Poly admin change

[Jon Miller]

Actually, do we have some hope of the new admins fixing the issues with the server?

JM

[MikeH]

Here are my thoughts to you as new site owner:

1) Don't take yourself or the site too seriously
2) Don't appoint Asher as any sort of moderator.
3) Do appoint Asher as techno-god.
4) The off-topic is the off-topic. It has its own ecology.
5) You own the site, but much of the content of the site comes from the top hundred or so posters. Respect them.
6) Do start a civ ladder or other community type competitions
7) Be open in your administrative decisions. Make them broadly known, and allow discussion and criticism of them.

Mostly good points.

I'd suggest that the Off-Topic should be virtually unmoderated (other than maybe deleting any porn or whatever). I wonder how much Admin/Moderator time and effort is taken up with ridiculous bickering between people on the Off-Topic rather than on creating genuine contributions about the games and/or improving the site and content.

Plus the endless bannings etc. are like a reward in themselves for the people that set out to get them. Ignore all that. Let the OT carry on on it's own and concentrate on the on-topic areas and making a top notch Civ site.

[Alexander's Horse]

I'd like to see Asher as mod.

[MikeH]

Who would moderate when he banned himself?

[-Jrabbit]

I'd like to see Asher as mod.

That will never happen. But the first few days would certainly be amusing.

[Velociryx]

The problem with that though is that the OT is (like it or not) woven into the fabric of a GAMING site (the thing that the "OT" is OT from), and what goes on here helps to shape what sort of community this place evolves into.

Right now, sadly, the place has become a haven for trolls of various stripes, who make sport of attacking anybody new who happens this way. That's good for a few pageviews in the short term, but bad for the longer term health of the site (tho it amuses the trolls, and so is staunchly defended).

Any more, the "top 100" posters on the site hail almost exclusively from OT, which provides the least amount of relevant content (relevant to the site's purpose for being which, surprisingly, is not to feed the trolls).

At this point, 'poly's basically on life support, with rather minimal activity in her topical areas, and trolls chasing off what new blood DOES find its way here, and more often than not, a stroll through the OT's current threads is a lesson in pain. Always the same trolls flaming or baiting in the same ways...fun for the first few hundred iterations, but after a time, it starts to get tiresome and more people leave.

How long will it be before there aren't enough people here to even have a good dogpile? Before even the latest Asher-Look-At-Me-Drama is barely a blip on the pageview-RADAR? As it stands, what few regular posters we still have are so polarized it's like stepping into a war zone. Not too surprising the newbies don't stick around.

I know, I know...it's "always been like that" and everybody's just fine with the status quo.

But the status quo is sinking the ship.



-=Vel=-

[Alinestra Covelia]

Mostly good points.

I'd suggest that the Off-Topic should be virtually unmoderated (other than maybe deleting any porn or whatever). I wonder how much Admin/Moderator time and effort is taken up with ridiculous bickering between people on the Off-Topic rather than on creating genuine contributions about the games and/or improving the site and content.

Plus the endless bannings etc. are like a reward in themselves for the people that set out to get them. Ignore all that. Let the OT carry on on it's own and concentrate on the on-topic areas and making a top notch Civ site.

I think that could work too. (It's more or less the current model.) The minor thing I would change is to shift the Tech, History, and Other Games forums into the on-topic section and let them have the same sort of moderation level as the others.

[Unimatrix11]

Listen buddy, we were all here happily being rude to each other when you were just a twinkle in civ's eye.

Go away

You know, if this site´s policy wont change, i most certainly will.

[MikeH]

AC: Yeah. Good call.

And Vel, I reckon without the moderation OT the "I got banned but he didn't" "I said this in a PM" etc. drama bull**** would all disappear.

[Asher]

The problem with that though is that the OT is (like it or not) woven into the fabric of a GAMING site (the thing that the "OT" is OT from), and what goes on here helps to shape what sort of community this place evolves into.

Right now, sadly, the place has become a haven for trolls of various stripes, who make sport of attacking anybody new who happens this way. That's good for a few pageviews in the short term, but bad for the longer term health of the site (tho it amuses the trolls, and so is staunchly defended).

