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  1. #1
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    WebHostingTalk Community Improvements!

    The purpose of this thread is to keep the community updated as we implement some improvements to WebHostingTalk.

    As I am sure you may already be aware, we have recently made some changes to the moderator structure. This thread is intended to explain the new and improved structuring, in addition to unveiling other improvements we have made and intend to make.

    Moderator Restructuring

    Community Leaders
    The Community Leaders are responsible for the overall management of the community and have vBulletin Administrator access. Community Leaders have moderation control over all the forums. The Community Leaders also help develop the overall 'Community Policies' and direction of the board.

    Community Liaisons
    Community Liaisons are forum-specific moderators and are hand picked from applications we have received. They are dedicated to managing a specific forum or set of forums within the community. They do not have vBulletin Administrator access or forum-wide moderation control. However, they can easily escalate issues to Community Leaders as required. Several will be incorporated within the coming weeks.

    Community Guides
    The Community Guides are primarily to help guide discussions and keep them on topic without the need for moderator intervention. We hope this will lead to an improved quality of topics. Community Guides do not have any kind of moderator privileges. However, they are also there to report problems to Community Leaders and Community Liaisons where appropriate. And will be escalated to Community Liaisons as needed and agreed.


    Other Improvements

    Community Advisors Team (CAT)
    We have formed an advisory team made up of community members. The overall team has diverse views about how we can improve WebHostingTalk etc. The main purpose of the Community Advisors Team (CAT) is to allow Community Leaders to gain feedback from members of our community. CAT is an addition to the 'WHT: Announcements, Suggestions, Feedback & Questions' forum. It exists as another means for us to gain valuable feedback from the community.

    Back-End Changes
    We are also in the process of implementing several backend changes which will allow us to manage the board more effectively. This means we can devote more time to improving this ever growing community and less time dealing with mundane tasks like warning members.


    Although these changes may seem small and insignificant at first, we feel they will drastically improve the quality of this community.

    Remember, this is your community, so as always we would appreciate your feedback. Both now and over the coming days and weeks as we get our Community Liaisons and Community Guides fully integrated.

    Thank you for your continued participation at the World's largest Web Hosting Community!

  2. #2
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    So basically the Community Guides are standard level user accounts but are more like crossing guards? Reporting and helping guide the threads but no athourity over members other than the reporting to a leader or moderator?

  3. #3
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    Originally posted by NewtSys
    So basically the Community Guides are standard level user accounts but are more like crossing guards? Reporting and helping guide the threads but no athourity over members other than the reporting to a leader or moderator?
    For now.. Yes.. If the postition works out well then we may add powers to close and reopen threads in their forums.. Etc..

  4. #4
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    Originally posted by Rochen
    Moderator Restructuring
    Excellent idea. I remember asking for something like this a while back, but it fell on deaf ears. "A mod is a mod no matter where they mod" was the type of response I received. It was a worry to see Ad_forum Moderators running around with full "Moderator" titles. Nice to see some common sense come into play with the proper differenciation of the different levels of mods.
    Community Advisors Team (CAT)
    This will be a complete waste of time. What improvements and suggestions can't be discussed out in the open, in the "WHT: Announcements, Suggestions, Feedback & Questions" forum, that's going to be discussed in that private CAT forum?
    Thank you for your continued participation at the World's largest Web Hosting Community!
    Always a pleasure.
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  5. #5
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    Back-End Changes
    We are also in the process of implementing several backend changes which will allow us to manage the board more effectively. This means we can devote more time to improving this ever growing community and less time dealing with mundane tasks like warning members.
    So you've found easier and more effective ways to ban people?

  6. #6
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    Originally posted by 1stStrike
    So you've found easier and more effective ways to ban people?
    A warning system allows for easy tracking of warnings and bans.. And automaticly lifts them once they expire.. Currently we do not proactively look for expired bans.. We only unban once the user contacts us at the end of the suspension...

  7. #7
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    Another way is to just have bans that don't expire But seriously, these are excellent ideas and will make the community a stronger place to belong to.

  8. #8
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    Excellent -- hope this all works out well.

