Ways to improve the forums

[Phyzzle]

Sosuave.net is a life-changing web site. How many sites can boast that?

But the General Discussion Forum here is almost a lost cause.

The problem is too much typing, not enough reading. I discovered this site, like, 3 years before my 1st post. But that's obviously not the case with this guy:

http://www.sosuave.net/forum/showthread.php?t=106443

I mean, isn't this question answered in the very first page of "Newbies start here", the very 1st post of the DJ Bible?

Almost half the new threads begin with the ultra-vague title "Pls Help Advice/Opinions welcome", and end with the inevitable "do you think she likes me?" I have fun giving advice, but dam I'm sick of seeing that question.

Any time someone mentions his age on the General forum, it's always about 16. What we have is every teenager with girl problems in the English-speaking world (not just America) finding this site on Google, immediately clicking on "Discussion Forum" (because he has a question), clicking on "General", and saying "my ex texted me. Is she playing games?" or some other such tripe.

Do you think there are ways to save that forum (and the rest of them)? I certainly think so. I'll post some ideas here; go ahead and post your own, or tell me why mine are stupid

I don't know if the site's administrators will care, but I just don't want this place to end up like . . .

THIS:

http://forums.plentyoffish.com/datingForum2.aspx

 

[radronOmega]

That's an AFC forum man...

http://www.mysterymethod.com/forum/index.php

That is an ideal forum. Love the field reports there. This forum was my first, so this will always be in my heart, but the field reports tehre...dayam

 

[Phyzzle]

There's a thread in the main forum about some guy wanting people to analyze a DREAM he had last night . . . . sigh.

Here are my suggestions:

1. Every time you give advice, relate it to an experience you personally had. I sometimes catch myself giving sound, common sense advice to a guy having marital problems. But then I'm like "wait, I've never been freakin' married!"

2. This goes double for female posters: when you make any suggestion on how guys should act, tell us your personal experience: how your boyfriend was acting before your 1st bout of sex.

DO NOT TELL US HOW YOU WANT GUYS TO ACT! We're seriously not interested!

(There's no need to ban female posters.)

3. The 1st 20 posts for a new account should require him to page down through "newbie questions" in the DJ bible, diablo's sticky, and admonishments about not asking about "the ex."

4. We should probably redivide

High school
College
Mature Man/Bachelor
Married
Divorced
Cold approach/ Boot Camp Reports
Sex
Tips
Anything Else

5. You should only get "Master" next to your name when you're promoted there by another master, not based on obsessive posting.

Do these seem like good ideas?

 

[Phyzzle]

6. And guys, could you not quote someone's entire post, and put "good post" at the bottom? That's fvcking annoying.

 

[Microphone Fiend]

how about you focus on making your life better and not the forum. I mean seriously. Everything you need to know has been posted before. Do a search, read the material and then apply it. Having someone not quote an entire post is not gonna help you get the ladies or make you feel more content with your life

 

[Shiftkey]

The only way to fix that no mans land is to lock half the current threads and increase the amount of moderation. We also need a more clear set of rules.

 

[Phyzzle]

how about you focus on making your life better and not the forum. I mean seriously.

My life is already so much better that I wanna come back and HELP OTHERS. See where I'm coming from?

This IS a life-changing web site. I mean seriously. And it is going straight down the crapper. And it would be fairly easy to fix.

 

[Vincent]

There are so many things wrong with this forum it's hard to begin.

One major thing is there's a huge division between the posters on how the forum should be treated.

On one side there's the "No AFC posts at all, unless it's a field report I don't want to see it" which has it's advantages. Then there's the side that says "Keep the AFC posts, how are people supposed to learn when they can't even ask questions?" which also has it's advantages.

I personally side with the "No AFC posts". When I first joined, it was a different time. People tried to give advice instead of taking it. Now I'm not saying replying to posts, I'm saying that they made posts with useful information. This mentality is all but gone today. A post full of advice might pop up every month or so and usually die in a couple days because posters are too lazy to read it.

Then you have the people who complain when you close or delete their threads because it's blatantly AFC and if they had read the bible and applied it they wouldn't be asking this question. I think some people try to read the bible without applying it, and they get too far in and never learn the fundamentals because they refuse to stop and take action. The boot camp is a good fix for this but the boot camp seems to have lost interest.

