Violate the Guidelines and you will be Suspended or Banned 1 1

[dena]

It seems that some need a reminder of the guidelines accepted when creating an account here. Recently there has been an uptick in the number of unacceptable posts. As a result, there will be greater scrutiny of the material posted here.

In summary, the following will not be tolerated:

Political posts

Mud Slinging

Trolling

Baiting

Masking

Inappropriate references (analogies, etc.) to significantly emotional topics such as Nazis, slavery, etc.

Threads started explicitly to bash other members

Hi-jacking of other people's threads in a way that stifles the originally intended topic

Disrespect

The disrespect exhibited in recent posts is overshadowing all the positive and valuable content being posted here and is creating a climate of hostility. It is particularly disappointing to see the way in which new members and collectors are being treated. Using words like ignorant and stupid is not the way to educate and welcome the well intentioned folks making an effort to embrace this community.

It stops now.

[physics-fan3.14]

Thanks Dena!

[comicdonna]

41 minutes ago, physics-fan3.14 said:

Thanks Dena!

+1  

[ldhair]

+2

[bsshog40]

Hopefully with these new rules and enforcement, we can get back to informative discussions. And as long as we don't get poofed as much as ATS, I think we'll be fine. Lol 

[physics-fan3.14]

46 minutes ago, bsshog40 said:

Hopefully with these new rules and enforcement, we can get back to informative discussions. And as long as we don't get poofed as much as ATS, I think we'll be fine. Lol 

Poofing because I'm critical against an NGC decision is less preferred. 

Poofing because a member used extremely inappropriate language and imagery including Nazi memes and KKK slander against me is quite desired. 

[bsshog40]

2 minutes ago, physics-fan3.14 said:

Poofing because I'm critical against an NGC decision is less preferred. 

Poofing because a member used extremely inappropriate language and imagery including Nazi memes and KKK slander against me is quite desired. 

I hear ya Jason! I was more referring to anything that isn't about PCGS has the grounds for POOF ats. Lol 

[comicdonna]

11 minutes ago, physics-fan3.14 said:

 

Poofing because a member used extremely inappropriate language and imagery including Nazi memes and KKK slander against me is quite desired. 

I got the same treatment.  I agree, those threads need to go.  

[physics-fan3.14]

7 minutes ago, comicdonna said:

I got the same treatment.  I agree, those threads need to go.  

If you check, those threads are gone. As any reasonable person would, Dena agreed that they were completely and ridiculously unacceptable. 

Edited October 14, 2020 by physics-fan3.14

[GoldFinger1969]

I would just be careful about unnecessarily banning or suspending folks.  For instance, "Political Posts" is tough to avoid if you are discussing a rise in the gold price in relation to the election or post-election happenings.

Personally, I think the members here -- admittedly shrunk from years ago -- have done a good job of "self-policing" and keeping on topic (I know I try ). If a post runs afoul of Dena's post or NGC's TOS, then in order:

• Delete the offending post or part of the post that is offensive or violates TOS (no need to entirely discard a well-though out lengthy post for 1 bad sentence).
• Inform the individual via a PM or a public post that they had a violation and avoid such in the future.
• Suspension for repeated infractions.
• Banned  

I would hope the NGC Moderators would use discretion and reach out to any offending parties, except where there has been GROSS violations and WANTON disregard for the rules. 

As an example....I am a well-respected member of another non-coin forum....I've been posting there for years....I'm well-known to most of the Mods and posters and have met a few personally.....yet recently, a new very young Moderator who didn't know me suspended me for a single sentence that was intended as humour in a lengthy post that got lots of positive reviews (my suspension was reversed by the veteran Mods).

[GoldFinger1969]

Dena, as an aside.....is there any reason why the  LIKE feature is limited to 3 or 4 a day ?  I see no reason why it shouldn't be unlimited...many times, I don't want to needlessly respond to a post and just quote what someone already posted and acknowledge a good post that way. 

LIKING it is much easier. 

This is the only website I have ever been a member where the LIKE or THUMBS UP feature is only able to be used a few times per day.

[comicdonna]

Dena:

I was wondering why we can't see WHO reacted to our posts?  As Goldfinger1969 mentioned, It is easier and cuts down on posts by simply using the reaction feature.  An example would be me asking a question.  When I received a reply, I could click thanks on his post.  That way the person could see that I am thanking him.  The way it is now, I would have to quote to be sure the person knew I had acknowledged his post.  As is, it is somewhat useless.  

[dena]

2 hours ago, GoldFinger1969 said:

I would just be careful about unnecessarily banning or suspending folks.  For instance, "Political Posts" is tough to avoid if you are discussing a rise in the gold price in relation to the election or post-election happenings.

