Big Board Subforum for admins of large sites

[Makoto]

You would assume each 'big board' that meets minimal requirements would be reviewed BEFORE they gain access to big board forums. This would ensure only serious big boards get access and not any 'spammed up' ones.

And now we're back to my previous point,

If you're going to classify a big board by anything, why not just use their Alexa rank?

I've seen people on here who "forge" their forum stats just to give the illusion that their forum is popular and active. It's a shady and stupid tactic that almost never works, but it has been done.

I am not in support of this idea. Why? Because it's pointless. The idea that you need a special forum to cater just to you is silly. What about the members with big boards out there who mainly just lurk the forums and have no idea such a section exists? Or what about the membes with big boards that simply don't want to associate themselves with their personal forums here? How exactly do you audit all of these members to ensure they have communities up to your standards of a "big board?"

You want the staff members to start accepting applications for an exclusive forum and taking time to thoroughly review the submission of every single user that wants to apply?

[Cyrem]

And now we're back to my previous point,

You want the staff members to start accepting applications for an exclusive forum and taking time to thoroughly review the submission of every single user that wants to apply?

It would be the only legit way to do it, case by case review.

Two big board owners in this topic have expressed their want of such a forum to dicuss very detailed things, there is probably many that lurk who don't get involved in general dicussion because they would like a section also. Why not give other big board owners a chance to reason on why they want it? I really don't see it as a problem, it's not like the general public is losing anything.

[Makoto]

It would be the only legit way to do it, case by case review.

Two big board owners in this topic have expressed their want of such a forum to dicuss very detailed things, there is probably many that lurk who don't get involved in general dicussion because they would like a section also. Why not give other big board owners a chance to reason on why they want it? I really don't see it as a problem, it's not like the general public is losing anything.

So because two members want it, we should cater to their personal requests and give them a VIP forum..?

I also highly, highly doubt big board members are avoiding actively participating in the community here because there's no exclusive section for "big board" owners such as themselves.

If you want a forum exclusive to "big board owners," why not go make your own board just for that?

[flowerhornsorg]

Every big board section I have been a member of is all application based with clear cut post/member counts and its completely discretionary to the owner of the forum/site. The current site I am maintaining is 150k users, 3.5 million posts on 2 dedicated beefy bad ass servers and no its not ipb, I am not convinced that is the best solution for them. Ive dealt with massive hack attacks, weeks of non stop DDOS attacks, hardware failure etc. With out the support of those forums we would not be where we are today, we hit walls numerous times and thought the only solution was throw more hardware at it but thanks to other big board admins was able to make changes to squeeze more power out of our current setups. To do this I had to lay out my entire setup, configurations, versions, etc that I would not want out in the open even if it was a customer only access. Paranoid? Damn straight. Why? Because we have been the target of non stop hacks and I dont want to give them any knowledge of my setup. The current section is fine for discussing general things but these big board sections take it to a new level. Sorry if you cant see that and only see this as wanting special permissions or being elite. There doesn't have to be a badge, or a user group or anything visible to the general public all I want to see is a section and see Invision takes big boards seriously. Most are not Invision, check here http://www.big-boards.com/statistics/

[Makoto]

And so you think having a private, closed off section of the forum only a select few can have access to will give you a greater chance of support than a forum open to all clients including other big board owners?

[Marcher Technologies]

Re-read Kirito.

I do understand the need for privacy when posting detailed specifications of a site which gets repeatedly attacked.

That said, a good number of the people who could actually use that information to help you do not own a big board, myself included.

Programmers rarely operate/manage this size of a site, or even have the free time to do so.

Exceptions to said rule exist obviously.

[flowerhornsorg]

And so you think having a private, closed off section of the forum only a select few can have access to will give you a greater chance of support than a forum open to all clients including other big board owners?

Yes. Its a separate section so its my discretion where I want to post my question, to people who understand my situation or to the general public for help. And from past experiences I do get better answers from the big board sections but sometimes it can take awhile for an answer. I think if IPB wants to show its serious about big boards they will create a section for big boards.

[PTD]

And so you think having a private, closed off section of the forum only a select few can have access to will give you a greater chance of support than a forum open to all clients including other big board owners?

Why so much hate? Your replies in this thread are a good example of why big board owners wouldn't want to air their issues in public.

