what % of members have turned off the Soap Box entirely?

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Just recently a very smart, but prickly regular made a nasty shot about another regular post about a stock. I have no idea what set the prickly guy off, but it certainly wasn't a political discussion cause neither participate.

I miss all the good stuff.

As far as not moderating that pot of boiling water...well...a lot of people say they'd like to see less excessive police presence in their neighborhood until their car gets stolen and their wallet lifted.

We used to have a totally unmoderated board many years ago. We had a never ending rash of trolls, clever spammers and salesmen blasting in and out of every thread on the board, with stuff ranging from thinly veiled sales pitches to 5 page off topic rants, said rants often repeated in various forms in dozens of different posts every day.

Maybe some folks like Clif can conduct themselves in a reasonable manner without supervision. I can think of a dozen off the top of my head who cant.

And like I said before...the real damage is from the people who quietly (or not so quietly) disappear and stop contributing. Or the ones that go off like roman candles and have to be tossed out by the bouncers.

I'm here to talk about early retirement, finance, investing, our lives and have some fun with people I've known for years. If I want to verbally bash someone in the face about what a nutball Sarah Palin is, I have a wide variety of places to pick from.

 

[Abreutime]

I'm assuming clifp does not mean totally unmoderated, but that less monitoring may be OK.

If the soap box is taking too much time to monitor, can the moderators just respond to flagged posts? I personally have not seen very many that I would flag.

And since there is no feedback on this, I have no idea how often people are flagging posts, so I don't know if that suggestion makes sense. And if it is made clear that if a member makes multiple flags of posts that are not in violation, that could be considered a violation in itself.

Just an idea. -ERD50

I agree. Moderating shouldn't be a job. As the board gets bigger and more popular, it's not necessary to read every post. Just review the posts that are flagged as inappropriate.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

By that time the damage is done. Most of the art of moderation is slowing something down or stopping it before they reach a point where a bunch of people are mad about it.

Everyone has a different opinion. As I mentioned just recently in a perfectly operated board, 20% of the people wish there were more moderation, 20% wish there was less or none, and 60% paddle around blissfully unaware of whats going on.

I'd imagine the folks around here who do/did law enforcement understand the dynamic...

 

[Martha]

The topic is how many ignore the soapbox. Andy set up a report so we now know as of today, 52 have the soapbox on ignore. We average about 500 visitors to the forum a day.

 

[ERD50]

sorry - this is considered in violation, but it was simply meant as suggestions for improving the moderation around here. Will try to find a way to bring this up within the rules....


-ERD50

 

[Martha]

ERD, and anyone else, feel free to pm any moderator or admin if you have questions or concerns about moderation.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

The topic is how many ignore the soapbox. Andy set up a report so we now know as of today, 52 have the soapbox on ignore. We average about 500 visitors to the forum a day.

Be interesting to know how many of the 52 and 500 post or post regularly.

If you've got 52 regular posters with the forum on ignore, and only 100 of the 500 post or are regular posters...that's pretty significant.

But if you've got 500 active posting users and the 52 with the soapbox on ignore are largely people who dont post...pretty insignificant.

 

[Kronk]

Hrm. As one of the 52, I'm surprised it isn't a little higher than that. But then, I normally just go to "New Posts" and make my way through there. So I normally have no idea what forum a thread is in. But other people may have a different routine, and thus ignore it without using the "Ignore" feature.

 

[Sarah in SC]

Kronk, you might also try the Portal page, now that the Soapbox has been moved to the bottom (thanks, Admin folks!).
It is a good way to catch the most recent stuff, then you can work your way through New Posts.

 

[ladelfina]

Martha, thanks for digging that up, even though CFB is right that maybe nothing much is to be made from it without separating regular users from casual visitors who won't bother to employ many of the extra forum widgets, including "ignore". He's probably also right about the distribution of opinion on moderation.

I think you guys do a good job, and since people do have the ignore option I don't see why anyone should continue to get upset over the very existence of the Soap Box. I don't know what the forum's economic model is, but aren't more page views usually better? 18,000+ views on the Palin thread reflect an expression of interest in political matters which affect economics (first) and the opportunity for a free-for-all (second). People are gonna want to talk about this stuff just like they wanna talk about golf or bacon, and if it doesn't have a home it will just spill into other areas. Only the mods can decide whether policing this one "red-light" district is worth the trouble as opposed to having to police more heavily all around.

I appreciate the mods' efforts especially as the forum goes through these growing pains. I would only get concerned about the SB if it starts becoming the primary topic area.. right now it seems to have a pretty modest "share".. with fewer threads than "Stockpicking" which was created around the same time, no? It also seems to be on the middle-to-low-end in terms of people currently viewing (at least as I am writing this).

Its description is perfect: "For issues concerning public policy, prominent political figures, and topics about governmental conduct, as well as news and other world events not pertaining to retirement."

Oookay.. didn't want to make this a referendum on the Soap Box, but seeing as it went that way, those are my .02.

 

[chinaco]

Soapbox looks fairly popular... However once the election is done... it will probably see much less activity.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Pictures of nude women and conspiracy theories also very popular on the internets...maybe we oughta make a spot for those?

Hey, if we can find a gallery of nude female conspiracy theorists we'd be in adsense heaven!