51 replies to this topic

[LionJess]

the shoutbox is gone, just that.

This has been brought up time and time again. It has been brought up in the past with you, the members, and the response was also so-so about keeping or ditching the shoutbox. Due to an onslaught of recent problems, the moderators have been having a discussion and we've decided, for now, to get rid of the shoutbox.

Our reasons?
The big one is that you guys just don't behave in it. and I'm sorry that some of you may behave perfectly, but it is a group thing used by many people, and there aren't always moderators online to deal with the rule-breakers. There's been cybering, private information posted, bullying and just outright offensive shit from some of our members who quite frankly should really know better.


It's also really stopped the activity on the forum, and this site has always been a forum, not a shoutbox. There are people with nearly 50,000 shouts and no posts on the forum at all!

So, we're ditching the shoutbox. Enjoy posting around the forum, in case you forgot there actually was one there ;P

[Anne-Marie]

Not too surprisingly, this makes me very happy. Welcome to the forum, people.

[Algernon]

Oh, frabjous day! Calloo! Callay!

[Nereus]

Like the forum's activity wasn't declining before the shoutbox.

And most of the regular members like myself still post in the forum as well, but okay, whatever.

[LionJess]

Like the forum's activity wasn't declining before the shoutbox.

And most of the regular members like myself still post in the forum as well, but okay, whatever.

It's undeniable that the shoutbox contributed to the decline in activity. If the people with THOUSANDS of shouts posted even 1% of that, the forum would be a much busier place.


And unfortunately regardless of WHO is posting, the rule breaking is just unacceptable. I'm not saying everyone who was posting in the shoutbox was breaking the rules of course, but there was significant enough rule breaking to have to do something about it other than constantly banning 50% of the members. I don't have to warn people that much on the forum, why should I need to spend every second refreshing the shoutbox because a bunch of new members don't realise that there ARE rules to the forum?

This isn't to say the shoutbox isn't coming back at all, though. We're tempted to offer it as a kind of incentive to members who have a certain amount of posts, to encourage people to post to that number, and by then, hopefully they'd have more of an idea of the rules

We'll be doing a feedback thread on the forum changes in general shortly, and it can be discussed then to see how the forum is faring without the shoutbox. These things can be reinstated quite easily.

[Forzare!]

Like the forum's activity wasn't declining before the shoutbox.

And most of the regular members like myself still post in the forum as well, but okay, whatever.

You do a terrific job of sounding like a petulant 15 year old.

[Lightning.]

Like the forum's activity wasn't declining before the shoutbox.

And most of the regular members like myself still post in the forum as well, but okay, whatever.

The shoutbox added to that decline and yes you still posted in the forums but not to the extent that you did before the shoutbox.

Christ Mike how old are you meant to be? Act your age

[Reflection]

ITT Reflection is pleased.

[Occasional_Desire]

most of the regular members like myself still post in the forum as well, but okay, whatever.

You have to see the point in which we are trying to encourage new members.

[Reflection]

May we all return to Small Talk and Chit Chat from whence we came.

EDIT: Aw shit I'd forgotten all about flood control. Must have been distracted between posts for at least 60 seconds by the shoutbox.... DAMN IT.

[Nereus]

The shoutbox added to that decline and yes you still posted in the forums but not to the extent that you did before the shoutbox.

Christ Mike how old are you meant to be? Act your age

I'm in support to the shoutbox being removed, just I don't agree with all of Jess's reasoning. I told Alex earlier I was on the fence about it. Sometimes, I liked it. Sometimes, I hated it.

Though I remember either Toni or Leah (don't remember who) saying the last time we discussed this that you couldn't force people to post in the forum. And you cannot. Many of these newbies think this is still an emo forum, so when they notice the lack of emo topics, they become reserved from posting. I don't know what you do about that.

And sure, the number of posts I've made on a daily basis has gone down, but some of that is contributed to the fact many topics have been done to death. How many religion threads have we had? It isn't just because of the shoutbox. I still post a lot in the music section. Many of my posts have been poems too, but I stopped posting them in here, and I haven't posted in the RP section at all.

[Bloodzerø]

Noooo! Don't post a thread asking where it is! IT'S A TRAP!

Purple niner niner, Purple niner niner! I need Green backup! Calling all admins! Fuck it send in the blue, I got bogies all over me! *Raging flamers swarm the thread*
Fall back! Fall back! Immediate evasive action! Immediate evasive action! *dodges thread*

[LionJess]

I'm in support to the shoutbox being removed, just I don't agree with all of Jess's reasoning. I told Alex earlier I was on the fence about it. Sometimes, I liked it. Sometimes, I hated it.

