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#1 |
Administrator
Join Date: May 2005
Name: Derek
Location: Orlando
Posts: 354
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Forum admin's dilemma.
Curious, if you woke up tomorrow and suddenly ran TMS (and it can happen out of nowhere, believe me!
![]() What percentage of posts have to be blatant (and sometimes lightly disguised) promotion of a single MUD before an admin steps in? How many "helpful answers that always somehow manage to lead to why someone should play mud X even if the original question was 'what should I have for dinner?'" are too many? I've kind of been hands off on this figuring the forum as a whole would call it out for what it is if it went too far, but that doesn't seem to be happening... |
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#2 |
Member
Join Date: Sep 2002
Posts: 49
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Re: Forum admin's dilemma.
Many of the people who post here do so to promote their own games. As long as there was some attempt to actually respond to the original post (and I wouldn't even try to judge if it was a good response), I wouldn't worry if someone suggests trying their own game.
If someone was derailing a thread by promoting their own game without addressing the contents of the thread then maybe it would be worth dealing with it, but then would you want to step in on every thread where someone throws some comment in that knocks it off track. And, even then, it may not be worth the headache. Sombalance |
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#3 |
Member
Join Date: Jul 2009
Posts: 50
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Re: Forum admin's dilemma.
Most days, TMS seems to get about 2-5 posts every 24 hours. I don't think the deluge has become so thick that you need to step in and start selectively stemming the flow.
Sorry if that offends. |
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#4 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 313
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Re: Forum admin's dilemma.
As long as people use the TinTin++ Mud Client to connect to New Worlds I'll let it slide.
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#5 | |
Legend
Join Date: Apr 2002
Home MUD: Threshold RPG
Posts: 1,253
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Re: Forum admin's dilemma.
Quote:
You are so sneaky, Scandum. ![]() |
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#6 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: USA
Home MUD: Threshold RPG
Home MUD: Stash
Home MUD: Archons of Avenshar
Posts: 653
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Re: Forum admin's dilemma.
Maybe the posting rules have kinda been lost somewhere. I have no idea if I'm in violation or not. That might be true for a lot of us. I basically post how I feel others find acceptable most times, and I'm sure others are doing the same. If we are misbehaving, please let us know. (Though, maybe this post is an attempt of that!)
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#7 |
Senior Member
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Re: Forum admin's dilemma.
If someone asks whether there's a game with features X, Y and Z any post for a MUD without X, Y and Z isn't called for. They typically start with "We don't have..." and the like. If a person only wanted Y and Z, they wouldn't have included X. If no game exists which meets the full criteria, it's up to the original poster to decide which of their preferred features are less important. After all, X may be their most important feature and they'd prefer a game with just that over one with Y and Z. My point is that if someone suggests a game that doesn't meet all of the criteria of an appeal for suggestions it shouldn't be there and would constitute a case of unsolicited promotion.
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#8 | ||
Member
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 208
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Re: Forum admin's dilemma.
Quote:
What gets a bit silly is when you see someone ask "What MUD should I play?" and you see the same poster as always reply, suggesting that their game is a perfect fit. How general are those games? Quote:
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#9 | ||
Legend
Join Date: Apr 2002
Name: Richard
Home MUD: God Wars II
Posts: 2,052
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Re: Forum admin's dilemma.
Quote:
Quote:
I think the problem is twofold: Firstly, there is no auditing or verification of listings, and as a result entries can sometimes be misleading or even outright false. I'm sure some people would post on the forums rather than doing a search even in the listings were accurate, but at least then they could be directed to the search engine. Secondly, expectations have shifted over the years, while the listings haven't really kept up. This is the sort of thing where MSSP would really help out, but in my opinion even manually extending the listings would be an improvement. |
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#10 | |
Legend
Join Date: Aug 2007
Name: NewWorlds
Home MUD: New Worlds
Posts: 1,408
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Re: Forum admin's dilemma.
