Whats wrong with NZBB

[keats]

I do think Psudo has made some good choices banning idiots from the site in an effort to make the site a more welcoming place to share bodybuilding information, training tips etc, The culture however is still rather off putting to new members. I am sick of new members joining to see that within half a page the topic has become a shit slinging competition between current members. People are too quick to judge and although the playground is the place to take the piss, more often than not a lot of bullshit ends up being dragged through other forums.

Interestingly enough we have those who dont give a shit and make personal attacks, get banned, then open a new account. Do these people have so little to do with their time than to come back on and stir shit? I can think of numerious members who have made 3+ new accounts, only to get bannned again and again. Sadly the site has gone downhill in the last year dramatically.

Come on guys, the site is about bodybuiling. If you want to ruin it for others because you have a computer and nothing better to do make your own website and the whole thing can be your own place to shitstir... or point your car in the direction of a lake, lock the door with yourself inside and release the handbrake. If the problem members spent as much energy in the gym as the do being fuckwits they would probably be reasonable bodybuilders.

Psudo, good work on getting a bit harder on the site, weeding out some of the idiots will make the site a much more enjoyable place to be.

Reading a post on bodybuilding.com makes a good comparison. The question is "Is creatine kinda like steroids?" . Yes, a rather stupid question however the members of that site offered their advice and it made the topic informative. If that same question was asked on this site the member would be abused and the piss taken and that prosective member would probably not revisit NZBB..

[diamond]

I agree with everything you say there Keats, basically because it's all common sense.

I also take my hat off to Andrew for the work he has done on the site. It's obviously a popular place because so many choose to log in and post, ( even the idiots can't stay away ).

However i am 100% certain that the recent behaviour in the mainstream forums is going to continue and even get a lot worse.

If you go back a year ago it was pretty harmless and infrequent, 6 months ago it had started to get a lot worse and now it's widespread and ridiculous.

We considered implementing a big forum similar to this on our own site but after serious consideration pulled the pin because of what we had started seeing happen on here.

I know of 2 different companies that had been considering advertising on this site lately ( 3 if you consider us ) that pulled the pin after looking through some of the forums.

It's very rare to see any thread go more than a page on here now without heading totally off topic.

Bans and suspensions are totally ineffective because all you need is a different email and a different ip and hey presto your straight back in.

There is no way to solve the problem and i hate to think how bad it's going to get in the next 6 months.

[Optimass]

I'd be keen to pay an annual membership to support the forum. Similar to a gym membership.

Perhaps you can surf the forums free as a guest, but to get involved you have to pay an annual subscription. I think this would certainly decrease the amount of bans/ re-registers. May be only $19.99 per annum. It's not much, but it would probably assist admins in maintaining the forums. I think if you pay for something you tend to want the most out of it - in doing so you are encouraged to ad value to the content.

Perhaps the funds can be used to purchase promo product to award a member each month for their contribution to the forum in helping others - this is encouraging the right behaviours. (May be one of the supplement brands would like to sponsor it each month - kind of like a sportsperson award). They could also go towards setting up an e-mag for members with stories on the comps and forum members - offering online deals through local suppliers etc.

May be more Mods are needed? to assist with the load - essentially the population in the forum is growing so its going to take more mods to screen the forum.

Commercially this forum has a lot of potential... not just advertising.

...

On another note - is it possible to prosecute someone for contiually re-registering and getting banned - for abusive conduct as technically you could class it as spamming under those circumstances????

Thoughts ---

[runveerun]

I'd be keen to pay an annual membership to support the forum. Similar to a gym membership.

Perhaps you can surf the forums free as a guest, but to get involved you have to pay an annual subscription. I think this would certainly decrease the amount of bans/ re-registers. May be only $19.99 per annum. It's not much, but it would probably assist admins in maintaining the forums.

Perhaps the funds can be used to purchase promo product to award a member each month for their contribution to the forum in helping others - this is encouraging the right behaviours. (May be one of the supplement brands would like to sponsor it each month - kind of like a sportsperson award).

That sounds like a good idea, I'd be up for that!

How about getting the new users approved instead of it being automatic? If it takes like a week to get approved, during that time a mod could check out the IP address and see if it's somebody who's already been banned?

