1) More than 1 thread that servers the same purpose:
I got to thinking some boards don't allow 2 or more threads to be open at the same time sooo.... why not have this... for the boards that don't allow it, just have this, so when you have thread 1 open, and you open thread 2, thread 1 will close automatically so no more getting infracted for having more than one thread open at a time that serves the same purpose.
2) Tags:
Most boards require a tag right? So instead of just letting people make the foolish mistake of forgetting to add the tag, why not just have a mandatory tab that has a list of all the tags, and it won't let you open the thread without choosing one, so this will insure that people won't forget to add a tag. no more getting infracted for not having a tag.
3) Reasons for post:
So I myself am a talker, I just am, I like to say my mind, and what i am thinking, so i usually get infracted for "useless posts" because i don't really think about what i'm posting so here is the idea...
You have to choose why you are posting your "response" so and it would be a tab at the bottom of the screen, and the forum wont let you post your reply if you don't choose. For instance "question" "chat" "debate" "rant" etc. it would make the user have to choose their reason for the post, so when they get infracted for their nonsense... they acknowledged what they were posting by choosing the reason.
4) Favorites/quick jump:
I know its already a thing but id like to see it more well put together so what this is for each board there should be a little checkbox so you can add it to you list of sorts for easy surfing of the forums so instead of clicking here and there through a huge mass amounts of pages to find your thread or board you are looking for you can just go to a new tab at the top of the screen and choose it and you will be taken to it.
5) Must read tut/instruction:
so this would mainly be for forum noobs who are brand new to the tb forums...
You know how all the rules are spread out across all the boards and they aren't always popping out at you?...
So my idea is this when you first hop on the forums and log in you are introduced with a pop up/notification it basically would give you a step by step tutorial on how to navigate the forums, and you would have to read the general rules before you can go off and browse the forums, and everytime you go to a new board or subforum if there are rules that are specific to that board of subforum you are addressed with them, and to make the notification go away you have to click a checkbox that says you understand the rules and promise not to break them, and if you do so you understand you will be punished accordingly.
The thing is that if popups or whatever egregiously annoying method of making people visually notice the rules are overdone, they'll be ignored even more readily than they already are. The last thing we want is for people's ad-blockers to block the rules because of how they were presented, and this is leaning towards "too much like pop-up ads for anyone's taste", even if they're important. No thanks.
I won't disagree that having a way to ensure people read the rules is a good thing, but shoving them in people's faces probably isn't the way.
1) More than 1 thread that servers the same purpose:
I got to thinking some boards don't allow 2 or more threads to be open at the same time sooo.... why not have this... for the boards that don't allow it, just have this, so when you have thread 1 open, and you open thread 2, thread 1 will close automatically so no more getting infracted for having more than one thread open at a time that serves the same purpose.
Basically what suom said.
2) Tags:
Most boards require a tag right? So instead of just letting people make the foolish mistake of forgetting to add the tag, why not just have a mandatory tab that has a list of all the tags, and it won't let you open the thread without choosing one, so this will insure that people won't forget to add a tag. no more getting infracted for not having a tag.
The first time you forget this, you get a warning. If you werent observant enough to take a look at the rules, then you get a measily warning that doesnt give any infraction points. If you get infracted, that means you repeated that, even after recieving a warning. The fault is on you.
3) Reasons for post:
So I myself am a talker, I just am, I like to say my mind, and what i am thinking, so i usually get infracted for "useless posts" because i don't really think about what i'm posting so here is the idea...
You have to choose why you are posting your "response" so and it would be a tab at the bottom of the screen, and the forum wont let you post your reply if you don't choose. For instance "question" "chat" "debate" "rant" etc. it would make the user have to choose their reason for the post, so when they get infracted for their nonsense... they acknowledged what they were posting by choosing the reason.
This is some basic stuf. If you cannot think of anything relevant to the thread, dont post in there.
4) Favorites/quick jump:
I know its already a thing but id like to see it more well put together so what this is for each board there should be a little checkbox so you can add it to you list of sorts for easy surfing of the forums so instead of clicking here and there through a huge mass amounts of pages to find your thread or board you are looking for you can just go to a new tab at the top of the screen and choose it and you will be taken to it.
As suom said, subscriptions are a thing. If you go to User CP>Edit options>Default thread subscription mode and change it to no email notification, it will automatically subscribe you to any thread you post in.
5) Must read tut/instruction:
so this would mainly be for forum noobs who are brand new to the tb forums...
