unfair proposal, part 2

Damn, these threads need "back" and "next" buttons". Please see "unfair proposal (long)" if you're not familiar with the discussion.

The update complaints will be branched into another section.

Quick points:

1) Like bleedingorange said, the DBZ proposal is not fair but on some level it should make sense.
2) No way will we charge a "DBZ tax". That's just wrong.
3) Dislike of DBZ is not driving this decision, patterns are. The pattern is, wanna-be DBZ collectors are causing trouble. The true DBZ collectors are among our most loyal fans, whom I do not wish to alienate. Remember, everyone who is a member at the time of the ban can keep collecting DBZ all they want. However, this ban is designed for RS to "not go asking for trouble".
4) If we were making money hand over fist, this wouldn't be a problem. We ain't. I don't mind money going to good causes, but money going towards someone else's playtime -- or worse, scams -- is plain stupid.

That being said, what are the other solutions to this problem? One that's being passed around is to get some other admins to look at this stuff. Here's why I can't do that: security. A lot of you folks I've made friends with, but I simply cannot give another user other than myself permission to shut down sites at will. There's too much at stake there. I could easily imagine a scenario where someone gets an account stolen and 50 sites get shut down in half an hour. Sure, I could override this and bring them all back online because the RS logins are completely separate from the "real" logins that I use to work on the site, but it's still a hassle.

I wouldn't have any trouble coding an interface for admins to give them non-destructive powers. But I don't see much I could let an "admin" do without security becoming a concern.

Blocking new sites is so much easier. RS feeds me a shopping list of all new sites created that week, and I go through and look at all of them. No coding required, and five minutes a week with my well-worn site lockdown tool would probably cut into the number of incidents by 70 or 80%.

No gallery number under 300 has been a problem that couldn't be solved by simply asking that materials be taken down. (RS has 450+ galleries) New members are causing all the trouble. The new troublemakers aren't interested in Fushigi Yuugi. Then again, neither am I.

So I ask, knowing all this, is there any other feasible solution other than the one I really don't want to take? I'd love to hear alternatives. Thanks.

Hey jn,

Without giving anyone "power of the button" for admin., maybe you could create a "registration template" for "all" new sites, from here on out. Giving people a few more hurdles to cross before they can upload might be a deterrent.Add a few more "personal" questions.

"Fast-Eddie" pranksters tend to tire fast of "legitimacy". You could post a "warning" about whether or not it is a DBZ cel site; that if it is, it could be scrutinized or something along those lines because of past history. (And that you could nuke'em, if they are phonies or something.)

This might ferret out fools, because of actually having to register and write something down. Nuts tend to bore of a little "red tape".

E

Why don't we have anyone that wants to open a DBZ gallery have a reference from an established member in good standing? I am completely novice at this type of topic, but just an idea....

Erin

How about admins who don't have any 'powers' at all, except a direct line to your ear? I don't like or dislike DBZ, and I'm not part of that world at all, but there are some DBZ collectors who've chimed in on this thread and seem to know their stuff. If you have one or two knowledgeable and impartial DBZ collectors who would be willing to help you, it's a way to still allow new, legitimate DBZ galleries and yet weed out the bad seeds.

If one of your 'admins' sends you an email (perhaps with a certain keyword in the title so it jumps out at you?) about a gallery that is in violation of basic Rubberslug rules, you could then take whatever appropriate admin action is necessary. This way, you wouldn't have to constantly police RS galleries all by yourself (not that we don't mind you browsing them! ^_~ )

I could just see someone (and I hate it that I end up thinking in such suspicious pathways) setting up a gallery legitimately and after enough time has passed starting to pull the idiocy you are trying to prevent. People who know DBZ well would know if something like that were starting to happen.

Just my two cents about this very tricky problem.

Good luck! ^_^

In a futile attempt to force all the replies into the "new" thread, I'll try to post replies to both threads in the new thread.

Did I mention yet that these threads need better navigation? More to do list fodder...

Issue: "Volunteer powerless admins"

This is sort of how it already works. I get an e-mail every couple of days. If it's from someone who I know is clearly more of an exper than I, the offender gets instantly vaporized until they can refute the claim. If I'm not sure, I ask for more information.

Part of the problem is that I've only seen maybe two complete episodes of DBZ and one original DBZ in Cantonese.

Issue: "It's my site!"

If I go around and excercise the "it's my site so ha!" authority too much, no one will like us very much. More importantly, members will stop talking to me. I know about the technical side of this site, but I have limited knowledge of what kinds of things go on in the member side of the site. I know the names of the more popular galleries. The database tells me DBZ and FY/AnC are popular. But that's about it. I've watched some DBZ and most of FY and I didn't get it. (Strangely enough, the FY fansubs I watched were from a male fan at an old job.)

I don't read other cel forums unless there's a specific reason. I haven't had the time, patience, or money to buy cels in almost a year. I haven't been to a convention since Otakon 2001. (highly recommended over the money-saturated AX, btw)

That being said, if people stop telling me what's going on that I don't notice, my capability to improve the site is severely limited. Plus, we're going to need lots of supporters when we roll out some new features to help this site make money. (Don't worry, anything you can already do should stay free for the forseeable future.)

Position summary:

There appears to be three themes here...

People who hate DBZ: They have no problem with banning new DBZ sites. However, it's not really fair to rely 100% on the non-affected for policy decisions.

People who like DBZ: They recognize that it's not "fair" (I agree), but under the circumstances, it might be the leser of two evils. Blocking DBZ indirectly hinders the community aspect for many DBZ collectors who are already here, even if they remain untouched.

Neutral: Somewhat along the lines of the respected DBZ collectors -- it's not really fair but perfectly moral as a last resort.


The plan:

As soon as I have time, I will paste anti-DBZ foolishness warnings in as many places as possible. Maybe people who are starting up "image galleries" are not clear of the concept. I will make it painfully obvious that cels MUST BE IN YOUR POSSESSION. Prepare to be reminded of that fact early and often. Sorry gang. Also, I may start making public any notices of gallery banning as examples, just to show people that we mean business.

I won't ban all new DBZ galleries. Yet. If all the reminders and warnings don't work, I may switch to that. I don't want to do that before giving this a chance.

As far as the admin thing goes, if it really means something to have official "hall monitors" roaming around, I will be happy to append admin flags to users. The admin flags don't do anything right now other than print "admin" next to your name in the message boards. All the real admin stuff is a bit harder to get to.

I'll ask for nominations in another thread.



jn