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[WEB SITE] Questions about the boards
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[Deleted User]
Posts: 0 New Member
Dear Web Team,
Thanks for the work you’ve done so far in addressing various web site issues. I’m sure you are still working on some issues as site maintenance is always an on-going process, but I would like to reiterate some items that may have been forgotten or overlooked.
1. Could you make it so there is an option to notify us when someone quotes us? This is one of the most frequently used forms of direct communication, yet posts can often go unnoticed because there is no notification.
2. Is it possible to get a notification for sub-comments on wall postings instead of just for the initial comment?
3. Can we get a “poll” option? Conducting polls via manual counts is tedious.
4. Is there an option to count likes given? Some of the most generous people on the boards are the quietest.
5. Also, does who attributed the “likes” and “lols” still need to be hidden since the flag and disagree were removed?
6. What does “promote” mean and why can we see this on our walls? I see Gurus with 1 and others with 0. I see mods and “pseudo-mods” with zero. I see regular forum users mostly with zero, but also 1 and 2.
7. What do the visits mean? I have 2. This doesn’t correspond to the number of times I’ve visited the site, my page, or logged in and out of the boards. It also doesn’t correspond to the number of people who have visited my page.
8. Some people seem to be “ghosting”. I can’t see their avatars, post counts, or member statuses. It’s a small number, maybe a dozen or so members, but their info looks like this:
I use Firefox. I’ve tried clearing my cache again, but the problem remains. I’m not sure if it’s on my end still or yours.
9. The “Best Of” page is still messed up and not very usable right now because of nested quotations. Perhaps folding the nesting up in some way or limiting how much nesting it shows would help.
10. Spoiler tags still don’t seem to work. You can use them, but then you can’t click on them to actually view what’s in the spoilers.
Thanks in advance for your attention to these matters.
Edited to add: Since we've had lots of good feedback and information from various SimGurus, could you also adjust the search feature so we can search for "All SimGuru responses"? Right now, I have to add in a dozen SimGuru handles individually, and that still doesn't cover them all.
10/20 -- The list tags are not working properly.
1. Using the list=a tags for ordered lists gives me numbers instead of letters. For example:
produces
This is particularly a problem when trying to use nested lists. This code:
Produces this:
Instead of this:
Also, because I can't use list=a, I tried using just list and hand lettering the lists, but this causes the list tags 'break' when URL's are included in the tags. For example:
b.the second thing. . .
Sorry if my explanations of this aren't clear. Obviously, I don't do any programming, but using BBC code should be easy for everyone.
Thanks for the work you’ve done so far in addressing various web site issues. I’m sure you are still working on some issues as site maintenance is always an on-going process, but I would like to reiterate some items that may have been forgotten or overlooked.
1. Could you make it so there is an option to notify us when someone quotes us? This is one of the most frequently used forms of direct communication, yet posts can often go unnoticed because there is no notification.
2. Is it possible to get a notification for sub-comments on wall postings instead of just for the initial comment?
3. Can we get a “poll” option? Conducting polls via manual counts is tedious.
4. Is there an option to count likes given? Some of the most generous people on the boards are the quietest.
5. Also, does who attributed the “likes” and “lols” still need to be hidden since the flag and disagree were removed?
6. What does “promote” mean and why can we see this on our walls? I see Gurus with 1 and others with 0. I see mods and “pseudo-mods” with zero. I see regular forum users mostly with zero, but also 1 and 2.
7. What do the visits mean? I have 2. This doesn’t correspond to the number of times I’ve visited the site, my page, or logged in and out of the boards. It also doesn’t correspond to the number of people who have visited my page.
8. Some people seem to be “ghosting”. I can’t see their avatars, post counts, or member statuses. It’s a small number, maybe a dozen or so members, but their info looks like this:
9. The “Best Of” page is still messed up and not very usable right now because of nested quotations. Perhaps folding the nesting up in some way or limiting how much nesting it shows would help.
See what I mean?
11. If the private messaging system isn’t returning, would you at least consider re-creating a ‘friends’ system. Ideally, it would allow you to set the privacy level of your wall/page. But, if the privacy settings pose a problem with site conduct, could you at least make it so that we could identify friends and opt-in to getting notifications when they update their walls?Thanks in advance for your attention to these matters.
Edited to add: Since we've had lots of good feedback and information from various SimGurus, could you also adjust the search feature so we can search for "All SimGuru responses"? Right now, I have to add in a dozen SimGuru handles individually, and that still doesn't cover them all.
10/20 -- The list tags are not working properly.
