Other Forums?

I have a question about that. Can an administrator nullify an account without banning the ISP of the computer.
It depends on the board software and the rights the admin/mod has been granted. For example, I can't delete accounts, but I can ban them so no one can log onto them again. On another board, I can ban their IP address as well, so they can't set up a new account without changing their IP address.

If a user has already posted, deleting his/her account has to include removing those posts since the ID won't exist anymore. That's why most software packages ban the user if they request that their ID be removed.

Does anyone here know how to send a subtle, "enjoy but don't take it overly serious " message?
I've found that a PM works for new users, but if the person's really gone to the deep end of the psycho pool, that backfires on you. They'll casually mention online that you've been harrassing them via PM, lol. I usually send a generic "Welcome to ()" message that includes a "enjoy the ride" statement or two, so that the person doesn't feel that they're being disciplined.

Rather than playing disciplinarian, I've found that it's better to distract the members. When someone posts something that could lead to a battle, I just quote a prior post in the thread and add a comment that I hope will take the thread back on topic. Or, "bump" several other threads so that the one in question drops to the bottom of the forum/new posts lists.

If all else fails, I post a comment about thread drift or "no personal attacks" in my moderator voice using font/color/options.

It's also good to have a separate ID for admin/mod duties vs. your personal opinion ID. That same user I discussed above would often make comments about not being free to express herself because I was a mod. Everytime I post on that board, my user title reflects that status and if I didn't agree with anyone or if I had to tell people to chill out, someone in her circle would make a comment about their freedom of speech rights being violated.
 
I am very proud to be a part of this forum. When the Internet first really became popular, I looked around to see if there was any kind of Quantum Leap community and the only choices were to sign up a subscription for snail mail newsletters. Then years later I found Al's Place. This is a great community.
 
Can I be honest here and look like fool slipping and falling on his behind?

Well, firstly ohboy - No I wasn't a mod. People got upset because they got booted off. Mods were given death threats as well as anyone else. Why?

Because of something jassian said.

Does anyone here know how to send a subtle, "enjoy but don't take it overly serious " message?

Now this is something I wanted to talk about.

The thing I have found is that written words can be so easily misunderstood.

And thats why death threats were made in the other forum I was in.

I have misunderstood what people have typed on a screen. I have in this site.

Now, with jassians question, I'm one whom uses common sense and feelings to try to get a message across, even more so if its in writing!

Let me see......

"Please enjoy", "But please please please remember not to take what you read seriously", "What you read is different to the way it speaks", "Thank you" :)

I am one whom looks at one issue from multiple angle's, so I hope I'm giving you something to think about ohboy.

Also, I LOVE speaking in this forum. LOVELY LOVELY LOVELY people :)

Sorry :(
 
Thanks NYC and Ang :)
You know I'm wondering if there's even really subtle things, like the color theme, or how Brian uses this really cool and funny picture for his avatar, and the images for the forums are all really cheerful and creative. I think this kind of thing may have an impact as well.
 
Ah, the idea of "forum psychology". You're probably right, Jassian, all the little things probably do add up to make the forum pleasant and cheerful.
 
This is just a hyposthesis, but I'm guessing forums with topics that set more of a dark mood, and are about things that are more- cool is the wrong word- more ego driven, may have more trouble.

Wasn't light blue a color which promotes trust and niceness? So maybe it's our luck that the QL theme color also promotes great forum behaviour 8):lol
Any color experts? :)
Got this of a webpage:

The Color Psychology of Blue

  • Blue is described as a favorite color by many people and is the color most preferred by men.
  • Blue calls to mind feelings of calmness or serenity. It is often described as peaceful, tranquil, secure, and orderly.
  • Blue can also create feelings of sadness or aloofness.
  • Blue is often used to decorate offices because research has shown that people are more productive in blue rooms.
  • Blue is one of the most popular colors, but it is one of the least appetizing. Some weight loss plans even recommend eating your food off of a blue plate. Blue rarely occurs naturally in food aside from blueberries and some plums. Also, humans are geared to avoid foods that are poisonous and blue coloring in food is often a sign of spoilage or poison.
  • Blue can also lower the pulse rate and body temperature.
 
Yes, I've had that happen here before a couple times. The person most recently asked for that to happen and have any mention of their name removed and just went nuts over it. Refused to do anything on here anymore and tried to bring others with her and succeeded somehow in a couple cases. Nothing is worth that sort of behavior - it's just a message board lol.
 
Yup, but there are people who only go to a messageboard to get rid of the problems they have in real life, and not always in a good way. I see your point, but there are people who wouldn't even want to, especially insistent trolls, who only want to make everyone else as miserable as they are, mainly because they're cowards who can't deal with their real problems (and not because they don't want to, but because they're afraid and they feel safe behind a computer screen, where they think they can do whatever they want whenever they feel like).

I don't know if these boards have had any problems with insistent trolls before, aside from the ones that have been mentioned, although they don't look so insistent to me, but I could be wrong, of course. Like I said before in another thread, I've been visiting these boards since 2003 (although I joined until late 2008), but I never noticed anything out of the ordinary. This whole site has always been very friendly. Perhaps the moderators can correct me, if I'm wrong. I'm just a bit curious. I just can't imagine anyone breaking the peace in a forum like this. I just don't see any reasons whatsoever, but well, I wouldn't be surprised at all if there had been at least a couple of potential/dangerous trolls around here once. Every forum has had them, but probably the imdb.com and the scifi.com forums are the ones where you can find them more often, and the moderators don't even seem to notice, or maybe they just don't care anymore, which is a shame. Civilized conversations belong to the past, that's why I'm very glad that I'm a part of this forum.
 
I actually am a moderator on another website. Reason: No one else applied for the position except for me.

However, I think it would be hard to pick the right moderator. There are probably a number of factors to consider.
 
Probably a good mixture of knowledge on the topic and people skills plus whatever techie skills are needed, depending whether you're mainly a mod or also an admin.
:)
 
I'm just curious. Does anyone here own or maintain their own website and/or forum (not including Myspace type pages, but actual websites or forums like this one). I'm curious, because I some distant goal of mine in the future is maintain my own forum, and I wanted to sort of get input on reactions from those who do. Or those that belong to a diverse range of forums (even if you don't own them).

This goal is probably not something I'll be doing in the near-future, but someday I'd like to maintain a forum. Thanks in advance for any input or opinions. :)

A friend and I are working on a website/forum dedicated to a show that was on recently called All The Small Things.
 
I have run many forums of varying success, however my main one, Versipellem, is a roleplay forum which has run for over two years now, and I'm very proud of it. I used InvisionFree to make it, however I recently converted another of my boards to ZetaBoards and it is much better.