Announcements Response Topic

[MeadowR]

Thanks for all the work you've put into the forum over the years, Daniel! Enjoy a good rest from here, but do keep stopping by.

[HeadInAnotherGalaxy]

Ah zink Ah avready ken ze anzver tae ziz queztion, but Ah'm gaein' tae azk it anyvay: vhy vere ze Front Lavnz changed tae (Pozt Count Off)?

[Dannflower Reguba]

The Front Lawns is a strictly social board, outside of the Orchard being a more refined personal projects board (that DOES count posts). The post count feature is supposed to give some measure of the depth of a members' contribution to the forum, not a "hee hee number go up" fix. With that in mind, silly and social posts don't trend towards this contribution mindset.

[Kade Rivok]

I can see where you're coming from, and I personally don't care one way or the other whether the Front Lawns counts posts, but saying that post count equals "contribution" basically implies that the people that don't post outside those topics aren't contributing to the forum, which I find to be a bit of a mean-spirited outlook.

If instead you mean that, by doing this, only posts on topics more directly related to Redwall or Brian Jacques in general are counted, then that makes plenty of sense.

[Matthias720]

I hear you Kade, but think about it in a slightly different context. Humans are wired to think that bigger is better. This mindset is not necessarily bad or wrong, but it does tend to drive people to pursue quantity over quality. In the context of critical discussion, one post with a well thought-out point is worth more to the community than a dozen posts of "I agree" or just 2 smilies. If discussion is allowed to devolve into chatroom banter, what's the difference between the forum and our Discord server? We need to promote a healthy forum culture, and that culture cannot be made of 100% Cellars content. The silliness of the Cellars has its place; the Cellars. When that silliness starts to spread out into other areas of the Forum, it needs to be curtailed.

[HeadInAnotherGalaxy]

Ah underztand. Ah remember ze fev toimez vhen memberz 'it 10,000 poztz everybeazt zeemed tae be moztly lookin' at zat member reachin' 10,000 poztz razer zan vot vere actually in zoze poztz.

Alzae, apologiez fer ze Cellarz invadin' ze Front Lavnz. It daez get a vee bit crazy or vhimzical zometoimez.

[Kade Rivok]

I hear you Kade, but think about it in a slightly different context. Humans are wired to think that bigger is better. This mindset is not necessarily bad or wrong, but it does tend to drive people to pursue quantity over quality. In the context of critical discussion, one post with a well thought-out point is worth more to the community than a dozen posts of "I agree" or just 2 smilies. If discussion is allowed to devolve into chatroom banter, what's the difference between the forum and our Discord server? We need to promote a healthy forum culture, and that culture cannot be made of 100% Cellars content. The silliness of the Cellars has its place; the Cellars. When that silliness starts to spread out into other areas of the Forum, it needs to be curtailed.

No, that's all fair and I certainly don't disagree with any of your points.   

[Tungro]

The silliness of the Cellars has its place; the Cellars. When that silliness starts to spread out into other areas of the Forum, it needs to be curtailed.

I don't see how just removing the post count will fix that though, I don't think people go to the front lawns with cellars content to explicitly gain post counts. A universal message cooldown would be an interesting endeavor I'd be willing to explore more

If discussion is allowed to devolve into chatroom banter, what's the difference between the forum and our Discord server? We need to promote a healthy forum culture, and that culture cannot be made of 100% Cellars content.

I feel like that's exactly where the cellars already are though. If the discord server is considered a sort of extension to the forum, I'd readily advocate for archiving the cellars. The front lawns provide plenty of opportunity for personal discussion, the cellars really don't have a constructive direction on the forum that the discord server doesn't already provide I feel

[Ally046]

Many people don't have access to the discord, and the cellars keeps the forum as an open place for folks, especially those attempting to navigate and understand thing when their new. If the cellars were not active, there would be even less activity in the other areas of the forum. And the cellars and discord chat are certainly different beasts altogether, and do not serve the same pourposes. The discord is a chat, the cellars is still a forum area.

[Cornflower MM]

If discussion is allowed to devolve into chatroom banter, what's the difference between the forum and our Discord server? We need to promote a healthy forum culture, and that culture cannot be made of 100% Cellars content.

I feel like that's exactly where the cellars already are though. If the discord server is considered a sort of extension to the forum, I'd readily advocate for archiving the cellars. The front lawns provide plenty of opportunity for personal discussion, the cellars really don't have a constructive direction on the forum that the discord server doesn't already provide I feel

Hi, forum Discord server owner here. The "Redwall Abbey Community Forum Server" is not officially affiliated with the forum - It never has been, never will be. The original creator was not staff at any point, I received ownership of it well before my promotion here, and the staff team has always maintained that the two are to remain separated. If you'll notice, at the bottom of the server rules, there's a note about that, and rule #3 in the server is:

3) Do not bring outside arguments to the channel nor take server arguments to the forum.

So basically no, the server is not considered an extension to the forum in any sort of official capacity.



Part of the decision to remove the post count from the Front Lawns wasn't necessarily to fix the problem - Rather, to stop rewarding the problematic behavior. Some members have wished to get high post counts and "beat" the top posters, yet their main post counting board is the Front Lawns and over the past year or so post quality has gone down so massively that I've seen only smiley faces posted multiple times - Not to mention the multiple times members haven't even been sure of what board they were in. The Front Lawns are a place for personal discussion with depth, meant to be separate from the craziness of the Cellars. There isn't really a reason for it to be post counted. It's not that we're approaching it from the angle that if you only post in the Cellars you don't contribute to the forum, it's that we're trying to keep the craziness contained to the proper place. (Not that fun isn't allowed in the Front Lawns, just that fun and spammy fun are two different things)
Focus has overall shifted: It's not "This board is post counted, I should take an extra moment to look at what I post to make sure I'm contributing" it's "oh hey my post count goes up when I post here" if that makes sense.

[Kade Rivok]

Makes sense to me.

I will say though that the part regarding members not realizing they're posting in the Front Lawns I believe simply stems from hitting the "unread posts" link and just responding to all the threads they've posted in before.  On there, it is still listed what part of the forum the thread is in, but that info is in much smaller text and isn't as readily apparent.  For folks that predominantly post in the cellars, it's a pretty easy mistake to make.

EDIT:  And another announcement dropped.  Sorry to see you go as well, Rosie, but hopefully life'll be a bit easier to manage now.   Don't be a stranger.

[Matthias720]

Good luck, Rosie! You were a valuable member of thee staff, and your presence will be missed. I wish you all the best as you wrap up school and prepare for college. Thank you for your service to the community!

[HeadInAnotherGalaxy]

Fair vindz viz finizhin' 'oigh zchool und ztartin' college, Rosie! Ah 'ope ye foind a major vone. Zummat zat ye could look at zat moight 'elp iz community college (if ye 'ave zat). Zat'z alvayz an intereztin' toime. Ah 'ope ve'll ztill zee ye aboot ze forum!

[Russa Nodrey]

Good luck with everything, Rosie. Don't forget to stop by when you can.

[Scott McLamok]

RIP Queen Rosies Mod status. We can no longer fight for her
Also I just realized me and Lass probably broke the PM rule some time or other...