230 replies to this topic

[Dralcax]

For me it would be the fact that clicking the icon next a forum will mark it as read. I keep hitting it accidentally on mobile...

[Cosmic Titan]

The lack of logic in RPGs.

And then we can't discuss religion or politics even if we act civil about it.

And we can't discuss banned members. I can't understand that. Not that I really want to talk about them.

Edited by Cosmic Titan, Oct 25 2012 - 02:33 PM.

[fishers64]

The most annoying part of BZPower is topics about annoying parts of BZPower.

Minor, subsidiary annoyances include the "go to first unread post" thing getting busted in the last forum upgrade, and the thing randomly scrolling up for some reason.

And the OGD. Searching it is a massive annoyance. You have no idea how much the minor discourtesy of putting your 10 questions with three parts to a question at the top of the post and the 10 GregF answers at the bottom annoys the searchers of the future. No idea. Scrolling...scrolling...scrolling...argh.

[Dorek]

And we can't discuss banned members. I can't understand that. Not that I really want to talk about them.

I'll agree with this because it cuts to the heart of a number of problems with BZP; the inexplicable logic that we can't talk about things because they're against the rules, and they're against the rules because we shouldn't talk about them. Sometimes it makes sense, but other times it speaks to a certain unwillingness to just take the time and listen to the problems. It's most apparent in topic closures, especially NMQ&A. Sometimes it seems like the question is answered insufficiently, and the topic is closed anyway. There's no recourse to avoiding similar mistakes in the future, so it just keeps happening.

Also the new text editor sucks hardcore >:

[Ballom]

Mainly, I wish that the archive didn't log you out. Also, I miss some of the old features, like searching within a forum more specifically, the notepad, and blog content block width changing. But those are all pretty trivial.

I also think a few of the rules from way back when need to be reworked, but it seems the staff's already got that on their list, which is good.

~B~

[Meiko]

And then we can't discuss religion or politics even if we act civil about it.

The problem with that is that many people between the age of 13 and 18, and even many people above 18 simply can't discuss it in a civil manner. Many of them can't accept other opinions, and that can lead to some very extreme arguments that simply can't be controlled. Even if some people can discuss it like civil people, there are others that can't, and the administration can't just keep somebody from posting because they can't talk about those things civilly, and let other people discuss it. That's just discriminatory and unfair.

The problems I have is that 1) there aren't BZPower-specific apps (I'd love to make an Android one however), and 2) the many restrictions and glitches on the mobile skin.

[Taipu1]

My only quibble is stuff that is set to be fixed, but right now is annoying. Specifically, I miss the Top 10 Hot Topics on the front page. I miss some of the insane discussions that turned up there.

[Wind Elemental]

Not allowed to mention certain sites. Also, those old forums logging you out. I want to see what this site was like before without having to log in again.

[Sumiki]

What annoys me is the unfair concept that the staff can change things quickly, but choose not to. We have lives too, and mine has only gotten busier since my initial promotion to Forum Mentor back in February. We still work on problems because we can see them just as much as other members, but it takes time.

We can't talk about things because they're against the rules, and they're against the rules because we shouldn't talk about them. Sometimes it makes sense, but other times it speaks to a certain unwillingness to just take the time and listen to the problems. It's most apparent in topic closures, especially NMQ&A. Sometimes it seems like the question is answered insufficiently, and the topic is closed anyway. There's no recourse to avoiding similar mistakes in the future, so it just keeps happening.

I can sort-of kind-of agree on the banned member issue, as I don't believe that the mention of banned members should carry the same weight of punishment as discussing them. When it was put in place, it was to stop members from discussing why a member was banned, because after all, if they got banned, they had to have done something terribly wrong, and discussing that would be pointless. (I hope that all made sense.)

There was a fantastic thread on the old forums that sparked some of the best online discussion I'd ever seen, but a few of the posts mentioned a few banned members, and the topic was closed. I still think that was a bit of an overreaction, as a gentle reminder would have been sufficient to remind the participants of the rules, and wouldn't have halted the discussion that was going on.

