Some issues regarding the site

@ shaka: I agree with most of what you said, but...

Ofcourse not every new member is a spammer. However, the point is, as you also demonstrated, that even those that are potential contributors are more or less forced to begin by spamming. I think the concensus of the posts made in this thread is that we might see a reduction of the number of useless posts if the rules that force you to make at least one posting in the 'new users' thread would be dropped and replaced by something else. Serious new members should be introduced to the full capabilities of the board as quickly as possible, and restricting them to the junk section does not encourage them at all.

With respect to "thank you"s: Sure, thank you's are OK, because they serve also as an indication to the quality of the trhead and the information provided therein.

However, and here we get to your last remark, saying thank you in a dormant thread only leads to confusion, as now even more people that don't notice the original date start posting, and as such a thread that had long be forgotten springs back to life even though nothing new was added.

On most board I visit, and the ones I moderate, we also encourage people not to open new threads However, this much depends on the general content of the board, and the type of discussion. Posting in an old thread is valid, provided you have something useful to say. I don't mind people posting 'link is dead, please repost", because that is useful information. But recently we saw large numbers of bumps that did not add anything other than confusion.

So that is why I proposed a 'soft warning', not necessarily close a topic, but warn the poster that the thread is dormant.

Some things perhaps worth taking into consideration:

- A new member is not necessarilly a spammer.

I was a leecher mysself before these rules were implemented, just because I really don't like to post much. I guess that's just the way I am.

The first time I couldn't see the links anymore I though I could as well post some videos I found, which I knew couldn't be found around here. I think I had to spam three posts in a row before I could post those videos. Someone thanked me for at least one of those and I thought that was nice. Which leads me to...

- Someone who says "thanks" isn't necessarilly a spammer.

Unless of course that's all you get from said person, and more often than one would think aproppriate.

- Posting in a thread which has been inactive for some time isn't necessarilly spamming.

On most forums, starting new theads when there's at least one thread already on the same subject is regarded as spamming, not the opposite.

Just my two cents.

Just a comment to the Videos & Requests-Forum:

Here it should be possible for new members to open a toipc for e.g. a new vid of a new model (the boardmods don't post the vids and so they don't open a new topic, but every members must have the chance to do this). The problem are the new topics >hardcore vid plz< posted by newbies or enthousiasts. This topics should be deleted immediately. Here is the problem that only few admins must delete a lot of trash. I'm no expert about board-administration but there should be a possibility to give the admin-rights in such a sub-forum to other user so they can play the cleaner.

An other point is the thx-post in the vid-forum. On the one side it is a nice honor for the uploader of a vid on the other side it is (unfortunately) just trash. Here would be a possibility a thx-button next to the answer-button.

Concluding (more comment than suggestion) I have to say that I would approve a constriction for new members for the first posts or weeks e.g. limited download-links but the problems the decision useless or not useless comment.

The problem with the trash-forum is that there are a few (very few!) valid questions that never get answered because none of the regulars ever go there.

I don't think it is required to limit the first post to the trash, unless you want to use this as some kind of valid subscription check, which btw has already been done through the activation process.

So, rather than restricting them to the trashbin, try put them on hold until proven worthy. No posting withing the first 24 hours after registration, and only one post per day for the first 10 posts.

Leechers don't bother me too much, as they tend not to get in the way. I'd rather have 100 leechers on the board than 1 spammer! Ocourse when bandwidth problems or relay issues occur, a solution must be found. But I would not go for a solution that actually invites newbies to spam the board with posts like 'hardcore movies pls' in every topic they open when that enables them to get access to otherwise restricted links. The leeching issue could be solved just as the posting issue, first month only 10 links per day, unless more than 10 (useful) posts have been made.

And if you would have a 'spammer warning' that those that have reached 'enthousiast' levels could use to dismiss newbee spam, we could help you keep the board clean.

Just my 2 cts worth...

But ofcourse It's your board, not mine, and I'm not going to do the programming either, so please do as you see fit.

Sorry for my late reply and thanks for your input. We added the "1 post rule" (seem like I missed to update the rules) in order to see who's going to leech next. And - sadly - 95% members or even more are leechers. So we prefer them posting in a trash forum to posting in the main forums.

You also have to remember that we have members from so many countries and not everyone can speak fluent English. That's the reason why many members probably have troubles to read and understand the rules. Others probably just ignore them.

Anway, I will think about adding your suggestion. I keep you up to date.

Nothing worse than bumping your own reply. I should be banned for this!

Anyway, regarding the newbee/junk posts, I'd like to make a suggestion for anyone to shoot at.

In general, a forum wants fresh members to read first, rather than write first. the idea is that they learn the rules and the general accepted behaviour on the forum before they start adding their own contributions. Rather than have someone write out of a 'spur of the moment' impulse, they learn patience and the chances that their contribution is worth while are increasing.

This forum tries to do this by requiring a new member to post at least 3 messages in a 'junk' department. Which is IMHO not the preferred way, because this way they will not learn to be carefull, rather learn just to post junk.

If it is not too much of a hassle (and I know it is way too much of a hassle) a better way would be to limit the number of posts to 1 post per day as long a someone is below 10 posts. If this rule applies, the potential poster should be warned that this is his only chance to post today, so he better be carefull what to write!

Thanks for your prompt reaction.

Navigation is now OK, and I'm not switching between en and de anymore when tuning another live stream.

With respect to the '5 star topics' there were quite a few yesterday when I wrote my post (which I edited to take out one sentence that you somehow seem to refer to nevertheless.) I think that voting may sometimes happen inadvertedly, as it is easy done and the star ratings is at a very accessible place. It has happened to me a couple of times that I voted for a rating, and could not undo this anymore, hence the question for 'zero stars'.

I really appreciate this board for its functionality and features. As a moderator on other boards I am aware of the work involved and can only express my admiration for how well this board is maintained and organized.

Thank you for the comments.

After some modifications to the site code, remember all this is hand-written and not an 'out-of-box' site/forum, navigation between pages has been effected. What now happens is that instead of the current page being loaded in a different language the home page gets loaded. You should, from there, be able to access any page of the site.

I have tested this and even though I was on the 'Deutsche Version' I could access the streams. There is no text on these pages just a stream window so they may well look like the 'English Version'

I have also looked at the rating system and as far as I can see no topic-starter can actually rate his own topic. To actually rate a topic you need to have the selection buttons on the top right of the page. This is missing when you look at your own started topic and you can only see the 'result' and the top left of the screen.

Unfortunately, in any system, the better topics get completely ignored and it is the dross that gets the rating.

The issue of 'bumping' old posts for no obvious reason is being addressed. We had one member who was simply writing 'thank you' on every page he visited. He has now been warned about this and the posts have been removed.

The reason for the current influx of newbies is quite simple. For too long, the majority of members simply register, log on and just grab as many videos that they can without even writing a single post. This is not exactly fair for all the hard work done by the video contributors. Most forums operate a zero-post policy and this is our way of implementing this. Most memebers will write their single post, and now they have to write atleast one post to get video links, and then go back to their leeching ways. But it will also encourage some others to post more. Of course, after their first post they will have to deal with me -)))))))

The site is constantly developing and because of the, as stated, nature of the beast coding errrors can creep in. So we do welcome this feedback.