Suggestions for VisaJourney

[Caladan 19]

I dunno, if there's a duplicate thread war going on in MENA, everyone seems to be ignoring it. And I don't think the existence of people pming other people is a good reason to close down regional boards, and I'm not sure how having more moderators would prevent people from PMing each other (seems likely to increase it, as when people feel henpecked they'll go to the messages.)

Moderating squabbles would be fine, but removing the board probably just means the squabbles move into off-topic. No thanks.

[Sofiyya 1,687]

I dunno, if there's a duplicate thread war going on in MENA, everyone seems to be ignoring it. And I don't think the existence of people pming other people is a good reason to close down regional boards, and I'm not sure how having more moderators would prevent people from PMing each other (seems likely to increase it, as when people feel henpecked they'll go to the messages.)

Moderating squabbles would be fine, but removing the board probably just means the squabbles move into off-topic. No thanks.

Please read my post well. I said NOTHING about closing down regional boards. Don't put words on my fingers that I didn't type.

[brnidokiegurl 0]

besides who would be the judge on whose telling the complete truth on this issue one never knows. There was a news story on last night a woman felt she was talking to a man online, romance started, turned out to be another woman. i'm with Green noooooooooo way

[matako 0]

Since most problems in this world are caused by women, having them in one board (containment) would make the board more productive.

[Caladan 19]

I dunno, if there's a duplicate thread war going on in MENA, everyone seems to be ignoring it. And I don't think the existence of people pming other people is a good reason to close down regional boards, and I'm not sure how having more moderators would prevent people from PMing each other (seems likely to increase it, as when people feel henpecked they'll go to the messages.)

Moderating squabbles would be fine, but removing the board probably just means the squabbles move into off-topic. No thanks.

Please read my post well. I said NOTHING about closing down regional boards. Don't put words on my fingers that I didn't type.

Mostly responding to Gupt (and before your edit). But moderation isn't going to make ME/NA nice. It may mean the nastier threads get locked faster (not a bad idea), but it's not going to stop people being nasty, or deciding to derail threads to snipe at each other, and ime having moderated other boards, a heavy hand just drives the nastiness where the mods can get to it (into avatars, signature lines, and into PMs), which only increases the cliquishness.

Extra moderation takes some of the work off of Ewok, but it's not going to make the newbies feel welcome.

[brnidokiegurl 0]

OT is the one place you can go to make friends with anyone and everyone, no matter where they are from.

[rebeccajo 14]

I swear.....

I REALLY think something needs to be done about new members. I don't know how it needs to be done, but honestly, I just spent 10 minutes in K1 and the amount of 'duh' questions and sweeping bad advice is SCARY!!!

If you go to NADA.com to get a car valuation you can only get 3 a day. Can something like this be done for like say - two weeks or something. With a big message that says -

"You have exceeded your post count for today. Please visit our FAQ and Guides section to continue your visit with us. You are also welcome to continue reading our Forums until tomorrow. You may find the answer to your question as you read."

[Sofiyya 1,687]

Mostly responding to Gupt (and before your edit). But moderation isn't going to make ME/NA nice. It may mean the nastier threads get locked faster (not a bad idea), but it's not going to stop people being nasty, or deciding to derail threads to snipe at each other, and ime having moderated other boards, a heavy hand just drives the nastiness where the mods can get to it (into avatars, signature lines, and into PMs), which only increases the cliquishness.

Extra moderation takes some of the work off of Ewok, but it's not going to make the newbies feel welcome.

I've got years of board moderation experience too, and I know that the nastiness and divisiveness can be controled thru moderation. I've done it. It doesn't require a heavy hand, but it does require direct communication that certain things will not be tolerated and a consistancy in applying the rules. Consistancy is hard to come by and communication cut short when there aren't enough moderators, or they are spread too thin.

[matako 0]

With all due respect, why dont you go and start a new site and moderate it and have all the rules in the world, using the vast experience? VJ will not allow foreign moderators to perform a coup here.You either respect the VJ rules or you show us your back.

Mostly responding to Gupt (and before your edit). But moderation isn't going to make ME/NA nice. It may mean the nastier threads get locked faster (not a bad idea), but it's not going to stop people being nasty, or deciding to derail threads to snipe at each other, and ime having moderated other boards, a heavy hand just drives the nastiness where the mods can get to it (into avatars, signature lines, and into PMs), which only increases the cliquishness.

Extra moderation takes some of the work off of Ewok, but it's not going to make the newbies feel welcome.