    Although I am not sure on the 'CAT' team.
    Who decides who gets on this team, and are they going to be made public? (I know I would sure like to know who is representing me!)
    Maybe something like voting for the CAT team members would be viable?
    Regards,
    Eric

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  9. #9
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    Originally posted by Esr Tek
    Excellent -- hope this all works out well.

    Although I am not sure on the 'CAT' team.
    Who decides who gets on this team, and are they going to be made public? (I know I would sure like to know who is representing me!)
    Maybe something like voting for the CAT team members would be viable?

    At first moderators picked the CATs, now that there is a large enough member base there, CATs now make nominations and vote who gets in...

    New additions are made all the time..

    We will not be making a public list of all the CATs, if certain people on that team with to make themselves known they can. But to keep people from flamming people who wish to stay anon, it won't be public knowledge..

    The CAT group was made of a diverse selection of people on WHT who have proven to be the most helpful and knowledgable. Its not just web hosts or customers, we have designers, and just general posters. Many people do not post here because they represent companies and they do not wish to make people beleive their personal opion is that of their company. In the CAT forum all members can express their personal opions as they wish...

  10. #10
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    Woo hoo....
    What does one host say to the other? "(HostA) Want to go see a movie?" "(HostB) Sure, can your parents drive?"

    I'm premium, and no, I did not have to pay $6 a month to figure that out.

  11. #11
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    Originally posted by The Prohacker
    At first moderators picked the CATs, now that there is a large enough member base there, CATs now make nominations and vote who gets in...
    Ah didn't realize this was already implemented and I misunderstood it somewhat (had to re-read the post).
    Originally posted by The Prohacker
    We will not be making a public list of all the CATs, if certain people on that team with to make themselves known they can. But to keep people from flamming people who wish to stay anon, it won't be public knowledge..

    Many people do not post here because they represent companies and they do not wish to make people beleive their personal opion is that of their company.
    Fully understood and agreed with!!
    I hesitate to post a lot for the reason you mention.
    Regards,
    Eric

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  12. #12
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    I think this should work out rather well and I welcome the changes personally. Perhaps we all can help better the community as a whole and make it a bit more friendly and helpful for everyone.

  13. #13
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    Originally posted by The Prohacker
    . . . Many people do not post here because they represent companies and they do not wish to make people beleive their personal opion is that of their company. In the CAT forum all members can express their personal opions as they wish...
    So that's the logic for this secret forum? Wierd that suggestions for WHT need to be made in a secret forum for these folks.

    Oh well, logic and common sense aside, let's hope some good fruit comes out of this secret group of WHT advisors.

    Get cracking on the ad forum, peoples!!!
    Last edited by Aussie Bob; 11-05-2003 at 10:15 PM.
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  14. #14
    Originally posted by Aussie Bob
    So that's the logic for this secret forum? Wierd that suggestions for WHT need to be made in a secret forum for these folks.

    Oh well, logic and common sense aside, let's hope some good fruit comes out of this secret group of WHT advisors.

    Get cracking on the ad forum, peoples!!!
    Would love to hear your advice on the ad forum. Having been a moderator previously, I can tell you it is a nightmare to manage. Do you think we should charge? Eliminate it? Restrict replies? Require special registration? What do you think, Bob?

  15. #15
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    Originally posted by Incognito
    Would love to hear your advice on the ad forum. Having been a moderator previously, I can tell you it is a nightmare to manage. Do you think we should charge? Eliminate it? Restrict replies? Require special registration? What do you think, Bob?
    Not sure if this is the thread for that but yep, it's a nightmare down there to manage. There's no simple or right and wrong solution, but I do believe the new WHT management should be looking to monetorise that section of the forum, and this could have the effect of removing an unwanted element from participating.

    You could draw a similar parallel to when eBay started charging for actual auction listings. This cut down on the volume of new auction listings, but the quality of such would have increased, given folks now had to pay to start an auction on eBay.

    I just find it hard to believe that given the sharp business accumen of the new WHT owners, that they're not profiting from all that eCommerce that's happening in those ad_forums. Nice and charitable on them though.