Quote:
The second reason is because you want a recommendation from active players and the arguments as to why this or that game is good. The process is much better than randomly trying games from a search as shown in the recent requests and the responses from the OPs who found a game via this method. As to the main question, I took a few hours to research the latest posts and threads of the last few weeks and didn't really see this issue at all. I didn't really see any particular MUD advertising more or less than anyone else or derailing topics. In fact, as of late, it seems everyone has been fairly cordial and promotional of everyone else. |
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#11 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: USA
Home MUD: Threshold RPG
Home MUD: Stash
Home MUD: Archons of Avenshar
Posts: 653
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Re: Forum admin's dilemma.
Maybe the over advertisers could just get a little warning in their PM box? If they ignore it, then possibly a post.
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#12 | |
Member
Join Date: Feb 2003
Home MUD: The Dreaming City
Posts: 60
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Re: Forum admin's dilemma.
Quote:
Obviously, some suggestions are just silly ("You're looking for an RP-enforced game? Our mud is teh premiere gaming destination for non-roleplaying 12-year-old DBZ fans!!!1111one! Come check us out!") Mostly, though, I think "we have a game sort of like what you are looking for" responses should be given the benefit of the doubt. |
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#13 |
Member
Join Date: May 2010
Home MUD: GateWay
Home MUD: Rocky
Home MUD: MUME
Posts: 77
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Re: Forum admin's dilemma.
Yes but if you would all play GateWay MUD then it would all be academic.
;-) ;-) ;-) |
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#14 | |
Legend
Join Date: Apr 2002
Name: Richard
Home MUD: God Wars II
Posts: 2,052
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Re: Forum admin's dilemma.
Quote:
Sometimes perhaps, but most of the mud requests I've seen simply list the desired criteria. |
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#15 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: USA
Home MUD: Threshold RPG
Home MUD: Stash
Home MUD: Archons of Avenshar
Posts: 653
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Re: Forum admin's dilemma.
There are probably a lot of players who use TMS for exactly what it is: a mud listing site. They never sign up for the forums, and they never ask. There are the people who bother to post asking for other people's feedback, but we get players from TMS that don't seem to be involved in the forums. I'm not sure that an overhaul is actually necessary.
Having said that, I do wish that we could help clean up the defunct muds, or the mud listings that now point to a totally different mud than what's advertised. |
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#16 |
Legend
Join Date: Apr 2002
Name: Richard
Home MUD: God Wars II
Posts: 2,052
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Re: Forum admin's dilemma.
Perhaps, but there definitely seems to be an increasing number of players posting their criteria on the forums - and on TMC as well. Could it be that the newer generation of mudders are more used to asking than searching? Maybe. But a lot of the criteria I'm seeing people ask for isn't covered by the listings, so searching wouldn't help then anyway...and yet many of those things could be added.
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#17 | ||
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: USA
Home MUD: Threshold RPG
Home MUD: Stash
Home MUD: Archons of Avenshar
Posts: 653
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Re: Forum admin's dilemma.
Quote:
Quote:
At the same time, I do agree that the more unreliable the listing becomes, the less likely a potential player will use it. They'll either post, or they'll just not use TMS at all. Even before adding new information, it's probably important to weed out the broken listings and the listings that send a player from a completely different game than what the listing says. It's probably also important that if more options are added to a listing, they are options that a PLAYER wants rather than what we admins think would be cool, if that makes any sense. |
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#18 | |
Legend
Join Date: Aug 2007
Name: NewWorlds
Home MUD: New Worlds
Posts: 1,408
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Re: Forum admin's dilemma.
Quote:
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#19 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: USA
Home MUD: Threshold RPG
Home MUD: Stash
Home MUD: Archons of Avenshar
Posts: 653
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Re: Forum admin's dilemma.
Quote:
Regardless, we've all got limited time, including Lasher, so I'm cautious about suggesting things that require a lot of work on his part. (Assuming it will. I'm WWW impaired.) |
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#20 | |
Administrator
Join Date: May 2005
Name: Derek
Location: Orlando
Posts: 354
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Re: Forum admin's dilemma.
Quote:
I'm less convinced that adding new categories is going to help anything. They may already be too granular. High level categories are great for steering someone towards their big preferences but "RP Y/N?" "PK Y/N?" etc really isn't enough to get a good feel for a MUD, its community or the way it plays. Each one is unique (mostly) and the only way to really know for sure is to try it, and for more than 15 seconds. |
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