A few concerns

Moderator: GeekShed.Net Staff

A few concerns

Postby DAKlives » Tue Apr 13, 2010 11:14 am

Hi all
I have a couple of issues on my mind that I find a bit disconcerting.Yesterday as usual, I logged into the forums only to find that several are now inaccessible (specifically the ban appeals forums)
As staff on a reasonably busy channel,I regularly monitored them for a few reasons,to keep abreast of network policy in action,to be informed of various area bans (countries that are blocked for spam and abuse e.g.)and to keep an eye out for any users that may potentially cause issues in our channel. The move to put them all behind "closed doors" just feels wrong, as I think everyone should be able to keep informed of what is happening on the network.It also concerns me (and to a greater extent) that i saw no announcement, no forum post, no news post informing anyone of this or explaining the reasoning behind it or allowing feedback.
I also find occasionally that features I am used to just vanish or change, again without notice.An example of this would be the !topic command (to post the channel topic to the channel) I find out after the fact and by happening to read someone else's conversation somewhere, that it was annoying and removed.Well I happened to use that feature a fair bit and have done so for years (we have a daily schedule of several live shows, I used it as a convenient way to announce what show is up next when asked).Now grant it this is a small thing, however a more suitable solution than just removing it could have been found (such as limiting it to channel operators if that's possible) again what bothered me is that i had to find out "accidentally"

Of course I realize that the network staff are doing what they think is best and I'm not implying that every small thing ought to be open for debate, I just feel perhaps an eye should be kept out to prevent changes in policy and mechanics from seeming arbitrary

Thanks for your time

DAK
Chan Admin #CNETFans
User avatar
DAKlives
 
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2009 1:34 am

Re: A few concerns

Postby Phil » Tue Apr 13, 2010 3:58 pm

DAK,

As we discussed earlier, it was previously not possible for us to make topics private. Since it is now possible, we have chosen to do this for a couple of reasons:

Ban appeals will always contain people's IP addresses. Although disclosing an IP address will not usually harm that user, many users prefer for them to be kept private.
Applications for halfop in #chris can often contain people's addresses and phone numbers. For obvious reasons, these shouldn't be made public.

We did not feel it necessary to notify people of this as the ban appeal forum was only ever intended to be used for network staff and users who are banned. Our up to date terms of service can be found at http://www.geekshed.net/TOS/

If you yourself have enough average users to qualify for your own subforum on our forums you can request this feature be enabled if you require it.

We always aim to notify users of changes that affect them. Whether this be new features, changed features or removed features. We have also clamped down a lot lately on misguiding, misguided or just plain stupid users in #help giving false information to people in response to questions - thus creating less confusion. #help should always be the place you go if you notice a feature is removed without notice as it is likely just a system bug which needs to be addressed. If it is not a bug, you will be informed and that is the time you can note that perhaps a post on the site should be made about it justifying it and providing an alternative.

Reference your issues with !topic, this was changed without notification because it was spammy. This was, on reflection, a bad decision and we weren't fully aware at the time of the implications of this for all users. I have replaced this functionality by adding a !showtopic command as we have just discussed in your channel. This command is only for those users with Botserv fantasy access and will post the current topic to the channel.

There is a small bug with !topic which has been hackily addressed in !showtopic as we discussed earlier and I shall endevour to get this reported and fixed/rejected by the Anope devs. At the very least !topic and !showtopic will show the last topic services saw being set in the channel which, unless they are down for an extended period, will always be the current topic.

If you can provide any further examples of features which have vanished or changed without notice, I will be happy to look into them for you.

Changes in policy and mechanics are never arbitrary and always undergo much discussion. These changes, where they effect users, are published on the site and a global notice is usually sent out in notification.

Thanks for your comments and I hope this has answered them

Phil
Phil
 
Posts: 142
Joined: Thu Oct 22, 2009 8:16 pm

Re: A few concerns

Postby DAKlives » Tue Apr 13, 2010 4:15 pm

Phil

Thank you for clarifying this for me, that was mainly what I was looking for.
I was unaware that the appeal forums where never intended to be public,and most certainly I understand the privacy concerns , if i had been it would not have seemed "off" to me when they were closed to the public. Perhaps a post in the news forum about it would have clarified it earlier?

I appreciate your swift attention re the !topic question. That is a big help.

I did not mean to come off as an old curmudgeon heh, I just feel a tad uncomfortable when I don't feel informed and i didn't.
(now that you have clarified the Forum question i can put away my tin-foil hat too)

Once more thanks for both the solution to my issue and the fast informative reply


DAK
Chan Admin #CNETFans
User avatar
DAKlives
 
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2009 1:34 am

Re: A few concerns

Postby Phil » Tue Apr 13, 2010 4:21 pm

Done viewtopic.php?f=3&t=294.

Thanks again for the comments.

Phil
Phil
 
Posts: 142
Joined: Thu Oct 22, 2009 8:16 pm


Return to Comments and Suggestions

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 10 guests

cron