INTRO:
Let me preface this by saying I am loving all the new forum engagement and new idea presented by members of community. Frankly, I haven’t seen this level of community involvement for quite a long time. Brings back memories from the 2016-2017 era when community participation on this forum was an all time high. Of course this “new” look forums comes with a caveat. Before we were used to threads that were high quality and posts on those threads that were high quality. Now it seems as if we are getting less of those threads and responses. More common nowadays are posts/threads that are useless, redundant, and unoriginal. Responses on threads will either regurgitate something that has been said or add something that doesn’t benefit the thread in any way(like saying “+1 Great thread!) More and more users will respond to threads in these ways to farm messages which in turn increase their community engagement. A reason for the slight change in the forums recently is the new Helper recruitment changes. As said in the thread, it would be a bonus to an applicant if they are involving themselves more in the community(i.e forums, discord, etc.) It was suggested by the Helper Recruitment team to the applicants that they involve themselves on the forums by suggesting new content ideas and being active. Involving yourself with the forums is great, but these people went about it incorrectly. Users are posting double or triple threads instead of posting something in a single thread, pointless and useless messages are being posted in response to threads that add no nothing beneficial, new or interesting to them. Instead of posting these useless messages why don’t users just vote on a poll or like the thread instead adding something that benefit anyone. In the next part of this thread I will provide evidence to back up my claims and I will prove a few possible solutions.
Evidence and Solutions
All of the evidence that I will now provide will be coming from the suggestion sub-forum, I am excluding posts from the News and Artwork sub-forums although those have a plethora of evidence. I will also be blurring out forums names out of respect for these members.
Situation #1:
Adding nothing new or interesting to a thread by restating what has already been said by the thread maker.
As you see the the post in the second screenshot is just regurgitating what the first post says. Instead of repeating this message the second user could have either liked the post or voted on the poll(There was one by the way.)
Situation #2:
Posting multiple threads or posts instead of posting them into one giant message.
Why can't these just be made into one huge thread. The first two screenshots are about the same topic and should be made into one thread. The third screenshots contains a picture of suggestions pretty much made up of suggestions to enhance the server. Why can't one huge thread be posted, is the user trying to make it look like they are engaging with the community more?
Situation 3:
Kind of similar to Situation 1 but the message farming here is pretty blatant. Instead of voting on a poll or liking a thread, the users have to comment something unhelpful or redundant.
Possible Solutions
What can be done to fix the current status of the forums? Well, you came to the right place.
Staff team should make a forum guide.
This guide will properly teach a user how to use the forums. The one right now doesn't mention the things that I am critiquing. A lot of new forum users come into the forums knowing nothing about it, and what is considered taboo and what isn't considered taboo on the forums.
The Helper Recruitment Message should be edited.
Currently, the recruitment thread states that it is a bonus to engage in the community especially the forums and to post ideas for the server/discord/forum. Many users have interpreted this message incorrectly and because of this the quality of the messages on the forums has gone down. A possible solution would be to make a thread that explains some of suggestions listed in that thread more in depth. Another possible solution would be to update that thread and edit the message about forum involvement so that people could correctly interpret its meaning.
Staff Enforcement/Punishment
In my time here I have rarely seen anyone punished for message farming all though it is considered against the rules to do so. I recommend that staff punish message farmers more regularly or at least update the rules to make sure the community knows what constitutes message farming. Types of messages that should be removed can be seen in the screenshots above. Messages like +1 great idea!, or messages that are copying what someone else said or duplicate threads or small threads posted in quick succession that can all be posted in one giant thread.
Thank you all for reading my thread. Criticism and opinions are greatly appreciated! Sorry if there are any grammatical or spelling mistakes. -Smoothlyy
Let me preface this by saying I am loving all the new forum engagement and new idea presented by members of community. Frankly, I haven’t seen this level of community involvement for quite a long time. Brings back memories from the 2016-2017 era when community participation on this forum was an all time high. Of course this “new” look forums comes with a caveat. Before we were used to threads that were high quality and posts on those threads that were high quality. Now it seems as if we are getting less of those threads and responses. More common nowadays are posts/threads that are useless, redundant, and unoriginal. Responses on threads will either regurgitate something that has been said or add something that doesn’t benefit the thread in any way(like saying “+1 Great thread!) More and more users will respond to threads in these ways to farm messages which in turn increase their community engagement. A reason for the slight change in the forums recently is the new Helper recruitment changes. As said in the thread, it would be a bonus to an applicant if they are involving themselves more in the community(i.e forums, discord, etc.) It was suggested by the Helper Recruitment team to the applicants that they involve themselves on the forums by suggesting new content ideas and being active. Involving yourself with the forums is great, but these people went about it incorrectly. Users are posting double or triple threads instead of posting something in a single thread, pointless and useless messages are being posted in response to threads that add no nothing beneficial, new or interesting to them. Instead of posting these useless messages why don’t users just vote on a poll or like the thread instead adding something that benefit anyone. In the next part of this thread I will provide evidence to back up my claims and I will prove a few possible solutions.
Evidence and Solutions
All of the evidence that I will now provide will be coming from the suggestion sub-forum, I am excluding posts from the News and Artwork sub-forums although those have a plethora of evidence. I will also be blurring out forums names out of respect for these members.
Situation #1:
Adding nothing new or interesting to a thread by restating what has already been said by the thread maker.
As you see the the post in the second screenshot is just regurgitating what the first post says. Instead of repeating this message the second user could have either liked the post or voted on the poll(There was one by the way.)
Situation #2:
Posting multiple threads or posts instead of posting them into one giant message.
Why can't these just be made into one huge thread. The first two screenshots are about the same topic and should be made into one thread. The third screenshots contains a picture of suggestions pretty much made up of suggestions to enhance the server. Why can't one huge thread be posted, is the user trying to make it look like they are engaging with the community more?
Situation 3:
Kind of similar to Situation 1 but the message farming here is pretty blatant. Instead of voting on a poll or liking a thread, the users have to comment something unhelpful or redundant.
Possible Solutions
What can be done to fix the current status of the forums? Well, you came to the right place.
Staff team should make a forum guide.
This guide will properly teach a user how to use the forums. The one right now doesn't mention the things that I am critiquing. A lot of new forum users come into the forums knowing nothing about it, and what is considered taboo and what isn't considered taboo on the forums.
The Helper Recruitment Message should be edited.
Currently, the recruitment thread states that it is a bonus to engage in the community especially the forums and to post ideas for the server/discord/forum. Many users have interpreted this message incorrectly and because of this the quality of the messages on the forums has gone down. A possible solution would be to make a thread that explains some of suggestions listed in that thread more in depth. Another possible solution would be to update that thread and edit the message about forum involvement so that people could correctly interpret its meaning.
Staff Enforcement/Punishment
In my time here I have rarely seen anyone punished for message farming all though it is considered against the rules to do so. I recommend that staff punish message farmers more regularly or at least update the rules to make sure the community knows what constitutes message farming. Types of messages that should be removed can be seen in the screenshots above. Messages like +1 great idea!, or messages that are copying what someone else said or duplicate threads or small threads posted in quick succession that can all be posted in one giant thread.
Thank you all for reading my thread. Criticism and opinions are greatly appreciated! Sorry if there are any grammatical or spelling mistakes. -Smoothlyy
Attachments
Last edited:
