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

It will be interesting to see how long this takes to post- 10PM CST now.If the moderation has started.

Some of the whiners about aliases get their way.  Be wary of what you wish for, because this and all of the boards are going to be so dull that the only reason you keep your membership is to get the reviews.
Like the NFL- this will be the No Fun Board.  I personally

You might as well close the regular  Minnesota discussion board- and just keep the Mn Ad postings.

For those of you with thin skins- hope you enjoy the boredom.

And with the other  goofy (to me) rules- who decides what is mean and what is sarcasm?(Report this Post rule #6)  some $12/hr reader in the Netherlands?  One person's edgey response is another person being insulted.  Political Correctness run amuck.

interesting- not moderated yet.

what is a Review Alias?  Can you actually submit a review under an alias?

Ooooooh....I get it now.  Makes sense.  Must have had a senior moment there.

Clearly, this is bad news for the "In Crowd."  

Let me be the first to wish you all a fond farewell.  You won't be missed.

Yes you can submit a review under an alias other than your TER ID. If you are VIP, click on My TER then click on My Aliases. You will see that in addition to the Add Alias button, there is now an option to choose an Alias type. One is Discussion, the other is Review. So wingman1346, your reviews can be posted under a different name if you choose to do so.  

I did choose a Review alias just to see what would happen. Be warned, once you choose a Review alias you no longer have an option to delete it and choose another. One and done. You do still have the option to create a Discussion Alias but presumably that will soon be gone, along with all your other aliases except for the Review alias.

Also, you don't currently get an option to submit a discussion post under your review alias.  Presumably that will also change.

Lol

Lots of changes being made with this and I can see both good and bad coming from this.    The law of unintended consequences is likely to come into play at some point.

unintended consequences. You hit it again.

But time will tell, I agree.