******* Forum news ************

[icedawg]

alright...this is the announcement i told everyone about last week and then took off without actually posting...sorry about that. i usu. make notes about these things otherwise i'm prone to forgetting some of the details, but apparently i neglected to do that as well, so i may have to add some stuff in subsequent posts. this is going to be pretty long, and i'm kind of wondering how many people are really going to read this. anyway, here goes... as i see it there are a number of issues currently plaguing the forum. the issues themselves are not unique in regards to what a general forum would face at some point in its lifetime; i feel we need to address them though to ensure we keep as many people as possible happy thus ensuring the forum remains an enjoyable experience. i'm going to tackle the issues first, and then present some other unrelated announcements. issue 1: new users are feeling unwelcome; there is some talk that we aren't as friendly as we could be first off, no matter what pains we go to, we just aren't going to be able to make everyone happy...ain't gonna happen. i feel, however, that we can certainly try harder to ensure that as many people as possible will feel comfortable in associating dream views with 'home.' here's the plan: the crux of this plan is embodied by a new position here that was tentatively referred to as the 'task force,' but has since been dubbed the 'Dream Guide.' we are going to have 8 or 9 of them, and essentially their role is to fill the discernible gap between 'newbie welcomer' and 'adopter.' if you pause and consider just what that may entail, you may get rather close to just what they're going to be doing. first off, the 'newbie welcomer' position is going to be completely rescinded because it will no longer be needed; i'm not sure what role Aphius will be playing in this new program, but i'm hoping he's going to become the 'Dream Guide Coordinator.' although the Dream Guides will have moderator powers in the Newbie Zone, Adoptions, General Discussion, and perhaps also the Lounge, they will not be referred to as moderators; instead, their primary responsibility will be to making new users feel welcome, comfortable, and appreciated. i'm going to have to make some code adjustments to the forum (time-willing...ugh...) to accomplish this new program. new users, upon registering, will be presented with a message which will introduce them to the Dream Guide program, provide the names of the Dream Guides, and then encourage them to seek them out for any help they require. it's a little more sophisticated than that though, because a new private forum will be forged which only the Dream Guides will have access to. every time a new user joins, the forum will be automatically populated with a new message announcing the arrival of the new user. the Dream Guides are then responsible for contacting that new user to welcome him or her, make some sort of an attempt to help make him or her a little more comfortable, introduce him or her to the adoptions program, and then provide any assistance as required. before contacting a new user a Dream Guide will reply to the automatic arrival message, in effect 'claiming' a new user, so that we don't have problems with some new users getting too many messages and others not being welcomed at all. there's a distinction here i want to point out in regards to a 'Dream Guide' and an adopter: Dream Guides are again primarily here to help new users feel welcome; although they can certainly provide some advice and help with lucid dreaming, that's beyond their intended scope. the adoptions program was introduced to accomplish that particular objective. as for the adoptions themselves, those were always meant to be transient relationships...i.e. new users were supposed to be taken under existing members' wings for a little while until they gained a little more confidence in their abilities, and then 'set free.' Dream Guides will be taking over the adoptions program to ensure that: 1. all new users who seek to be adopted are adopted in a timely fashion; if this involves the Dream Guides actively seeking out regular members to become adopters, then so be it; 2. any needlessly-persisting adoptions are ended so that members are free to adopt again; 3. someone is around to answer questions in regards to the adoption process. Dream Guides are essentially going to be acting as a liaison between the community and new users. to further illustrate that idea, i suppose you could imagine them as cross guards looking out for the well-being of new users. they will also be perusing the boards looking for posts made by new users and ensuring that all new users receive the help they request. most importantly, they will be ensuring that no post goes unanswered. i have contacted several members already about the new program, and have a list of further people i will be inviting to join. if i cannot come up with 8 or 9 members, i will be seeking volunteers. there is a fair amount of work involved in this position, so it's quite possible we'll have dream guides coming and going all the time. in addition to the Dream Guides, i'm also going to be adding 3 or so more moderators. all moderators are going to of course be asked to be courteous to new users; after saying that i almost feel like i'm questioning their integrity somewhat. quite to the contrary though, i think they've been absolutely great and i really appreciate their help. i will be reminding everyone though that new users are a very important part of our community. i don't, however, want the moderators to be under the impression that they have to completely pander to the new users, in a rather belittling way. i realize new users often post the same questions...i think perhaps we can try to respond in a more friendly way (because hey, this is always going to happen no matter what, so we may as well try to be nice about it). instead of just pointing them in the direction of an FAQ or a tutorial, we could perhaps make a small attempt to answer their question, and then suggest they supplement that with a tutorial or whatnot. clearly we'll still have problem users, and we'll cross those bridges as we come