What Forum Changes Would You Like To See?

[Nevada]

Okay, so it's clear there's a whole mess of unhappy vibes floating around at the moment, and I am wracking my poor lil brains out trying to come up with a fix-it-feel-good answer to any of it. So.

What changes do you think need to happen? What would you like to see done in the forum?

I'm not saying anything will come from this, but, if between us all we can come up with some ideas, I can pass them along. After all, we have a wish list for the game, why not one for the forum?

I would respectfully request we don't turn this into another complaints thread. By all means use a complaint as an example to propose a solution, just, no complaint-only posts, please.

Let's see if we can air some stuff out and come up with some potential solutions.

[Nevada]

I'll start off with this suggestion from Lea. I cut the quote a bit to post only the info most relevant to this thread, for the full post you can see it in the Enough is Enough thread.

I think it really is a problem of the different generations and the felt disrespect within those. From the point of view of the “old pioneers” they are not taken as valuable enough anymore (a good example is that we “old forum people” recently all have been degraded from former “senior members” to “members” or even “junior members” whereas “new people” who just joined recently the forum have been promoted to “Gold Members” – even ranged on the same level with Nana and Graylady – only because they showed a lot of presence for a (short) while.

As far as I’m concerned: Well, I really don’t post often anymore so I’m honestly fine with this demotion.

The other thing Zena said: “our” old posts have been deleted or put into archive and aren’t available any longer. I had mentioned this around a year ago, too, that I miss the older posts. One of those persons who always posted was one of the most valuable forum members ever – Ralph – and all of his posts just disappeared.

Ok - and what is now my idea of a possible solution to bring a better atmosphere back to the forum?
I was thinking about the idea of implementing a platinum membership like some people already suggested and I really liked it, to honor people like Graylady and Nana even more but I’m not quite optimistic that this really would work for a better forum atmosphere and content. I believe we have to think a step further and connect those “titles” also with a function.
So here’s a suggestion (please don’t yell at me, a “no” would be sufficient ):

I know that none of the old generation persons would volunteer to become a mod – but how about creating “a forum board” in addition? That way you would ensure that the whole range of forum people would “be heard”. I’m thinking about creating a board of members with a mixture of newer and older members (JUST AS AN EXAMPLE, Nana, Graylady for the “older generation” and “placeholder, placeholder…” for the newer generation, Cobalt for the middle . THIS IS JUST AN EXAMPLE with no intend of a final suggestion!!!!)

This board would vote about general decisions (also about who has earned/deserved what etc) e.g. once a month.

So which candidates would be qualified and suitable for the board? I would start an election – name people of all generations and let’s vote. And I would set a diffault to represent a good mixture: like 3 representatives of the old generation, 3 of the new and maybe 3 of a certain average or what ever.

[Bethany Clarke]

Since the negative vibes right now seem to stem from people feeling as though they either aren't being praised/appreciated enough or other people feeling that some members are being unfairly recognized, the obvious solution is to not emphasize the differences between members and to celebrate the ways in which we share commonalities. Why do we want as a forum to artificially create divisions? There is already a mechanism for recognizing forum members' longevity and contributions - the interview. Why do we need more than that?

The easiest solution to the problem is to get rid of any notion of bronze/gold/platinum members. Or, if people just have to have the badges for some reason, make the criteria for getting them extremely specific and measurable. For instance, Must have a minimum of 500 posts is a specific, measurable criteria. Must be positive and helpful is not. Define positive in a setting where often times we need to mention the negatives in order to make the game better. Helpful likewise can be applied in many different ways. We need specific criteria not nebulous ones.

My final suggestion for solutions to the problem is to make sure that no matter what "reward" system you decide to use, everyone has an equal chance of moving up the ranks to the highest level. Meaning, everyone can get a gold badge and then move up to getting a platinum badge, etc. There are no levels of recognition that people are blocked from if they want to work toward meeting the criteria. This ensures the forum is a fair and equitable place and not an environment where the "haves/elites" look down on and marginalize the "have-nots/regular/newer members.

[:-:Lea:-:]

Hi Nevada,

Thanks so much for opening this thread – what a good idea

Well, my quoted suggestion was originally more meant to be a potential solution for the respective thread, but yes, why not thinking about it in general.

