Concerning the Forums, and your role in them

[Carmine555]

This message has been edited since it's original posting, and the first 14 posts were made prior to editing.
The following concerns mainly Informational Areas, such as Newbies Zone, Technical Zone, Strategic Zone

The Forum used to be a place for members to come and read the rules of the game, strategies, hints, and tips from players to players. That is all still here. However, it is difficult to find with all the extraneous junk that has come along with increased membership. Please do not start sending me "hate letters" via PM. I am simply doing this in an effort to clean up the place a bit. All I am asking is for each member to abide by the Terms of Service concerning use of the Forum. If you start a thread, please give it a proper Title which acurately describes the subject of the thread. If you reply to a thread, be sure that your reply is ON TOPIC with the thread. It is not necessary to QUOTE the entire first post of a thread. Your reply to a thread should be courteous. If you are answering a question posed by the thread originator, be sure your answer is correct (to the best of your knowledge). Strategy has no correct answers, but all opinions welcome. The forum is NOT A CHAT ROOM, do not treat it as such. There is a difference between CHAT and discussion. Please use good judgement. With the JOKES, if there is ANY content which is inappropriate for all ages, all races, all nationalities, all religions, etc., put it in the KID FREE ZONE. Pretty much anything can go there as long as it is not porn. As of today, if I find any inappropriate material in the Open Forum Area, a SEVERE infraction will be issued. Please do not test me on this. My goal is not to get rid of players. My goal is to make more players want to be here.

Now, go ahead and hit me up here with your arguments, questions, apologies, and accolades. Just be sure your post is on this topic, clean, friendly, and appropriate for all to view.

[bakdoorbetty]

Originally Posted by Carmine555

If you do not have at least two or three sentences to respond with, it is probably best to not make that post.

Now, go ahead and hit me up here with your arguments, questions, apologies, and accolades. Just be sure your post is on this topic, clean, friendly, and appropriate for all to view.

Eek!!! I understand why you feel the need to post this guidance.....but the two or three sentences to respond with.......you need to know I'm a woman of few words hun, lol
Let's keep the forum fun as well, hey?
Hugs from bettyyyyyyyyy xxxxxxxxxxxx

As I said: It is not necessary to quote the first post of a thread, as that is what all replies should pertain to. - Carmine -

Carmine - I think you will find that I HAVEN'T quoted the first post of a thread.........in fact, I have quoted a PORTION of the first post of a thread.....to make it easier for the reader to know which part of the post I am referring to. I suggest that it IS relevant to do this to avoid misinterpretation of a replying post.

Very good. I accept that, to the point that you picked a section, and not quoted a message the size of my original, which would have made it unappealing to a reader. Thank you. - Carmine -

[themaster3]

i like the games on here

This is spam and has recieved an infraction. I was wondering who would be first to test me. - Carmine -

[stepoff]

Carmine I Said Earlyer, A Lot Of Times I Just State Wowww Or Lol To A Thread. I Am Sorry I Did Not Know This Constituded Spam, And I Will Take Into Considreation Using Longer And Responses In The Future.. Again I Am Sorry..

[scothius]

Ok personally i think you have gone overboard....ie: giving infractions to someone replying to a funny joke, that's just nasty. As far as i can see isit that type of replying has been encouraged in the past...I do understand the need for some control as I am an Administrator on a site with nearly 18,000 members....www.movieplex.org (a movie forum) Forums are supposed to be a fun place and if there is some conversations in threads so be it...instead of banning and giving infractions etc...pm the member and and work things out....Its all about being tolerant and seeing what harm is being done...i have plenty more to say about this but will leave it for now...

Remember this is my opinion only and do speak from some experience...

Perhaps I was not clear. I am not out to deal punishments. I fully expect (because I realize my Perfect World does not exist) to see the occassional ""lol good one". I will delete those. I will send the member a note directing them to this thread. Hopefully, they will understand, and help in the attempt to keep the forum a bit more appealing to the viewer. And perhaps the next time, they will post a response more like, "lol good one. reminds of another.....(includes another joke)"
There are, and will be some areas less strict. I have seen some good conversations in the STRATEGIES section. If the conversations are ON TOPIC, and reader friendly, no problem. OP66 provides the members with personal areas, e.g., Personal Profile Pages, including personal message boards, private messaging, Lobby Chat, including Instant Messaging. These areas are appropriate for what I will be removing.
And if you have plenty more to say, please do so by way of PM. I welcome suggestions, especially from somebody with experience. Or post it here if it will be good for the thread and it's readers. - Carmine -

[Danzi]

My wiew is very simple we joke sometimes you call this spam ok i won t post joke or say something out of topic anymore. I ll just follow terms of service for every thread replaying like i was in jail. I sent you thread where mod is spamming hope you will give him infection too. I never got warning from any mod in 9 months and i got 2 from you, wait 1 when some player accused me i that i said my hand before hand was played but when i replayed too mod and he saw chat he saw he was lying so this don t count. I don t understand only you see spam and i agree sometimes we spam but too get warning for don t know 5 spamming post from 1200 posts is funny sorry for saying this. Or wait if you add games many more spam here think we all deserve infraction warning by your rules.

