Waygook! > Site News, Announcements, and Updates.
Concerned over the direction the site is taking.
Brian:
Some of the moderators were talking about this in private earlier, but I think it's worth having a discussion in public about the changes this site has undergone in the past couple months. People who have been here for a while have probably noticed the massive influx of new posters, foreign and Korean, and have seen that with the decline of Dave's Korea forum a lot of users have migrated here.
The site started out as a way to share lesson plans and information about stuff in Korea, but lately, in spite of some of our best efforts, it's taken over the role of Dave's ESL Cafe, a place where people kill time, argue, and vomit whatever ideas come into their head.
We have considered various ways to fix this. We started with public warnings and private messages to users trolling or going off-topic. I've started temp-banning and banning the repeat offenders, and we're trying to lock or merge redundant threads to reduce clutter. But, the feeling is still that the site has changed too much for the worse. Long-time readers and contributors no longer are interested in visiting because they feel waygook.org has been taken over by migrants from Dave's who don't care about what this site is about, don't take the time to read through the site before posting redundant questions or off-topic threads, and who don't show much respect to the site and its users.
We've played with the idea of removing the General Discussion forum, which seems to attract inane threads and a lot of bickering, but it'll stay for the time being. We're working to move threads from there into the appropriate forums (for example, "WTB" threads into the buy-and-sell), merge threads on topics that come up frequently, and delete inane topics that belong on somebody's Facebook page not a teachers' resource. Some have also suggested removing everything but the lesson plans, but that seems a little too radical for me. As I see it, we just need to get smarter, and need to show some respect for this "great resource" by using the search function, by contributing positively, and by not burying the good stuff with whatever crap pops into our heads.
I just thought I'd bring this conversation out into the open so some of you know we feel your pain and are trying various ways to make it better. I suppose the cynic in me should have known what some "teachers" here are capable of.
Please share your thoughts, suggestions, or recommendations.
pizza hamburger:
Personally, I think removing everything except lesson plans is a good idea.
SpaceRook:
I think most people become aware of topics through the "Most Recently Updated Topics" list. Perhaps that list can be filtered to only show topics from the important (i.e.teaching-related) forums? That way the less appropriate posts are only visible to those searching for them.
(I am half sleep, I meant to quote not mod edit.)
ape510:
Can you up the amount of posts required in certain forum areas?
E.G Lesson plans and travel in Korea remains 5?
General and problem areas of the forum 20?
This might ease the flow and would mean that people would most likely have to post useful things before they can post mundane brain vomit?
Just a suggestion, hope I am not one of these offenders :)
heyitslep:
--- Quote from: pizza hamburger on June 02, 2011, 04:43:22 pm ---Personally, I think removing everything except lesson plans is a good idea.
--- End quote ---
Hey now, there's some other sub-forums worth a dime here.
I support the idea of just doing away with the General Discussion forum. I've seen just way too many topics there that either start off with a negative tone, or quickly descend into negativity; almost every other thread there is poop flinging at something or someone.
Many of the other sub-forums within the General Category, such as BST, FAQ, and Information Technology, are really good. The topics may remain casual and subjective, such as favorite source of TV shows, yet still be informative.
Before I came here, I visited Dave's on occasion and it honestly made me not want to be here at all. If this place turns into Dave's 2.0, then there's always 4chan.
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