Post by Admin on May 13, 2008 14:49:20 GMT
I'll move your questions to a new thread on the suggestion board Sylla, so as not to clutter the announcement board.
This can be done either way. Proboards is set up so that everyone can see or only staff can see. While it does serve as an incentive for members to keep from over-posting for example, the last thing I want is for people to feel uncomfortable here. Warning bars will only be visible to the staff who, I can assure you, won't go shouting so-and-so's got 50% on their warning bar.
On the other hand, you can assume that members will be aware that you have some percentage on your warning bar (not a concrete number though), simply by reading the mod edits Pied often leaves on your posts. Hopefully, seeing them and knowing they have resulted in some sort of percentage increase will encourage for members to stay on topic.
This is a hard one to define. Off-topicness just happens, it's perfectly natural. I would encourage for every member to put some thought into their posts and decide if it's relevant to the topic before posting. With off-topicness, I think it's possible to revert to the topic at hand, whereas with spamming it's completely unrelated.
An example of this would be the various introductory threads. Some span ten or more pages, to the point it's no longer welcoming the new member but random conversations. Sure it's very important to say hello to new members, but these threads have a tendency to spiral out of control and serve as a chatting thread. I would consider that as spam.
I'd say your signature is the max size for a signature. Two images or several lines of text should be enough for one's signature. Unfortunately, this site doesn't put a limit to the size of images, so I have to leave it to members' discretion. We'll definitely let you know beforehand if your signature is too big; we won't just slap on some percentage without warning for something you did wrong unknowingly.
Yes, it might be awkward to have a percentage when it's been a long time since the incidents. I'm not sure of a redemption system but if anyone feels they deserve to have their points lowered, feel free to PM a member of staff. As I mentioned in the announcement, we're not looking to warn people, and I certainly don't enjoy having to enforce this.
No worries, let me try and explain. Hotlinking is when you link to an image that is hosted by another server. Sites like photobucket and imageshack exist solely for uploading images onto their servers. Signatures and avatars that use these sorts of sites are fine.
It's when you paste into your signature something like:
finalfantasy7.com/cloud.jpg
that the trouble begins. Whenever you post, it's finalfantasy7.com that has to send data to load your signature pic of Cloud. That's known as bandwidth. External sites have to pay for bandwidth and therefore, have to pay for your signature, when you could have saved it onto your PC and uploaded it onto a server that hosts pictures for you.
Generally speaking, websites do not like to have their bandwidth taken from them. I don't know what happens if our forum hotlinks too much. We might get complaints from the sites or from Proboards themselves. As such, it would only be polite and sensible to stick with servers that act as hosts.
A common signature is that 'What FF character are you?' image, which does actually hotlink back to the site, but since they provide you with the source code for the image, this is one that's exempt from hotlinking warnings.
Any other questions regarding the warning system, please post here.
Will these warning bars be visible to all the members of the forum? I ask this because it may be embarassing for people (say, people who tend to drift off-topic, thereby accumulating points) and seen as too heavy-handed, which might be an incentive to keep the warning bars private.
On the other hand, having a publicly visible warning bar may inspire more moderation, and serve as a warning to other forum members when one member is being abusive/profane/etc.
On the other hand, having a publicly visible warning bar may inspire more moderation, and serve as a warning to other forum members when one member is being abusive/profane/etc.
This can be done either way. Proboards is set up so that everyone can see or only staff can see. While it does serve as an incentive for members to keep from over-posting for example, the last thing I want is for people to feel uncomfortable here. Warning bars will only be visible to the staff who, I can assure you, won't go shouting so-and-so's got 50% on their warning bar.
On the other hand, you can assume that members will be aware that you have some percentage on your warning bar (not a concrete number though), simply by reading the mod edits Pied often leaves on your posts. Hopefully, seeing them and knowing they have resulted in some sort of percentage increase will encourage for members to stay on topic.
Secondly, where do we draw the line between spam and just general off-topicness? Obviously that's for the admins to decide, but having a clear line might help a lot of members keep their posts safely in the non-spam zone.
This is a hard one to define. Off-topicness just happens, it's perfectly natural. I would encourage for every member to put some thought into their posts and decide if it's relevant to the topic before posting. With off-topicness, I think it's possible to revert to the topic at hand, whereas with spamming it's completely unrelated.
An example of this would be the various introductory threads. Some span ten or more pages, to the point it's no longer welcoming the new member but random conversations. Sure it's very important to say hello to new members, but these threads have a tendency to spiral out of control and serve as a chatting thread. I would consider that as spam.
And on the topic of sigs, how big is too big? Is, say, my signature too big? (Because I will definitely edit it if it is.)
I'd say your signature is the max size for a signature. Two images or several lines of text should be enough for one's signature. Unfortunately, this site doesn't put a limit to the size of images, so I have to leave it to members' discretion. We'll definitely let you know beforehand if your signature is too big; we won't just slap on some percentage without warning for something you did wrong unknowingly.
Additionally, is it possible, once youve commited an offence, to somehow decrease the number of points in your bar - say by being courteous, on-topic, etc? Because it seems a mite unfair if someone who's 'reformed' constantly has those points looming over their head - that could be just me, though.
Yes, it might be awkward to have a percentage when it's been a long time since the incidents. I'm not sure of a redemption system but if anyone feels they deserve to have their points lowered, feel free to PM a member of staff. As I mentioned in the announcement, we're not looking to warn people, and I certainly don't enjoy having to enforce this.
Oh. Also. What exactly is hotlinking? (Yes, I've Wiki'd it up, but the page is so convoluted I couldn't make head not tail of it.) And why can that be considered an offence while regular linking isn't?
No worries, let me try and explain. Hotlinking is when you link to an image that is hosted by another server. Sites like photobucket and imageshack exist solely for uploading images onto their servers. Signatures and avatars that use these sorts of sites are fine.
It's when you paste into your signature something like:
finalfantasy7.com/cloud.jpg
that the trouble begins. Whenever you post, it's finalfantasy7.com that has to send data to load your signature pic of Cloud. That's known as bandwidth. External sites have to pay for bandwidth and therefore, have to pay for your signature, when you could have saved it onto your PC and uploaded it onto a server that hosts pictures for you.
Generally speaking, websites do not like to have their bandwidth taken from them. I don't know what happens if our forum hotlinks too much. We might get complaints from the sites or from Proboards themselves. As such, it would only be polite and sensible to stick with servers that act as hosts.
A common signature is that 'What FF character are you?' image, which does actually hotlink back to the site, but since they provide you with the source code for the image, this is one that's exempt from hotlinking warnings.
Any other questions regarding the warning system, please post here.