Review of Posting Guidelines on Askaboutmoney

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This is actually one of the first sites that I use that is tightly moderated - and I quite like that as long as it is within reason. Overall this is a great forum.

However, posts like "what time do you get up at?" to "how do you eat yours?" are UTTERLY BANAL and when I see them I am LESS likely to come back. I like a good debate so keep LOS but get rid of that RUBBISH.

Someone's suggestion of keeping "The Craic" for the all that crap is a good one as I personally NEVER go there.
 
Fully agree with everything in Ninsaga's post. I have found this site to be a fantastic source for several years now (incidentally how long is it running now?).

To Brendan and the mods - thank you, I'm sure it's a bit like being on the Resident's Association committee or the company Sports & Social committee where it's always easy to criticise the people doing the work.

Having said that there are 2 things that really get to me 1) is that person who insists on using a Capital Letter For Every Word In Every Sentence and the other is where posts are disected line by line and quoted back to the poster. For those of us who have been around a long time and know the various characters and their form that's one thing but for newbies (and I would say that there must be 50 members at least that I encouraged to sign up..... it is very off putting.

Overall a great community! Well done Brendan!

Roy
 
onekeano said:
Overall a great community! Well done Brendan!
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..... yes ...least we forget....and even though we may not all agree with some of the editing/deletions by the mods it has to be said that there is great work being done here - by ALL of them.

It is no doubt quite difficult to monitor & ensure that defamatory & offensive topics are pulled out. This is done on a voluntary basis..so thanks to all of you.

The more I think about it (and I rarely think!)... AAM has perhaps become a victim of its own success. People are drawn to this site as they hear about it with the intention of learning more - and invariably many do end up contributing as much if not more. Just look at the max amount on line at any one time - another record broken the other day! (which is great). Nevertheless this will draw some wrong attention also & some cringe topics end up getting posted.

Keep up the good work anyways!

ninsaga
 
onekeano said:
1) is that person who insists on using a Capital Letter For Every Word In Every Sentence
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That happens when the user posts in ALL CAPITALS and vBulletin converts the post to Mixed Case Albeit Not Cleverly Enough Since It Leaves The First Letter Of Each Word Capitalised.
and the other is where posts are disected line by line and quoted back to the poster.
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We have had this discussion over and over again. Some people don't like this approach to answering posts and see it as dissecting, nitpicking. offputting or even (bizarrely in my opinion) rude. Others (such as myself) see it as a very useful way to retain the context of the discussion when the thread is busy and other posts may intervene between the one being answered and the answer itself or when responding to multiple previous posts and so on. There have been many cases of somebody reacting confusedly or irately to a post that seems to be in response to their own but is actually in response to an even earlier one. Quoting would solve these problems and can make threads even easier to follow. Anyway, my signature makes my views on the matter clear.
 
Clubman, I have to say, the quoting thing - it's so difficult to read those posts - and, this is just my opinion, but if this discussion comes up over and over it maybe it's over-used.

I do see your point - it's just I don't think it's generally neccessary.
 
Folks

Please avoid straying onto the "What annoys me about Askaboutmoney is..." unless you are making a serious proposal for a change.

Please keep to the main fundamental topics on which I think we are making great progress.

Brendan
 
I would like to humbly remind the moderators that just because some posters post mainly in the DAAM section (that Purple guy for example), it doesn’t mean that they don’t spend most of their time reading posts in the AAM section.
There are many occasions where I could offer an opinion or answer to a question, but I know there are others out there who will give a better and more succinct answer.
So I wait for a day or so and only answer if no one else has done so.
I would assume that this is the case for other posters.
 
I like AAM the way it is. No problems with frivolous posts. If their numbers have increased, I haven't noticed.

Keep up the good work!
 
Well I want to say fair play for entering into an open discussion about the matter. We all want whats best for the site....i certainly have no agenda or anything. So anything that comes out of this thats constructive should benefit everything.
I was going to suggest that an internal moderation policy be committed to paper and published so everyone can see it and then hope it be enforced with consistency. Thats my twopence worth...
 
The moderation policy is already publicly available in the form of the and even if, it seems, some of these may need some review and clarification as has happened in the past (e.g. based on similar constructive feedback).
 
Do the moderators think the controls over posters who covertly use AAM to direct people to their own products/services is effective ? I don't mean AAMers such as 'Sarah W', whom we all know works for REA and doesn't hide the fact, but those who advertise under the guise of giving impartial advice.

I have seen some 'pretenders' caught out but am just wondering overall how effective the controls are.
 
