Question about the website

BurningCheese 12/8/2022 08:39 am 1094

I don’t mean to be criticizing the website but I was wondering


Will the staff ever grow? Like would it ever be possible for there to be a mini team meant for helping clear up the pattern voting page? I think it’d be really useful for the staff numbers to grow a bit or even make that mini team tiniaquabird

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Dec 9, 2022 6:44 am

happy

Dec 9, 2022 6:34 am

@Crumpet: of course thanks! and yeah Adik is super nice eyeroll

Dec 9, 2022 6:23 am

kao happysounds good, thank you for replying and sharing ideas

Dec 9, 2022 12:49 am

Lots to think about here, thanks everyone. I’m going to do *something* but I’m not decided on all of the details yet. I might post here again to run some ideas by those of you who have contributed. I’m sure I can figure out a way to improve it. This site was never designed to handle this many patterns and I’ve been through a LOT since I created the site, so my time and mental bandwidth have been very limited which has prevented me from improving things much. My time is still quite limited but I have a much better mindset now which helps.

The framework we’re using is very old and limited and might not work well with some of the ideas listed in this thread. But I’m going to see if I can add something newer over the top or side by side.

@nintendokei: sounds interesting. I don’t want to copy another site too closely but I think those are some good rules. I’ve previously spoke to the owner of that site about doing something similar to him and he was okay with it, really nice guy.

Dec 8, 2022 1:44 pm

@Crumpet I would like to add something to the convo if that's ok.

The system for moderators could be a lot like BraceletBook. Mashaknots has a video about being a mod on there!

Essentially they have a checklist for all users to see in the frequently asked questions area to show what rules patterns should follow. Of course, they have no repeats, but they also have specific things popular in the knotting community like cow prints, etc. They also have moderators, super moderators, and admin, but the team is rarely updated. You have to be active in the community (having a great profile, helping others, being online for many years, etc) and I think you have to be at least 18. Then you are added to a list of potential moderators, and the team will vote for the next mod. I'm sure it's more complicated than this, but I'm not sure. Obviously, I'm not on the team tongue

Dec 8, 2022 1:14 pm

@Crumpet: sorry for yet another ping

It would take a while for a mini team to plow through the patterns, but I’ve got some ideas on how this could maybe work kao happy

Let’s say you post a pattern, and it gets voted up. The more votes it gets, the higher it’s boosted up on the teams page thing. It’ll do this no matter how old the pattern is, even ones from 2012ish. This could help out the problem of so many repeats of stuff like pride flags or remixed hearts, as I know people are a bit tired of seeing so many. And for patterns that have been blurred out, you could assign groups of people different years etc, assuming this won’t only be like 5 members. This can be also taken and only used for older patterns, allowing the user base to vote for new patterns they want to see published, like your idea of X amount of people saying yes and it being approved. But say this new pattern got flagged by a user, then the pattern team could go and look at confirming if it’s actually not allowed or just a troll. just some ideas heart bounce


also, have you ever considered having another programmer or such help out with the website? I’m sure there’s someone here who’d love to help, or even commission someone for a few works. I’d gladly help chip in costs :

Dec 8, 2022 12:50 pm

@BurningCheese: Nice ideas, thanks. I've got a role that isn't being used by anyone right now for forum moderators. I like the idea of junior staff unless that's an insulting name somehow laugh I like the idea of requiring more votes than just one person for the pattern team as well. I suppose the issue with that is that with a lot of the older patterns, the team might not get through them all so only one person might see some of them. I think it could also result in fewer patterns being approved.

Another option, instead of giving mod/admin panel access to a pattern team (which would create a lot of work for me because it's pretty confusing to explain), could be to simply assign hidden powers to a group of users and if X amount of those users vote yes through the normal pattern voting screen, the pattern goes through (probably via a timed script). And I could add another button for no. Although the tricky part there is that a moderator would probably still need to review the approved patterns for validity and appropriateness, so they might need to be approved but not published until a mod clicks a button.

I know this wasn't mentioned but I've also toyed for years with the idea of automating approvals to some degree but there are always issues that come up with it. I'll have a think about it again over Christmas break. I think I might have a couple of new ideas, but whether they'll work or not is a different story. I would need to beef up the reporting system as well if I did that, due to the risk of copied/stolen/inappropriate patterns being voted through.

Dec 8, 2022 12:15 pm

@Crumpet: I’m sorry for the ping, but would it be beneficial for there to be a ‘trial/test’ for new people wanting to join staff? It could also hold stuff like “how to see if a pattern won’t work” or “what is treading the line of nfsw”. It would give them a little taste on your expectations without giving them so much free power, they could be like junior staff or in training staff. They could also fill the gaps of other staff helping reduce workload for everyone. I also feel like they could be assigned to focus more on the voting patterns or simply just modding our forums. Even then maybe adding more ranks of staff can help filter power out more, so it’s more comfortable accepting new staff as a junior wouldn’t have much power like a admin or mod. And one way maybe for a pattern team could be that the requirements for a pattern to be deleted or added could be at least 2 or even 3 have to agree, as glitchy said something like every Friday to clear up the votings


thank you!

Dec 8, 2022 11:28 am

frrr

Dec 8, 2022 9:34 am

Hopefully we can get more people on the staff sometime soon. The issue is that it’s difficult to find trustworthy people who have the knowledge necessary (e.g. spotting cuff patterns which don’t work as expected) and stick around on the site for a decent length of time after being given the powers kao sad Mods also need to have regular access to a laptop or desktop computer because the admin panels don’t work properly from phones due to how old they are.

I can’t give powers to people who I haven’t vetted or some of them might use the powers to reject patterns from people they don’t personally like, or worse, mass delete content just to be evil (although I do have limits in place so the damage would be limited).

If anyone thinks they meet the criteria then they’re welcome to message me to apply, as many have before (thank you). Things are really hectic over here right now so don’t expect a reply for at least a few days. I have some work planned on the site once I get off work for Christmas in a little over a week