Discuss new ownership of ABXzone.com

[Ozzie]

...as you can see sanjay, our membership is very willing to express their thoughts and concerns. It's one of the foundations of our forums.
They are also very active in reporting flames and trolling which is a tremendous help for moderation.

Much of the membership is made up of professional people and some do visit from work environments which is partially why you are seeing concerns.
It admittedly took quite the nosedive after what has already been mentioned, but there certainly is room to bring it back as long as care is given doing so.
Seeing that you are trying to be receptive is a very good thing...

[SupDawg]

Good luck Sanjay - I respect your attitude toward the situation. And I agree with you about change. Might as well embrace it - it will come whether you do or not!

So - I guess this site was purchased to add a tech portion to your family of sites? Like perhaps diversifying your forum portfolio?

[sanjay]

Originally Posted by Ozzie

...as you can see sanjay, our membership is very willing to express their thoughts and concerns. It's one of the foundations of our forums.
They are also very active in reporting flames and trolling which is a tremendous help for moderation.

Much of the membership is made up of professional people and some do visit from work environments which is partially why you are seeing concerns.
It admittedly took quite the nosedive after what has already been mentioned, but there certainly is room to bring it back as long as care is given doing so.
Seeing that you are trying to be receptive is a very good thing...

thx ozzie-

Let me make it clear, I have no intention of turning this forum into a non-work safe forum. There is absolutely no reason to buy ABXzone to turn it into an off-topic forum- completely illogical to even think so. Especially when genmay is one of the world's busiest off-topic forums. The goal is to have a safe-haven for our members who want to geek out.

Also, none of our forums have warez or any illegal activities. All of our forums are moderated to instantly shut down nudity and nastiness since we have a good percentage of under 18 members.

[sanjay]

Originally Posted by SupDawg

Good luck Sanjay - I respect your attitude toward the situation. And I agree with you about change. Might as well embrace it - it will come whether you do or not!

So - I guess this site was purchased to add a tech portion to your family of sites? Like perhaps diversifying your forum portfolio?

winnar!

Behind the scenes I am working on www.crowdgather.com which will be a new way of searching across multiple forums and user profiles...without disrupting the existing look and feel of the communities. I have been trying to buy forums, but so many of them are dead or just plain suck. I like this one for technology. I am still looking for women's oriented forums, urban exploration, art and imaging, and a few more categories...

[Kipperfillets]

The only way is up! all round.

[pointreyes]

Originally Posted by sanjay

I am still looking for women's oriented forums, ...

Make sure to stay away from forums with the name Oprah attached to them.

[SupDawg]

Originally Posted by sanjay

winnar!

Behind the scenes I am working on www.crowdgather.com which will be a new way of searching across multiple forums and user profiles...without disrupting the existing look and feel of the communities. I have been trying to buy forums, but so many of them are dead or just plain suck. I like this one for technology. I am still looking for women's oriented forums, urban exploration, art and imaging, and a few more categories...

Sounds exciting. Are you writing the code from scratch to accomplish this?

[SpeedDMN]

Originally Posted by sanjay

Hey SpeedDMN- thanks for your willingness to wait and see. As I mentioned before, most of the members of my other community came from Hardforums.com and we miss the tech association.

As for the mods- I have not made a single change to any of their permissions, nor do I intend to. I have had interaction with some of them in other threads (some in the mod forum). I also have no new mods I have in mind.

I like this place- I would not have spend the rich sum I did if I did not like it since there are no revenues I could use to calculate value.

Here are my BIG agenda items:

new default skin (this one will remain as an option, but it is a bit too sleepy IMO)

reordering of the subforums to stimulate posting

maybe consolidating some really dead, unsupported forums

I appreciate the quick answers. Glad we are keeping our mods (as I imagine are they) As for a new skin, sounds good to me. I like new skins as my Vista usage would indicate I look forward to the progression of the forum

[Gorganzola]

Originally Posted by pointreyes

Make sure to stay away from forums with the name Oprah attached to them.

[Cogar]

Originally Posted by sanjay

What happened? Why are so many of you so negative? I feel like I am missing some history here...

