How do you manage the cry babies in your forum?
 

Every time I make a change. Anything at all, they act like it is the end of the fricking world.
Anything I do, is met with resistnace, and complaints from many of the more senior members.
They post polls about the changes I have made and feel like they should get a vote on how the place is run. Funny thing is, the ones that complain the loudest are the ones that never contributed a dime, or made a donation, yet they feel like I owe it to them to cater to thier demands..
Gets so old..
Part of the probel is that I bought the site from someone else that did nothing with it. I have trippled traffic and added tons of new features that many people asked for.
Upgraded the server, provided new skins, new home page and made everything tons better.
Yet constantly I get these babies that cry about every little thing..

Do you guys have to deal with this crap? I can't be the only one?!!?

i bought more than 30 master sites in the last 3 years, with a total of 2M members, and i can tell you the same as you did... the "Whinners" never contribute to the life of the whole, they whine for their own nostril...

actually, what you could do is beat them on their own game... start polls before you implement a feature... as you can see who voted, you can also see if THEY vote and what is their contribution to the mood of the site. Another feature would be to give votation level only to the ones who contribute to the life of the site, by postcounts or donations etc...

Something i always do on major sites, even if they are not from me: master features are activated only to members who are "attractive" on the site... people who post interesting stuff, and people who are inviting interesting people...

otherways you can ban them.. lol

Master features?
Like increased PM storage, and such?
What all do you do for your interesting and attractive members that regular dorks don't get?

PM storage is not a feature, if someone need more than 50 PMs, you just tell him to clean the stuff...

Arcade, Blog, Groups, FlashChat, etc...

and to be attractive, you need to be unique... specific target of members, specific topics, having a better global browsing experience... the end-user side of things is important. it's the same as why you choose to go to Shopping Mall #1 instead of the #2...

Never really had them, though I haven't had to change much. Mind you, the members pretty much know that if they don't like it, they can pay for their own site where they can do what they want. Told a few publicly, and everyone took note.

Rapscallion

well at the forum i used to be a hired thug... err super moderator at the whiners pretty much took over

When i started my own the whiners rights were the first thing to go ;)

We cry-baby back? :confused:

Cry Babies are a nightmare for forums, normally they like to moan, just about everything, sometimes it makes yoiu wonder just why they joined your forum in the first place.

I tend to stop them short in their track before they tend to do too much damage, other members get fed up and may simply not log in for fear of getting drawn into any arguements.

I listen to what they say and if their right then i help them resolve their problem, if they just moan for the sake of moaning then thats where i find the miserable hack a godsend ;)

However i must admit i've not used that in anger as yet, But did you know theres a new kid in town when it comes to crybabies, in your admin CP, under user banning options, Tachy Goes to Coventry....

This option allows you to effectively add a user or users to every member's 'Ignore List'. However, users in this list can still see their own posts and threads... So i'm looking forward to using this.

Now, where can i find some cry babies :D:cool:

I used to use the miserable hack, but it only conflicted with another mod. Also, I never thought of the Tachy Goes to Coventry, but thats amazing. I IP ban and used the proxy conversion so they can't use a proxy to get back on.

I've got two members who still post, not realising they've been on Tachy for somewhere between six and nine months. Both were banned and sneaked back in under another name. Best was when one posted a thread about how they felt really lonely, desperate for some attention. Fun for all the mods!

Rapscallion

We had one person like the OP's. No matter what I did, he would complain about it.

For example I installed Cyb's Donate Link mod and he complained for two days because the link in the navbar was green.

We eventually ended up banning him because he finally crossed the line.

Nice one :D:D

That is absolutely amazing. Very great story. I hope/don't hope to do that.

I point and laugh. If they're whining constantly about everything, then they're politely told that if they don't like it they know where the log out button is. Luckily my sites don't generate a lot of whiners, and when one appears they're usually dealt with by my members before I even hit the site LOL

It depends really on what they're whining about..

Sometimes I just tell them to grow up, or if they're really anoying to the community, then I use my ...

http://homepage.mac.com/demonhood/banhammer2.jpg

Ban hammer.

You could always just close any of their threads and give them infractions. Works well here I think...?

Many negative reputation ratings will put members in a very restrictive user group. This confines those members to certain area's. The fish bowl effect. I have instructions on how they can improve, which means they will either wise up or get fed up.

The some whiners get whined backed at, because they get an additional usergroup. This usergroup has the 'extra' of having music when browsing. I did some research on the most annoying sounds to humans and most aweful songs on the net and this really changes the browsing experience. It's amazing what a simple <if condition= can do.

The real problemmakers get banned or redirected to shocksites.

there's not a reputation hack for users vote on social skills? I remember one: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...ighlight=karma

so users can tag their fellas...