What I don't understand about your post is the NMQ&A point. While I don't assist there, it's one of the two forums I've read that I don't assist in. (The other is GD.) A lot of the topics there are either covered by the Compendium, or there is an official topic for questions that relate to it, like the PE topic or the Pictures topic. I cannot find an example of a question that is not sufficiently answered. Would you mind elaborating/providing an example?

[Click]

The icons on the sides marking everything as read and random scrolling on mobile devices. I always hit the button on accident, and my mobile site always jumps all over the place, making it a pain to do anything. Maybe that's just my old phone though.

Also, just linking and site policy. There are some valid sites out there that sometimes come up in discussion or are used to display relative info, but we can't link to those. I can understand a majority of sites, but there are some I would like to be allowed. It's also kind of annoying that links can be removed for inappropriate content, like it's our fault. I can understand it, and I wish that kind of stuff wasn't there, but seriously?

EDIT: Oh yeah, and M-O-D changing to moderator, when I mean modification or something.

Edited by Click, Oct 25 2012 - 04:03 PM.

[Grantaire]

The old skin was better (minor gripe, since this one is pretty good as well) and the setup of the old forum was a little more... Well, comfortable, probably because I was used to it.

Oh, and I miss the old forum's 'blogs you follow' section in the blogs. And the personal notepad.

Policywise, I would have to say the approach to certain issues such as homosexuality. That, and the (IMO) slightly overstrict policy of biblical quotes; not saying that they should be consistently allowed, but that they shouldn't be quite so strictly censored (For instance, if I wanted to quote a psalm commonly sung by the Templar before battle, I think it's a little over the top to outlaw that slight usage).

I have some gripes with the world filter; it drives me nuts sometimes when it censors words that are not of themselves curses; usually happens in a story when the word is used in a completely non insulting context, and is annoying.

Overall though, I don't have too many gripes with this forum.

[Peach 00]

Word filter, unable to talk about religion/politics and world problems, and a lot of other things. It gets irritating - politically speaking, I can't just say I support so-and-so and be done with that. I have to state some sort of reasoning as to why before somebody just gets on my case because I support that candidate. It makes me - a bit - irritable, but I guess you can't change that. =/

[Lyichir]

For me, it's the fact that BZPower's stringent rules about linking to other sites with forums make it so that members who rely solely on BZPower for their Lego info are typically less well-informed than members who participate on BZPower and other sites. For instance, in the recent news topic about Bionicle's possible return, there were many users who simply weren't as exposed to Lego PR-speak, and thus took the statement from Kevin Hinkle entirely the wrong way.

There's other issues, of course, like the fact that the word filter and link policy are in serious need of an update. Brickset in particular is mentionable and linkable despite fulfilling many of the same criteria as sites-that-shall-not-be-named. And popular social media sites are NOT linkable, and while they do have a wide range of content that would not be appropriate for BZPower, Lego themselves use many of these platforms as a mouthpiece, releasing information there that can't always be found elsewhere (such as the infamous unmentionable video site).

Don't get me wrong; I love and appreciate many aspects of BZPower's closed community. It's just about the only Bionicle-focused site I've found that has successfully adapted to a Bionicle-less era, for instance, having HF-bashing as the exception rather than the norm. And in many ways, its independence from other websites makes for a tighter-knit community. Nonetheless, the internet is a rapidly-changing place, and BZPower, through no fault of its own, is often slower to adapt than sites with less-strict rules about inter-site links.

[Obsessionist]

It'd probably be the old forums logging you out, but that can't be helped. I also miss the top 10 hot topics.

[Aderia]

The lack of logic in RPGs.

And then we can't discuss religion or politics even if we act civil about it.

Definitely these two. Most definitely.

And, no more topic descriptons. Just tags =/.

