[kiefers]

The TFS Mafia. Like everyone knows by my constant blabbering, I support this 100 percent and strongly urge users to see the positives in this.

[dazed&confused]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mojopin @dazed&confused: I think that the new invite system now is good, though.. is there a new system now? and why do you think its good?

I don't know if it's for all members, but I have a few invites which I can use at my discretion (and the behavior of any members I choose to invite would reflect directly on me). I assumed it was for all members because I never requested invite priviliges.
It's good because that way a lot more members have invites at their disposition, and will be careful whom they invite, it's not like before when very few people could invite and therefore much harder to get an invite

[masquerade]

i voted no, but it wasn't a 100% no. First of all, I greatly support the idea of all members having the ability to invite. I had never attempted to apply for invites before, but I am glad I can now. I think this will help grow the community without encouraging spammers and other bad users because it reflects on the person who is inviting. Maybe we could even up the amount of invites per user (or is there already a tiered system, im not too familiar).

I also think a random day or week of open registration once in a while could also be good. However, if a lot of people get wind of this, it could lead to a flooding of the system and I know we have problems with the server every now and then anyway.

[MissMagAddict]

Now I would change my vote from YES to NO if I could...

Quote:

Originally Posted by kiefers Everyone has something to offer.

Not everyone...no...I don't think so...

[kiefers]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MissMagAddict Now I would change my vote from YES to NO if I could... Not everyone...no...I don't think so...

I disagree but neither of us know every person on the planet, but that is a personal opinion. Rephrase: Prospective TFS users with no connections have something to offer.

[MulletProof]

Yes, kiefers. but not everyone's coming here for fashion, and this IS primarily a fashion forum, there's no need to meet and greet every single person on the planet but just being familiar enough with the internet world to know that it's only a minority those who register to contribute to a community, you've seen it in other websites, modelhommes and celebrity city for instance, and as far as I know, they didn't deal with the influx we had in 2006. I'm not sure if you lurked enough as a guest, since when you started doing it and how often but from late 2005 up until the invite system came on board, we had a lot of trouble not just with spammers, they're actually a lot faster to deal with and get rid of in my opinion, the main problem I see (and this is a very personal view) is the amount of people that come here and contribute NOTHING but stick around and spend their time flaming wars, offending other people, getting into nonsense arguments, playing games (hence the current invisibility of the games section), spreading rumours, deviating threads from the original topic and just basically devoted to unconsciously or not, disrupting the community. I honestly have no idea why they signed up for, I believe they could've registered in the mustang or chef forums just as easily, I do not think they cared about the topic but more about killing time.
we've had MANY of these people here, sum them up to the amount of users that DID come here to advertise and spam the community (thanks to our extreme availability on google).. not to mention those who registered and never came back.. we may have nearly 61, 62? thousand registered people here but how many of them are still coming?. I'd dare to say it's probably around 2 thousand, we don't even reach the 800 per day.
I voted YES, hoping someone would bring out the google factor and we could fix that. but since nobody has, I don't think I would mind at this point staying as we are right now since opening up again will bring the same consequences that made this place go invite-only to begin with.. right now, I think making invitations reachable for people is what will keep us growing at a normal pace, no one will come if you're unreachable and I do feel for those who want to be part of the community but can't find their way. I find it very frustrating. by being word of mouth/invites with people who have things in common [interests, myspace, livejournal, other] and can pass along their invitations and being less greedy on getting fashion industry insiders ONLY (like they all have the time), it'll become more accessible and safe for both new members and the community as a whole. but just temporarily till we fix.. THE GOOGLE ISSUE!.
...I don't have much energy to elaborate anymore, but I think we should stop advertising certain sections and perhaps just leave Front Row and Visualising Fashion as visible results for those searching topics within these areas.. I mean, we appear within the first results for certain celebrity news and papparazzi photos, something's gotta be fixed!, there have been a few times when I'm googling something, end up in forums, get hooked on a discussion and register immediately just to reply and don't ask me what the forum was called cause I don't remember or even care about!, I'm sure that's happened to a lot of people that came here, some celebrity bag and sienna miller were the most-searched topics in tFS last year, and I don't think we should be proud for that, more the opposite.. call it elitism but it's like being in that mustang forum but keep getting people that just wanna talk about orchids. it's nonsense. I probably sound like a broken record, after letting someone know he couldn't discuss politics here, but really, there are topics for everything, and this thing is FASHIONFASHIONFASHION. with a few much-needed playgrounds for fresh air, yeah, but it's still the fashion spot.

