New Policy - Discussion Vs. Chat

[youngyew]

(UPDATED 29 APR)
New Policy - Read or Risk Having Posts / Membership Deleted

Members,

It has come to our attention that there are a lot of posts that are pure chit-chats or of trivial natures in the forums like Education, Scholarships, Pre-U, Undergraduate etc. Here at ReCom we would love to see people form bonds and make new friends with each other, but at the same time we would like those messages to be separate from actual discussions in our forum.

Just imagine someone coming into a Matrikulasi thread trying to look for information, but most of the messages turn out to be "hey I am in XX matrikulasi, who also going XX please shout out!"

That beats the purpose of information sharing in those education forums.

From now onwards, we would like to implement this policy:

JPA thread in EDUCATION sub-forum: real, helpful, constructive content only.
JPA thread in CHAT (http://www.recom.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=49) sub-forum: do all your socialisation and gossip-gossip here.

In the education forum, these are what we do not like to see:
"I fail to get JPA. HOW?!!"
- Read all the existing advice in existing threads. Unless your case is truly unique, of course.


"Thanks for the info, brother."
-That's what the thanks hack is for.


"My interview in in Nilai. What about yours?"
- Do it in the Chat forum.


"I am going to UNITEN! YOO! Anyone going to UNITEN too?"
- Chat forum


UPDATE (19 APR): "What's your SPM Result / Are you SPM 2007"
- This is also considered chat unless it is relevant to the discussion.
Bottom line, we DO NOT want off topic posts and spammy posts. Use Chat forum if your post do not contribute content to the more "serious" threads.

Consequences of rule violation:
1. Off-topic / chatty posts (e.g. "hey XX when are you going to Kedah Matrikulasi" in "education" section) will be removed / censored without notice.
2. Warning from staff (moderator or admin or both)
3. Ban

We welcome members to help enforce this rule by reporting questionable posts using the report button (the ! sign on the lower left of every post).

Thanks!


UPDATE (29 APR):
As mentioned by some members, it's very hard to define what is chat and what is discussion. Most admins/moderators are quite lenient about this: when they find something that are bordering between chat and discussion, they usually just leave the posts intact. Only the outright chat posts will be deleted / moved to the chat forum.

Here's a good rule of thumb: when you write / read a post, think about whether a random person coming to this thread would benefit from this post. "XXX, are you going tomorrow?" won't benefit anyone, so this is definitely a chat. "Someone got both petronas and jpa, how did he do it" might be relevant, so could be considered discussion. Et cetera.

But don't get too worked up over which is which. As long as you are contributing content, you will be fine. And we will always keep our eyes open on any digression and moderate accordingly. :)

[Sillyboy]

A good idea indeed!! Although I too contributed to some gibberish in the forums. I fully support this decision!

[4seasonspring]

this is really a constructive idea...can save up lotsa time from reading those craps....


XD.....feel free to delete my craps in those constuctive threads too(if any....* I mean there is, but can't remember which thread edi...~_~''')

keep it up!

[castle]

sorry you have to delete so many of my craps youngyew...hehe.maybe this is a crap as well.hehe.

[chess_the_world]

Great, indeed. I have been uneasy using the new recom since start as i'm more familiar with the old recom, lurking at there for a long, long time. However, i'm now loving the new recom more than ever before. Muaks!!! Love you so much. Keep it up with the good work. You will have my support always.

http://www.recom.org/forum/images/icons/icon7.gif

[youngyew]

UPDATE: Please refer to the update on 19 April in the original post above. It is regarding what we don't want to see in the more "serious" threads.

[Sillyboy]

This is not working!! I still see lots of post unrelated to the topic!!

[vseehua]

This is not working!! I still see lots of post unrelated to the topic!!
There is always the "report post" botton

[Sillyboy]

There is always the "report post" botton

It will seem to harsh to do it! Sigh......

[vseehua]

It will seem to harsh to do it! Sigh......
If you don't use it, why is it there?

[youngyew]

Just use it. We have already laid out this rule in black and white, so there's no excuse for making the mistake, ,and we will remove all unrelated posts with no mercy. :)

Oh ya, also, your report will remain anonymous and the identity be known only to the admins.

[luke]

It will seem to harsh to do it! Sigh......
Your attitude is very much like someone who complains about how rampant crime is in his/her neighborhood but refuse to dial 999 when he/she witnesses a crime.

*Sigh*

Do we have to start a Rakan Cop program for ReCom as well ... :nod

Oh BTW, about my stand on this policy ... I'm okay with it but I leave the enforcement to other moderators and administrators. I'm trying to focus on the site infrastructure and architecture, and not dip my hand too deep into doing moderation works. But I will delete posts/threads that are blatant spams like those iPhone ads etc.

[Sillyboy]

Your attitude is very much like someone who complains about how rampant crime is in his/her neighborhood but refuse to dial 999 when he/she witnesses a crime.

*Sigh*

Do we have to start a Rakan Cop program for ReCom as well ... :nod

Oh BTW, about my stand on this policy ... I'm okay with it but I leave the enforcement to other moderators and administrators. I'm trying to focus on the site infrastructure and architecture, and not dip my hand too deep into doing moderation works. But I will delete posts/threads that are blatant spams like those iPhone ads etc.

Ah well, looks like I have to be cruel to be kind. Because you are right, RAMPANT is an extremely appropriate adjective to describe what is happening to Recom now!

[hfz]

Its a good policy to avoid flooding threads with unnecessary post. Bravo for it!

