Underage Neoboarders & Discussion of Neoboard problems.

[_B4U_]

The accounts should be over one year old so the user is quite familiar with neopets

Make that two or three years, one year isn't really enough to proove that you're truly dedicated to the site.

interviews with people in their guild or perhaps if they are well known on a board, and interview with people from that board.

First, not everyone participates in a guild or neoboards. Second, the guilds and neoboards are 95% sure to only make the person sound good, not pointing out any bad points.

Also, a user cannot apply directly to be a mod-they need to be nominated by another user with the same qualifications that are stated above, thus the user who nominates them must also be a respectable user.

That wouldn't be a good system, the people need to apply directly, not through another person.

2. When a user first visits an individual board, they are re-directed to the stickyed post. They are then told they must read the post, and will then be quizzed on the post-if they do not get a decent amount right(say 50%, in all fairness) they cannot move onto the board, and are re-directed to the sticky post again....etc...

I've thought of this for other message board sites (such as the one I co-run), and have come to the conclusion that it won't work. Why? Anyone can put all the answers on a site, just like the Faerie Crossword Puzzle game thinger. The person then goes to that site and gets 100% on the quiz without ever reading the post.


Of course, don't get me wrong, I want volunteer mods as well, and actually looked into it a while back, only to find that you have to work from HQ.

[o_0]

Oh, dear.

If volunteer modding were in place... let's just say I have so many enemies, I'd be banned ad infinitum.

[digitel_anime_fan_20]

The accounts should be over one year old so the user is quite familiar with neopets

Make that two or three years, one year isn't really enough to proove that you're truly dedicated to the site..

Your probably right-most of my number estiments were pretty rough.

interviews with people in their guild or perhaps if they are well known on a board, and interview with people from that board.

First, not everyone participates in a guild or neoboards. Second, the guilds and neoboards are 95% sure to only make the person sound good, not pointing out any bad points.

The guild thing was only if they were in a guild of course. And I know that interviews with people on the neoboards would mostly make the person sound positve-but their may be a few disgrunteled people as well, it ceritanly wouldn't hurt.

Also, a user cannot apply directly to be a mod-they need to be nominated by another user with the same qualifications that are stated above, thus the user who nominates them must also be a respectable user.

That wouldn't be a good system, the people need to apply directly, not through another person.

How about you need several nominations as WELL? As in, other people think you would make a good mod.

2. When a user first visits an individual board, they are re-directed to the stickyed post. They are then told they must read the post, and will then be quizzed on the post-if they do not get a decent amount right(say 50%, in all fairness) they cannot move onto the board, and are re-directed to the sticky post again....etc...

I've thought of this for other message board sites (such as the one I co-run), and have come to the conclusion that it won't work. Why? Anyone can put all the answers on a site, just like the Faerie Crossword Puzzle game thinger. The person then goes to that site and gets 100% on the quiz without ever reading the post.

True, but would a new member who had never visted the boards before even know about such a site? Keep in mind they wouldn't be able to reach the actual boards untill they got past the quiz. Chances are they won't be in a guild either, if they were in one they either browsed the guild section and found one that matched their interest(Chances are either they or the guild isn't very active), or are in a friends guild.

Of course, don't get me wrong, I want volunteer mods as well, and actually looked into it a while back, only to find that you have to work from HQ.

You do? Ouch...

Oh, dear.

If volunteer modding were in place... let's just say I have so many enemies, I'd be banned ad infinitum.

How so? Oo;

[Anoohilator]

As in random people who he has met on neoboards and not been very friendly to

[everconfused]

Volunteer Mods - I think? if I remember correctly, I read somewhere that it's a state law. A place can't have both paid and volunteer mods.

I know I've looked at the employment opportunities (just dreaming, I'm in another state) and for moderators you have to live near the Neopets headquarters, have high speed internet and I recall they were looking for people with a working knowledge of the site.

I do think newly hired mods should have to go through a "trial" period where at most they can warn and suspend, but not freeze. Unless of course they actually see a board where someone's cursing, talking about something completely inappropriate or is obviously trying to scam. Otherwise, a freezing request/report would have to go to a more experienced "administrative" type mod.

Nominating people to be volunteer mods? Nah, that would just be one more popularity contest and reason for some to be even more jealous and hateful toward certain 'well-known' users if they were mods.

I think there should be more suspensions and less freezings for many things people are being frozen for. The forum I (volunteer) mod on people get 3 warnings, then a 2 day ban, then a 3 day, then a week, then 2 weeks ... anything after that (which is 7 chances) is a complete ban from the forum.

A sticky at the top of each board ... I have wanted to see that for a very long time. Something that basically echos the Chat Rules: no asking for personal info, no scamming, no spamming, no "dating" or other inappropriate type of chat, that bumping is not encouraged, begging/asking for donations, borrowing/lending - asking for tips is all not allowed.

That way someone new or all those people who could never be bothered to read the rules they agreed to when they signed up could be directed to that sticky.

