Forum Management Suggestions Thread

[Ky]

See also:

School Survival's Future - Discussion Thread
Hansgrohe's proposed solution to the School Survival dilemma
Forums back up (and on shiny new VPS)

Where We Are So Far

As Soul's "Forums back up" thread will tell you, we're running the latest version of MyBB, but there are a number of other significant changes:

- We have a Forum Helpers group. In terms of privileges and responsibilities, they're somewhere between regular users and moderators; while they don't have the authority to ban people, they do have the power to move and split threads across most of the subforums (with a few exceptions). Most active users are projected to be a part of this group (and many already are), with the exception of particularly malicious users, it seems.
- The warning system is currently disabled, though some remnants of its existence are still present (for instance, I can still see my own warning level). This is due to misuse, mainly on my part, but also because it has rarely been effective even when properly employed.
- An additional rule has been added prohibiting public conflict. Given what we just endured, no points for guessing why this rule is now enforced.
- Soul's retired, for the most part. xcrit should have access to all of the necessary administrative features and whatnot to enforce suggested changes agreed upon by the community.

Also, the "forums down for psychological maintenance" forum announcement is still up, but I would imagine a fix for that is coming soon.

Proposals

In Hansgrohe's thread (only visible to Basement Visitors), he suggested an advice/no-advice tag system for the Emotional Support and Venting forum. That thread also inspired other suggestions:

- An alternative means of settling conflicts. The details are rather vague.
- Separating the anti-schooling political movement (ex. SSN, Screenstorming) from these forums (which serve a different purpose), and offering more advertisement to that movement.
- Better social network integration. The details are rather vague.
- Elaboration of Emotional Support and Venting rules to fit the new proposed tag system.
- Hope. Nuff said.
- My proposal for "The Clubhouse", which is a large subforum dedicated to being the middle ground between the serious forums and the Basement. Proposal is to make The Clubhouse user-readable only (like the Basement) and to put General-Talk-like things (or even General Talk as a whole) in there. Additional subforums would be requested as the needs of this subforum are established.

Any further proposals, clarifications, or support?