You know how all the rules are spread out across all the boards and they aren't always popping out at you?...
So my idea is this when you first hop on the forums and log in you are introduced with a pop up/notification it basically would give you a step by step tutorial on how to navigate the forums, and you would have to read the general rules before you can go off and browse the forums, and everytime you go to a new board or subforum if there are rules that are specific to that board of subforum you are addressed with them, and to make the notification go away you have to click a checkbox that says you understand the rules and promise not to break them, and if you do so you understand you will be punished accordingly.
All in all these are my ideas they are mainly just to help improve the forum experience and to help out the moderators and make their job easier (you guys are already perfect *smiley wink*)
,KDigityDog
Think of this forum as a town. You are not given a book as a mandatory reading on every institution and estebalishment's rules, you visit those places and they inform you.
Just like you would do on these forums with different boards.
And like I said before, if you break a rule for the first time, you mostly get a warning, worth no infraction points.
I like the idea of being forced to select tags before creating threads on boards where the rules demand it, this would probably just guard against forgetfulness as much as total ignorance. At the end of the day I feel like it would just save staff more effort than it takes to code (nobody needs to waste time checking that people remember to tag any more).
I can kind of see what you mean about the rules and the workings of the forum being pretty clustered and confusing at times to people new to this sort of thing. I can see that a tutorial could really help. Perhaps a thread just stickied above the list of all boards giving clear instructions on how everything works formatted to make sense to idiots. I know it would technically belong to the tutorial board but having it as the top of the list and first thing you see when entering the forum would probably help. I imagine it would cover more of the essential basics of navigation and the moderation system in the forum as opposed to the type specific "how to" tutorial which members tend to only need later once they get to grips with the basics.
I know that personally something like that would have been very helpful when learning to use the forum. I probably only learnt that subscribing to threads was a thing months after starting to get into the forum properly, I then used the subscribed threads page practically constantly until I discovered the User CP page much later. Now almost all my interactions with the forum are vie the User CP, I subscribe to all the boards I need to check and all the threads. It is rare for me to just browse the forum normally. If someone had explained the User CP and subscription system to me when I first joined the forum would of seemed a lot more accessible and easier to get to grips with.
However, I don't think rule pop-ups and agreement tick-boxes are the way to go, just make it unavoidably obvious and easy to find the information needed.
As for requiring users to give reasons for posting, I don't think that is so necessary or especially useful.
1) More than 1 thread that servers the same purpose:
I got to thinking some boards don't allow 2 or more threads to be open at the same time sooo.... why not have this... for the boards that don't allow it, just have this, so when you have thread 1 open, and you open thread 2, thread 1 will close automatically so no more getting infracted for having more than one thread open at a time that serves the same purpose.
2) Tags:
Most boards require a tag right? So instead of just letting people make the foolish mistake of forgetting to add the tag, why not just have a mandatory tab that has a list of all the tags, and it won't let you open the thread without choosing one, so this will insure that people won't forget to add a tag. no more getting infracted for not having a tag.
3) Reasons for post:
So I myself am a talker, I just am, I like to say my mind, and what i am thinking, so i usually get infracted for "useless posts" because i don't really think about what i'm posting so here is the idea...
You have to choose why you are posting your "response" so and it would be a tab at the bottom of the screen, and the forum wont let you post your reply if you don't choose. For instance "question" "chat" "debate" "rant" etc. it would make the user have to choose their reason for the post, so when they get infracted for their nonsense... they acknowledged what they were posting by choosing the reason.
4) Favorites/quick jump:
I know its already a thing but id like to see it more well put together so what this is for each board there should be a little checkbox so you can add it to you list of sorts for easy surfing of the forums so instead of clicking here and there through a huge mass amounts of pages to find your thread or board you are looking for you can just go to a new tab at the top of the screen and choose it and you will be taken to it.
5) Must read tut/instruction:
so this would mainly be for forum noobs who are brand new to the tb forums...
You know how all the rules are spread out across all the boards and they aren't always popping out at you?...
So my idea is this when you first hop on the forums and log in you are introduced with a pop up/notification it basically would give you a step by step tutorial on how to navigate the forums, and you would have to read the general rules before you can go off and browse the forums, and everytime you go to a new board or subforum if there are rules that are specific to that board of subforum you are addressed with them, and to make the notification go away you have to click a checkbox that says you understand the rules and promise not to break them, and if you do so you understand you will be punished accordingly.