[Bel]

What a close vote! I said no because it makes me feel special. If I weren't a member I would of course say yes. I'm just a bitch like that.

No, seriously. I'd like for members to be able to invite people and that's if. Bigger is not always better.

[kiefers]

Why would someone register at the FASHION Spot if they did not want to talk about fashion, which ranges from what Nicole Richie wears to the catwalk? Spammers are inevitable at every single forum. Some cannot contribute, like me as I do not own a scanner nor socialize with the 'inside'. Just because you cannot provide those things does not make you less of a member. Again, why commit to a website and a forum when you cannot even spend time on spammers/bad users. That is part of the program! It is part of the choice of creating a website.

TFS is a large place as the numbers speak for themselves. Denying registration rights because people can google you just seems silly. Yes some have bad intentions but I talked about that in my first paragraph. Fashion to me is both what celebrities wear and the models/designers. Some are more interested than others. It doesnt make them less of a member or a person if they are interested in one kind of fashion. That is elitism. This forum is mainly fashion with some personal side mixed in, so I don't understand the problem there...Letting in new people won't spur an outpour of political posts.... it is the fashionspot and like I said why register to talk about politics? READ THE NAME OF THE SITE!

[Ferdinanda]

well said mulletproof.

[model_mom]

I think it was a great post too...I tried to stay away from this topic because I remember a time when the majority of our day was spent cleaning up spammers and flamers. The forum is a much cleaner well navigated place now and I can only credit that with the way the invite system has been handled to screen new members. I want to thank kiefers for helping me to make up my mind.

[kiefers]

No need to mock. The subtle 'wink' couldn't be painfully obvious.

[emma peel]

what about sending emails to folks who haven't posted in, say, 6 months or one year to let them know they aren't contributing and that their membership is susceptible to cancellation? that would weed out the tons of people who came once or twice and never returned.

i suggest this because i am shocked that there are 60,000 + members!

i know that not all of those folks are around with any regularity...

[Guessgirl96]

Quote:

Originally Posted by emma peel what about sending emails to folks who haven't posted in, say, 6 months or one year to let them know they aren't contributing and that their membership is susceptible to cancellation? that would weed out the tons of people who came once or twice and never returned. i suggest this because i am shocked that there are 60,000 + members! i know that not all of those folks are around with any regularity...

I'm not positive, but I think they keep those members for advertisers, it looks better if you have more members

[BetteT]

Thank you, MM!

[BetteT]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Guessgirl96 I'm not positive, but I think they keep those members for advertisers, it looks better if you have more members

Yep ... precisely! The advertisers want numbers.

But as it was said, earlier in this thread ... Andy does do a weeding out a couple times a year.

But we don't need to weed out members ... the non participating members are not a drain on the system. They do not prevent anyone from joining ... there in no magic limit on members in our system so they are not keeping someone else out. It's not an issue for us at all.

It's actaully the newer members that need extra help in understanding how things work around here and who take up most of the mod time. We spend a lot of time trying to explain things in threads like these, pointing our rules by sending private messages, getting people back on topic, and trying to difuse heated arguments between members. In addtion we are asking for credits, merging threads because someone did not use the search function, editing out profanity, weight talk, drug talk and PMing the members about all of that. Again ... mostly new members ... because they don't know yet ... because they didn't read or don't understand the Communty Rules and Terms of Service. Most of the problem people seem to be within their first 6 months of membership who are posting every day ... so they are the drain on the system.