Charter Revision - User Input Required

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Hi Rugby Forum Users!

The Moderators, C-Mods and Admins would like start a consultation process on the drafting and implementation of a new charter for the Rugby Forum.

Obviously, no forum is really worthwhile without it's users, and your input is important here. We are looking to you for ideas and things that need to be in this new charter.

Some rules before we go on.

This is not to be used as an attack on the current moderator team. There is a small element of trust here, if you abuse that you will be banned. It will not be a short ban.

We are restricting it to ONE USER ONE POST, to avoid a flame war.

DO NOT QUOTE a previous post.

So give us your thoughts, let's have your ideas, we'll leave this thread open for a week or so and then come up with a new charter.

If you think nothing needs changing, fine.

Oh, lastly, we know stuff like "no porn", "no spam" need to be in the charter, so if you could keep it to "Rugby Forum Relevant" stuff that would be cool.

As the thread grows, we'll pop in and out to give our opinions on different points made. If we don't address something on this thread, don't worry. ALL ideas will be discussed among the Mod/CMod/Admin team.

So, have at it.

thomond2006

1. If you have nothing to contribute, don't post.

2. Accept other points of view.

3. Avoid long and petty arguments with other users.

4. Keep provincial BS to a minimum. This always results in threads going off topic.

5. Avoid unnecessary player abuse, X is "sh1te" etc... Try to be positive where possible. If you must criticise players, let it be fair.

Sangre

My suggestions for maintaining the forum as it is are:

• I think the number of infractions required for a ban should be reduced.
  
• You shouldn't be allowed to collapse a thread with off topic posts.

Junior

I'd like to see a thread stay open for longer, with more moderation - I know this isn't sometimes possible as in it needs someone sitting on the thread, but some good discussion gets lost in the white noise.

laugh

No long rugby league chit-chats or rugby league related sickies, they are seperate sports, there is no rugby sticky in the soccer forum.

Zzippy

Current mods are doing a great job, just need more support from users reporting posts.

Posters hijacking threads to propagate provincial bias e.g. ROG is better than Sexton, etc, without giving valid reasons, should be banned for 1 week, minimum. Will cut down on that sh1te.

One thread per province to discuss team news/transfer news/gossip.

One thread per match to discuss team selections/tactics/gossip/etc

chupacabra

Zzippy wrote: »

One thread per province to discuss team news/transfer news/gossip.

I like this idea, much like the soccer forum its easier to keep track of team news when its all in one thread. No need for the endless number of threads we get for every bit of news. It would certainly clean up a lot of the clutter here at the moment.

siltirocker

Infractions and/or bans instead of having to lock the threads or having to ban certain topics/debates within the thread.

Also i think us Leinster fans shouldn't be allowed use this ---> :rolleyes: <--- smiley. The grief on this forum caused from that face. haha .

Thank for revising folks.

Robbo

An extension of the Provincial Internecine Wars policy to go beyond Blue/Red disputes.

There are those of us without hundreds of thousands of a PR budget that could do without being patronised within an inch of our lives by those who think that rugby was invented in 2001 by George Hook & Heineken to fill the RTE Saturday evening schedule...

Oh and +1 for general province threads. Be it a Troy Nathan/Karma thread, what you saw in the bookies or what pattern Johnny Sexton is lacing his boots, keep it all in one place.

Match threads are individually sacrosanct.

murphym7

Its nice to be nice. I would prefer if certain posters would calm down a small bit and not jump on any poster that:

A). Makes a mistake with their facts
. Has a point of view that differs from there own

Sometimes it feels that certain posters are like coiled springs waiting for their chance to pounce on another posters comments. And please keep the smartass stuff out and sarcasim to a minimum. Posters need to understand that not everyone on here is a rugby anarak and there is definelty a snobbery element on here. ie I remeber watching Ireland in 1986 against Wales and I know everything about rugby, you don't know half as much as me, bow down to my rugby greatness!! a bit extreme I know but you get the idea.