to them. issue 2: off-topic posts another issue that has been coming up a lot lately is off-topic posts. clearly one doesn't have to mull this one over for very long to determine the cause: people forge friendships here and like to engage each other in conversation. as many of you know i've been a strong opponent of a chat room for a long time now because of some of the dire effects it can have on a forum (i won't go into these now because HOLY CRAP this post is getting too long as it is). i've been weighing the possible negative effects against the possible positive ones, and have decided we will be (finally) introducing a chat room. the main reason i've had a change of heart is that i'm hoping users will see this as an opportunity to engage in idle chat with their fellow forum members, thus lessening the irrelevant and off-topic posts on the board. of course the chat room will also be open to serious conversations and whatnot, and we may look into having a couple different rooms. chat solution: i will not be introducing an IRC solution; we will be introducing something completely customized to our board. in fact, potential chatters will have to become users on the message board first because their sessions will be used in the chat room (i.e. they will have to login here first). i will be using a PHP-based chat, which i will be customizing (again, when i find the time). i may throw up something temporarily until such time as i can make the changes i'd like to make. also, moderators will be asked to politely encourage users to stay on topic as much as possible. we will certainly not be introducing a hard-and-fast rule here because that's really not what this place is about. thus, we're going to continue to have complaints on both sides of the spectrum because again we cannot appease everybody, but we're going to do the best we can. off-topic posts, when possible, will be moved to appropriate forums. threads should rarely be locked and almost never deleted. i feel it prudent to once again state that light-chat is inevitable in the forums, and we are not going to go so far as to attempt to completely obliterate it. additional thoughts: i am also seriously considering completely doing away with post count and ranks. quite honestly they don't mean a bloody thing since someone with 500 posts (a 'lucid guru') can be completely surpassed in ability by someone with 3 posts. this perhaps may also help cut down on inane posts since there's simply nothing to be gained by them. in lieu of post counts, i may introduce a karma system which will allow users to award and reprimand other users. i want everyone to keep in mind, however, that we are not trying to discourage users from posting! by no means do i want that message to come across to anyone. thus, again we have to be careful when deploying measures to decrease the number of irrelevant posts out there. first and foremost i want new users to be welcome and comfortable here, so we'll have to strive to reach some sort of moderate position between completely eviscerating off-topic posts and allowing the board to regress into a breeding ground for incoherent drivel. also, i will be introducing a set of rules/guidelines which will also hopefully help the situation a little. again, i will ensure they are not excessively binding. issue 3: existing members feel overwhelmed by onslaught of new users i'm at somewhat of a loss in regards to how to handle this. i created the Community forum to provide a bit of a reprieve and to also appease those who preferred a smaller community...what else can i do? inevitably the board is going to continue to grow...in fact, we will hit 2000 users in less than 3 months. i can certainly create a community chat room in addition to the main chat room, but what else can i do? other stuff - we will be going ahead with creating a 'Dream Interpretation' forum. Truthbearer is currently putting together an FAQ for that new forum, and when he's done i'll edit it a wee bit and then create a new section on the main site which will present it as well as link to the interpretation forum. we will be ensuring of course that we inform users that interpretation is very subjective and that they often have to determine meaning for themselves (and of course that often dreams don't have any meanings). - while i'm working on the main site there are a couple other little changes here and there that i'd like to make, although nothing serious. adding sections is extremely easy because i coded it in PHP, so if anyone ever has any thoughts about changes that can be made to the main site, please let me know. i’d like people to continue to return to the site, so it’d be great if we could provide new content from time-to-time. - (again, when i find time) i'm going to be making some changes to the 'Dream Journal' forum... users will have the option of making their threads or individual posts private, so that they can use the forum as storage for their dreams without having to share everything with all members. also, they will have the option of determining whether other users will be able to reply to their journal entries or not. users will also be able to set a thread as their official dream journal, and a link will automatically appear in their profiles (PAPERDOLL's idea). i want to somehow dress this forum up a little bit as well, so that it feels a little different than the rest of the board.* - * carrying on with this idea, i'm hoping to enlist the help of someone to draw up some cartoon characters for the forum. i'd like to present them on the registration screen, the Dream Guide's introduction screen, the dream journal forum, and perhaps scattered throughout other forums/screens as well. Lomebririon did our logo for us and if he's up to the challenge of creating additional characters, that'd be awesome. if he's too busy then any volunteers willing to do that would be certainly appreciated! alright, well, i think i've forgotten^ something but that's all i've got for now. as always i welcome all thoughts, suggestions, comments, etc. 'k bye ^ i'd like to take this opportunity to blame Kaniaz for me forgetting anything that i may have forgotten (he is, afterall, my official scapegoat). thanks buddy.

