AlphaNinja said:
Shining Raikou was going to come up with something for this. I'm fairly certain I saw him post that in the Important Forum Changes Thread. Hopefully what happens will satisfy your needs.
What Can Be Done to Improve PokeBeach Forums?
- Thread starter Gale
- Start date
Shining Raikou was going to come up with something for this. I'm fairly certain I saw him post that in the Important Forum Changes Thread. Hopefully what happens will satisfy your needs.
The rules for the Off-Topic forum have been relaxed. You can create what would normally be a group topic there without as many restrictions as groups had before. For team topics, something is coming this weekend/early next week.
Ok. I think Pokebeach should have our own ban-list instead of following Smogons. If you like I can do some more research on the idea and post what I find out here later to help in thinking of allowing this idea.
AlphaNinja said:
The problem is that our VG community isn't large enough to come up with an accurate list.
A large ammount of the community plays PO so thats what the ban list is mostly for. But I will drop my arrugment and say Excadrill be Uber since it is unbeaten in Speed during a Sandstorm. Also what about a community team building topic?
Bippa201 said:
Don't get me started again on this lol. But yeah, that's right. To even have our own credible banlist, we need to have a community large enough to do it.
AlphaNinja said:
We all know how well that turned out the last time it was done which was like a few days ago. That thread was also the main reason this thread was created in the first place.
Maybe if we had more active members that are not in school that would have gone much better to begin with. Thats another problem. we don't have many mombers over the age of 18. We could add topics that appeal to them.
It's not our fault the forum is more geared toward kids. Just use Smogon's banlists except for a few stuff that are suggested.
I will agree to Shadow Tag being banned and all suspect abilities. But I think we should at least make our own pokemon ban list.
Gale said:
I think a somewhat thin veil of secrecy is something that benefits projects moderators are working on. Right now there have been measures taken to reduce the level of "secrecy" behind some of the projects (such as the announcements of upcoming events / forum changes in the Forum Portal), so I feel the site is at a reasonable amount of transparency overall. I think part of why I'm fine with the level of transparency is also because I feel a level of trust with the people chosen to be moderators. Despite the fact their actions may go unnoticed, I give them the benefit of the doubt and just know they're doing something.
The phrase that comes to my mind when I think of the transparency issue is "Too many cooks spoil the broth." I think keeping certain things secret allows the moderators to focus their efforts into something without being worried about the many varied opinions members would have on how the project is progressing, which allows the project to move ahead steadily and without too many distractions. In my opinion, the first evidence of the aforementioned phrase coming to life is any time a TCG article is posted. Immediately, members find flaws with the article. This is fine, of course - there are bound to be mistakes in things. However, most of the time the "flaws" are just one way a player may think, which may contradict another "flaw" someone else found in the article. (And on top of that, some people may find it flawless.) If the people working on the article had to take every single one of those "flaws" into account and weed out which are best for the sake of the article before they could finish it, I think it would take much longer to finish. The final result may be different from what it would have been without the extra imput, but it wouldn't come out as fast and people would still find flaws in it.
Of course, the counter-point to the above is that allowing people to see what's going on and give their opinions allows for true flaws to be found faster, and for people to maybe agree on things that should be added or changed. As good as that sounds, unfortunately I fear there would be too many clashing opinions and it would slow down the project most of the time.
In the end, I guess I'm just saying I think the benefit of less transparency is it allows for projects to move at a smooth pace without too many clashing opinions getting in the way. Though this is being said by someone who sees what's going on behind the scenes, so it's most likely a tainted opinion. I'd be fine if everything was 100% transparent, so every little action was known. If it would be what the users wanted and it would be what's best for the site, then of course I'd have no problem with it.
(Also, I don't mean for this post to sound confrontational or angry, I'm just thinking out loud. xD)
Xous said:
I really love what you're saying and I do agree with you. I think it's important though to get feedback from members on projects. I'm not saying you guys just have to tell us what you're doing and do it and that's it. Members can offer ideas and help improve existing projects. Clashing opinions could end up being a problem, but there are ways around that, such as going with a majority vote on critiques and ideas. It would create a stronger sense of community if nothing else, and could actually help get things done faster.
We will be working on being more transparent with the members. Members should know about opportunities to help and contribute to the community. I feel that in the past we have failed to do this when certain projects came to a standstill. However, this isn't saying that getting members involved is the fix for everything. As seen with the Cerulean, people volunteered and then the magazine feel apart due to work not being done/done on time and lack of interest. For the community to accomplish something we will have to work together, and the right people will have to take charge of something and follow through. I am already planning a Skype meeting where members are allowed to come join in a chat with the mods and more. Going forward I want to see more meshing of the staff with the members. Together I feel like we could really accomplish something. Solely relying on staff members for things isn't going to cut it. We all have to work together.
glaceon said:
There is not, but I will arrange a time and date for the meeting to take place. I will announce it on the forum portal at least a week in advance so people can plan to attend.
Shining Raikou said:
That's a very positive answer. It's not like we want everything known to us but at least give us more freedom/power when it comes to projects which finally has been addressed now. We're having a better discussion and compromise as compared to those guys back in the NBA Lockout lol.