I know you guys are working hard to come up with solutions. I'm just trying to point out where I see problems in the hopes that it may spark an idea in someone. The only solution I have is to remove points, but my understanding is that is not an option. Barring that, how can we give incentive for people to follow these guidelines and not simply post, post, post?

Other contributors have expressed similar concerns. However, if we are in the minority and most people feel the forums are fine, I will discontinue my efforts because I seem to be one of only a few voicing my concerns. I would rather EF not waste time and resources if a problem doesn't exist for the majority of contributors. less

Kindred, I've really appreciated all you've had to say about this, so thank you.

I do think there are a number of us who share your concern. I know I do. But I've abandoned ship because these discussions seem to encourage members to act as police officers (I've seen waaaay too many flags and huffy responses on acceptable posts since we started discussing farming). To be clear, I don't think you're doing this and I don't think you're encouraging it; this is just the direction these conversations seem to go.

I decided that I'd rather wade through spammy posts than risk supporting a witch hunt. Spammy posts are annoying, but tackling well-intentioned posters is hostile and unacceptable. less

I don't know if anyone mentioned this in the new EoC thread but would it be possible to make sure everyone reads the EoC? I mean there's a chance people won't look for it even if its right in front of them or check the threads referencing it. I don't want to sound pushy of anything but maybe when they make an account part of the process could be to go over the EoC? I know this doesn't mean they will for sure but at least so it's confirmed that at one point, it was right in front of peope. Just a suggestion less

I think overall, most people like the points. Our hope with the points was to make all the activities you were already engaging in a little more fun, but also to show our appreciation for your support. It is a shame, but you know the saying about rotten apples. Yes there is abuse. However, I think there is lot more activity that looks like abuse once you begin to put everything under the microscope.

A great example: On every product page there is an option for your to start a forum discussion. This is a great feature because it directly puts customers in contact with a community of experts, who generally know the answers to almost anything product related. Now the reality is, that some customers have never been on the forum, and know little to nothing about our community. So they test out the feature and create a poorly titled thread, asking a simple product question, that is answered in the 50 product reviews on the same page.

So is this spam? Is this person guilty of abuse? Is it a bad decision for EF to allow customers to interact with the community? Is the community too intolerant? I guess it all depends on who you are asking. I do feel like the points get abused, but I am starting to feel like the intolerance of anything less than a certain standard is automatically dismissed and labeled as spam. less

Kindred, I've really appreciated all you've had to say about this, so thank you.

I do think there are a number of us who share your concern. I know I do. But I've abandoned ship because these discussions seem to encourage members to act as police officers (I've seen waaaay too many flags and huffy responses on acceptable posts since we started discussing farming). To be clear, I don't think you're doing this and I don't think you're encouraging it; this is just the direction these conversations seem to go.

I decided that I'd rather wade through spammy posts than risk supporting a witch hunt. Spammy posts are annoying, but tackling well-intentioned posters is hostile and unacceptable. less

I agree with you about the whole witch hunt thing. I think that some folks are just either new or are not reading the "important posts" about how things should be conducted or maybe the posts that are addressing these issues. They might just not realize what they are doing. As I have admitted before, I've done the same thing when I was new. I didn't have a clue about what this community was really all about. The more that I read, the more that I realize its really a community and all about helping others and being productive. Didn't mean that I was point farming or that I was just worthless to the community, I just really had "no idea".

I think that maybe when something is seen that seems spammy...maybe we should have the more experienced members of the community (or the Moderator) send a private message to them and say "Hey, How are ya? I just wanted to say that I noticed X going on and I would like to invite you to read some of our community forum threads. We have a great bunch of folks here that would love to help you with any questions or concerns that you might have. If you need any help navigating the site et etc" ya know, be helpful to them and let them know what its all about. This might also make them realize that we're all here for each other and that we're more than just names on a screen or IDs/members of the same site. It will also make them feel more invited into the conversations and get them to participate more productively? I know that if someone would have been this way with me, I wouldn't have done so much of the spammy type stuff and would have come to realize what its all about here, sooner.

Just sayin' less

We have been sending out a series of message for the last month or two (since the updated EoC). We send out an initial friendly message welcoming the new contributors, and asking them to checking out the EoC and Best Practices threads. We figured this way we could just steer newer community members in the right direction. less

To be honest though, I don't think that many folks read those "Welcome" letters. Some might, but most sites send out those "heres how things work, heres our FAQ etc etc" letters and most folks will just junk the letter. Least, there has been quite a few times that I have. If I am joining something, I want to browse it on my own terms, then ask questions or try to find a link via the help center. So those letters are mostly useless to me.

However, I think that if there is one on one communication, someone that is actually active on the site-"face to face" interaction, if you will-they may be more responsive to this.

The "welcome" letters, no matter how "friendly" they are, are all sent out by an automated message-computer. Not very "personable" ya know? Not that I don't think its not a great idea or helpful to many, but I think that some folks looking for a "place to belong" or maybe someone that is looking for actual help and what not, might have better experiences with the one on one communication.

When I first came to the forums (I had only recently heard of EF) and I had no clue how active things were here. For a few days, it was super slow and nothing new was posted. I almost thought it was a "dead site" lol. Until I started getting feed back from the forums.

But I do want to say thank you to all of the staff for all the hard work that you all have been putting into the site. Theres been tons of changes (Some good, some that take some getting used to lol) so Thank you for listening to our concerns and making EF a great place to be! :_) less

EVERYONE PLEASE! If you edit or read a review that you even think might be copied, please email us immediately. Your emails will remain confidential. We have a zero tolerance policy for plagiarism and we investigate every claim. Thank you!!!!

gary@edenfantasys.com less

this being said there are only so many ways that the same information can be given. Things like ingredient lists should be the same on multiple reviews and if one person has a problem chances are that other people will to.. I have see reviews where someone accused another person of plagiarizing, but while the content was similar the wording was very different. Just because two people come to the same conclusion about a toy does not mean that they are cheating the system. less

Those that work for the company are, but I thought this was a thread for everyone. I have seen posts on comment pages and in forums under individual products where people are accusing others of plagiarism when they come to the same conclusion about a toy or both include the same description of ingredient lists. Just because people at the top of the company understand a concept does not mean that there is site wide acceptance. less

I don't know if it's possible to have something "stickied" in this forum (left permanently at the top of all the other posts), but if so, this should be! I still consider myself a newbie and I find intro/guideline posts very helpful, especially if the forum is a format I'm not used to. Thank you for taking the time to compile this for us! less