The only other thing is, definitely, getting rid of the Report This Message on the boards. That has been nothing but trouble since it was introduced. People could still report if something was truly wrong, but maybe if they had to go to anothe page (the way we used to) to report, people wouldn't be quite so report-happy.

[Baku]

I don't dislike any people that are underage, and faked their age... As long as they are mature enough. See, I have a few friends on the computer that are only 9 or so, but if you didn't know it, you'd say that
they were teenaged. I don't think you could judge a person by how old they are..

I just hate chatspeakers, because if they'd take the time to type up a post correctly, it would make them sound more intelligent.

I think that they should either honestly check every reported post, and hire more monitors... Or bring back the volunteer monitors.
I think that volunteer monitors would be extremely helpful towards the site. I play another game, Furcadia, and they have people who can fill out a form, take classes on it, and become things like people who help furres with their questions, to people who look into reports of things that are against the rules on there.

Neopets is much larger, but I think that there would be enough dedicated - and trusted - members that this would be a sucessful attempt in getting the boards under control, and stop people from being frozen unfairly from them.

---

But, if this wouldn't work, I think that there should be a warning system, like everconfused stated. On one form that I go to, they have a thing where you get points against you. When you get three, you're banned. There are a few warnings per points, I'm not sure, but I think according to how severely you break the rules. If you just break the rules of things like ' No one line posts', or 'No chatspeaking, and use correct capilizing and punctuation', then I think it only counts as one part of the warning. >> Not exactly sure about exactly how the system there works, but it seems to work.
[This has been a small rant brought to you by Baku. ]

[Marinnai Kasaraki]

Ch4t5p34k = The Devil.

I don't know how many folks haven't gone nuts trying to read spelling that involves numbers, but I know my own brain has imploded several times at trying to decipher just what the HECK some of those Neoboarders are going on about...and this is usually in the Trade Boards late at night AEST, so brain implosion happens often...

And I didn't spend over 13 years at various schools to have to relearn the English Language because someone feels the need to "look cool" online. If they're going to do one thing to those boards, it's to eliminate those annoying little pests who use Ch4t5p34k even to trade items/neomail. Those tick me off no end. It's "You" NOT "u", dangit >>;;; (A friend of mine came up with a -beautiful- image that describes her reaction to ch4t5p34k3rs, I'll PM the link to whoever wants to see it...)

And the last thing worth mentioning - those stupid sigs.
Some folks on there are actually quite tame, but the majority I've encountered whilst posting trades (nono, not on the Neoboards, I'm not dumb enough - mainly people who search up the newest 20 on the TP and see my own); mostly like this:
Shut up the king is talking u take this trade for my trade? the king doesn't like u
And mostly I don't respond to that person for a moment and he comes back with a different signature like:
hay idiot i talking to u!!! u gonna do it or what? stoopid, I wanna trade wit u!!!

What I really wanna see is people like that getting at least a 48-hour account ban. I despise people like that. I'm not just gonna drop everything I'm doing to talk to someone who doesn't have a grasp of the English Language let alone someone who feels the need to message me every 2 minutes.

See, what I think is the biggest problem is that Neopets is unwilling to go back to the full-time moderation of the Neoboards. The site is larger, and there are more reports - more false reports than real ones - and their method of combatting that is to hit the freeze ray. Unfortunately this method is something most of us have suffered at one point or another on our time on this game.
On a nightly basis, and this is just flipping between the Shop + Trade/Auctions board, there are topics in there that shouldn't even be there, as well as topics like "wil sum1 plz date me?"
If Neopets will hire volunteer mods, it may combat this problem; however, another outbreak of scams (like the "Neopets Monitor Handbook" one) will probably follow because people who are proving themselves as idiots will try and ruin the game further for others.

It's an idea with a lot of merit, but it needs some proper planning and execution for it. I for one wouldn't mind there being a rule like "Absolutely, Positively NO chatspeaking on any boards" with some kind of penalty.

But that is just coming from someone who's dealt with chatspeaking so many times that it's driven her completely mad...

[Morningstar]

Ch4t5p34k = The Devil.

I don't know how many folks haven't gone nuts trying to read spelling that involves numbers, but I know my own brain has imploded several times at trying to decipher just what the HECK some of those Neoboarders are going on about...and this is usually in the Trade Boards late at night AEST, so brain implosion happens often...

And I didn't spend over 13 years at various schools to have to relearn the English Language because someone feels the need to "look cool" online. If they're going to do one thing to those boards, it's to eliminate those annoying little pests who use Ch4t5p34k even to trade items/neomail. Those tick me off no end. It's "You" NOT "u", dangit >>;;; (A friend of mine came up with a -beautiful- image that describes her reaction to ch4t5p34k3rs, I'll PM the link to whoever wants to see it...)

Oh, Mari, you missed it last summer when we had a chatspeaker here on PPT. OMG, teh fun we h4d! *rolls eyes* The guy was a real jerk and really caused quite a ruckus here. There were quite a few of us trying to bite our tongues and tie our hands behind our backs while dodging insult after insult--after we tried politely to tell this guy to write so we could read it. And, a few long time PPTers could no longer hold their tongues.

