People Clogging The Paranormal Psychics&Mediums Sub-Section With Number Requests

MrMojoRisin

Wander over to the Psychics&Mediums sub-section of the Paranormal forum on any given day and no doubt you'll see some new thread started by a new Boards user, where they're begging for some psychic's phone number. That winds up being their grand total of ONE post on this site and then they never bother their holes posting again.

Most of the time, these people are fortunate to be given the numbers of various psychics/fortune tellers/whatever, via PM. Then, after these new posters have gone away and had their readings from said psychic/medium/whatever, you rarely get these same people bothering to provide feedback on the psychic. E.g. "They were shi te", "They got accurate information about me without me opening my gob", or "None of the predictions happened in the said timeframe".

Like, it's feedback like that which makes the Psychics&Mediums sub-forum interesting. There's always a tug-o'-war between the paranormal 'believers' and the hardcore sceptics, but the debate and the quest for truth is ignited and kept alive when people talk/type about their firsthand experiences.

But (for quite some time now) the Psychics&Mediums forum has turned into a 'Gimme-The-Psychic's-Number-Pleeease!!!' forum instead. A bit of feedback following people's experiences would obviously be of constructive use to other people.

Once the baby gets the dummy, baby stops crying and you don't hear a peep out of it ever again. That is, until the baby wants a different, better-looking dummy.

Unless my eyeballs have emigrated to Eritrea over the last six months or more, I've seen new posters being given numbers of psychics/mediums/blaah and then never posting on the forum again with feedback.

6th

I can understand you're frustration but how would you suggest it be dealt with?

Tbh it gets to me too, so much so that I even started building a directory of psychics/readers/mediums with contact details but I'm reliant on getting the numbers from people myself.

6th

Also Boards isnt the only irish discussion forum filled with this stuff. Places like EUmom have it alot worse.

star-pants

Have you pm'd the mods of the forum expressing your concern?

Also do you ever post after someone asking for a number telling them to come back and let you know how they get on? Just if they come on ask for a number and just get it, then what incentive do they have to come back?
You could try posting after them welcoming them to come back and share their thoughts etc on what they found/experienced and see if that entices some of them back.

6th

I've given out a few numbers via pm and always ask them if they could come back and let me know how it went ... they never call

Nevyn

I can understand people not wanting to post more and have thier experinces torn apart by the skeptics. yes they did get thier own subforum but not before they soured the milk,
but thats just my opinion.

Oryx

I suggested MrMojoRising take this to our feeback thread, but I think its no harm having the problem taken up here too.

I dont know what the answer to this is. You cant force people to post. And as Thaedydal says, there is a tendency for people's experiences to be ripped apart and mocked, so no wonder folks dont post them. Youre also dealing with general laziness of people when it comes to giving feedback. As far as they are concerned, they got what they wanted. The majority of strongly felt feedback on psychics is negative. (Good service youll tell one person about, bad service youll tell everyone about)

I cant speak for stevenmu, but I feel my hands are tied a little when it comes to skeptical comment. If they are not being offensive and giving fair opinion, what can we do?

In terms of multiple threads, we already have a megathread, so as for merging all such threads, I dont know if thats the answer or will solve anything anyway.

Open to any and all suggestions.

MrMojoRisin

star-pants wrote: »

Have you pm'd the mods of the forum expressing your concern?

No, I haven't. It's out in the open now though.

star-pants wrote: »

Also do you ever post after someone asking for a number telling them to come back and let you know how they get on?

I have done that repeatedly - either I reply to them on said thread, or I PM them. I can't recall any of them submitting feedback as a result of that nudge.

star-pants wrote: »

Just if they come on ask for a number and just get it, then what incentive do they have to come back?

Well, the incentive to come back armed with their feedback should be clear - they can see how their experiences size up with others' and come to a more rounded conclusion about whatever psychic or medium they saw. I thought people would be curious to know about other people's experiences with the same medium/psychic they had seen.

Plus, I've seen newfound revelations that such-and-such-a-psychic is, in fact, a fraudulent douchebag because people have compared their readings on the forum and realised they were told the exact same cack. It's only by talking about this stuff that people can become more street smart about various psychics, and to be more careful about whom they hand over cash to.

star-pants wrote: »

You could try posting after them welcoming them to come back and share their thoughts etc on what they found/experienced and see if that entices some of them back.

