For this post, I’m breaking my long-standing code to speak only in Morse code. Is anyone aware of the OWS forums? Is anyone reading them? Is anyone making legitimate use of them? I have an idea about how to clean up the front page Box using the General Forum. That will be a follow-up post. But first, here is what you will find in OSW Forums.
General – Being used primarily by one user for posts about general stuff it seems.
Help – Posts from people who are actually looking for help. Yippy!
* OpenSim – Being used for event announcements that will never been seen, and by people who won’t pay and support the site by making event announcements on the front page. Things went bad in the forum in the last year. Before then, there were legit posts. The only legit, non-event promoting, post in the last year was about "Age Verification strategies for OpenSimulator and the HG." As an aside, have you met people with profiles that say they are Age Verified. How, exactly?
* SatyrFarms – Now this is a weird one. Spammed by
https://opensimworld.com/user/musajackson4 to promote himself as a Witchcraft Zoodoo Black Magic Spell Caster. People complain that Satyr doesn’t moderate OSW enough in general, but he hasn’t cleaned up spam in his own forum for almost 12 weeks. But OWS is largely a labor of love, so give the guy a break – especially if you don’t pay to support the site. But maybe Musajackson4 can cast a Troll-Be-Gone Spell? Nah.
* News – Well, this will not be news. Being used for event announcements that will never been seen, and by people who won’t pay and support the site by making event announcements on the front page. Seeing a pattern here. Deadbeats abound. However, there was a post saying "Wish the news was actually just news, not just advertising drowning out all the bits of news we have".
Technology -- posts from people who are actually looking for help with technology issues. Well done!
* Gaming – see the comment about the *OpenSim, and *News Forums. But there is some good news, I guess. Other than two posts this year, all of the posts are older than one year. Perhaps they realized that their event posts were not being seen?
Feedback – Well, there is this post with an Advertising and Events Forum Suggestion
“It would be great to have specific advertising and events form sections. It might (but we can't guarantee) prevent/reduce the instance of people posting their new product or party everywhere else”. +
There is a forum of sorts for event announcements. It’s call the Front Page. There is a forum for advertising also. It’s called paying for ads. Other than 2 recent posts with genuine feedback, the last authentic feedback was posted 2 years ago. So, being used legitimately, but not being used.
There is no way to clean up the forums. But I’m thinking the General Forum can be used, legitimately, as a way to clean up the Box. Details to come.