darkSpyro

Hey, dark.

Idea occurs to me - running this site probably isn't cheap. Knowing the costs associated with operating a fan site and the income related to ad revenue (although, admittidly, I know nothing about the specifics of your individual site - even more so when it comes to your relationship with Curse) - but what about setting up a couple of private forums for users who donate a set amount of funds? Something where you can invite as many dS friends and chat about whatever you want. The donor would be a mini-mod on that singular forum, controlling who has access and if posts need deleted/closed. The donor could also approve additional mods, if he/she desires.

Setting up a forum where the mod is the person that pays is asking for abusive mods. Paying obviously doesn't make people more responsible over their forums as we can see in quite a few examples. No point in leaving a free place for such a thing.

Thank you for your opinion, Bifrost. However, having a private forum isn't about being "responsible". It's a place gor a group of pals to kick back and relax without worry. Since it's relegated to a tiny section of the forum that the vast majority of users will never see, it wouldn't really effect day-to-day operations on the forum.

And paying isn't just to make oneself king - it is also about giving something back.

I find this a little disastrous. Too complexing. I mean it could put more corrupt people behind the power bars of moderation. Moderation is about up keep and responsibility, not payment.

The individuals would only have the "power" to moderate within the confines of his/her own forum. It's no different than deleting posts off your own guestbook.

Think of it this way - the entire forum is a city, with dark as the mayor and the Hunters as the local PD.

You buy a house in the city. You can make rules and decide whom is and is not allowed inside your home - however, the local police still have some authority in your home (I.e.: you can't kill someone or play music too loud) and your rules have zero application outside of your home.

Perhaps calling them mini-mods is the wrong term. "Forum Parent".

It's not a place to relax and have fun if the possiblity of the guy who gave 50 bucks to Dark is a total jerk exists. Say X user's someone with an agenda - he hates Skylanders and wants to drown out all discussion in it. He creates his private forum with harassment of people from other places who do as much as approve of Skylanders - he'll ban all criticism, and if a global mod comes up to him saying he can't be that mean, he'll just wave his 50 bucks in front of them and say it's his right because he bought that space. It'd be a mess no one can control even with rules against that because someone can always try for a loophole or call a brigade on the basis that they're doing false advertisement that they could actually mod their own forums.

But the complexing part is what you meant by 'forum'.

Perhaps instead of making sections or 'forums'. Perhaps to buy customizations for your guestbook. Or something to do with customization with your profile. Like wallpaper wise and such? Since it will still head to dark in terms of money, and people can have prettier looking Guestbooks.

Trix - I like the idea of paid guestbook/profile upgrades. :D

Finally we can agree on something here.

Maybe there could be the option to pay to upgrade your guest book so that instead of a long chain of individual posts, there could be threads with replies and such.

Or maybe a installing GB chat box that functions as the individual posts, but it's scroll-able in the box. Instead of scrolling all the way down to the GB and hitting the page button.

Not a bad idea, but I'm more partial to the threaded view. It allows someone who wants to organize the discussions on their guestbook instead of having what is basically a single thread for every conversation.

True.

So, instead of a "Private Forum", we will call it a "GuestBook Upgrade". Threaded posts/replies, custom backgrounds, and an expansion of the already present blocking ability that makes it so one can make it such that people not on his/her friends list cannot read/reply to his/her guestbook.

How's that?

Quote: UncleBob

So, instead of a "Private Forum", we will call it a "GuestBook Upgrade". Threaded posts/replies, custom backgrounds, and an expansion of the already present blocking ability that makes it so one can make it such that people not on his/her friends list cannot read/reply to his/her guestbook.

How's that?

But the last bit is only for blocked people right?

I'd suggest setting it up with two options that the Guestbook Owner can chose from:

A. Open Guestbook - Only Blocked people cannot read/post
B. Closed Guesbook - Only "Friends" can read/post.

Oh okay that works.

So... virtually everything I suggested in the OP, just under a different name. :D

Well except GB wise instead of a whole section really.

...It sounds like you're describing something that could be implemented much more easily with mass PMs. Just having the option to PM multiple users and adding in a "Reply All" option so you can communicate with everyone. I don't remember if this exists here or not, because the last time I tried PMing multiple users it was 2008 and the PM system just started existing.

As to the idea of creating Guestbooks threads, I disagree with it, especially if there were to be a system wherein only Friends or non-blocked members could view it. To me, that positively screams "The perfect place to trash talk other members behind their back." As it stands right now, people will use their friends' PUBLIC guestbooks to make nasty comments about users they dislike. It's especially easy to do that since the only people who can delete such comments are the user whose guestbook it is and (presumably) dark.

The way I see it, if you can't use PMs or a topic on one of the boards to discuss something, you're best going off this site. I've seen plenty of sites that offer some sorts of premium bonuses, and I'm not against that. But those bonuses are mostly little extras and cosmetic details, not something that gives you super special access. But that's just my 2 cents... err, 3 paragraphs. <.<;

The thing with a "mass PM" system is that it would be a nightmare to navigate. Imagine a forum where every single thread is a single reply that you click into to read. Then, to read the next reply, you have to scroll through 3 pages of other replies to see if there is another reply. Ugh.

A couple of sites out there give you special access based on things like paid membership, longevity with the forum, etc. GameFaqs even has some private forums.

Could they be used as a "trash these users behind their backs" hideout? Sure. But, I can't imagine a private forum like that would be very successful - and it's not something a lot of folks will pay for. I find that the negative folks with the sole purpose of tearing down other forum members are unliekly to actually put money towards the forum.

Besides, we have a small set of members who use guestbooks, pms and open threads to trash users *now*. I'd rather they keep their trash hidden than drag it out in public view, wouldn't you?

I'm going to be honest, I wouldn't mind donating some money. It's probably expensive to host this site. >_>

Another nice donation benefit would be increased avatar size up to 150X150, Bronze names, and avatar kb limit increased to 70-80 kb.