talkmagic.co.uk

B0bbY_CaT wrote:

seige wrote:What is really a pain is introductions... people saying 'hello' followed by loads of one-word posts of 'Welcome'.

Serves no purpose, and makes moderating a hard job.

Especially when weeding out the spam posts and obscenities.

Maybe "Introductions" should be just that... an introduction. posts cant be added to the intro. the introduction is an opportunity for a new member to tell the TM community about him/herself, the posts of introduction cant be replied to.

???

Yes...but not very welcoming, unfortunately

Perhaps a compromise to this would be to have the introductions board set so that only established members (say with more than 100 posts) can reply - and none of these simple, one word, "Welcome" type posts either.

Surely, if you're new here, the last thing you need, by way of encouragement to post is 20, "Welcome to TM"'s..all one after another?

I think that it's nice to say hello to new members and if you've not got much extra to add, then a simple Welcome to TM does the trick.

I know when I first came here, I liked all the welcome messages I gor. Made me feel very, well, welcome.

Seige wrote:

What is really a pain is introductions... people saying 'hello' followed by loads of one-word posts of 'Welcome'.

Serves no purpose, and makes moderating a hard job

I'm one of the guilty ones with theis I'm afraid as I generally post only 'welcome' in response to an intro. I do however feel that it's nice and polite to give a welcome and hopefully it makes the newbie less intimidated knowing that people are prepared to respond.

I wouldn't disagree that being a Mod must be a tiresome job and most of what is done goes unrecognised and therefore unappreciated. TM has grown a lot over the past couple of years and perhaps it may be time to consider adding a couple of additional Mods?

I definately wouldn't want to lose the wisdom of the current Mods and would suspect that everyone will agree with this so a newbie Mod or two may relieve part of the tedious bits.

dat8962 wrote:I do however feel that it's nice and polite to give a welcome and hopefully it makes the newbie less intimidated knowing that people are prepared to respond.

For the record. I think it is a nice thing too.

Nah, sorry guys, I'm the guilty one.

It was a little fit of range I had, 'throwing the dummy from the pram' as it were, after waking up and feeling obliged—as a mod—to sweep clean the forums of the general misery that an evening full of mindless spamming brings.

Since Mandrake's been away—bless him—I've noticed how much of the poo he actually removes. I feel like a bloomin janitor.

Back to the point... sure, we get a buzz out of being 'welcomed', but I've noticed members who've not even been on the forum a month jumping into every intro thread with a 'welcome'. I'm not sure if it's an attempt to clock up their post count, or just genuine friendliness, but it sure as heck is rife at the moment.

Oh well, another stupid mistake by Seige.

I must admit i hardly ever come on here nowadays.. there are probably loads of folk on here who have only ever seen my name cos im a mod and never even read anything ive posted but like Seige, Nick and the rest of the mods this place has become a chore. When i first came here a long long time ago it was fun simply because we actually talked about magic and bounced ideas off each other and we became friends... now its just moaning and bitching about petty stuff and its ruined a perfectly good forum.

hear, hear, bring back the old days when we discussed magic and when we wern't doing that we were siting by the imaginary pond listning to the singing warble fish and drinking imaginary drinks, thoughs were the days.

About the Introductions section:
When I first joined I posted quite a lot of welcome messages not to boost my post count up but more to build my confidence in being a forum member and almost feeling part of the team if you get what I mean. I then felt more confident to post in other parts of the forum.

But of course their are some people who abuse the introductions section and just use it as a way to bump up their post count.

the_mog wrote:I must admit I hardly ever come on here nowadays.. there are probably loads of folk on here who have only ever seen my name cos im a mod and never even read anything ive posted but like Seige, Nick and the rest of the mods this place has become a chore. When I first came here a long long time ago it was fun simply because we actually talked about magic and bounced ideas off each other and we became friends... now its just moaning and bitching about petty stuff and its ruined a perfectly good forum.

Oddly, Mog, I really don't see the forum like that these days; sure, a few months ago, we went through a rough-patch...but the past few weeks have been great - much more like a return to the TM of old.

Perhaps you haven't been around quite so much of late, but it's quite obvious to me that there are now great, BIG, groups of friends here still

I think things have been alot better here lately, not nearly as much bitching as there was a few months ago. It's probabaly like most things, comes and goes in phases.

The main thing I think is the old members, if they join in with all the bitching then it's going to carry on. If people put a stop to it as soon as they see it then it usually doesn't carry on.

its a microcosm of real life on foums, i took a little break...felt better about them...if ever things feel like a chore...leave it alone for a while and test the waters again...

but just cos somethings "not like it used to be", doesnt mean its now rubbish...well...

im not one of the originals on here, but it feels kinda homely to me nowadays...but only in short bursts...i've made a few friends out of the place, a few trusted people...can't be bad...

the bitching did get extremely annoying, and the stupid inhouse fighting over nothing more than opinions on effects...i think the only time i've actually argued properly on here is over the sacred cards in mentalism thing...oooh lets start that one again..i miss it..

nah..if you're finding something draining or getting to you...take a nice break from it all, you'll feel much better, and just come back when you miss the place...

i would finally like to add that it would be nice if a few more people who have access to some of the secret areas (matron) now used it more constructively and started posting up some ideas they'd like to develop or half-started..its the best thing about this place...

though someone elses suggestion might not fit your presentation style, they might hit upon an idea or line of patter that then sends you off somewhere else...its worked for me loads of times...

i'll shut up now...

but just cos somethings "not like it used to be", doesnt mean its now rubbish...well...

dont get me wrong.. im not saying that as such.. all i meant was a few years ago, before there was an off topic section, the forum was used for "talking magic". of course sometimes threads did go a little off topic but for the main it was a magic forum. but as someone pointed out earlier the 2 most used parts of the forum nowadays are the doves head and the introductions threads! if i wanted a chatroom then i'd use one designated for chatting and not a magic forum.

a lot of effects were created/honed on this site (Mogtrix being just one) but now theres not a great deal of interaction that would inspire someone to create a new effect or a new line of patter.

One thing i will point out is that there ARE a lot of good people on the forum and its nice to see groups bonding with one another (insert smutty comeback here) but it seems to me that the focus isnt magic anymore.

as for the post count issue, my suggestion would be to simply do away with it as it has no purpose to anyone or anything.

I understand what you're saying Mogmeister but I quite like the balance here. The magic areas are great for chatting about magic but I also think that it's nice to have an off topic area where we can just have a ramble. Personally I don't really think I'd like a forum that was strictly magic only talk, I like chatting about randomness.

yes! please do away with the post count!

come back to the fold mr. mog please...i'll even review the dave campbell legacy in your honour if you do...bet you've got it anyway...

and you can help me work out some handlings for esp effects...

oh go on..you know you wanna...

I have looked once tru the dove's head and i look only at first post in introductions but mostly i search intro just when i wonder who is someone. So personnaly i dont get to read all the spam/countBoost. But i must admit there is more useless posts or should i say "content"less posts then it used to be just a month or 2 ago.

There is an explosion in new membership right now and i believe it should come back to normal as summer end, school start. This is giving a lots of job to moderators but soon it will pay back as everyone will get to understand and abide by the policies effective here.

Moderators/Admins we really appreciate your job on this forum, your making this place enjoyable for everyone as much as you can, a lot of us know thats not an easy task and we are gratefull to your good job.

just my 2cents really!