Forum Survey Results

Fidel · December 2009

1. Should the Egghead forum allow anonymous posts?

Yes - 49.5%
No - 50.5%

2. Should the BGE forum require registration and publish the registered users forum handle with each post?

Yes - 50.75%
No - 49.25%

3. Should the Egghead Forum assign volunteer moderators with limited powers to help remove offensive posts or threads from the forum?

Yes - 46.67%
No - 53.33%

4. Should the identity of forum moderators (if allowed) be hidden from public view so that no one but moderators know who has the authority to remove threads/posts from the forum?

Yes - 32.99%
No - 67.01%

Sample Size - 273 votes. Some people passed on one or more questions presented in the survey.

One interesting trend I noticed is that the voting was almost 90% in favor of registration and moderators for the first half of votes, then the numbers were almost reversed for the second half of voting.

The numbers didn't have any period of spike, and there were no repeated IP addresses that I found in a cursory search, so I don't think there was any "stuffing of the ballet box" going on.

All in all, the numbers speak for themselves, we are split pretty much right down the middle on registration requirements and the desire for appointed moderators. Seems pretty strong evidence that if there are ever moderators appointed most people would like to know who they are.

Thanks for participating folks.

fieroguy · December 2009

Very interesting Rod. Thanks for your efforts.

cookn biker · December 2009

Thanks so much for taking the time to do this Rod.
Interesting indeed.

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker · December 2009

i think that if there are moderators, people ought to know what they are expected to moderate. i don't want anyone sniffing around trying tyo clean up the joint, or remove a ppost they don't agree with.

my feeling is that there isn't a person here who didn't want "those" posts deleted last week. and that's about the only type of post a moderator should be allowed to delete.

the only reason for a moderator, by the way, as i saw it, was to stand in for WMK or WPB. this isn't a democracy, and it is already moderated.

but since WMK?/WPN aren't here 24/7, we get situations where the troll's stuff sits there for ten hours, then gets deleted after everyone has had a chance to read it.

moderators in the sense they parse everything we say? no. but someone who can delete a post that is an outright anonymous attack, i don't think there's a person here who could see an issue with that.

FlaPoolman · December 2009

I'd be surprised if they didn't spike again tonight after chicken little made his appearance.
Thanks for taking the time to gather and post the info Rod.

Little Chef · December 2009

Thanks for your efforts Rod!! Looks pretty much a 'wash'....but that's what makes the world go round!

Is the poll still open? Perhaps a repost based on recent activities? Just a thought....

Thanks again Rod!

Little Steven · December 2009

Rod,

Thank you for doing that. I must say I find the results surprising given the conditions around here for the last few weeks.

Steve

cookn biker · December 2009

Rod,How was this set up for who could vote? Any ol body or register'd folks..?

thirdeye · December 2009

For what it's worth, I'm a moderator on another Forum. It's a different set-up than the Egg Forum, we have close to 40 sub-forums, private messaging, photo gallery, polls and that kind of stuff.....

The majority of the work by the moderators is not removing or cleaning up posts by deletion. Well, other than deleting duplicate posts. Subjects or comments we don't happen to personally agree with is not justification to start deleting stuff out of some body's post. The few (and I can count them on one hand) that misbehaved, receive a private message and an opportunity to edit their own post in question.

Most of the time the Mods help members with registration, site navigation, finding a particular thread, uploading or posting pictures, etc. Sometimes we will compile valuable information from a long thread and re-post it in a sub forum with it's own thread. In the beginning we would consider suggestions for the new sub-forums, but it was a cooperative agreement between the administrators and the Mods. All-in-all, being a Mod is kind of routine is you have a good group of members.

Sure, I have banned a few posters, but it was someone that snuck in in the middle of the night and immediately posted an unsolicited link for male enhancement tools, pharmaceutical drugs at cut rate prices, or applications for credit cards or loans.

Canugghead · December 2009

there were no repeated IP addresses that I found in a cursory search

Rod, thanks for taking the time. However, I find the first half vs. second half pattern interesting. Is it possible the second half was voted by computer savvy voter(s) who used fake IP addresses? Just a thought.
-Gary

Carolina Q · December 2009

Same here. I'm no longer a mod, but I was one. We also had a good group with very few flare ups. On that forum, the only one who could actually ban anyone was the admin. Sometimes, the mods actually had to beg him to do it! And even then, he was reluctant. Worked pretty well. Lot of work for the mods though.