I don't care when you started taking an interest in rugby, more the better please.

anonymous_joe

Criticism should not be taken as an all out attack. This is a forum for discussion after all.

Stev_o

How about inforcing discussion? There are still several examples of people post replies that go on the lines of,

"That's awful :rolleyes:"

" What are you thinking :rolleyes:"

Last time i checked this forum is supposed to be used for discussing rugby matters, two word answers are hardly a form of discussion.

dreamer_ire

I really like the idea of the Provincial threads. I'd also suggest having a minimum limit on the number of words/characters per post.... hopefully this should cut out the one-liners that people post which are often only scarcastic. Also maybe limit the number of posts per user in each thread (bar the Provincial ones) which might stop some of the relentless over and back arguements we see at times.

I think the rugby mods do a great job. I do think they need support and maybe questioning mod decisions, outside of PMs and the Help Desk forum, should probably carry a harsher ban. I also think that we all need to help out the mods by reporting inflamatory posts. Perhaps if we had to sign up to the charter/apply for membership of the Forum, similar to the Soccer Forum, this night also help. I wouldn't however want this to limit the number of posters, as I agree the more the merrier.

Teferi

I do realise I'm not a frequent poster here, but I am a regular lurker.

Probably not something that could be put in the charter (perhaps feeds into Reds/Blues argument) but something that annoys me in threads (especially the Irish team threads) are qualifiers like "As a Munster supporter I don't like it but Sexton deserves his shot" (I'm just using this one as an example - I have seen L/U/C supporters do it too). The Irish team quite clearly goes beyond borders of province and I'd rather see the best player for the position regardless of my province preference.

[Jackass]

For the most part I think the forum is well run and is well respected by users. The mods are fair and I've gotten hot headed or stupid in the past and been given a scoulding and can never say it wasn't fair enough. I think possible improvements...I think Des & Ruggie tend to do this, and I'm sure the other mods do too, but when a very interesting or relevant thread has clearly gone to sh*t and has turned into a slagging match or whatever, they tend to lock it, hand out infractions on review of the thread, delete all the crap and then re-open the thread allowing it to continue....this imo is ideal for the forum, but only problem is that this probably involves a lot of work for the mods...but I think if it's a good discussion and warrents a thread, I like seeing it when the discussion is facilitated in this way. However feasable it is to apply this regularly if a thread goes off topic I don't know, as like everyone else on here, the mods can't be around 24 / 7 and I'm sure they make bigger plans with their evenings than cleaning up a load of crap in threads, but where possible I think this is a great way to deal with that kind of thing.

Also I think a provincence / team dedicated thread would be good if a mod started it setting out guidelines in the first post...maybe along the lines of this being based around a teams previous matches, fixtures, performances, etc. etc. but no extended conversation / comparrisons should be made between teams and basically keep it to discussion about the team that the thread is for as much as possible (obviously if talking about Magners League, Heineken Cup seedings, draw etc. and upcoming fixtures or previous fixtures, it's difficult to avoid mention of Munster in a Leinster thread and vice versa, as they play in the same competitions and tend to be at the business end of both and have some pretty big games past and future between them..)

Maybe one final thought could be a "banter" thread, where slagging off and messing about is allowed, again, started by a mod with guidelines, no player abuse etc., but just a bit of slagging and messing allowed go on and confined to this thread only, which may help clean up other threads??

My €0.02.

danthefan

I've been warned a few times so probably not in a position to be saying how the board should be run but I think the mods do a good (and thankless) job, not a huge amount has to change really imo.

Spore

Semi serious post here:

Rather than the usual warnings, repeated warnings followed by the inevitable infractions, 98% of which comes from Provincial sniping (such an Irish trait btw). Consider the creation of a thunderdome thread / subforum where aggrieved parties would be forceably moved to, so said parties could snipe, bitch, and argue till their heart's content.

After long, time-consuming and ultimately pointless flamewars, said parties will ultimately realise the futility of their myopic provincialism, thus discovering a new found well of respect for their fellow poster and will then be in the position to return to the greater rugby forum fraternity with a fresh, possibly hippish, brotherhood-of-man mentality, replete with tolerance and equanimity...

