Congratulations to the admin and everyone else who've worked hard on this.
Hopefully a fresh start will allow you to create the better forum you had envisaged. I try to refrain from giving suggestions, being new, but I think now is as timely as ever as it's a fresh new slate and I'm sure everyone wants to work had to make it the best forum it could be. I've had some experience of foruming, moderating, and being an administrator myself, so here's my humble 2 cents -
1) If you don't like trolls and spam, crack down on them. Hire trustworthy people to handle the task if need be.
2) You realize that if you create forums for troll and spam posts, like the old Idiot Central (I think there are new versions of that on this forum...) you are thus tolerating and fostering such behaviour. Even if the purpose of these forums is to isolate them in one place, the behaviour will inadvertently spread to other public parts of the forum.
3) In relation to number 2, if you must have such forums, then make sure such behaviour is isolated there. Crack down on trolling and spamming in other parts of the board.
4) Impose warning levels on people who violate the rules.
5) Need a standard on posts? People like idle banter and jokes. I believe that should be fine. However, disrespectful and pointless posts shouldn't be allowed. Arguments should be backed up with reason. If one disagrees with something, one should give a legitimate explanation as to why. Posting things like 'your idea's terrible, go away' is discouraging, useless, and doesn't offer constructive feedback. And, off course, spamming and trolling, that goes without saying.
6) Off topicness should only be tolerated up to an extent. Tell people to go start a new thread if a topic becomes completely derailed by an off-topic conversation.
7) Careful with which threads you sticky. The old forum had many threads stickied, some weren't even all that important. They take up a lot of space on the front page and reflect badly on the moderating team. So only sticky rules, guides, and topics that are sufficiently important.
8 ) Sharing of NSFW material over public sections of the forum reflects badly on the forum as a whole. I know some members here prefer freedom to share such material. However, all the same, it brings down the forum's standards whether you like it or not. Share it privately over PMs and whatnot, or, if need be, create a hidden forum for it that requires special member access. Just keep it out of the public areas.
End of rant. I apologize for the rant but I think it's better to prevent than fix. Good luck with the new forum. I wish you all the best.
Anyhow, I see there's still animosity against our fanfiction RPGs. That's fine. If it's all right with everyone, I'll manually transfer everything onto a new thread here (and keep the use of the 'w' word to an absolute minimum). Is that all right?
EDIT: If yes, where should I post the new threads? Fanworks section as before? Or back to UGW as it was before they were moved?
