Trying to give a few kittens a new home.

Placebo Effect

Is advertising? I thought it was a community forum. A bit harsh there chief.

PopeBuckfastXVI

Hmm.

Maybe this thread could be used to develop a community consensus as to what constitutes advertising etc.

Personally I don't mind lost & found, puppies for free, kittens for free etc.

Would still draw the line at advertising petitions, events (outside the what's on thread), stuff for sale, businesses etc.

ciotog

I'd have to agree that I see it as harsh - absolutely not being negative or disrespectful to biko saying that, he called it in good faith. I do think that we could reach a consensus. My view (I'm a biased guardian of two kittens) is that rehoming animals is a civic act and should be treated differently from advertising.

Wompa1

I don't like cats there for I side with Biko on this one. Good call chief! If it's puppies let it slide ;-)

civis_liberalis

ciotog wrote: »

rehoming animals is a civic act.

I agree, but my personal feeling on it is that the person hasn't found a lost kitten or something, so I'd class it as advertising (sort of).

[Ducks for cover]

biko

As I said in the first thread, moved to Animals: when there is no owner the post is an advert "Take these kittens away".
Same would go for "free TV/sofa" but then there is a section on adverts.ie
Adverts does not allow ads for animals, hence the move to the Animals forum.

Note that Animals have a thread for re-homing
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055626371

The second thread was just locked, not deleted. Hopefully someone will take the kittens away but I don't want to open up in Galway forum for every rehoming need when there already is a place for that on boards.
I probably should have been more tactful when locking it though.

This thread is moved to feedback, where moderation should be discussed.

Xiney

I think lost/found pets should be allowed to stay in the Galway forum.

Not everyone from Galway reads the Animals & Pets forum.


Also it's not like finding a new home for a TV - it's a living thing. Slightly more important.



Threads getting moved out of the Galway forum when they have to do with Galway is a major annoyance of mine. As a regional forum there will always be some overlap with other parts of boards.ie. Some threads ARE better served elsewhere, but it often seems like others are moved for the sake of it. It halts discussion, which, in my opinion, is the exact opposite of a moderator's job (which I believe is to facilitate discussion).

LoLth

by that logic, rugby matches involving Galway based teams shou ldbe discussed in the galway forum. Public transport in Galway shoul dbe in teh galway forum. Construction and planning issues based in Galway should be in the galway forum. Eventually each regional forum would be a mini-mirror of the overall boards category list.

imho, not as an admin, Biko was right to move the thread to the relevant forum. Its a thread looking for a home for kittens, there is a thread specifically set up for that purpose so anyone looking for a kitten , not just people from Galway, would be more likely to see it there. There are a lot more people that use boards and dont look at the galway forum than there are from galway that dont look at the animal forum (I would guess).

From a personal experience: I adopted a dog from Celbridge when I lived in Dublin. if that had only been advertised on a celbridge noticeboard I would never have known about it and would have lost out on a great pet. Similarly, if I was in the market for adopting a kitten (which unfortunately I am not according to my better half) I would not have any issue travelling from Dublin to Galway to collect it.

I agree, its not like finding a home for a TV, it is a lot more important and so is better served by being presented in a forum where users interested in animals are likely to look.

You are right that threads moved for the sake of it do halt discussion and that is an issue but in this instance, I think Biko did right and I'm also quite impressed at the moving of this thread to the feedback forum. Brave move

Xiney

Currently Galway public transportation, local politics, and local sports teams ARE discussed on the Galway forum, within reason. I believe each team has a mega thread that just gets added to when people wish to talk about them.

DonnieScribbles

I was the OP of the thread in question. I reposted on behalf of my sister after the first got moved. I checked first if it was okay to post it and was told I could post but it would get locked and I was fine with that. I figured if even a few people saw it then that'd be helpful.

I can see how it is seen as advertising, but I guess when there's no money involved it's a bit of a grey area.

Posting and locking is probably the fairest way, actually, in these situations.

Just thought I'd better contribute seeing as I kind of started this off!

biko

Almost every thread in a regional forum has two components:
The issue at hand and the location.

What I do is to think about what direction the thread will take and then make the call to let it stay or to move it.

