Harder rules on off topic and nonfactual statements

[Teodor Miljevic]

I have been a long time reader and follower of dvx-user but lately I am starting to grow tired of the way all information is getting diluted with pure bickering and fanboyism. I am all for beeing personal but when I see the same person coming in to five different cameraforums just to say that people should get the hacked gh2 then I actually start to think it is time to move on. Is there a possibility to make and inforce a few rules that make the whole reading experience and knowledge sharing a little bit more effective?
I have some ideas. Can we divide new camera releases and the discussions of them into two parts. It is always so frustrating to simmer through fifteen people saying something in the vains of if its not got hd-sdi then its nothing for me. if its over this amount then balalablablablabla x infinity.
I can not be the only one to recognize that the ratio of facts contra opinions has changed dramatically. I don't want to ban personal feelings but I mean they have to add something and be based on something other then ignorance. I would also like to see some classification of factual threads and subjective threads. I would also like to urge for some kind of moderating of opinions that are in best case based on ignorance (of how to use the equipment they are critisizing) to pure corporate stooges just spreading missinformation.
It is getting to be almost as worthless as another forum that caters to a certain camera company. I find it sad because there needs to become some kind of categorisation between facts and opinions and I would be very glad if Dvxuser could be in the forefront of this change. Maybe I'm oldschool but I am getting growingly tired of reading peoples brainfarts. We need to build a forumtoilet so that all these farts don't stink down the whole forum.

I am begging for a new start with harder monitoring and cleaning. I think removing pure outbursts of feelings and speculation based nothing is not censorship (I mean they havent added anything so you are actually not removed something of essence) but the best thing would be to urge people not to do it in the first place. I really hope that you take my concernes seriously or I am afraid that this forum in a few years might only be frequented by loudmouthed teenagers that own a dslr and have a camerabudget of 1000 dollars (why they are constantly whining over the price of professional equipment). I wish you the best of luck if you were to join this quest of purification.

 

[Jester2138]

I'm all for cracking down on personal attacks in discussion. Otherwise, can I be the one who gets to decide what's fact and what's opinion?

 

[Teodor Miljevic]

I understand your perspective as a user. But if you look at the whole picture what the forum gives other people. The more people shout out their opinions without any bearing the less fruitful the forum gets. I mean this forum has many functions but lately it more and more seems to cater people that want to scream out their opinion.
The line between facts and opinion can be thin or to be more precise fact based opinions which I am all for. Let me take an example. If someone says I don't like the highlight roll off in 1:03 in the example movie is that the grade or the way it was filmed? this is a basis for discussion and actually learning something. But if someone writes the following comment after an example film. That was really bad not exchanging my gh2 any time soon then that is just filling the forum with your brainfarts. So you are content with your purchase who cares.
If we compare a the forum to a dinnerparty that would guide people to what is appropriate. I mean if someone was to say I met a nice girl the apropriate response would not be to shout out: a girl you say my wifes body is beautiful and I am not gonna change her for anything in the world. A response like that to the first sentence I mentioned would be met with confusion. What has this guys wife anything to do with that the other person has met a nice girl. But on the forum this seems to happen all the time.

Maybe I started the thread wrongfully with wishes about harder rules but it could maybe start a discussion on how people conduct themselves on forums. I follow a lot of forums and I think people should be more polite or analyzing if their writings add anything. As I stated above my concern is that if this reaches to high levels it is going to scare of the people that have more experience. This thread was actually inspired after I had a rant myself. I am not blaming anyone for my conduct but I started realizing that the things I was reading started to rub of on me. If you read the thread about the chinese camera in the news section atleast half of those replies could be erased and some of them I think should have resulted in atleast a private PM to the writers. I mean you can think what you want about Chinese poiitics but when you start spewing out stereotypes and accuations based on nothing not only are you making people stop reading the thread but also start discussions around this which fills the thread with a discussion about chinese production and not about the camera which is the topic of the thread.

I don't know maybe I am getting old and conservative but I feel that I don't have time to read through a ton of stuff that has nothing to do with the topic of the thread I entered. I invite people to talk about this. I am sure that I am not the only one that feels like this.

 

[Amr Rahmy]

yes, there are overprotective, biased to the point of psychopathic obsession going around the forum. but on the other hand, a lot a moderators are also getting aggressive against anything non Panasonic, and over protective to the point of obsession and blindness to Panasonic products. and facts do get muddied. i don't think your solution, which would mimic that other forum, would solve much.

we could as users start reporting and replying to off topic posts, something simple that would make moderators job easier. for example quoting a post and replying "not relevant to thread topic". moderators can then delete both posts if they liked, creating a layer between users and already gun happy moderators.

 

[combatentropy]

I totally hear you. There's a lot of noise. Three solutions:

1. Get others to change. Establish more rules. Kick out repeat offenders. This isn't sustainable for large sites. There aren't enough moderators, and normally you can't really get people to change.

2. Software. The entire Web has the same problem. At first, people thought the answer was to get web authors to change, or to have a group of curators organize the web. Then Google showed that with the right formula a computer could separate the signal from noise. Slashdot is an example of a forum with good moderation software. Contributors in good standing randomly get temporary moderation powers. DVXUser has the start of something like it, with the little up and down arrows, but it may be crippled. I can't use them, because I haven't gotten 50 points yet. Maybe it would be better to give everyone moderation ability, but those who themselves get the most up-arrows for their own posts, their moderation is worth more. Posts that are modded down beyond a certain threshold (say, -5 points) are hidden by default. Posts modded up a certain amount get a little bit of highlight style.

3. Change how you read. This can be immediate, because it only involves changing yourself:

- In your General Settings, set page size to 40 posts, instead of the default 10. This will help you read faster, especially if you combine it with keyboard shortcuts:
- When reading, use keyboard shortcuts:

- Space bar: jump down one page height
- Shift + Space bar: jump back up one page height
- Home key: top of page
- End key: bottom of page​

- Instead of reading word by word, scan swaths of text to get a feel. Slow down for a post that sounds good.
- If you notice that a certain poster always writes junk, put them on your Ignore List.

 

[Luis Caffesse]

we could as users start reporting and replying to off topic posts, something simple that would make moderators job easier.

That right there is the single best thing any of you can do right now to help make this the site you want to see.
(the reporting, not replying)

We hear you - we are discussing options and doing what we can in the meanwhile. This is (and has been) a constant issue, and it comes in waves.
The important thing to remember is this - the forum is not what we make it as moderators, we can only guide the site through our moderation. The tone and character of the site is the result of the posts of members like all of you. Therefore, the absolute best thing you can do is to make sure you are adding posts to the site that reflect what you'd like to see on the site. Respond to posts that you like, share your experience, make sure you are contributing valuable content. And, on the other side of it, do not respond to posts that you think are a distraction or noise. When you see posts that you truly feel don't belong here, report them. Don't add to those threads, don't add to the noise. Just point them out to the moderators so that we can take a look and see if it deserves to be removed or closed.

The 'report post' feature is the single most powerful tool you have as members. Use it.
It is the blue triangular shaped icon in the upper righthand corner of every post.
When you use it, moderators are alerted of the post in question, along with your comments.
Only moderators will see your comments - the original poster will never know you reported their post.

But most importantly - remember - the site is what you make of it.
Post the types of threads you want to see, respond to the types of threads that you want to see, and go out of your way to contribute revelant information and material.
The ideal way to drop the noise level is not necessarily to come in with a hammer and beat it to death, but instead to drown it out with useful and valuable posts.

If you have any other suggestions please feel free to add them to this thread.
We are paying attention.