Closing of support and feedback threads

[Bravo Mod Team]

Valued members,

We want to apologize if closing a feedback thread has ever made you feel like your feedback was not valued or that it was a waste of your time. We do not feel that way, and it has never been our intention to make you feel that way. We understand that it takes time and effort for you to submit feedback to us, and we are very grateful when you do.

We do not want to discourage you from providing us with feedback because feedback often leads to positive change at NamePros, which benefits the entire community.

Sometimes, there are reasons that we feel closing a feedback topic is beneficial, such as:

1. The topic is resolved or complete in some way. We use the list of feedback threads as a to-do list, and when we close a thread, it's our way of marking it as finished (but not necessarily resolved to everyone's satisfaction) and moving it to a different list so that we can see what's left that still needs our attention.
2. It allows us to focus on topics that we believe still need further discussion, consideration, or decisions. Some topics arise every so often because there is a disagreement between some members and NamePros about how something should work, and it's typically not a good use of anyone's time to have the same conversation again unless there is a new perspective or idea being presented on the topic.
3. NamePros has made a decision on how something will be resolved, and we all need to be patient for that to happen before we can fully decide whether it needs to be discussed further or whether the solution is sufficient. There's typically not much else to discuss until the new solution is available.
4. If we believe that a topic is or has become non-constructive in some way (e.g., it's more of a "do what we want or we will cause problems for you" than "have you considered this instead?"), then it becomes a poor use of everyone's time to continue it. At that point, it's time for everyone to move on.
5. Public discussions can sometimes lead to a lot of non-contributory and unproductive posts, and since we strive to read every post in the support and feedback sections, this can become very time consuming for us and prevent us from making progress on any feedback. Feedback is intended to facilitate progress, but sometimes it can become a hindrance to progress if it shifts away from being productive.

When #4 or #5 occurs, which may be no fault of your own, we suggest contacting us privately to continue the discussion instead. There are many ways to do that, but here are a few ways to contact us privately:

1. https://www.namepros.com/support/
2. Email us.
3. https://www.namepros.com/contact/
4. The support bubble in the bottom-right corner of the website.

The first contact method above is most similar to contacting us publicly on the forums, and only our team will be able to view your messages and respond to you. This can lead to better and more productive discussions.

All that said, we understand that we can improve with allowing these types of threads to remain open longer. We will try not to close feedback discussions as fast in the future, regardless of the reason.

Thank you for all that you do for NamePros!

 

[oldtimer]

#1 above is the most similar to contacting us publicly in the forums, and only our team will be able to view your messages and respond to you. This can lead to better and more productive discussions.

I believe that it is okay to close the private support threads if an issue is brought to your attention through this method and is resolved, but it's good to put a mechanism in place so that a member can reopen the thread to do follow ups in case the problem reoccurs, this way the original conversation is not lost and can be used as reference.

IMO

 

[Ategy]

Yes .. really frustrating often times .. particularly for those of us who do try to be detailed and offer constructive suggestions.

1. The topic is resolved or complete in some way.

You have the "Status - Resolved" tag for this (so no need to close the thread for this reason) .. honestly .. most of the time when threads are closed it comes across as NamePros not really caring (aka: "yeah yeah .. we aren't changing our minds so don't even bother posting anymore"). I realise that isn't necessarily always the case .. but it doesn't change the way some of us perceive it sometimes. It's particularly frustrating for those of us who have invested considerable time in to the discussion.

That being said .. there are likely very few people who do post as detailed as I do in this section .. so at least there's likely nobody more frustrated than I am .. lol

In the end I suppose it is your forum .. so it really doesn't matter what we think on anything. I do NOT mean that in a way to suggest you don't ever care about anything we have to say .. but just that it's your forum, so you can implement the rules and anything else in whatever way you want .. and if the rest of us don't like it .. then we can start our own forum with our own rules.

I suppose that's also part of the frustration in that we don't even know who "you" are. NamePros ownership is anonymous .. now so are the mods. You have partial rights to our content, you have full and unrestricted access to every private message by all members. So you need to keep in mind that in the past when it was let's say @Eric Lyon who closed a thread, it was not as "cold" because we knew who to reach out to if there was more to add. But now it's just the nameless "Mod Team Anonymous" .. and with Mods only being "teams", we're not even sure if we'll be dealing with the same person under the same Mod account.
(I'm laughing at this paragraph because of who my guess Mod Team Bravo usually is .. lol)


Anyhow .. It's been 51 minutes ... I think we can close this thread now!

 

[MapleDots]

Wow, definitely a step in the right direction.

Closing constructive topics stifles conversations and is therefore detramental to a forum venue.

