This weekend, even I didn't want be around this website. Over the last six years, I've put more hours than I could possibly care to account for into this site and to see it sink it to a bottom-less swell of negativity and abuse between members every time we lose guts me, because it's so far away from why I started this site and why I continue to maintain it, despite the sacrifices in my work and family lives that involves.
I'm very proud of 1Eyed Eel but I wasn't proud of it over the weekend.
First let me make it clear. I don't expect everyone to be happy, happy joy joy, especially after a loss. I don't expect every one to be 1Eyed fans of each and every single player. I don't like censorship and I don't like over-moderation. But I do know that when my own website turns me off, there is a problem.
So I've made changes to the way the site and discussions have been laid out and I'm making changes to the way moderators will handle content going forward.
Firstly, you will notice there are now 6 blog categories
At the moment, only Parra Blogs show on the front page in the main blogs section. These blogs are reserved only for thoughtful blogs written about the Parramatta Eels. The goal of this is to keep the most interesting blogs at the front and centre of the site. Blogs in this category will be more heavily regarded in terms of the deletion of comments that impinge on our Code of Conduct rules including abuse and unnecessary swearing.
Blogs that do not fit into this or any of the other blogs, should be posted to the Trash Blogs.I've called it this because if you want to talk trash and just vent and let off steam then you can do so here. I'm asking the moderators to be less heavy-handed in terms of moderating these blogs. I'm also tasking our moderators with moving blogs into this forum that either do not fit the criteria laid out for Parra blogs or where the discussion has spiralled into trash or even where there is an obvious repeat of a previous blog. All unqualified rumours should also go into this section.
I'm introducing a kind of sin bin. If I believe you have infringed our code of conduct, you'll be asked to only post into the Trash Blogs forum. You will be sent a message to your Inbox and to your Wall explaining why. If you ignore this request, you're account will be deleted. I'll also delete your account if you're in the sin bin and you continue to repeat the reasons you're in there. This is my call, don't question it. Get your posts back on track, and I'll inform you via a private and public post that you're now able to post to the main blog category.
To further expand on a point made above, I'm asking the moderators to moderate more stringently on those comments that fall into the Abuse category which are made in the Parra Blogs discussion area. If you disagree with someone, don't call them a name, swear at them or threaten them. All such comments in the Parra Blogs comment will now be immediately deleted. And regardless of what category they're in, they will be deleted from the front page activity stream because I don't consider this content a good advertisement for the site.
A couple of other things. You will see if you click on Blogs, there is a new front screen that again brings to the top blogs made in the Parra Blogs category. If you only want to read stuff from this category, just click on that category and if all goes to plan it should all be thoughful, interesting discussions about the might Parramatta Eels.
If you're quite happy to weed through all of the blogs then you can select All Blogs. This is the old view that we had and brings all of the blogs together, sorted by Latest Activity.
These new blog categories replace the old Groups. I've left only The Swarm group as I think its useful to use that for people to sign up for the group and to have an archive of content that people can easily find. Groups also provide a way to message everyone who joins, so I'll be restricting groups more so to people groups than topics, as they never worked very well in that regard anyway.
I'm also going to ask a few more people to come on board as moderators. I'll let you know who they are once they've accepted.
Finally, you can now easily find the Code of Conduct under the Members link.
I've given this a lot of thought and I'm very hopeful this will address the issues that some members have been having with our site and allow it to keep growing without taking away from the core, quality conversations I think the site built its reputation on. I'm going to get some of these guidelines and explanations onto a page and also build it into the welcome email people get when they join the site. I thank every one for their tolerance and patience and your help and assistance in building what I hope comes to be regarded as the best footy site on the web.
Replies
I'd also like to see things like "MK is Crap" reduced to only 1 blog in the Trash section. We seem to get 20 of them when it all can be in one. Maybe have an auto-filter that gives you sub headings in TRASH, something like the players names. Even the old site we used to get the incessant player bagging but it has increased 100 fold now. I'm not advocating these posts, but we can't really stop it.
Each poster can self moderate their own thread if they like as well. In you own privacy settings, you are able to set it up so only approved responses will be posted.
Good work Phil!
Would be nice to trace the I.P address that people use, as certain people logging in under aliases and stirring things up.
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