Keeping Web Hosting Requests clean

D

dlzinc

New member
Good day all,

While I am fairly new to this forum, I've noticed one thing that's more prominant here than on other hosting related forums... the Hosting Requests forum is filled with "crap".

Generally, somebody posts a request and people reply with offers, but there are many many threads where the original poster seems to have gone AWOL and people are still replying to the thread with offers a month or more later. :crazy2:

It would make it harder on the mods... but there should be harsh rules for ressurecting old (especially request) threads. On another forum... there are people joining then replying to a series of them, as if they're just glancing over the descriptions and not even reading them carefully or bothering with the date... though they too haven't managed to clean that up either.

Thoughts?
 
I absolutely agree with you 100%. We do our best to keep Hosting Requests forum as clean as possible and we think it works. Sometimes people would either not notice or ignore the date of the request and reply with offers. But if the request is at least a month old (on average), we usually close it in such cases.

We would certainly be happy to have extra mod help for MarketPlace forums specifically, but picking the right candidates is not easy.

Do you have any suggestions/ideas for us on how we can make our Hosting Requests forum work better for both hosts and members seeking hosting?

Thank you for your attention and feedback.
 
Haven't really given that *too* much thought, but aggressive rules and moderation would work... banning people who repeatedly don't seem to care and removing their offers may work... (though I haven't actually noticed a single person repeatedly going after old posts here).

Disabling post "bumps" just for those forums would do the trick too, that way when people reply to ancient posts, the reply would still be 2 or 3 pages past the first one and people wouldn't notice it much.

Finding trustable mods takes time and skill...
 
We try to be as fair as possible and keep a light, pleasant atmosphere. Banning people is something that requires serious case by case consideration. Abusive users are ultimately banned if they simply refuse to learn better.

As Artashes said, we prefer to leave the requests threads open until they "come of age", which usually is considered to be about a month or so.

Disabling post "bumps" just for those forums would do the trick too, that way when people reply to ancient posts, the reply would still be 2 or 3 pages past the first one and people wouldn't notice it much.
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This might be a good change. We'll discuss it internally and reach a conclusion.

Thank you for taking time to give us precious feedback and ideas.
 
I seem to remember a certain incident about some fool who said how he needed AN URGENT QUOTE WITHIN 18HOURS, but he never came back and didn't even specify the amount of space he needed. I mean, hell...Thats just making reading hard for people like me.
Its not an isolated case (and sure I've had my 'accidents' crossing Artashes) but things like that should be locked immeadiately and deleted. I dont think you should even wait for the person to come back and ammend their post. They're wasting our tme and server space and bandwidth.

Good idea about getting more MODs for those sections of the board.
~Equinox
 
Just to clear things up: We don't have a problem regarding manpower to run the forum -- at least none that I know of. Sure, another mod would be good as the load per mod would shrink, but things are in a manageable state.

Virtually all posts are read are we do take care of things when we deem it necessary but remember that we try to gently guide things. It is not our goal to rule this forum with an iron fist and have the users tremble in fear. :)
 
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hehe ldcdc...I wasn't implying that...You guys do a damn good job...the posts are moderated before I can even reload my browser to view them myself...You guys are excellent so dont feel bad. I was just saying that it might lighten your uguy's loads a little bit to get some other n00bs in the Marketplace Forums...

And just so you know, you dont need to rule with an iron fist...I STILL TREMBLE IN FEAR!
 
Equinox said:
I seem to remember a certain incident about some fool who said how he needed AN URGENT QUOTE WITHIN 18HOURS, but he never came back and didn't even specify the amount of space he needed. I mean, hell...Thats just making reading hard for people like me.
Its not an isolated case (and sure I've had my 'accidents' crossing Artashes) but things like that should be locked immeadiately and deleted. I dont think you should even wait for the person to come back and ammend their post. They're wasting our tme and server space and bandwidth.

Good idea about getting more MODs for those sections of the board.
~Equinox
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Well, I talked to him on AIM the day he posted and he said he already had a server... there is no point in making a post if you will not check up or update it as soon as you get your request done because it makes people like us waste our valuable timee and get cramps on our fingers :dance:
 
I know in PHPBB you can enable "Auto-Pruning" and configure it so that after x amount of time a thread is automatically locked.

Is there something similar with VBB? Perhaps a modification for it? I'd say the current mods are doing a great job with "policing" the forums. Granted, I'm only recently visiting the forums, but from what I've seen it's kept very clean.
 
John, greatly appreciate the kind words and thank you for a tip. I will look into it tonight.

Best,
 
umm, just a thought, but I wouldn't go around 'pruning' the Forums. I use them in searches to find info I want and refer to them in my posts so that we dont have to go on re-posting the stuff. Thats just my opinion...
Rather 'promote' someone to MOD status and let them go around locking every thread that is more than say 3 months old. That way, the threads cant be bumped and people can still access them and they are still included in searches. Just my 2 cents...
~Equinox
 
Equinox, that's all the "Auto Pruning" would do. It wouldn't delete, just lock after x amount of time has been reached. That's why I said:
so that after x amount of time a thread is automatically locked.
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and not deleted :). I concur about the searching thing. Any forums that I've ever been a mod/admin on I've never been an advocate of deleting - any offensive topics were moved into a special Admin Only rights forum.
 
Wow, thanks to ME that I didn't just go and set a pruning option. Pruning in vBulletin means deleting, not closing. And certainly we do not want to delete anything. :)

There are a few other good options I'm checking. I will update this thread as we reach our decision in this regard.
 
OK, so here is the deli-o. With vBulletin it is NOT possible to lock threads after certain period of time. I know it sounds absurd, but the way they explained to me, a hosting board is supposed to let people discuss things, why stop this?

Here at HostingDiscussion we will simply be closing threads manually when we notice an open thread the original post of which is at least 30 days old. Unless the user specifically notifies with his last post that he is still in the process of shopping.

Best,
 
:-/ sorry to hear that there's additional work for you around here now - but it is nice to see such dedication to forums by the Admins/Mods.
 
John, I love this community, I grew up with it and I firmly believe one day it will be a VERY active hosting spot for people just to talk about hosting in a relaxed mode. Just look at our progress this year (2004)! One great thing about it is that we don't ban people with their first violation, but talk to them, remind them of rules and ask for cooperation first. If that doesn't help, it is only then that we close their account. *Doesn't include spammers.

So there is nothing to be sorry for. I love what I'm doing, so I'm having fun. I hope other staffers feel the same way. HD is a leader from my perspective. And leaders lead, competitors compete.

Best,
 
Oh, I didn't mean it like that, I just meant that I'm sure it'd be easier on all of you if there was a way it could lock itself :)
 
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