[Cyrem]

So because two members want it, we should cater to their personal requests and give them a VIP forum..?

If you look closely, I said "give other big board owners a chance". Meaning, let them say why they would like such a forum before trying to shut them down. You've only heard from two so far.

[Makoto]

It's not hate. I'm just saying the idea seems silly and pointless. It would get little to no traction.

Quit trying to act so pretentious.

To start, this requires a submission process to be established. Rules, guidelines, and a means of requesting access while making this section known to the general public at the same time. Then IPB will either need to dedicate time themselves to review these submissions or hire on volunteers they trust to do it for them.

All this overhead just because you don't want to deal with the vast majority of the community here. If you want to start an elitist forum for big board owners, make your own forum. There's no reason to go through such extensive efforts here.

I run a decent sized forum myself. I've seen great advice from members everywhere here on ways to optimize servers to help keep up with the rising overhead that many big boards face. I'm simply stating going through such extensive lengths for a VIP forum that only a few would make use of is not worth the trouble. It would not be as beneficial as you seem to think it would be.

[PTD]

You're just behaving like an irrational child, and the way you conduct yourself just underlines why people who are serious about running their forums cannot possibly rely on the support forums here for much of anything.

[Makoto]

You're just behaving like an irrational child, and the way you conduct yourself just underlines why people who are serious about running their forums cannot possibly rely on the support forums here for much of anything.

Again with your pretentious attitude.

For one, you have no knowledge of any of the communities I run.

Funny story, by majority of definitions posted here, I do, in fact, run a big board myself. Does knowing that magically make my opinion here worth anything more? No, it doesn't.

I'm not behaving like an irrational child. I'm posting my thoughts on why this idea is not needed and why it would not be worth the troubles of implementing. You are showing an outburst because you do not agree with me. If anyone here needs to grow up, it would be you.

Now, I recommend we move back to the topic at hand here.

[Rhett]

Please be respectful or please refrain from posting. :)

[Cyrem]

Right on!, Rhett

I would like to see real reasons as to why this is bad and why it is good... and no 'elitist' is not a reason.

Some things I like:

> New avenue for big board owners to have technical discussions.

> Privacy to owners of big boards, allows them to have discussions on issues facing their communities at large specifically. Other big board owners may be able to share experience on such matters.

> Sharing of configurations of big boards.

While there may be many applications to get access to that forum at the start, it will thin out to once every now and then. Reviews don't have to be essays, they are more of a look over... checking content and such.

I'm not a big board owner, I have a small board.

[• Jay •]

The current section is fine for discussing general things but these big board sections take it to a new level. Sorry if you cant see that and only see this as wanting special permissions or being elite. There doesn't have to be a badge, or a user group or anything visible to the general public all I want to see is a section and see Invision takes big boards seriously. Most are not Invision, check here http://www.big-boards.com/statistics/

BB's statistics are painfully oudated. Click around on some of the links at the address you provided.

[GreenLinks]

You should be looking at how powerful the software is, not at how friendly the users of the said software are.

I haven't seen any "nasty, argumentative behavior" in this thread.

Also,

That is completely and uttetly false.

Until now , i was respecting your opinion but this message clearly highlights that you have absolutely no idea what we are talking about.
Even your message clearly highlight the need of this Big Board section.

Statistics can only be tracked if you have valid data on your hand. Alexa have no valid data at all. They just track user statistics if an End User has Alexa Toolbar on their browser. This is reality , and imagine how many actual people use Alexa toolbar. Then calculate validity of the data supplied by Alexa :) Alexa stats are just wild goose.

Why should we loose time with guy like you who has no knowledge but claim to know everything.

Ant the hate you expressed on other replies is incredible. It looks like you are jealous because you don't have a successful board.

[Makoto]

Why should we loose time with guy like you who has no knowledge but claim to know everything.

Ant the hate you expressed on other replies is incredible. It looks like you are jealous because you don't have a successful board.

That's cute. Throwing petty insults like that.

Just to clarify a few things,

1. My only point was that things like post and member count alone should not be used to recognize a site as being "big and popular." My statement was that Alexa would be a more accurate indicator than relying on those basic statistics alone. I still hold true to that statement.
2. My forum is not massive or huge by any means, but it is certainly active and successful in its particular niche. I'm not going to entertain you with tangible numbers, but I can assure you I have nothing to be jealous over. Sorry bud.
3. I never claimed to be all knowing. That's just you being rude again. I have, however, stated that running a popular site does not inherently make you more knowledgeable than everyone else here. Sorry bud, you're certainly no genius yourself, no matter how much IPS caters to you, you're still nothing but a jerk in my eyes.
4. I have not been hateful. I've just expressed as to why it's not worth the time and effort to create such an elaborate system for a special sub-forum that will offer few benefits over the existing forums. If you really hate all of us "newbies" here, go take yourself and your attitude to another forum.
5. Way to completely ignore Rhett's post asking to keep the discussion here friendly.

[Aiwa]

There are all kinds of big board forums out there that have resources specifically targeted for this.

Like IPS said in a recent blog post, if they can't do something well, it's probably best not to do it at all.

I see the benefit for big board owners, but how many do you think will come to this site and use it? They have to know its here and they have to know to apply for it. I doubt IPS would send out a newsletter to all it's 'big board' clients and tell them about it because IPS doesn't keep track of your board post count. The only time IPS looks at your board is when you explicitly request them to via a support ticket.

I understand you want privacy, but realistically there will probably only be a handful of clients actually have access to it that wouldn't frequent the board enough to be of use.

[Makoto]

That's basically what I've been trying to say, Aiwa. But you said it in a much more rational and less aggressive way.

Thank you for being the level-headed voice of reason here.

[bfarber]

The hostility in this topic is getting over the top. Please calm it down.

One thing I'm not understanding - the argument was put forth that a private big board section would be beneficial, then in the same posts it's pointed out that it would show we care about big boards and their needs. If the section is private, it really doesn't, since only existing (big board) clients would see it. Just wanted to point that out.

The vast majority of our "big board" clients actually do not utilize our forums here. They contact us via tickets when they require our support, or otherwise have server management teams that manage the servers. I'm not sure how much use a big board only section would get, and if it's not used, there's not much point in having it. I would expect there would need to be significant interest from big board clients before we would set up such an area.

Fun fact: I typed "big bird" instead of big board twice in that last post.

[Rimi]

I just want to point out that I've seen Kirito's board and it is VERY big and successful and he has over 200 gb of downloadable content so don't even go there. He is definitely a big board owner.

I am also a big board owner (over 8 million posts, almost 10k members and about 2k posts a day) and I can see the one on TAZ and it sucks. Seriously nothing of interest there. If IPS were to do it it would just be another flop like the admin tips board they have here. IPS doesn't want to develop their community here. They're a company focused on customer service and product development not community management for a small fraction of their clients. You guys should just drop it. This will never happen and if it did it would flop.

So there. You now have 2 big board owners against the idea neither of whom want to share their url.

[PTD]

The vast majority of our "big board" clients actually do not utilize our forums here. They contact us via tickets when they require our support, or otherwise have server management teams that manage the servers. I'm not sure how much use a big board only section would get, and if it's not used, there's not much point in having it. I would expect there would need to be significant interest from big board clients before we would set up such an area.

I think that part is very much true, unless there would be a critical mass of people using the section it would be pointless. I'm more disappointed by the hostile atmosphere here in your support forums than I am about anyone saying they don't like the idea. And, of course I use support ticket when I need support, but there are sometimes when I'd like to have the advice of peers rather than support from the staff, and it's a shame that there isn't a supportive environment here that can provide an area for that. I really enjoyed my time with Xenforo, especially before Brogan 'retired' because their support forum was very helpful and they made everyone feel welcome. As it stands today, the atmosphere here in the IPS support community is about on the same level I see at vBulletin, an that is a very, very bad thing.

[Makoto]

I disagree. For the most part, the community here has shown to be quite hepful, in my opinion.

Sometimes threads like this pop-up where things get a little overly heated, but overall, the community here is not terrible.

For what it's worth, I do think this site serves its purpose fairly well. It's a technical support and suggestions forum.

There are some things I'm not keen on, but nothing I care to complain about.

[Aiwa]

Peer support in this community is fantastic. For general issues you get multiple people that genuinely want to help out.

You can't fault the community when a polarizing issue such as this is brought up and discussed and both sides voice their opinion.

[Dmacleo]

I don't have any opinion one way or the other on need for the sub-forum/section, but if there was one I would like to be able to read it. even if not allowed to post the ability to read the topics and learn from them would be valuable.