I know, the chances of having a mature conversation on here is slim but here's to hope (and pre-emptive "Thank you kind sir" to the first person who crushes that little light of hope I have).
That said, this thread stems from a couple off topic posts in
this thread.
Basically the majority of daily internet users have accepted that maturity is a lost cause in regards to the internet today. Some users join MyBBoard.net with expecations of something more "professional" only to be quickly disappointed by the childishness, attacks, and numerous locked threads due to various reasons.
Now I'm not saying there is anything wrong with this, after all MyBB is mainly targetted towards teens and young adults but I feel that when we obtain MyBB.com the staff should consider revamping MyBB's image to something more business-like.
Now of course this will be very hard to do with the current state of the forums, but I think I may have an option: paid membership. Yes I know
Now I'm not just talking about having a paid area of the forum, I'm talking about a copy of the current forums (maybe even on a seperate database) that is only accessible by paid members. This will help MyBB gain usage from those business out there who only use vBulletin because of their priority support and will also revamp MyBB's image in the eyes of end-users.
Of course, this shouldn't take away from the current, free forums, but I feel that the option should be on the table because it would also prevent a lot of
very good people from leaving due to the immaturity of others.
Lastly, I know this has been brought up numerous times before and I know a lot of users may disagree with this whole thread but I feel that this will happen eventially be it now or a year down the road. Either way, MyBB has many great acheivements under its belt and with the current goal of obtaining MyBB.com we know it will be here for the long run. It's just a matter of time when MyBB becomes on display for big businesses out there and I would hate to see "the face" (these forums) be the reason for it to be passed up.
I do find it funny how far off this post deviated from what I originally intended to post. 
I can't see that working, to be honest. A paid forum for a free software? Honestly? Many of us (myself included) WOULD be excluded regardless of our maturity or anything else simply because we could not afford to pay for it. I don't see how charging for the forum or support is an inevitable part of anything here or how it will actually help anything. In fact, I see it as a very major potential problem (and the mention of it as a possible reason for this thread to wind up closed due to a "free vs paid argument"). For instance, someone could pay, break no rules really, and then get kicked off the site (without being refunded for that matter) for a disagreement?
That being said, the idea of making it more mature (members) and professional DOES seem like a good thing. Unfortunately I'm not entirely sure how to go about that, especially since it's not strictly the younger regular members who are sometimes immature in my opinion.
I like this idea.
Keep the forums exactly the same, but then have the option for High End Support with a 19.99/year type subscription. Great way to raise money for MyBB and to help with the ongoing issue presented.
It'd work just fine for raising money, sure. Would it really change anything? I mean just because someone is immature doesn't mean they're broke - some of the least mature people I've met could throw that much or more around without even blinking. Similarly, just because someone is mature doesn't mean they have a penny to their name (even on the internet - I was online while homeless I'll have you all know) - some of the most understanding, caring, and helpful people I've ever met couldn't even afford to feed themselves properly.
Though I guess you could use the logic that people would feel a need to behave better in order to not lose the money? But if it's meaningless to them, that's not going to matter much... and on top of that there'd be the whole issue of "so I can spend this money, do nothing wrong really, and lose it entirely?" if there was even half as much questionable staff activity as there currently seems to be.
So I really don't see it as a helpful idea for making the site more professional - only more "business like." *shrugs*
Paying for support = maturity?
Have I got that right?
My perspective is "IF" MyBB starts charging people for support, Ill be forced to go elsewhere!
The point was that the paid forum would be more heavily moderated and users would be more inclined to act mature if they have something on the line. Unfortunately I cannot think of any other option that will ensure a more professional environment without causing an uprising.
Personally, I'm to the point where I would enjoy to find another forum that offer MyBB support that wasn't MyBBoard.net except that I'd run into the same problems there also. The only difference is if MyBBoard.net decided to charge a few bucks I would gladly pay it.
(2010-05-01, 03:02 AM)technoman Wrote: [ -> ]My perspective is "IF" MyBB starts charging people for support, Ill be forced to go elsewhere!
Please don't reply to posts you haven't read.
Okay so the paid area would be more heavily moderated...but if you look around, some of the methods of moderation are also criticized. So again someone could look at it as "I can spend my money to try to get better/more "professional" support only to lose it in the end because someone disagrees with me" which really doesn't seem productive at all. And yes, I really would view it that way myself - on top of the fact that, as I said, I would be excluded because I cannot afford to commit to paying anything additional (I'm not even entirely sure from one payment to the next if I'll be able to keep my sites).
In my opinion the fee would have to be pretty darned hefty for this to be a viable solution. Even still.. I'm not entirely sure. Mature audience comes from a maturely targeted product - so long as MyBB is aimed at everyone, well, everyone will be here, paid or not.
Stricter moderation practices may be a solution but in the end it puts more stress on the hard working volunteers behind the project.
I don't really think there's a perfect solution, Joe. I personally think that dividing the user base into two will end up causing more harm than good. Maybe I should start using the report button a bit more, I don't know.
(2010-05-01, 03:11 AM)ladyunicornejg Wrote: [ -> ]So again someone could look at it as "I can spend my money to try to get better/more "professional" support only to lose it in the end because someone disagrees with me"
Why would MyBB remove your access because of a disagreement? People are entitled to argue, it's human nature. It's not about disagreements in general it's about the attitude and tone of them. I think you think things over a bit too much and overlook the subject. The event in question is none of our business and we have no right to use it as any sort of justification.
In MY opinion, the site becoming more professional would have to start with the staff. Now I have nothing against them as a whole or even personally with most of them (I know very little about the individual staff members, and I try not to judge people too much anyway). I do know what I have seen... and that has been inconsistent. I've seen things locked that have yet to actually need to be (but someone can see it being needed later so they're doing it now?). I've seen things get deleted/hidden because something following them broke a rule. I've heard of bans occurring with no prior warnings or problems (hearsay, granted, but still...).
I would think the first thing to do to make the site more professional would be to have staff set up and follow an actual pre-set procedure for actions to take over broken rules. Pre-determine what things should be edited/deleted/locked, what should lead to warnings, what should lead to bans, etc. and stick to it. Even determine things that can play a role in changing it - I'm not saying it has to be some exact "every time someone does this they get banned" or whatever, but it should be CONSISTENT. That's just my view though.
Aside from that, maybe have a support area set up where only SPECIFIC groups (and the original poster) can reply to threads? Though that's not possible with the current software and no plugins from my understanding...but that would prevent someone outside of those official groups being nasty. Sure, it'd prevent regular members giving support too - maybe it should be an extra forum rather than a replacement - but it would seem to be more professionally done. It also might reduce the likelihood of people PMing staff as there'd be one less reason to do that. Again, just my two cents.
(2010-05-01, 03:16 AM)Scoutie44 Wrote: [ -> ] (2010-05-01, 03:11 AM)ladyunicornejg Wrote: [ -> ]So again someone could look at it as "I can spend my money to try to get better/more "professional" support only to lose it in the end because someone disagrees with me"
Why would MyBB remove your access because of a disagreement? People are entitled to argue, it's human nature. It's not about disagreements in general it's about the attitude and tone of them. I think you think things over a bit too much and overlook the subject. The event in question is none of our business and we have no right to use it as any sort of justification.
I think you are assuming that my logic there is entirely based off of one instance. It is not. I can't COUNT the number of places I have run into things along those lines as well as other things equally problematic.