Feedback from Tuesday night’s chat

I’d like everyone on the staff to read this thoughtfully, and give it a chance to sink in. I’ve spoken with a few of you one-on-one about Tuesday’s chat and the follow-up responses, but felt it’s important to make it very clear where I stand on all of this.

First of all, I just want to say that I think we’ve got an exceptional staff. I have participated at a lot of popular forums, and seen a lot of drama unfold. Even this, though feelings have been hurt, pales by comparison to what many forums experience. The credit goes to each of you. You are an exception staff and I’m glad to work with you.

That’s not to say that everything is perfect. Heck, we don’t live in a perfect world. We don’t have perfect schedules or perfect lives. But as far as forums go, I’m proud to work with you.

Some of you were upset that I posted an edited transcript of the chat in the public forum. I apologize if I offended you with that post. I only did so because the chat itself occurred in a public area (yes, our IRC chat is a public area), and because I promised that I would. As I’ve stated in my previous responses, I don’t agree with everything that was said in that chat or in the forums, but feel it should be discussed and that you should be aware of what was said in the chat.

Evilseph, airing dirty laundry in public was completely inappropriate. If a non-staff member had said the same thing, it would be ok, but coming from a staff member it was completely inappropriate. Airing such concerns is one of the reasons this Staff forum exists. We shouldn’t be bitching about each other in public. This goes for everyone… and it includes badmouthing staff members in IRC.

As for staff friendliness, the feedback I’ve had about the staff has been overwhelmingly postive; that people like BigBlueBall because it’s a warm and friendly place, unlike many other forums out there. A few times I’ve had people complain that they felt like the staff was too clique-ish, and other people made to feel like outsiders, but that feedback is rare. I want to note that none of the negative feedback I’ve received has ever singled out the CC team; it’s always been directed at the staff in general.

Personally, I think we do an exceptional job of making people feel welcome and comfortable here at BigBlueBall, but I agree with some of the comments that there is room for improvement.

The main area where I think we (and by we, I do NOT mean the CC team, but ALL of the staff) can improve is in handling so-called “rule violations” with newcomers. As I’ve pointed out, we have forum posting guidelines that probably nobody ever bothers reading. Nor should they have to. We should make it easy for them to post, without breaking any forum guidelines.

To that end, I’ve already implemented a new change. As of today, new members have a basic text edit window when they sign-up. This is the simplest option and works basically like the Quick Reply form. There are NO formatting buttons at all. I believe this will resolve 99% of the formatting problems going forward.

BBcode still works, so people experienced with that can still use it. And members can still change their editor preference though the user options in My BigBlueBall, but again, that implies a certain level of technical awareness and resolves the “forum newbie” problems.

As for handling forum guideline violations, it’s almost impossible to say anything to a new member that “corrects” them without making them feel bad. So I’m initiating the following staff policy effective immediately. When someone violates a rule or accepted forum etiquette, simply correct the problem. Don’t say anything what you did or even explain why. If editing, moving or merging the topic is involved, you can post a simple, factual comment in the “reasons for editing” field, but otherwise leave no notice, reply or instructions.

Here are some examples:

• A POST IN ALL CAPS – Just edit the post and converting it to regular text. Word has the ability to change the capitalization style. I copy the text to Word, convert the capitalization, and paste the corrected text back.
• Mis-use of text formatting – Simply remove the formatting. Leave a note in the “reasons for editing” like — “Removed extra formatting per forum guidelines.” This problem should be greatly diminished with the change that I mentioned above.
• Non-descriptive title – Most of the editing I do involves changing the titles of forum topics. I correct spelling, case and add detail. I don’t leave a reason for editing or notify the original poster. We get a lot of topics that say something like “need help PLZ!!!!!” which I then change to “Need help installing Yahoo Messenger beta” (or whatever the topic is really about).
• Multiple posts – We often see forum newbies posting a topic, then replying and replying rather than editing their post. Just merge their posts. No need to say anything. As they use the forum more, they’ll understand this part of forum etiquette. And frankly, most people don’t care if someone else does that. And if they do, let THEM say something (rather than the staff). That way we can be the good guy, and don’t have to police things.
• Animated avatars – This has been correct by vBulletin, which now prevents users from uploading an animated avatar (unless we decide at some point to allow them).
• Signature violations – Too many lines or images too large. This is a minor issue. If there’s something that’s ridiculous, it can be edited and the person notified. Don’t post anything in public about it — no need.

Let’s loosen up and let people be people. If it becomes a problem or we have someone who keeps doing the wrong things, we can handle the matter quietly and privately to avoid embarassing anyone.

My feeling about the feedback we got in the chat and subsequently in the forums is that it is valuable for all of us to hear perceptions of people. That doesn’t mean that their perceptions are accurate, but neither does it mean that their perceptions are meaningless.

As I’ve said, we’ve got a great staff, and all of the teams do a remarkable job. Even so, some people might get the wrong impression. Our duty is to try to correct that impression. Not to kiss their butt or anything like that, but to make sure their experience of BigBlueBall fits with the reality of our staff — warm, welcoming and helpful.

Honest feedback is a difficult thing to get, and we got a LARGE dose of it this week. But that same feedback can be invaluable. It can either tear us apart, or serve as the catalyst for making us better. Which path will each of you choose?

A reminder… it is NOT ok to put down, gloat or belittle another staff member in the IRC chat. Sometimes I think I’m back in middle school! 😉

Secondly, I want to remind everyone to keep things in perspective. In Iraq, Lebanon and other parts of the world, civilians die in explosions on a regular basis. A little discontent amongst the staff? It’s small stuff in the big scheme of things. We will work through this, and not only will BigBlueBall be better for it, but each of us will be better for it as well.