[ffx-dreamz]

Nicely done Ice....that was a heck of a read. *crosses fingers hoping ice picks him* Anyway, you did a great job, and all of the changes you have/will make seem 'A' OK to me.

[nightowl]

Wow, that's a big announcement. A very good one if I might add. I'm satisfied with most if not all the changes that you have decided to make and I can't wait to see how everything turns out. It seems that you have the ability to solve any problem Edit: haha oops, I guess I wasnt paying attention to what I was writing. It's fixed now.

[Evanescent]

Nightowl you solve problems with solutions. How do you solve a solution? But yea ur right he does seem to fix everything.

[Kaniaz]

Dreamviews 'task force' (I forgot their name now) all moderators in general discussion, etc: Ah, that explains why Icedawg has the moderators in groups. Can't have a gigantic list of moderators after each forum name. Chatroom: I figured we were going to end up having a chatroom at some stage. I like that you haven't chose IRC, because not everybody has IRC (and other reasons). Post Count Killing Idea: Getting rid of post counts and post count ranks sounds good to me, but there could be abuse of the karma system. You know, "that guy didn't like my idea so I'm going to give him a negative". Sounds very immature, but I suspect it would happen. Might not be a problem though, because if you get so many positives from people that *do* have a clue what's going on, and some fool gives you a negative basically because they just don't like you, it wouldn't really "hurt" your rating at all. The Character Idea: That's a cool idea. Perhaps on the error screens like "You are not logged in and CANNOT post", a character thing could be shown on the left of the error message doing something intresting, and on "404" error messages another character could appear holding up a little "error 404" sign or something. Dream Journal Dress-Up And Stuff I like that idea, it will encourage people to make use of that forum much more. New Users: I'm barely noticing new users now, probably beause I never enter the newbie zone. I think the only "new user" who has embedded themselves into my mind is Placebo. Bold Text Bold text.

[CT]

How about a 'shout box' ??? I've seen other forums have them... Not sure if it'd be usefull for us but I thought I'd suggest it anyway. Another change I'd like to see is a 'fast reply' kind of sollution, because often when replying i'd like to review posts and the "topic review" screen is another screen with a scroll bar that makes the main screen have a scrollbar and it doesnt show avatars etc, so having that reply screen already under the topic itself would be really usefull, IMO. (rant) The 'task force' idea is pretty cool, but i've been wondering about a couple of things regarding welcoming and adopoting n00bs. They cant feel unwelcome when we are welcoming then and have an adoption forum. So I have no clue where anyone would get that impression, other then that there has been about a week, a month or so ago, that a couple of us might've been a bit stif with the answers. (or are we talking about some rumour that goes around LD4All, who also seem to have the impression we're at war or something?) Perhaps it is BECAUSE we have an Newbie zone and an Adoption forum. "I HAVE TO BE ADOPTED!! But nobody is replying to my "PLZ ADOPT ME" thread... nobody likes me!! " or "Booo my "Hey guyz i'm new" thread doesnt get 2+ pages of welcomes and other banter.... I'm not liked here". Newbie welcoming was a cute thing for when the site was a lot smaller I think... but I think if someone decides to post here they should do so because they are interested in LD's and participate in the discussions, and feel welcome because we appreciate their opinions and reply to them

[Lowercase Society]

Wow, ice. That was a great announcement, it's nice to know the admin. is really busting his balls for our benefit. Thanks man.

