My take... [long]

[deacsoft]

I received the PM that Mat sent out as you all did. At first glance I didn't really have much of a response. As most of you know, I generally stay out of the gossips, rumblings, and other "behind the scenes" workings of the 2+2 environment. I would be one of those "...approximately 31 mods felt everything is perfectly fine. Most of these mods do not participate here, not because they are turned off by the tone, but because they care more about the strat forums they mod ..." that Mat stated in this thread. However, I did state in my response to him that I would take some time to think about things. Mostly what I would like to focus on is ways to make this forum a better place. Or, as I would like to call it, return this site back to it's glory days.

I'd like to begin by quoting Mason form this thread.
[ QUOTE ]
we built ourselves into success by only being willing to do top quality stuff. That extended into this website and the forums. The idea was to have vigorous debate without insults, and to also have a little fun.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is something I couldn't agree with more. It is 100% of what I think these forums should be all about. It is also 100% of what my opinion of 2+2 as a company is. These forums once represented that standard of "top quality". The top quality standard is what attracted me to this site almost 4 years ago. Over those years I've been witness to the steady decline of quality in the forums. There are a couple big factors that I believe are strongly aiding the decline.

1. The first is growth. I was member number 7797 nearly 4 years ago. As of right this second there are 101262 registered users. With the massive growth of the site there is bound to be a fair percentage of complete morons, trolls, and whatnot. If the full number of registered users posted regularly and 5% of them were trolls we'd have 5,063 morons posting here.

2. Many quality posters have left the forums. Without their leadership and valuable posting the forums have suffered in quality. I believe that a large reason for the departures from these forums by these posters is due to reason 1. Mods were assigned to the forums. I had hoped that the Mods would take up leadership and post the highest quality they're capable of. As we all know, some have not and more have abused their authority. Some of this abuse has led to even more quality posters leaving the forums.

So now that that has been said, I'd like to list and describe some things that could be done to improve the forums for everyone...

We need a standardized set of rules/regulations for all Mods and members to follow. This should include, but not necessarily be limited to...
1. A code of conduct. This would state that Mods are expected to uphold the standard of "top quality"and "integrity" and "to have vigorous debate without insults" (to quote Mason). Mods will be respectful of each other, the Admins, and the forum members. Mods will not leak Mod Discussion forum specific information to any other member of 2+2. etc, etc. Mods should follow this or be stripped of their Mod status.

2. List of rules and punishments. This would state some specific and general examples of violations and the appropriate punishments for offenders. Example: Spamming- All spam posts are deleted, the spammer is perma-banned, and notes are left. Certainly we can not include every possible violation, but we can have enough listed for common violations to get all Mods on the same page and set some kind of standard. Some of these violations could include those listed in the Terms & Conditions. The dos and don'ts of locations can also be covered here.

3. Non-listed offenses. All non-listed offenses or something deemed by the discovering Mod to be in a "grey area" should be brought up in the Mod Discussion forum. Discussion can take place and a decision can be made by an Admin as to how to proceed and if this should be set as a standard procedure for the rest of the Mods to follow in the future.

4. Specific Mod rules. A list of procedures for all Mods and the possible punishments for not following them. Mods should be expected to leave note when placing a ban on someone. These notes should include their name, the date, and the reason for the ban. Mods should be expected to PM members when some action (ban, deleted post, edited post, etc) is taken against them. This PM would serve as education to the member. Note would then be left advising the Mods name, the date, and the notification to the member. This would help to appropriately punish repeat offenders. The notes would serve as proof that they were previously warned and advised of the rule(s). Custom titles and the procedure for moving threads could also be covered here. If Mods have an issue with another Mods or a member they should handle it privately via PM. Some people need a good kick in the butt, but doing it publicly on the forums results in people getting defensive and e-fighting. Even still it should be done respectfully.

I could go on with the list, but I think everyone sees where I'm heading. Lastly, I'll throw out some other comments and suggestions to improve the overall quality of the forums.

1. Current problematic Mods should be strongly considered to have their Mods status removed. I personally do not have a problem any of the current Mods. I'll be the first to say that I don't know much about all the Mod drama. I typically don't even read the threads related to such topics. But I know many of you do. I hope those more informed than myself can take over this issue. I strongly feel that all Mods should be held to a standard of excellence. A standard of what Mason envisions 2+2 as, and a standard that should come to mind when someone thinks of 2+2. We, as Mods, have to be the leaders of these forums. We are out there publicly every day interacting with the members. We have to lead these forums back to the informative and fun place they once were. We need to do so by example.

2. I think there should be fewer non-poker related forums. Forums that are non-poker specific can attract non-poker forum contributors. They get the wrong people on the site and can take some good posters away from forums that need them. Of all the problems I see on this site a very big percentage of them come from non-poker specific forums. How many Mods are there for non-poker related forums versus now many there are for poker related forums? Now figure the number of non-poker forum Mods with the number of non-poker forums. Do the same for poker related forums. (Don't count Ryan, Mike, or Mat)

3. I think there should be more specific poker forums. With the amount of posters we have new, more specific forums are needed. Another big part of the decline of these forums is that people don't take the time to sift through everything. There's simply too much information in too little a space. this leads to forums being clustered with repeat posts/threads. I think a listing as follows would greatly aid the quality of posting and the access of relevant information.
Example:
Limit Hold'em
-High Stakes-Full Ring
-High Stakes-Short Handed
-High Stakes-Heads Up
-Medium Stakes-Full Ring
-Medium Stakes-Short Handed
-Medium Stakes-Heads Up
-Small Stakes-Full Ring
-Small Stakes-Short Handed
-Small Stakes-Heads Up
-Micro Stakes-Full Ring
-Micro Stakes-Short Handed
-Micro Stakes-Heads Up (may not be needed as not readily available on-line)
-Limit to No-Limit
At first glance this may look like over-kill. But it can do nothing but help. It helps the member to post in the correct forum. This saves Mods time of moving threads, keeps other members from posting things like "wrong forum", it keeps everything organized and clean, and looks very appealing to new members. It also makes looking for information relevant to your question incredibly easier. I think more people would take the time to look through posts and use the search function if they knew they weren't going to have to sift through tons of information not relevant to their question. It makes everything faster and easier for everyone. It makes the forums cleaner and just more user friendly. Right now there's only one Heads Up forum that includes every poker game at every level. Imagine trying to find useful information in that forum in relation to whatever specific question you might have. Sure some forums may have very little traffic, but what's the difference? What you don't have is people flooding high traffic forums with stuff that doesn't belong there.

That's it. I'm going to stop here. If anything else comes to mind and I feel it's necessary I'll post it in a reply in this thread. Thank you to all of you who actually took the time to read this. It says that you're someone who actually might want to make 2+2 a better place or return it to it's glory days. it can be done, but it's going to take time and a lot of effort on our parts. I'd love to hear any comment you guys have on any of what I've said.

Cheers,

deacsoft