Hi all,

First off...I apologize for being MIA for the last few months.  My life has been like a Soap Opera and I have decided to write a script for All My Children based on my life since April........only kidding.

But seriously, things have been crazy but I have been lurking on the boards at least a few hours every day to keep track of things and I am slowly getting back to my normal work schedule...whatever that looks like.  So hopefully I will get back to my project to catalog everything on the other Extension archives board.

The reason for this new post is that I have to confess that it really pisses me off when the various dark forces of the underground hair extension world feel the need to swope in for random attacks.  I LOVE this forum and I feel that I know all of you from your posts for so many months. 

So after just banning two more dark diva troublemakers yesterday and today..I asked Jeff to help me figure out how to create a "closed - invitation only" forum for all the old timers here.  That is, if you guys want to do that?????

Jeff is playing around with some ideas of how to set it up.  In essence it would be an "invitation" only subgroup topic.  We could set it up so that anyone could read the posts but only invited members could post........or we could keep it totally closed so that only those invited can post and read.

The problem with letting everyone read the posts is that the dark divas could read the posts and still harrass via bmail and email.

I really hate to eliminate newbies that are sincerely interested in the topic BUT I am really sick of the sickies.

Any thoughts?  Also, I would need to figure out what to name the closed forum. Special Elite sounds so unimaginative.  Of course one of the potential downsides is that this forum which is so awesome, it might decline in popularity with all the oldtimers being in the closed forum.

I will leave it up to ya all (I am from Texas remember).

I would love if you could discuss it here but if you want to give me your private opinions instead you can bmail or email at mailto:shelton@hairboutique.com - shelton@hairboutique.com and it can be definitely private.

Thanks for building this wonderful forum.  I enjoy it so much.

So sorry for all the latest attacks and BS.

Karen

Oh yeah, maybe you could show ip addresses in posts?

Its just a pain in the butt when someone whos a newbie finds a members only forum.  Ive ran across it before and said "screw this, Im going somewhere else".  Sure we would all love to stop the harassment, but I think in the long run it would do more harm then good.  But if you publicly showed an IP address attached to the post, at least then we could track it back to the persons name, city, state, and IP providor and report them for harassment.

EDIT: oh yeah, and ban them as well

I have to agree with everyone else, and I remember posting my objections to it the last time it came up. I gotta say though its a darn shame that we have to even think about it because of a few idiots.

I might not post often but I do come on here and read all the threads daily if not more.  Its very informative and its a shame that people try and leave negative remarks about others. 

as much as i think ignoring the ignorant is best, Amm would you share with us who this is, i personally think we should all know so we can be aware!

thanks-

amm wrote: As far as "feed the trolls" goes, this wasn't even a troll in this case. This was a member who was currently part of this forum, actively participating, and whom I personally had a decent rapport with both here and in PM. Frankly, when I found out who it was I was like, what the hell just happened here?

I just assumed it was sweetcandy or someone else with too much time on they're hands.But thats a bit disturbing to think it was a regular member.I would have never suspected any of the regular members.

I would like to see it stay open. Close it for a few annoying posts? No matter where you go in life, there will always be a few that to try to spoil things. They don't bother me, I find it pretty sad actually.

Do not respond/react to the negative toxic posts AT ALL even when tempted. They win if you respond. They are purposely trying to bust your bubble and get everyone all worked up. Just ignore them and lets get back to talking about what we are hair for.

Longhairdreams wrote: amm wrote: As far as "feed the trolls" goes, this wasn't even a troll in this case. This was a member who was currently part of this forum, actively participating, and whom I personally had a decent rapport with both here and in PM. Frankly, when I found out who it was I was like, what the hell just happened here?  I just assumed it was sweetcandy or someone else with too much time on they're hands.But thats a bit disturbing to think it was a regular member.I would have never suspected any of the regular members.

it was a regular member?

Im behind on the gossip.

I don't like the idea of a special elite forum either.  It excludes people who really need advice and help.

Karen, why are you so against the idea of having a moderator or two?  It's been suggested several times.  Someone who's on this board all the time can easily delete those posts minutes after their posted and stop the fury before it even starts. 