It's hard to be 100% effective in this context but I personally think that the controls are fairly effective. We have caught several chancer out but don't always highlight this fact in public to avoid giving them any (even negative) publicity.
 
extopia said:
I like AAM the way it is. No problems with frivolous posts. If their numbers have increased, I haven't noticed.

Keep up the good work!
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I agree. Unmoderated BBS type systems (ooops - showing my age!) do not hold my interest as all-too-often personality clashes and/or banal threads find it hard to find the actual useful, informative or even entertaining threads.

On the subject of non-financial topics, while I myself have occasionally posted on the financial threads, I echo the sentiments of another poster below, in that I read the posts but do not in any way consider myself a financial expert. I therefore tend not to post unless I have something that I consider might be interesting or would consider to the debate that has not already been mentioned.

I do however find myself posting on non-financial subjects - probably because I am too much in love with gadgets and spend too much time surfing the net!
 
some time ago I posted that Boylesports advertised a €100 free bet to anyone who opened a new accout with them. I pointed out that while it was possible to actually get the €100 it was not as straightforward as the blurb appeared to make it. this post in turn mutated into a post about betting on various items - mostly football it must be said and turned very very frivilous. however I note that over 2000 visits have been made to that site. probably just curiosity. I never visit the site unless theres a new post so it wasn't all me. I enjoy aam as it is. admit I dont visit the craic forum but do skim in and out of most of the others. Personally I wouldnt like LOS closed.
 
AAM is a great site that I have found to be full of well informed people with expertise on various areas, not all of them financial. This site is now one of my first port of calls when looking for information on an issue so I for one think if should retain the current format.

Sure there have been some "boards" type posts lately but I simply ignore them. If others find them entertaining thats fine by me.

Regarding the moderation of the threads, I think it is pretty clear on what can and cannot be allowed. This is an invaluable resource that I can use at no cost apart from trying to help where my knowledge or experience may be of worth.

If threads start that I have no interest in, I ignore them, likewise there are some posters that tend to make me steer away from a thread when I see their name attached to it. But then again I am the type of guy who turns a programme off that I don't like rather than watch it and then give out about it<g>

Personally I have not had one of my threads moderated but if it were to happen, I would not lose sleep over it. This is the Internet, I can always move to other sites where my moderated thread would be more welcome.

This is a great site, I for one do not want to see its value undermined by it becoming too much like P45 or other sites.

Well done to Brendan and the moderators for a great resource.

C
 
FWIW, I think AAM is ok the way it is. If Im not mistaken, there was an influx of not so serious questions around this time last year too. Ive been hanging around for a couple of years now and it seems theres been 2-3 of these "tell us what you think" posts after a few posts have been moderated and posters complained. Janet summed these type of posts up well by describing them as
"I'm bored in work, let's start a thread to find out more about each other"
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threads.
Seasonal maybe? New Year, people just bored with work etc. methinks it'll wear off. my 2 cents.
 
Hi Extopia

There had been an increase in frivolous posts and a consequent increase in moderation and clarification was sought on the posting guidelines by another user. Despite my best efforts to keep that thread constructive, it deteriorated . So I restarted the thread and the result has been very useful.

We don't discuss why we moderate specific posts, but from time to time, it is useful to have a review of the posting guidelines and moderting policy.

Brendan
 
Brendan said:
Hi Extopia

There had been an increase in frivolous posts and a consequent increase in moderation and clarification was sought on the posting guidelines by another user. Despite my best efforts to keep that thread constructive, it deteriorated . So I restarted the thread and the result has been very useful.

We don't discuss why we moderate specific posts, but from time to time, it is useful to have a review of the posting guidelines and moderting policy.

Brendan
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Indeed...a comment on life is that we should all be constantly trying to learn and evolve. So its not a bad thing to stop and look around every so often. I just wanted to say that I think this site truely is a legend of a site!
 
Seeing as we are all at it I'll throw my 2 cents in as well.....

Firstly I think AAM is one of the best sites around for good, balanced and informed debate and answers, and I think it shows the power of the internet - just think how many people have been helped by this site and as a result of reading it have become better informed financially and in other areas.

I also agree that I think it is starting to become a victim of it's own success; there has been an increase in the number of frivolous posts and a reduced use of the search function, but as Capaill said (and I agree with everything in his post) I can just ignore them.

I think Ajapale might be onto something with his breakdown of the relevance of the forum headings and I do think that the headings page could possibly benefit from a redesign maybe moving away from the BB style onto a webpage / html design (don't know if that is possible on vB and might also increase costs).

Another solution might be to look for more moderators to help cope with the increase in the number of users.

Anyway, whatever the direction, keep up the good work !

efm
 
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