Suggestions for RPF.com

[jjschless]

When you're done with that, the Israelis and Palestinians could use your help. After dealing with the 9/11 enthusiast crowd, that should be a walk in the park, though...

It is as easy as putting ones pride aside and turning the other cheek while on rpf.com.

The pride part is the hardest.

 

[Bradley in DC]

Here is my suggestion:

Best of Ron Paul / Ron Paul Essentials
(Mod selected posts. Place to go if you are new to forums..)

Ron Paul in the Media
(Ron Paul mentioned in old & new media *only*)

Call to Action
(Requesting actions from forum members. Polls, Donations, rallies, etc)

Ron Paul Discussion
(Discussion of Ron Paul, the campaign, etc)

Other Politics Discussion
(Discussion of other candidates, issues, etc)

---------------

The big change is seperate news from discussion. Also make a 1 uber forum for call to action, so we have 1 place to go to help get involved.

I also think Josh should reduce the total number of forums to the 5 listed above. Everything can be fit into those.

I think this makes a lot of sense. Not at all what I was thinking (more forward thinking towards the primaries, polls, delegate counts, etc.), but clean and straightforward. Nice. Oh, and a section for local activism too.

 

[cujothekitten]

Oh and one more thing... Try to add a live chat feature. Other forums I'm on have them and I've found them to be pretty useful (and fun).

 

[cujothekitten]

w/b, cujo

Hey man

 

[Bradley in DC]

Then once again, how can you explain todays moving outburst?

Most of the things that were moved today were similar to things that have never been moved.

Foo moved RP articles into media matters, he moved the Liberty Rally Donation thread into some other abyss. He moved one of Razmear's projects to another. The Spam Spartanberg was not moved, it was actually stickied, same with adopt an iowan, Dean's ad project was not moved either.

I still don't see what y'all's problem was today. I still have not seen an explanation other than Foo felt like it.

-Dustan

I for one have been moving threads (and especially merging duplicates that we didn't know of because of all of the clutter) from my first day as moderator. The moderators were chosen by Bryan and Josh because of what they thought of us. We have been moderating under their initial direction and continued guidance. Most actions are in response to members flagging posts and threads (the triangle at the top right). We get lots of flagging reports that no one else gets. Sort of like Bastiat's "What is seen v. what is unseen" issue, I guess.

 

[ronpaulhawaii]

<vent>After spending 4 hours today on a roadside, handing out hundreds of flyers and trifolds. As well as working for hours on other RP projects, I come here and find foo calling me lazy and sal calling me a twerp. Real nice. Thanks guys

The fact remains that the so-called problem that foo "fixed" was caused by confusing and ineffective titles and descriptions. Now I can't find anything and I'm really not interested in finding new ways to do what I have been doing effectively. I think Raz's situation is especially disheartening.

I have read that "many" people were complaining, but the response in these threads indicate that a few were complaining alot.

I have read foo repeatedly stating 'Josh is King' kinda crap, then I see him say he acted unilaterally to kick Josh in the pants. Wassup wit dat? Friggin hypocritical megalomaniac</vent>

This forum was effective because we were all in one place. It needs less sub-forums not more. The archiving subs are fine any way they are set up. For discussion forums I would suggest;

Activist news and discussion- a forum for those who want to keep up with the latest news about the RP and those who are doing things to help.

Poser news and discusion - for those who just like to read and comment about news but don't actually want to do anything to help RP.

Off topic - a forum for anything else.

sheesh - a lazy twerp - people banned - lost days - sad

 

[foofighter20x]

I have read foo repeatedly stating 'Josh is King' kinda crap, then I see him say he acted unilaterally to kick Josh in the pants. Wassup wit dat? Friggin hypocritical megalomaniac</vent>

It was something Josh had on his list. For some reason he delayed. Not due to thinking it was a bad idea, but from just having to deal with life in general.

Had I the same admin rights as Josh, I would have worked behind the scenes to make the thing easier to use. But I don't have those rights. Only Josh does.

Thus, I nudged him into action on something he had already decided to do. How? By enforcing the rules he set you all agreed to abide by.

Don't push this back on me. You all agreed to post in the appropriate forums when ya joined. Enforcement was lax. Why? Josh--and maybe Bryan further along--was the only one enforcing the rules. He's not going to get them all.

What did Josh do because of this? He got more moderators. What do you expect a moderator to do? Continue to let the place run wild? Sorry. That's not in the job description.

Yes, the forum titles and desciptions are vague, and there are too many sub forums. But you work with what you got and you post accordingly as best you can.

But that's not what happened. Too many people gave up on tryin and just crammed it into RPN&D. Sorry, but no. That's not how the site works.

It will be fixed.

