Personal pages, social groups and the like

**TosaInu** · 02-03-2009, 23:03

We are allowed to talk about anything on our profiles. I talked about torrents and illegally downloading various pirated software and bovi visited my profile at about the same time, our conversations is practically harmless. Not only this, but TosaInu and Ludens visited Methuselah's profile at the same time as we were discussing the various illegal ways I could transfer my games to him. Finally, moderators will never visit your profile unless you entice them yourself by PM-ing or Visitor Messaging them, which is what Meth and I did to attract those mods. It is as if it is against the moderator's unwritten rules to visit other profiles.

Hello,

I copied above from a public conversation. To make it clear: you are not allowed to talk about piracy, nor porn like in some other conversations nor hurl (rude and/or vulgar) insults at each other.

It's not that it's allowed or even condoned. I suggest every member cleans his own conversation pages and social group pages from all such material. It has to be done by Thursday this week.

**Omanes Alexandrapolites** · 02-03-2009, 23:25

While were on the topic of social groups, might I suggest it be an idea to regulate them all a little more strictly? Possibly even get rid of them. Some have become part of a little group of "spam havens" filled with groups discussing trivial or ridiculous material which would automatically be closed/removed from the off-topic forums.

**caravel** · 02-04-2009, 00:01

Before vBulletin was last updated, we didn't even have these groups/features. IMHO they are not needed and should be totally disabled. We hadn't needed these before and I very much doubt that we need them now either. As a TW forum, I don't see the addition of this pseudo social networking layer as beneficial in any way. Those that want to form such groups/cliques can do so off site using the vast array of tools/sites available.

Post content is best presented in the main forums where it is supposed to be. This gives the largest possible audience where all can benefit and contribute. Omanes is correct in that the social groups and profile visitor pages mainly take the form of spam/chat. The "friends" system is also a flawed one as it encourages cliques and groups to form. and I feel that this is not what the .org is all about.

**Lemur** · 02-04-2009, 02:35

Given how some of our members have helpfully demonstrated the abuse potential of both social groups and personal page comments, I agree that both should be disabled.

**Strike For The South** · 02-04-2009, 02:36

Disable. The ORG don't need that bad pub.

**GeneralHankerchief** · 02-04-2009, 04:24

Agreed. I just don't see the need.

**Omanes Alexandrapolites** · 02-04-2009, 08:17

Originally Posted by Caravel

Before vBulletin was last updated, we didn't even have these groups/features. IMHO they are not needed and should be totally disabled. We hadn't needed these before and I very much doubt that we need them now either. As a TW forum, I don't see the addition of this pseudo social networking layer as beneficial in any way. Those that want to form such groups/cliques can do so off site using the vast array of tools/sites available.

Post content is best presented in the main forums where it is supposed to be. This gives the largest possible audience where all can benefit and contribute. Omanes is correct in that the social groups and profile visitor pages mainly take the form of spam/chat. The "friends" system is also a flawed one as it encourages cliques and groups to form. and I feel that this is not what the .org is all about.

That, for the social groups, IMO, would actually be the most ideal solution - I was trying to compromise a little, but, since it seems that widespread public support is against rather than for, I don't really need to do that any more.

As you have said, the friends list is also rather pointless, but it functions as an extension of v3.5/3.6's buddy list (highlighting those you want to see when on line and giving you a quick list to PM from) and is henceforth fairly harmless. Maybe the visibility of whose friends with who could be dropped - we couldn't see who was on each others buddy list under the old system. I'm not sure about the possibility of this though - I haven't read the vBulletin manual since v3.7 was released.

I'm less certain about profile pages. This probably sounds ridiculous, but it feels more socially acceptable to chat there fairly pointlessly if only just to say hi, ask what the owner's up to, what they are doing at the weekend e.c.t.

To resolve the idea that its a world hidden from the watchful eyes of the moderators, I'd probably say that self-moderation should be in place there - the member looks after the page in accordance with the rules. If somebody breaks the rules, the offender is punished and the page owner is warned that it is their responsibility to keep their page clean (in PM rather than WP format). For the sake of fairness, the page owner probably should only be "told off" if they've been active since the message was first sited. As well as all this, it could be a good idea to allow AMs to moderate pages to increase the number of staff able to watch them (as far as I know, I, at least, cannot do that).

On another note, themes on some profile pages are definitely irritating, but that can be easily fixed by flicking a switch (button is found slightly to the left of the centre on profile pages with customisations enabled - below the user rank, Member for example. You can click that again to turn it back on).

**Noir** · 02-04-2009, 10:35

Both are not needed in my view - i wouldnt shed a single tear if they were botched.

Groups and cliques that form around activities that are relevant to the org but not taking place at the org can stay where they happen. Grouping trends although perfectly normal can be potentially harmful under certain conditions.

Noir