[Aphius]

What a mission it was to read that... It would be cool to be the... Lord God of the Dream Guides! *reverberating god-like voice* As Seeker put it. - * carrying on with this idea, i'm hoping to enlist the help of someone to draw up some cartoon characters for the forum. i'd like to present them on the registration screen, the Dream Guide's introduction screen, the dream journal forum, and perhaps scattered throughout other forums/screens as well. Lomebririon did our logo for us and if he's up to the challenge of creating additional characters, that'd be awesome. if he's too busy then any volunteers willing to do that would be certainly appreciated![/b] *Starts hyperventilating* You have to let me do characters! I promise they'd be better than my anniversary logo! Otherwise... Nice work Ice.

[Lomebririon]

Those sound like some pretty good changes. - * carrying on with this idea, i'm hoping to enlist the help of someone to draw up some cartoon characters for the forum. i'd like to present them on the registration screen, the Dream Guide's introduction screen, the dream journal forum, and perhaps scattered throughout other forums/screens as well. Lomebririon did our logo for us and if he's up to the challenge of creating additional characters, that'd be awesome. if he's too busy then any volunteers willing to do that would be certainly appreciated![/b] Woo! I've quickly put a little something together to show my answer.... I would be all too happy to draw you some cartoons! I'm not busy at all! PM me anytime with the details and anything else I can help you with.

[OpheliaBlue]

WOW icedawg, that's so great that you always work so hard to constantly imrove this forum. I totally support your ideas. As for the cartoonist, if Lomebririon can't do it, then I vote for APHIUS, woohoooo!! edit: Oh whoops, nevermind. I read/post too slowly, hehe.

[O'nus]

Godspeed icedawg We're all willing to help in anyway

[dougdrums]

This is going to be nuts, but good.

[icedawg]

Originally posted by Evanescent ...he does seem to fix everything. well, i like to try to fix things. thanks for the positive feedback everyone. hopefully we'll get the dream guides up and running shortly, and then move on to the other items on the list.

[O'nus]

Originally posted by icedawg+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(icedawg)</div> <!--QuoteBegin-Evanescent ...he does seem to fix everything. well, i like to try to fix things. thanks for the positive feedback everyone. hopefully we'll get the dream guides up and running shortly, and then move on to the other items on the list.[/b] How are the nominees for these positions being determined? Hand-picked by you, I am guessing? When do we get to find this out and feel special or left out?

[Howie]

Wow. When you list all those issues out in a row it sounds like a lot. But the good thing is that you have answers to them. Must have taken a lot of time. I think it will be imperitive that there is a efficiant comunication process between these dream guides. Othewise cretain tasks may be addressed two or three times where others, not at all. You probably already thought of a plan for this.

[Truthbearer]

Ok, finally got to the big announcement... I think most of the matters that you addressed here will be great additions to the board. I am glad you finally caved in to Paperdoll's journal idea(i bet she wouldn't let go of your leg until you did, huh? ). The dream guide idea will also surely help the newbs feel even more welcome. Thanks for taking the time to make all of this happen. Its great that you have that much interest on the board.

[Anima]

I would help but my own brain tells me I would likely disappear again so I will not give you guys a false leg to let you fall from.

[Death-Wuad]

Wow I can't believe I just got to this topic . I really like these ideas IceDawg , but how long is all of this going to take?

