New Forum Feature Request

[PheebyKatz]

I would like to request an added forum feature. Mark Forums Read-Only. I believe this would assist the entire moderation team greatly, by reducing the number of new posts to 0 within seconds of its deployment.

It would reduce the likelihood of persons seeking knowledge in the Knowledge forums from having to scroll past all of the endless repeats made in order to find relevant threads. It would also allow new members to have a clear shot at actual meaningful content from helpful users who once offered assistance in helping people learn about Second Life and do things inworld, back when there were more than two users who did so.

Additionally, the Read-Only feature would pry many of the scale-like growths off of the forums which have accumulated there, distracting Residents from ever actually engaging in inworld activities by diverting them to pretend it's all Facebook instead.

I would be willing to stop blowing up n00bs on my home sim for at least a week if you will add this feature. I will also make each of you a teddy bear that looks nothing like me, so nobody will ever have to find out who you got it from. This is something you guys don't see every day, and you know you want one.

If it doesn't ever happen, well, at least I tried, I know you guys already have a lot of projects, and the forum software probably doesn't even include a Mark Forums Read-Only module, but perhaps if it's available in the future, we can see it here?

And sorry if this is in the wrong section, I tried searching for this in all of the other forum sections but found nothing.

[Rolig Loon]

The idea is mildly attractive, but I'm not sure I understand exactly.  Who's doing the marking? I mean, the moderators already have a way of making threads Read Only.  It's called Locking. I don't think I'd want most people in the forums to have that power.

[Alwin Alcott]

1 hour ago, PheebyKatz said:

 

Additionally, the Read-Only feature would pry many of the scale-like growths off of the forums which have accumulated there, distracting Residents from ever actually engaging in inworld activities by diverting them to pretend it's all Facebook instead.

 

i'm here because i want that, i don't need to be controlled to go inworld.
 

[Rowan Amore]

Then it wouldn't actually be a forum.  

Forum...a place, meeting, or medium where ideas and views on a particular issue can be exchanged:

a website or web page where users can post comments about a particular issue or topic and reply to other users' postings.

[PheebyKatz]

Yes, I realize people like hanging out on the forums, and yeah, I realize they're for actual discussions, and yeah, I know they have a read-only button for the mods. They will probably use it on this thread soon, in fact, at least once everyone realizes I wasn't serious in suggesting such an insane feature be added for everyone's use. I wouldn't really mark the forums read-only if I could.

It's just that every time I see the "Mark Forums Read" link, I can't help but wonder how cool it would be if there was some sort of feature that would A) stop the relentless spamming of help sections by people who ask the same stuff that's been solved already, B) allow new users a chance to learn about SL itself without coming away with the impression that it's ALL just a bunch of arrogant elitists who bully new people into never wanting to come here again, and C) wasn't just people sitting around bored, complaining about how empty SL is, while they themselves are sitting in the forums instead of actively trying to make inworld fun happen.

Someone asks if anyone would like to be their friend and here comes the unwelcome wagon to pick them apart and argue them out of existence.

Someone has issues with editing a prim, and the thread becomes twenty pages of people arguing over what their preferred 3rd-party viewer is when they probably haven't even been inworld in over a month. People enter threads with topics they have no real interest in, just to insult those who make the threads, because they're bored, because their SL isn't engaging enough, because they made it that way.

It's like two completely different worlds exist. The actual SL and the one everyone talks about on the forums. I see every complaint about SL and realize that most of that stuff is in the Resident's heads, or in their attitudes, and has nothing whatsoever to do with the digital world I inhabit every day, live, work, and play in.

This is my commentary on the forums. This is me feeding back what I get here. I wish there was a feature that cut the bulldooky away and made it a better experience for people like you, Rolig, Alwin, and Rowan. And for me. And for anyone else who actually likes Second Life and likes having a place where people can learn and help others learn and meet each other and share Second Life as a common interest.

 

Edited November 21, 2022 by PheebyKatz

[Rolig Loon]

1 hour ago, PheebyKatz said:

This is me feeding back what I get here. I wish there was a feature that cut the bulldooky away and made it a better experience for people like you, Rolig, Alwin, and Rowan. And for me. And for anyone else who actually likes Second Life and likes having a place where people can learn and help others learn and meet each other and share Second Life as a common interest.

You've nailed a lot of the things that bug me too. I guess I just usually don't let them get under my skin. 

There is a feature.  It's called selective participation. You pick and choose where to join forum conversations and you enter them on your own terms. You talk about what you perceive and how you feel, not about how you think other people ought to behave.  You tell yourself not to get tricked into saying things that might make you feel smugly satisfied for the moment but you'll regret later. And you try not to take all those little annoying things too seriously.

You can make any part of the forums read-only by simply deciding which parts you care to read. What someone else chooses to read is their business.

[PheebyKatz]

I love you Rolig, you're one of the few people here that I'd recommend as a mentor if they still did the mentorship thing.

I don't think anyone even realizes just how incredibly much you give to this community.

I hereby change my forum feature request to adding a feature that makes more people like Rolig Loon.