jumpenjuhosaphat

You have some good points CM, and thank you for reading it through. I understand what you are saying about 5a, but 5b and 5c, short and pointless posts like "I submitted mine" are adding nothing to the forum. But that's why I placed this thread here is so that we can discuss these changes as a community.

The signature rule will be a gradual change. We will give everyone a chance to read the new signature link rule, and then give them some extra time before we start reminding people about it. It will be a huge undertaking, because I would assume that most people won't bother to read the announcement, so if that's the case, then at some point we will be sending out PM's as a friendly reminder of the new rule. But in reality, none of this has taken place yet, I put this out there so that we could discuss it....None of it will be enforced until after we have thouroughly discussed the issue and have all of the kinks worked out.

FOR ANYONE THAT IS HAVING TROUBLE SEEING THE ANNOUNCEMENT, YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO VIEW IT BY GOING TO ANY FORUM, IT WILL BE AT THE TOP OF EVERY FORUM ON IWEBTOOL. IF YOU STILL ARE HAVING TROUBLES VIEWING IT, LET ME KNOW.

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Chart Music

About the signature, I'd recommend going into the members database and doing a SQL replace so all signatures(or all not logged in recently) are blank, maybe kenni has to do this, but a worthwhile exercise.
That way it cleans out everyone from the past who is not active. Every active member will soon change there signatures again and all will be sorted.
Such a process could even lead to the resurfacing of old members who turn up to add back there signature.

To otherwise manually attempt to clean the currently 5741 Members will take forever (do the maths yourself) and will put active members who change there signature at a significant disadvantage as old threads are fully of signatures from older members who's signatures are likely to be there unless somehow they are cleaned.

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giovannicosta

The new 2 links in sig policy is really not fair for older members such as myself.

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jumpenjuhosaphat

Giovanni....I realize that you don't agree with the new signature rules...But that doesn't mean that you need to try to discuss it in every thread. You hi-jacked another members thread to make your point, which is quite frankly rude. This is the only thread that you need to discuss this in, period.

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giovannicosta

Bad points

1.I only hijacked another members thread as their thread problem had been resolved.
2.I hadn't noticed this thread as this announcement was badly organised, as this thread should have been a sticky/announcement too in my opinion.
3. Posts in advertise your website forum dont count - why? So if I am providing useful feedback on a members website, I will not get a higher post count for that? You could just make this rule apply to the thread opener.

Good points
1. I am sure this will help IWT keep their PR higher as it is not being distributed so widely.
2. I was glad to have received a pm about the new forum rules (A mass email could have been sent out too).
3. The new rules will stop some members post count increasing rapidly by posting in useless forums and making useless posts.

Overall, apart from the signiture rules, I am really happy with the new announcements.

In regards to Chart Musics post, the admin can login to the admin panel and can follow this procedure to make all the signitures reset:
maintenace>>> update counters>>> Empty Signature Cache
If you have made changes that affect the output of signatures, you may use this to empty the cache and force signatures to be rebuilt with the new settings.

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Alan

I agree with that we need to work to some rules in the community, we have been getting off the point recently. I need to put my input here as there's a couple of points I feel need made.

I don't see 5a) as being necessary, we should use the rep system more, but a public thank you on the forum, it shouldn't be stopped, how can we encourage the use of the rep system more?

Item 6, cross or double posting will still happen, and it can be done by accident. Consider the case where feedback has been given to a webmaster about an aspect of their site, then some time later, perhaps as little as an hour new comments on an update have been addded as an ongoing converation in the thread, 2 posts in the same thread, is it double posting? If constructive and different then No, if repeating yes. I would acknowledge that this is a difficult one to define, but I think this may need further thought.

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jfranktoo

Jumpen, yes good for quality. No probs with it.
1) paragraph 7 I think you might want to edit the word "objectionable" to "objective"!
2) 50 posts is a lot to go for to get just one link. How about 25 for 1 link and 50 for 2?
3) Please?

John

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jumpenjuhosaphat

Thanks for given your thoughts Alan and jfrank...

Alan, as far as double posting is concerned, perhaps I should try to explain what I mean with an example: A member creates a response to a thread, or creates a thread, realizing only moments later that they forgot to mention something. Instead of using the edit option, that member will instead create another post. In this situation it isn't necessary to create a new post, when using the edit option is just as simple to use and requires fewer steps from the moderators. There are times when it is acceptable....For instance, if you opened a thread and 7 days have gone by and no one has responded to it, you can bumb that thread to try to see if you can get a responce from it the second time around. This is the correct way of doing it, rather than beginning an entire new thread, members are allowed to bump the old topic after 7 days of no responces. Also, if more than an hour has gone by, then it is acceptable to double post, it's when it has been less than an hour has gone by that it isn't. To qualify as a double post, there must be 2 posts in a row(with no other posts in between) from the same user.

jfrank, Thanks for the correction. Keep in mind that you don't just get a single link when you make 50 posts, you get 50 links. When you get to 100 posts, you will have 200 links. It benefits each member to make good quality posts because each time they do, they potentially are adding 2 more links.

Giovanni, if what we did were to allow signature links because member activity and contribution to the forum, then I guess there are a few of us that should have 10 or 15 links in our signature. Me included. That wouldn't be fair or beneficial to the forum. We can't base the number of signature links off of member activity, otherwise there would be other members fighting that(including me) because of the number of links each page would have would make every sig link useless. That's the biggest reason behind changing it from 4 links to 2, because each page had 60 outbound links in the signature bars. With 2 links, it halves that number to 30 outbound links. Just try to keep in mind that I too have to follow these rules, and I spend 20 times more time contributing to the forum than you do, so when you speak of it being unfair, think about who it is being unfair to.