Otherwise, I like BZP =D Good for homework procrastination and stuff.

[Ryuujin]

I'd say the most annoying part right now is how people keep begging for things that the staff have already said they're working on, and who seem to think that the staff can just snap their fingers and it'll all be done

it's like Sumiki said, they have lives

jobs, educations, families

I'm sure their world does not revolve around BZPower nor do they plan everything around it

honestly, we're lucky they even devote as much time and effort to this place as they do

Policywise, I would have to say the approach to certain issues such as homosexuality.

you mean the approach that says you're not allowed to discriminate and should treat people with respect?

yeah man that one really sucks

Edited by Ryuujin, Oct 25 2012 - 06:01 PM.

[Ta-metru_defender]

There are these report things I get that, I dunno they really seem to- oh, right, that's my job, um, yeah, never mind.

But nah, most of my nuisance comes from the redesign of the site. But then, back when I joined our little quote boxes looked different and all that. It'd also be nice to go check out the old forums without being logged out, but hey.

[Toa Smoke Monster]

The inability to mention or link to other sites with forums. I understand why there are rules in place for them, but I still would like to at least mention a couple sites with forums on here.

[Samhain]

In the case of free speech, it would be nice if it was here, but not everyone likes that and the sheer amount of complaints the mods will get from the people who can't handle that would require at least one to be constantly working on this issue, among other things.

[Sinclair]

I'd say the most annoying part right now is how people keep begging for things that the staff have already said they're working on, and who seem to think that the staff can just snap their fingers and it'll all be done

it's like Sumiki said, they have lives

jobs, educations, families

I'm sure their world does not revolve around BZPower nor do they plan everything around it

honestly, we're lucky they even devote as much time and effort to this place as they do

Policywise, I would have to say the approach to certain issues such as homosexuality.

you mean the approach that says you're not allowed to discriminate and should treat people with respect?

yeah man that one really sucks

yeah basically this

also the lack of topic descriptions, that was one of my favourite IPB features

[Scanty Demon]

Can't really say, but there are annoying things on BZP but really I tend to avoid those things. Though whenever blog drama happens I wish the blog staff would be a little more eager to shut down flaming in blogs. That is just me; whenever I see something annoying I tend to avoid it like the plague.

[that guy from that show]

Probably the staff when they close a topic without warning and give the starter no chance to plead their case. There is not much curtsey here and I've seen members totally disrespect others work and feelings. Also, members doing the staff's job.

On a lighter note, the somewhat confusing reference desk and over-reactive filter. I also miss the top 10 hot topics on the home page and dislike the incredible amount of CoTs. They seem to outnumber legit Lego topics and clutter up the resent posts.

Also the incredibly late news. This is not necessarily annoying but more amusing. BZPower has been know to post stories weeks after Brickset does.

Edited by that guy from that show, Oct 27 2012 - 04:59 PM.

[Sumiki]

Probably the staff when they close a topic without warning and give the starter no chance to plead their case.

Would you mind providing an example of this? Topics are only closed if they either break the rules or have been sufficiently answered. In what situation would a topic starter "plead their case?"

[that guy from that show]

Probably the staff when they close a topic without warning and give the starter no chance to plead their case.

Would you mind providing an example of this? Topics are only closed if they either break the rules or have been sufficiently answered. In what situation would a topic starter "plead their case?"

I suppose what I mean is when a topic is closed without giving the starter a chance to correct their error. I remember I was playing Toa War in the old game forum and it was closed because it more closely an RPG. We had been playing it for mouths and we never got a chance to discuss what to do after it was abruptly discontinued. Instances like this would be ideal for a warning post so any problems would have a chance to be fixed. I've made several topics here that have been closed on the second post. I'm someone who can accept I've made a mistake but it irritates me if I don't have a chance to justify myself or fix what warranted a closer.