As I stated earlier, I find it rather ironic that such a big stink was raised over this. You guys ignored the forum rules out of convenience, just like Congress ignores the Constitution (something we all agree is bad). When some one calls everyone on it, oh, that person is the bad guy. B.S.

If we think we can run a campaign with a hypocritical mindset like that, then we have a problem. The message of liberty is a way of life. You have to respect it and abide by it and set an example of it if you intend to spread it. You agreed to the forum rules, you then must live by them.

It used to be I would only net a few obvious threads. But over the past two weeks, more and more threads in here have been misfiled. I guess you could say I finally got tired of it. However, I didn't act then. I logged in and found a whole page already moved, either by Josh or Bryan. I followed suit.

Don't blame us for the non-adherence of others. You all agreed to the forum rules, you all then should follow them.

Peace out.

 

[foofighter20x]

Ron Paul Central

News, Discussion, and Analysis
RPN&D as it should be. If it ain't from the mainstream media or from the campaign, nor even tangentally about Ron Paul, it doesn't go here. If Dr Paul ain't there, or won't be there, it doesn't go here. This place would be to catalouge the man, not every tidbit about him.
Resources, Links, and FAQ
Issues for America + The Best of Ron Paul (Edit: The cream of the crop from below would be moved to here.)
​

Grassroots

Iowa and New Hampshire
All the same as below, but tailored for Iowa and New Hampshire
Act Locally - Member Activism and Projects - This should be the most active place
MeetUps, local events (concerts and rallies) and activities, online polls, straw polls, Web Projects, Member Blogs, Videos, Audio, Flyers, Phone Drives, etc.​

General Politics

General
Whatever isn't covered above, to include news and discussion about other campaigns and candidates, goes here.
Hot Topics
Thunderdome - No moderation at all! Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter. Expect foul langage, dirty insults, tasteless topics. (Registered Users Only; invisible to everyone else)
Forum Admin
Complaints, suggestions, questions about the site not covered in the FAQ above.​

For those that missed it, this was my submission.

 

[beermotor]

You're on the list. "People with huge signatures"

You know, forumnazis are ... well ... nazis.

 

[Spirit of '76]

Then Foo decides to get anal with organization. So he starts tossing other people's threads around like they were meaningless. When someone post a thread its becomes part of them, they feel like they own it, they place it in a certain place for a reason and have some kind of desire of the type of response that they are looking for. Whether that response is information, donations, camaraderie, or just an exchange of ideas. Then comes along a power hungry mod and they take that post and moves it to another section without the posters input. This makes the poster feel like they got stepped on. Like they have no control over their ideas and where they want them to be. If you post something in a section with 100 people, and it gets moved to a section with 2 people, that is going to hurt your feelings, because when you expressed the idea it was meant for an audience of 100 not 2. And when posters feel like they have no control over their own post, they quit posting.

Dustan, this is a good, thought-provoking post.

Here's my take on it: If Foo is like me, in that he uses the "New Posts" button to browse the forum, then this might not have occurred to him. When one browses that way, one sees every post on the board in the order that it is updated, so he may not have even realized that people placed off-topic threads in certain forums because the other forums just aren't being read.

I really don't think he intended to hurt anyone's feelings.


As for all of the outcry surrounding this relatively minor, temporary hiccough, I must say I find it kind of suspicious. Your post has helped me to see that some people could be offended by the moving of posts, but I think the uproar about this goes beyond that.

I think this is something that most people could/would have voiced their opinions about and made their feelings known, and a solution could have calmly been reached. But a certain little crew of members with a long history of being at the heart of every flame war on this board decided to stoke the fire.

I mean, let's see: The same group of people who for a week now have been hyping up SeekLiberty's new Truther/Ron Paul forum decided to latch on to this relatively minor event and start posting thread after thread announcing that this forum doesn't work, demanding the moderators' heads on a platter, and agitating people to leave the forum?

Doesn't anyone else find that suspicious?

 

[Spirit of '76]

Wow, go away for a couple days and all hell breaks loose

Here are my suggestions

Ron Paul News
Campaign Action
General Politics

That's it. Easy as pie.

Have two or three moderators per topic and you'll be golden.

I concur.

 

[foofighter20x]

It is not necessarily the change. It was the way that it was done and the reason it was done.

The way it was done was that rules were enforced.

First of all the forums worked great. No one can argue with that, look what has been accomplished.

You are assuming more would not have been done had people acutally posted appropriately. I'm assuming more could have been done had people posted properly.

Then Foo decides to get anal with organization. So he starts tossing other people's threads around like they were meaningless. When someone post a thread its becomes part of them, they feel like they own it, they place it in a certain place for a reason and have some kind of desire of the type of response that they are looking for. Whether that response is information, donations, camaraderie, or just an exchange of ideas. Then comes along a power hungry mod and they take that post and moves it to another section without the posters input. This makes the poster feel like they got stepped on. Like they have no control over their ideas and where they want them to be. If you post something in a section with 100 people, and it gets moved to a section with 2 people, that is going to hurt your feelings, because when you expressed the idea it was meant for an audience of 100 not 2. And when posters feel like they have no control over their own post, they quit posting.

