Mostly because the rules for promoting the newbs aren't the same. There was never this much shite in football forum. Threads like "Oshea's passing" were peak and today you have at least three similar threads per day. Now I am not pretending to be some great poster but I simply can't bother anymore with so much new people posting just for the sake of it. You had Eric Bailly's thread with people pretending they watched him and arguing whether his passing is his weakness or advantage.
We're trialling a new newbie system
- Thread starter Niall
- Start date
Mostly because the rules for promoting the newbs aren't the same. There was never this much shite in football forum. Threads like "Oshea's passing" were peak and today you have at least three similar threads per day. Now I am not pretending to be some great poster but I simply can't bother anymore with so much new people posting just for the sake of it. You had Eric Bailly's thread with people pretending they watched him and arguing whether his passing is his weakness or advantage.
Ah no wonder. There are some terrible new posters about ATM.
I noticed two weirdos in the last week or so. One called @Greatest No 10 and the other @murphs_law .
Not to pick a fight, but for me there has been quite a dip and I think the bold is part of it. I'm not just talking about the last couple of weeks, but over the last year.
There was a point where I could quite happily read all 40 posts on a page but now a days, I find myself having to wade through a lot of barely comprehensible post. Then, like Amar said, you have a lot of members who just post for the sake posting, rather than reading earlier posts and responding to them, so discussion quality takes a hit. Seeing newbies with 1,500 posts within a few months proves that. You only have to go back and look at random threads from 2014 and 2013 to notice a difference in post and discussion quality.
I agree. I can't help but feel its a result of the more recent promoted newbies under this new system not having the same consideration for the quality of their posts and its somewhat rubbing off on the rest of the forum.
I genuinely think a better system would have been to allow a selection of the good mains posters to post in the newbs to help produce good posters and then the scouts can promote them up. This current system of allowing newbs into the mains earlier is coming at the detriment of the forum as whole.
I would argue that I'm seing more idiotic posts from 'experienced' main posters lately than the trialists.
Are we not seeing good contributions from Newbies as well?
There are definitely poorer posters and the mods and scouts are discussing how best to handle that.
That's the value of this trial. We're seeing what does and doesn't work and trying to introduce improvements to help improve quality.
That's the ultimate aim here, to try and improve overall quality over time. Give the good posters the best chance to shine while still filtering out the bad ones.
It's going to take time to make that happen, so the support of the established members is important and appreciated.
There are definitely poorer posters and the mods and scouts are discussing how best to handle that.
That's the value of this trial. We're seeing what does and doesn't work and trying to introduce improvements to help improve quality.
That's the ultimate aim here, to try and improve overall quality over time. Give the good posters the best chance to shine while still filtering out the bad ones.
It's going to take time to make that happen, so the support of the established members is important and appreciated.
I think we are. At least I can recollect decent informative posts from new members as well. A bad post is more likely to stick out hence the general perception is leaning towards negativity.
They are
I think FingeredMouse is one who came up through the trial recently,and he seems to be a well rounded poster.
Obviously they are good and bad posters(But thats true for the older posters too),it just sticks more in the mind when a 'new member' makes a poor post.
Pretty much this yeah.
Yeah, agree with this. Of course, mains posters post daft stuff too, including myself, but it's more noticeable when it's someone with 200 posts and makes you think of them as a bad poster. It does bring the overall level down hence some of the negative responses. Appreciate that it's part of an ongoing trial though.
Are they posting in the Euro forum now? Not that this guy has done anything wrong, just he has 2 likes and 13 posts.
They're part of the trial. In 2014 all newbies were able to participate.
Ah, ok.
Why not hide the number of posts from newbie/trial posters? Sounds like the post counts form the basis for bias
Where are the Likes? I must be missing something (other than a brain). There is a good newbie I wanted to "Like".
Unfortunately you can't like them, only the modmins and scouts can give likes.
I would agree with that.
A lot of the time, yeah. There are often certain discussions/topics which come up on a regular basis, with some agenda driven posters with quite clearly agenda driven posts intended to WUM others, or talk nonsense. Of course, it's still a minority since I'd say the FF posts quality is very decent overall, but it's often been a habit for posters to kind of look down on newbies, as if they've got to earn their stripes first.
According to me at least, the majority of the problems with teh football forum is the overbearing moaning and the negative outlook. It started with Fergie's departure and downturn of the results. We need happy times for the board to thrive.
