[Fwd: Re: [wp-forums] Sigs on WP support posts]

[Murray at PlanetThoughtful]

And one final thing, before I go to the land of sleep, and hopefully 
wake up a well-adjusted person tomorrow (didn't happen today or 
yesterday, so I'm not holding my breath).

This is what you're discouraging:

http://wordpress.org/support/topic/60239?replies=4

*shrug* There's a saying about cutting your nose off to spite your face. 
It may be worth thinking about.

Much warmth,

Murray (aka planetthoughtful)

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Re: [wp-forums] Sigs on WP support posts
Date: 	Thu, 09 Feb 2006 01:10:20 +1000
From: 	Murray @ PlanetThoughtful <planetthoughtful at gmail.com>
Reply-To: 	wp-forums at lists.automattic.com
To: 	wp-forums at lists.automattic.com
References: 	<43E9F75F.6050201 at planetthoughtful.org> 
<43E9FE64.9040708 at tamba2.org.uk>



In all fairness, Podz, you are *a* subject. I'd be another one, and so 
would the WP forum adminstration approach to moderating.

To rejoind: links in the body of a post *are* possible to police? What, 
exactly, makes them more policeable? You have an entire forum subsection 
where people post links to their blogs.

I also think there's a disservice being done to the general support user 
base. Most people happily police their own link-clicking. If they don't, 
then every other forum site out on the net must be a wilderness and 
chaos of people spontaneously combusting after clicking on links. If 
someone clicks on a link in my sig it's probably because I've helped, 
they're interested in whoever it is that took the time to think about 
their problem, and they want to find out more. Ultimately, does this 
unofficial 'death to the sigs' policy exist because some individuals on 
the moderation team don't like sigs? Has anyone asked the *user base* 
what they think? Maybe you'd be pleasantly surprised. Maybe not.

Either way, if you are going to moderate posts then, for the sake of 
others, make it known before hand that this is an eventuality. This is 
only courtesy, particularly if you're combating an evil that isn't evil 
elsewhere. In fact, most forum software encourages the use of sigs.

So, put a sticky up which reads, "Yes, we know you put a sig on every 
email you send, we know you're used to PHPbb, FUDForum, vbBulletin, 
Invision Powerboard, etc, we know you're used to providing hours of 
support in email forums (with sigs), but we. don't. like. sigs." Or 
*something* to let people know that censorship awaits.

Had it existed, I would have read it. I would have been better prepared 
to make a decision as to whether or not I agreed with that as a policy, 
and whether or not to contribute as a result. I probably would have also 
thought, "You know, I wonder if anyone ever asked the users?"

And one last suggestion. If policing is important (and I agree that it 
is), please give some thought to implementing a 'Report this post' link 
so that, again, the user base can contribute to the effort. I'm sure 
that would be a great help in the process, since there's many, many more 
of them.

Forgive if this email lacks grace. It's 1 in the morning, and I should 
be in bed.

Much warmth,

Murray (aka planetthoughtful)

On 9/02/2006 12:21 AM, Podz wrote:
> Given I'm the subject, this is my one post on this topic:
>
> Sigs are impossible to police. There are forum helpers who have blogs
> that are NSFW. There are forum helpers who have sites with many ads on.
> Helpers who seek to use affiliate links. Unless we allow it to descend
> into a complete free-for-all (which is what it would be) then it needs a
> standard.
>
> I _like_ the fact that our forums are free of signatures. It means that
> users see help and only help. If every user used a 4 line sig then a 30
> post page would double in length. Does not assist.
>
> My pages. The majority are in Codex. I link to those simply because I
> know their url better and I happen to think my pages are better laid out
> (but then I would). The fact the others are not is of little
> consequence. I also recommend other sites, not just mine. And I also do
> not drop links to my site(s) into every post I make. Only when it is
> appropriate and even then it's a direct link to a help page 99% of the time.
>
> If we have 'no sigs and no links to any personal sites' then what ?
>
> The forums MUST be set up in a way that benefits users long-term and I
> honestly do not see sigs as the way to do this.
>
> P.
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> wp-forums mailing list
> wp-forums at lists.automattic.com
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>
>
>   

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