As long as the topic flows and is polite there is no reason to close it. It is frustrating to no end when one takes so much time to make carefully worded responses only to have the topic closed.

This is a great topic and it shows that namrpros can be responsive to their members needs.

 

[MapleDots]

@Ategy

Yes we can all tell by the writing style who each mod is. Mods do put up with a lot of abuse and some anonimity is sometimes required.

You are correct though, it definitely feels a bit colder when a mod called bravo account responds because it is like talking to a stranger. We suspect we know the stranger but we can never be sure.

Having moderated a large forum I have experienced moderator abuse at it's finest but living in Canada I have always felt reasonably safe.

I like that the mods have a choice to use a personal or team account. It's based on how comfortable each mod is responding to members who can sometimes be involved in some very heated debates.

 

[oldtimer]

Although it's okay for members here to choose to be anonymous but it can cause a little problem for the Mods to be anonymous specially when they are in the position to make certain decisions about the members and their threads and posts.

Also when the Mods are anonymous and are using a Mod Team usernames you never know if that responsibility is being outsourced to outsiders who are not part of the forum management and teams.

IMO

 

[Bravo Mod Team]

it's good to put a mechanism in place so that a member can reopen the thread to do follow ups in case the problem reoccurs, this way the original conversation is not lost and can be used as reference.

That's an excellent idea.

it can cause a little problem for the Mods to be anonymous specially when they are in the position to make certain decisions about the members and their threads and posts.

it was not as "cold" [before] because we knew who to reach out to if there was more to add. But now it's just the nameless "Mod Team Anonymous" .. and with Mods only being "teams", we're not even sure if we'll be dealing with the same person under the same Mod account.

You are correct though, it definitely feels a bit colder when a mod called bravo account responds because it is like talking to a stranger. We suspect we know the stranger but we can never be sure.

We agree; it is not ideal.

NamePros has been running since 2003, and it wasn't until 2019 that we had to accept it was a necessary option. That could be attributed to the continued growth of NamePros (e.g., exposed to more people, including unstable ones) and shifting dynamics in the world that may be more contentious today than in the past. Or, perhaps, it just takes a long time to experience enough physical threats and encounters to accept that "enough is enough" and a new approach is necessary, even if we prefer the more personal approach.

we knew who to reach out to if there was more to add.

Please still reach out. While you may not see our names anymore, we are still people and we still care just as much as before.

Sincerely.

 

[oldtimer]

I appreciate all the hard work that you all do to keep the forum going, and in a way I understand why you might need to use anonymous usernames, as long as we all know that it's you guys behind the anonymous usernames I guess we'll be happy.

IMO

 

[Bob Hawkes]

@oldtimer just made the point I was starting to write. Yes, first and foremost, thank you for the incredibly hard work of keeping the forum running so smoothly, both technically and in terms of human interaction.

I think we all understand the need to go to alpha, beta etc., and that there are real people behind the labels, as you say, as caring as ever. If you do ever get to the point of automated robotic moderation, I guess someone will tell us, right? Or should we be giving the letter Mod accounts a CAPTCHA every now and then to be sure ?

Seriously, I sometimes wonder if a tiny bit of moderation could ever be effectively done automatically. Like in sales listings, if people had to make the first post through a form, it could check that things like closing time for auctions, or price range on requests, was properly there or not let them start the thread.

I think the move to close threads can be positive, as sometimes past a certain point nothing is really being achieved. Oldtimers idea of a mechanism to reopen if warranted is right on in my opinion.

It seems to me, that there have been more cases of people not letting things go after they have expressed a viewpoint, and posting over and over the same negative things. Not so much in feedback I think, but as a general tone that can spill over into feedback + suggestions. The number of people who do it is still only a tiny handful compared to the membership, but I do worry that while supporting free speech, too much leniency in noncontributory posts for no real reason than to be negative, it seems, may inadvertently encourage such behaviour. In that sense, closing posts here can be considered a positive.

Thanks again for all that you do.

Bob

 

[oldtimer]

If you do ever get to the point of automated robotic moderation, I guess someone will tell us, right?

I don't think that AI Mods can completely replace Human Mods anytime soon, but maybe they can assist them with some of the time consuming chores that are involved in managing and supervising a large forum like this.

IMO

 

[WatchDogue]

RE CLOSING a SUPPORT or FEEDBACK THREAD

What about giving a 3 day "Notice of Closing" when a thread is facing extinction - gives all so motivated
a final opportunity to plead their case or to counter other positions posted in the thread?

Put the closing notice in caps / boldface and that should satisfy all interested parties.