But there is still some flaws in it. I find that discussions may start of as usual, related to the topic, but in the middle it can and will deviate into a non-related talk. To move to the chat forum can be some hassle. It may clear up the thread, but since they too have grown into mega ones (with 100+ pages), sifting through it will be a bigger chore regardless whether the info is there or not.

Apart from that, I see many posts trivial issues and some which have been answered many, many times (I admit I may have done so too).
- I suggest that the first post of a scholarship thread (or PreU) to be filled up with an FAQ and a list of people that got a place for the scholarship.

I don't mind doing it, but it may take some time and I can't do for all since I have not experience all the interviews.

[youngyew]

But there is still some flaws in it. I find that discussions may start of as usual, related to the topic, but in the middle it can and will deviate into a non-related talk. To move to the chat forum can be some hassle. It may clear up the thread, but since they too have grown into mega ones (with 100+ pages), sifting through it will be a bigger chore regardless whether the info is there or not.
Indeed. That's the reason we want people to avoid initiating chat in serious threads in the first place, and to report a new chat whenever you see one. All chat should be done in the chat threads.

We are not going to clear up chats in the old threads, it will take too much effort, and clearing it is prone to make the conversation disjointed. But we are still implementing this policy on new posts and threads so that our threads are as informative as possible.

Apart from that, I see many posts trivial issues and some which have been answered many, many times (I admit I may have done so too).
- I suggest that the first post of a scholarship thread (or PreU) to be filled up with an FAQ and a list of people that got a place for the scholarship.

I don't mind doing it, but it may take some time and I can't do for all since I have not experience all the interviews.

Yup this suggestion has been raised many times before and we thought of doing that, but it's a bit logistically difficult. This is because we need people to consistently update the first post whenever new information comes in, and it's really hard to find people to do that.

We are actually planning to set up a "ReCom wiki" where members are able to build some sort of "Malaysia Education Encyclopedia". However, it may not be implemented at least until June, as none of the admins have the time to install it. We would welcome any member with the technical expertise to help us out though. :)

Quoted from another post (http://recom.org/forum/showpost.php?p=166984&postcount=1706):

i think we should have a separate thread for chatting.
although the line between chatting and discussion is a blur. LOL
Just saw this message.

Yup I agree that it's very hard to define what is chat and what is discussion. And most moderators are quite lenient about this: when they find something that are bordering between chat and discussion, they usually just leave the posts intact.

Here's a good rule of thumb: when you write / read a post, think about whether a random person coming to this thread would benefit from this post. "XXX, are you going tomorrow?" won't benefit anyone, so this is definitely a chat. "Someone got both petronas and jpa, how did he do it" might be relevant, so could be considered discussion. Et cetera.

But don't get too worked up over which is which. As long as you are contributing content, you will be fine. And we will always keep our eyes open on any digression and moderate accordingly. :)

[4seasonspring]

just tried to use the "report button" for the first time yesterday....:P

(never really get noticed about the button...)

Thanks for responding for my report, mr moderator;)

[luke]

Yup I agree that it's very hard to define what is chat and what is discussion. And most moderators are quite lenient about this: when they find something that are bordering between chat and discussion, they usually just leave the posts intact.

Here's a good rule of thumb: when you write / read a post, think about whether a random person coming to this thread would benefit from this post. "XXX, are you going tomorrow?" won't benefit anyone, so this is definitely a chat. "Someone got both petronas and jpa, how did he do it" might be relevant, so could be considered discussion. Et cetera.

But don't get too worked up over which is which. As long as you are contributing content, you will be fine. And we will always keep our eyes open on any digression and moderate accordingly. :)
I think it's okay to close one eye on single chatty post that does not disrupt the discussion, but if that post brings another chatty post one after another then it's proper to move all the related chatty posts into the chat forum. :nod

[youngyew]

I think it's okay to close one eye on single chatty post that does not disrupt the discussion, but if that post brings another chatty post one after another then it's proper to move all the related chatty posts into the chat forum. :nod
Agreed. I personally also leave posts with both chat AND real content.

[senksiang90]

i c.. haha.. maybe its because many recommers don't know how to start a new thread to chat or find it of no use to create a new thread to chat and later throw it away. Why not recom sets up its own messenger. That might work.

[vseehua]

i c.. haha.. maybe its because many recommers don't know how to start a new thread to chat or find it of no use to create a new thread to chat and later throw it away. Why not recom sets up its own messenger. That might work.

We do have that feature with ReCom 1.0. But it was disabled because it took up too much server resources and caused the hosting company to shut down our site until we agree to move to a higher tier plan.

[senksiang90]

We do have that feature with ReCom 1.0. But it was disabled because it took up too much server resources and caused the hosting company to shut down our site until we agree to move to a higher tier plan.

i c... nvr knwn there is such thing.. or why nt set up a thread to let each other introduce each's messenger whether yahoo or windows live messenger or skype or etc. etc... errr.. just a suggestion.

[vseehua]

i c... nvr knwn there is such thing.. or why nt set up a thread to let each other introduce each's messenger whether yahoo or windows live messenger or skype or etc. etc... errr.. just a suggestion.This what your personal profile is for. If you want to add anyone just go to his or her profile and use the screen name, provided that they took the time to fill in the details of course...

[youngyew]

In the newer version of vBulletin (which we are going to install in the near future), there are more social features similar to facebook etc. Hopefully that will improve interaction between our members.

Anyway we have digressed, haven't we? :D