Untidy in General Chat

[rt]

Hi

It would be great if you could delete or move the posts which break forum rules (i.e. support/pre-sale enquires) which go in the General Chat as it gets very clustered at the moment with 1/3 of the topics closed.

Just a tad suggestion

Calum

[tomek__w]

Actually I think this is a great idea - and not just for the General Chat forum!

Have a 'spam' forum (read only) and move all the rubbish to it - just in case some sad people want to read it - and delete the contents at the end of every week.

If people cannot read/understand the forum rules, and the word feedback, then they deserve to have their posts go into a 'spam' forum!

[Working4computers]

Maybe not delete the content. I'm not a fan of deleting anything (you should see my HDD)

But maybe to move all the "trash" to an appropriate read-only place....

[Rikki]

I'm not a fan of moving topics to another 'spam' forum. I think it's impolite and confusing to move someones topic without any indication you've done so, so avoiding that would mean the forum is just as full as it is now, only with 'Moved:' topics instead.

When we lock a topic, generally we keep them in the forum for a day or so, then delete them, to give the starter a chance to see why the action was taken. This doesn't always happen though, but by then the topics have usually dropped off the front page anyway. Also doesn't apply to spam/flooding/etc. which gets deleted straight away.

[rt]

Ian - Good suggestion there.

I understand Rikki - it's irratting for the user who posted it too I suppose, but it's just fustrating that users are ignorant of the rule not to post about IPS related things in the wrong places.

[Mat Barrie]

Ignorant and deliberately ignoring the rules are not the same thing. All too often these people add "sorry if it's in the wrong place" - because they know they shouldn't be posting it ANYWHERE. When I'm trying to find an interesting thread to read, I get thoroughly sick of filtering through "help plz", "my forum wont work" and "my site was hacked" and so forth, because the person posting was too blind or stupid to read the text in bold at the top of every page of the forum (INCLUDING THE POST PAGE) saying "For support, either submit a ticket or visit IPSBeyond" - where in that does it say "But you're special, so you can post here"? It doesn't?

Though of course, the Company Feedback forums don't actually HAVE any text saying "Don't bloody request support here"

And Rikki, you say it's impolite or confusing to move someone's topic with no indication you've done so? I think it's MORE impolite that they completely, DELIBERATELY, ignore the rules set down by IPS - it's like walking into someone's house and peeing on the carpet because you didn't want to use the lavatory.

[Rikki]

Well that's the thing. People know spamming is wrong, so we waste no time in deleting it without question. But I don't think people always deliberately ignore the 'no support' rules - yeah the note at the top is big enough, but still. People might not notice the note, and people asking support questions are either customers or potential customers, so I think it's best for all if we treat it politely and direct them to the proper place. Of course, if someone persists, then we start clamping down on it more firmly.

[tomek__w]

Rikki,

I have to agree with what you have said, especially about being impolite etc, however........

If we have a rule - No support - then that rule should be firm but fair. It would be simple matter to add a few words to the forum rules along the line of "Support related posts will be locked and moved to the xxx forum" (note the red and bold!) and I for one would consider this to be fair. I would also guess that the vast majority of members would agree as well.

To be honest I would be happy to see 'minor' support issues being allowed here but that just opens the doors to further abuse - who decides what is minor?

I know that some members requesting support are associated with legal boards and need help when the 'owner' is not available but now that IPS Beyond allows this there should be even fewer requests here from this type of person.

Just another 2 pence worth from me.

[Mark]

The people who spam don't pay attention to the forum rules as it is

[Antony]

In my opinion you'd be best off to move the offending topics and run a daily task to remove the refering topics with the moved prefix, which in my opininon would be the most helpful way to direct people to the correct forum.

[Midnightmadness]

The best thing you guys can do when you see a spammer spam the forums is use the reported post to a moderator link in the offending thread and they'll get to it ASAP Ive a used it a few times and it helps the moderators out who can't be everywhere all of the time.

I dont agree about offering "minor support" here sorry we do have IPS beyond for that and there is allways the knoweledge base in your client area it just makes it fair for paying customers like myself

Just my two cents.

[Grant]

Personally I find that leaving the posts in the forums make it easier for anyone to search for certain topics. I myself personally search the forums for topics that I have already read. For example, the TextMate topic here that I had read not too long ago was really handy as I had to reformat my computer and I didn't save my Bundles for TextMate so I had to start over. Some of the TextMate features that I had put into the bundles I had not written in such a long time that I had forgotten. If they actually had pruned those topics, I would have lost all my nice features. So moving them to a trash form might make it a little harder as I don't even know what the topic names are 90 % of the time. Plus, how does it hurt to just have all the locked topics in here. As long as their locked who is getting hurt?

[ellawella]

And Rikki, you say it's impolite or confusing to move someone's topic with no indication you've done so? I think it's MORE impolite that they completely, DELIBERATELY, ignore the rules set down by IPS - it's like walking into someone's house and peeing on the carpet because you didn't want to use the lavatory.

Must agree.

IMO, the most sensible solution is the most obvious one - bring the customer-to-customer support forums BACK HERE so threads posted in the wrong place can be moved in there. If someone has no licence and cannot view their own topic anymore, too bad.

As for clutter, move without a redirect then PM the topic starter. All it needs to be is a copy & pasted message. Or PM multi-moderation. Hmm, now how's that for an idea....

[stobbo]

I think keeping IPS Beyond and IPS Company Forums seperate would be better, as I have seen IPS staff say in these forums.

[rt]

I think IPS have made the rule clearer in the top of the General Chat. If it was due to the feedback from this topic, thankyou. :thumbsup:

[Brandon C]

Must agree.

IMO, the most sensible solution is the most obvious one - bring the customer-to-customer support forums BACK HERE so threads posted in the wrong place can be moved in there. If someone has no licence and cannot view their own topic anymore, too bad.

IPS has said numerous times that in the future there will be "tighter integration with the IPS Company Forums and IPS Beyond," so I'm wondering what they're going to do there in regards to the tighter integration. Also, I would like to see the Customer Forums back here as well (at least bring the Customer Chat back if you're not going to bring back all of the Customer Forums!). However, I think that ellawella's idea in regards to moving these support threads to the Customer-to-Customer Support Forums on here would be a viable solution (because if they can't see it, they can't receive support on it; simple as that!). This is what I'm hoping for.