talkmagic.co.uk

With the recent increase in people coming to the forum to either fish for answers or to divulge information as to how tricks are done, would it be a useful addition to the site to have an ALERT BUTTON.

Other forums I visit have these for when rules are broken and when clicked it sends a message to all moderators with a link to the thread/post.

The moderators do a cracking job as it is on the site but this would make their job easier as the offending posts would "find them" rather than the mods having to search every post for infringements.

I'm not sure how easy/difficult these are to install into the forum but the other forums I visit all seem to have them so it can't be TOO difficult.

This would be something for the Forum Owner to add - will let him know and see what the response is.

(Be alert - the country needs all the lerts it can get )

Sounds good to me - you'd need to make sure that a) the IP of the 'alerter' is logged so you don't get spammers and b) that you can only report a post once or else the moderators would be deluged

Kati

katrielalex wrote:Sounds good to me - you'd need to make sure that a) the IP of the 'alerter' is logged so you don't get spammers and b) that you can only report a post once or else the moderators would be deluged

Kati

On the forum I moderate on the name of the person who pressed the button is recorded in the e-mail alert to moderators. So that shouldn't be a problem.

I'm not sure about the once only reporting bit...but from my experience it was not long before the alert was seen by a moderator and the offending post removed...so it didn't happen often.

I gotta agree - good idea . It would make the mods' job alot easier.

By the way Mandrake - did u really have to .........

Mandrake wrote:(Be alert - the country needs all the lerts it can get )

......it's as old as .... errmm .... well me and you

The old ones are the best - and the only ones I know!:D

certainly would be of help to us insomniacs.

It certainly would, Magicdiscoman. Last weekend was a good case in point when we had a pointlessly childish visit from a certain cretinous Rocker of the Gothic variety.

Tomo wrote:It certainly would, Magicdiscoman. Last weekend was a good case in point when we had a pointlessly childish visit from a certain cretinous Rocker of the Gothic variety.

And although he mentioned the word "cretinous" "Gothic" and "Rocker" in one sentence he wasn't talking about me lol

I see the only problem being that new members may have something said to them about breaking the rules etc and suddenly everyone who's posted has an alert sent about them

Gosh! I never meant to imply you were anything other than fragrant and thoroughly fluffy, Ecko!

I think an effectice alert mechanism should check the alerter's username and the thread or post ID and discard duplicate combinations to prevent spam (or a denial of service attack by clogging the works), the idea being that if several people alert the mods it's probably more serious than someone simply going for the nuclear option in an argument, but at the same time the mods would only receive one per alerter.

Hmmmm, that might work rather well actually.
I'd like to see one, just so I can push the button on some people who make cmletely pointless, irrelevant, argumentative and/or revealing posts.


As as for the goth bashing, no offence taken mate

Of course, we already have an Alert system of sorts - the ever trusty PM. For security and peace of mind reasons, most Mods here don't show an e-mail address or list one which is only there for occasional use. On reflection, PM's are probably the better option.

There was a post from a first timer earlier, who was asking for secrets.

I replied in the thread, reminding him to check on the forum rules about exposure. If he was genuine, post something about himself to do with magic in Introductions. If he was just after secrets, it would be a short and fruitless stay.

I then waited until a Mod came online, sent a PM, posts removed.

Harmless, quick, polite.

Must be something wrong with me!!!!

There is another post, where someone has used text speak.

I sent a PM, asking what sort of magic he is iinto, could he post something about it in introductions, and pointed out that text speak is frowned upon on the boards.
I explained it makes things harder to read and could I suggest that he edits it.

Again, 1st time poster, who should be INFORMED, not slated, if he has made an error.

Darrel wrote:1st time poster....should be INFORMED, not slated, if he has made an error.

That's the way we see it as well and there's usually plenty of slack allowed for newcomers to get the hang of how we do things on TM. Where we have to draw the line is where subsequent responses get out of hand and profane or insulting - we've had quite a few in recent times and those always end up in a complete ban as it's simply not fair for the rest of the members to tolerate such responses.

I suspect that an integrated system could make mod life easier by ensuring that the report goes to a mod who's online, and also preventing duplicate reports of the same thread until the mod has responded to the original report. I don't know how much of a problem it is for you guys at the moment though.