Thanks. I had not known they got that up.
Not necessarily so. There is no necessary correlation between having a degree in something and knowing anything about how that subject works in the real world. I have a dual honours degree in two subjects that I know next to nothing about. I’m not proud of this, but it’s a fact. .
Academic qualifications are a poor guide to anything in the real world - just ask anyone with several years’ experience in professional recruitment. The world is full of people with impressive-sounding academic qualifications who perform at a very mediocre level when actually hired.
The people who can safely be said to know something about making money on the internet are those who have made money on the internet.
You may well have done this, Xjetgirl. I’m not criticising you, and for all I know you could be brimming with relevant real-world experience that could substantially asssit the Reader in trying to make the Boards pay handsomely. I’m just taking issue with the notion that having a degree in something necessarily has anything to do with real-life knowledge, application and accomplishment. It doesn’t. It means you’ve got a degree in something.
That was a pretty good find. Except they are a non-profit corporation. And so their showing of business acumen etc etc doesn’t apply.
I predict that when the Reader gets a handle on the archives of this board and can manage it so that searches don’t interfer with current users, the board speed here will be equal to any other board. I have confidence that they are working on it and it will happen.
I didn’t read threads over there to determine if they have moderators and if their moderators are shitty.
FTR, tomndebb’s response was not posted yet when I started typing my post.
According to information on the site, it’s been up at least since 2003 (and probably longer, since that citation is in regards to a Web traffic study.)
And it’s linked to in the boilerplate at the bottom of every page (and has been for a quite a while.)
I still don’t understand this idea that the SDMB is going to be a source of significant revenue for the Reader, especially considering the way things have been handled since subscriptions were introduced (staff-membership relations, introduction of Google ads after repeated statements about the ineffectiveness of advertisement programs, lack of any significant marketing.) This place is, at best, a niche establishment. It’s not Amazon, or even LiveJournal. Expecting it to suddenly become a major revenue producer is a reach.
Don’t get me wrong: for all its flaws, I love this place, which is why it bothers me to see staff regard paying members as a nuisance or annoyance, and to see members’ attempts to improve the place rebuffed because someone can’t figure out how to do it without creating a hassle for the Reader.
ianzin, That’s a fair comment and I appreciate the difference between academic knowledge and real-world experience. In fact I pursued my degree based on my real-world experience creating eCommerce and custom sites for both freelance clients and my employers.
My main point was that many people here with all kinds of relevant experience, whether marketing, programming, or just general business experience have offered their time and expertise and been told they can’t/won’t accept their help. If the Reader were really interested in making something of these boards, they could surely find a way harness the expertise being offered at a pittance. I don’t know of any other (successful) company that has drug their heels for years on the possibility of exploiting a cheap resource that could open up new sources of revenue. If the Reader really wanted to make it happen, I assure you they could.
But even the mods here don’t know what the Reader’s priorities are. Their own staff here on the boards don’t know what the vision or plan is for the boards. That says to me there’s no one at the helm of this ship with any sort of vision or plan to make these boards successful in the way they could be.
I’ve been reading these threads and haven’t commented until now. But I think that this gets to the crux of the disagreement. I don’t think anyone is saying the mods can’t be snarky, mean, or jerky, if they want, just like any other poster. But it seems to me that if they are not postiing in Mod mode, then they can not wield the power of a Mod at that time. So, when not posting in Mod mode, any talk of banning someone—or anything else that a normal poster would have the power to do—should absolutely not be allowed. Even if it is not done indirectly.
I think that Garfield226 is correct here. It seems that a simple and direct apology/explanation from the person in question is in order. It does seem like there is stonewilling here. Of course, YMMV.
I’ve a friend with a degree in Economics. He’s dead broke.
Wasn’t there a consideration for the mods to identify moderating posts with different colour, or a tag, so personal feelings/opinions wouldn’t be mixed with moderation? They are doing this over at the forums for rpg.net, and I think it works pretty well.
I was unaware of that, but it sounds like a pretty good idea. I don’t know if it is needed, though, or if it would have solved or avoided this problem. It seems to me that the Mod in question here was trying to be weasly, as has been pointed out. She could have done the very same thing with colored modding. Although it may help the mods by reminding them that they have this special power they may choose to use every time they post.
It’s already been stated by now, but there’s really not a whole ot of web design, marketing, or systems engineering involved in a vBulletin message board. All the major stuff is provided by the software, as far as the web design goes, and the look of the site can be altered quickly with the application of various different skins. Some of the more knowledgable users could potentially create new skins, which they could either give or sell for next to nothing to the Reader. Right now I don’t see any real marketing being done from boards.straightdope.com (and I don’t include the Google ads in this because they’re not selling SD products) but there certainly could be links to an online catalog of merchandise around here. There are talented people here. Run a contest to design an SD t-shirt or something and then turn the top three designs into actual t-shirts and sell them. As far as system engineers, I really don’t think that it’s necessary to have the full time involvement of one for running a website. General issues such as outages or server reboots are what you pay your hosting company for. Rackspace, the company that’s a subsidiary of the Reader’s own parent company? Software issues can be handled remotely for almost every purpose whether the web server runs *nix or Windows, and really shouldn’t take up that much of an administrator’s time. How do I know this? I work for a commercial outfit that has a medium to large scale database driven website hosted off site by a hosting company. It’s my job to update that site periodically, which includes more than just adding a couple of links. All told, it takes me about an hour a week to deal with the site. Updating calendars, news items, changing pictures, adding new information, takes about an hour of my time each week, sometimes less. I’ve never actually had to go to the hosting company for a damn thing. We pay them to keep the site online by keeping the server running, maintaining the security, etc. On their end of the contract, they guarantee a certain level of performance, and make the upgrades to their server hardware when necessary to continue that level of performance, and for all this we get 99.999% availability under contract.
