TennesseeJed
Footballguy
This is a weird forum. It used to be much better, and much more of a community. But, it has definitely lost that over the years.
I frequent another board that is, in many ways, very similar to this board. At its core, it is a fan forum for a sports team, but it also has forums for other sports, other teams, a Chat Forum that is akin to the FFA, and Debate/Discussion Forum that is akin to the Political Forum, and a few others.
The population in that community "looks" very similar to this - it's mostly white, middle-aged men pontificating on the daily happenings around the world. One key difference is the board is based in London, and I would guess the board splits 70/30 British/European to non-Europeans.
There is only 1 topic that is forbidden - Israeli - Palestinian conflict. (Even then there is typically a limited discussion if there is a particularly newsworthy development)
The Chat - has many of the same threads you see in FFA, its lighthearted, there is a "This thread is useless without pictures" - 7000 page thread with mostly humorous photos - all work safe, no yoga pants, or worse - which is a pretty nice trade-off. Same with "Videos" and "animated GiFS". Its a community, and people respect the community standards.
The board itself is a bit more active than this - and you get a wider variety of opinions, but you also get the same type of split opinions in the US Politics thread, or the British Politics, or the Brexit, etc. More liberal than conservative - and same type of "cliques" you saw here - but the conversations carry on, with the same responses you saw here, minus the whining.
In terms of reaction emojis: Like, Agree, Funny, Winner, Informative, Thanks, Heart, Disagree, WTF?, Dislike, and Spam/Off-Topic.
These reactions help keep a lot of things under-control. It keeps a lot of people from posting the same thing 5 other people already posted. They allow you to "disagree" without being disagreeable. Only two reactions are considered "Negative" - Dislike and Spam - and if a post gets too many, that triggers an alert to the mods - which helps them focus on any particularly egregious posts (by community standards), and they then largely ignore any of the petty stuff, and everyone moves on.
Your "reputation" is shown with your UserName (which is just a tally of the Positive, Neutral, and Negative ratings your posts have received.)
You learn quickly not to "complain" about individual ratings - as that is seen as a legitimate reason to pile on more negative ratings. And, nobody really likes to get negative ratings - even if you ignore them. Its also a function of fat fingers with people scrolling on the phone - it happens.
And sometimes - people laugh at you, not with you. That is really just a function of life. But, I have never seen a complaint for the mocking reaction - you just know it's no different than getting a "disagree" rating - which is also no big deal there. Many posts will get agree and disagree ratings - because, well, there are a lot of people who agree or disagree with you. All part of the community.
Long-winded way of suggesting - you are going in the wrong direction by taking away ratings, and should, in fact, include more ways for people to express themselves - in a somewhat benign manner. Let someone hit "disagree" on a post, and they feel less need to "Mock" or be disagreeable. As moderators, don't get lost in the weeds - save your time for the real issues - and a community will self-police more than you give them credit for.
I frequent another board that is, in many ways, very similar to this board. At its core, it is a fan forum for a sports team, but it also has forums for other sports, other teams, a Chat Forum that is akin to the FFA, and Debate/Discussion Forum that is akin to the Political Forum, and a few others.
The population in that community "looks" very similar to this - it's mostly white, middle-aged men pontificating on the daily happenings around the world. One key difference is the board is based in London, and I would guess the board splits 70/30 British/European to non-Europeans.
There is only 1 topic that is forbidden - Israeli - Palestinian conflict. (Even then there is typically a limited discussion if there is a particularly newsworthy development)
The Chat - has many of the same threads you see in FFA, its lighthearted, there is a "This thread is useless without pictures" - 7000 page thread with mostly humorous photos - all work safe, no yoga pants, or worse - which is a pretty nice trade-off. Same with "Videos" and "animated GiFS". Its a community, and people respect the community standards.
The board itself is a bit more active than this - and you get a wider variety of opinions, but you also get the same type of split opinions in the US Politics thread, or the British Politics, or the Brexit, etc. More liberal than conservative - and same type of "cliques" you saw here - but the conversations carry on, with the same responses you saw here, minus the whining.
In terms of reaction emojis: Like, Agree, Funny, Winner, Informative, Thanks, Heart, Disagree, WTF?, Dislike, and Spam/Off-Topic.
These reactions help keep a lot of things under-control. It keeps a lot of people from posting the same thing 5 other people already posted. They allow you to "disagree" without being disagreeable. Only two reactions are considered "Negative" - Dislike and Spam - and if a post gets too many, that triggers an alert to the mods - which helps them focus on any particularly egregious posts (by community standards), and they then largely ignore any of the petty stuff, and everyone moves on.
Your "reputation" is shown with your UserName (which is just a tally of the Positive, Neutral, and Negative ratings your posts have received.)
You learn quickly not to "complain" about individual ratings - as that is seen as a legitimate reason to pile on more negative ratings. And, nobody really likes to get negative ratings - even if you ignore them. Its also a function of fat fingers with people scrolling on the phone - it happens.
And sometimes - people laugh at you, not with you. That is really just a function of life. But, I have never seen a complaint for the mocking reaction - you just know it's no different than getting a "disagree" rating - which is also no big deal there. Many posts will get agree and disagree ratings - because, well, there are a lot of people who agree or disagree with you. All part of the community.
Long-winded way of suggesting - you are going in the wrong direction by taking away ratings, and should, in fact, include more ways for people to express themselves - in a somewhat benign manner. Let someone hit "disagree" on a post, and they feel less need to "Mock" or be disagreeable. As moderators, don't get lost in the weeds - save your time for the real issues - and a community will self-police more than you give them credit for.
