Feb 05
Changes coming
So by this weekend you will see several things occur. First: New Servers. YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And these are nice servers. So hopefully all those annoying troubles lately will stop.
Second: New Staff (and Jay): We've promoted Tony to Support team and Tim to Community Moderator. We believe that their additions will be a great addition to the team. So congrats to them
Third: Dissolving of the President and Cabinent: You might ask why? The answer is simple: It just didn't work. Now I take most of the blame on this. While the election was well planned, I hit several roadblocks in getting the Cabinet involved in activities. But there was some fault on the Cabinet as well. Several were just not active enough and it showed. Because of this, I have decided to cancel Zetaboards Government. It's just not possible at the moment. Maybe in the future.
Fourth: Return of the Think Tank: Well ZB Gov't may be impossible for now, but there is no reason the core idea can't be used. Tomorrow I will be making an announcement in Community Chat recruiting members to join the think tank joinable group that will be created. Full details and rules will be revealed then, but if you've been a part of any of the past think tanks, you know what this is. For those who don't: It's a way to give me and the staff your feedback for improvements to the Community and support forums.
Now, there are more things I have planned but those are still in the early stages and require details to be flushed out, but eventually I'd like to try scheduling discussions/debates in IRC. Arranging Wii or 360 game nights and generally draw more people into our Community this spring.
What do you think? Does any of this interest you?
Jan 30
If you can't say anything nice at all, Do not post
Some of you may have heard I've been making the rounds to several large boards of the past few days, enforcing a tiny little piece in our Terms of Use:
- Prohibited Content
Let's go through these together:
Abusive
- Abusive
2 a: using harsh insulting language <an angry and abusive crowd> b: characterized by or serving for abuse <abusive language> c: physically injurious <abusive behavior>
The second definition applies here. So when you are talking about a person, when you talk about hoping bad things happen to them, like an account cracking or using profanity. Guess what? That's abusive.
Defamatory
- Defame
2: to harm the reputation of by libel or slander
3archaic : accuse
Any time you spread comments about another user, you harm their reputation. If you don't have facts or evidence to back these comments up, you are slandering that user's reputation. According to our terms of use, if you see this content by a member or you or another staff member post it and you as the owner fail to remove it, you are violating the Terms of Use.
Threatening
- Threatening
2 a: to give signs or warning of : portend <the clouds threatened rain> b: to hang over dangerously : menace <famine threatens the city>
3: to announce as intended or possible <the workers threatened a strike>
4: to cause to feel insecure or anxious <felt threatened by his brother's success>
intransitive verb
All of the above would apply. Any time you make a post that contains offensive, hostile language toward a specific user, you can make them feel insecure or anxious. More serious though are threats to crack accounts, email etc. Or to cause bodily harm. Those type of threats can get the authorities involved.
Racist
- Racist
2 : racial prejudice or discrimination
I really would think that I wouldn't have to explain this, but I've seen posts indicating that many board owners are not aware that racist content does in fact violate our terms of use.
So obviously, the n word is out. As are rude or offensive comments about religious groups or other ethnicities.
Obscene
- Obscene
1: disgusting to the senses : repulsive
2 a: abhorrent to morality or virtue ; specifically : designed to incite to lust or depravity b: containing or being language regarded as taboo in polite usage <obscene lyrics> c: repulsive by reason of crass disregard of moral or ethical principles <an obscene misuse of power> d: so excessive as to be offensive <obscene wealth> <obscene waste>
What qualifies as obscene? Vulgar language and images, words that should never be uttered anywhere and that you would never want to hear described about yourself. Basically content that would turn your stomach.
So, what does this mean? Lately several boards have had a trend. Topics where they attack users on other boards. The language used is obscene, racist, abusive and threatening. And for any one of those reasons the content should be removed. And so, I have been going to several boards on the network and passing that decree around. And I am still watching these boards to make sure they will enforce this area of the terms of use.
No user should have to read what I have read about them. No one, not even your worst enemy, deserves some of the bile I have seen about others. Especially for just being staff on a message board. I'm sorry, but being the admin of a board does not make you Hitler. No one dies, there is no physical suffering (though a few egos are bruised). Users have no justification to write some of the posts I've seen and I will be making it my mission to enforce this part of the terms.
To me, it all comes down to the golden rule: Treat others the way you want to be treated.
Not how you WERE treated. Not how you want to treat someone else. No, you treat them with the same respect you would want even if you don't get it. It's all about being the bigger person and taking the high road. Because when you sink to a level like some have, you show everyone your true self and it's not a pretty sight to see.
So, as the Blog title says, If you can not say anything nice about a person, do not post.
Jan 23
When and Why should you send me a PM
Often, I log on in the morning and find at least 2 personal messages waiting for me. Sometimes, I find up to 5 or more. Of these, several messages should not be sent to me for good reason. The primary reason is that I have a terrible memory due to Lymes disease. This means that if I get distracted, I will lose my train of thought.