Danzi, I would have thought that the Private Messages we traded would have covered this. I hope you will have better feelings when I make my next post here and re-open the thread.

[MRCOOL1]

Originally Posted by Carmine555

... Also, it is not necessary to respond in a joke thread "HA HA GOOD ONE", or any similar replies. These will be considered as SPAM and may result in infractions being issued, (and these infractions will have an effect when I start issuing them on a regular basis). If you do not have at least two or three sentences to respond with, it is probably best to not make that post.

Carmine, while I sympathise with your dismay over the deterioration of the forums AND agree with every point you make up until the quoted section. I also appreciate and understand the hard work and time that is spent by you and the other mods policing ( read: babysitting) this place,...I must say, though, that I think you've taken it too far with tight restrictions like these here quoted from the end of your post.
First,... humor does not exist in a vacuum, it needs response and reaction to survive. The "lol"s, etc, are the equivalent of the audience laughing here. As a musician, I would think that you would understand the significance of that.
Second...I think and believe that the forums NEED a sense of humor. witty back and forth, quick one-liners, quips and snarky remarks are all a part of that. It sounds like you are calling for not allowing anything but "substance" with your comments, and i think that there is also a need for some fun, too.
After all, isnt the best post to date STILL one of the shortest? (Jockney's 8 of clubs lol)

So,.. i have a question, then.. are almost ALL the games ( even the VERY popular music game and word game ) going to be deleted? Neither of them fit under your new criteria..

Im sure I've got TONS more to say about this, but will hold my tongue for another time.. I wanna see how this plays out for a bit.

MrCool, hopefully I will have answered all your concerns with my next post here, when I will re-open this thread. - Carmine -

[Survey]

All a bit heavy but get your drift carmine. But the games posted on this forum must be considered spam as they are created to start a chain that earns credits for the player starting the thread. Don't you think the reward system is wrong? People are told they have to have a set number of posts for this that and the next thing and now we have people spamming because of Outlaw. Don't blame the players blame the system.

Don't know about the rest of the people here but I'm here to meet friends have some fun between playing cards.

Absolutely correct on all points. These are issues under scrutiny by Staff at this time. Please be patient waiting for determination. - Carmine -

[crinkle62]

i agree with both survey and Mr C............. you stop the 1 - 2 word answer games and we have almost nothing in forum!!!!
Spamming for the outlaw game credits is what should be having reprimands for, not for people saying wooooooooooow, or lol etc which is all an answer is to some of the fun threads that are around. New credit system is the way to stop all this, not stop our fun.
I cant think of 3 sentence answers to the threads that i enjoy, so as well as not being able to play at tables for whatever reason/problems i get.... i wont be in forum either..... WHATS THE POINT IN BEING HERE!!!!?

[Pocket_Ducks]

i think there should be a trivia and games forum, like a site i used to go on had. This is different to general chat, where I agree there has been too much cluttering of junk in there.
All these games i feel should be MOVED, and not deleted, into a new forum- if that aint asking for so much huh? at least it'll end this rather downing charade.

kwak

EDIT: something i forgot to mention, carmine, didu consult any1 else from the mod/admin team before setting this farce up?

I will respond to your EDIT statement first. My job description without a personal good nature would have had me issuing thousands of infractions to hundreds of our top members for various violations. By Top Members, I mean simply long time members, popular members, high activity members, ALL OP66 MEMBERS! By various violations, I mean inappropriate language, inappropriate material, abuse, just to mention a few. With that said, the answer to your EDIT question is NO.

Now to respond to the first part of your post, these are options being discussed by Staff. Please be patient waiting for determination.

[LfcFan]

Carmine555
A step to far in my eyes.In my opinion,some statements are hypocritical.
I have started a number of threads and posted on a number of threads asking for help on a subject or a answer to a particular question.The responses from moderators have either been of no help at all or a post stating that they dont have an answer,in my opinion that equates to spam.
I have also seen that the majority of moderator posts are of less than a line of text,never mind three lines of a sentence.You yourself are guilty of this one.
Not every member or moderator is fluent in English,so it is unfair to excude or punish these people for posting.
What about games?Games appear to be allowed and are very popular with some members and moderators,but it is impossible to join in and post on these threads.Are they now not allowed?
What about peoples birthdays?Its not easy writing great amounts of text to wish somebody a good day.But adding just a picture is a lovely way of saying it.And you cant deny that this adds the family feel of the forum.