I've got years of board moderation experience too, and I know that the nastiness and divisiveness can be controled thru moderation. I've done it. It doesn't require a heavy hand, but it does require direct communication that certain things will not be tolerated and a consistancy in applying the rules. Consistancy is hard to come by and communication cut short when there aren't enough moderators, or they are spread too thin.

[Sofiyya 1,687]

I swear.....

I REALLY think something needs to be done about new members. I don't know how it needs to be done, but honestly, I just spent 10 minutes in K1 and the amount of 'duh' questions and sweeping bad advice is SCARY!!!

If you go to NADA.com to get a car valuation you can only get 3 a day. Can something like this be done for like say - two weeks or something. With a big message that says -

"You have exceeded your post count for today. Please visit our FAQ and Guides section to continue your visit with us. You are also welcome to continue reading our Forums until tomorrow. You may find the answer to your question as you read."

I've seen that in other forums, too, like the CR-1/IR-1, but I don't know how you stop "dumb" questions. This site is for asking questions, dumb and not dumb. I've noticed more the repeated question piled up one on top of the other, myself.

[Mary Lou 681]

I think the best thing is to split VJ into 2:male section and female section. Anyone who goes to the board side for the opposite sex will be banned from VJ.

But then we would have to create a third section for freaks/trolls like you Matako.

[rebeccajo 14]

I agree the sight is for asking questions. But for crying out loud.......LOADS of simple questions can be answered if not by looking through the guides, then by looking at the first couple of pages of the forum.

How impatient are we supposed to allow people to be?

[ceriserose 1]

We have one person moderating over 30000 members. That's an impossible task.

The regional forums need moderated heavily. People are spending too much time in them. When I first came to VJ there were no regional forums. We got to know members from other cultures and other consulates. The knowledge gained by that free flow of dialougue gave a better understanding of the overall process.

It's my recollection that the regional forums were originally created so people could compare notes with others from their same consulate, which is extremely valuable. IMO nowadays members seem to stay within their own Regional Forum and don't gravitate out much.

I really think this kind of behavior helps create the 'silly question' behavior we are seeing so much of. If someone can't find the answer amongst their compatriots, they just willy-nilly up to their petition forum and ask a question.

All the phases of immigration EXCEPT the actual granting of the visa are non-consulate specific. But I believe the amount of traffic in regionals and OT exceeds the traffic in other areas. Kinda weird, I think.

I agree that the regional threads can become a trap. From my experience in one forum, some of the participants, primarily female, have become quite insular and proprietary about "their" forum. It hasn't created a welcoming atmosphere for those who don't fit in with the core group. I don't know if this is the same on other forums. I can only speak from my own experience.

It's happened on more than one regional forum.

I'm sure it does, ceriserose (Donovan fan, are we?), but do those forums even go so far as to begin a duplicate daily thread if someone who is not an "in" person starts one first? We have two Sunday threads today because Charles started the first one, and the faction that doesn't like Charles started another so they don't have to post on his thread. The same thing happened a week ago Friday when I started the Friday thread; a second Friday thread was started. Then, there is competition to see whose thread will get larger. It's like high school cliques on MENA for the popular girls, and that's because our well-meaning moderator, who is aware of the problems, is spread too thin, and there are some that curse and name-call believing that no one will stop them, and they aren't stopped. I'll bet that unpopular people would also be shunned when asking for advise. More and more MENA folks aren't posting much on MENA for general advice. They're going "willy nilly" to other boards, as rebeccajo complained about, or pming individuals for help, and that's a tale untold.

I'm not saying get rid of the regional boards due to goofy ####### happening on a few. I vote for more moderation for objective balance overall, and somehow encouraging propriety regional group members to spread out over the site more.

I don't understand your reference to Donovan. Can you please explain?

I'm not going to comment on what types of forum difficulties there have been with other forums...mainly because I don't know all the various ins and outs of them. I know that there have been forums that have had more than their share of difficulties. I don't know (because I don't frequent them) if they are to the same degree you're discussing about the ME/NA forum.

(I'm from the Canada forum where we'll probably just subject people to too much discussion on doughnuts and often end up apologizing to everyone for breathing.)

[Caladan 19]

If it's bothering you that much, let someone else answer the stupid questions and limit yourself to answering only ones on topics that interest you. Part of the problem with being new is not knowing where to start looking, and part of the problem with searching is that the search engine on the site is pretty well useless unless you already know the lingo (in which case, you probably don't have dumb questions.)

[Sofiyya 1,687]

If you read the boards for a while before you ever post, it doesn't seem like anything is simple after a while. In fact, the visa process seems quite scary and anxiety producing. I suppose some folks just want to be sure to dot every i, cross every t.