In many cases, that means forgetting to reply to a support pm because I tend to prioritize them for last. I am not a member of the support team and while I will occasionally post in the support forums or support tickets, that is not my primary function. Regardless, you should not be pming staff for support. However, I understand new members are a bit confused and I'll try to help whenever I can. But if you want a faster answer, it would be best to use the forums or make a ticket. You may not receive a reply from me for several hours, if at all.
When I log in every morning and see a new message window, the messages that get priority are the ones from the staff. It doesn't matter if a member has marked their pm with the subject URGENT (because 99.9% of the time, it's not that urgent.) Staff pms tend to be the more urgent ones. They contain matters that require my attention as soon as possible. Depending on the content, it may take several minutes to several hours before I have dealt with that matter.
I then read any messages that do not appear to be support messages. These tend to deal with user disputes, issues with staff and other items that require my attention. Again, depending on the day, it can takes several minutes to several hours to finish.
While PMs are the first thing I deal with, I also log on to instant messenger every morning. So while I may be reading your pm asking for support, a staff member or another user may contact me with something else. I will then lose my train of thought and likely forget about your pm until I find it in a mess of firefox tabs 5 hours later.
It is in your best interest to use our support forums or the support tickets to get fast, accurate support. There is a chance that even if I do receive your pm and remember it, I may not be able to help you. If your problem is time sensitive, you will lose valuable time waiting on me.
On days where there is a large problem such as server trouble, I will be focused on that problem and anything else will be ignored. A lot of pms likely means yours will be overlooked. It's not intentional, but I have found weeks, even months later that I missed someone's message due to the chaos of the day.
So, When should you PM me: Personal matters mostly. The Report CP now handles items that require moderation action and the personal ticket forum is far better for one on one support. If you have a problem with a user, if you wish to talk to the management or if you have a problem with a staff member, those are the primary reasons to contact me. There are exceptions. For instance, if a user is spamming, posting adult content or threatening another user, in addition to using the RCP, you should contact me and let me know. Either I or another staff member will act by then.
I take staff complaints very seriously: When you have a complaint regarding the conduct of another staff member, I ask that you provide as much detail as possible. The topic or pm where this occurred, any following conversations and any past history. I will then look into the matter and speak to the staff member for their side. I may not always reply to you immediately, but I will reply to you.
If you are reporting a board: I will ask you to use the Report Abuse form. Nothing will change by contacting me. It will still take the same amount of time for the report to be processed. Unfortunately, I can not speed up anything. I may attempt to alert Brandon or Brian if the issue is extremely urgent, but even then, there may still be a long wait.
PMs are where I conduct business. If you just want to chat, you can find me on the IRC chatroom daily. Please do not use the personal message system to chat with me as I will prioritize it for last and may forget to respond.
Lastly, I really need to emphasize how hard it is trying read some of these messages and comprehend what you need. While my memory itself is actually quite good, it is my loss of concentration that causes my forgetfulness and one track mind. So, while I realize that not everyone uses English as their primary language, those that do should avoid using all capital letters or abbreviations like: u, 2, r ... etc. What this does is force me to sit there for several minutes and decode your message. When I don't have the time, I will just ignore your pm and move on. So, if you have an urgent problem that requires my help, I simply ask that you use complete sentences to detail your problem as best as possible.
Jan 05
It's Your Community: What do you want?
I've decided to use this blog as a type of Feedback area. As Community Administrator, my job is, well, the Community. But what is it that the Community wants?
This year I have several games and events in the works. I'm hoping to get Zetaboards Government set up within the next 2 months. Over the spring, I hope to have Zetaboards Big Brother ready to go for a summer release. And I've started the Staff Sims comic which will start to incorporate users every now and then.
But is that what the Community wants? Do you want more discussion topics? Do you want more games, events etc. Or do you want something new?
I want to hear about it right here on this blog!
What do you want?
Dec 10
Zetaboards Anniversary
I must say that I am very pleased with the turnout from the anniversary. I am still trying to total the massive amounts of points users earned. Every single activity we ran received a lot of attention. We drew in new members and new board registrations. And we had fun.
In every way, I count that as a success. While it's not technically over until Saturday and I do hope to have one last surprise for the community, I do want to begin thanking everyone for their aid in making this event a success.
Brandon and Brian: Without their support, enthusiasm and participation, this event could have flopped. Brandon not only postponed his Premium announcement, he also made not one but 2 releases of Zetaboards upgrades. He also made several Admin CP announcements to really give this event the attention needed. He really got into this and did his best to show what makes Zetaboards such a great software. And further, he showed us that there is plenty more where that came from and the future is bright for this service.
Brian provided so much help with ideas, prizes and getting things set up as well as running his own game. I can always count on him to help make this community better.
Nicola, Ryan and Hazel: I'm singling these three out as they helped the most with running the games themselves. Nicola had to put up with my crazy person mode for all of November and she managed to make several great images, get Battle of the Boards revised and ready to go and make the Winter theme. Ryan managed to resurrect Guild Wars within 5 days before the anniversary because I needed another game. Hazel of course ran deal. And she did it while sick and she knocked out dozens of members fast.