[Gym rat]

I do think Psudo has made some good choices banning idiots from the site in an effort to make the site a more welcoming place to share bodybuilding information, training tips etc, The culture however is still rather off putting to new members. I am sick of new members joining to see that within half a page the topic has become a shit slinging competition between current members. People are too quick to judge and although the playground is the place to take the piss, more often than not a lot of bullshit ends up being dragged through other forums.

Interestingly enough we have those who dont give a shit and make personal attacks, get banned, then open a new account. Do these people have so little to do with their time than to come back on and stir shit? I can think of numerious members who have made 3+ new accounts, only to get bannned again and again. Sadly the site has gone downhill in the last year dramatically.

Come on guys, the site is about bodybuiling. If you want to ruin it for others because you have a computer and nothing better to do make your own website and the whole thing can be your own place to shitstir... or point your car in the direction of a lake, lock the door with yourself inside and release the handbrake. If the problem members spent as much energy in the gym as the do being fuckwits they would probably be reasonable bodybuilders.

Psudo, good work on getting a bit harder on the site, weeding out some of the idiots will make the site a much more enjoyable place to be.

Reading a post on bodybuilding.com makes a good comparison. The question is "Is creatine kinda like steroids?" . Yes, a rather stupid question however the members of that site offered their advice and it made the topic informative. If that same question was asked on this site the member would be abused and the piss taken and that prosective member would probably not revisit NZBB..

I also think that as well like some idiot comes on and make some smart comments or has three accounts which I find very stupid and mindless and very well put Keats :nod:

[startinfromscratch]

opti and keats both provide valid points. even as a relative newcomer to this site, even i have noticed that there has been a shift in the general tone of this forum.

when i first jumped on,there were several 'old hands' that had massive amounts of information and experience to contribute, that simply dont post here. Samoan muscle is a good example. He did get involved in banter, but was usually goaded or out of frustration. and those guys have so much to offer!

* more mods, definitley.the site is growing, its natural progression.

* a small annual fee+more aggresive moderating= alot less bullshit

* i guess the senior members will have to exercise patience also, and resist being goaded by new accounts. (ramy?)

this site is a great site, and very useful. muppets like ramy will never be a good enough reason to give up on nzbb - we just need to be more proactive in how we deal with this stuff..

my 2 cents

[chickenman]

bein a new member of this site i have to agree. there is alot of great help/advice and information on here and i have found it very helpfull.. but yes after reading valid topics turn to shit slinging before the end of the first page it doesnt encourage people to engage in coversations.

an idea might be when registering you have to send off details to the mods for them to confirm your account before being able to post on the site...

im not so clued up on the whole ip adress and how they work so not sure how hard it would be to get around this check but some sort of system like this might just help???

i do take my hat off to the mods for the work they do and am amazed how pathetic some peoples lives must be to mke up numerous accounts just to cause shit....

anyways already this site has helped me hugely , especially with that extra motivation to get back into the gym thanks to the comp.... bring on nov 1st

:nod:

[HumanPerformance]

Keats has made an exellent point. This site has so much potential but is constantly being undermined by a few idiots that are ruining it for everyone. I think Optimass had a great idea as people just dont respect something when they get it free.

[SoaringSwine]

The playground doesn't help. It's fine for off topic stuff (but it's that what general chit chat is for?) but the disputes it creates generally spill into other parts of the forum.

[Marcus]

I agree with everything you say there Keats, basically because it's all common sense.

I also take my hat off to Andrew for the work he has done on the site. It's obviously a popular place because so many choose to log in and post, ( even the idiots can't stay away ).

However i am 100% certain that the recent behaviour in the mainstream forums is going to continue and even get a lot worse.

If you go back a year ago it was pretty harmless and infrequent, 6 months ago it had started to get a lot worse and now it's widespread and ridiculous.

We considered implementing a big forum similar to this on our own site but after serious consideration pulled the pin because of what we had started seeing happen on here.

I know of 2 different companies that had been considering advertising on this site lately ( 3 if you consider us ) that pulled the pin after looking through some of the forums.