I have done that. Okay, I haven't done it with a big, two-inch smiley face and a photo of Quality Street branded on to my post, but I havent been hostile either. Just normal and neutral.

MrMojoRisin

6th wrote: »

Also Boards isnt the only irish discussion forum filled with this stuff. Places like EUmom have it alot worse.

Oh right. I dont go on to EUmom but I imagine it's pretty dire alright

MrMojoRisin

6th wrote: »

I can understand you're frustration but how would you suggest it be dealt with?

The directory you're trying to put together seems like a logical solution.

6th wrote: »

Tbh it gets to me too, so much so that I even started building a directory of psychics/readers/mediums with contact details but I'm reliant on getting the numbers from people myself.

Well, I can forward on some details of people to you before the weekend.

That directory should then, ideally, become a permanent fixture on the first page of threads in the forum. Something that any Joe/Josephine Soap can easily refer to instead of them setting up a boards account to post once, and once only, to get a telephone number.

MrMojoRisin

Thaedydal wrote: »

I can understand people not wanting to post more and have their experiences torn apart by the sceptics. Yes they did get their own subforum but not before they soured the milk,
but thats just my opinion.

Tbh now, it's rarely that I've seen the diehard sceptics thunder down like the hammers of hell on a thread in the Psychics&Mediums forum. Then again, you've been around here longer than I have, so maybe they were deadly for doing that before? I do see the odd post popping up in threads from a super-sceptic saying the usual, "Nobody is able to tell the future. All psychics are cons". Now and again like. But users shouldn't let that put them off posting feedback because they tend to be encouraged more than discouraged by other users. Not all posters are bitter and closed-minded on that forum - most of them are nice, tbh.

Oryx

I do see the odd post popping up in threads from a super-sceptic saying the usual, "Nobody is able to tell the future. All psychics are cons". Now and again like. But users shouldn't let that put them off posting feedback because they tend to be encouraged more than discouraged by other users. Not all posters are bitter and closed-minded on that forum - most of them are nice, tbh.

Ive seen a few choice battles on the forum before we got all civilised, it can and has gone badly wrong when the opposing viewpoints on psychics meet.

That directory should then, ideally, become a permanent fixture on the first page of threads in the forum. Something that any Joe/Josephine Soap can easily refer to instead of them setting up a boards account to post once, and once only, to get a telephone number.

This will be a difficulty. We have a policy of not publishing phone numbers within the forum. Two reasons for this, first, it discourages advertising, second, it means we arent hosting numbers without the owners permission. Makes sure theres no messing about with people posting a mates number for a laugh as well. So if 6th, bless him, has his directory I cant see us being able to do anything but point people to it. I cant see our policy here changing any time soon, personally I think to change it would cause more problems than it solves.

MrMojoRisin

Oryx wrote: »

I suggested MrMojoRising take this to our feeback thread, but I think its no harm having the problem taken up here too.

Bugger, I didnt realise there was a feedback thread in the Paranormal forum. Sorry.

Oryx wrote: »

I dont know what the answer to this is. You cant force people to post.

I wouldn't force anybody into posting, even if that were actually possible, but a gentle nudge here and there from time to time wouldn't hurt.

Oryx wrote: »

And as Thaedydal says, there is a tendency for people's experiences to be ripped apart and mocked, so no wonder folks dont post them.

I've often posted stuff about my personal paranormal experiences and my beliefs, or about experiences I had with a couple of psychics/mediums before, and my attitude usually is, "To hell with it". I've got into heated debates - sometimes fights - with the diehard sceptics, where I've had my opinions and beliefs chucked into the abbattoir, but sometimes that comes with the territory. Most of the time, it hasnt got personal. A couple of times it did get personal, where my mental health was called into question by some jumped-up dude I've never met in my life.

People just have to roll with the punches really. I'm actually fairly middle-of-the-road where the paranormal is concerned - favouring a 'seeing-is-believing' approach myself - but I dont hold back when I'm writing about my personal beliefs. Nobody else should either. There should be elbow room for people of various, and sometimes starkly different, beliefs on the forum.

Oryx wrote: »

Youre also dealing with general laziness of people when it comes to giving feedback. As far as they are concerned, they got what they wanted.

That's what I meant about the baby stopping crying once it gets its dummy. I call all of it a mixture of laziness and selfishness tbh.

