# Are we getting trolls?



## Matrix Agent (Aug 21, 2001)

I feel like 1 of these 3 things is happenening to macosx.org:

1. We are experienceing  a type of member "renaissance" where many new and unxperienced people are posting on the boards. 

2. Experienced members are trolling under aliases

3. I'm just dreaming.

Am I the only one who seems to think that the most rude or pugilistic comments are coming from many new users?


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## AdmiralAK (Aug 21, 2001)

It could be both 1 and 2.
Personally I try to ignore trolls...they tend to go away lol


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## iPenguin (Aug 21, 2001)

Am I a troll?

If I am am I guess I'll have to change my user ID to iTroll...


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## Matrix Agent (Aug 21, 2001)

nope, in my book you're listed under "insightful", right next to admiral, endian....ect

Where did that VGS guy go to?


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## AdmiralAK (Aug 21, 2001)

If you become a troll can you become like one of those trolls with the ruby in their belly-button so we can all make wishes in here   (You know the ones I am talking about, they were big a long time ago, mimi from the drew carey show has em on her desk )


Admiral


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## Soapvox (Aug 22, 2001)

I used to be very active in the boards, but as I become more experienced, I find now I just mostly browse and help out where possible, I too find many discussions are becoming combative so I feel I shouldn't feed it. On the other hand the all things non technical board is actually very good in my opinion, there is a lot of opportunity for flame over there, but I think it has a couple of really good conversations going on.  Also as more people use OSX, the lower the caliber of people on the boards.  When I started coming here for beta, it was all people who were really interested, now well.  There is still a lot of good info (better than most)!


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## AdmiralAK (Aug 22, 2001)

I started here as a beta person too 
Now there dont seem to be as many discussions that are good to partake in  (or loss of interest) .. besides things have cooled down for OS X and there arent that many probs any more


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## Matrix Agent (Aug 22, 2001)

What would you guys think of a separate catagory that would only allow people with over 30 posts to add to threads? Everyone would still be able to view it. It would stop people from advertising and using aliases to flame people. 

New users could still post in all of the regular catagories, plus, if they show enough interest in the forum, that they make 30 posts, they would be granted full access?

It could be called the "genius lounge" sorta like apple's store's 

Anyone want to add some +/-'s or comments?

I feel like macosx.com is a great community, i dont want it to be overpopulated with users who want to know what the dock is.


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## AdmiralAK (Aug 22, 2001)

LOL I would say that would be a good idea but it would have to be over 50 posts he he he 

Can we have one for over 1000 posts he he he he  

What would we discuss in it


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## scott (Aug 22, 2001)

Yeah, as a beta/10.0.0 user VGZ was very helpful to me. Where'd he go?

I agree with Soapvox (although I'm nowhere near his level of skill) - months of watching the site leave me less excited about posting my problems and more into browsing for neat tips and maybe the odd help.

I think 10.1 will bring a flood of new glitches / cool things and the boards will light up again.

Heck, the cuss forum is the most fun post on here (to me anyway), and who am I to say if this is the right place for it or not (I think it is - it keeps me lively after staring at somebody's UNIXese for a while).

Many new users certainly make it a little angrier than it was in 2000, but it should be expected, I suppose


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## iPenguin (Aug 22, 2001)

We'd probably discuss trolls, and new threads that only we can post in...  

It's a great idea though! Bring it on!!!!


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## AdmiralAK (Aug 22, 2001)

LOL I LOVE the cus thread 

You can be pissed of or you can creativelly cus while tellign your daily news and it all blends in 


Admiral


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## WhateverJoe (Aug 22, 2001)

I took the blue pill  (didn't want to be un-pluged from the matri"X") yet...

option (3)


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## vic (Aug 22, 2001)

come os x 10.1 well see some action just brace yourselves...


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## Matrix Agent (Aug 22, 2001)

nice one joe, boy that blue pill is tasty!

so.....
i just think that a exclusive area in the forum would provide us with some good, rational converstations, like what's the best browser, or whats in the new build...

...all without people interjecting with opinions that cannot be changed, and insults that make no sense...

basically, its the same as the regular forum minus repititous newbie questions and garbage posts.

wouldn't you guys like a lot more threads that are of the quality of the "middle east" thread?


I know that this wont happen though. Believe it or not, macosx.com is a business, there are advertisements, and macosx.com wants as many users as it can get. A "genius lounge", in my mind would limit new user growth. 

 I think our admin has been great, and to ask him to make exclusive catagories would be too much. The site problably will get less money because he was kind enough to change the format back. Its a great idea, but its not practical. Anyone out there wanna set up a forum?


