Message Board Updates

01 December, 2006

ArtWanted.com Staff
3,593 Views
75 Comments

Over the last few days we have had the chance to make many new updates to the message boards. These changes are based off your feedback and suggestions and we hope they make the message boards a better place for everyone.

1) MEMBERS ONLY THREADS

Based off the feedback from our recent member survey, we have decided to close off most of the message boards from public view. This means that you have to be a member to read and post responses to the threads. The only two sections that are open to the public to view are the 'Announcements' and the 'Contests'. This change will keep potential art buyers looking at artwork, and not reading message board debates.

2) REPORTING THREADS TO MODERATORS/STAFF

One of the big challenges of running a site like this, is that our staff and moderators are greatly outnumbered. It's impossible for us to keep up and read every post by every member of our site. Because of this, there are many discussions/threads that go unwatched that sometimes spiral out of control.

Because of this, and many other reasons, we have added a new 'Report to Moderator/Staff' icon next to each post. If you want to make sure our staff and moderators review a post, you simply click on the icon and tell us why. It could be you want to report message board violation, or simply point out a post you want us to look at. This new system will allow our staff and moderators to react much faster to heated debates or help us know the exact post a user wants us to review. You can also use this feature to make sure our staff reads a post and responds to a question you may have. Instead of just a few moderators randomly reading threads, now everyone on our site can help make our message boards a better place. NOTE: If you report a thread to us to review, your name/ID will be kept confidential from the person who posted the thread.

3) PUBLIC MODERATORS - TRIAL BASIS

A growing request from our members is to make the names of the moderators of our site publicly known. At the request of the current moderators, we have kept their actions anonymous, but we are willing to try a new system if it will improve our site.

Over the next month, we will be looking for ArtWanted.com members that would like to take on the job of a public moderator for ArtWanted.com. Those interested must be members who spend a lot of time on the site and be willing to enforce the rules of ArtWanted.com in all situations. Moderators will have the ability to remove artwork, comments and message board posts that do not comply with our rules and be willing to have their name attached to all of these decisions. If you feel you are the man (or woman) for the job, send an e-mail request to info @ ArtWanted.com with the reasons why you should be selected.

We will be picking a handful of new moderators this month and will announce their names at the first of the year. We will try this new system of public moderators and see how it goes. If the members that have things removed do not take it out personally on the moderator, this new system can stay into effect for a long time. However, if people start attacking the decisions of these moderators publicly, they will be forced to go back into hiding. :-)

4) LIMITED EDITING TIME

One problem we have had on the site is members making a post and then going back and changing what they said up to 24 hours after their original post. This has been done for many reasons, but we do not feel that it's right. Because of this, we are now limiting the time you can make changes to a post to 10 minutes. Once you post a new message, you will have 10 minutes to correct any spelling mistakes or edit your post. After this, the post will be locked and will no longer be editable.

5) NO BLANK THREADS

Another 'check' we have put into place is to no longer allow blank/empty posts to be made. All messages must contain minimal text or an uploaded graphic to be posted. If you edit your post within 10 minutes and remove all of the text, your post will simply be deleted automatically.

6) NO HTML IN POSTS

One of our long time rules on the message boards has been to not allow HTML within the message body. Some members have found ways to add HTML to their posts and get around some of our HTML checks. We have added some additional checks when messages are posted or edited so HTML posts do not continue to be made.

7) PROFANITY FILTER

One of our rules is that profanity can not be used on the message boards. We have had issues in the past with some members using profanity to attack other members and we want to put a stop to it. We have added a profanity filter that will not allow posts or edits to be made to messages that contain profanity. However, if members find ways around the filter, keep in mind that it's still against the rules and your account may be locked from posting on the boards because of it.

8) NEW MESSAGE BOARD RULE

We have recently had an issue of members debating decisions that our staff has made with regards to banning, blocking or content moderation. These decisions are made after carefully reviewing all of the facts and the user history, which most members are not aware of. To protect the privacy of all our members, we try and stay away of discussing private member issues on our public boards as much as possible. When these rare issues do arise, we do not feel they are open for public debate for several reasons. Because of this, we have added a new rule that these issues are not open to public debate. We will be removing any posts that have to do with certain staff actions towards a specific member. These staff decisions are to be worked out between our staff and the individual in private for the benefit of everyone.

It only seems fitting that on this topic we again remind all members to follow the message board rules. Most members do not have a problem with this, but there are those that want to turn the boards into their personal playground. These rules are in place to keep our message boards a positive place for our members to interact with each other. By doing your part, the boards will be a great place to make new friends and enhance your ArtWanted.com experience.

9) UPCOMING MESSAGE BOARD CHANGES

We are happy to have been able to make so many updates in a short period of time, but we have many more in store before the end of the year. Stick close to the boards and watch for additional upgrades coming to the message boards and other areas of ArtWanted.com in the next month.

10) SUMMARY

When we shut down the threads for a few days, we never expected the huge amount of support we received from our members about this decision. We received dozens of e-mails each day from members happy about this decision to 'step back' and help 'gain back a little control' on the boards. Many members voiced their opinions of how they have seen the negative attitude on the boards and were looking forward to some positive changes. We hope that these recent updates (and the future ones we have planned) will turn the message boards into a place where all our members are excited to visit and participate on. We ask all members to do your part to make the message boards a better place and a positive haven for artists around the world. Thanks!