    I can still remember the times when companies like DV2 were selling hundreds of servers through the ad_forum. One thread was over 300 posts long and I remember at the time being slighly amazed at the volume of eCommerce being moved through this vastly superior interactive marketplace.
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  16. #16
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    You could draw a similar parallel to when eBay started charging for actual auction listings. This cut down on the volume of new auction listings, but the quality of such would have increased, given folks now had to pay to start an auction on eBay.
    Good point. However, look at the number of Unlimited Hosts that still offer on Ebay. Setting a cheap amount per post still won't really chase away that many. Then the problem becomes if you go too expensive, they may lose members who believe that WHT is out to take money after the years of free use. I think personally heavy moderation (similar but perhaps stronger) is the best medicine for the forum. That's just my humble opinion though.

  17. #17
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    Originally posted by Aussie Bob
    Get cracking on the ad forum, peoples!!!
    I won't go into details, but what I can say is, we're working.
    Have you Floble'd today?

  18. #18
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    Originally posted by CrazyTech
    Good point. However, look at the number of Unlimited Hosts that still offer on Ebay. Setting a cheap amount per post still won't really chase away that many. Then the problem becomes if you go too expensive, they may lose members who believe that WHT is out to take money after the years of free use.
    What about $20-50 an ad and revenue is collected to pay the 'Community Leaders' for the vast amount of time they spend here keeping everything in-line?
    Former Webhost... now, just a guy.

  19. #19
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    I like that idea - pay for ad's in the advertising forum. I would be for it and would most likly use it more - because the crap would be goan

  20. #20
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    I'm not sure I even like the idea of CATs... you're effectively saying that some members are more "valued" by the administration then others.

    To further the issue, this line is a bit misleading: "We have formed an advisory team made up of respected community members." How was the decision made on who the respected members are? I guess I feel that it should have been the whole community that helped in that decision, instead of just the mods.

    All in all, the Guides and Liaisons are a great addition. I think it has been needed for some time for the forum. However the CAT seems like nothing more then an effort to prioritize some members opinions over others. But that is just my opinion of course .
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  21. #21
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    I guess I feel that it should have been the whole community that helped in that decision, instead of just the mods.
    When has the community been involved in any decision made by the mods?? Never!!!

  22. #22
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    CAT is a small group. Surely you can understand how a smaller, focused group may be able to accomplish more. The group was chosen in much the same way that moderators have always been chosen.
    There is no best host. There is only the host that's best for you.

  23. #23
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    Originally posted by akashik
    What about $20-50 an ad and revenue is collected to pay the 'Community Leaders' for the vast amount of time they spend here keeping everything in-line?
    Paying the mods should really come back to INET having full time staff modding the forums, and not a voluntary group of dedicated folks like they have now. This is a business afterall.
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  24. #24
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    Originally posted by SoftWareRevue
    CAT is a small group. Surely you can understand how a smaller, focused group may be able to accomplish more . . .

    How can this small hidden group accomplish more than the ideas and suggestions that us normal very loyal regulars put forward in the Suggestions forum? Why can't this focussed discussion take place out in the open, rather than behind closed doors with the elect?

    My recent suggestion for different Moderator clarifications was shot down, but has now been adopted with the "Moderator Restructuring" as above in Rochen's post.

    I see the Team of Mods heading in one direction [maintaining a "community"] and the new WHT owners moving in another direction [looking for a ROI and running a business]. Can the 2 forces harmoniously coexist? I don't think so. At some point WHT will need full-time paid staffing, as the WHT owners cannot soley reply on the voluntary free "workforce" they have here now. I see conflict eventually with these 2 paths.

    Anyway, that's my opinion.
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  25. #25
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    If we would have installed moderators without asking for input from members; would that have been okay?

    It's clear you're upset because you weren't included. There are several members that haven't been included that would work well. But, as I said earlier, it's a small group. And we intend for it to remain small.

    It's not like plotting to take over the web hosting industry. It is a small group.
    There is no best host. There is only the host that's best for you.

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