As many of you know, we were going to try a few new things out on a couple of discussion boards. We were then going to discuss these changes and decide how we could best move forward. This was clearly a mistake and will only keep the discussion area in a heightened state of turmoil. It has been pointed out by many users that if we think that changes are needed, it would be better to do what we think is best Further, we should make any changes quickly. So that is what we are doing today. This post discusses all of the changes that we will be making. A few of the added features will take a week to activate.

The reason for the changes is that the discussion area needs to be more user friendly and welcoming to all users. The boards currently seem unfriendly to newbies, as-well-as to those who express a view other than the most popular. There are simply a lot of very interesting voices that are simply not given a chance to be heard. We are now changing the way that we approach discussion to fix these problems.

We will now cover the changes that are taking place.

1.TER will internally moderate all boards.

The volunteer moderators have worked really hard, but we need to move forward. Customer Support will now handle the moderation function. We are by no means driving any one off the boards. We truly hope that the volunteers remain huge contributors in daily discussions on the boards.


2. We will add board Hosts and/or Hostesses in the boards where it makes sense to do so.

We are the first to admit that we are not experts in every city. In order to address this point, we are asking for people to help us out by being a Host or Hostess on boards where it is needed. We will rotate the hosts and hostesses on a preset schedule in order to give all users who want to help us in a positive way a chance to do so. The hosts and hostesses will help welcome newbies, keep the discussion interesting, and keep a watch for any unneeded drama. We also believe that this will help the boards take on a much more positive feel.


3. We will discontinue the ‘Discussion Board Alias’ feature.

When we added the Alias feature, it was a fun way to express each user’s individuality. It is  currently just as often used to post mean spirited comments. Each user’s one review alias will still be able to be used in the discussion area. So we are going from an unlimited number of aliases to one alias that is unchangeable.


4. We will add a ‘Like/Dislike’ feature to board posts.

This is a feature that has been asked for for a while. Hopefully it will help everyone find the most interesting topics while not needing to dig through the ones that are boring.


5. We will extend the ‘Block This User’ feature into the discussion boards.

Just like in the real world, some people simply do not get along. We have a ‘Block This User’ feature in private messaging. We will bring it into the discussion area. Since it is new, we will release a first version and then modify it a couple of times so that it achieves the desired affect, which is that people that both you don’t any more.


6. We have added a ‘Report This Post’ feature to each post.

We have added this feature several days ago. This is not a way to have any post that you do not agree with pulled from a board. We want more points of view, not fewer. ‘Report This Post’ is a tool that users can uses to report posts that are created in order to be mean for meanness sake, or to start trouble.


In summary, we are making these changes to improve the site, to create boards that are not mean, boards that are welcoming to all and boards that have a much lighter, happier feel.

Like in any community, there is simply no way to make every single person happy every single time. We do hope that you hang around and continue being important members of TER.

- The Erotic Review

But what about my question? What do you plan to do if these changes are disliked by a majority of members?

Also, are you the same person who has posted under "Board Admin" in the past?

It's always interesting to see how and why people are so averse to change.  For most people they tend to be "creatures of habit".  Others see a much larger picture and embrace change.  I tend to fall into the "others" category, and have been so most of my life.

What is going to be interesting is that the TER management team has an idea of the model they are trying to create.  While this hasn't been very clearly expressed, what is clear is that they weren't seeing the "old" model as a viable alternative.  So...changes have and will continue to morph the way TER is used.

It appears that MOST folks don't spend any real time on the discussion boards.  And even fewer actually participate on them.  Hence I can see why TER has decided to "rather boldly" and decisively make huge changes.  What is yet to be determined is whether this will adversely affect the rest of the traffic to the site.

And if I had to venture a guess it won't.  The reviews that are posted and those seeking that information are the overwheliming majority who pay for and utilitze this site.  And as TER management has indicated they are forward looking to the new prospects that they felt were somewhat compromised with the "general tone" of board discussions and posting.  Will this accomplish their goals?  Let's revisit this in six months and see.

Like any changes...some will love it...others hate it...and the majority will simply accept it and go along with it.

Some of those are good ideas, some are not. But I'm sure everyone will learn to accept that which they cannot change.

Question: If you're doing away with the multiple alias feature, will old posts made using a secondary alias now start showing who actually said it? Because if that's the case then get ready for the shit storm...

I believe in the old saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Perhaps other Boards were having nastiness problems, but here in Chicago, there were few train wrecks and they were handled quickly and well by our mods.

I would like the Admins to revisit the policies after a week, a month and 6 months to see if their "fixes" have worked as intended or have created new problems.

I believe only one alias is too restrictive. I used them to fit various situations, from asking a perhaps naive question to expressing situations related to physical disabilities, all with the intention of hiding my identity, as I am known to some on the board through Meet&Greet parties.

I hope the Admins have not instituted too many changes simultaneously, and that they will evaluate all their actions. Please do not let "pride of authorship" cloud your objectivity.

Let us move forward, but cautiously.

The problem with what you are stating is that not every board is as easy going as the Chicago board, and not very alias poster uses the alias to fit the mood.

The General Discussion board, in my belief was broken. There were tons of train wrecks, flamin, belittling, etc. and while the mods were good guys did little to stop it or deny posts. And a lot of the alias usage was hiding behind the Internet wall to be an ass.

