Real Transit

You can change the staff & the same core memberbase would still be here replying to the same old posts on here.... I'm not buying that a change in staff would all of a sudden, get things back to the way things used to be (it seems like that's what you are implicating).... The damage has been done, those who have left, have left, for whatever their reasons.... I'm also not buying that there's these other welcoming (transit) communities out here; there really aren't that many to choose from these days.... Now if you're saying people are going over to non-transit based forums, well quite frankly that's a different issue, as I don't expect people here to strictly post on transit forums..... Hell, there was one person on here about a month or so ago that more or less stated that he's done w/ transit boards, and is resorting to move onto other endeavors.... Which I think is slowly gonna start happening anyway, and not just on this transit forum either.....

 

What good is new blood to this forum? It'll do the same good to this forum like it would do to any other forum....

I'm talking about new blood that would take part in discussions obviously, not people that would just sign up for the f*** of it.....

 

A forum redesign could make or break a forum.... Again I refer back to rider diaries (straphangers) as an example - I remember quite vividly when the admins there decided to change the overall layout of the forums, and there were quite a bit of members that bitched about it - some even going the lengths in professing that they're gonna leave the site because of the new layout (and that did end up happening btw).... I personally don't think a site redesign would make a difference.....

 

Although there are the same people more or less posting/replying to posts, I'm not going to harp over the total amount of members of this forum, because that's never indicative of how many people are active on said forum anyway.... Quite frankly, I didn't even know (or cared) that there are 8k members that have registered on this forum since the forum's commencement..... In 7 years time, one would think there'd be more than that....

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.

To make it short, when someone(Brett) starts bashing the staff for literally no reason/because he got the boot(which has been one of the big reasons lately and which he's been doing non-stop since he got booted), that's when I go on the offensive. I forgot what the situation was, but it was either myself or one of the admins that handled a situation and he(since he got kicked) kept bashing the staff knowing that we all have shit to do in our own lives.

 

Not gonna bother quoting the other posts since their rather huge. But I too have been an administrator and site admin for other places(not transit related) and I know how it is. A re-evaluation of staff won't change much(it's happened, and things have gone wrong) and we've had folks that have evidently abused their privileges and power for their own sake and some folks on here can attest to that. The reason the staff is the way it is now is because of trust and the same reason mentioned. For every time changes are made, some shit happens. And there's no way one can say "oh well you should do that more carefully" because this is the internet, personalities change when they have a little stroke of power and then shit hits the fan.

 

We can always try to get new faces on the staff, but there's always those that have quite a lot on their own plate with school/college, work and so on and so forth. You're basing that aspect on the idea that everyone on here has a lot of free time, which isn't the case.

 

What intrigues me is that you're putting quite a lot of blame on the staff, but not any towards members. It's a two way street and there's always a cause and effect. Yes, we've had people leave this place, what place hasn't? If you look at other boards like the one B35 mentioned for example, that place has been pretty dead and the moderation is non-existent. That place used to thrive....not anymore. Will this board go that way? I personally don't see that happening. I also read a tidbit of you saying that one of the staff members should retire for taking this place and the position seriously(a subliminal pretty obviously aimed at me), well, let me ask you this. What happens when you don't take it seriously and you just let things go haywire? We'd end up going the way of Riders Diaries, a forum that's legitimately dead when several years ago, had a pretty active member base. Hell, I was a member on there before I joined here(I was majinvegeta810 on there, and now that I look back on my own posts...good god I was such a noob lol).

 

When you look at all of the NY based forums(which there isn't much to begin with outside of simulation forums), there's hardly any kind of moderation which leads to even more people leaving. At least with this place, while the ship is not tight, things get handled, maybe not immediately, but things get done. We're not Subchat, where there's a constant flame war and no moderation every day, and we're not riders diaries. I can't speak for other places since I haven't checked them out, but those two are the more notable ones I can mention. This place isn't perfect by any means and I can take the blame for some of those reasons, but we try our best to do what we can do for the folks on here.

 

-sidenote-

 

I think you need 15 or 30 posts to have your PMs activated, it's set like that so people don't abuse the system. We've had quite a lot of trolls that abused it to troll other members on here.

 

With that said, lets try and bring this topic back on NICE.

 

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:

I honestly believe it's the same shit from the same people that's causing folks to diminish their posting activity here, or outright leaving this place.... For starters, get rid of all of the troublemakers, and you don't have this problem.... We also don't have many thread starters/threads being started here, sparking new discussion.... I've said this to a few other folks on here not too long ago about there being a lax vibe about the place, regarding posting in (what I call) the "mega" threads, thread with well over 200 pages of posts in em (the "random thoughts" threads of sections)..... This tells me that folks still want to be a part of NYCTF, but are just.... Bored (with what's going on here).....

 

I can't put this all, or even most of it, on staff.... Members gotta step up their game too.

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.

I don't necessarily think there needs to be a re-evaluation/revamping of the staff (as people).... This isn't Straphangers/Rider Diaries (for example, where you had mods not signing on for months [literally])....

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 simply think (and always thought) that current staff has too much on its plate.....When I ran forums, I didn't mind having specific people running a particular area of the forum.... With the way Harry has it set up, all the mods are basically what you'd call S-mods (global mods).... I personally never been a fan of them, for a very reason you mention....

 

Trust-worthiness does become an issue, because you do have immature power hungry nuts out here (in the community I used to be a part of [outside of this transit one], there were a plethora of them, for obvious reasons).... So I can understand why Harry might not be as quick to appoint any ole body as staff.....

 

What this forum could benefit from, is new blood.... I notice when Erica ("E for Erica") came here, there was a bit of an uptick in overall posting activity (compared to the timeframe just before she became a member).... May have been the *oh, it's a girl* factor, in the existence of what is a sausage-fest here otherwise (lol), but she's not a ditz either - she actually knows quite a bit about this hobby (or w/e you wanna call it), which really helps..... So yeah, How this site can attract new blood, that I simply don't know..... But I wouldn't cry over spilled milk (as the saying goes); I've never been one for persuading people to do anything anyway; coming back to something they were once a part of -- So let the folks that have left the forum, continue forward with whatever endeavors they're delving in.....

 

And with that said, can a mod move this exchange to another part of the forum....

Don't need it floating within the NICE section of the forum....

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.

With the notable fact that everyone has lives to live, jobs to go to and such. We can't always be around 24/7 to check things out. But I do understand what you're saying.

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.