What sayeth thou?

twinytwo

a sticky for the awesomeness of brian o driscoll... gona neede one after he wins player of the year

fullstop

too much noise not enough signal.

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Bump

C'mon folks, I expected a bigger response tbh.

The length of the feedback threads, and number of Helpdesk threads would suggest that a lot more of you have ideas on this.

We will be writing the new charter soon, and then sticking it up, so if you don't contribute here you can't really complain about it.

We want your input to this.

gcgirl

I'm all for the rugby thunderdone where what's said stays there kind off thing!! I'post the song but I'm using me iTouch the catholic version (not)

Aidric

Des wrote: »

We want your input to this.

That's all well and good Des but the reason the input is so low, I'd imagine, is because there is a sizeable number of posters who think it will make zip difference.
For example people who go against popular opinion on the forum will be accused of continuous trolling, have their posts infracted/deleted, get banned etc etc
Spore's suggestion of a thunderdome thread for heated argument isn't a bad one tbh.

danthefan

In fact I think the Thunderdome is a great idea. The board has a habit of recurring/heated arguments, let them all happen in there. Obviously there'd be rules like no personal attacks (on posters or players) etc, as long as it's kept relatively civil just let it go. If you don't want to participate, just avoid the thread. It would keep that kinda stuff off other threads.

Otacon

Are people that immature and inarticulate that they need to insult a player or fellow poster? Really? That depresses me slightly.

Stev_o

I would disagree on the whole Thunderdrome thread mainly because it will never work. During the Lions series when ROG made two massive errors a thread was started in Rant&Raving about him with posters from all over boards calling x y and z, meanwhile in the rugby forum people (including posters who had posted R&R thread) were poster the exact same crap about him. A ranting thread will give this forum a bad look and feel.

yimrsg

Completely agree with the thunderdome/subforum/rage thread would hopefully stop many a vented spleen and would (hopefully) confine it.

Finally, one sentence replies with smilies should result in bans :mad:

I was being ironic and honest and only used a single smilie.

seeing_ie

Any restrictions on posting links to rugby-related sites with match streams or torrents should be removed.

It was a big deal for me to be able to watch worldwide matches outside work hours, and I know there's loads of members on the forum who'd love this.

imo.

need assistance

The provincial fights are getting tired, Munster and Leinster Supporters mainly being overly defensive of their own and sneering the opposition, perhaps an icon they can click on to redirected them to munsterfans.com and leinsterfans where they can rabble rouse to their hearts content.

The technical side of the game often gets overlooked here, people should be encouraged to post more about their own game, tactics in scrims etcetra. The So I took up rugby thread was enjoyable. Short of some supporters growing thicker skins it is hard to know what can be done to make this place more pleasant, some here could even teach PdV about making spurious rabid arguements to derail the topics

need assistance

need assistance wrote: »

The provincial fights are getting tired, Munster and Leinster Supporters mainly being overly defensive of their own and sneering the opposition, perhaps an icon they can click on to redirected them to munsterfans.com and leinsterfans where they can rabble rouse to their hearts content.

The technical side of the game often gets overlooked here, people should be encouraged to post more about their own game, tactics in scrims etcetra. The So I took up rugby thread was enjoyable. Short of some supporters growing thicker skins it is hard to know what can be done to make this place more pleasant, some here could even teach PdV about making spurious rabid arguements to derail the topics

The provincial fights are always going to come up regardless.
They should be embraced because its not going to go away.

Create some sort of thunderdome thread for such cases.

Cool_CM

Why have a thread in the forum which doesn´t adhere to the charter?

A banter thread would be a good idea, but as evident from the past, people can take comments to heart, purely because they deem them to be negative towards their Province. It even comes up in threads where it shouldn´t come up at all. Obviously as Goose just mentioned, it is not something that it just going to go away, but it is also true that these kinds of discussions can ruin a good thread and bring it down to gutter level. I agree that there should be a place for people to banter and argue about provinces to their hearts content, but I certainly don´t think that we should merely brush everything into one thread, which would inevitably turn into chaos.

