Sticky Topics and Moderators

See the results of this poll: What do you think would be nice to have?

Respondents: 30 (This poll is closed)

  • Sticky Topics: 10 (33%)
  • Moderators: 8 (27%)
  • Profiles: 12 (40%)

I agree - profiles would be fun, but sticky topics and moderators would be very useful; I often see a thread which is an almost exact replica of an earlier thread (e.g. “What do you think of [name]Mabel[/name]?” or “[name]Virtue[/name] names?”) and grouping topics like that would prevent people having to say “See this topic …”.

I’m not sure about having a large amount of sticky topics (a few generally important threads could be stickied in my opinion though), since that would create a lot of clutter. My advice for someone asking about a specific name to see if it’s been asked before is to run an advanced search (you can get there by clicking the “search” button without anything in the field) searching that name only in the post topic fields (to avoid picking up a large number of threads that mentions the name somewhere later on). If a fairly recent thread about the same name is found, it can be bumped rather than a new one started about the name (now if the thread in question is really old I can see starting a fresh topic).

As for profiles, they could be useful but they’re not something I’m strongly pushing for at this time. For moderation, if you see an inappropriate post you can report it by clicking the triangle with the exclamation point in the upper right-hand corner. (If the issue is something like a misplaced topic you can post alerting the OP it might be better to post about it on one of the other boards.)

I voted for profiles, because I think it would make things a little better personally - to be able to find another person’s other topics they have started, to be able to private message them, and maybe see their lists and emails if they want to share them.

I don’t see the point of sticky topics. I have seen a few forums elsewhere get really cluttered with sticky topics. Very few topics need to be always on top, and if they are popular, they will be on top. If they aren’t posted for a while, someone can find it or start a new topic. If someone is interested in a certain name as a topic, chances are that their question is unique to their situation, and they will have information in their post relating to their personal needs and requests, like their last name or the names of their other children. The nature of so many threads is a personal question.

In the Talk about Names section, we occasionally have a repeat topic like odd names of people you know, or guilty pleasure type lists, or what are your 10 favorites. [name]How[/name] many even general topics like this will clutter up the front page because they are sticky? I would rather take in a shorter thread than have to go back over a very long one. I don’t know what difference it makes, really.

Moderators? Very few topics I’ve seen so far really demand a moderator. Maybe there are two topics posted in two places that are about the same thing, and one of them is in the wrong place. It would be nice if there was a distinct right and wrong place to put things, but the nature of this forum is a lot of overlap. Names we are considering, or names we are just talking about? Maybe it’s a girls name or a boys name - which sub-forum is correct? It doesn’t bother me so much a lot of the time if someone posts in the wrong place. I don’t so much like to see people posting baby name games outside of that sub-forum, but maybe they don’t know that the brainstorm idea they had would be better as a game, or they want it taken more seriously, with serious input, and feel it doesn’t belong with the games. Who can moderate these minor transgressions? [name]Aren[/name]'t anagrams games? Maybe they are or maybe they are not. I think people are happy enough the way things are until there is so much clutter and overlap that more sub-forums need to be created. As for poor posting behavior, that seems rare, and people can click the triangle to report a rude and off-topic message. We sort of are a community of self-moderators, directing people to old topics or a more suitable forum, and if someone is kind of not nice, we take care of them also, and not in any way gang up on them or flame them. The administration makes sure the forums are pretty clean so far, so I don’t see messing with that until there is too much traffic for them to handle.

Changes I would like to see made instead - I would rather be able to navigate from one forum to another without having to go back to the main forum page, and also click next topic while I am reading the last message of the previous topic. I would like the pagination to be at the bottom so I don’t have to scroll back to the top to get to the next page of each forum. I know they had a problem with spam before, but I would like links to work on urls. Interface is kind of poor on this site, but has gotten a little better recently with the “first unread” link, and who wrote the first post. I’ve made navigation suggestions in the past, but I can only hope they are on the list of things to make this site better and easier to read.

As for the kinds of things I would suggest of fellow posters, only one thing. Please make your topic more specific. “Help with baby name” is not specific. Maybe that’s all you need and all you have to start with, but everyone is asking for help with their baby name. When I am looking for topics I have read or posted to, it is hard to remember from a title like that, so I probably did not look at it in the first place, choosing instead, titles that stand out.

Perhaps as a compromise, we could mark threads we are following. I am not perhaps the most helpful poster, so don’t take that the wrong way, because I know I am often too late to have anything else to add if someone needs a lot of suggestions, but some threads attract me more for reading than posting; I still can’t read them all, so I probably won’t even look at the vague titled ones. Another suggestion that has yet to be addressed is a non-name forum for just chatting, like where birthdays should go and where people talk about some personal issues that women/other moms/anybody might be able to help out that have nothing to do with names. It’s a community here and people want to be friends with each other. Adding a community sub-forum as well as profile links would ideally be a great next step in aiding people from all over the world to become true friends.

I voted for Sticky Topics and Profiles, because Stickies are convenient and profiles are fun! Not too sure about modeators, though… Although I think it could be pretty cool.

[name]Hi[/name], Berries!

Oh, gosh! It would be so cool to have profiles! Then we could keep track of what everyone was thinking about and I could easily find what I wanted to find. I often think of people that I want to check in on, but I can’t remember the name of their thread or what-not and end up having to search through tons of pages just to ask a simple update question! If we had profiles, where we could leave little messages to each other - and Inbox feature, perhaps? - then it would be pretty neat. This could also be worked into a LiveChat feature for NB.

Anyways, profiles would also help me personally organize all the threads I’ve done here, considering most are about my future names, but some were done for friends or just out of curiosity. I could manage my own threads - deleting or changing them - and I think NB would be more streamlined and easier to use. I feel like NB is a community, and profiles would be a cool way to make an even more cohesive group amongst those who are “regulars” on here!

Take care, all!

[name]Lemon[/name] :slight_smile: