Re: Address MOD Questions....?
 

Curious as to what defines a "competing" site? Anything movie, music, book, or otherwise entertainment related? Politics? Gambling? We throw a pretty wide net here...

I didn't see what transpired in the music thread, but if, for instance, I'm involved in a discussion on another site about the movies of Ozu and wanted to refer to that thread here, would that be feasible or forbidden?

Re: Address MOD Questions....?
 

Re: Address MOD Questions....?
 

It's something we're still working on (advertising/self promotion FAQ). I think the ultimate determination as to whether a particular site is competing will have to come from the ownership of DT as they are the ones who can be financially affected by it.

Re: Address MOD Questions....?
 

What's goofy is that it's a sub forum. I can understand if someone is sending people to other sites for blu-ray or DVD stuff. If someone posts a link to ARS Technica in the Tech forum, is that a competing site? I think most of us are adults who use various websites and get info about websites from other websites. Keeping everything bottled up and chastising users isn't a way to meet the ends talked about - a lightening of the load and transparency.

And VinVega, thanks for the reply.

Re: Address MOD Questions....?
 

Okay, so a guy registers for the site and his first move is to resurrect a long dead thread and post a link to a website -- obvious spammer, should be banned. I get that. But since when does that warrant shutting down the entire thread? Just in case people start discussing things and stuff? What do you think this is, kindergarten?

Re: Address MOD Questions....?
 

Seems like the common sense is lost and the site wants to be run by firm rules.

Which makes one wonder if this thread should be allowed then:

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/music-talk/...following.html

Re: Address MOD Questions....?
 

I am fairly positive that I never received any notification(s) that I had been suspended. I need to check the e-mail address you have on record for me. (DONE - yes, it is correct). So, possibly an e-mail from you folks went into my spam folder and got deleted without being read. That is the only thing I can think of.

I believe that what happened was that I ASSUMED that I was suspended for mentioning my website too much or too often and therefore I promised not to mention it in the future.

I have, however, mentioned it a couple of times since then - but only when people asked specific questions which I was able to address by referring them to a photo available there. For example: somebody within the past several months asked about converting his/her collection to thinpaks and I gave him/her a reference to show what a collection in thinpaks looks like.

Thank you, Benedict, for actually replying to me at this point. I appreciate it.

Re: Address MOD Questions....?
 

I and the mods share your concern. I think there's a danger, when adjusting, to overcompensate in favor of "clarity" by losing some of that case-by-case, common-sense feel that (in my opinion) works best.

In this case, there was a feeling that some rules had been applied unevenly, and an overall change has been implemented in the mod/admin team that will encourage more group deliberation on judgment calls before (and if necessary after) they are made. I think you'll be please with what you see :)

Re: Address MOD Questions....?
 

Common sense is anything but, common...

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My apologies. It appears that I misunderstood your intent. Sorry about that. It has been rather hot over here.

Re: Address MOD Questions....?
 

I agree that this is a difficult one. Some of this will be for IB to ajudicate. Some will be for the mod squad. Some may come down to plain old (un)common sense.

I think that the music thread may have been a bit of a red herring since it was more to do with its bumping and the manner of its closure. And now there's another thread to discuss some of the issues first raised in the original one a couple of years ago so I hope that all is well that ends well!

Re: Address MOD Questions....?
 

I'll post this here as to not derail the "to shill or not to shill thread"...

The quote given by IB in that thread reads:

“We can't very well ask vendors to support the site through advertising if we're going to allow anyone to hawk their stuff for free. Likewise, we don't allow competing websites to shill here or try to enlist support. Rule of thumb: if it potentially hurts this site, we shouldn't allow it; if it hurts our paying advertisers, siphoning or discouraging participators, it's hurting DVDTalk's ability to grow and improve." - IB

If you ask me, that is a great rule of thumb to run any business by. Sound philosophy. Here's my beef, people like me have pointed out over and over a 'problem' with this site that is driving away customers, that has not been addressed, at least not in any direct way. Do you really think someone who works for a company posting about a sale on office supplies drives away more business than an ill-tempered admin who has been weilding the ban hammer against anyone who has the audicty to question him for what seems to be a number of years? It seems like the powers that be feel that this has been addressed (even if they are hesitant to come out and say it was a problem in the first place). I guess at this point time will tell if it has been or not.

Re: Address MOD Questions....?
 

On a side note Benedict, I love the avatar in your Public Profile:


http://i.imgur.com/MdeyxSj.gif

:)

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Mainly because I happened to be listening to this: http://youtu.be/s1Z1Zrot-go

Somehow the timing was perfect......

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[off-topic]I've had it there for ages but I can't remember now who I nicked it from. It may even have been a fellow mod. It would be too contentious as an avatar while moderating but I'll probably swap my avatar and profile picture around once I'm not in a position to influence such decisions.[/off-topic]

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Dave....it's NOT about the nail.

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:lol: I love that video...

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When did benedict become a moderator? Is that a typo in his title?

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Been one as long as I can remember.

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He was previously an Administrator.

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Yes, I thought benedict was an Administrator recently. Maybe he is still is, but the title is shown wrong.

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I believe he asked to move down to mod.

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Yes, I handed in my badge once we'd got the "new" guys up and running. There are a few admin functions that take a bit of practice, so it'd be impractical (if not to say somewhat thoughtless!) to jump ship without a suitable bedding-in period :)


<small>FWIW, in line with many of my predecessors, I certainly intend sticking around as a regular member even when I'm no longer modding.</small>

Re: Address MOD Questions....?
 

benedict, you did a tough and thankless job during a difficult time at DVDTalk. Thanks for that.


If we are done with the admin and mod changes, can we get a current listing of our lords, so we know who to bow to? (or throw stones at :))

Re: Address MOD Questions....?
 

As always, you can click on "View Forum Leaders" from the main forum page to see the mods and admins. Here's a link:

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showgroups.php

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Thanks. I didn't know we needed that many people to administer the site. Do we have a lot of windows to clean?

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I forget, what's a super moderator?

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I had to look it up myself. A super mod can mod any forum basically.

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They've said there's a lot of backend work that we never see.

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Yeah... there is a lot of "work" being done to "backends".... ;)