Quote Christine: 

{In my opinion people like this "dark divas" have a special intention: They want to destroy a friendly community. If the board would be closed for everybody, it would be a victory for them.}

Thank You Christine...I think you said it best!

And Welcome to the board!

AfroPuffs wrote: I don't like the idea of a special elite forum either.  It excludes people who really need advice and help. Karen, why are you so against the idea of having a moderator or two?  It's been suggested several times.  Someone who's on this board all the time can easily delete those posts minutes after their posted and stop the fury before it even starts.

I am not against having moderators.  In fact, Hairboutique.com has a group of mods that we pay to watch the boards.  There are 8 people besides myself and Jeff that constantly watch all the boards.  So I don't understand your comment about me being against moderators. 

I personally moderate this board on a constant basis...banning people when appropriate and editing posts.  If someone sends a Report...from this board...I am the one that gets it and acts on it as quickly as I receive it...unless I am asleep.

There have actually been a lot of posts that many of you have not seen because I deleted them the minute I found them.  There have also been a lot of bmails to me from members that I have worked with to remove problem posters.

I am not advocating that we do a separate forum.  I was just looking for a way to make things better.  Which is why I asked for feedback from everyone.

Karen

Hi Sherrie

Thanks for your post.

Unfortunately throughout our long history of HairTalk (we have been here since 1997) we have experienced all sorts of problems.  You name it...it has happened.  At any rate, we used to have mods as "volunteer" only and that really did not work very well.  Some mods would just suddenly disappear.  Others would have a heavy hand and hack and slash posts that might have been OK but the mod had a problem with someone.

Needless to say, we have been through it all.  The HairTalk boards were almost closed for good close to 2 years ago because of problems with trolls, hackers, mischief posters...etc.,  At that point in time we had an entire groups of voluntary moderators who would post on their boards.  Dave Decker who does the Long Hair Boards was part of that group and Dave does an amazing job.  However, Dave has a life and while he can check often, it is not his main job.  So he helps but the HB Mod Team also backs him up.

We also had an incident where the former moderator of 360 Waves decided to go off and start his own web site and compete with HairTalk and proceeded to try and delete ALL the posts from the HairTalk forum that we created and paid for.  That was a major disaster and that forum was permanently locked to prevent the destruction of the boards.

So while it is nice in theory to expect someone to be a moderator and volunteer their time...in practice it has never worked very well here at HairTalk.  One of our other moderators for the Short Hair Board volunteered to start the thread and then went AWOL after a few months w/out telling anyone and the board went temporarily to the trolls.

I take this business very seriously.  I am the 100% owner of HairBoutique.com having started the company in 1997 with $1,000 of my own money.  I work 7 days a week - 20 hours a day.  Even though I may not be posting all the time...and may seem MIA...I always read the boards every night before I go to bed and in the morning before I take my shower  (eeeehhhhh).

What would help the most is for people on this board to click on the Report button when they are unsure about any post or poster and I will immediately look into it if I have not already done so.

Recently when I went through a major personal crisis I still made time to read the boards at least twice a day.  Even on days that I did not go to work...I still read the boards. So I do check this board...as well as all the others...every single day.

Thanks,
Karen

Thank you Marie.

I appreciate your support and appreciate everyone who visits helping me to moderate the board by sending reports. 

Best wishes,

Karen

leia1979 wrote: I feel kinda dumb since I hadn't really even noticed the "report" button before.  That's a great idea, and maybe we just need to use it more to try and stop things before they get out of hand.

Hi....

We probably need to make the Report button bright red to stand out.  :-)  It really isn't that obvious.  But we get Reports almost every day from a lot of people.  One person is awesome about letting us know when people make inappropriate stickies or post spam ads.  Another person always reports fetish people. 

It works.  It is great and it helps us keep the boards as clean as possible.

Thanks for being willing to use Report to help us.

Karen

Bryan wrote: karen i have a question (and this may be a dumb one) but if i report someone exactly who sees the report?