Something like a rebuttal would be helpful too. If a staff member closes a topic and the starter thinks they are in error they should have a place to express that. A post after a topic was closed would allow a topic starter to redirect members, ask questions, and apologize. Sometimes a staff member can make a mistake and close a topic after a question has not been fully been answered or misunderstanding the intend of the original topic starter. Those who've spend time attempting to make a good topic should be giving more voice so misunderstandings can be resolved.

[Dralcax]

Probably the staff when they close a topic without warning and give the starter no chance to plead their case.

Would you mind providing an example of this? Topics are only closed if they either break the rules or have been sufficiently answered. In what situation would a topic starter "plead their case?"

I suppose what I mean is when a topic is closed without giving the starter a chance to correct their error. I remember I was playing Toa War in the old game forum and it was closed because it more closely an RPG. We had been playing it for mouths and we never got a chance to discuss what to do after it was abruptly discontinued. Instances like this would be ideal for a warning post so any problems would have a chance to be fixed. I've made several topics here that have been closed on the second post. I'm someone who can accept I've made a mistake but it irritates me if I don't have a chance to justify myself or fix what warranted a closer.

Something like a rebuttal would be helpful too. If a staff member closes a topic and the starter thinks they are in error they should have a place to express that. A post after a topic was closed would allow a topic starter to redirect members, ask questions, and apologize. Sometimes a staff member can make a mistake and close a topic after a question has not been fully been answered or misunderstanding the intend of the original topic starter. Those who've spend time attempting to make a good topic should be giving more voice so misunderstandings can be resolved.

... You can always start a new topic that does not violate the rules. The staff has no time to keep track of ultimatums and the like.

[Sumiki]

I suppose what I mean is when a topic is closed without giving the starter a chance to correct their error. I remember I was playing Toa War in the old game forum and it was closed because it more closely an RPG. We had been playing it for mouths and we never got a chance to discuss what to do after it was abruptly discontinued. Instances like this would be ideal for a warning post so any problems would have a chance to be fixed. I've made several topics here that have been closed on the second post. I'm someone who can accept I've made a mistake but it irritates me if I don't have a chance to justify myself or fix what warranted a closer.

RPGs have been separate from G&T for a very long time. A topic that flirts the RPG rule, such as the Toa War game, could go under the radar for a good long while, even if it broke the rules since its inception. It doesn't sound like that topic could have been fixed to become rule-abiding. In all likelyhood, a new topic would have been started and the original topic closed in deference to it.

Something like a rebuttal would be helpful too. If a staff member closes a topic and the starter thinks they are in error they should have a place to express that. A post after a topic was closed would allow a topic starter to redirect members, ask questions, and apologize. Sometimes a staff member can make a mistake and close a topic after a question has not been fully been answered or misunderstanding the intend of the original topic starter. Those who've spend time attempting to make a good topic should be giving more voice so misunderstandings can be resolved.

Members are always free to PM that forum's FL if they feel that a topic has been closed in error.

In all honesty, allowing a topic starter the "last word" in topics wouldn't lead to any improvement. Even if its implementation was feasible, it would be abused in situations where topics get incredibly heated. I've seen it in the blogs a lot more than the forums - especially recently - but BZP just isn't BZP without some drama every now and then. I also don't see it as necessary for members to apologize, as rule-breaking topics are usually created accidentally. Very few rule-breaking topics do so on purpose, and those that do garner administrative attention/action.

[Applejack]

For me it would be the fact that clicking the icon next a forum will mark it as read. I keep hitting it accidentally on mobile...

This. I ALWAYS do it. >.>

[Pohuaki]

Members are always free to PM that forum's FL if they feel that a topic has been closed in error.

I'd only PM the forum leader if they closed the topic. In most cases, I would PM the staff member who closed the topic and explain the situation to them if I wanted to have the topic re-opened.

A post after a topic was closed would allow a topic starter to redirect members, ask questions, and apologize.

That would be difficult to do. I used to edit comments from the topic starter into my closing post when the topic starter requested it.

