General knowledge

General knowledge

House Talion​(dom male) • Apr 8, 2021

As we've seen a steady increase of new members since the beginning of covid I've seen many post the same questions in the forum. It sometimes becomes tedious answering the same question again and if it happens often enough and the new member posting is unaware of mutual significance then said post is repeated. This has been happening and I beleive there is not such a place of general or common knowledge I suggest such a place be created. Perhaps posted on the home page and linked to every new forum post with a basic clause specifying that such knowledge has been placed there, just in case anyone wants to post a new thread that has already been answered.

Certainly one employee would be able to pool the posts and compile a general collective of members majority answers, could even speculate which answers to said questions gained more percentage than others or you could make a general knowledge forum group where said basic questions are preposted and members are only allowed to answer- that would allow all to read the questions and see the more prominent answers without flooding the other forum groups with the same questions

FullCanadian​(switch male){MissB} • Apr 8, 2021

There's a search function for that. The issue isn't a lack of resources or information, no matter how it's formatted or compiled.

The issue is people new to BDSM jumping in to unknown or dangerous situations DESPITE having all those resources available.

Self control, common sense and learning skills all matter. No FAQ is going to fix or help those who are lacking.

NCarraway​(dom male) • Apr 8, 2021

I agree with Talion with this.

There is an issue with the same conversations occurring over and over and over again. It does not lead to a vibrant environment for the forum as many of us will roll our eyes and cry out 'ffs not again'... I would like to see a wider range of discussions. My suggestions are:

Someone, maybe the original poster, maybe a forum leader volunteer (as you would see on FL) able to close discussions when done or politely refer to an earlier discussion.

A reorganisation of the forum areas and a reorganisation of the front page for that. It seems to me that the front page shows so few discussions and they tend to be the 'sexy word association' or 'welcome to the cage intros'. I'm sure those threads have their place but I don't think they encourage debate.

At the moment there is obviously some algorithm that brings some specific conversations to the top (perhaps just the last to be added to) and this leads to only a few conversations since everybody just adds to what is current. I think a more sophisticated algorithm is called for that introduces other conversations into the mix, perhaps old ones. Maybe we could have a way of tailoring the threads each of us sees?

I think a real irritation for me is a thread of someone in a dilemma that is discussed for months after the dilemma is sorted and perhaps even after the OP has left.

Dominus eius​(dom male){LittleLott} • Apr 8, 2021

I hear the issues, however, unfortunately I think the majority of the cause is operator error.

People don’t search the forum - they just post what’s in their mind. Yes, a series of moderators who can close a thread and point it to existing one(s).

People posting to dilemmas long after the OP originally raised it - they just haven’t paid any attention to the dates on the posts before adding - again operator error (or lack of care). Possible solution would be to auto close threads if not updated for x days.

What threads are promoted - there are a couple of options available if you visit the forums, however, otherwise it’s last updated first. Which tries to promote the more current items. Yes, you can go down the route of “sticky” items - but then need to remember to manage these to ensure they are only current items - then you get into who is deciding what people should be finding important?

One thing I do find strange is that in the welcome page, the blogs are given more weight than the forum - where I would expect more discussion to take place.

Miki • Apr 8, 2021

In the interim, one can simply post to a thread that appears to double up an earlier one and advise the O P and those who contributed to the seemingly redundant thread of the existence of an earlier one--- Even include a link to the older thread if you wanna be a cheerful helper.

Or just ignore the double and move on. No one is forcing anyone to post to questions they feel they already answered.

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But it is worth noting that a lot depends on the age of the original thread addressing a given topic.

I have seen in other online forums, of a variety of topics not just sex or lifestyle-oriented, that it's bad form to "necro" posts.

I'd say beyond 3 months since the most recent contribution could be considered "necro-ing" a post--- and definitely 6 months and beyond. Not only have I seen it considered bad form (it's an unwritten little rule) -- the O P of the older thread and any number of follow-up posters could no longer be here.

I found this out yesterday when someone unearthed a 3-month old thread. I clicked on the O P's profile and found "Profile Does Not Exist"-- No sense writing a reply to someone who ain't here no more.

* * * *

But yeah, while an index sounds like a great idea, I don't see them doing it. As it is, I have tried in vain to get them to feature a Stealth Mode so I can wander in, read messages and at "browse" the threads to see if there's something I can add--- without people seeing me online and attacking my inbox or Bond--- all I ever got was "We're Working On It"--- 2 years ago. They won't be doing that, either it seems.

$0.04!!

Villanelle​(staff) • Apr 9, 2021

We generally remove intro/personal threads and leave topics created by old users as they often contain information that is still relevant. Many new users do not take the time to visit our Help section or check out our info articles in the magazine before posting a topic. We appreciate this can be annoying to established members. We can definitely work on making our reference information more prominent to new users and have plans to expand our resources.

Thank you all for sharing your thoughts and offering suggestions!

Miki • Apr 13, 2021

I'm guilty of that --- almost 3.5 years running. Never thought of looking in the "Magazine" or the Help section. (I also shall never be even caught dead in the Personals by the way.....)

Fortunately I never started a thread.

Oh, well, I started one, a "new year resolution game: Keeper or Bullshit?" -- something like that----" but it drew no response so I asked them to get rid of it, which they did.

So in essence, though I never read Help or Magazine, I never started a thread, so I annoyed no one with a redundant question.

I also am confident I never will initiate a thread. Any questions I have are actually answered when interacting with existing threads. I prefer to let others stick their spindly necks out

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Boiling it down: In a nut-sack, an index or glossary of topics covered in dust-bin threads will definitely be helpful.

For example, perhaps Joe Blow the Crooked-Toothed Dom (who ran out of here like his ass was on fire 2 years ago) posed a deep-thought question that garnered a number of wise and informative replies... The new folks need to know about it!

NCarraway​(dom male) • Apr 13, 2021

It seems to me Villanelle that you are a small outfit and that you don't have the time/(wo)manpower to think about reorganising forums let alone plan on doing it.

Why don't you approach some of the more active and established forum participants and form some sort of a small work group to have a consensus of opinion first so you can modify with confidence. After all it is the members who can tell you how they can best use the forums.