People try and treat this forum like a psychiatrist. Asking everyone to solve their problems for them instead of what they should be doing. Getting off this forum and taking action. It really sickens me some of the posts I see. Especially when these posts keep coming from a select group of posters. Sometimes they don't even post anything even remotely related to the seduction of women. They try to replace real life problems by using this forum.

Following this posters don't learn. So constantly new people will do the same thing over and over. So the moderators get sick of doing the same thing over and over. Posters also want the moderators to give a reason for why their stupid posts were closed, which takes more moderators time and we're all busy with real lives. Unlike the posters who require our attention. And the repetition of this has driven moderators away and don't do much since they don't care.

And after this the posts sometimes forget the moderators don't run the site, Allen does. So he decides who gets banned, what rules to institute, and any changes to make to the forum. It's our jobs to follow the rules he lays out for us. So if we want a huge change to happen it has to go through him. He leaves us pretty open to how to view the rules, but we can't just go around closing every thread that slightly falls into the afc category, so it means we have to leave several threads be since they're borderline. We also can't add forums. And allen has decided that adding more forums isn't a very good idea since they won't get much activity.

 

[WorldSuccessAlliance]

How many sites can boast that?

WorldSuccessAlliance.com

And we accept gays too. Unlike the bashing and nonsense at Sosuave.

Click the link in my signature to find out more.

-Kershkov

 

[Brian20o2]

I love all the sugestions.

5. You should only get "Master" next to your name when you're promoted there by another master, not based on obsessive posting.

Totally agree. There are so many people here who have master but don't deserve it at all. I personally dont think I will be worthy of the title Master DJ for 2-3 more years. I've just made 900 posts so it figures I must know my **** and have my life together.

 

[Francisco d'Anconia]

...People try and treat this forum like a psychiatrist. Asking everyone to solve their problems for them instead of what they should be doing. Getting off this forum and taking action. It really sickens me some of the posts I see. Especially when these posts keep coming from a select group of posters. Sometimes they don't even post anything even remotely related to the seduction of women. They try to replace real life problems by using this forum...

I agree with everything you said V, but this one paragraph is SO true. It gets frustrating at times seeing posts from guys who have just joined the forum, have less than 10 posts and see a thread titled "Quick, I got her number, now what do I do?"

I can't remember which of the mods said about a year ago or so that he would answer questions when asked but was going to stop going out of his was writing articles because it took a lot of effort but not really appreciated. Don't get me wrong, there are a handful of guys who still post some interesting insights which I appreciate; however the majority are posts by guys who have found the latest "trick" to fool women and post mostly for self promotion as opposed to genuinely wanting to share valuable information.

I can go on and on about it but none the less I think the forum is still valuable. It may not be entirely because of its content but for an interesting insight into the human psyche, social interactions, stereotypes, self esteem (or lack of) and general perception of the sexes and the world. I think it's very amusing to watch.

Yeah, being a Psych major gives me a seemingly morbid idea of amusement but it's all a learning experience; at least if you allow it to be.

 

[Ace of Flames]

I hear what you're saying Vincent. People just can't allow themselves to be helped. If they did what people suggested to them, they'd have much more success and a better forum experience would be had by all. But nooooo. I totally understand why you guys get tired of it and don't come around as often as you could. Its an overwhelming problem to face, and one that probably can't be fixed on a single internet forum. Its more a problem with society and just people in general, than it is a few posters on here.

Maybe a more ruthless system is in order? If a user posts useless stuff or a question that shouldn't need to be asked, suspend them for a day with a message that links to the bible, maybe even a certain post in it that answers their question. If they come back after their suspension and ask the same question, suspend them for longer. Eventually, just banning them will be the consequence.

Hopefully, the lesson is that stupid posting means you don't get to be here. During their suspension, if they REALLY want help with women or whatever, their only source for answers would be the bible. Then they come back enlightened. Hopefully.

Another idea is, possibly make an exclusive branch to the forum, where only those that have permission from the mods or Allen can get in. Members would be given access based on their past posting experience. And if a troll or someone managed to get in, you can ban that account and they can't get back in, because only that name got permission to get in, not that user's ISP or anything else.

Don't give any special title or symbol to those that are in the exclusive forum, keep it anonymous. Those in the private forum can still post in the main forums like usual.