For instance "Laptop repairs in Galway". Should this be in the technical forum or the regional?
Well there was just tecnical talk in it so it was better off in the technical forum.
"Laser in Galway" - same thing. This thread was about the treatment, it didn't even ask for places to get the treatment done.

Threads about some sort of beauty treatment goes in Fashion&Appearance as threads about a car issue should go in Motors.

As a rule of thumb, if you feel the need to add "in Galway" to the title you're probably posting in the wrong place.

There are some lengthy threads (Hairdressers/Barbers/Mechanics) for suggestions of local businesses. These threads are there not to discuss the issue but to suggest local businesses.
After some discussions we also have two local team threads too (United/Connacht).

If the thread is about a question relevant to Galway then it should stay in the Galway forum i.e. best men's haircut, where to get laptops fixed, etc etc. To use the topic of the kittens - someone who uses boards might know about the Galway forum but not the Animal forum, yet these users see the thread and these kittens find a new home.

There's been fairly popular threads asking for reviews of restaurants/shops in Galway city- going by this logic then surely they should be moved to Consumer Issues?

However, with regards to the Laser in Galway, where it was more a discussion about the topic, than a discussion about Galway, then it should have it's title edited to remove the reference to the city, and moved to the appropriate forum where it can be discussed openly.

Xiney

Actually, not reading feedback often, it seems biko has come under fire for being too trigger happy on the lock/move in After Hours as well recently. It is mainly when biko moves/locks a thread in Galway that I find myself thinking "whyyy?"

Also, I have had to move threads that have been moved from Galway into one of my forums BACK into the Galway forum because they don't suit where they have been moved. I have seen other mods do this as well (although it's not common)


Sorry biko, but if two seperate communities are complaining about the same aspect of your moderating, it seems like there may be an actual problem.

biko

Xiney wrote: »

Actually, not reading feedback often, it seems biko has come under fire for being too trigger happy on the lock/move in After Hours as well recently. It is mainly when biko moves/locks a thread in Galway that I find myself thinking "whyyy?"

Also, I have had to move threads that have been moved from Galway into one of my forums BACK into the Galway forum because they don't suit where they have been moved. I have seen other mods do this as well (although it's not common)

Sorry biko, but if two seperate communities are complaining about the same aspect of your moderating, it seems like there may be an actual problem.

The AH thread wasn't about me but the AH mod team in general, I was just the first AH mod to respond. If you like we can discuss that issue in its own thread. I can say though that it got me looking at that aspect of my moderation but that doesn't mean I will stop.

If you bump a thread back to Galway as a moderator I always respect that and don't move it back to your forums again.
After all, you know what fits in your forums better than I do.

Deleted User wrote: »

If the thread is about a question relevant to Galway then it should stay in the Galway forum i.e. best men's haircut, where to get laptops fixed, etc etc. To use the topic of the kittens - someone who uses boards might know about the Galway forum but not the Animal forum, yet these users see the thread and these kittens find a new home.

You're making my point for me: a lot of new-ish posters are only aware of one forum, Galway. This usually because they googled in looking for info.

They post there for everything. I have tons of examples but the general jist is that they confuse issue with location as I mentioned in an earlier post.
People tend to treat regional forums as "mini boards", they ask about food, cars, computers, NTL packages, etc there because they haven't found Food, Motors, Tech, BB, etc yet. This happens even more in smaller forums like Roscommon.
Or maybe they feel that the rest of boards are populated entirely by Dubs, I don't know.

Anyway, by moving a thread to a more relevant forum they discover the rest of boards. I found the Yoga forum this way just the other day.

I just want to finish by saying that I don't mind at all being challenged on my moderation, after all I'm just another guy and call things as I see them.
Any feedback helps me understand what I can do better.

Sherifu

Xiney wrote: »

It is mainly when biko moves/locks a thread in Galway that I find myself thinking "whyyy?"

This.

Chill out a bit with locking and moving threads. Please.

eagle10

Xiney wrote: »

Actually, not reading feedback often, it seems biko has come under fire for being too trigger happy on the lock/move in After Hours as well recently. It is mainly when biko moves/locks a thread in Galway that I find myself thinking "whyyy?"