Personally, I think the members here -- admittedly shrunk from years ago -- have done a good job of "self-policing" and keeping on topic (I know I try ). If a post runs afoul of Dena's post or NGC's TOS, then in order:

• Delete the offending post or part of the post that is offensive or violates TOS (no need to entirely discard a well-though out lengthy post for 1 bad sentence).
• Inform the individual via a PM or a public post that they had a violation and avoid such in the future.
• Suspension for repeated infractions.
• Banned  

I would hope the NGC Moderators would use discretion and reach out to any offending parties, except where there has been GROSS violations and WANTON disregard for the rules. 

As an example....I am a well-respected member of another non-coin forum....I've been posting there for years....I'm well-known to most of the Mods and posters and have met a few personally.....yet recently, a new very young Moderator who didn't know me suspended me for a single sentence that was intended as humour in a lengthy post that got lots of positive reviews (my suspension was reversed by the veteran Mods).

Suspension and bannings are almost always preceded by private warnings. Exceptions have been made in cases where a user has gone off the rails and is blatantly, knowingly violating the guidelines or if that user is a shill. In terms of politics, there are many topics that are related to politics but don't have to become an argument of one side versus another. Talking about a coin that pictures a president is fine. Talking about your opinions on that president is not. Talking about a coin that pictures a president because you want to stick it to another user but claim it is an innocent post is not fine - and yes we can tell the difference.

It's definitely subjective and there is gray area. I would say that if someone wonders if their post is political, they should not post it. We did allow politics early in the history of the boards. Unfortunately this rule had to be put in place because these conversations would get ugly fast. 

[dena]

26 minutes ago, comicdonna said:

Dena:

I was wondering why we can't see WHO reacted to our posts?  As Goldfinger1969 mentioned, It is easier and cuts down on posts by simply using the reaction feature.  An example would be me asking a question.  When I received a reply, I could click thanks on his post.  That way the person could see that I am thanking him.  The way it is now, I would have to quote to be sure the person knew I had acknowledged his post.  As is, it is somewhat useless.  

I see this on posts where there are reactions:

Is this what you mean? If you click on the numbers next to the icons you can see all who had that reaction. Are you not seeing that? If not, I'm wondering if it is something in the settings. Let me know if you don't see that.

[dena]

1 hour ago, GoldFinger1969 said:

Dena, as an aside.....is there any reason why the  LIKE feature is limited to 3 or 4 a day ?  I see no reason why it shouldn't be unlimited...many times, I don't want to needlessly respond to a post and just quote what someone already posted and acknowledge a good post that way. 

LIKING it is much easier. 

This is the only website Ihave ever been a member where the LIKE or THUMBS UP feature is only able to be used a few times per day.

I bet that is something in the settings somewhere. I'll dig around and see if I can bump that up.

[GoldFinger1969]

9 minutes ago, dena said:

I bet that is something in the settings somewhere. I'll dig around and see if I can bump that up.

Much appreciated, thanks Dena ! 

And I am NOT seeing the names of people who LIKED a post like you copied above.....not sure about Comic, but when I run my cursor over the Heart, Number, and Trophy icons...no names appear. 

It would be nice to see a complete list but even a partial list would be OK.  It's rare that you would see 20 LIKES and need to see all 20 names; if that happens, you can just show the first 3 or 5 names and say "...and 15 others."  Most LIKES seem to be 1-6 or thereabouts.

Edited October 14, 2020 by GoldFinger1969

[GoldFinger1969]

10 minutes ago, dena said:

I see this on posts where there are reactions:

Is this what you mean? If you click on the numbers next to the icons you can see all who had that reaction. Are you not seeing that? If not, I'm wondering if it is something in the settings. Let me know if you don't see that.

I'm not seeing that.

[brg5658]

13 minutes ago, GoldFinger1969 said:

I'm not seeing that.

I also do not see that.  Must be an administrator function. 

[comicdonna]

1 hour ago, GoldFinger1969 said:

1 hour ago, dena said:

I see this on posts where there are reactions:

Is this what you mean? If you click on the numbers next to the icons you can see all who had that reaction. Are you not seeing that? If not, I'm wondering if it is something in the settings. Let me know if you don't see that.

I'm not seeing that.

I'm not seeing it, either.  

[ProfHaroldHill]

1 hour ago, dena said:

I see this on posts where there are reactions:

Is this what you mean? If you click on the numbers next to the icons you can see all who had that reaction. Are you not seeing that? If not, I'm wondering if it is something in the settings. Let me know if you don't see that.

When I'm signed in, the feature doesn't work. 

If I stop by to read posts but don't sign in, it works fine. Seems opposite of what it should be.

That's while using an Android phone.

 

 

[Coinbuf]

2 hours ago, ProfHaroldHill said:

When I'm signed in, the feature doesn't work. 

