Reviewing First Posts to Forums

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I saw two locked threads in my new category, both of which were questions asked by people who decided they were too superior to read the “about” tab and maybe the FAQ before posting, and it hit me: what is the feasibility of making a person’s first post subject to moderator approval? I thought this would reduce the amount of threads that we have asking the same old FAQ/About tab answered questions. I don’t know how the forum software works and if that is even a possibility, and I also can see how this could be a bit tiresome for moderators (shoutout to Disconsented, keep up the moderator-ing). But I figured, why not humor it and discuss?

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I’m waiting for the overburdened brain of @disconsented to explode. :tired_face:

Actually, it’s not a bad idea. I’m not sure how many first-posts we get daily, but I guess it would save work in retro-moderation - would that gain outweigh the loss?

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Well considering the volume of posts I would be pretty happy with that, it also pretty much kills any chance of spam

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Couldn’t regulars help with reviewing it? I mean we probably flag the most “shit”-posts directly after they have been posted. And its relatively easy to figure out if a post is legit or not.

Its a bit the same approach like they do on http://askubuntu.com/review. Basically how higher your “rank”, how more stuff you can review. Although I don’t think we need a “last post” or “suggest edit” topic.

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I want this :smiley: I’d even help with the reviewing if it had to be xP
Or what about having to fill in some answers to the most asked nub questions before you can even register? That keeps people that haven’t read the FAQ away…

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Good idea, I support this

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That actually sounds like a pretty good idea. I’d also volunteer for reviewing first posts since i’m on here almost every day ^^

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+1

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This sounds good, I can also review as I am on here more than I would like to admit. I do propose that if a first post is invalid that a PM should be opened about it and we should be able to talk to the person directly and point them in the right direction to get information, so they know somewhat what to do. Maybe there could be a “cookie-cutter” response to this sort of thing that contains links and other various information.

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Some convenient templates to seem as unpersonal and botlike as possible xD Nah :stuck_out_tongue: But yeah, I’m a constant lurker here too, and I think it would really keep down the amount of threads asking for things like downloads etc…

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Yes this is definitely a possibility in my book, we already have around what? 29 regulars? (Not including the mods and admins who already had it.) I’m pretty sure that could help with the moderating pressure on the forums. Kind of like a “helper” rank that is seen on a lot of servers.

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I don’t see why regulars couldn’t help with this, seeing as a lot of times we get to posts faster than @disconsented or @DarkArcana (Shout-out to you to lovely hard working people)

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To prevent abuse, I’d suggest 3 Regular reviews = 1 Staff review

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Instead of deleting and locking these threads, we should improve the website and the forums so that new members can find the information they are looking for.

I don’t understand why you are upset, and why you want to “protect” the forums.

Think about the 5 most important points and put them on the homepage.
Some Examples:

Who is interested in Sponge?

Amateur Server Owners (60%)

Age: 10+
They understand the word Mod, maybe they know the word Plugin from Bukkit, maybe they know Forge.
They don’t know the word API
They just want a up-to-date server software that is simple to use, with basic plugins like WorldEdit or Essentials.

Professional Server Owners (25%)

Age: 18+
They want to update their Bukkit server with 20+ plugins to Minecraft 1.8.
They know what Forge is, maybe they used it to host a modded server.
Maybe they made their own simple plugins, so they might know what an API is.

Plugin Developers (15%)

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The problem with the ASO crowd is that they are normally very lazy in which case: unless you do some torturous things to the forums, their behavior probably wont change. However your post does have its merits(even if it is void of suggestions) and discussions with the Documentation and Website/Sysmin teams are more likely to be fruitful. Maybe a ‘dummies guide to sponge’? :3

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In defense of the Docs, there is a Quick-Start page. It isn’t quite “Sponge for Dummies”, and neither is the FAQ. But do we need a page for this, or just some polite boilerplate text for the front page and/or mod warning messages?

A friendlier front-end with some useful links or announcements may help, as @boformer says.

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It would help if I read that docs to begin with >_>

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Much like @disconsented said, the ASO people are the ones who are not going to take the time to look at a FAQ or help page. They don’t see sponge from a development perspective at all, most of them think that if a website exists a download must exist. I highly doubt, even if we spammed the proper links at huge fonts at the homepage they would pay attention at all, they are going to be looking for the download button and when they don’t find it they will ask on the forums. I think first-post moderation is necessary to prevent the forums from being overwhelmed with locked threads from people who are too lazy to see what is in front of them. Granted the Sponge homepage could make the information links a little more obvious but seriously, is isn’t that bad anyone with an ounce of common sense (i.e. not 10 year olds) could figure out how to get the info they need.

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Maybe add a download link to the homepage that links to a page that states the software is not yet available, or a greyed out download button that says “coming soon, click for more information” or something like that? Or perhaps make it a link to the downloads page on the docs - perhaps adding a bit more information to that page? ASOs are all looking for that coveted button, so why not give it to them? Some of them might then read the page and then not feel the need to post.

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Or pheraps a popup that fills the whole page that comes up as soon as you join and tells you in font size 1000 that there ein’t any goddamn download…