Yeah, we all post shite in the FF's. Only difference with the newbs that I ever notice is that sometimes their English/spelling/grammar isn't as good but as far as I'm concerned as long as you can be understood that shouldn't be an issue.
You have probably considered this already, but I haven't had the chance to look back over the thread.
A big part of the reason I am still here 3 years after I joined is that I felt it was hard work (sorta) to get to the mains. By the point I was promoted after about a thousand comments, I felt committed. Though when I did go up, I did sort of miss the newbs a bit. At that point there was always good discussion down there (don't know what it's like now) and it was basically another forum of different posters discussing the same thing.
By doing this, aren't you just making the newbs a place where no one is really that keen on investing time and effort? It might be better off trying to make the newbs a better place and then continue to pick a few to come up.
With this system, joining the mains loses meaning and I would not be surprised if the number of mains posters ceasing to post increases.
A big part of the reason I am still here 3 years after I joined is that I felt it was hard work (sorta) to get to the mains. By the point I was promoted after about a thousand comments, I felt committed. Though when I did go up, I did sort of miss the newbs a bit. At that point there was always good discussion down there (don't know what it's like now) and it was basically another forum of different posters discussing the same thing.
By doing this, aren't you just making the newbs a place where no one is really that keen on investing time and effort? It might be better off trying to make the newbs a better place and then continue to pick a few to come up.
With this system, joining the mains loses meaning and I would not be surprised if the number of mains posters ceasing to post increases.
Newbies who are on trial need to be identifiable so that the scouts can give them likes. For this, they have the blue newbie banner atm. Unless this feature visibility can be turned off for non staff, it won't matter if post counts are hidden.
A newbie mentioned that he could only "post 1 more for the day unless he received a like"....It was a decent poster as well, but I couldn't like his post. I assume only mods can?
Has the number of opposition posters increased a lot lately? It feels like every other poster is a Liverpool or Man City fan these days.
I quite like it, as long as they are good posters. We need more Chelsea and Arse fans though. Not sure about Spurs posters since Glaston sets a terrible presedence.
I quite like it, as long as they are good posters. We need more Chelsea and Arse fans though. Not sure about Spurs posters since Glaston sets a terrible presedence.
@Niall There's definitely some good new ones about, but I suppose the bad ones stick out more glaringly, and the instant thought the mind wanders off to is "how the hell did he get promoted?!". But it makes sense now given there's a new system being tried out.
Thanks SJ.
Schuks, I tried to go back into my post history over the last few days, but I can't find the newb. Sorry man.
I blame Ramadan for my shitty memory!
No worries all good!
The comforting thing is that this by and large, this variety tends to get quarantined, and subsequently - canned. A bit off leeway is provided in the hope that they can right their collision course; and to their credit, a lot of them do after some initial turbulence. Because ideologically, the plan isn't to discard them at the first sign of trouble. But once they start testing that threshold, there's no coming back. Ref. @murphs_law - who had a distinct case of foot-in-mouth disease. Promoted on May 31, banned on June 12. You can thank Cina for getting rid of that one.
If you see really bad posts, report them. The mods will deal with them appropriately. I'm not saying action will always be taken but the mods/scouts can't be everywhere so we need help from the wider community as well to identify bad posters.
I'm pretty sure it was a Juve-fan in one of the Pogba/Pjanic/Juve-threads. Didnt warrant a like though..
Cool, wasn't gonna go and like it just thought it was worth checking the poster out seeing as someone had thought they were decent was all.
Who says they aren't already?
Sounds like work to me that Niall, and the last time I checked we have to be paid for our work.
I'll send you my paypal details in due course.
<----- Oh, ffs. I was trying to make this place better! How many sh!t posts do I need to make for me to get this tag line removed? 
Promote this guy.
There seems to be a load of new posters recently
Are these fully promoted or on trial?
Some of them are really awful and makes old newbie system seem so much better
Please make it stop
Are these fully promoted or on trial?
Some of them are really awful and makes old newbie system seem so much better
Please make it stop
If they have a "newbie" notice then they're in the trial.
Old system was beyond broken. We've got years worth of stats showing that and the number of promotees was low with the vast majority leaving/not posting past one or two posts. There needs to be changes and there will continue to be based on feedback. Everyone is being listened to.