Edited by Pohuaki, Oct 27 2012 - 06:11 PM.

[Paleo]

I personally find that the expectation that staff will devote all of they're available time and attention to BZP is particularly annoying. Life takes higher priority over this site, but I still work in the upkeep of this site because I CARE. This is a great community, but the staff can't always devote 100% of their time.
On a different note, spelling. I really wish members would spell out complete sentences and capitalize their letter "I"s. That and the fact that the front page still isn't as snazzy as the forums

Probably the staff when they close a topic without warning and give the starter no chance to plead their case. There is not much curtsey here and I've seen members totally disrespect others work and feelings. Also, members doing the staff's job.

The staff close topics for a reason. You can PM the closer if you feel it shouldn't have been closed. I don't know what you mean by curtesy. As for "member's doing the staff's job", staff can't be omnipresent, so it is helpful occasionally. However, this can sometimes does cross the line into disrespect.

Something like a rebuttal would be helpful too. If a staff member closes a topic and the starter thinks they are in error they should have a place to express that. A post after a topic was closed would allow a topic starter to redirect members, ask questions, and apologize. Sometimes a staff member can make a mistake and close a topic after a question has not been fully been answered or misunderstanding the intend of the original topic starter. Those who've spend time attempting to make a good topic should be giving more voice so misunderstandings can be resolved.

That's what PMs are for. Implementing a feature to allow the topic poster to post one more comment after the topic is closed would be pointless if all of the uses you have described can be found in the PM system.

Edited by Paleo, Oct 27 2012 - 08:37 PM.

[Constructman: Black Knight]

Things that annoy me:

A glitch in the text editor where pressing backspace automatically sends the cursor back to the beginning of the line and deletes a row.

The inability to link to other sites with forums. I can understand this but sometimes it can get annoying that certain sites are blocked when they could be quite useful in resolving a discussion. And if you never even knew the site even had forums or even a link to one...

The mobile version not having a search in topic option.

Search's flood control. Why does the wait have to be SO LONG? Suppose you made a typo and then you have to wait 20 seconds?

The mobile version randomly redirecting you to a random post.

[Damaracx 7.0]

And we can't discuss banned members. I can't understand that. Not that I really want to talk about them.

I'll agree with this because it cuts to the heart of a number of problems with BZP; the inexplicable logic that we can't talk about things because they're against the rules, and they're against the rules because we shouldn't talk about them. Sometimes it makes sense, but other times it speaks to a certain unwillingness to just take the time and listen to the problems. It's most apparent in topic closures, especially NMQ&A. Sometimes it seems like the question is answered insufficiently, and the topic is closed anyway. There's no recourse to avoiding similar mistakes in the future, so it just keeps happening.

Also the new text editor sucks hardcore >:

Agreed, I could see why discussing about the reason why there were banned in the first place isn't allowed, but if it is not about the reason why they were banned I see no point in why it shouldn't be allowed.

[Constructman: Black Knight]

Why is discussing the reason they were banned not allowed? People should learn from example

[///dotcom///]

When the text editor turns apostrophes into ;&#39 or something stupid like that when copied from a word document.

The no talking about banned members rule. Imo, BZP could use a ban log. Just a small topic where an admin can record when a member is banned and a short description of why. Nothing specific or fancy, just "X was banned for spamming," or something. That would just let people know what they did, avoidng any questions they may have about the issue.

And not being able to talk about banned artists or MOCers who were cool is pretty lame. I remember like back in 2009, a BZP-hosted BS01 drawing contest cut out an entry because it was by a member who was banned in BZP, which I thought was pretty arbitrary and uncool. (Or maybe I'm misremembering, but eh)

[Heisenberg]

For me, it's the fact that BZPower's stringent rules about linking to other sites with forums make it so that members who rely solely on BZPower for their Lego info are typically less well-informed than members who participate on BZPower and other sites. For instance, in the recent news topic about Bionicle's possible return, there were many users who simply weren't as exposed to Lego PR-speak, and thus took the statement from Kevin Hinkle entirely the wrong way.