The reason the SD gets called out on all the stuff they say that doesn’t make sense is one of the reasons that I’m still around here: people here are educated professionals who know what the hell they’re doing. You might be able to pull a snowjob on a forum where the people aren’t e-commerce experts, systems administrators, web designers, programmers, software engineers, etc, but it’s rather hard to do that with all of us around.
I think, seriously, all any of us are asking for is honesty.
Non-profit doesn’t mean they don’t make money. The only difference is that any money made over and above operating costs and overhead gets put back into the business.
In fact, many non-profits seek out traditional revenue streams in addition to fundraising activities and grants, and general business strategy is just as relevant for a non-profit as for a for-profit operation, so their business acumen is incredibly relevant. And besides, you’re trying to tell me that a for-profit company can’t figure out how to capitalize where a non-profit seems to be thriving? Not buying that excuse.
And? One of the complaints in the past has been that the Reader would not accept volunteer efforts to change what they were doing. Showing that what they are currently doing does not require much technical expertise is arguing a wholly different issue. Is it your position that XJETGIRLX was mistaken and that no one has offered expertise that has been declined?
I have not read the three pages of this thread, and I don’t intend to.
Honesty, my ass. Y’all are not asking for honesty, you’re asking for an abject apology, grovelling, and a public whipping. You’re looking for revenge. So, drop the bullshit. You’re not going to get any of it. TubaDiva made her perspective clear long, long ago, but why listen when you can continue to flog the long-dead horse? It’s so much more fun, isn’t it, to rant and rave about injustice on the Message Boards.
Enough. Those of you who hate these boards, my best suggestion is that you go elsewhere. There are hundreds of unmoderated boards out there, be my guest. You’ll have no moderators to scream and yell about, and you can enjoy yourself without any frustration. But recognize reality: any time there’s moderated boards, or authority of any type, you’re going to find decisions and situations that you don’t agree with.
Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
Unless, of course, you get your jollies out of yelling at authority. In that case, I suggest you channel your energies where they’ll do some good: find some real injustices, out there on the streets or in the halls of government, and raise your voice in protest. There’s lots of worthy causes out there in the real world that matter, where you can get your emotional highs fighting for something meaningful.
Just recently in a thread on problems with the board’s search feature Bippy the Beardless suggests there is enough expertise in our membership to help fix the problem and asks a diagnostic question.
Tuba replies, “Thanks but no thanks.”
Sorry, no more cites at the moment as I’ve got to go, but I’ve seen this same little dance played out many times.
I’ve already said that although I think I deserve an apology for being called a liar, I am not asking for one nor do I ever expect there to be one.
Offering a couple of suggestions for ways that this place could make some money is ‘ranting and raving’?
I’m not planning on going through the door any time soon.
I’ve made a suggestion or two about making the place more profitable and said that calling me a liar was inaccurate and unnecessary. How is that ‘getting jollies out of yelling at authority’?
As a person who has not contributed to this thread, or any of them, I have seen reasonable, and unreasonable positions on both sides. Suffice it to say though, that I do not think everyone wants a “degrading” apology, begging and torture.
IMHO, Tuba could simply say, 1) I was wrong when I implied you were lying, 2) I am not going to apologize for that though because I still think you are (blankety blank) and because I was wrong on one thing does not change my overall opinion of you as a poster, and 3) What I meant by the comment was this…
As for the call for suspension of Tuba, etc…, that is way out there. Furthermore, persecution of her beyond a simple request of clarification is way out of line and she does not deserve that.
However, a request to have authority figures explain themselves, admit when they are mistaken and act responsibly with that authority is not wholly unreasonable on a board that is about 1) “fighting ignorance” and 2) pay to post.
Mods and Admins do a great job on a great board, but everyone makes mistakes. This is one of the things that always pisses me off about politics and government. Why can our leaders not simply admit when they make mistake. They always have to cover it up with either lies, or some sort of spin. It is troubling to see it any time.
Many times, we back ourselves into a corner, and then get angry when people make more out of something than it really is. However, our disappointment and frustration, quickly turns into stubbornness and anger. Only the original parties involved can end that.
Again with this shit? This is rather similar to the “I didn’t read the other thread, but I know people are issuing vile insults in it.” And the “it’s obvious that TD wasn’t talking about banning, because she didn’t mention it to any of the other moderators in e-mail.”
Good advice.
And the standard answer is given. The mods are always right, and if they’re not, you are just one of those people who hates us, so piss off.
The thread can now be locked.
Regards,
Shodan
Bullshit, you fucking asshole. You’re a moron at best and intentionally stirring up shit at worst. This WHOLE time I’ve been asking for nothing more than an explanation from TubaDiva, and I’m fairly sure no one in any of these threads has said anything about how they “hate” these boards.
While you’re here, allow me to ask YOU a direct question, which I assure you I only want an answer, not groveling for: Can you point out a single “vile” insult made to TubaDiva in the ATMB thread you closed?
In short, congratulations, you’re an idiot, and you just dropped a rung lower than Tuba on my scale of people abusing authority.
Dex, that was just about the most assholish answer that could have been given. Thanks for making at least your position perfectly clear.
FYI: hate for these boards or clamoring for a degrading spectacle of contrition was never a part of why I was involved in these threads. Your refusal to see that, or even to read the thread, is your own damn fault. Suggesting we leave our neighbourhood of friends just because a couple of cops on our beat are jerks is not a valid suggestion.
You are acting like a jerk. Whether you truly are one or not is a question I cannot answer.