Any more, the "top 100" posters on the site hail almost exclusively from OT, which provides the least amount of relevant content (relevant to the site's purpose for being which, surprisingly, is not to feed the trolls).

At this point, 'poly's basically on life support, with rather minimal activity in her topical areas, and trolls chasing off what new blood DOES find its way here, and more often than not, a stroll through the OT's current threads is a lesson in pain.

We've already been over this. It's the on-topic that is dead on Apolyton, not the off-topic. The OTF is still fairly active.

So your constant and incessant *****ing about the OTF's "trolls" chasing away everyone from the site is misplaced -- you are basically distracting the admin from the real problems, which SHOULD be quite obvious:
- Horrid site design
- Zero appealing community-building on-topic activities (like the ladder)
- On-topic competition from CFC, which is schooling Apolyton in on-topic

The problem is people don't come here for the on-topic much anymore, because there's not much to see. CFC is the place to be for that. As a result, the site is dying.

The OTF people are the people who have usually been here before Apolyton sucked and remember it that way. That's why it's such an "old boys" club. The fact is, there's very few fresh faces around here and that's not the fault of the OTF -- it's the fault of the on-topic sections not bringing in fresh meat, which is because they suck.

If you decide to change the OTF by making it a carebear forum, all you'll do is drive most of the current posters away. And then you won't replace them, because there's no stream of incoming people. You'd just accelerate the death of the site.

The #1 thing keeping this site alive is the posters, and specifically the posters in the OTF. You can ask the admins what percentage of the site's hits comes from the OTF and maybe see if they can graph that over the last 5 years, but it should be clear to everyone that the OTF's portion of the site's visits is increasing. Kill the OTF and you kill the one thing that isn't horribly broken on the site.

[KrazyHorse]

[Unimatrix11]

I think that could work too. (It's more or less the current model.) The minor thing I would change is to shift the Tech, History, and Other Games forums into the on-topic section and let them have the same sort of moderation level as the others.

And put a big disclaimer over the off-topic, warning people, that they are 100% sure to get insulted and that they enter at their own risk. ´Trespassers will be shot´ basically.

[MikeH]

- Horrid site design
- Zero appealing community-building on-topic activities (like the ladder)
- On-topic competition from CFC, which is schooling Apolyton in on-topic

The problem is people don't come here for the on-topic much anymore, because there's not much to see. CFC is the place to be for that. As a result, the site is dying.

The OTF people are the people who have usually been here before Apolyton sucked and remember it that way. That's why it's such an "old boys" club. The fact is, there's very few fresh faces around here and that's not the fault of the OTF -- it's the fault of the on-topic sections not bringing in fresh meat, which is because they suck.

This is spot on.

When I was playing a lot of CivIV I'd go to CFC for all the articles/reference etc. but come to Poly to have a civilised discussion about them. Ironically although it's impossible to have a serious discussion on anything in off topic, on topic is really good for civ talk etc.

Point being, if I was new to Civ, and didn't know Poly forums had good discussions, I'd never visit them 'cause the site is so poor.

Oh and I should say the BtS tri-league, which is kinda like a ladder was/is brilliant.

[rah]

trolls, and so is staunchly defended).

Any more, the "top 100" posters on the site hail almost exclusively from OT, which provides the least amount of relevant content (relevant to the site's purpose for being which, surprisingly, is not to feed the trolls).

THis is the typical thinking that will kill the site in the long run. GO read the other thread asking who still plays CIV. Gee almost everyone in the OT still plays civ with the exception of Asher and a few other trolls. So saying that OT posters provide the least amount of relevant content is just plain silly. Gee I'm one of those OT posters, and I dare you to say that I haven't provided relevant content.
The OT is the place where we go in between releases. (which is most of the time)
Without the fun of the OT, we all would have drifted elsewhere in between releases.
AND without the OT, the total site traffic would make this site truely insignificant.

[MikeH]

I second that. Nowadays I read On topic a lot more than I post.