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Chart Music

I don't think 50 posts is a lot. It seems quite simple in fact. Big posters will do that in one day.

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a1whs.com

Ok wth , why does my post http://talk.iwebtool.com/thread12776.html#post67224 says it was posted yesterday it was actually posted way before this thread came into existence.

Whats with that ?

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dhscott

I have pruned my signature

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carreral4

Okies my turn. and as baba is sleeping ill try to explain my points as well as poss.

I agree with the way Iwebtool are looking to restructure the site, after all its a site for professional's to do business give experience and for many of us to learn and gain advice/knowledge.

There's been allot mentioned about pointeless threads / posts and basically people talking dribble, i think this is the only section i have a comment on mainly because im no1 guilty for it but im not ashamed to say it. As for post counts being disabled on the say general section for example to be honest im not bothered about in the slightest because for the simple reason i pop in everyday because i find you lot a great bunch and enjoy having a giggle with you and checking back on who has said what next. whether my post count is at zero or 1m it wont bother me at al as i joined to learn, im not one of you whom can give a great deal of advice but im still a member here solely as i need to learn and so find plenty threads very useful info. so although im a general section lass i do read pretty much every thread going and one day i might be able to offer something back. So for me this post count issue is not an issue, but are what your saying now mods is we cant play truth or dare when we decide biz is doing our heads in so we grab a cuppa and decide to still log in for some lightheartedness? or can we still have our chat about anything's going on? because if i cant chat about just anything i wont have all that much to say to be honest as im no expert! do you get what i mean?

Ok so some of you may think well bugger off to a forum which is soley chat about anything but to be honest i have become a member of iwebtool to gain knowledge 1st and foremost and so far its seemed a nice place to stop even when im not up for talking shop over a cuppa. I state all this because i feel im not the only one who's here for biz and abit of pleasure.

baby's up so must dash.

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jumpenjuhosaphat

Yes, you are allowed to post about any appropriate subject that you wish. We aren't trying to restrict the forums to where it isn't enjoyable to visit...On the contrary, we want to make it a place that members can find answers to their webmaster and SEO related questions first and foremost, as well as a place to hang their hats, kick off their boots and have a bit of fun while they are at it.

While we do enjoy the off topic forums as much as anybody, the point in disabling the post counts there is to try to gain some more relevant posts in the sections that are lacking. The relevant forums are the ones that bring more members via search engines, and as long as members stay active in relevant forums, iWebTool will continue to thrive, regardless of what else is being talked about...

Another point that I'd like to make about the policy changes is some reasoning behind them. While we enjoy moderating the boards, it would be nice to feel as though we weren't the only ones that cared about the forum. What I mean is while we have quite a few more tools to help keep the forums neat and orderly, all members have an edit key, and all members have the ability to come as close as possible to posting new threads in the appropriate forums. If you are a member here, and you try your hardest to be a good member, and one day you accidentally double post(or do it on purpose, but with no other choice), or you place a topic in the wrong forum, no one will say anything to you about it. We will do our job and make any necessary corrections. That's if you don't make a habit of it. But, if you are the type of user that does have some bad habits, then you might be affected by these policy changes a bit more noticably. I'm certain that if you make a habit of posting in the wrong forum or double posting, then a moderator will PM you to tell you about it. Yes, that's it, a PM. But then it will be expected that you do your best to try to maintain some order. I'm trying to say this without it sounding rude, because it isn't meant to be rude...

Almost 95% of the active members at this forum do exactly as they should. It's the other 5% that make it hard for the moderators.

In other words, we aren't complaining about having to do our jobs, but we get frustrated when members refuse to do theirs.



Thank you. I'd like to touch on this a bit more. If you want to express gratitude to someone for helping you out, then there are no rules that say that you can't. If you begin a thread asking for help, and a member comes along and gives you the best help you've ever had, then by all means, tell them thank you. Do it in 2 ways though:
1. Say "Wow, that was incredible advice, thanks for taking your time out"
2. click on the icon and give that person a reputation.

I think that it's important for all members to express gratitude when it is meant. But at the other end of the spectrum, if somebody makes a general offer, say for free submissions to a directory, or a coupon code, it isn't necessary for every member of the forum to thank that person, and I've seen 2 and 3 page long threads that are nothing but "Thanks", "Thank you", "Thanx".....It adds no value to the forum, and in most cases such as this, the original thread starter would probably much rather have you thank him/her by giving them a reputation vote. If you want to show gratitude by bumping a thread, then a simple "thank you and here's a bump" would be fine after the thread has been inactive for 2 or 3 days, that is a great way of showing gratitude and helping that member out by giving his thread more exposure.

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Alan

Here's a thought Jumpen, it's about the links in signature. would it be possible to link the number of links in signatures to the level of membership, for example - Junior Member 1 link, Member 2 links, Regular Member 3 links, Senior Menbers 4 links. That way those who have been around and more active in the forum are rewarded by additional links and there would clearly be a cap on the top level number of links per member.

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Steve Myers

(To Alan)This really wouldn't be fair as each member is to be level equally, not by the time they have been here to give them the most room to place links in their signature. I'm not bashing your statement at all, in fact I even thought it would be great to do that, but on a members point of view it's a dispute waiting to happen and shouldn't be carried over.