs to stop. You want to help people avoid not using what you perceive to be bad breeders then educate them and quit tearing down the ones you don't like for whatever the damn reason. I will almost always fall on the side of the underdog. Can't help it it is just who I am.


A fair warning, take it how you want. People need to get over this thing with the admins, 18 months of dealing with the same people over and over and over is wearing on all the longer serving admins. We are to the point we don't really care what your name is, if you continue to spread rumors and cause the admins problems you will be removed and if you think we are playing try us. It needs to stop and if you can't control yourself as it pertains to admins then just move on. A funny thing was said to me yesterday and that was I don't know who the admins are so I don't respect them. Wrong answer. What does it matter who we are, we are the admins of this site and that is all that matters if you can't at least treat us with respect then move on.

We don't let anyone post until activated. We all get an email (there are 3 admins), and to be activated, one of us emails them back and gets a feel for whether they are legit or a spammer or whatever. Most appreciate the extra caution, having been part of the "other" kind of forum as well. Then, once activated, we require an intro post with name and location, and of course the location can be verified pretty easily most of the time, but the name thing is harder. We may have a few on there not using their real names,  but it's typically for a different reason than trying to bash someone without their agenda being exposed. Some are gov't, military, etc. and don't want their actual names used. None are so bored as to stir trouble, and certainly not bored or lonely enough to cause the kind of trouble people cause on here. It's a lot more work and not really feasible on a forum this size, unfortunately. But I do think just the extra effort prevents most of the idiot trolls and cowards from congregating there. 

No one is a secret, all post about their dogs (anyone else notice how the troublemakers rarely mention their own dogs? LOL) and the anyonymity just isn't there, so decent behavior is more common. There are VERY heated arguments, even profanity, but none of the seneseless, baseless mudslinging. 

In some 24 hour periods we get 50 or more sign ups. We sent welcome PMs for awhile until Oli automated the welcome PMs and just in a matter of hours we could have 10s of sign ups so if we went to something like this we would need a better way to verify users. Thanks for letting us know how that site verifies new users.

Haters will always hate. Hey, Does anybody know who lives in a pineapple under the sea? LOL

Some good articles on moderating forums:

http://www.sitepoint.com/guide-life-parts-1-2/

http://www.communityspark.com/how-to-effectively-moderate-forums/

http://festoolownersgroup.com/forum-rules-guidelines-suggestions/forum-moderator-guidelines/

ggturner, Thanks for the links to the articles. GSD has a slew of very informative articles on the subject of moderating over on the administration forum.They are required reading for all new mods. If you PM him he would probably share some of the links with you being you have an interest in the subject.

Admin writes:

I would love it if Oli went to real names. It would take out most trolls and people who don't want to be known so they can sit back and post crap. It would also calm all this down considerably. Maybe even to the point of not needing admins or very few admin actions. It is hard for people to have multiple names now but that doesn't mean people don't it just means it is harder.

>I totally agree. The most objectional part of the PDB is the number of trolls and fake names.
>That and there's too many posts. I wind up skimming most of it. Also what's with the multiple Forums?
>Can't we keep stuff in one place (one forum)?

>Anyway back to real names. Why don't all the administrators start the ball rolling and start using their
>REAL names?



Thomas Barriano
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I think the multiple forums are a great idea.  Keeps things a little more organized and a little easier to peruse depending on what you are looking for.  If everything was just kept in one pick 'pot of soup', it would be unlikely that I'd even bother surfing through it all.

I really don't see what you mean about too many posts.  When I first joined this forum, I was actually shocked at the percentage difference between the number of views per thread vs. number of posts per thread.  For example, this thread alone has over 3K views, but only a relative handful of posts.  I've never seen numbers like that before on any forum I've been a member of.

I also think that if people were required to use their real names, the participation would drop like a rock.

Just my opinion.