MSCL.com

Forgive my ignorance, but I've been wondering about this stuff ever since I started posting here. Or maybe since the forum was upgraded... whatever.

1) What is a "hidden" user? How is that different from a registered user or a guest?

2) What exactly is a "sticky" post? I am aware that sticky posts stay at the top of a forum, but how is that different from an announcement post? Can anyone make sticky posts and announcements, or just site administration?

Thanks for making me a better poster.

Nostradamus wrote: 1) What is a "hidden" user? How is that different from a registered user or a guest?

A hidden user is a registered user who decided to hide his online status on the board. He/she will not appear to other users on the "Who's online"-listings, when he/she is browsing the forum. You can modify this setting in your profile -> "Hide your online status". It's almost like the "Invisible"-status on ICQ. Some users like the feature, some don't. But admins can see everyone, everytime

2) What exactly is a "sticky" post? I am aware that sticky posts stay at the top of a forum, but how is that different from an announcement post? Can anyone make sticky posts and announcements, or just site administration?

There is no technical difference between a "sticky" post and an "announcement" posting - only the name differs. At least in our forum. In theory, it would be possible to give the permissions to create "announcements" only to forum administrators. In the DVD forum, the moderator (Jason) and the admins can turn postings to "sticky" or create announcements.
This forum software ("phpbb2") is very sophisticated and well-developed (and open source too ), so I'm pretty sure that it will offer more possiblities in the future which extend the current features (e.g. "global announcements" that will be automagically displayed on all subforums etc.)

If you have more questions, don't hesitate to ask

That was fast Sascha! I guess after dealing with Another Universe I am not used to getting a prompt reply

This is by far the slickest posting board I have ever encountered on the 'net. I can't wait to see what you'll do with it next

Sascha,

Question? Forgive my ignorance here but I have noticed that whenever a particular thread gets nasty around here you seem to be the one to lock things down. Is this something you volunteered to do? Do others at mscl.com have the authority to do this? Does Jason? How nasty do things have to get before a thread is locked.

By the way I love this forum. Thanks to you and the rest of the team for a job well done

Just curious.

Lance Man

lance wrote:Question? Forgive my ignorance here but I have noticed that whenever a particular thread gets nasty around here you seem to be the one to lock things down. Is this something you volunteered to do?

Well, I volunteered to work on MSCL.com with other "My So-Called Life" supporters, so watching this forum is basically "part of the job" And it's an interesting job. The entire MSCL.com is based on volunteer work and donations.
It just happens that I'm online almost the whole day (because of my "real" job ) and the MSCL.com forum is always open in a tab in my Mozilla browser. So that's why it seems like I'm constantly around.

Do others at mscl.com have the authority to do this?

Yes, all MSCL.com coreteam members (Steve, Mike, Dan, Digo and I) have administrator rights in this forum.

Does Jason?

Yes, he's moderator of the DVD forum.

How nasty do things have to get before a thread is locked.

That depends. But you can take a look at our forum rules (as mentioned in the DVD forum FAQ) to see a list of things we don't tolerate in this forum. If things get too violent, we also have the possibility to delete topics and ban users.

As a side note I believe the rest of us don't get into the locking down thing as much because Sascha is much more moderate about it than...well... me!

As I intended my avatar to show, I can be a bit course when dealing with an issue that is getting outta hand. Being a sword when a scalpel is what is needed...

Mglenn,

Thanks for the info. Sascha is more moderate than you in this regard, wow. I kept seeing Sascha closing down threads. With her Matrix Reloaded avatar I began to think of her as the MSCL enforcer, terminator if you will.

Lance Man

Sascha is a *he*.

I know male and female Saschas. I even once met a female Jason, so go figure.

D'Oh!

(Slapping forehead with hand.)

Whoops, sorry about that

Lance Man

lance wrote: (Slapping forehead with hand.)

Whoops, sorry about that

Don't worry, it happens all the time . "Sascha" is a male name probably only here in Europe. And only here and in Russia it's written with that "c" - in other countries "Sasha" is more common.

If I ever move to the US, I'll probably change my name to "Alexander" (which is my second name) ...