Ask About Money needs stricter control

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I think the AAM community, like any other community, has elements that can either appeal or repel, depending on one's preferences or sensitivities. It's perhaps a reality of life that one can't have everything as one would like it.

The main advantage of internet-based communities, however, is the freedom to "move" community if the overall experience feels negative.

That said, I feel users should be given a certain latitude to express an opinion or vent their unhappiness/displeasure without having to justify their every word.

In terms of AAM's continued popularity, I presume that the moderators can gauge the popularity of the site by measuring statistics for such aspects as:

Number/frequency of "hits"
hits per user
return hits, etc.

The information would surely offer more tangible evidence of where the site's going than the occasional negative comment posted here.

However, it might be an idea to create a "suggestions/feedback" forum (is there room for one more?) in which issues could be raised and debated. The usefulness of comments (such as the original of this thread) could be measured in terms of the support it attracts from other users.

Re: ..

That said, I feel users should be given a certain latitude to express an opinion or vent their unhappiness/displeasure without having to justify their every word.

I agree but I do think that if somebody has specific complaints then it follows logically and is not unreasonable to expect that they should endeavour to illustrate these with specific references if possible.

In terms of AAM's continued popularity, I presume that the moderators can gauge the popularity of the site by measuring statistics for such aspects as:

Yes - ezBoard provides some summary statistics on site activity on a rolling one month basis but we (moderators) don't tend to get too caught up in reviewing or analysing these to be honest. I think Brendan might snapshot these from time to time for eventual comparative purposes. We certainly don't track activity by individual contributors and IP tracking is only accessible to three moderators and is only ever used in cases of suspected spamming or abuse. Because AAM is hosted by ezBoard we do not have access to low level HTTPlogging inforamtion or that level of detail. My gut feeling is that the site is inexorably and gradually becoming more active and popular but only analysis of the underlying statistics would prove or disprove this hunch. I certainly don't think that we have any sort of major crisis in terms of regular contributors falling by the wayside. Individual contributors come and go for various reasons and not always because they get disillusioned or intimidated off the site (ahem! ).

However, it might be an idea to create a "suggestions/feedback" forum (is there room for one more?) in which issues could be raised and debated. The usefulness of comments (such as the original of this thread) could be measured in terms of the support it attracts from other users.

I think that we used to have one but dropped it as some point because it wasn't very active and/or due to pressure on space. Trying to have the right mix and number of forums - so that we don't have too few that are too general or too many that are too specific - is always a delicate balancing act so those that end up being quiet tend to get culled after a while. I guess in the absence of a dedicated forum we could open the forum up (currently closed for posting by non moderators) for the posting of such comments, suggestions and feedback?

EZ board provides statistics for the last month. Whenever I think of it, I copy them. Here are the daily posts for the last 18 monhts. Even allowing for the fact that around 5% of the posts recently are pointless, it's still growing.

From time to time, we open a suggestions forum, but we get very few suggestions.

Can I make a suggestion? How about closing the Craic and Letting Off Steam for one month and allow people apply their energies to helping improve the quality of AAM by summarising and updating the key posts?


&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp posts
Nov-02&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp 95
Dec-02&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp 75
Jan-03&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp 102
Feb-03&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp 135
Mar-03&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp 133
Apr-03&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp 126
&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp

Sept&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp 188
&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp
Nov-03&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp 220
Dec-03&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp 199
Apr-04&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp 258
Jun-04&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp 264

The purpose of my post was to define a range of objectives, explore possibilities and to be open minded and flexible about the direction of AAM.

Don't give up on the suggestions.

I feel one or two proposals met common ground so we may have gained some value by this brief exchange.

Letting off steam and the Craic

I think AAM should try restrict these forums to Registered Users

People asking about financial matters should be registered and unregistered
After all I would say that is how most new users started

But I fail to see how an unregistered user would find anything to post or comment on in The Craic or letting off steam

Personally, I really like the Craic and really dislike letting off steam but if they were restricted to regular registered users it would help

Re: Letting off steam and the Craic

BB

Is the last suggestion technically feasible, to restrict certain forums to registered users? If so I would be in favour of it, however most of us started by asking a question in the business end of the board, so it is imperative that this is kept open.