I think it would be a good idea to form a Social Group for it. Whilst not being part of the forum, it could maybe be linked to in the charter as a place where people can have the heated discussions and arguments that they want, without effecting the forum itself. It is also more advantageous than simply making a thread in in R&R or The Thunderdome, which could be hijacked by people who have no interest in the sport.

Other than this, I think that the mods are doing a good job with the forum and it is certainly doing a lot better than it was few months ago.

toomevara

[Final] Bump.

OK folks, last call for alcohol. Leaving this open 'til Sunday Midnight, after which time it will be closed and we'll start writing the revised charter.

Would really appreciate some more input, not necessarily discussion of ideas already mooted. So if you've any interest in the future direction of the forum make your contribution now.

shanagarry

I'm more of a lurker as well, but my additions:

- Everyone point made must be backed up e.g. 'Sexton should play because he's better.' isn't acceptable, 'Sexton should play because he's a better place kicker.' is acceptable

- A less condescending attitude towards those who may not have an indepth knowledge of the game/never played. It doesn't make someone any less of a fan. People should feel comfortable asking what might be considered basic questions by some without fear of ridicule.

Ulster1999

I've been reading over the last few months threads and have some suggestions.

[1] More Mod warnings - Rather than closing a thread or banning a user when he steps over the line I think mods should interject to steer the discussion back on track. By this I mean not simply saying ''X user don't post again in this thread' as this would stiffle discussion but rather something like ''X explain your reasons for your opinion or don't bother posting'' There would be a lot less bickering if posters explained their reasoning rather than saying ''Y is nowhere near international standard.''

[2] How many decent threads have been ruined because the first response was something along the lines of '' :rolleyes: Leinster v Munster thread'' Whether a thread is intentionally antagonistic should be up to the mods. Anyone who even hints that the thread has an ulterior motive should be banned for back seat modding. When a thread starts along those lines it won't end well.

[3] Leinster and Munster users - Need to stop being so sensitive. If a thread is about a Leinster player don't bring a Munster player into it to counter that argument and vice versa.

[4] An off topic sticky thread - Seems to be a lot of venom amongst certain users maybe if they got to know each other outside of rugby debate there might be more respect and understanding?

[5] Can we please do something about the cheeky responses? The one liners and sarcastic ones. This forum just seems so bitter at times.

[6] A sub forum called ''The Rugby Battle Forum'' where users can make threads such as ROG v Sexton , Leinster v Munster, McCaw v O'Driscoll, Who has the best academy, etc.
Stops repetitive bickering clogging up the main forum and would allow users to vent their arguments without annoying other users who simply want to read a match thread and not have to read pages and pages of why ROG is better/worse than Sexton

[7] Is Justind apart of the IRFU set up? Maybe a sticky thread where people can ask him questions and he can answer them to settle any rumours. It would also give users more insight to the reality of the Irish team and stop people posting about rumoured rifts/problems and general speculation

toomevara

A big thank you to all who contributed constructively to this thread. Some excellent suggestions and we will take all on board when writing the new charter.

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Just a quick bump on this to keep you all in the loop, as Rugby Forum Users.

We are currently discussing the new charter, and all points raised in this thread. It will take more time.

Remember, if you have any comments to make you can always PM one of the Mods.

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Hi folks, another update for you.

We are coming to the end of the process, and we have a new charter written, we are just cleaning up some of the finer points and tying off loose ends.

It should be published in the next couple of days.

I'd appreciate if everyone could read it once it does go live, as there are substantial changes to how the forum will be run contained in it.

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Hi everyone,

This is the last update in this thread.


We have a new charter ready to go, it will launch tomorrow, Monday 21st in the AM (I'm hoping around the 9ish mark or so).

We have taken all ideas and given them serious consideration, some are in the charter, some aren't.

When the new charter is posted it will be in effect immediately.

We will be opening a Q&A Thread to address any concers you may wish to bring up, or things you want clarified.