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## scott (Aug 22, 2001)

Excellent point about the site. A special forum would be great, but this is not a non-profit organization. Actually, I am grateful for the site and hope more advertisers sign on.

Admin has been excellent, yet unobtrusive. Good work.

It is amazing that we can come here not only to talk about the sites namesake, but everything from our ability to cuss to Middle Eastern politics - and we don't get THAT rude. The most severe flaming has been a result of software piracy attempts, and believe me, that is better than a huge flame session on religion or politics.

Maybe we should pay attention to Soapvox's site for more off topic chitter.


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## tismey (Aug 23, 2001)

As usual in discussion forums, one of the biggest problems when you get new people is that rather than seraching/browsing/reading for the answers they require, they just start a new thread asking for help with their specific problem. As a relative newbie, I'd been browsing these boards for a couple of months before I even got OSX, never mind before I started posting, so I knew a fair amount before I started (thanks guys!!). Anyway, I agree with vic - once 10.1 is out, those of us who can tell our Dock from our Terminal will have our work cut out...


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## knighthawk (Aug 24, 2001)

Personally, I feel that there are too many catagories for the threads.  Take out about 5 or 6 and consolidate them with the others.  For example:

1) Tips & Tricks can move in with Customization

2) "Upcoming Hardware/Software/3rd Party" combine into "New Technologies"

3) OSX Server & Server Apps (apache, mySQL, etc...)

4) Install and Report Problems combined.

In addition to these combinations, have a section designed like a tutorial thread, a HOWTO.  To post in this section, you either have to have one of three things... over 500 posts, knighted by the admin/moderator, or voted on by the people as an expert.  This section should be the first section that Newbies go to to find out about info.  It might be that someone just consolidates the facts that came about through the threads in the regular boards, or it might be a pet project of the poster.


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## Soapvox (Aug 24, 2001)

Being a PHP MySQL programmer, at this late date it would be quite a chore to do that and make sure nothing gets screwed up.  Each forum has an ID and it may be just as simple as switching IDs but then again depending on how the DB is built it may be a nightmare.


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## vic (Aug 25, 2001)

be careful what you wish for, i don't think some here has yet 500 posts and it's too dangerous... you have to take into consideration human nature (competition), if we get a system that filters users out by post numbers then someone might just start a blank thread and keep on  repeting themselves until they achieve the desired number to have the extra privileges, or, if the  mod/min starts giving out kudos to users then there's gona be a bashing back and forth : no, i have better advice! no! i do! you suck you don't deserve any Kudos! fuck you! and so on and so on... so, let's just leave it how it is cuz it aint broke, and what did mama tell you about things that aint broke?!


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## knighthawk (Aug 25, 2001)

What I was meaning with this new post was a limited number of people that could post HOWTOs that people could use to refer to.

Like the thread about VM.  How to change your page size, and how to change your VM drive location.  And like this new thread about RAID.  

Just a few people that have access to post in this folder for everyone to benefit.  How those people are choosen, I really don't care.  The idea would be to limit people from being able to post.  Maybe the requirement could be a test about OSX and computers in general that would give them access to post in this forum.

These posts would be un-replying threads, and if the author or mod wanted to edit the posts, they could.


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## vic (Aug 25, 2001)

why not just make a faq then? i seems to me you are taking something like a message board and mutating it into a how-to-faq thingie; that rally has nothing to do with this site now does it? this is a message board. a message board is a message board. it's not an elephant, cow, gorilla or a how-to website.


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## Matrix Agent (Aug 28, 2001)

It ends up that this site does classify users by post #. It may be after 100 posts i think, your default "junior member" status will be replaced with "senior member". I have no idea what the difference is other than the name.
You guys wanna go check your control panel to see whether your default is senior or junior? it many be that magic number a few of us spoke of before. I must say that would find 100 posts to much too high of a number for special features, only a few people, mabey like 8, have that many.


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## Jadey (Sep 22, 2001)

I read this board to try & learn new things about Mac OS X and to help new users. If a board had a minimum post limit of any number, this would prevent new users from asking for a solution to a potential new problem. Lots of people here may be experienced mac users, but create an account simply to ask a question they've never run into before. I abhore the RTFM attitude I get anytime I ask a question in the Linux world, and I've been really proud at how all the Mac OS X boards have not taken that stand. They've been really helpful and patient with even the most basic questions. If we start telling people to "read the faq" when they ask a question here, I don't see the point of the forums at all.


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## Matrix Agent (Sep 22, 2001)

The idea was not to restrict all users from posting, just have a serparate area for more frequent users. If you want to know more about this, go to the volunteering section which was recently created. We have already established a volunteer only area catergory, and are thinking of making a FAQ for newer users, but, more importantly, we are not limiting the usage of anyone who wants to post in any way.


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