[nerve]

Originally posted by icedawg i am also seriously considering completely doing away with post count and ranks. quite honestly they don't mean a bloody thing since someone with 500 posts (a 'lucid guru') can be completely surpassed in ability by someone with 3 posts. this perhaps may also help cut down on inane posts since there's simply nothing to be gained by them. in lieu of post counts, i may introduce a karma system which will allow users to award and reprimand other users. I can understand getting rid of the ranks, but post count? what forum doesn't have a post count? ;; eh...I dunno. whatever you think will work. issue 3: existing members feel overwhelmed by onslaught of new users [/b] I think they are just going to have to get over it and stop complaining! i'm at somewhat of a loss in regards to how to handle this. i created the Community forum to provide a bit of a reprieve and to also appease those who preferred a smaller community...what else can i do? inevitably the board is going to continue to grow...in fact, we will hit 2000 users in less than 3 months. i can certainly create a community chat room in addition to the main chat room, but what else can i do? [/b] the Community Forum is great. and if we get a chat, a Community Chat would be awesome...like I said we are just going to have to get over it and be grateful that you even gave us these community sections, because there's really nothing we can do. (and of course that often dreams don't have any meanings). [/b] going to have to disagree. I think all dreams have some sort of meaning.

[Seeker]

Originally posted by icedawg in lieu of post counts, i may introduce a karma system which will allow users to award and reprimand other users. karma, karma, karma, karma karma chameleon you come and go... Sorry. couldn't help myself I like the karma idea as long as it does not get out of hand. How do we stop someone from heaping loads of bad karma on someone as a joke or because they are mad at the person? Also, how do we keep a couple of members from conspiring to boost each others good karma?

[wasup]

Well your making a community chat right... well i think once a crapload of people get in the "community" you should make some sort of community chat 2 where it had higher requirements (like 15 months at the forum and stuff like that and if you do do the karma thing, then X amount of "positives") PS: With the karma thing, people shouldnet get to see who gave them a positive or whatever because it would be annoying to have everyone make a thank you post every time they get one.

[Aphius]

Originally posted by Seeker I like the karma idea as long as it does not get out of hand. How do we stop someone from heaping loads of bad karma on someone as a joke or because they are mad at the person? We should have it so that when you give someone a karma vote, you have to give a reason for it. That would help out a bit.

[Truthbearer]

Originally posted by Seeker karma, karma, karma, karma karma chameleon you come and go... Too funny! I have to agree with Paperdoll...the ranks might not mean much, and even if the post count doesn't either, it is still and indicator of seniority, and it helps the newbs know who is active and who is not. If you only leave the join date, there might be a guy that has been very active since the beggining, and another that joined the same day as him, but left for 1 year and only posted once. They both would seem the same; with the same knowledge experience, etc. Granted, how many times one posts doesn't determine how much one knows, but if one has been active, you can expect him to have learned plenty from all the threads he read or participated in, during his time here. It's your call anyway, all I am saying is that it won't change much, and its really not that big an issue. [/rant]

[icedawg]

re: progress alright, well, things are moving right along. as you can see there are now clearly 'Dream Guides' present in the forum; 9, to be exact, and perhaps a couple more on the way (if they answer their PMs that i sent out a couple days ago)...although in retrospect 9 was probably enough. also, we have three new moderators (O'nus, Lomebririon, and Howetzer) and perhaps one more on the way. the 'Dream Guide' program won't officially launch for a few more days now...i want to wait until the membership is all sorted out and whatnot. to those of you who feel overlooked and unappreciated regarding recruitment into the Moderator or Dream Guide positions, i can only offer my apology and suggest that no matter i did, that was inevitable. i tried to choose people i felt were best for the job; sadly, i don't often have much time at all to go through the posts here because i only have a little time i can devote to the board, and most of my time here is spent fixing things. thus, it's very likely that i did overlook people who would have been great for either position. i generally seek input from the moderators since they frequent the forums more than i do, but some of them haven't been using the board much lately. from now on i'm going to stipulate that to hold on to a position, one much respect it and utilize it; thus, those who aren't seemingly interested in continuing their responsibilities will be requested to relinquish their position to someone else. i completely expect this to happen because it does indeed become monotonous after awhile doing some tasks, and some will undoubtedly no longer find them fun. that should at least present more opportunites for users to ascend to different positions. erm...so far as the green goes for Dream Guides...i still like it but perhaps it's a little much...i may have to look into lessening that somewhat. my intent was to make them as conspicuous as possible so that new users could readily identify them. once the Dream Guide thing is sorted out i'll move on to getting us a chat system of some kind. we actually had 133 REGISTERED users here today! i'm pretty sure we've got enough people actively using the board for a chat. uh...'k bye.

[O'nus]

Curious: How long do new comers stay orange?