Discussion on "Venting Forums"

Another forum I was on for something or other, had some places that you could not post to until you had posted so many times on the regular forums. Just to prevent drive by's and trolls from getting to that forum.

just a thought- i hardly ever look anymore at what forum something is posted to. i just open up to "today's posts" and start reading. so how we will ensure people know where they are posting? and some people won't care. so what happens when an a parent does post on the b parent only forum?

It'll be group/permissions based - you have to 'join' the group to see the posts. I likely won't allow them to be searchable in the "new posts" - if we did it, I'd make people have to work to use it, so it didn't become the only place where posts were made (and there would be no accidental replying)

ahhh....smart. then i like that. i do feel that there are things each of the sides has to say where people in the same situation will understand, but it could come off offense to another of the groups.

I like that too. Do a lot of people really just search new posts? I admit that before I was a moderator I jut went to the parts that interested me. Even after I was a moderator I would go to just my boards and a few favorites and anything on watch tower. It wasn't until the lastest change in status that I started just reading everything new.

After reading all the responses on the threads and thinking about this some more over the weekend, I think we'll be better off keeping our forums the way they are. Most members don't want a segregation of things and like the all open approach. I also thought a lot about the moderating aspect of this and think it'll create more hassle in the end then it's worth. So my suggestion now is to come up with either a symbol to mark a thread specifically for support (no debate etc.) or just a title that can be used to designate those threads. If that isn't "enough", then we might consider having ONE forum titled "Hard Truth/Fire Topic" (or whatever) that people can post threads in and everyone knows that it's likely to be a hard topic to read so they can avoid it if needed. Something along those lines anyway. Thoughts?

I'm thinking on this Crick...... ....I do think that seperate threads might cause some.....weirdness - is that what I mean? I don't know.... I think an indicator of a support thread is good.

The more I thought/think about – the more I come back to the realization that, regardless of what we do (if we do anything, and I am strongly leaning towards the do-nothing-camp) it will lead to more trouble, frustration, anger and resentment.Bottom line – people will use the new ‘system’ as a means to bash under the guise of support. It’ll happen, it always happens.People will do and say things on the internet that they would NEVER say or do in public. People just don’t care – and because they don’t care, it won’t matter what avenues we put in place to try to make everyone comfortable.As far as I’m concerned – putting a system in place that will drive another ‘wedge’ between the sides isn’t the answer.Because you know – regardless of our intent – some will see it as “This is the (Insert Triad Side Here) Support Forum – you have no right to post here”. Which will NOT happen…I mean – look – they already do it and we’ve made it pretty darn clear that these forums aren’t segregated. So, as I said – I am leaning hard and heavy towards the ‘do nothing’ side – I just don’t think we’re going to be able to solve this problem. This is one of those things where, regardless of what we do, we lose.I think the simple answer – one that everyone can use and is currently in place is the “Reporting” system – if someone has a problem with a thread, a post, a member – report them.They don’t agree with a moderating decision? Fine – open a RESPECTFUL dialogue with the moderator. None of these things are currently being used – and as far as I’m concerned, until we’ve exhausted our existing tools for making this a safe place – we shouldn’t be adding any additional trickery. As for the open dialogue, I don’t mean the typical “YOU’RE A FREAKIN TOOL YOU MORON STOP MODERATING ADOPTEES BECAUSE YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT WE GO THROUGH!!!!!111 crap I usually get – I mean a “Please, help me understand…” type message…and people need to know that they aren’t always going to agree with our decisions, because we’re looking at them from a very different view usually.So, until we’ve got people communicating with us, which they aren’t currently doing, we can’t fix the problem.

:grr::hissy: It seems to me that either of these would be appropriate for "I've venting" and/or looking for support not debate!