And that's all your opinion.
1) No one would need to get "anal with organiziation" had people done what they are supposed to do to begin with. And how is enforcing forum rules being anal? Tell me, please. That's a pretty prejudicial statement.
2) Moving threads to the appropriate forum doesn't render them meaningless. Locking them or deleting them does. Again, you are being prejudiced.
3) The desired response a poster wants does not absolve them from the rules to which they agreed to follow when they joined the forum.
4) Again, you're being prejudicial. I'm not power hungry. You've made the accusation, prove it. Were I power hungry, I would be asking Josh for more mod privileges, or even admin privileges. I've never asked for such. Go ahead, ask him. All I've ever asked Josh for since he made me a mod is feedback over whether I'm maybe too strict in the application of the tools he's bestowed. Yet, upon looking it over, he's found time and again I've made the right call. You, however, don't know this since you never see these things.
5) Again with the prejudice. It's amazing how you somehow "know" so much about what I'm doing. You, in fact, do not. I've let so many stray posts go by. It got to be to the point where practicaly the whole first page was stray threads. Once I saw another mod had acted, I followed suit. I was the second wave, not the first. However, I've caught blame for both because certain Hot Topic forum trolls that smelled blood jumped at it. How is it that you seem to have all the answers and know everything that happened. How do you seem to have your finger on the pulse of what went down? Fact is fact. You don't. You're guessing.
6) They wouldn't have gotten "stepped on" had they simply read the forum description before posting. Neglience on their part creates no guilt on mine when I take corrective action.
7) I'm sorry, but you don't get to put your posts wherever you want them. We have different forums for a reason, and you agreed to post appropriate topics in those forums per the forum rules. If yon don't post appropriately then the thread get's moved. It's that simple.
8) Again, the feelings of the poster in no manner outway the agreement they made to post appropriately.
9) I'd rather they not stop posting. Only that they post thread in the appropriate forums. Also, if you guys wouldn't hunker down in one forum, if you went around the site and checked them all out once a day, there would be no need for them to break their agreement under the forum rules and come to you. This isn't my fault alone. It isn't the posters fault. It's everyone's fault for shutting themselves into one thread instead of making the rounds and checking everything out. It's not that difficult to do.

When ever I post something I don't want to have to consider for a hour, where to post it and where it will eventually end up. What is the point in posting something if it is going to be forcefully moved to an irrelevant area. I mine as well put my energy elsewhere.

Nice exaggeration. It shouldn't take anyone an hour to figure out where to post. Also, the irrelevant areas of which you speak are only irrelevant because you make them so.

Also this power grab has destroyed the board for today. This was also upsetting.

What power grab? I've neither seized nor taken anything.

And lastly, the people that have been here for a while feel very close in sense that you can over the internet. But Foo without warning and without consultation from anyone else went on a rampage and blind sided everyone. So people who contribute a lot to this board are going to feel hurt that they weren't considered or warned.

Again with the prejudice. It was no rampage. Only a mere enforcement of rules to which you agreed but weren't living up to. However, in the future I'll give plenty advance notice.

Also this is change for the worse. Ask why this board has been successful and others haven't. What was the main difference between ronpaulforums and ronpaulform? People come here to communicate with one another in a free atmosphere, we lost that freedom here today. Will we get it back is the question.

Speculation. You don't know for sure why this forum flourished and the other stalled. Neither do I, but I suspect it's more due to the simple fact that this forum had almost a week and half headstart over the other forum.

I find it highly ironic that we are fighting for freedom by fighting for Dr. Paul, and we claim the neocons are taking our freedoms and then the mods go and do the same thing here on a miniscale. Maybe it is just human nature?

And I find it strange that you don't realize this forum is Josh's private property. He's decided to share it with us all, but upon certain conditions. You shouldn't complain when people aren't living up to their end of the bargain and all of sudden, hey, it's time to meet your end of the agreement.

-Dustan

--Dustan

I think more good will come out of this than bad. The reaction to simple enforcement of Josh's rules, to which everyone here agreed, is that he's going to tweak the forum so it resembles the one we all want. Then there won't be any misfiled threads or any hurt feeling when they get moved because it'll be pretty clear where everything goes to begin with.

Josh already had this in the works, but life distracted him. He's tracking now and improvements are on the way. Look forward to them, since I won't have to act as the police as much when he puts them into effect.

Hope and Patience.