I fully understand what you are trying to do in regards to cleaning up the forum and making it clearer to navigate,i dont envy the task ahead.Please reconsider some of your points,the vast majority of us are happy to work with the OP66 team.GL

I would venture a guess that your question may have been of a technical nature, in which case I will usually respond that I do not know. I do this because the entire team should be keeping an eye on that section as a priority. I give a response to show that the team does patrol that area, and also to bump that up on the NEW POSTS list. I do not do it to spam for credits. The "three sentence" thing is not meant to be a hard and fast rule. I admit foolishness for not choosing better words to make a simple point. I hope to clarify, as well as your statement about the Moderators' brief posts. Actually, that point I will answer here in brief. Moderators are not spamming the Forums for credits. Your statement about punishing Non-fluent members, I do not understand, please clarify. Your other issues stated will hopefully be answered in my next post here when I will re-open this thread. - Carmine -

[unclepony11]

ok i'm sorry but this is ridiculous, first of all not all threads can be given a reply of a few sentences, second of all this new outlaws game has caused even more spamming with people creating threads simply intended to fool people into being BLUFFED, third thing is a question, What exactly are we allowed to post on the forum now? how can we be sure that what we are posting is not gonna be considered as spam? and therefore resulting in an infraction???

I apologise if i have overstepped the mark but this is just my opinion

Not overstepping at all . I believe your questions will be answered in my next post when I re-open this thread.

[scothius]

Originally Posted by Survey1

All a bit heavy but get your drift carmine. But the games posted on this forum must be considered spam as they are created to start a chain that earns credits for the player starting the thread. Don't you think the reward system is wrong? People are told they have to have a set number of posts for this that and the next thing and now we have people spamming because of Outlaw. Don't blame the players blame the system.

Don't know about the rest of the people here but I'm here to meet friends have some fun between playing cards.

the credit system came in after the games section had started...all forums have games, its for people who enjoy wasting their time...absolutely no harm in it at all...and to say people play only for credits is a generalisation...but if they do ...so what....if people don't like the games don't play them and enjoy the other parts of the site.

[Carmine555]

Ok, so you know what's going on, I have removed the following portion from my original statement:

Also, it is not necessary to respond in a joke thread "HA HA GOOD ONE", or any similar replies. These will be considered as SPAM and may result in infractions being issued, (and these infractions will have an effect when I start issuing them on a regular basis). If you do not have at least two or three sentences to respond with, it is probably best to not make that post.


I believe that I severely overstated my point there. I stated that for the simple reason that many of our members use that particular forum for the sole purpose of spamming for credits. I have seen many occassions where there was no possible way anybody could have read that many jokes that fast in order to have responded to each one of them ""lol greetz m8". I believe there may have been some copy/pasting going on there. On a personal level, it frustrates me because I have to read each and every one of these things in order to keep the forum free from inappropriate content/language. This takes away from my POKER time. Adding, removing, changing, shuffling forums is being discussed by Staff. Possibly excluding some forums from earning credits is being discussed by Staff. Daily thread for jokes, possible option, all jokes one thread possible option, Games Forum (like joke forum) possible option and these are only examples and possibilities being discussed by Staff just to let you know that the Staff is always communicating in order to improve the entire site. This thread is not the place for those discussions please. However, if a merge were to take place, it is a possibility that many posts will be deleted, and the fewer there are, the more I can play POKER There are areas where the members have more freedom of content. All I am concerned with for the most part are the areas that deserve a bit of etiquette such as the Strategic Zone, Newbies Zone, Tech Zone where a person would go to find and intelligent answer to their questions. It is not my desire to remove the fun. It is not my desire to issue infractions. There are more than a few people who have recieved an infraction from me, in fact, Danzi said he got two of them. You should all be gald that you only got one, because, by the time I send one, you have more than likely deserved more than that. Which is why it may seem a petty issue coming attached to a particular post, but when I send an infraction, it has been sparked by more than one post. My desire is to keep the informational areas tidy, and to have as much POKER time as possible. I hope this is not too much to ask. As far as people posting inappropriate content in the Public Forums, I stand fast there. I have been moving way too many inappropriate jokes to the Kid Free Zone. Put it there yourself, or suffer the consequences for Terms of Service Violation.
It is bad enough when we get the spammers coming in dropping porn links in all the forums. I feel that our true members should have enough sense to know better by now. You know the content of your joke, you know where it belongs. If it is borderline or slightly questionable, it goes in the Kid Free Zone.