Now, that should be a day that definitely should go into the PPT memory book.

[everconfused]

The age of people posting on the boards is irrelevant to me. I don't care if you're 9 or 90. How you handle yourself, how you communicate and interact with others on the board is what matters. If you can't or don't want to follow the rules (vague though they may be in some areas), then just don't post. It should be that simple. But some people either lack common sense or just don't care. Fine for them, let them get in trouble. The problem seems to come from either making the mistake of posting on a bad board (usually something to the effect that whoever's causing trouble shouldn't be -- yes I've seen people get warned/frozen for doing that) or they make an enemy and get massed.


I remember our chatspeaking friend

Bottom line as far as the neoboards go, at least from everything I see there and what appears to be the general reasoning of the "suits" -- those who control the budget, hiring, etc. And of course the law. As I said above, I really don't think Neo would be allowed to have volunteer mods as long as they have paid mods. I don't know, even if volunteers were permitted, if anyone outside the area where headquarters is would be able to even apply. I know, there are ways to communicate, I have online IM mod meetings once a month and I can pm the administrative mod if something comes up that I'm not sure how to handle or don't have the authority to handle.

And that authority, whether paid or volunteer, is the key IMHO. New mods should NOT have the authority to freeze/ban anyone for a certain period of time, unless the situation is truly outrageous.

Why? Because think about it, when you get a new job most people tend to be almost over-zealous in an attempt to prove themselves. What happens on Neo is a new mod starts, goes to the boards and starts hitting the warning/freeze keys like mad. I think any of us who spend any time on the boards, whether we post or not, have seen this. Most users call them "rogue" mods.

Consider also that as far as I know the mods work from home, they're not in the office being monitored themselves and I don't know what their system is if there is a question -- like are they told to just do as they see fit? And of course, everyone has a bad day. The difference between the users and the mods is users may insult each other, mods may freeze you.

I know the site's huge, I understand there's only so many mods to so many users/boards. I understand how hard a job being a moderator is and Neo's mods have it really rough sometimes. But I think they need better training, a more complete set of Rules (don't we all?!) and they need monitoring, at least from time to time to ensure that they are doing their job properly. Seems to me that if I was in charge of a group of mods and found 1 or 2 mods who had a high number of warnings/suspensions/freezings, I'd be looking into what exactly was going on. Were all these justified? Did someone just log in and click a button? Enquiring minds need to know!

[_B4U_]

*random text here about the annoying person who was here a while ago*

I remember him... When I saw his first post I thought he was just making fun of *ahem*speakers, but when it went on.... It was so hard not to backseat mod during that incident.

[tigerlily]

Age doesn't bother me as long as a person's mature. I'm 22, and I've had neofriends that were anywhere from 13 to 50. However, I too hate chatspeak, especially all this numbers stuff. Leave the abbreviations to IM's. At least there there's sometimes a good reason to use it. When you're posting, you can take as long as you want, so why NOT use proper English?

I would happily volunteer a couple hours a day to modding on Neopets. I see entirely too many posts that should never be there in the first place, and I'd love to be able to do something about it. The only thing is...I don't know if I'd want anyone else knowing I'm a mod. On a site like that, I think it'd be better to keep it anonymous, just because some might think it fun to harass you.

[NoirRaven]

Here's an idea... Just tolorate it. It's not THAT big of a deal and kids under age need to ask questions and chat like everyone else. If they lied in their sign up, oh well. If they got parental permission, then you're screwed.

[Marinnai Kasaraki]

It's becoming an epidemic that kids around here, 10 - 14 years of age, write their school reports in 13375p34k/ch4t5p34k. My own nephew started doing this until recently when he was handed a school report full of F's for "not using proper English" which is being considered "obsolete" by some schoolkids.

Just a small question for folks...

If you (speaking rhetorically of course) had children and Ch4t5p34k was being taught in place of the common English Language which is otherwise being used sparingly, would you send your kids to school or homeschool them yourselves?

I'm just wondering what teaches kids more these days...?

[Trick]

Just a small question for folks...

If you (speaking rhetorically of course) had children and Ch4t5p34k was being taught in place of the common English Language which is otherwise being used sparingly, would you send your kids to school or homeschool them yourselves?

I'm just wondering what teaches kids more these days...?

I reckon if they did that at schools in Scotland then parents would be marching on parliament! Home schooling is extremely uncommon here though. I know my wee brothers (9 and 11) wouldn't dare write like that, they'd just get laughed at by my mum But it definitely would never happen at our local schools. I loathe chatspeak, especially when they make words longer than they would be normally - what is the point in that?

Just argh *steam comes out of ears* That is another reason why I never go on the neoboards - it's too depressing :/

[tigerlily]

It's becoming an epidemic that kids around here, 10 - 14 years of age, write their school reports in 13375p34k/ch4t5p34k. My own nephew started doing this until recently when he was handed a school report full of F's for "not using proper English" which is being considered "obsolete" by some schoolkids.

They do that in SCHOOL?!? Good grief. I can't even think of any more to say.

If my brother and sister ever do that, I'll strangle them.