Personally I don't think the craic is working as an experiment, there really are plenty of other places for jokes. All the English football stuff was pinging around all day so IMHO no need for it here.

As for Letting off Steam, if memory serves me it was established because DAAM was being crowded by noise, if we ditch LOS will this not migrate back to DAAM?


Nat

Re: Letting off steam and the Craic

Hi Natchessmen

There is no technical difficulty in restricting any forum to registered users. So we could restrict The Craic and Letting Off Steam if we wanted to. If we decide to do it, we would simply delete any inappropriate post in Don't Askaboutmoney or in any other forum.

So if someone wants to post rubbish, they have to register. If they continue to post rubbish, we simply ban them. Yes they can re-register, but hopefully they would get the message.

Brendan

Re: Letting off steam and the Craic

I think restricting posting in LOS to registered users only is not such a good idea. There's a number of regular unregistered users who make contributions both to this forum and financial ones. Restricting it to registered only users might alienate regular unregistered users and the forum would probably fall off somewhat.
Getting rid of it would be a bad idea personally. Just look at how popular it is!

As for The Craic. I don't think it's that popular or important to the site but I don't see the harm in it either. If getting rid of it will ease space on the board for future forums then perhaps it's a good idea.

Change of mind!!

Re: Letting off steam and the Craic

Piggy said:

Restricting {posting} to registered only users might alienate regular unregistered users ...

Click to expand...

Or it might force them to come out from behind a multitude of aliases and post using their own identifiable handle.

I'm all for either closing both those fora, or restricting them to registered users only.

Most of the "jokes" on the Craic section are abysmal, and many stray into misogynism and xenophobia

Re: Letting off steam and the Craic

Or it might force them to come out from behind a multitude of aliases and post using their own identifiable handle.

I originally posted that I thought it was a good idea but changed my mind when I remembered the number of unregistered users who regularly post here under the same alias.

For this reason alone, it might be bad for the forum in general to force their hand, as it were. I guess some people are happier being unregistered.

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I think if people want to talk crap, they'll find a forum - whether it's LOS, DAMM or any other.

I don't think closing certain fora would eliminate the problem - although restricting certain fora to registered users might reduce the volume.

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although restricting certain fora to registered users might reduce the volume.

Spacer, you're a good case in point to what I was talking about above.

If LOS was closed to unregistered users would you bother registering to post there?

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I probaly would register. In fact, I don't know why I haven't so far. I've no conscientious objection to doing so, it's just that I've never found it necessary.

From my experience with the site, I would have absolute faith in the moderators' respect for the confidentiality of any information provided in the course of registration.

Re: ..

In order not to deter newcomers, what about allowing unregistered users to post only in the "Absolute Beginners" section, and then requiring registration in all other areas ?

Re: ..

In order not to deter newcomers, what about allowing unregistered users to post only in the "Absolute Beginners" section, and then requiring registration in all other areas ?

What about all the mortgages, debt problems/questions that newbies have? Forcing them to register to post there would see a huge fall off in activity I'd say.

It's really only the LOS section that needs it, if at all, IMO. Spacer's comments would suggest that it might not be such a problem...but who knows. There are other unregistered folks out there who regularly contribute. I guess the registering process is rather painless though.

Re: ..

I (personally and in my capacity as a moderator/administrator) would be against mandatory registration as long as the incidences of nuisance posting remain at levels that can be managed through the current approaches to moderation.

Re: The Craic

What's rather interesting about The Craic is that most of the contributions for the past couple of months are from

Marion :hat

Why?

Is there a benefit in registering?

Re: Why?

I there a benefit in registering?

You can use Private Messaging, so users can take certain discussions offline. If for example you want to give another poster your address for any reason, it's obviously better to do it privately.

Also, you can edit your posts, which might sometimes be useful.

Also you get a little counter telling you how many posts you've done. When you reach 5000 posts Brendan sends you a cheque for €1000 and a bottle of Champagne. So he tells me anyway.

-Rd

Re: Why?

There's a list of registered user features in the .