Still, I know that there will be those of you who will find some way of twisting my words to make me out as the Bad Guy. Please don't do that.

[joecool32]

To me, this seems like a needed step, but the step went too far. I see why you want to stop some short posts, especially those either in reply to a joke, or just saying well done to someone who may have won a tourney or whatever. You have misread my posts. - Carmine -
You were just talking about people spamming on jokes threads. How did i misread anything?
However, as LFCfan pointed out, there are many, players and mods alike, who are guilty of this. Sometimes it isnt needed to write 3 sentences; a few words occasionally are enough to get one's point across. You have misread my posts - Carmine - You said yourself that exceptions are made to the short post rule. This was a reiteration in agreement.

I do agree that a cut on all the pointless forum games is also needed. There are way too many that are the same or similar thing, only a different name. However, with your decree these games will no longer be allowed, and i believe that they should be there, just limited. I have made no decrees, nowhere does it say no more games. You must have misread my posts - Carmine - You have said nothing about whether or not games apply to your short post rule.

I do understand that the point is getting rid of the spam, not punishing those who spam. However many will feel that their words are not good enough for the forum, as they constantly watch posts getting removed. I do hope that each are reflected on before removal and/or consequence. Absolutely, with no prejudices. - Carmine - So if a mod replies, "wd m8" to a bunch of threads, he will be banned? I highly doubt it

The games add to the lively atmosphere of the forum, and without them, only heavy topics on the forum are to be discussed. And this is where arguments tend to fire up. Without the fun and snide remarks made in the games, more and more bans will be made inforced, because players will only be posting on controversial threads. This will ruin the point of a forum, and I do hope you reconsider your points on this. Although it is necessary to reduce the spam, such a drastic step is not the solution. (None of this need be considered though if what i talk about next goes into effect). Games being removed? You must have misread my posts. - Carmine - Which is why i said none of this need be considered if my next paragraph about games not receiving credits was actually going into effect. For some reason i think it is you who has misread my posts

And to respond to the newest addition, it would be an amazing idea if forum games did not count for credits. With the new Outlaws City game, it is more than easy enough to get needed credits. So I applaud that this is under consideration, but maybe a bigger step is needed to stop converting credits at all? I am in complete agreement. - Carmine - Breakthrough!!

[cuddycat]

Carmine I have seen you ask people to post things in the appropriate place on many occasions and can see why you now need to formalise things for when these polite requests have been ignored and has meant extra work for yourself in moving/removing posts.

However, I am one of the ones who responds to threads with pictures rather than words especially congratulations on wins and happy birthday threads. I do hope that these will not incur infractions as these are part of what makes this such a great site to play at.

It is nice that some of you take the time to add that little extra. I have no problem with birthday threads, or congratulations threads. I do feel that both deserve to be under "Victories and Bad Beats". As I stated, my main concern is for the informational areas. - Carmine -

[jayccin]

Carmine This All Sounds To Me Like A Good Idea. We Dont Have To Post Here. After All This Is A Poker Site.so I Think It Is Best That All Members Do As You Say. There Is Always Other Sites That We All Can Post On That Arent Related To Poker. This Way When We Want To Act Silly With Others We Go Somewhere Else. Then When We Want To Play Poker We Come Here.this Way We All Will Have Plenty Of Time For Poker And Not Waste Our Time Reading Threads About Things That Dont Concern Us.

This is childish - Carmine -

[The_Rounder]

you dont have to read the threads jayccin.......

This is Spam and Off Topic - Carmine -

[LfcFan]

Originally Posted by LfcFan

Carmine555
Not every member or moderator is fluent in English,so it is unfair to exclude or punish these people for posting.

Your statement about punishing Non-fluent members, I do not understand, please clarify. - Carmine -

What i mean in my post(the quote above) is that not all non-fluent members/moderators can type out a long post due to the fact that they dont use English as a 1st language.Therefore a post as long as this one may take up so much time for them that its hard work,where as ive just spent a couple of minutes typing this out.Hardly fair to punish these people if they do deside to write short posts.
Ps,ty 4 ya response(s)

[pofet]

I think that now with all the credits that are coming from outlaws I think that there wont be any more of these people that only post "lol good1" or similar ( I think I was one of them) because they have no need to do more posts to increase there credits. So I think that the ones that keep posting in the games and other threads are the ones who really want to help and have fun

I hope you are correct. - Carmine -

Actually i have lately seen an example of these and it is in the abcd thread in the past I think that before being closed it would have a lot more of posts and if you look at it there are people being against these spam threads