If I stop by to read posts but don't sign in, it works fine. Seems opposite of what it should be.

That's while using an Android phone.

 

 

This is my experience as well.

[bsshog40]

4 hours ago, dena said:

I see this on posts where there are reactions:

Is this what you mean? If you click on the numbers next to the icons you can see all who had that reaction. Are you not seeing that? If not, I'm wondering if it is something in the settings. Let me know if you don't see that.

Ya I have never been able to see who Likes. I did question this quite some time back after the new software was available and never got a response. Thanks for looking into it Dena!

[physics-fan3.14]

6 hours ago, GoldFinger1969 said:

I would just be careful about unnecessarily banning or suspending folks. 

If you saw the posts/poster in question that prompted this warning, you would have no question that deleting/banning would have been an appropriate response. 

[JKK]

We might be able to improve the quality of newbie posts if you would be willing to stick my post from a year or so ago about how to post coins for inquiry. Hint, hint. Seriously, though, that was the goal: to help new posters present themselves and their coins and questions in the most positive light, and avoid common mistakes. Here it is. It was well received and members had many good suggestions. While it has a WYNTK title, member consensus (with which I concur) was that it would be best stuck in the forum where I posted it, the Newbie forum. If I were also able to edit it still, that would be even more wonderful because now and then something new comes up.

[7.jaguars]

I had asked for a poof of that thread as it seemed to be getting out of hand and the chief offender just kept riding. Thanks Dena for the action taken!

[physics-fan3.14]

33 minutes ago, 7.jaguars said:

I had asked for a poof of that thread as it seemed to be getting out of hand and the chief offender just kept riding. Thanks Dena for the action taken!

According to Dena and Ali.E, the "Report Post" function is currently not working properly. If you reported that thread, it didn't do any good. 

Just another one of the amazing technological marvels associated with the wonderful forum upgrade a few years ago... how many other "features" don't work? I don't fault Dena, she's not a tech-person. I just wish they had a tech-person to remake these forums into something useable. 

Until Dena (or someone else) announces the report post function is actually working, please send PM's directly to an admin. 

The only way I got those threads shut down was to send a (maybe, possibly, overly-strongly worded) PM to them and ask why they hadn't shut it down yet. 

 

One of the other major problems here is that there is no consistent moderation. Dena has assured me that she is talking to management about having someone browse these boards on a more consistent basis and take action in a more timely manner. The incident in question took 3-4 days to resolve, which on almost any other major forum would have been resolved in minutes (hours, at the most). 

My intention in this post is not to call Dena out at all - in my years here, she's been consistently the most helpful person interacting with the community. My intention here is to relay what she's told me, and hold NGC (corporate) accountable for actions to improve this forum. 

Edited October 15, 2020 by physics-fan3.14

[GoldFinger1969]

PF, it appears to me that MOST of the threads are pretty decent, just honest and rigorous back-and-forth.  If a thread here or there goes off the rails, as bad as it is, it's better than losing the entire Forum.  Lots of newspapers and websites have totally closed down their Comments section.  Admittedly, more controversial and volatile subject matter. 

If we can get a REPORT feature that is monitored, then if Dena/NGC see multiple requests on the same post/thread, they can react.

I do wonder about the switch in layout format a few years ago.  Anybody know why it was done ?  Seems like the Threads and Comments are more "spacier" and whiter than before.  Less compact, less reader-friendly.  Wonder if that is why many left.

[Just Bob]

11 hours ago, dena said:

I see this on posts where there are reactions:

Is this what you mean? If you click on the numbers next to the icons you can see all who had that reaction. Are you not seeing that? If not, I'm wondering if it is something in the settings. Let me know if you don't see that.

Bobby (bsshog40) and I, and probably others have reported this several times over the years, and sent questions to "ASK NGC", and nothing has ever been done about it, and no one from NGC has ever responded.

As others have mentioned, I have to log out to see who has responded to any post.

Interestingly, I can see who responds over on the comics forum, even when I am logged in.

[GoldFinger1969]

Slightly Off-Topic....is there a way to save/read/print an entire thread or see it as a PDF (for preservation reasons since a thread could later be deleted and all the content lost) ?

Right now, you can only go page-by-page.

[dena]

12 hours ago, GoldFinger1969 said:

I do wonder about the switch in layout format a few years ago.  Anybody know why it was done ?  Seems like the Threads and Comments are more "spacier" and whiter than before.  Less compact, less reader-friendly.  Wonder if that is why many left.

The previous forum software was no longer supported. We looked at a few different replacements and this software appeared to be a good replacement. Unfortunately there is a limit to how we can customize it and when we find things that are broken, we must report it to the vendor and hope they will include a solution in the next release.