I don't like kicking out all of the mods and doing central moderating from where ever they are located - particularly for the local boards. I thing the host/hostess idea is not going to work simply as it is going to be change for change sake only and rotating ad finding new ones will be a pain in the ass.

Again, we've been blessed by good local mods here on the Chicago board.

So we will see what happens.

I think some of these changes will improve some of the boards, especially the ones where you needed to wear a suit of armor if you decided to join in on the discussions ...LOL ...like the general board.

Hopefully these changes will not adversely affect our Chicago board, but only time will tell.  My only concern is the style of moderation which will be implemented.  Hopefully, our board won't be overly moderated to the point where the exchange of quality information is stifled.

I noticed a while back, that the writing style of DiscussionBoardAdmin is different than Board Admin. Not the same person, almost positive.

I'll answer your original question - we don't have any say in the new changes. That's abundantly clear.

FT got out while the getting was good and Fugly is now gone as well. Neither were locals but we treated them as such. Let's face it, every board here was moderated differently and the GD board was the wild west with no sheriff. You guys are making a mountain out of a mole hill.

Who cares where the boards are moderated from? The biggest change I see is that a-hole aliases won't be attacking others any more. Provider wars will now be private instead of spilling on to the boards. Newbies won't be chastised by long-timers for being "dumb newbies" any more. Funny how we all forget we were dumb newbies before we learned the rules, yet every time someone new came on here, a few regulars jumped their asses telling them to do their own research. If I was a newbie and my ass got jumped for asking a "dumb" question I had no idea was dumb, I'd leave too. Lucky for me, this board was a much friendlier place when I found it years ago than it's been lately.

What I see in these changes is an attempt to make moderation uniform across the boards, something that was long overdue, stop public attacks between people who dislike each other, and revive some interest in this dying board. The host/hostess idea seems a little lame as presented but with the right people in those roles (I vote for Sinthia), maybe it'll work. If it doesn't, we're free to move on.

I too understand change and have embraced it in my industry.  But this isn't a person holding onto a rotary phone when the rest of the world goes digital. Netflix tried to implement change and see where that got them. Change when it does not include input from  those that are most affected by it simply builds animosity. There is little to no value add in this imo.

"The boards currently seem unfriendly to newbies, as-well-as to those who express a view other than the most popular."

I could not agree more.  If you're looking for unsolicited suggestions, I still advocate getting rid of the 'reads' counter.  Good luck with your changes.

as it has been suggested on various boards.  Who and what input they are using as a guide here is unknown (to the members), but I would suggest that folks who didn't like the way the boards were being handled filed "complaints" to Admin and such.  And even though that may indeed have been a very small minority, TER had decided on a different direction.

I feel that TER has a model that they are looking to emulate.  But when changes are inplemented, and as you suggest, with no apparent value or input from those it most affects, the desired outcome may indeed be less than what they expected.  And if so, I would expect to see TER "try" and put back the old model.

But until it is abundantly clear, and by that simply "follow the money", these changes are going to happen (and have already to a degree), and will continue to morph into the model that TER envisions.

And you are absolutely correct on this.  Only time will tell if indeed the "new" formats will be better than the old ones.  But we tend to be such creatures of habit that ANY change of "where's my cheese" sends the inmates into a frenzy.  I can't tell you how often I have gifted business owners that book to read ("Who moved my cheese")...and how often they change their views after reading it.

Over the past few years I have PM'd many a "newbie" seeking information.  I generally did that to avoid the lunacy of the "same posters" who just wanted to belittle a fella for asking the question...that was probably asked a week before, and the same one a week before that.  But the guys that I PM'd I have stayed in communication with and "we" have followed our journey's through this adventure together.  But clearly NOT all fellas have an inclination to assist others here, and never will.  

Any chance that TER left the corporate jet available for your use PP?

I don't see how pushing people to do a search first is a bad thing.  So when the majority of the board is the same weekly question being asked over and over and over, don't expect much new to happen.

Maybe I came off sounding like a white knight for the powers that be but this wasn't my intention. All I'm saying is that I understand why they're making these changes and am glad that for once, TER explained the reasons behind the changes. Looking back on other changes they've made, we had no idea what their reasoning was because we were never told anything. Their explanation sounds reasonable and it appears quite a bit of thought went into it. Whether it works as planned remains to be seen.

No corporate jet for me, I sit in traffic bitching and moaning like everyone else

Direct them to the newbies board like Sin does and be nice about it. There's no need to go off on someone unless they're purposely doing the same thing over and over again. There aren't that many posts on this board anymore and it's easy to remember who's constantly ISO'ing to be annoying. If you see this happening, hit the new "Report this Post" button and complain to TER.

I'm not the cruise director type, we need extraverts as hosts/hostesses and I recently learned I'm an introvert. Not that that's a bad thing...

Thanks bud....I guess DBA agrees with you as they never chimed in to say otherwise.

"Oh the times they are a changin...."

there are certainly places to use various aliases, instead of just one - especially when the alias itself sends a message. I see no problem using multiple aliases - just make all alias posts automatically subject to moderation perhaps. There are certainly times when discussions are more open when one is not afraid of an identity becoming known ... and when a single alias is allowed it will eventually be able to be traced back ... and yes my use of an alias here was intentional