RC Exodus of Experts

[Doug]

Guess as long as we are talking about another board here, I,m not sure why all the bad thoughts regarding RC. I have been a regular there since its start and remain so. Guess perhaps I have more time, but love reading all the various threads.

Yes, there are some dorks but see them on many boards. Remember any board with thousands of members will have more undesirable,s.

Something must be right with the board to have all those members. It was a fine board before "experts" were hired and I assume will remain so. They still have several good "experts" on staff.

Anyways, enough of my thoughts on another of the boards, as we have a fine Canadian based one right here.

[midgetwaiter]

This type of thing isn't really an internet problem, more of a people problem. How many of you can think of a similar problem that happened with your condo board, book club or sports team? The internet does change the dynamic. It is easy to be rude online, sometimes when you don't really mean to but it still happens in face to face situations too.

The one thing that seems to happen quickly online is that people organize into cliques. Seems to me that spells the end for an online community, I noticed it on RC a while ago. Actually, you eventually notice almost everywhere.

Groupthink can be a real problem too and the standard model that a lot of web forums use can exasperate it. Unfortunately no matter what you try and do giving somebody that Moderator tag conveys "status" and most people don't handle it well. People that are really good mods for online communities are few and far between.

I think the best thing a moderator could do for the community is stay out of the discussion and just provide the occasional nudge when things get off track. Of course for somebody volunteering to moderate a site like RC, that would be boring fast and is probably an unreasonable idea. Things like that RC post by the site admin are a also great example of what not to do, ever. As soon as you try and exclude the average community member from something going on your community is dead and waiting to fall over.

I spent a lot of time researching and developing good moderation techniques a few years ago when my company built an online community for employees and franchise owners. Frankly, it's a bitch to do well and takes a ton of discipline. We had to recruit and train moderators just like you would find somebody to fill a professional position. One thing that surprised me most, the most prolific posters often make the WORST moderators. The quiet people are usually the most reasonable and tend to have less of a personal agenda.

I don't usually volunteer for moderator duties in communities I belong to, given my background it seems to much like work usually. I just watched another web community I really liked go the group think road though so I may have to change my mind about that.

I should note, I haven't been around Canreef long or much but it seems to be a very healthy community. You should all be proud of yourselves.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by midgetwaiter

I think the best thing a moderator could do for the community is stay out of the discussion and just provide the occasional nudge when things get off track. Of course for somebody volunteering to moderate a site like RC, that would be boring fast and is probably an unreasonable idea.

the most prolific posters often make the WORST moderators. The quiet people are usually the most reasonable and tend to have less of a personal agenda.

couple good points, I used to be a part owner of a very large BBS back in the dial up days and when we moded the open chat channels we usaly did not talk while we were there as it was to easy to get involved in something and miss what you were realy watching for. but that is a little different that the roll of a Mod on a smaller fourm like Canreef. I think the Mods here in adition to watching for questionable things are responsable to stimulate conversation when needed and act as a "more experenced" reefer to give people a hand when they have questions and no one else seams to be helping.

I usaly find with your second point that two things can happen and I have seen it a few times on our board 1, like you said a person uses his power to push his own agenda and 2, a prolific poster suddenly posts less. the second is the one I see more often.

Steve

[digital-audiophile]

I spent a couple years as a moderator on the IGN.com forums (The largest video game message board system on the net) and allthough I had fun, most of it really was like work. I put up with a lot of crap and abuse from people an I think that is the biggest reason why I left and really got off the internet message board systems for a long time.

[danny zubot]

Wow, what a thread!

Was stated earleir...

No haven't seen it quite so boldly stated - but we did see that kind of comment from some of the RC'ers. Luckily us canadians have a bit more tact it seems

Unless you are from Taber. (just kidding)

I joined RC and Canreef at around the same time in '04. I have like 60 posts on RC. It was actually someone from RC that reccomended me to Canreef because I was looking for a more close to home, personal touch to the information I needed. No regrets either way, I just found Canreef a more effective source of information for me. Plus the added bonus of frags swaps and meetings which would not be possible through RC.

IMO we have great "experts" here, and of course there's always Bev's links to help us when we are stumped.

[Johnny Reefer]

Originally Posted by danny zubot

....
IMO we have great "experts" here, and of course there's always Bev's links to help us when we are stumped.

I think you made a spelling error there, Danny. Don't you mean "sumped"?
HaHa. Ya, I know. Corny. Sorry, couldn't resist.

Cheers,

[BMW Rider]

I think one of the factors that keeps Canreef more civil than other forums is that we are not entirely anonomous. Many of us have met at frag swaps and through individual trades and sales. When you have met someone face to face, you have a bit more consideration towards them and their opinions.

[EmilyB]

So the experts are on marinedepot.com forum for anyone who didn't know.

[Funky_Fish14]

Not entirely understanding what happened on RC, all I know is what I read in this thread. I do frequent RC, I used to frequent it more than canreef, but I've simply found canreef to be a more friendly community than any other forum.

The search function on RC, for regular(non-paying) users, works between something like 1AM and 8AM. Whenever I am on late, such as around 2AM, I have been able to use it.

I would like to point out that, throughout this thread, everyone has throw opinion in, but just about every post ecourages or includes a good laugh. We all have our own thoughts, experiences, preferences, opinions, etc... but something that seems commonly shared on this wonderful forum is friendlyness and humor.

Cheers,

Chris

[asherah]

Lay the smackdown ROFL !!!
hehe

asherah