There's other issues, of course, like the fact that the word filter and link policy are in serious need of an update. Brickset in particular is mentionable and linkable despite fulfilling many of the same criteria as sites-that-shall-not-be-named. And popular social media sites are NOT linkable, and while they do have a wide range of content that would not be appropriate for BZPower, Lego themselves use many of these platforms as a mouthpiece, releasing information there that can't always be found elsewhere (such as the infamous unmentionable video site).

Don't get me wrong; I love and appreciate many aspects of BZPower's closed community. It's just about the only Bionicle-focused site I've found that has successfully adapted to a Bionicle-less era, for instance, having HF-bashing as the exception rather than the norm. And in many ways, its independence from other websites makes for a tighter-knit community. Nonetheless, the internet is a rapidly-changing place, and BZPower, through no fault of its own, is often slower to adapt than sites with less-strict rules about inter-site links.

This sums up one of my major gripes. BZPower is like the overprotective, sheltered household that won't expose their kids to the real world. I'm not saying it should just break out into an all-out [insert infamous image board here]-like cesspool or anything, but lax up a bit.

In addition, there are some serious holes in the idea that the rules block out all "not BZP-appropriate" things. Case and point, avatars and sigs. My avatar and sig (and display name) are from Breaking Bad, a show about a man cooking meth and becoming ruthless and evil, and features lots of of sex, drugs, swearing, and violence (despite being a phenomenal show). It's not appropriate for BZP, but I can use images from it so long as they don't show anything BZP-inappropriate. That being the case, one could make their avatar and signature images from pornography as long as nothing NSFW is shown. It's kind of ridiculous that we have the freedom to do this, yet we cannot link to sites such as the singular video site or other forums (of course, the latter was, if I recall correctly, put in place so members could not easily access other Bionicle fansites, therefore having no choice but to stay in BZPower, which... is kind of a sketchy thing to do and still have in place).

And yeah, there's the word filter, but that's what everyone brings up. Not that it isn't a completely valid complaint, but still. The staff say they're working on it, and what the staff says goes, right?

But that brings me to another complaint: we're pretty much trained here to treat the staff as gods, and vastly superior beings that we should fear and respect. If anyone dares question a staff member, you better say your prayers because it's off to the baning guillotine with you! Particularly all this "The staff have lives too, so stop telling them constantly to work on the site's problems." Look, I understand the staff have lives. I really do. But as staff, it's your job to run the site and make it the best you can. If life is too busy for you to run the website, either hire more staff or stop running the website. You can't expect everyone to be content with constant reminders of "Yeah, we'll get it done eventually, we have lives too so shut up." when these issues have been brought up for years now.

BZPower's change after the big downtime a year (or two? Good gried, I've forgotten) ago should have been a convenient time to give the site a complete overhaul; not just external, but internal. With Bionicle dead and a good amount of BZPower's membership either given up or moved on, BZP should have adapted to survive. Instead, it has remained the same as it ever was and has suffered for it.

Sorry for a long rant, but BZPower was the website that introduced me to the Internet and taught me a lot of things and skills. It just saddens me to see it with so many problems that have still yet to be fixed.

(oh and one more thing i sent money to be a premier member like a year ago and i got the proto boost but no title or anything da heck guis)

Edited by Heisenberg, Oct 28 2012 - 12:42 AM.

[~Shockwave~]

EDIT: Oh yeah, and M-O-D changing to moderator, when I mean modification or something.

Good freakin' greif, that is irritating.

the mobile site is extremely irritating to use. but I doubt that can be fixed. I miss the top 10 thing.
CoT is incredibly lively compared to the rest of the forum, and has the second most amount of topics. (I think)
never been a fan of non-CoT official topics. the not being able to mention the unmentionable sites.

overall I like this place, but I do think that it could improve to stay alive longer.