But, when speaking about general improvements I’d like to add the following points:

- I would love to see again more involvement of the Playrix admins for both: for us users – regarding technical/general information and also for the mods to ease their work (this kind of communication really was better in the past – we directly got an official Playrix feedback when we reported any kind of issues)
- As mentioned many times by others it really would be a big relief to find a better solution for any kind of contests without flooding the whole forum with answers of all participants – you simply don’t find any other relevant posts anymore

Thanks, Lea

[Sweetness123]

Nevada, I want to first let you know I appreciate you so much. For myself, I just want the Forum to be a place that everyone feels welcomed. They feel free to speak as much as they want, joke, give guidance, etc., and it's okay if everything may not be relevant or right on point. I think overall that we have done well in answering questions, and unless we have something to add for extra guidance in the matter, just leave a post that has been answered alone, I know that's what I always see at least.

[Will9455Nikki]

For instance, Must have a minimum of 500 posts is a specific, measurable criteria. Must be positive and helpful is not. Define positive in a setting where often times we need to mention the negatives in order to make the game better. Helpful likewise can be applied in many different ways. We need specific criteria not nebulous ones.

Feel free to say I'm wrong on this, but I think that even negatives can be brought up in a "positive" manner. I think the idea here is that, as a general rule, the person does not just bring an air of negativity to the forum.

But specific, measurable criteria doesn't necessarily validate a person either. If I have 50 posts that are questions, and 50 more "I like it" posts to items in the Wish List, does this give me 100 measurable posts of quality? I type 150 words per minute with 20 errors or 100 words per minute with 0 errors. Which is better?

Just my thoughts.

[Bethany Clarke]

Feel free to say I'm wrong on this, but I think that even negatives can be brought up in a "positive" manner. I think the idea here is that, as a general rule, the person does not just bring an air of negativity to the forum.

But specific, measurable criteria doesn't necessarily validate a person either. If I have 50 posts that are questions, and 50 more "I like it" posts to items in the Wish List, does this give me 100 measurable posts of quality? I type 150 words per minute with 20 errors or 100 words per minute with 0 errors. Which is better?

Just my thoughts.

Good point. And maybe it's impossible to achieve. The point is, if there are not measurable ways to reach forum goals/statuses/etc., there is a risk of people feeling as though they are arbitrarily being left out, so I figured the best way to avoid this is to have the same rules for everyone. Every time the topic comes up of "forum status" there are hurt feelings. This is not the first time this sort of conversation has happened. Wouldn't it be best to have a positive forum where everyone is valued and not just a select group of people who have met nebulous criteria for "greatness" or whatever? Because this is how many forum members see this.

[hchl]

It is never a good idea separating people into different classes. We have war and hatred created by class division. But it is a norm in the business world and a lot of fields of occupation and competition. For example, we have point system, if I got %%points I got promoted, but some would complain my 1 point is much valuable than your 3 points, and shout “So unfair to me...... I would do such and such.....”. So I chose to leave the playing field and to search some other things to amuse myself.......

[smile85]

Personally, I think the way you have the Golden Member system set up currently is fine. I don't think it should matter how many posts a person has, as long as they have proved themselves knowledgeable and helpful about the game. When the moderators decide to promote someone, that shouldn't have to be qestioned by anyone. Certainly you and Amoria are more than qualified to make that decision. I guess a good question to ask yourself is what is the purpose of the gold membership badge? Is it to pat someone on the back or is it to show new members that said gold member knows their stuff and is giving good advice? I hope it is the latter. I like to think the golden members are being helpful for the sole purpose of being helpful and kind. Otherwise is it truly kindness if it is being done for the sole purpose of gaining fame, attention and recognition on the forum? I certainly don't ever want my self worth and ego to be dependent on a green bar under my fake name on a forum.

I also do not think you should start a Platinum Membership, otherwise you will be right back here in a year or so. The original 5 Platinum members will be all huffy because they feel that newer platinum members do not deserve the status. Then what, are we going to have to come up with a Diamond league to keep them above everyone else? This is absurd! We all love Township! I've been playing for almost 4 years, that doesn't make me any more important than the person playing 4 months. Playrix certainly views all it's players equally important.

I hope Playrix continues doing the interviews and I trust their capability to pick who to interview. In my opinion the more varied the interviewees the better. Pick people of different ages, locations and occupations. The player level shouldn't even matter. I'm sure there are many people who love this game who can only play once or twice a day due to jobs, children, life. The candidates are endless, it seems almost ridiculous to tell Admins who out of all these people deserves to be interviewed next.

One idea I had was a feature where if you "find a post particularly helpful" you could give it a thumbs up. Maybe the total amount of thumbs up a member has recieved could be included under their avatar?

Also, if you moderators really want to give recognition to members, you could do some sort of "member of the month" award or something...

[Will9455Nikki]

I certainly don't ever want my self worth and ego to be dependent on a green bar under my fake name on a forum.

See. This is why you should NEVER start writing out Christmas cards in February. Now I have to rip up the card to smile85 because I find out it's a fake name.

What is this world coming to!?!?!?