They're ideas, anyway.

 

[Potbelly]

I think the division Phizille proposed is absolutely true. We need to organize this better. The DJ Discussion is too general. Yes it is a general forum, but that is too cluttered for anyone to take seriously other than newbs who come and post about their "unique" problems.

Second, like someone said, keep the H&F forum. Many of the most dedicated and accomplished posters/people on this forum are there.

Third, the master thing. Yes, a referral system would be great. However, we could also do the reputation system, which is done with the forum itself.
-----For example, unless you have 3 reps you cannot see any of the other forums EXCEPT For the noobie forums. REPS not POSTS. If you givegood advice and stuff in the noobie forums, then you can move onto the more advanced forusm and stuff.


finally, I know this is hard work for the mods, but try to open up a temp forum JUST FOR REVIVING THIS FORUM and invite members who you think can contribute positively to discuss it inside with you guys and allen. I think this will change the forum for the better and take a big load off you guys alone.

why do I care? this place changed my life and it's sad tosee it go down the crapper so easily. so I am trying to do my part for the future people who may come and wanna change

 

[Blue Phoenix]

The only way to fix that no mans land is to lock half the current threads and increase the amount of moderation. We also need a more clear set of rules.

I agree. Why don´t we limit the number of posting per day? It´s a bit crazy but that would avoid guys who post 20 or 30 messages per day and overload the forum.

 

[Phyzzle]

I agree. Why don´t we limit the number of posts per day?

That's actually the best idea! Wierd I didn't think of that. A 5 post per day limit would be really simple to implement, and would go so far towards getting people to think a little. (There's already a 1 post every 20 second limit.)

KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid).

(I remember posting to USENET in the early 90's with the Unix rn program. It would spit out this blurb whenever you posted: "This post may be sent around the world, archived, and read by thousands or millions of people ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO DO THIS?? (y/n)" How times have changed.)

 

[Vincent]

I can't emphasize this enough.
Mods have no banning, probation, muting, powers. That's all left to the site administrator

He has a good reason for not giving out the power mostly because he's had bad experiences with mods before and tries to give us power to moderate but not control posters. It's a fine line and I have to agree with him.

So if we probated every user who posted something stupid Allen would be probating people almost constantly.

I still think the idea of a private forum is interesting, but with a couple thousand regular posters that's more work then anyone wants to undertake. Plus what justification would there be to have a private forum, or even who's to justify who gets access or not. It's too hard to say. Reputation would be an interesting way to implement features like this and don juan level. But it is underused and easy to exploit. Plus mods have no power over this so it would be up the admin to maintain, again causing problems.

This is a pretty complex problem. However I think the only way we can fix anything is if the community as a whole changes. Don't like an AFC posting repetetive inane questions? Don't reply, and shun people away from replying. However this is hard to implement because most people enjoy giving advice.


There isn't a very easy answer to any of this. I'd love to hear what the community feels but change would be extremely difficult. As a mod I feel like I'm trying to move mountains by myself to change these forums, and that just won't happen.

 

[Titanium]

4. We should probably redivide
High school
College
Mature Man/Bachelor
Married
Divorced
Cold approach/ Boot Camp Reports
Sex
Tips
Anything Else

5. You should only get "Master" next to your name when you're promoted there by another master, not based on obsessive posting.

Do these seem like good ideas?

Overall, I think the forums are okay.

I am not one for strict protocol or too many rules to follow. The General forum, as it stands, with some of the 'lower quality' threads & very high post volume, kind of serves as a (necessary?) buffer zone for each of the other forums.

In terms of improvements, I have two hypothetical ideas to offer:

1. The Health and Fitness forum could be expanded to include 'fashion' topics, as some have expressed an interest in such discussions.

2. An additional seperate 'supportive' forum, so that those who are experincing personal difficulties can speak more candidly about them...and those who are not interested in such posts don't have to be bothered by them. (ie topics about anxiety, depression, male/female psychology, or even mediation, etc.)...since mental/emotional well being also play a big part in relationship potential.

Currently, both of the above roughly fit under 'anything else'.

It could be argued that discussions and topics should be streamlined to fit the main theme/ and purpose of the board...and that is understandable. On the other hand, this is a developed community...and as such, it may not hurt to become a bit more rounded out.

But what do I know...