Hazel's "lovely assistants": Dennis, Jeremy, Jay, EA, Tony (and anyone else whom I forgot): Many thanks for taking on the hardest job in Deal. The assistant's job can be time consuming and I appreciate all your help so that Hazel could keep the game moving.
The Ex-Staff: For me, the exstaff are like extended family that you only see on holidays. And it was great that so many not only made it back here but also pitched in to help in any way possible. I sincerely hope many of you stick around a bit even after this is over.
The Staff: You had to put up with 3 months of me going crazy to get this to work as well as several revisions and last minute changes. And you all helped out in topics to keep order. But you also participated in the games so that things were fun. In so many ways, I can not fully convey my appreciation for that. But thank you.
The Members!: Well without you guys I would have had a bunch of games and no participants. So thank you to each member who participated in a game or event. And a big thank you to those who went the extra mile and participated actively in many events. Good luck on winning when I total the points. And congrats again to Dan T on winning that iPod.
Zetaboards Theme Zone and Locke: I'd like to thank Locke and the TZ for their help as well. The TZ helped bring in more members to see just how great the Support board is. Locke kindly placed the anniversary banner to directly link people to the celebration and wrote about it to encourage members to participate. Without their help, it would have been hard to get the word out.
The ZBN board: Without their additional help in providing information about the anniversary, we would not have had as many members as we did. I really appreciate both ZBN and the TZ for helping spread the word in addition to Brandon's ACP Announcements.
So the celebration was a success in my eyes thanks to all these people. And there is a very good chance that we'll be doing this again next year. I look forward to it and hope to see many of you again next year for more fun.
Oct 07
What is a Community Administrator?
I think, given that this is the first "real" time this service has had a Community Administrator, I need to explain what it is. While both Seth and Ben had this title, both were also Support Team members and therefore did tickets. So the big distinction: I don't do tickets. I don't give support.
Why? Well it's not that I can't. I fully can. I just don't have the time. I'm a full time college student who works as well. I spend my weekends sleeping and doing this mostly. My social life this fall is very poor because myself and my friends are working most of the time and we can spare maybe 2 hours every 2 weeks to do anything. So it's a balance.
There's also the fact that I never was chosen for the Support team. Nor did I ever ask once I was a Community Moderator. And while I did occasionally answer tickets or give support in the forums, it was never required of me and I did it only when I had the time.
This is all an elaborate way of saying "Please don't PM me for Support". I just can't help you for many reasons. My knowledge of HTML and CSS is about 3 years old. I've really not done any web design for over 2 years. I've spent much of my time now with Math and learning Java and C++ and SQL. While the basic properties are similar, I could not easily figure out what is wrong with your board or make you a code. With themes, I have yet to find the time to read Nicola's in depth guide and learn the stuff for myself. So I stay away from that as well.
So now you must be asking, "What the heck do you do?" Good question. The word "Community" really says it all. I spend my time looking after the Community. To give you an idea, here is a typical day for me:
On Mondays during a break, I log onto a campus computer and pull up IF and meebo. Using meebo, I log in and chat with Brian first. I catch up with him on any of the previous days events and then anything that needs to be discussed for that day. I normally have that window open until about 6pm. Any issues that pop up during that time I will discuss with him.
I then check IF support for new personal messages. After I've responded to them, I check out Community Chat and Feedback for anything that requires attention. If the Report CP has something in it, that gets my first priority. After checking in there, I make sure Java Hut and Games are nice and tidy. I then go to the Staff room and make sure there isn't anything requiring attention.
That's about as far as it goes. Normally there are multiple things requiring attention. Members with feedback in the forum, Community Chat having inappropriate topics, Java Hut getting out of hand in a topic, Staff needing some information or something done etc.
On meebo, other staff might pop in and bring something to my attention or I may require their assistance with something.
Once that mess is sorted out, it's pretty much rinse and repeat. I pop onto Com Creations and Tech Chat occasionally to make sure things are fine. I then head over to support.zb to make sure there aren't any stray PMs.
This whole routine can change at any time and it depends on the day. A dull day with many staff means I can do more. A busy day where I am the sole person on can mean I do nothing but run around. Normally if I am the sole staff member on and I have the time, I stick around until someone else pops in.
Basically, I try to make the Community better. I pretty much did this as a Moderator. But now, I have a few more tools to put things in order faster. I strive to keep the staff happy, keep the forums safe and make this an enjoyable place to be around. I still run games and contests and have plenty more planned this season. But I also can do more. When you have a problem on this board that requires an admin, you go to me. When you have a problem with your board that requires speaking to a member of the management, it's best you go to Brian. He's the one that can handle restorations and all those other big issues that only Brandon or Brian can handle. I focus on helping the members of the Community here. I am on often and I try my hardest to respond fast to any problems you may have.
2:08 AM Nov 24