Don't need a hack for reputation/karma.. it's now inbuilt into vB ;)

You guys overlooked the best tactic.


At Keyhunt, we have a lot of whinging and I'll admit I was one of the whingers, but the staff became strict, and used a mixed tactic of humor (try not to snarf instead of try not to flame, for instance) and being harsh on the members (if you didnt trade or have anything to contribute to the community, you would be removed basically).

It kind of brought everything back together.

lol oh i know how u feel there... when every I change my site...theres always someone who will complain and its alw\ays the ones that dont donate!!

The way i look at it although my members are important to me and are the reason i have a website - I have paid for this website, the license, the hosting, the domain etc out of my own pocket, alot of my members do not donate, do not sign up for paid membership etc and therefore if i see anything pro addons, etc that would improve my forums or build it towards what my vision is I am going to get it.

My administration and moderation team have a say when i begin to think about getting a new mod i tell them all i can about it, and those who paid anything towards the website get asked for their opinions and then i make a post to the rest of the community and see their feedback but if i want it i will install it.

Ignore babys. Eventually they will go.

Jack Daniels:)

The Miserable User hack is the way to go!

I won't hangout on vbulletin.org IF:

1. Slow response (time delay) on every page (20 to 60 seconds default).
2. A chance they will get the "server busy" message (50% by default).
3. A chance that no search facilities will be available (75% by default).
4. A chance they will get redirected to another preset page (25% & homepage by default).
5. A chance they will simply get a blank page (25% by default).
6. Post flood limit increased by a defined factor (10 times by default).
7. If they get past all this okay, then they will be served up their proper page.

What ever happen to "retention retention retention?"

What? You in the back, did you say something?
Yes, you're right, "Screw retention and ban their ass" :p

I send them to the corner with there time out hat on. LOL

Actually I give warnings before I change anything and apologize to them for any inconvenience and try and explain to them the best I can why I have to make the changes. Most will understand. I try never to change major things like link locations etc. Thats when the major hissy fits start. LOL

I cants ay though, in this last year that I've really had any crybabies.

Sounds like you could be talking about me and my site. I think the users are now used to how we run the site - we are very laid back! We PM with users when there is a problem and I'd say that 99% the problem can be resolved that way. The users do have the occassional whine thread, but we just let them whine and we calmly explain the situation and our reasons for the change (or whatever) and then they usually calm down about it.

I ban them. Then they come back and cry some more. And then I ban them.

Repeat cycle.

I hate banning. We ban spammers, but it takes a whole lot of effort on the part of a user to get banned from our site. However, we do ban upon request. :)

I break out my chrome plated ban-hammer, put on some power metal songs about vikings and proceed to chisel the fail out of my userbase.

I have a couple. But, the majority of my members are great. The problem sometimes for me is I can do 99 things right but will only be remember by the 1 thing I do wrong with the whinners. And these are the same people that post every day but complain about the site. :lol:

Same here with noncontributing members, even mods and they resist & whine about everything. My policy states 'members and moderators DO NOT set site policy' PERIOD and it's not open to forum discussion. I see anything that resembles it, and it gets deleted. I've lost 8 mods on one site over this that I couldn't afford to lose.

you have to be a psychologist if you run a forum. Easy/Pleasy!

The most inspiring words I have read in a long time!

Even though the users on my forum are mostly over 20 years old, there still are such cry babies, which are annoying.
Since we can't tell them to go get a life and come with arguments, I simply ask them to think about what they're crying about, before doing it again.

No, it doesn't usually work, so that's why i PM them and tell them they need testosterone and a big pair of O O :D

My forum is pretty relaxed. The calmest, happiest, friendliest forum I've ever joined. Well, I joined and then was made pseudo-admin to help work on the site. But anywho, it's just a relaxing place, and the 3 or 4 members that give us trouble know about the infraction system. They break a rule that's worthy of an infraction, they get one. Once they have a certain amount, they're banned. We don't make the decision to ban people unless they become really disruptive. Gets the responsibility off of us.

Well we too try to warn our users ahead of time about any changes. If it's a feature we're adding for the users, we might make a poll asking them if they want and/or would use it.

There are times that we add features or make changes because we want to. If they choose to complain, we tell them it's our choice in the end and we aren't changing it. If they continue then this is what I do:

I made a joinable usergroup called "Closed". (Basically a banned usergroup with the ability to view forums, not post or anything)
I made a thread and said I don't want anyone to leave, but if you wish to, join the usergroup.

Anytime someone threatens to leave the site (a.k.a. good-bye threads) or they complain too much I just post a link to that thread. They get the message.