 

[mdh]

<vent>After spending 4 hours today on a roadside, handing out hundreds of flyers and trifolds. As well as working for hours on other RP projects, I come here and find foo calling me lazy and sal calling me a twerp. Real nice. Thanks guys

I think our new friend Sal has made it quite clear that his intentions here are to troll us.

 

[SeanEdwards]

Merge strategies, projects, and both 'materials' to help make it a little more active

I think this is a good suggestion.

 

[Man from La Mancha]

Just make hot topic only viewable to members that want to enter and not on new posts. Conspiracies should be discussed and determined by Ron Paul. If he talks of it follow it, if not put in Hot topics. Other that that just keep it all the same.

 

[american.swan]

My suggestion

I think the only thing I would do as "owner" would be to see how some forums are not getting used so they should be merged into a more broad forum for more views. And at some time perhaps a forum that is getting too much action could possibly be split into two depending on what is happening there.

Whole sale changes aren't needed.

Having a forum for "the best data/threads/video/resources" would be nice.

Also, having a jail forum where locked threads go could be useful, but again, depending on the size of the membership this may be usesless, because an ignored thread will get pushed further down the list.

Just my two cents.

Good Luck.

Thanks for the great forum Josh.

 

[Dustancostine]

Foo,

The problem is that you seem to not have a grasp on reality. Did you go and look at what happened when you moved a thread?

Apparently not.

You assume by doing this everyone will go to the other forums, but that didnot happen. Just about every thread you moved was basically deleted because no one is reading them anymore.

You claim all you were doing is enforcing, well that is a lame excuse. There are various ways that you can "enforce", they way you did it was arrogant and a total disregard of you audience.

You claim that my ideas are speculation, but what happened yesterday during your stunt. Nothing. Nothing what so ever. Why? Because no on could find anything and they were discouraged.

You claim all of my postings are just opinions. While truej, I do have a degree in Psychology and have a pretty good grasp on human nature, which you apparently lack. I am also a business owner and manage a lot of people, so I have a pretty good grasp on how to motivate people and to get people to do what they are uncomfortable doing. Apparently you are no good at this either.

I know this is Josh's forum, but it cannot work without posters. I am a poster and I was giving my opinion, if you don't like it to0 bad, your a mod you can delete it or ban me if you feel like it.

I gave my constructive criticism of this issue last night to Bradley and Josh, I will pm it to you as well.

--Dustan

 

[Nefertiti]

It's not the changes people are mad at.

at least that's not what im annoyed at..

I'm annoyed because in some of the posts that I have seen, the moderators were egging on people to leave.

The people they were egging on to leave were people engaging in name-calling and insulting of other forum members. Frankly, I think they were being too kind in egging them on to leave-they should have just banned them or deleted the posts that contained offensive remarks. Telling people to fuck off and other similar remarks do not contribute anything productive to the goals of these forums and only serve to create discord. The moderators simply need to delete stuff like that and without comment.

 

[Nefertiti]

Please people, be honest. You are all self-absorbed and want your post to get more traffic so you post it in the news forum because you see more people browsing there, even if you know it has nothing to do with Ron Paul news.

If you put the posts in their proper place from the beginning, then traffic would be spread out evenly among all the forums.

And just because you post in the news forum doesn't necessarily mean it is going to get more attention. If I don't check the news forum every hour your new post could have dropped off the first page completely and I never see it. There are only so many posts we can read in a day and just because they are all in the news forum doesn't mean they will get more attention.

I suggest one thing to the moderators-remove the numbers of people browsing each forum. It only goes to people's heads. Then they will treat the more important forums-like strategies for success-with the respect and attention they deserve. Move those important categories to the top and bury news at the bottom. People are lazy about scrolling-there are studies that prove this.

 

[CJP]

I'll add my vote for Foo's reorganization layout. The simpler, the better.

The fewer the forums, the better chance they have of all being active. That way, people won't be as tempted to put their threads in an inappropriate place just because it is more active.

Plus, it's just easier for everybody that way.


I like your idea of making Hot Topics invisible to the non-registered, if we're going have it at all. Can we also make HT threads invisible to the New Posts link (for everyone) as well?

When I joined, I first found Hot Topics using the New Posts button. The name "Hot Topics" doesn't clearly indicate what it is. To me it sounded like it meant "Current Topics/News". You've got a rabid holocaust-denying anti-semite posting there right now. This is not good at all for our cause. (If anyone is interested, they can read my "diatribes" about this under "Hot Topics/The truth about 9/11".) Maybe "Controversial Topics" would be a better name for the sub-forum.


One point of constructive criticism for Foo, though: I don't know exactly what happened, but I think a friendly post from the moderator to a thread that ought to be moved elsewhere would be helpful first step. The moderator could suggest the move, get feedback, and then make the move with a consensus behind it.

.