75 Comments

bianca 02 Dec 2006

Nice job AW...Agree with everything but one thing....people that have galery full of work and constantly upload on regular basis will never volunteer or offer to be PUBLIC MODERATOR...it will not work...I disagree with this desicion strongly.....I am no moderator nor i will offer time if it is public...it will create wholy mess...Just my opinion....This is a target for PERSONAL INSULTS and hates....:)

Laura Smith 02 Dec 2006

This is the only message board I have ever been a member of that does NOT have public moderators. I currently belong to about five other message boards and all moderators are known and there has NEVER even remotely been a problem with that. If you haven't experienced a message board with public moderators perhaps you should watch and see first. Just a suggestion.

This is also the only message board that doesn't allow html.. I too don't understand it. Can you give us a reason Andy? Thanks.

Patrick Miller 02 Dec 2006

Yeah...lets all start hitting the fink buttons on each other every time we're mad at them. It fosters a "live in fear environment", where honesty and freedom are illegal concepts, radical ideas. That is a scary world to me frankly, reminds me of germany...circa 1938-43. Got history?

Mike Morrow 02 Dec 2006

Without the forum open to me. I see no reason to be here any more. The forum was the main reason that I uploaded to artwanted. I'm going to miss some of the great people that I have met here. It was a great 8 months. Thanks to all. Mike

Dawn Schmidt-Ventimiglia 02 Dec 2006

I agree with Steph: if the html codes aren't stealing your bandwidth, what is the problem? The Youtube videos were funny, or uplifting, and they did not take up any more AW server space! Live links to webpages are much easier for folks than having to "cut and paste" links, too. :(

This is also the only forum I belong to on which live codes are not allowed, also, where the moderators are not public. The moderators on the other forums think very carefully before making decisions because they know they will be held publicly accountable for their decisions. If the members don't like their decision, then they know they will have to back up their actions with facts for making decisions.

I agree with your decision to shut down the boards temporarily to get everyone to cool down a bit. Thanks.

ken knowles 02 Dec 2006

like under the garden wall asked...what happened to the cause of the current "meassageboard war" that caused you to shut down? I've noticed that threads on that subject were deleted but were they even sent an official warning email? A private matter between aw and the parties concerned you say...well it affected a lot of people on this meassage board.I think that was one of the problems ...that they were allowed to go on and on while another was banned for two weeks. I applaud your efforts to make changes for the better and to try to make the message boards a more positive place but I think the question that still hasn't been addressed to the people who were affected by all that is..why the unfair enforcement of the rules? I asked these same questions before and was answered by a lockdown.

p.s. ..your editing within ten minutes doesn't seem to be working. I noticed I had typed under the garden wall instead of over and tried to correct it within the alloted time :)

Good point....I see banning Bo as a tactic to shut him up about "running his mouth" and criticizing the AW management. I do not see it as a measure resulting from his posting nudes. I see the mentality that went into banning him, when there were much bigger fish to fry, as "NOT priority driven" to say the least.

ArtWanted.com Staff 02 Dec 2006

Ken, Our 'silence' is because our whole staff was a alseep. :-) Generally, don't expect any responses from our staff from 5pm to 9am, or during the weekend, because most staff members are not working. There are exceptions to this, but just remember to look the time of day when expecting responses. ;-)

Now on to the questions that have been asked...

Steph - The reason why HTML is not allowed on our message boards (and for most message boards on the net) is because if someone knows what they are doing, they can really mess up the website. Someone can use HTML to put viruses on your computer, install spyware, change your computer settings, mess up the look and feel of ArtWanted.com and many other malicious things. For this reason, most boards on the net do not allow their users to type HTML directly into a post. Live codes are different then allowing all HTML to be input into a message. We would like to add live codes to our boards at a future date.

Over the Gardin Wall - Our policies are still ok to discuss, but we do not want to explain why a specific member was deleted or banned. Mostly because, they are not available to comment on the situation if they are banned or deleted. We don't want to point out the rules a specific member has broken and 'open the closet' to all their past history to everyone on the boards. This is a very common rule found on most message boards. If we delete/ban a member, it's for a good reason and it's it's because multiple warnings from our staff have gone ignored by the user. We believe in treating all members fairly and issuing at least one warning before any action is taken (which should explain what happened to a few individuals who recently started some fires). In our seven year history, we have banned less than 25 members from the boards, so it's a very rare thing and should not be a big issue.

Imagine if you were banned. Would you like AW to post all the reasons why you were banned and a history of your account problems on the public board without being able to respond to them? Didn't think so.

For those that are having the 'editing a post' problem, please explain what you are seeing. Do you see the 'edit' icon on the thread, or is it hidden? What happens and what do you see on screen when you try and edit a post.

Public Moderators - We realize some members will be opposed to this, and for those that are, don't ask to be one. It will be on a trial basis and we will just see how things go.

Patrick - There are many other uses for the 'report to staff' function then a 'virtual tattletale'. However, this is a common function on most websites to be able to report an image or post to a staff member and we feel that ArtWanted.com needs something like this to have more eyes helping us look at threads.

Mike - Why are the forums not open to you? You just posted a message, doesn't this mean that they are open to you?

Debbie - We will not be announcing who the current moderators are now, to respect their privacy, but once we show the names of the new moderators, all moderators will be public going forward, not just the new ones.

Thanks for your feedback and support everyone, keep it coming.

Announcements / Blog

01 December, 2006

Message Board Updates