What ideas would you give for changes to the forum?

[Ledu]

1: The ability to not know who gives you a "like". 

This would be similar to reddit. You get an upvote but you don't know whom. It could be a positive thing, or at least an option to not know. How does one choose who to like, based on who they agree with? I think having a different opinion or picking apart my idea is also helpful. That is also how I learn new things. 

 

2: A "put me in the cage option", 3 days/ 7 days/ 3 weeks:

It was thrilling to move up the leaderboard some days ago but I also should study more. A sort of lock out option could be beneficial as forum use is somehow tied to psychological rewards- much like Duolingo. Being hooked on Duolingo is not exactly best for language learning. 

 

3: An area or subforum where people could just type in Chinese 100%.
If I was hooked on typing in Chinese, that would be benefical. English is a comfort zone.

 

So what are your thoughts, opinions? Thanks.

[Moshen]

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3: An area or subforum where people could just type in Chinese 100%.

 

Honestly, if that were implemented I would have to quit as a moderator.

 

[Jan Finster]

On 2/17/2024 at 2:37 PM, Ledu said:

1: The ability to not know who gives you a "like". 

This would be similar to reddit. You get an upvote but you don't know whom. It could be a positive thing, or at least an option to not know. How does one choose who to like, based on who they agree with? I think having a different opinion or picking apart my idea is also helpful. That is also how I learn new things. 

 

2: A "put me in the cage option", 3 days/ 7 days/ 3 weeks:

It was thrilling to move up the leaderboard some days ago but I also should study more. A sort of lock out option could be beneficial as forum use is somehow tied to psychological rewards- much like Duolingo. Being hooked on Duolingo is not exactly best for language learning. 

 

If you do not want to know, who "likes" your post, then do not check.

Again, why do you even the check the leaderboard. It is irrelevant. 

 

Both 1 and 2 are about self-discipline. This is your own responsibility. This is an important skill to learn, because the whole internet runs in a similar way. If you put the keys to your personal psychological sanity in the hands of the websites, then you are at their mercy.

 

 

 

 

[sanchuan]

On 2/17/2024 at 2:37 PM, Ledu said:

3: An area or subforum where people could just type in Chinese 100%.

This has been asked before so I feel relatively confident in saying that, unless the rules have changed, not only is publishing a post, thread or blog in Chinese allowed here, but there's already a subforum that encourages just that - and in fact attempts to keep all such posts in one place. 

 

(And I agree that suggestions 1 & 2 are inappropriate for an open discussion forum.)

 

 

[Ledu]

Thanks for picking apart my ideas. I guess they were not beneficial. I will try to have more self discipline. 

[Lu]

1. I'm not sure, but I seem to recall that the named likes are from the time when we still had an upvote and a downvote button, and it was decided that downvotes (and therefore also upvotes) should not be anonymous. I don't really see the point of making the various upvotes anonymous now. Now that we don't have a downvote button anymore, anyone who disagrees with you will have to write a post to explain why.

 

2. I understand why you want this; I don't have that problem with this site, but I have it with others. I'm confident there are various browser add-ons that can block certain websites for set periods of time, see if you can find one that works for you. Alternatively, you or anyone who wants to can message a moderator and request to be blocked for a while. We can do this. (If demand becomes overwhelming we'll revisit this offer, but I don't expect it to be.)

 

3. Good news: as Sanchuan mentions, we already have that! The Chinese Corner is for posts just in Chinese. And I sincerely hope Moshen doesn't quit, having found this out now. The subforum has been very quiet lately, but do post in it if you like, hopefully others will join.

 

 

[roddy]

So bearing in mind I'm not actually a working admin any more...

 

1) Likes used to be anonymous and there were also red downvotes. It was kind of fun to all pile on and downvote someone, but it could be a bit of an issue with people downvoting posters, rather than posts, or getting offended at being downvoted. Then more options became available (the 'helpful' and other responses) and we ditched the anonymity and removed the downvote option. However, part of the reason for removing it was I didn't want to have it there until people were used to the fact it was no longer anonymous. I don't think knowing who has given a reaction is a problem, if anything it's a little bit extra community interaction.

 

2) I did occasionally ban someone who requested it as they were studying for an exam or something. It's not ideal though. What I do sometimes is change my password and throw the new password away. Having to go through the extra password recovery stage can stop me logging in.

 

3) Yeah, the Chinese Corner is exactly for that, but it never really saw a lot of use. I think to really work it needs to be guided, perhaps with a 'teacher' starting discussions and providing feedback. 

[Moshen]

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The Chinese Corner is for posts just in Chinese. And I sincerely hope Moshen doesn't quit, having found this out now. 

 

I'm fine with that.  What I wouldn't be fine with is if all-Chinese posts were allowed all over the forum.  I read Chinese rather slowly and it would take me way too much energy and effort to tell the difference between spam posts and real ones.  Of course, if forum members wanted that, the policy could change and then you all would simply need to find another moderator.

[becky82]

Can I suggest: not being able to understand 100% of the posts should not be a deal-breaker for moderators?

 

I'm a mod at the Chinese language Stack Exchange.  There, Chinese is permitted everywhere, and not just in Mandarin.  It's not a big deal: not many people actually write in full Chinese, and when they do, they're almost always on topic.  It's usually some Chinese person who knows an answer, or has some kind of native-speaker intuition to share, but doesn't know specific technical terms in English.  For the purposes of moderation, I can just copy/paste it into Google Translate and if it says "buy Amazon gift cards" then I do moderator things.

 

Nobody has expertise in everything.  If you can't moderate something, then just let another moderator do it.  It's fine.  You don't have to read and understand every single post; if there's a problem, it'll get flagged.

[Lu]

On 2/18/2024 at 11:41 PM, Moshen said:

What I wouldn't be fine with is if all-Chinese posts were allowed all over the forum.

It is not, has never been, and there are no plans to make it so.

 

It's in the forum rules, even:

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This is an English-language forum about Chinese. Posts and their titles should be mostly in English, except in sections specifically for practicing Chinese. Obviously the use of some Chinese is necessary for examples, etc, but a non-speaker of Chinese should still be able to understand the purpose of your post.

 

Glad that we get to keep you on as a moderator!

 

[suMMit]

How about some kind of "competition" or "challenge"? That could be fun, interesting, motivational.

[tobyiana]

Perhaps you could introduce a travel channel?

 

I would really like to see recommendations especially around East Asia.

 

Perhaps you could also highlight active threads (ones which you've posted on), threads from last day, threads from last hour, unanswered thread.