Forums

I know you guys are working on a new Unity platform and that it may take a while before you release it. That's fine, we all appreciate your concentrating on D7. However, we really need a support/community forum solution ASAP.

Navigating through this system is just painful and much valuable time is wasted. I'm not going to list the problems we have with these forums as they have already been pointed out by many in the past. I know it is important for you to proudly run every inch of official BoonEx-related stuff with your own software, however, until you do release something that is up to par with the standard, I plead that you kindly consider giving us an IPB/Vbulletin-based forum.

With all sincerity, look at the phpfox user community and tell me how it is not 100-times better than this mess? Those guys are concentrating on developing their script and have given their customers/users a standard platform to interact.

Even SE uses phpBB....

If you gave us an IPB forum, then it would be like riding on a Rolls Royce... Take a look at this one.

Those guys have really nailed down the discussion forum niche and provide scripts that are easy to manage, easy to organize and moderate, and a gazillion other user-friendly features that are too many to list.

Giving us a familiar and solid forum platform would surely do away with many of the issues we curently experience here (e.g., double posts, redundancy in forums/answers/blogs, spam, etc.).

Please, help us out so we can also help more.

houstonlively wrote a blog entry not very long ago on an ad-hoc subject. I would have added the following comments to such a post if the blog system here actually bumped his blog. But since publishing comments on the current system is worthless as blog entries get buried as soon as new entries, even if no discussion takes place in them, are created, I decided to use this. Also, the comments system on blogs do not allow live links.

Although I agree with the many praises given to him, I have not voted nor commented on the latest proposition to make Zarcon a 'Pundit'. Nor have I done the same in Zarcon's own suggestion for the new Unity 'membership' or 'status' proposal. The reason being, what for?

Zarcon is indeed part of a group of cherished Unity members who does his best to help others. Luca is another great 'team-player' here. There are many others. But, as I have witnessed it over the past year, what purpose does it serve to appoint the most brilliant, supportive and dedicated members of this community if they are not given proper tools to actually enhance their contributions and make this a better place?

Sure, 'soon' there will be a new Unity platform that will solve all the problems. C'mon! You've announced this for months, like everything else BoonEx-related.

Every once in a while, a voting thing like this takes place. "Name 'X' as moderator!" "'Y' is a great and knowledgeable contributor to this site!" In fact, several members have proposed themselves (successfully) to become moderators and/or 'pundits' here, and many more have voted them in with the corresponding comments of encouragement, applause and excitement over the fact that they, with their impressive skills and talent, would be more active and helpful and make the community better by filling the void that BoonEx has left....

Where are they? Where do they go once they receive these honorary 'badges'? If these appointments' only purpose is to recognize these users' much appreciated labor of love, fine, award them all badges there are. But this whole thing proves to be worthless over time.

This place's chaos is increasingly becoming less inviting. So much so that I only wonder how long the energy of those who try so hard to make a difference now will last. As it has been the case before with others who just vanished, or simply decided not to take an active roll here.

In anticipation of this post being buried, flamed, and the usual that goes on here, one, only one request to BoonEx: Please, enforce your own rules and clean this place up at once of all content that breaks the rules you established. You do not need the "Next Big Thing" to do that, right? Just re-read your rules and you'll see how easy cleaning this place up will be.

An easy one for you to act on: this job request needs to be eliminated now, as per "Unity Profile" rule #2: "Profile pictures cannot include sexually explicit or graphically intense images."

Hello JLMARTIN!

Thanks for the notes.

We will take them into consideration.

Regards, Lyubov.

Thanks for removing that post.

JL,

you have several valid points in regard to the manner in which this forum and the blogs are managed. It has been told to myself and others who were nominated sometime last year, that when Unity gets revamped, we will be provided with the proper tools to moderate.

Some things that you may not know, as a moderator, we have zero control over a post in the forum. The only thing we can do is notify the poster of a rule infraction and report the problem to Boonex. If boonex has the time to deal with it, then they will take a look. Absolutely not the way this should work. That has been discussed multiple times on multiple levels.

They are working on it.

In regard to the post on jobs, i can halfway explain that. I dont think its Boonex's position to scan each and every post albeit in the forums, the blogs, jobs, questions or any other locale where member interaction is permitted. Posts of the caliber that you believed to warrant deleting, could be reported to the Moderators and in turn if needed, be reported to one of the Boonex staff for their consideration.

One other item i just wanted to touch on, you ask where did those go that were already nominated? Good question, i know that HL (houstonlively) is still here and active as a pundit and he does an excellent job in posting on trac so that the developers can continue to provide the bug fixes. I have gone back and revisited the list of Approved Pundits, as you can see the ones that say confirmed beside the name were the ones who submitted the proper paper work upon request from Boonex.

Dwain - confirmed

gkcgautam - confirmed

Simion - confirmed

YouDidntDidYou

Topher

Juker - confimed

MichelSwiss - confirmed

DosDawg - confirmed

mrpowless

okweb

mscott

houstonlively - confirmed

gameutopia

Kosmic - confirmed

DolphinGeeks

Tallyplayer - confirmed

Dolphin_Jay - confirmed

iced

NYcarpenter

gorpus

killerhaai - confirmed

clubbeyourself - confirmed

mastermindsro - confirmed

RumpyBumpy - confirmed

WESWAYS - confirmed

Tyke - confirmed

kernelpaniker

praveenkv1988 - confirmed

Scriptologist

Masterthemecom

Diddy - confirmed

Now, i can tell you that there have been instances of where a moderator has taken action and the violator immediately began to attack the moderator, via emails here on the boonex system. Not saying that is the reason for all of these confirmed pundits to have not been active in a period of time, but i do know that has thwarted the efforts of those directly involved and some who were indirectly involved, because it seems that nobody wants this to be a hassle, and if its not entertaining, informative, laid-back, inviting, then in all actuality, who wants to be a part of a system where there is constant verbal abuse and harrassment? Nobody, I would tend to believe.

With all that said, it was not meant to be in a negative light. Boonex is trying extremely hard to clean things up on here, its what we dont see going on that is going to eventually provide the Pundits, Moderators, and other membership levels, the proper tools for the job. With the immenent close of expertzzz.com, this site is going to actually grow in leaps and bounds, and there is going to be a certain attraction to trolls, and flamers. That is what our job as moderator, pundit, and member is on here.

Well it appears this is getting lengthy, but there is no short answer, and there is no quick fix. This is an evolving community, and as such changes take place every day. Sometimes you have to roll with the punches, but when its something that is incessantly wrong, you have to be prepared to take a stand.

The Boonex Staff does do the very best they can considering everything else that has top priority. Thanks Lyubov, and i dont even know what it was that you moderated, but obviously it was a necessity.

Thanks JL for pointing out shortcomings of our community and we are looking forward to an additional post with your suggestions on how to make the site a better environment.

Regards,

DosDawg

As for pointing the shortcomings of this community, to which I also belong, and actually making suggestions to improve it, I've done so in the very first post on this thread. I've pointed to what works, and what should be emulated without the need to reinvent. There are certain things that do not require reinventing, nor a list of suggestions, or even thinking too hard.

There is no perfect, 100% focused support community out there, but Unity certainly qualifies as one of the worst.

You explain that a moderator has "zero control over a post in the forum. The only thing [moderators] can do is notify the poster of a rule infraction and report the problem to Boonex." Do we really need suggestions and months and months gone by to resolve this?

You indicate that "there have been instances of where a moderator has taken action and the violator immediately began to attack the moderator, via emails here on the boonex system. Not saying that is the reason for all of these confirmed pundits to have not been active in a period of time, but i do know that has thwarted the efforts of those directly involved and some who were indirectly involved, because it seems that nobody wants this to be a hassle, and if its not entertaining, informative, laid-back, inviting, then in all actuality, who wants to be a part of a system where there is constant verbal abuse and harrassment? Nobody, I would tend to believe."

In most professional communities, the buck stops at the site's admin. If user does not like the admin's decision and actually harrases admins or moderators, user is out, no more dwelling or wasting of anybody's time. If infractors are not happy with the rules or the admins and actually counter with aggressive behavior, they should be out.

How about a 'search' function that actually works on these forums so we can actually locate information and avoid the redundant "how do I register my license" and "what is a cron" questions every other day? Does this function need to be reinvented? Do we really need months and months for these simple things to be resolved? Do you know much precious time could be regained if we had a search button that worked? Almost any free forum script out there could improve Unity member's research experience 100-times better.

So, yes, there are "quick fixes" that would immediately take this community to a whole different level. Not ultimate forum-Nirvana, but given such a large room for improvement here, it will certainly feel like it.

But really, it is all about common sense. I'm not saying anything that has not already been said before by others. So, I read between the lines, and, frankly, your implying that I'm spending the time to point these matters out to simply rant on BoonEx is unnecessary. I don't care to waste my time ranting on devs. I voiced my concerns because I'd like for Unity to serve its purpose, and because it is a torture for me to try to calmly investigate a certain issue that is not in the recent forum posts. I have a vested interest in this, you see, and so the times I've been understanding and calling for patience for the development process of D7 I am also doing it because I feel the devs need my support. I do try to be fair.

At any rate, if more 'suggestions' are needed, well, there are a few blogs and forums posts here that propose some. Other members have also pointed Unity's 'shortcomings' (also called valuable user-feedback in professional support communities). If the task of locating such suggestions becomes too trying, just spend a few hours at Invision or phpfox and you'll get an idea of what a professional, not perfect, but highly useful support community could be like.

I assume you are planning to add a D7.x category in the Dolphin forums to separate it from the others.  I think that would be very helpful to have as soon as possible.

Thanks

I'm sure they'll be adding it soon, but for now, I think they've deserved the rest from all the work they've been doing. The General category should do fine for now.