Over the next week or so, you will slowly begin to see some changes here at SimCentral. We're hoping that you'll see these changes as being steps in the right direction to help improve the community. Some of the changes will be very minor, others much larger. But all of them have one thing in mind: improving your experience within the community.
So what's going to change?
In speaking with the other moderators, these are the following steps we'll be taking:
- The forum software will be updated. This isn't a minor update. There are a lot of changes to the forum software. It may take a little while before everyone is comfortable with things again, but it's a change that has become necessary.
- The site design will be updated. Consider this as if it were a grand re-opening. Perhaps that will help frame the changes in a better light.
- The forums will be re-organized. Right now, we have too many forums and too few members. In order to make it easier to find new posts, we will be decreasing the overall number of forums. This should make it much easier to keep track of posts and make everyone's experience much better. We will, of course, be ready to add any new forums should there be a good reason to do so (like an increase in traffic).
- The forums will be partially reset. Since this is something of a grand re-opening, we thought it might be good to start things off with a "clean" slate. SC League forums will not be reset. Career threads in the various baseball gaming sections will also not be reset. A number of other sections also won't be reset. What will be reset are the GC, GE, MLB, and Sports forums (some of these will also be involved in the re-organization).
It should be noted that post counts will, in all likelihood, be reset to 0.- The TOS will be updated. While the basic concepts and language will remain the same, the plan is to allow everyone a little more freedom in what they post and how they post it. While porn, warez, and user-bashing are still not allowed, there won't be a blanket ban on foul language and posts can contain content that might be suitable for an older audience -- for a better idea of what we're thinking, perhaps we can borrow a page out of the MPAA and say somewhere in between PG-13 and R.
In addition, I should mention that while the changes in the TOS will likely result in more leniency from the moderating team, this should not be taken as an open invitation to start testing them. In fact, because we plan on being more lenient, we'll also likely be a little quicker on the trigger when someone breaks a rule in the TOS.
While we'll try to reserve permanent bans for serious TOS infringements, the moderating team has my full consent to hand down temp bans when needed (some times we all need to step away for a bit and a temp ban may be the best way to get cooler heads to prevail).
Hopefully you'll find these list of changes as a positive step moving forward, instead of backward. And just because I mention these changes in a post like this does not mean that there's no room for improvement. So if you have any complaints, suggestions, and or just want to vent about something regarding the site, feel free to do so. And if you don't want to do it here, feel free to PM me or one of the other moderators.
As much as it is our duty to keep this site running smoothly, it's also your duty to speak up and let us know what you want so that we can provide you with a community you can enjoy and have fun with.
Ultimately, we hope these changes will allow everyone, including the moderators, to get back to having some fun.
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Originally Posted by BlitzburghBucco
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