1. Using the list=a tags for ordered lists gives me numbers instead of letters. For example:
[list=a]
[*]the first thing. . .
[*]the second thing. . .
[/list]
produces
- the first thing. . .
- the second thing. . .
This is particularly a problem when trying to use nested lists. This code:
[list=1]
[*]Outer ordered list point one.
[list=a]
[*]the first thing. . .
[*]the second thing. . .
[/list]
[*]Outer ordered list point two.
[*]Outer ordered list point three.
[/list]
Produces this:
- Outer ordered list point one.
- the first thing. . .
- the second thing. . .
- Outer ordered list point two.
- Outer ordered list point three.
Instead of this:
1. Outer ordered list point one.
a. the first thing. . .
b. the second thing. . .
2. Outer ordered list point two.
3. Outer ordered list point three.
Also, because I can't use list=a, I tried using just list and hand lettering the lists, but this causes the list tags 'break' when URL's are included in the tags. For example:
-
a.Here are the
b.the second thing. . .
Sorry if my explanations of this aren't clear. Obviously, I don't do any programming, but using BBC code should be easy for everyone.
Post edited by [Deleted User] on
2
Comments
Put an @ symbol before the persons name and they will be notified. Like this @greenXen
Ideally the BBS should do it automatically, but it doesn't, so... Maybe it is so we can talk behind each others' backs ;-)
@Schweighsr, thanks. I'm aware of that, and do use tagging. It still would be nice to have an alert when quoted since people seem to quote *or* tag instead of doing both.
1. Using the list=a tags for ordered lists gives me numbers instead of letters. For example:
[list=a] [*]the first thing. . . [*]the second thing. . . [/list]Produces:
This is particularly a problem when trying to use nested lists. This code:
[list=1] [*]Outer ordered list point one. [list=a] [*]the first thing. . . [*]the second thing. . . [/list] [*]Outer ordered list point two. [*]Outer ordered list point three. [/list]Produces this:
Instead of this:
1. Outer ordered list point one. a. the first thing. . . b. the second thing. . . 2. Outer ordered list point two. 3. Outer ordered list point three.Also, because I can't use list=a, I tried using just list and hand lettering the lists, but this causes the list tags 'break' when URL's are included in the tags. For example:
a.Here are the
forum rules.b.the second thing. . .
Sorry if my explanations of this aren't clear. Obviously, I don't do any programming, but using BBC code should be easy for everyone.
Not a movie
1. There needs to be 24-hr moderation. If it is as before an moderators are largely volunteers, I don't see where the obstacle is to this.
2. There should be moderator approval for new members. The screen names alone are enough to sniff out some of these accounts.
3. Avatars should not be allowed to be set until users achieve full member status.
4. These creeps need to be IP banned.
5. Even after banning, their avatars show up on the activities pages. The avatars of those banned need to be hidden as well.
6. These creeps need to be reported to the authorities. This is not a game. This is patently illegal and highly immoral activity with serious consequences for the children depicted, the children (and adults) on this forum who witness it, and the witnesses who wind up with traces of child 🐸🐸🐸🐸 in their browser histories.
This has got to stop.
This goes for EA Help, too. They are difficult to reach and unresponsive even to offenses as serious as this. Ignoring it won't make it go away.
I agree. I'm not sure if #4 is actually possible, I've read it's not but I'm not sure? But I agree something has to be done. It's sickening to be subjected to such images when one is just innocently hopping through threads in search of information/conversation, and then suddenly, BAM! there is that filth and your mind cannot unsee.
Staff said days ago that they are working with authorities. But it takes time and sufficient evidence for warrants and convictions for authorities to finish their work.
The excuse that EA is working on it, but it takes time as an answer is no longer believable. This issue did not just arise last night and EA is a company with money, programmers, and experience in running forums. While many forums run into some trouble with abuse, it is rampant here. EA and Maxis have taken some measures to thwart the offenders by instituting a requirement that posters have 50 pts before they can post images or links, but it’s obviously not enough.
Edit: I detail below some of my frustrations with EA and Maxis and dealing with this issue. It's directed at EA, not you, but it does explain a little how from my perspective the 'it takes time' mantra grows weaker every time it is uttered.
On August 15, after we had already had several incidences of p.orn spamming the boards for hours at a time despite many reports via the flag button and topical threads, I contacted EA chat regarding the issue to request that a forum moderator be contacted immediately or that someone at EA Help address the issue immediately as it was not something that could wait. They offered to file a report for me, which promised someone would get back to me in a couple of days. I declined to file the report, but again requested that they get someone on the problem STAT.