[Sumiki]

My avatar and sig (and display name) are from Breaking Bad, a show about a man cooking meth and becoming ruthless and evil, and features lots of of sex, drugs, swearing, and violence (despite being a phenomenal show). It's not appropriate for BZP, but I can use images from it so long as they don't show anything BZP-inappropriate. That being the case, one could make their avatar and signature images from pornography as long as nothing NSFW is shown. It's kind of ridiculous that we have the freedom to do this, yet we cannot link to sites such as the singular video site or other forums (of course, the latter was, if I recall correctly, put in place so members could not easily access other Bionicle fansites, therefore having no choice but to stay in BZPower, which... is kind of a sketchy thing to do and still have in place).

Images are considered for their content, not from what they're from. Since there is nothing wrong with the images themselves, they're allowed. Other than that, I completely agree with you. A while back, legendary former admin mfuss903 stopped by and essentially said that the don't-link-to-other-sites policy was outmoded, and that it was put in place not because the BZP staff can't moderate other sites (though that's certainly true) but to gain and retain a large member base.

And yeah, there's the word filter, but that's what everyone brings up. Not that it isn't a completely valid complaint, but still. The staff say they're working on it, and what the staff says goes, right?

I could not agree harder with this if my life depended on it. I've always thought the word filter had some ridiculous things in it that should be rectified. The filter has been integrated with the advertising policy, but not fully - and since it hasn't been updated in the better half of forever, sites that should be banned aren't, and sited that shouldn't be banned are. Unfortunately, I'm as much at the mercy of this as you are, and have just as little control over it.

But that brings me to another complaint: we're pretty much trained here to treat the staff as gods, and vastly superior beings that we should fear and respect. If anyone dares question a staff member, you better say your prayers because it's off to the baning guillotine with you! Particularly all this "The staff have lives too, so stop telling them constantly to work on the site's problems." Look, I understand the staff have lives. I really do. But as staff, it's your job to run the site and make it the best you can. If life is too busy for you to run the website, either hire more staff or stop running the website. You can't expect everyone to be content with constant reminders of "Yeah, we'll get it done eventually, we have lives too so shut up." when these issues have been brought up for years now.

This is where I don't agree.

I used to. Before I got promoted, I would have agreed with much of this - not the staff-as-gods thing, but the overall gist of the paragraph. Things don't get done in a time frame that it feels like they should get done in, and when this drags on and on and on, it's easy to get frustrated. I still do get frustrated about it, but now I fully realize how much actually goes into moderating the site: there are reports to deal with in the forums, bad advertisements to deal with, BZPowercast segments to record, set reviews to write up, etc. Let's not forget things that were worked on for ages and have been implemented, like the new skin. There are also a number of things we're working on behind the scenes that will get implemented eventually, and improve the site because of their implementation. Basically, we're busier on BZP than people give us credit for, and moderating the site isn't exactly easy when it's one of about a million things you're trying to juggle with your life.

Before I end this post, I'd like to address the first section of that paragraph. We're not gods. We're not looking for special treatment or reverence or respect. We've been asked by the administration if we want to help out with the moderation of this site in some capacity, and we've said yes. Sure, we've got some extra perks, but those don't include being treated as "vastly superior" to the members. If that was the case, I'd have said "no" to Black Six when he asked me to be a Forum Mentor back in February.

Your statement about people getting banned if they question the staff is simply not true. There have been a number of occasions where a member has questioned a staff member, or the staff as a whole. This is usually due to (or causes) another episode in the Emmy-award-winning history of BZP drama. In no cases is a member banned because of that. If anything, some staff members come in and explain things in a long post - sort of like what I'm doing now, I suppose. If the member persists, he or she is given plenty of warning about the rules against trolling, and if they still continue, a proto drain happens - not because of their criticism of the staff, but because they inevitably do so in a trolling, flaming manner.