It's very rare to see any thread go more than a page on here now without heading totally off topic.

Bans and suspensions are totally ineffective because all you need is a different email and a different ip and hey presto your straight back in.

There is no way to solve the problem and i hate to think how bad it's going to get in the next 6 months.

You're very negative bro. There still a hell of a positive side to NZBB. Look at the Workout journals, people genuinely supporting each others goals. The Diet & Nutrition forum is also full of useful information. With any forum you're going to get the idiots, and I agree lately it has got out of hand. But it's not the end of the world by any means.

I think a step in the right direction is bringing in some more moderators, and thinking about implementing some structure to the forums.

On the Muscular Development forum for example they have forum leaders - people who only oversee individual forums. Some of you guys dominate certain forums with your knowledge, and so being a forum leader would be a natural step up. We need to focus more on creating a community, instead of a sometimes hostile atmosphere.

Regarding advertising, your choice entirely. So are you saying that your business has suffered by advertising with NZBB? I buy protein from you, and I only know of your business through this site.

[Lazarus]

At first I wasn`t going to join up because it felt like there would be too much tip toeing around, but then I realised there were far too many decent people with a wealth of knowledge to not go getting involved!

I also would be all for a small annual fee to help with keeping some of the shit kickers out.

[musclenz]

Look guys this site is not too bad. In fact its a great site & I am on 1 other NZ site & 5 other international sites. There are some people who have told me they are pissed off with the off topic bullshit & won't come back on here. This unfortunately happens on a lot of sites that are growing in membership & where members are relatively new to the "game". Its not possible for Admin to vet every new member. It just has to take its course. However, I think that Mods can tighten things up a bit where they are getting personal or wildley off topic. Most of us are on here as Kiwis to learn & share our knowledge & experiences. Generally 90% of the time this happens. Lets keep this place something that is beneficial to all that use it. The way we respond to people with respect & understanding is how it should & can be. Cheers, Rod

[deegee]

If you stay out of the playground most of the forum is friendly and free from the rubbish. Yes it does get out from time to time and it has been worse over the last few days.

We are taking steps to address this by a number of different ways. It is a small number of members though that create much if the problems. So have patience and hopefully we will see an improvement in the days to come

[shruglife]

You're very negative bro. There still a hell of a positive side to NZBB. Look at the Workout journals, people genuinely supporting each others goals. The Diet & Nutrition forum is also full of useful information. With any forum you're going to get the idiots, and I agree lately it has got out of hand. But it's not the end of the world by any means.

I think a step in the right direction is bringing in some more moderators, and thinking about implementing some structure to the forums.

On the Muscular Development forum for example they have forum leaders - people who only oversee individual forums. Some of you guys dominate certain forums with your knowledge, and so being a forum leader would be a natural step up. We need to focus more on creating a community, instead of a sometimes hostile atmosphere.

Regarding advertising, your choice entirely. So are you saying that your business has suffered by advertising with NZBB? I buy protein from you, and I only know of your business through this site.

I agree with what Marcus has said. Instead of complaining about how terrible you think things have become and winging about who is to blame I think it would be a lot more constructive to look at ways to improve the site.

I liked Opti's suggestion however that would probably reduce the sites numbers considerably even though $20 p.a. is hardly anything it may discourage those who stumble across the site from joining and contributing (I think the idea is great that's just my prediction). I think first we should pursue other ways of improving the site like introducing more moderators and perhaps forum leaders to try improve the structure of the site. Vee's suggestions of a 'screening period' to reduce phony accounts seems very logical to me and easy to implement despite it creating a little more work for Pseu, Marcus and PNW.

I'm sure people could come up with a range of suggestions for improvement. Lets not be so quick to criticize what I think is a great site, this is a problem that can certainly be overcome by confronting the issue in a postive/constructive way. :wink:

[nzmusclemonster]

I nominate myself for the position of Forum Sheriff. Anyone that steps out of line has to answer to me.

