UU Town Hall Meeting Tuesday Nov 10

The UU forums for a long time have been known as one of the nicest places on the internet. Lately, with the influx of new members, scammers, etc theres been a lot of trouble in paradise and a whole log of negativity. I'm sure you all share my concerns for the forum as it's become a big part of all of our lives so I'd like to invite you all to a UU Town Hall Meeting on Tuesday Nov 10 at 3:00pm Hawaii Time (5pm PST 8pm EST).

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/uu-town-hall

Please join us and speak your concerns and questions relating to the UU forums and we'll work everything out together. I'll sit in front of the camera as long as it takes to address every question and concern.

Topics I would like to discuss include but are not limited to:
- forum etiquette
- Behavior of New Members
- Treatment of New Members
- Scammer problems in the Marketplace
- Negativity on the boards

Please feel free to post your discussion topics below. I strongly encourage both new and old members to tune in.

I'll be at work during the town hall, so I'll just share my proxy thoughts here.

The bottom line is that this is the internet. And there are some inherent characteristics of the internet.

1. We do not know the true identities of everyone on the internet. In fact, for all of the time I've been here, I probably only know less than a dozen of the forum members in person. And people lie about who they are and what their motives are all the time.

2. Miscommunication through the internet is not uncommon since you don't enjoy the luxury of having all of the subtlties you have in face-to-face communication, or even in a phone call.

3. There are criminals on the internet. Most of us have had internet connections since mid to late 90s, and we all have seen everything from child predators to scammers. They're out there.

4. There are mean people on the internet. Wingnuts, flamers, trolls, you name it, they're on the internet doing their thing.

Unfortunately, we did have scammers recently...alibet not very good attempts, but nevertheless, scammers were here. So we were all on relatively high alert. And I was one of those people, and jumped on nohandles when he posted a suspicious looking thread (which did not follow the rules, and did not respond within the moderator-alloted timeframe.) But it turns out that he actually wasn't a scammer, and we were wrong. I felt like he was mistreated, apologized for being wrong, and I think he accepted my apology.

But the thing is that we just can't be too trusting here. There are bad people and bad things out in the internet which date back from even when I started using it (back a long time ago, stuff like "the trinity" would fall under bad stuff...do NOT look it up if you don't know what I'm talking about.) Anyway, we do look out for each other, and very well we should be vigilant for scams and protect the people of this community from those who try to take advantage. I think Petah was one of those people who tried to take advantage and lied to us, and is now gone.

On the other hand, we shouldn't just nail innocent people. Today, in that thread about Aldrine lying, I think people really jumped to conclusions too quickly. It was miscommunication. I was on the same wavelength as the OP there, and probably have the same type of humor (I jokingly accuse people "lies" a LOT), so I could tell that he was joking around. But it was sort of a gangbang on the new guy who meant no harm. Equal miscommunication when someone didn't understand Deach's humor.

Now I'm just rambling b/c it's late...what am I still doing up?

At any point, yes, I agree that there has been some negativity on the boards recently. But with some common sense, a lot of problems can be avoided. Use good judgment when shopping in the marketplace, there are bad people out there. Understand that miscommunication happens...that's why I don't make inappropriate jokes in front of people that I have just met. And finally, yes, there are bad people out there. We should try to keep them out of UU, and sometimes there is collateral damage along the way, but we should do our best to repair that damage.

Goodnight.

will you record that broadcast? I won't be around either, but I'm more than curious to know what it will result in.

hope everything is gonna be good soon...

I hope that you will record this as I will be flying back to the mainland at that time.

Jack

I'll be there fo sho. It's been bothering me too...

Awesome idea. It's rare to see a forum that's so concerned about the user experience. I'll try to be there.

Luckily, most of the negativity and drama in these parts isn't due to obnoxious members. Most of it's just misunderstandings due to the nature of the internets.

haole said:

Awesome idea. It's rare to see a forum that's so concerned about the user experience. I'll try to be there.

Luckily, most of the negativity and drama in these parts isn't due to obnoxious members. Most of it's just misunderstandings due to the nature of the internets.

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yeah i really do think its the case and if everybody brings their concerns we can all work it out.

My 2 cents

Here's my thoughts to kick things off. UU enjoys a nice niche in the internet. Ukuleles are popular but not that popular and they attract a unique group of people. 99.99% of those people are great honest folks who enjoy music and enjoy creating it on a unique instrument. What we've experienced lately is a good lesson in how we should place some simple rules on the boards. The rules on the marketplace are perfect. A good description and a photo taken with some easily identifiable tag next to the instrument such as UU and the date. I'd encourage Paypal as they have some protections built in. Common sense rules on trades. Members should report suspicious behavior and poor behavior so the mod can lock out the offender and delete threads that are against the rules. Unfortunately, it's going to take a bit of the mod's time but it'll keep the site cleaned up. Polite policing of the site by the members will have the most impact.

provines said:

Polite policing of the site by the members will have the most impact.

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"Polite" is definitely the operative word. it seems lately that everyone feels it is their god given duty to "police" the site and this is where the sarcasm and elitist attitudes come out. sometimes i feel like people are out to prove their seniority by jumping on posts, especially those of newcomers, and siting obscure threads and uu rules just to show how much they know about the forum. sometimes it's not even members who have been here a long time. sometimes it's members who are still "junior members" or "members" who do it probably because they had someone do it to them and they feel that it's a natural rite of passage.
these are the same people who will apologize when proven wrong but only if their apology includes some sort of stipulation excusing their harsh treatment of the victim of their words. in my opinion empty apologies like that are almost worse than the initial treatment.
i understand that everyone is trying to protect uu from harm, this is my "home" on the internet too, but there has to be a better way to go about it.
i could not have had a warmer welcome when i first got here and i really feel for these people who have had a rough start lately.

provines said:

Polite policing of the site by the members will have the most impact.

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And the easiest way to discretely report a problem without calling even more attention to it in public is to use the little "report post" button at the top of every post ( ).

UU Town Meeting... Peace (2-fingers)

I was checkin' out threads (past and present) It seems that in the "for sale" section, the posts were getting ugly (more than others)... I understand the urgency to keep a scammer off the site, but there was no one "in-charge" of the expedition? Just Q and A from senior members who are obviously trying to protect the site... I hope you address a more specific or visual guidelines for those selling and buying within the Town Meeting Tuesday. (I know these guidelines are already posted, but a visual example that night, might even be better!) I am also curious if you are going to record this event in case I am unable to be here Tuesday.. Looking forward to seeing and hearing from everyone. ~ Carson Bailey

HaileISela said:

will you record that broadcast? I won't be around either, but I'm more than curious to know what it will result in.

hope everything is gonna be good soon...

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Same for me, please record it

Tuesday Nov 10 8pm EST will be Wednesday Nov 11 2am my time. I'll try to be there though.

I will be there for sure!

i will try to be there .

it'll be late for us Brits but i'll try to be there.

I'll be there. I think we probably just need to do our best to reign in our tempers, especially with the newcomers who are learning our personality. I think sometimes people come in here with experience from other forums and expect this to be the same and are taken aback when things are nicer and more laid back. Whatever it is...some may just be growing pains...but I am glad to have the opportunity to participate in this town hall meeting!

Don't forget everyone this is today @ 3:00pm HST!

will there be cake? i was told there'd be cake.

russ_buss said:

will there be cake? i was told there'd be cake.

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Russell, Russell, Russell...........:rotfl: