How can GF be improved?

Russ S

Re-Member
Messages
877
Location
New Jersey
I am honestly asking for suggestions as to how we can improve this site.
I don't want to see any arguing, or your posts will be deleted and infractions given.
This is your chance to let us know what you like, don't like, or would like to see here.

I can't promise all your suggestions will be implemented, but everything will be taken under consideration.

Ok folks, have at it.
 

Jusselin

New Member
Messages
434
Being new here i actually love the site....with every forum you have some knuckle heads but for the most part the people here have been super helpful and extremely informational!
 
Last edited:

Dimidiata

New Member
Messages
1,943
Location
palmetto FL
Russ, i love you SOOO much. You saved my butt from having to post this. I honestly think we just need to review the rules and the unspoken rules as there may be some. It seems that people just hold grudges against each other from thread to thread which creates a hostility feel in the posting. Like for starters
1. When you are contradicted do not get on the defense. There are many opinions on here and we must learn to respect them. You can disagree and support your answer but don't expect to just be able to god their minds into believing you. If theres a disagreeing then leave it at that. You both posted what you believe to be right, leave it to the other members or OP to decide, This is of course if the advice wasn't COMPLETE crap or lethal to the animals health, in which case report the post.
2. Like wise, DONT quote someone just to post a contradicting statement. Instead just post your belief or opinion as a separate post, not a direct attack on what they said. THINK.
3. Dont just post "that makes no sense" or "thats stupid" or anything thats just uneducated or not needed. DO NOT EVER call someone a name like a 5yrold. I swear if i have too see that one more time I'm going to exploded. No "sure in my anus" or "Dumba**" use their name correctly, you'll get a better response(yes the first one was a direct example).
4. posting "^i agree" or "^this" is useless, If your going to back someones post, at least try to add your own spot of advise aswell, "Me too " posting just wastes bandwith and pushes more important posts of the page. One exception would be if its a pic post and everyones just saying "awww how cute" and so on, thats just expected XD.


I'm sure more will come to me.
 

Russ S

Re-Member
Messages
877
Location
New Jersey
Russ, i love you SOOO much.
I'm feeling the love again. :main_laugh:

I honestly think we just need to review the rules.
The TOS is available 24/7 for all to review.

1. When you are contradicted do not get on the defense. There are many opinions on here and we must learn to respect them. You can disagree and support your answer but don't expect to just be able to god their minds into believing you. If theres a disagreeing then leave it at that. You both posted what you believe to be right, leave it to the other members or OP to decide, This is of course if the advice wasn't COMPLETE crap or lethal to the animals health, in which case report the post.
Sound advise.
2. Like wise, DON'T quote someone just to post a contradicting statement. Instead just post your belief or opinion as a separate post, not a direct attack on what they said. THINK.

3. Dont just post "that makes no sense" or "thats stupid" or anything thats just uneducated or not needed. DO NOT EVER call someone a name like a 5yrold.

4. posting "^i agree" or "^this" is useless, If your going to back someones post, at least try to add your own spot of advise aswell, "Me too " posting just wastes bandwidth and pushes more important posts of the page. One exception would be if its a pic post and everyone's just saying "awww how cute" and so on, that's just expected XD.

Sounds like a good start.
Anyone else want to chime in on this?


P.S. Sam, I'll be watching to make sure you stick with your "unwritten rules".:D
 

fl_orchidslave

New Member
Messages
4,074
Location
St. Augustine, FL
There is often more than one way to address a care issue. Something that works well for some, may not work for others. Then there's personal preferences. Doesn't mean one way is right and the other wrong. But there is right and wrong in some instances as well. I've seen way too much arguing, and some name calling, over these type things. Some members seem to think they can be outright rude. Some keep responding to have the last word in. It's getting to be a lot of drama and not enough good information being shared. I see that as being quite a put-off to new members who need help but are reluctant to post for fear of being attacked.
 

Russ S

Re-Member
Messages
877
Location
New Jersey
There is often more than one way to address a care issue. Something that works well for some, may not work for others. Then there's personal preferences. Doesn't mean one way is right and the other wrong. But there is right and wrong in some instances as well. I've seen way too much arguing, and some name calling, over these type things. Some members seem to think they can be outright rude. Some keep responding to have the last word in. It's getting to be a lot of drama and not enough good information being shared. I see that as being quite a put-off to new members who need help but are reluctant to post for fear of being attacked.

As with any forum, there are going to be disagreements. It's how we handle ourselves while dealing with this that can make all the difference.
I personally am tired of the name calling and such, and agree it's getting out of hand.
From what I have been seeing it's not only the new members that are reluctant to post. This thread was started by me to try to come up with some ideas to present to Kelli about things we might try to keep this the friendly and fun place we all want it to be.

I appreciate your input, and look forward to seeing what others have to say on this subject.

Thanks.
 

acpart

Geck-cessories
Staff member
Messages
15,118
Location
Somerville, MA
I wish the rules would make everyone "play nice" but I have not found that to be the case in any situation. To compound the problem of people being rude to others are the people who are then rude to the rude person which really gets us wound up. One thing that helps is for all of us to be able to tone down our strong response not only to the people who give useless or incorrect information but also to the people who yell at those people. It's good to remember (and to remind others) to use "softening" phrases like "I think", "it seems to me", "you may want to . . ." even when you're more certain than that. That said, I know there are people on the forum who pride themselves on being "plain speakers" even when it means making others feel uncomfortable.

On a totally different note, I'd love the PM box to hold more than 150 messages.

Aliza
 

Jayme

New Member
Messages
103
Location
Florida
4. posting "^i agree" or "^this" is useless, If your going to back someones post, at least try to add your own spot of advise aswell.....

^This.




Haha, just joking. But I do agree, and i was thinking to solve this, maybe add a 'like' button or an 'i concur' button. Though this might seem excessive in addition to the thanks button. But the difference is one expresses agreement(and would probably be used more frequently) and the other gratitude(which seems to be used more sparingly. or at least I use it sparingly, saving it for posts that I found really informative). This might also help sort out good advice from not so good advice by showing the general consensus.

And I'd like to see maybe an optional box when replying or posting to cite your source, similar to yahoo answers, to help encourage information integrity. I frequently see so many arbitrary statements thrown around it's really difficult to sift through the credible information vs not so credible..

On that note, any modifications to the site that would help sift out the good information from the obsolete or incorrect information would be nice. I can't really think of any more suggestions at the moment as to how to go about doing so, though.
 

Dimidiata

New Member
Messages
1,943
Location
palmetto FL
Just a fair warning, there are many forums that use the reputation system. Where a post can be given thumbs up or down by every member, this number is then displayed on the posters profile(when you join your at 0 and then as you get ups and downs they add and subtract) It sounds nice, you can up good advice and down horrible advice but with the childishness of some people they might neg every post of someone out of spite. I do like the i agree button or the like button. I was baffeled by the thanks button lol. I would only use it on advice given to me but i see so many posts that deserve a +1
 

KelliH

New Member
Messages
6,641
Location
Fort Worth, TX
I don't have a problem turning on the reputation system here, but one will only be able to give positive reputation to others, not negative.

I'm not sure about the "Like" button... I'll think about it! :)
 

KelliH

New Member
Messages
6,641
Location
Fort Worth, TX
One more thing... it seems to me that the problem is people not following the existing TOS. It's ok to discuss, even heatedly, but name calling and the like are not OK here. If you see someone doing that then report the post. I guarantee you it will be dealt with.

I realize sometimes it may not seem as if an issue has been discussed and resolved but trust me, a lot goes on behind the scenes here and we do keep things private between the staff and the GF member. It's really no one else's business.
 

Russ S

Re-Member
Messages
877
Location
New Jersey
One more thing... it seems to me that the problem is people not following the existing TOS. It's ok to discuss, even heatedly, but name calling and the like are not OK here. If you see someone doing that then report the post. I guarantee you it will be dealt with.

I can honestly say that I for one have been fairly lenient on many of these "heated posts", but I've grown tired of it and will be more strictly adhering to the TOS while performing moderation.
It seems that when you try to give people a little bit of wiggle room they keep on pushing to see just how far they can go.
I'm not pointing any fingers here, so don't ask if I mean you. Just letting you know that things will be a little different and you might want to go and re-read the TOS if you have any doubts about your conduct here.
 

Wild West Reptile

Leopards AFT Ball Pythons
Messages
1,863
Location
San Jose, CA
1. When you are contradicted do not get on the defense. There are many opinions on here and we must learn to respect them.


2.DONT quote someone just to post a contradicting statement. Instead just post your belief or opinion as a separate post, not a direct attack on what they said.

These are the two that start most of the arguments on here. They kind of go hand in hand. There's nothing worse than being "quoted" and "corrected" on an opinion. It's a blatant attempt to embarrass somebody in my opinion. It happens all the time and fights ensue. Nobody comes on here to be embarrassed, but certain folks do nothing but wait for a slip up and then they jump all down the persons throat via the "quote". I think we have all been guilty of this at one time or another. Just post your opinion without quoting if it's going to be a total negative. There's nothing wrong with quoting someone if you don't agree with it, but do it respectively and ask questions or give your experiences instead of the "NO, YOUR WRONG" or when they quote you and then say "IM SORRY BUT, I AGREE WITH THE OTHER PERSON". Well if you agree with the other person then quote the other person and say you agree, but don't quote someone to tell them how you don't agree with them and they are wrong. If we all tried harder to do this, I think GF would be a much funner place....In my opinion of course. ;)

Russ, I hope this post was positive enough so I don't get an infraction! 3 cheers for Russ for starting this thread btw! :main_thumbsup::main_thumbsup::main_thumbsup:
 

Golden Gate Geckos

Mean Old Gecko Lady
Messages
12,731
Location
SF Bay Area
2.DONT quote someone just to post a contradicting statement. Instead just post your belief or opinion as a separate post, not a direct attack on what they said.
Actually, I see the "quote" feature as a way to respond directly to someone's comment without having to address every aspect of their post. Personally, I appreciate it when someone quotes my exact statement and replies because I don't have to ask a bunch of questions regarding what they were referring to.
 

Nia2010

Owned By 5 Leos
Messages
180
I like it here, haven't went into much other topics other than leopard geckos, need to more.

How about adding photo of the month, I love those and always get involved.
 

LZRDGRL

Active Member
Messages
2,807
Location
Southern Illinois
I would like a technical improvement:

Everytime I type an answer to a post, I can't see the avatar and personal data of the OP anymore. Why is that? Because sometimes, I want to verify WHILE I'm typing an answer if that person was a child, what his/her REAL name is, not the screen name, or if he/she is from my state, when he/she joined, or what the photo in his/her avatar looks like. Why does this become invisible, whereas I can still see below the field I'm typing in what he/she has typed??? I can see his/her screen name, and that's all. I don't even know if I'm answering to a male or female, while oftentimes, you can tell from the personal data.

Every time, I have to open a second browser window, open up geckoforums again, go to the original post and look at the avatar/personal data of the OP while I'm typing my answer. This is time-consuming, and too many windows are open on the screen.

Don't know what can be done here, but maybe there's a tech-savvy person who can find that out ;)

Chrissy
 

Russ S

Re-Member
Messages
877
Location
New Jersey
I would like a technical improvement:

Everytime I type an answer to a post, I can't see the avatar and personal data of the OP anymore. Why is that?

Don't know what can be done here, but maybe there's a tech-savvy person who can find that out ;)

Chrissy

Chrissy,.
I have run into the same issue.
 

Dimidiata

New Member
Messages
1,943
Location
palmetto FL
I think Russ just needs to post more and break the tension. he hilarious and amazing and the best mod ever, now what was this about brown nosing?
 

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