So as some of you know I’ve basically left the forums. Not really because I got bored of MakeCode or anything like that but rather there has been something plaguing the forums. If we want to be able to keep these forums a place for genuine conversation about MakeCode then we need to find solutions and actually be able to implement them.
The reason I didn’t just make this a post in the “MakeCode Forums are dying, Why?” topic is mostly because that seems to be a bit more about identifying problems than actually finding solutions.
The plague that is spreading is… trashposting. The most random of posts that don’t add anything to the forums and are just meant to be useless and stupid.
I don’t want this to become Microsofts Reddit. I love this community! So, I want to be able to actually come up with some helpful ideas of how we can solve real problems here, and ACTUALLY see them implemented into the forums.
Now I will list a few problems followed by some solutions.
1st Problem: Normalization of trashposting.
Trashposting has become so normal here users barely think about “Is it worth posting?” and more of “will it be super duper funny haha post”. Most of the time ITS NOT!
1st Solution: Being able to report older messages for spam. This may sound kinda basic but if we can go through older topics and look back to about 5-ish months ago to now and be able to report those as spam we can get rid of the normalization of these kinds of posts. Since this would not have been a rule it would obviously not do anything other than delete it. So, no bunches of PMs from system telling you to stop. Maybe just send out an email to everyone explaining the situation or something of that nature. This would stop people from seeing other posts and thinking “Everyone else is doing it, so, I should!”.
2nd Problem: Preventing Future posts from being trashposts.
Trashposting will never truly go away but if we can do our best to keep people thinking about “Is it truly worth posting?” that would make it almost all better.
2nd Solution: To this I propose new UI. When you make a post, it says something along the lines of “It will be a bit for mods to look over it so hold on”. Adding some more text to that message might be very helpful! Adding just a line or 2 saying “Remember posts should add something positive to the conversation! It might help to look over your message again to make sure it’s wanted and needed.”
3rd Problem + Solution: Reporting trashposting. There isn’t really a good way to specifically describe something as a trashpost in the report’s menu. Adding a simple button that says something like “It doesn’t add anything helpful or positive to the conversation” would be a great approach for this issue.
As I now wrap this up, I must say one last thing. You are more than welcome to bring up other problems. However, calling someone out specifically is not okay and is not what this community should be. Keep things vague enough to not target people but simple enough that it can be understood clearly. Calling out specific situations is not okay either. If it’s a onetime thing it’s not much of a regular problem. Saying “oh i saw someone post where someone did this specific thing then that other thing” is targeting even if you don’t include their name.
I hope we, together, as a community can work through and fix this problem!
Have fun on here everyone!
Bye,
- RobbyZero
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!