Your post is pretty much questioning the staff - not explicitly, but it's certainly heavily implied. Going by your argument, you would have already been banned for that post. But your arguments are not trolling and are not flaming, and if you continue to avoid doing those things, you will avoid administrative action.

[Damaracx 7.0]

Why is discussing the reason they were banned not allowed? People should learn from example

Because it starts to many rumors.

Edited by HYBRIDNO DXC2000 5.0, Nov 04 2012 - 10:00 PM.

[Heisenberg]

This is where I don't agree.

I used to. Before I got promoted, I would have agreed with much of this - not the staff-as-gods thing, but the overall gist of the paragraph. Things don't get done in a time frame that it feels like they should get done in, and when this drags on and on and on, it's easy to get frustrated. I still do get frustrated about it, but now I fully realize how much actually goes into moderating the site: there are reports to deal with in the forums, bad advertisements to deal with, BZPowercast segments to record, set reviews to write up, etc. Let's not forget things that were worked on for ages and have been implemented, like the new skin. There are also a number of things we're working on behind the scenes that will get implemented eventually, and improve the site because of their implementation. Basically, we're busier on BZP than people give us credit for, and moderating the site isn't exactly easy when it's one of about a million things you're trying to juggle with your life.

Before I end this post, I'd like to address the first section of that paragraph. We're not gods. We're not looking for special treatment or reverence or respect. We've been asked by the administration if we want to help out with the moderation of this site in some capacity, and we've said yes. Sure, we've got some extra perks, but those don't include being treated as "vastly superior" to the members. If that was the case, I'd have said "no" to Black Six when he asked me to be a Forum Mentor back in February.

Your statement about people getting banned if they question the staff is simply not true. There have been a number of occasions where a member has questioned a staff member, or the staff as a whole. This is usually due to (or causes) another episode in the Emmy-award-winning history of BZP drama. In no cases is a member banned because of that. If anything, some staff members come in and explain things in a long post - sort of like what I'm doing now, I suppose. If the member persists, he or she is given plenty of warning about the rules against trolling, and if they still continue, a proto drain happens - not because of their criticism of the staff, but because they inevitably do so in a trolling, flaming manner.

Your post is pretty much questioning the staff - not explicitly, but it's certainly heavily implied. Going by your argument, you would have already been banned for that post. But your arguments are not trolling and are not flaming, and if you continue to avoid doing those things, you will avoid administrative action.

Firstly, thank you for addressing my concerns so well and kind! I was honestly expecting much lower-quality responses criticizing my remarks, heh.

All right, I will concede just due to the fact that I've never had to run a forum website, so I cannot or it is very difficult for me to understand all the jobs and issues that go into running it. While I still feel like this excuse sometimes stretches its validity, I understand that it is indeed valid.

Concerning "questioning staff will get you banned", that was an exaggeration. And I'm not saying that all of the staff act like gods or force this impression on the members right now, but from what I remember of BZPower back when I joined there was a lot of that behavior, not from every staff or every member, but from a few. (Even if I could name names I wouldn't, but still.) This is a bit of a weak argument on my part, and I actually don't see it as valid anymore. BZP has certainly improved on that.

In addition, based on observations I've made, it seems like members have been questioning the staff a lot more lately than they used to. Not like some sort of website-mutiny or anything, but just a lot more threads like this pointing out greivances we have with the website and, by extention, the staff. I remember a couple years ago I made a thread exactly like this one, but was closed by Black Six immediately with the explanation "If you have any problems with BZPower, PM them to me." (or something along those lines), which has probably influenced my views here, heh. So yeah, just an interesting observation.

I'm sure there are more parts of BZPower that are annoying. Like the die-hard BIONICLE WILL NEVAR DIE people that flocked to that very questionable piece of "news" the other day, but that's really neither here nor there.

[Dralcax]

I wish notifications were numbered. It would help so much when I get a bazillion new notifications.

[Toa Zaz]

The staff's constant focus on administering punishment.