Also, I have had to move threads that have been moved from Galway into one of my forums BACK into the Galway forum because they don't suit where they have been moved. I have seen other mods do this as well (although it's not common)


Sorry biko, but if two seperate communities are complaining about the same aspect of your moderating, it seems like there may be an actual problem.

Dont bother my arse starting threads in Galway City any more due to in my opinion heavy handed unfair bias moderation.... to be honest sick to the tits of it

biko

Ok I will chill with the locking and moving.

faceman

I dont think a big "biko should just stop locking and moving threads" is the answer, i think its unfair to unload the issue on him, particularly given he is acting within the guidlelines he believes to be correct. It hasnt addressed the OP's original question or issue.

Placebo Effect wrote:

Trying to give a few kittens a new home.
Is advertising? I thought it was a community forum. A bit harsh there chief.

So is something like that where money is not involved advertising? And what is a community forum?

we've seen it wrt the dublin forums too, particularly with AH.

Maybe the region mods should have a think tank session to come up with what exactly a regional community forum is and what discussions are you trying to attract.

LoLth

again, my opinion and not from an admin pov,

If a thread is specifically Galway only, then it belongs in the galway forum.

for example: "where's the best place to get Dim Sum in Galway?"

that question could also easily be asked in the Food and Drink forum but, being galway specific, it would be better in the galway forum.

If the kittens post had been "looking for a home for kittens IN GALWAY" then fair enough. its a galway thread. but, looking for a home for kittens and they need to be collected from Galway" is not galway specific and imho Biko was right to request that it be posted in the sticky thread on the animal forum.

One compromise here could be that, instead of just moving a thread, an expiring redirect is left behind in the Galway forum so you can still access the thread from there, it'll just bring you to the new home when you click on it. Redirects could be set to expire after, say, two weeks which will stop the Galway forum from filling with redirects but still allow plenty of time for people to notice it.

mod hat on:
@eagle10: if you have a problem with moderation there are proper ways to go about expressing them other than posting what can only be described as grumbling mutters on a useful thread

biko

I always leave long redirects so that the posters will be able to find the place the thread was moved to. Now I will try to just inform the OP in the thread that there is another forum for this but leave thread in Galway.
We'll see how it goes.

On a similar note: for the second time in a week a poster in the forum has complained when I removed spam. It's tricky to keep everyone happy.

Insect Overlord

People actually complain about the removal of spam?!
Some folks just don't get this site, do they?

biko

This is the last thread
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056064168
It's for a site that does what adverts.ie does and also has a special section for shops and restaurants in Galway, I would assume the devs are located in Galway.
I removed the first post and PMd the poster who didn't respond but instead posted a second time. That one I left visible with my response.

Hint: their tag line is "... is the fast and easy way to find any business, special offer, product or service in your area or anywhere in Ireland."

Insect Overlord

Maybe you could start a dedicated thread for local (non-commercial) websites.
Have a look at the sticky in the Limerick City forum to get an idea of it.

It still wouldn't solve the kitten debate though...

biko

Yeah, the kittens are still not gone unfortunately, even with the attention they got from this.

Placebo Effect

Why was the the thread today in the Galway forum about 'where to have Xmas dinner
deleted'?

Is boards the internet version of China?

Moderation seems to not 'like' certain posters..

Carry on

El Weirdo

Placebo Effect wrote: »

Why was the the thread today in the Galway forum about 'where to have Xmas dinner
deleted'?

Is boards the internet version of China?

Moderation seems to not 'like' certain posters..

Carry on

Did you PM the mod?

TheZohanS

Placebo Effect wrote: »

Why was the the thread today in the Galway forum about 'where to have Xmas dinner
deleted'?

They're eating kittens in Galway now?

AckwelFoley

came here expecting lolkitteys

I am disappoint

Daemos

Placebo Effect wrote: »

Why was the the thread today in the Galway forum about 'where to have Xmas dinner
deleted'?

Is boards the internet version of China?

Moderation seems to not 'like' certain posters..

Carry on

Maybe because there was already a thread about it?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056126447