Saving DPF
Tokaji
Super Active DPF Member
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Considering recent events and the general feeling of betrayal in myself and many other members of this forum, I thought it might be prudent to start a thread to discuss how to get DPF back on track before we lose it entirely. This past year or two has been tough for all of us, and this forum should be a refuge, a place of fun and comfort, not a place where we worry about offense or politics. Here are my thoughts:
Change in Leadership: DPF's mods have been doing this job for a long time, and mostly, they've been okay. Recently, however, they've been more and more stringent, and less and less willing to consider the real needs of this community, stifling its growth. Old feuds and hurt feelings are hard to let go, but if we don't allow the community to move beyond the sins of the past, then that's where we'll be stuck. My proposals:
1) Make moderation more transparent - This means making decisions and changes more public, allowing for periods of discussion, and not silencing dissenters (closing the pervious thread certainly did very little for my confidence in this forum's leadership).
2) Add new folks to the Mod Team - Not only will this bring new ideas and perspectives to the forum, but it will provide better coverage and quicker responses. Our current team can take a while to even remove spam posts, which sit around for days. We all have lives, but allowing for different time zones, different backgrounds and availabilities is best. Life happens to all of us - and I continue to wish the best for the mods/admins who have health problems <3 - but sometimes we need to put our health in front of our pride and let others take the jobs we may not be able to perform as well as we'd want.
Return to Previous Rule: Since all of this started over the posting of outside links, I would suggest returning to the ability to post them, provided that the poster is not just spamming/promoting and is actually getting involved in the community. I will point to @starry_solo's longtime connection to PTDB as the co-founder and runner of the site. For years, she has been allowed not only to advertise for the site, but to appropriate images/information from the forum for her site. This was okay because she is also committed to the community and was using our opinions and suggestions to improve the database, which is what we want. If we are going to sell ourselves as a community, then the database sites are a part of that - they are a necessary scaffold for the hobby. I would rather see the creators/organizers of those sites seeking assistance from the people who use them than being stifled and scorned by us.
What are your thoughts? How do you foresee DPF changing for the better to allow us all the right mix of freedom and safety? Can we still save DPF?
(Mods: I have a copy of this post saved, and will repost if it is closed or deleted.)
Change in Leadership: DPF's mods have been doing this job for a long time, and mostly, they've been okay. Recently, however, they've been more and more stringent, and less and less willing to consider the real needs of this community, stifling its growth. Old feuds and hurt feelings are hard to let go, but if we don't allow the community to move beyond the sins of the past, then that's where we'll be stuck. My proposals:
1) Make moderation more transparent - This means making decisions and changes more public, allowing for periods of discussion, and not silencing dissenters (closing the pervious thread certainly did very little for my confidence in this forum's leadership).
2) Add new folks to the Mod Team - Not only will this bring new ideas and perspectives to the forum, but it will provide better coverage and quicker responses. Our current team can take a while to even remove spam posts, which sit around for days. We all have lives, but allowing for different time zones, different backgrounds and availabilities is best. Life happens to all of us - and I continue to wish the best for the mods/admins who have health problems <3 - but sometimes we need to put our health in front of our pride and let others take the jobs we may not be able to perform as well as we'd want.
Return to Previous Rule: Since all of this started over the posting of outside links, I would suggest returning to the ability to post them, provided that the poster is not just spamming/promoting and is actually getting involved in the community. I will point to @starry_solo's longtime connection to PTDB as the co-founder and runner of the site. For years, she has been allowed not only to advertise for the site, but to appropriate images/information from the forum for her site. This was okay because she is also committed to the community and was using our opinions and suggestions to improve the database, which is what we want. If we are going to sell ourselves as a community, then the database sites are a part of that - they are a necessary scaffold for the hobby. I would rather see the creators/organizers of those sites seeking assistance from the people who use them than being stifled and scorned by us.
What are your thoughts? How do you foresee DPF changing for the better to allow us all the right mix of freedom and safety? Can we still save DPF?
(Mods: I have a copy of this post saved, and will repost if it is closed or deleted.)