Real Transit

No changes would fix things instantly. But yeah, let's just agree its a multitude of factors and not necessarily the few places where I'm pointing the finger. You've been here longer, you've probably seen more and dealt with more than I can see around here, so I'll take your word for it. I just realized I put you on the spot in my previous post. I shouldn't have done that, and I apologize. I think you may be thinking of a seperate incident than what I brought up. I don't recall the discussion being a negative one about staff nor do I recall the user you mentioned being in chat at the time. The only reason I brought up that example was to explain that the staff on here have sort of a short temper with members, whether they be repeat offenders or not (I don't know who is who), they still should be treated equally and talked to respectively as if they are all valued members of the community. I gotta say, since then though, it seems the chatbox has been empty most of the time I've been on here. I think you need staff who have the free time to really endorse this site, work on it, and improve what needs to be improved. Straphangers forum is mostly dead, and I'm hoping this forum doesn't eventually end up the same way. Subchat is alright, although the staff doesn't really themselves "public," there's a lot of joking around and trolling on there that spices up the discussion in both a good and a bad way. But I've seen a lot of criticism of the staff here on Facebook, especially in the groups, but not of other sites. Maybe that signifies something? I didn't mean to say that the entire blame should be on the staff; I was just stressing that part of the argument. I know you don't want things to go haywire here, but punishment and I guess "threats" of punishment should be a more conservative thing, not something to be shown off in public or something to stop conversations. It should all be a private thing for the most part, give punishment privately, if it doesn't fix it, do it again privately, if that doesn't work, then make the serious move. I don't know if you guys discuss things amonst staff, because you guys don't seem that active and when one's online, another one isn't. Yes, I know you all have lives outside of here, but unfortunately, sometimes staff on a forum requires more active moderation. I know you guys are trying your hardest with the time you have and the options given to you, but I think there's the need for some sort of an extra boost for both morale and recruitment.

It turns out my messaging system hasn't been enabled yet on these boards, probably a waiting period or something like that due to my registration a little less than 30 days ago. No problem, I can reply here: You're right in the sense that all the blame shouldn't be on the staff, because if there weren't members causing problems, this forum wouldn't have problems for the most part. But I have my reasoning for why the staff here needs a re-evaluation. For one thing, I think whoever owns this site isn't on nearly enough as they should be given the traffic this place was once getting and should still be getting. I have yet to encounter one of the administrators more than once on this site. I've also noticed that there's a good amount of "censoring" and "threatening" on this forum, something that is just going to drive traffic away. The point of a forum is to discuss things that are relevant to the topic and the board. But what I've noticed is that many people are just going to places like Facebook or other boards because they're afraid of retailiation here, being censored, or needless drama. I was in the chatbox here about two weeks ago, mostly idling because I was getting some other stuff done, and some users were talking about something from the boards here. Cait Sith came in, chatted something along the lines of "stop talking about such and such, I'm not in the mood" (obviously, i'm paraphrasing here because I don't remember the topic) and suddenly the discussion got quiet, nothing was said, and users slowly left the chatbox over the next hour. Now, I haven't been here long enough to really see the demographics and the type of community that's on this forum, but it seems that its mostly those who have been here a while and are used to drama and the staff, while new members and those who haven't been here as long seem to be dying down with the postings. I don't think its boredom, I think it's that there are communities out there that are a bit more "welcoming" than what I've seen here recently. After what you mentioned above, I was going through the off-topic section and saw four consecutively locked threads on the first page. I decided to go through these and saw, a social experiment supposedly drawn up by a long time member here who then posted an exit letter in the next thread, and an argument between what looks like a member and a former staff member who either left the staff or got let go of the staff, and then a whole argument ensued. This has to be the first transit forum I've been on that this has happened to the extent of paragraphs that were written there. If that had to happen, then that just helps prove my point for a re-evaluation of staff. That's why I made that suggestion. I don't think the staff have too much on their plate now because discussions have been dying down as far as I can see. What good is new blood to this forum going to do if they don't post or take part in the community? They're just another name on the members list then. What I think the problem is or from what I've noticed, is that the staff on here just have a reputation of not dealing with some things fairly and it ends up hurting more of the community than just those involved. I think there's one staff member on here who could probably retire because it seems like they're taking this site a bit too seriously, but without naming names, I will just wait to message the owner (I assume that's Harry given your reference above). Whoever has left the forum has left for their own reasons, I agree with you, but that doesn't mean the staff has to necessarily "give up." I would like to see, maybe, a redesign of this site, a re-evaulation of the staff, and anything else that could really signify change. That's what I think would help this place. You know, I see an 8,000 member count every time I visit this site, but I don't see the 8,000 members, or even half of that. Also, if my messaging system was working, I probably wouldn't have posted here because I too am trying to keep this on topic with NICE.

Then I think the staff on here should be re-evaluated. Those who aren't active enough to help out should either retire or relinquish some responsiblities, and those who can donate more time to the site and are willing to help out should be recruited. I've been thinking about inviting some people to this site or advertising it a bit, but what would be an 8,000 member discussion board just isn't there for it to be worth their time when there are forums with less people, but more active discussions. You just had to suspend two people for something that was slowly going on for what looks like weeks if you follow back, and that's probably turned a lot of people off from posting here. Too much drama, and nobody has control over it. Take it from someone who has been an administrator and a moderator on several sites, the staff needs a revamp. I'm going to shoot a message over to the adminstrators of this site (I assume one is the owner) and see what they say.