Though I remember either Toni or Leah (don't remember who) saying the last time we discussed this that you couldn't force people to post in the forum. And you cannot. Many of these newbies think this is still an emo forum, so when they notice the lack of emo topics, they become reserved from posting. I don't know what you do about that.

And sure, the number of posts I've made on a daily basis has gone down, but some of that is contributed to the fact many topics have been done to death. How many religion threads have we had? It isn't just because of the shoutbox. I still post a lot in the music section. Many of my posts have been poems too, but I stopped posting them in here, and I haven't posted in the RP section at all.

In fairness, I don't see how you CAN'T see where I'm coming from: it was being abused regularly, the rules weren't being followed, and we're trying to encourage activity on the forum. It's not like it's completely shut down with all hopes of ever getting it back gone.


I'm not saying you can force people to post, but the shoutbox encourages laziness, people just don't bother even considering to type up a new reply, they just use the shoutbox. In fairness, if someone has enough things to say in the shoutbox to have 20,000 shouts, they could definitely find a couple of threads to post in.

And as for the topics gone to death... how many have tried to resuscitate that by posting their own though? Again, it's a lazy thing. I don't mind people being able to chat, but ultimately this is a forum and we want the forum itself to have interesting things to read and reply to. I don't think I've EVER seen a "mature discussion" going on in the shoutbox, and if there was one (which I'm sure there were), they've disappeared by the time other people have come online, unlike the forum where recent posts are always visible.

It's really more of an effort to see if activity will pick up, we are trying to get new people to stick around and post, it's not like we're doing this to try kill the forum




.... and reflection, that's a good point. I'll give you a little present. I'm gonna lower flood control.

[Reflection]

JOYOUS DAYS ARE THESE!!! <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

[LionJess]

Search flood control has been lowered to ten seconds. That's perfectly reasonable, it would take more than that to even think what you're going to search for  

Flood control is now 25 seconds. I think that's pretty fair. And you can type your reply using the quick reply method, by the time you're finished typing you can post again.

Enjoy your gift, EC (AN, as we will be now?)... Now please, post more!

[Nereus]

In fairness, I don't see how you CAN'T see where I'm coming from: it was being abused regularly, the rules weren't being followed, and we're trying to encourage activity on the forum. It's not like it's completely shut down with all hopes of ever getting it back gone.


I'm not saying you can force people to post, but the shoutbox encourages laziness, people just don't bother even considering to type up a new reply, they just use the shoutbox. In fairness, if someone has enough things to say in the shoutbox to have 20,000 shouts, they could definitely find a couple of threads to post in.

And as for the topics gone to death... how many have tried to resuscitate that by posting their own though? Again, it's a lazy thing. I don't mind people being able to chat, but ultimately this is a forum and we want the forum itself to have interesting things to read and reply to. I don't think I've EVER seen a "mature discussion" going on in the shoutbox, and if there was one (which I'm sure there were), they've disappeared by the time other people have come online, unlike the forum where recent posts are always visible.

It's really more of an effort to see if activity will pick up, we are trying to get new people to stick around and post, it's not like we're doing this to try kill the forum

Fair enough. You addressed all of my concerns and I thank you for that. And you're right, there needs to be more active posting in here. And sometimes, there was mature conversation going on, if only barely. But your points are good enough with me, and I accept them, so I'm done with posting in here.

And I love you for lowering flood control.

[Bloodzerø]

I'm hit, I'm hit! We're going down! Aaaaarrrrrgghh! *BOOM!*

[.:.Lish.:.]

The only reason I like the shoutbox disappearing is that there is hardly any arguments anymore.

But what I dislike about it gone is that now it's up to slow response through using PM, see the shoutbox was a quicker way for some of us to talk and a lot more efficient.

[IamAshley.]

Well. To be honest I am glad the shoutbox is gone, I will miss it dreadfully, but it means I will probs be on the internet less and I won't get suspended from internet usage.
Yay! My mum won't yell at me anymore!!!! XD

[Reflection]

The only reason I like the shoutbox disappearing is that there is hardly any arguments anymore.

But what I dislike about it gone is that now it's up to slow response through using PM, see the shoutbox was a quicker way for some of us to talk and a lot more efficient.

There is no flood control on PMs anymore. There used to be a 60 second wait before the last forum software update. In other words, your point is moot. If PMs are any slower, it's because the person you're talking to needs to pay attention more.