The next day, the forum abuser was still posting. I looked around for help and couldn’t find a way to directly contact anyone. The moderators were hidden (instead of being visibly listed). I went to EA Help again, but they had instituted a bogus “help” page that has no option to report forum problems. What’s worse, I tried following the pages through their questions for several different help options and got stuck in a loop, so I couldn’t actually contact EA Help that night. I looked for an e-mail or phone number. I couldn’t find any phone numbers and most of the e-mail contacts listed on the web took me back to the Help page, which I couldn’t get to work properly. The exception to this was the privacy_policy@ea.com address. I e-mailed them the following:
To this day, I have not received a response to that e-mail.
After that, I went on EA Help forums to find out what could be done about the forum abuse and how to contact EA Help, and was told there was nothing they could do, just keep reporting. At this point, over 1,000 reports of abuse had been made. Obviously, just hitting the report button was not a viable option. So, I slunk back into my corner and waited. The p.orn spamming went on for many more hours before someone finally banned the users and deleted the images.
The abuse continued and a number of smaller incidences of hate speech and harassment occurred, but I reported those quietly and held my tongue, giving EA and Maxis time to address the problem.
August 25, a 🐸🐸🐸🐸 p.orn spammer appears for hours. Again, no sign of a moderator and no way to contact anyone. I decide to file a report this time:
I also included the text of the previous contact (email to EA Privacy Policy Dept).
No response.
August 28, I add to my report.
No response.
September 5, I tack onto the same case, writing again concerning the abuse of flags, where trolls are issuing thousands of flags to inoffensive posts, which renders the ‘report’ system for actual abuse useless.
On Sept 8, I get a response!
This response is baffling. I have no other support requests open at the time. So, I decide to do as it says and reopen the request. But, before I can finish typing, I get a new response from EA.
They have categorized my reports of forum p.orn, hate speech, harassment, general forum abuse, and lack of moderation as a report on ‘in-game cheating’.
I write back:
I get another response! It's even an apology:
That’s right. He apologizes for his previously incorrect response and sends me a link for reporting problems for POGO chat. How am I supposed to believe that anyone is listening or taking this seriously?
During that time, and in the time since some other attempts at contact have been attempted from my end, but no other responses from EA. Meanwhile, the episodes of p.orn spamming continue.
Again, how can I look at this as EA taking the issue seriously and working hard toward a solution?
Yes, very serious.
Clearing your browsing history doesn't clean the hard drive. The hard drive is the little black box for your computer. The hard drive records everything you do on your PC and every site you ever visited. So this means that if someone has looked at adult sites and wanted to erase the browsing history thinking that no one would find out about the sites, then that person is wrong because their are hard drive readers that people like cops can use to read the hard drive without having it in the computer. And the reason I know this is that I know a friend who knows a sex offender. So my friend told me what happens when the cops has to go to that persons house to do their daily inspection of the house and computer. They bring in this hard drive reader to read the hard drive so see what is on it. So it doesn't matter if they check the browsing history through the favorites tab on whatever internet browser they use and don't find anything on the list as the hard drive keeps records of everywhere someone has been.
http://store.thesims3.com/myWishlist.html?persona=lisasc360
My stories on this site:
https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/991317/my-sims-stories/p1?new=1
Also, it seems a bit of equivocation to keep standing by EA not discussing the topic "in-depth" with me, when that is not what I asked for anywhere. An acknowledgement of the problem and that they were working on it would have been an appropriate start. So would have responding to the reports made via chat, e-mail, etc right away by deleting or blocking the images and disabling the account or getting someone else to do it right away instead of letting the "plum" sit hours and days and leaving the tickets to sit for days and weeks unanswered before closing them without response (save the one inappropriate apology for cheating). Since it's a recurrent problem they could have made contact info more readily apparent for reporting such an issue, especially while there were issues with the flag system. There isn't even a list of forum moderators on here as there are on many forums. They could have added a route for reporting what's going on in the forums to EA Help, particularly one that takes you to a live person who can do something. Right now the links are all for technical help, which this is not, or harassment, which takes you to an email page to make a report for investigation at their convenience instead of being able to contact someone quickly and directly.
Do you think ignoring my report for weeks before finally issuing a "sorry about the cheating, here's a link about POGO chat, we're closing this report because we're done here" even though the problem persisted is an appropriate response to reporting repeated "plum" spamming on The Sims forums? Can you not imagine a better response?
Anyway, thanks for the contact information. I hope I don't have to use it.