Hi Bryan,

Only I see the report on this board since I am logged as the Mod for this forum.  The report comes to me and it is private.  No one else sees it.  It is a free form field and it allows you to paste in the post in question and then make a comment like "inappropriate sticky" or please check the IP of this person since they are attacking people or whatever you want to say.

The Reports are never ever published and no one ever knows who is reporting what...except me...and even with torture I don't tell.  Not even for chocolate.  :-)

Karen Shelton wrote: AfroPuffs wrote: I don't like the idea of a special elite forum either.  It excludes people who really need advice and help. Karen, why are you so against the idea of having a moderator or two?  It's been suggested several times.  Someone who's on this board all the time can easily delete those posts minutes after their posted and stop the fury before it even starts.  I am not against having moderators.  In fact, Hairboutique.com has a group of mods that we pay to watch the boards.  There are 8 people besides myself and Jeff that constantly watch all the boards.  So I don't understand your comment about me being against moderators.  I personally moderate this board on a constant basis...banning people when appropriate and editing posts.  If someone sends a Report...from this board...I am the one that gets it and acts on it as quickly as I receive it...unless I am asleep. There have actually been a lot of posts that many of you have not seen because I deleted them the minute I found them.  There have also been a lot of bmails to me from members that I have worked with to remove problem posters. I am not advocating that we do a separate forum.  I was just looking for a way to make things better.  Which is why I asked for feedback from everyone. Karen

I guess we just have different definitions of "moderator".  My vote is still for a resident moderator.  I don't know... I can really only go by my experiences on message boards and Moderators are more than just disciplinarians IMO.  On a few other boards I visit, they're active participants who we've grown to know and trust.  I never knew about the other 8 mods you have.

I don't think the board is really that bad when it comes to trolls and stuff, maybe because I tend to ignore all that.  So I'm okay with the board as is to be honest. 

Hi Mocha,

It's OK to just type "troll" or "27th flagrant asshole ad"  :-)

It doesn't have to be a long description.  Whatever is easiest for everyone.  :-)

Karen

MmeduKrue wrote: Hi all! I confess it took a long time until I understood what a report button is... I asked my favorite translation program (named leo) and he spat out a lot of different meanings...  @Sherrie: Thank you for your warm welcome! @Karen: I understand these misbehaving people are a pain in the neck for you. And you are absolutely right thinking about a solution getting rid of these (insert a really dirty,bad word of your choice) people. But please don`t forget this board helps people all over the world to get information about our favorite theme "extensions" and we newbies are thankful  to get competent advice. Here in Germany we have a board where people use to discuss about hair and sometimes there is a topic about extensions,  but people are not willingly to share their know-how.And every few days appears someone who posts incredible insulting things about people wearing extensions.... It seems as if there is no mod controlling the posts. But it exists a "blacklist-button". Every user is able to supress postings from people he dislike. And if the community stick together and don`t read annoying posts it means for trolls:"No feedback, no fun!"  Imagine, I read a lot of posts at HairBoutique.com and I thought: "Whow, it is such a friendly board - compared to my favorite german board- but now I understand it is your hard work to keep the threads "clean".  I don`t know a solution for this problem, but all I know is there are few people who misbehave but a lot of people who are glad and thankful this community exists. One stinky person gives a deeper impression than ten friendly people... Hmm...Have a nice day everybody!!!

Hi MmeduKrue,

If I didn't welcome you...my apologies.  Welcome to HairTalk.

Thanks for your feedback.  I am not sure there is really a solution to misbehaving people, especially as long as they can be virtually anonymous, but I believe in offering people the opportunity to give their feedback..which is why I asked the question of the board.  I am perfectly fine with keeping things exactly the way that they are and wouldn't change anything unless the majority wanted to do so. 

I do understand that no matter how hard we try to make things work as well as possible, there are always flies that somehow land in the ointment.  :-) 

Thanks for taking the time to express your thoughts.

Karen

sherrie215 wrote: I think I tend to follow along the same line of thought as you on the moderator idea AstroPuffs. And honestly, the incidents of trolls or problem posters has been pretty few considering the amount of activity on this board.

LOL... that's AfroPuffs...but I like AstroPuffs too though..