Let's talk about NEGATIVE ATTITUDES and CHANGE.

[Chojin]

Okay, now, guys. As I've talked about before, the forum is going to undergo a lot of change in the coming months as we work to streamline the communication process, bring the look of the forums in line with the main site's redesign, and incorporate actual forum posts as the comments for the site's articles.

For those of you who still haven't clued in to this, let me put it in simpler terms - For the first time since i-mockery or its previous incarnations has existed, the forums will actually have something in common with the actual web site.

These changes are aimed at increasing the i-mockery visitor base and the i-mockery forum visitor base, which in turns means that we will have more registered 'members' posting 'here'. In the past, it has largely been tradition to hound these people (if they don't fall within certain standards of behavior) until they leave. Yes, the site is called I-Mockery, and yes, you can and should be able to mock people on the I-Mockery forums. On the one hand, I don't want the message forum to become yet another bastion for the Aspergers-afflicted residents of communities such as 4chan and YTMND. On the other hand, our boards have become pretty stagnant of late, and I attribute this largely to our reputation and attitude toward new members.

My solution for this situation is in two parts:

1. Appoint a dedicated moderator for each forum (there will be around 5 discussion forums and 3 site-related forums), and 2-3 moderators for the main discussion forum. I feel a moderator's primary task is to drive balanced community discussion and remove uncontributing factors (in less cryptic terms, these people need to work with posters as opposed to passing direct judgment on them - as that is the role of our Administrators - and should tidy their forum of spam and other crap). Each of these new forums will encompass more topics that our current ones, and as such will engender more discussion and eventually create their own subculture (as seen in the philosophy and forum events forums) that it will be a moderator's duty to maintain.

2. Ask each of you in earnest to work with new members, at least until it's clear that they have nothing to offer our community. If the latter becomes a reality, I would prefer that you all still make your jabs and whatnot, but not hound these people and follow them from thread to thread until they leave on their own - at this point, it will be acceptable for you to make your case to the moderator(s) of the forums they frequent, who in turn will speak to them and dismiss them if necessary. I often refer to these forums as 'internet rehab' for idiots, and I feel that we could do more in this area and grow a member base without lowering our collective IQ.

I'd like your thoughts on the things I've discussed here, and feel free to nominate who you feel would moderate each of our future forums best. At present, the new forum categories will be:

I-Mockery Discussion Forums
- General Blabber
- Philosophy, Politics, and News
- Media Extravaganza (Combining music and movies & television and readings)
- Gaming & Technology (Combining gaming & technophile)
- Art Shit

I-Mockery Site Forums
- Articles
- Forum Events
- Questions & Suggestions
- Archives

Also, if you have suggestions about this forum layout, this is also a good thread to talk about that. In.