Oryx wrote: »

The majority of strongly felt feedback on psychics is negative. (Good service youll tell one person about, bad service youll tell everyone about)

Yeah I've noticed that. It's true what they say - Irish people love to complain. I'm in that club to a degree, although I have posted positive stuff about a few psychics/mediums as well. Well, I suppose negative feedback is better than no feedback at all at this point in time.

Oryx wrote: »

I cant speak for stevenmu, but I feel my hands are tied a little when it comes to skeptical comment. If they are not being offensive and giving fair opinion, what can we do?

They know how to assert themselves without contravening the rules of The Charter most of the time. They're entitled to their opinions and sometimes I like reading what they have to say when they aren't space-hopping on a rose bush. When they make a genuine attempt to understand where the other side is coming from, that's when it works harmoniously. I've been receptive to their theories and musings, even if I haven't appeared to be overtly gracious about it.

Oryx wrote: »

In terms of multiple threads, we already have a megathread, so as for merging all such threads, I dont know if thats the answer or will solve anything anyway.

Open to any and all suggestions.

I think 6th's Psychics&Mediums Directory is a very good start.

As for merging all of those 'Anyone-Have-The-Number-Of...' threads. Christ, it'd be like two decades' worth of Christmasses if they were deleted altogether.

Failing that, I'd say just leave them be and hope that a flurry of duplicate threads don't mushroom up from now on. A fixed psychics directory should act as a sound and suitable deterrent against those threads.

MrMojoRisin

Oryx wrote: »

Ive seen a few choice battles on the forum before we got all civilised, it can and has gone badly wrong when the opposing viewpoints on psychics meet.

I've been in a few battles myself (which I thought got ugly), but the battles of yesteryear seem worse, by the sounds of things.

Hopefully it's becoming a thing of the past. I haven't witnessed any major rows on either the Paranormal, Psychics&Mediums, or Skeptics Corner forums for a few months now. Or maybe I've missed them?

Oryx wrote: »

This will be a difficulty. We have a policy of not publishing phone numbers within the forum. Two reasons for this, first, it discourages advertising, second, it means we arent hosting numbers without the owners permission. Makes sure theres no messing about with people posting a mates number for a laugh as well. So if 6th, bless him, has his directory I cant see us being able to do anything but point people to it. I cant see our policy here changing any time soon, personally I think to change it would cause more problems than it solves.

I see what you mean. There could still be a permanent thread (or a sticky) called 'Psychics&Mediums Directory', with a brief explanation of the inability to post phone numbers on boards, followed by a link to 6th's directory of contact details. I don't see any troubleshooting cropping up with that tbh. People don't have to be goddamn brain surgeons to click on a link like.

Magenta

MrMojoRisin wrote: »

I see what you mean. There could still be a permanent thread (or a sticky) called 'Psychics&Mediums Directory', with a brief explanation of the inability to post phone numbers on boards, followed by a link to 6th's directory of contact details. I don't see any troubleshooting cropping up with that tbh. People don't have to be goddamn brain surgeons to click on a link like.

This is a great idea.
I have wandered over to that forum before but it is organised chaos with the amount of people looking for phone numbers for "Mary in Cork" and "Ann in Westmeath" etc etc.

Oryx

Just as a temporary test, Ive stickied 6ths thread on the Directory of Psychics Mediums and readers, with an instruction to read it before requesting any numbers. Ill leave it like that for a while and see if it makes any difference to the number of threads requesting numbers.

Asiaprod

Nice solution.

Hobbes

MrMojoRisin wrote: »

Unless my eyeballs have emigrated to Eritrea over the last six months or more, I've seen new posters being given numbers of psychics/mediums/blaah and then never posting on the forum again with feedback.

Don't really read the forum, but what you describe sounds a lot like a Shill post. Basically new poster writes message "Where can I get x", then a day or two later another newish member posts the details. Both the same person/group.

It is to avoid looking like obvious spam, and gives the feeling that a community is responding instead of some spammer.

Oryx

Hobbes, thats one more reason why phone numbers dont appear in posts. I think tho, that the majority of requests from one off posters are genuine, they post having done a search and ended up here. There hasnt been a resource like 6ths directory to find such contacts up to now, the only way was word of mouth or psychic fairs and such. So we get a glut of noobs who post without being familiar with the rules, and have no interest or commitment to the site. The upside of this is that some do stick around and become regular posters.