On the other hand, I was on another forum where the POWER went to their heads. A lot. Every time you turned around, someone was being banned. Not only that, but they (the mods and the admin) actually discussed it in open forum; trying to justify their actions. Bad form. I don't go their any more.

Bacchus · December 2009

Anyone could vote right? Anything preventing somone from voting more than once?
I too find interesting the first half 90% thing...

Fidel · December 2009

I killed the poll right before I published the results. No reason to continue it as any future results would certainly be biased for two reasons.

Fidel · December 2009

I doubt it because the first half of the votes were recorded in about 3 hours. The second half took the remainder of the three days to compile.

Fidel · December 2009

The vote was IP restricted. So technically a person could vote 2 or 3 times (home, work, mobile device, etc.) but I looked at the recorded IPs and didn't notice any specific ranges that would suggest someone was logging multiple votes from a network range of addresses.

Fidel · December 2009

Anyone that followed my link from this forum could vote.

Celtic Wolf · December 2009

At the risk of getting attacked some more, it is easy to vote in a negative manner when you aren't the one being directly attacked.

However, his attacks on me and anyone who defends me disrupts the forum. You posted this on the day he attacked me again. The votes spiked because of that. The next few days no attacks and the votes reflect the peace..

Just let it go..

Marlin Darlin · December 2009

Bravo! The unregistered poster is a spelling challenged douch(e). Glad his most recent attack was ignored.

Hoss · December 2009

I'm surprised.Thanks for trying!

2Fategghead · December 2009

Thanks Rod for all your effort.

Fidel · December 2009

As much as this might bruise your ego Pete, I didn't do this survey for you, to protect you, because of you, or to support you.

I did it because I like this forum, I like the people that I have gotten to know over the past few years because of this forum, and and there have been a lot of conversations between me and several other users offline about moderators, registration, etc. This survey is something that I have thought of doing for a while now. The anonymous posts the other day spurred my memory to do it.

The votes didn't spike because he attacked you. The votes spiked because the survey post was put up and more people saw it that day. A lot of folks don't see posts that move onto the second page and beyond.

I appreciate your feelings on the issue, but I don't think it is your place to tell me to "let it go"

WessB · December 2009

I think it was a great idea irregardless of the intent..hopefully some good will come from it...Thanks..not taking either side here...

Celtic Wolf · December 2009

You assume I have an ego that can be bruised.

Regardless of the reason you posted the survey it was done the day a troll attacked.

Don't let it go. I don't care either way, obviously the majority have spoken..

Panhandle Smoker · December 2009

Wow, that is a big surprise. I wouldn't have thought the numbers would be that close. Thanks for the effort Rod, very interesting none the less.

Ripnem · December 2009

Rod,
I just can't believe the members are that split. It sounds like the split may fall between member, non-member. Either way....nice job.

BENTE · December 2009

That is about what I thought it would be.

I guess now we at least know what everyone thinks

Thanks fidel

fishlessman · December 2009

i think if the registration process was smoother some of those questions would have been answered differently. just remembering how long it took to get registered, was a few months for me

Boilermaker Ben · December 2009

I'm not too terribly surprised by the trend you noticed. I would imagine that those of us who check the forum daily, or mulitple times per day, probably responded to the poll immediately. Since we check every day, we were also more likely to have seen the repeated offensive posts that have been showing up for the past couple months.

As the week passed, I'm guessing most of the rest of the votes were members and visitors who stop by every few days. As less frequent participants, they may not have seen the trolling. Regardless, they are important to the forum, so I'm glad their votes were heard.

Fidel · December 2009

I agree with your assessment and that is why I left the poll open for so long.

It would have been nice to have the link to the survey as a "sticky" at the top of the page so it would have been seen by more visitors and members.

FSUScotsman · December 2009

Having been a member of forums that were both ways I prefer the moderated forums. I'm not sure that it is needed here as much because we don't discuss much that is controversial. If the Off Topic forum was very active and politics ruled the day over there you would have to moderate I think before it became a brawl. In the main form, well, I think we have to wait and see. I'm not here every day and only have seen a few knock downs. Seemed to me that when the rest of the group jumped the offender it was handled well.

As the forum grows it's going to change. Moderators may be the only choice that you have.

Big George's BBQ · December 2009

Thank you for doing it

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