In light of the events of the past few days, we've decided to
implement the following changes:
1. As already announced by DEA in this thread, he will be leaving us as Trek BBS administrator, while he unfortunately will also be stepping down as General Trek Discussion moderator.
2. Another person will be coming in as fourth administrator. While LizardLaugh, Lisa and I already know who we're going to ask for this post, you'll understand that we will not be able to tell you who it is until we've actually talked with them
.
3. The Neutral Zone will be changed to a forum with a minimum amount of moderation. It will not turn into a completely moderated forum, and so it will still be possible to hold heated debates. However, as we've already been editing out porn and similar things for a long time now, that means we're legally bound to also moderate other illegal material - strong hate material and personal mail addresses could not be posted, for instance.
Before doing this, we'd like to have your input on what kinds of rules to have here. Please post your suggestions about this in this thread in Questions, Suggestions & Feedback.
4. In order to not stimulate an atmosphere where having alternate usernames is a normal thing, we have to stop continually attracting so much attention to that. Therefore, we would like to ask you to not accuse people of being another user posting under an alternate username anymore - this is one of the reasons for some of the paranoia which we have also witnessed. If you really feel someone is posting under an alternate username, please contact all admins personally - we will decide whether to act or not.
5. We are still reviewing the situation with the chat room. At the moment, it is a safe harbour for all those who have been banned, which is clearly not an ideal situation - a ban from the Trek BBS should also mean a ban from the chat room.
6. The moderators will be creating templates to be used when warning users in order to make the process less emotionally-charged.
7. Slarus and Che Guevara will receive a one-month ban, leading to their unbanishment on the 11th of November.
In addition, we will be implementing several technical measures:
1. People with less than X posts will not be allowed to post in the Neutral Zone. Suggestions on what X should be should also go in this thread in Questions, Suggestions & Feedback.
2. Users with less than 100 posts will be prevented from posting more than once every three minutes, and possibly also from posting new threads. Input on this would be appreciated.
3. Posts in the Officer's Lounges and TNZ will no longer count towards post count, under the rationale that this is a Star Trek discussion board.
Until these measures are implemented, registration will remain off.
I am convinced that with these measures we'll be able to maintain the BBS's friendly atmosphere. For a board of close to 10,000 members and with an age of more than 2.5 years, I'd say we're a remarkably clean board - I'm sure it'll be able to stay that for well into the future.
[This message has been edited by Christian (edited October 08, 2001).]
implement the following changes:
1. As already announced by DEA in this thread, he will be leaving us as Trek BBS administrator, while he unfortunately will also be stepping down as General Trek Discussion moderator.
2. Another person will be coming in as fourth administrator. While LizardLaugh, Lisa and I already know who we're going to ask for this post, you'll understand that we will not be able to tell you who it is until we've actually talked with them
3. The Neutral Zone will be changed to a forum with a minimum amount of moderation. It will not turn into a completely moderated forum, and so it will still be possible to hold heated debates. However, as we've already been editing out porn and similar things for a long time now, that means we're legally bound to also moderate other illegal material - strong hate material and personal mail addresses could not be posted, for instance.
Before doing this, we'd like to have your input on what kinds of rules to have here. Please post your suggestions about this in this thread in Questions, Suggestions & Feedback.
4. In order to not stimulate an atmosphere where having alternate usernames is a normal thing, we have to stop continually attracting so much attention to that. Therefore, we would like to ask you to not accuse people of being another user posting under an alternate username anymore - this is one of the reasons for some of the paranoia which we have also witnessed. If you really feel someone is posting under an alternate username, please contact all admins personally - we will decide whether to act or not.
5. We are still reviewing the situation with the chat room. At the moment, it is a safe harbour for all those who have been banned, which is clearly not an ideal situation - a ban from the Trek BBS should also mean a ban from the chat room.
6. The moderators will be creating templates to be used when warning users in order to make the process less emotionally-charged.
7. Slarus and Che Guevara will receive a one-month ban, leading to their unbanishment on the 11th of November.
In addition, we will be implementing several technical measures:
1. People with less than X posts will not be allowed to post in the Neutral Zone. Suggestions on what X should be should also go in this thread in Questions, Suggestions & Feedback.
2. Users with less than 100 posts will be prevented from posting more than once every three minutes, and possibly also from posting new threads. Input on this would be appreciated.
3. Posts in the Officer's Lounges and TNZ will no longer count towards post count, under the rationale that this is a Star Trek discussion board.
Until these measures are implemented, registration will remain off.
I am convinced that with these measures we'll be able to maintain the BBS's friendly atmosphere. For a board of close to 10,000 members and with an age of more than 2.5 years, I'd say we're a remarkably clean board - I'm sure it'll be able to stay that for well into the future.
[This message has been edited by Christian (edited October 08, 2001).]