Here is an answer in two paragraphs. It is not chronologically perfect, but you will get the idea--plus, any of the old-timers can add some gory details. Incidentally, I do believe it is something we should leave behind, but you also deserve an answer to your question. Many of the threads discussing the problems we were undergoing at the time have been removed, and the members who had the audacity to complain have been banned. (Although most of them have been "un-banned" after the last purge and setting up Ozzie as admin, chances are that most will not be back.)

So, what were the issues? We originally had a lot of off-topic threads, such as the infamous "testing. don't read." thread, which were heavily discouraged, even though our motto was "Supporting Computers and Building Friendships." These threads amounted to a way for the tech types to kill some time while they waited for an interesting tech topic to come along. Although it is true that off-topic content ended up being about 2/3 of what was posted, the forum was very productive--we solved a lot of hardware and software problems for many people--fast. We also had a heated debates forum here (one that did not resemble the one we have now). It went away for a time and a number of members left. It "came back" as a separate site (HDXZone) and then was "lost." Yup, the "database disappeared" and CJ said everyone had to start over. This happened twice. About that time ABX implemented a reputation system that was heavily abused and created a lot of tension and flame wars. There were lots of bannings--many of them seemingly at random and some involving people with thousands of posts. To escape, a few extra "spin-off" forums were started by members and ex-members, but moderators from ABX showed up and if anyone said anything they didn't like, they were banned back at ABX. After the banning nonsense, the discouragement of off topic content, the reputation system, and the heated debates fiascos passed, active membership here became a few percent of what it was--and a few of us are a little wary of additional "beneficial changes."

[TQ]

Originally Posted by sanjay

What happened? Why are so many of you so negative? I feel like I am missing some history here...

Speed's just concerned that we don't devolve down to the level of, say, the Creative Labs forums (I don't mind naming names) or some of the other tech forums where a large number of troglodytes lower the level of discourse to the subterranean.

I think we'll be OK. You, Sanjay, have certainly impressed me so far.

[TQ]

Originally Posted by Cogar

So, what were the issues? We originally had a lot of off-topic threads, such as the infamous "testing. don't read." thread, which were heavily discouraged, even though our motto was "Supporting Computers and Building Friendships." These threads amounted to a way for the tech types to kill some time while they waited for an interesting tech topic to come along. Although it is true that off-topic content ended up being about 2/3 of what was posted, the forum was very productive--we solved a lot of hardware and software problems for many people--fast. We also had a heated debates forum here (one that did not resemble the one we have now). It went away for a time and a number of members left. It "came back" as a separate site (HDXZone) and then was "lost." Yup, the "database disappeared" and CJ said everyone had to start over. This happened twice. About that time ABX implemented a reputation system that was heavily abused and created a lot of tension and flame wars. There were lots of bannings--many of them seemingly at random and some involving people with thousands of posts. To escape, a few extra "spin-off" forums were started by members and ex-members, but moderators from ABX showed up and if anyone said anything they didn't like, they were banned back at ABX. After the banning nonsense, the discouragement of off topic content, the reputation system, and the heated debates fiascos passed, active membership here became a few percent of what it was--and a few of us are a little wary of additional "beneficial changes."

Wow. I missed all that. Nobody keeps me in the loop.

[territorian]

I was surprised too. Hope it all works out now. I think though many old members were too badly hurt by the things that happened for us to ever come back here like in the 'good old days'. I know I've settled in else and call that home now and just occassionally come back here for a quick visit.

[SpeedDMN]

Yeah thanks for that info Cogar. Must have been before my time though I have often heard "the dark ages" brought up in subtle whispers here and there, but never an elaboration. I always thought reputation meters were a bad idea. Someone with a low rep could still be right about a certain issue and vice versa. Not to mention the pointless bickering that ensues after someone thinks they have been slighted. I remember when I first joined here there wasn't even a post meter (which I do think there should be) I don't see anyone here posting nonsense to raise the post count. At least not intentionally

[JimTram]

Hey TQ - very well put. Articulation has never been one of my greatest attributes.

Originally Posted by TQ

Speed's just concerned that we don't devolve down to the level of, say, the Creative Labs forums (I don't mind naming names) or some of the other tech forums where a large number of troglodytes lower the level of discourse to the subterranean.

I think we'll be OK. You, Sanjay, have certainly impressed me so far.