[keats]

I hope that opening up this topic may help to have some positive outcome as this site does have some great potential however there are a few that ruin it for the rest and continue to do so. It is not getting better as members get banned but worse. I was against the playground from the start as it opened for the door for exactly the people the site soes not need. Yes I posted on it but it has got to the point where every topic is a targeted member bash or unintelligent rubbish. I can get a higher level of mentality speaking with my 6 year old daughter than 90% of posts in the playground. It seems since the playground was opened it gave way and almost welcomed those trouble makers, not having a go at anyone but I think closing it would make way for intelligent conversation an overall better environment for the bodybuilding community. Maybe then some more of the pro’s would be willing to participate in the site...

[shruglife]

I hope that opening up this topic may help to have some positive outcome as this site does have some great potential however there are a few that ruin it for the rest and continue to do so. It is not getting better as members get banned but worse. I was against the playground from the start as it opened for the door for exactly the people the site soes not need. Yes I posted on it but it has got to the point where every topic is a targeted member bash or unintelligent rubbish. I can get a higher level of mentality speaking with my 6 year old daughter than 90% of posts in the playground. It seems since the playground was opened it gave way and almost welcomed those trouble makers, not having a go at anyone but I think closing it would make way for intelligent conversation an overall better environment for the bodybuilding community. Maybe then some more of the pro’s would be willing to participate in the site...

Perhaps you are right. I might start a poll and see what the general consensus is.

[poos_n_wees]

I nominate myself for the position of Forum Sheriff. Anyone that steps out of line has to answer to me.

God help us all.

I really like these forums. There's something about supporting or offering advice to people who you later see on your local bodybuilding or powerlifting stage... Inspiring stuff.

Like someone mentioned earlier, it's only a handful of people who're causing trouble. Its as if the more posts they have to their name or the earlier they joined the site, gives them some right to bully newer members.. :doh:

I think things will start calming down once we have more mods on board, and now that everyone seems to agree that things have to change around here, things can only get better

Regarding advertising, your choice entirely. So are you saying that your business has suffered by advertising with NZBB? I buy protein from you, and I only know of your business through this site.

:ditto:

I only bought supplements from bjpowerL and Hennie (when he was in the bizz) because of their involvement with NZBB.

[Optimass]

i don't think a poll is going to be relavent - I also think a qualification period similar to adress varify on trademe could work but it may also cause a blockage for internationals wanting to participate.

...

It seems to be that the playground should be revised -

If we go down the track of forum leadership - I'd be keen to see musclenz involved in the prohormone forum - have learned a lot from your posts myself - and I'm not a novice by any stretch of the word. But before any of that was to happen I think pseu and the mods would have to agree on the way forward, as the site wouldn't be here if it were not for you guys. I'm also interested to know how much time it takes up in maintaining and managing the site?

[knock knock]

Regarding advertising, your choice entirely. So are you saying that your business has suffered by advertising with NZBB? I buy protein from you, and I only know of your business through this site.

:ditto:

I only bought supplements from bjpowerL and Hennie (when he was in the bizz) because of their involvement with NZBB.

I also found and used online supplement stores from this sight, shotgun included.

[boostinggtir]

I think we need more friendly members like myself.

[Gym rat]

I think we need more hot good looking flimstars like myself 8) \:D/

[marky65]

I think we need members that are interested in body building and not slinging crap!!!

I think the member fee is a great idea. Idiots don't tend to fork out money for that type of forum.

My 5 cents worth

[Danomyte]

I'd pay a fee to keep s^&t slinging to a minimum.

I like this site though, heaps of knowledge and choice ppl on here

2 cents

[teamfatboy]

I think that the recent events could probably have happened anywhere - in any business you encounter a certain number of complete dorks, right?

I'd hope that the operators can avoid making the site pay-to-join, as it'd probably put off some of the new entrants who (like me!) are the ones who really get the benefit of the wisdom which can still be found here, but if it has to be, it has to be. Realistically, while Bodybuilding.com and other boards I've used (runnersworld.com and bicycling.com) manage without it, they have huge publishing revenue bases to sustain the operations.

I'd be interested in knowing:

a. whether there are additional IT techniques to prevent multiple user names - and since there's enough IT folks on here maybe that could be useful as a thread;

b. what's involved in being a mod...IT skills, time available, etc; and

c. what other help the current mods might want to ensure they can deliver the sort of value many of us have already seen.