Social Group Clean Up

There are, at present, over 1800 social groups. They've become so numerous that it's impossible for the staff to keep an eye on them all. We need to dramatically reduce that number. For that reason, we will be proceeding to a large-scale clean up of social groups. This clean-up will include several steps:

1. We will close down creation of new groups, so that we don't get new groups created faster than we can clean them up.

2. All groups that are involved in inter-members drama and rule breaking will be deleted.

3. Seven days from now, we'll delete all private groups. We feel that hiding conversations is not what social groups are for, and it make it harder for us to police things.

4. We'll delete any inactive group.

5. We'll send notices to any duplicate groups, and any group that we feel is too generic, or which we feel is really taking activity away from Entertainment Inc, informing them that they will be closed. These groups will be deleted a few days after receiving their notice (the notice will give more details on how much time you have.)

Once we're finished, new social group rules will be posted. One of the new rules includes needing to contact a moderator or administrator if you wish to create a social group. Users will no longer have the option of creating groups themselves.

If anyone has questions about this, feel free to post.

Musashi

By "private groups," does that mean any group with content not visible to people outside of the group?

Any group where the posts are not visible to people outside the group. Because that mean that even regular moderators cannot see the posts in your group. For obvious reason, we're not okay with that.

Why not instead of contacting a mod about creating a new one, why not have every Social Group go through a mod to begin with?

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Originally Posted by TerraWolf

Why not instead of contacting a mod about creating a new one, why not have every Social Group go through a mod to begin with?

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That's not possible with the VBulletin software.

Might I ask what the fate of Bmgf Anime Master Fan Club - Bulbagarden Forums would be?

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Originally Posted by Musashi

5. We'll send notices to any duplicate groups, and any group that we feel is too generic, or which we feel is really taking activity away from Entertainment Inc, informing them that they will be closed. These groups will be deleted a few days after receiving their notice (the notice will give more details on how much time you have.)

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Well that, my friends, is the sure end of Fab's Madonna Free Zone.

May I ask what defines an inactive group?

Two questions about The Planetary Pit Stop - Bulbagarden Forums

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Originally Posted by Musashi

2. All groups that are involved in inter-members drama and rule breaking will be deleted.

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There's been a few arguments in the past, but nothing too serious. Does that fall under this?

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5. We'll send notices to any duplicate groups, and any group that we feel is too generic, or which we feel is really taking activity away from Entertainment Inc, informing them that they will be closed. These groups will be deleted a few days after receiving their notice (the notice will give more details on how much time you have.)

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We do discuss a lot of media and stuff like that in there sometimes.... Problem?

I'd really hate to see my favorite pit stop get shut down.... :-(

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5. We'll send notices to any duplicate groups, and any group that we feel is too generic, or which we feel is really taking activity away from Entertainment Inc, informing them that they will be closed. These groups will be deleted a few days after receiving their notice (the notice will give more details on how much time you have.)

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I think I need a bit more explanation of this part. Does this mean that any group that's not about one specific topic will be deleted? As in, any general chat group? I think I'm in the same basic boat as jokool, but my group is a bit smaller. It's also private, but I can change that if I absolutely have to.

@Mods

How will Fab's High Society, No Class, Madonna Free Zone - Bulbagarden Forums fare, given that most of the talk is about music or Niles Crane? I don't want to abandon my group to then recreate threads in Ent Inc with out any of the feeling that the Madonna Free Zone has. Yeah I could make a general music discussion thread, but it was nicer when we could derail with random pictures of Maeby @TheMissingno.; :D) or let it get out of hand. It was an unmodded place for people to freely talk about music, a heaven for people that weren't scared to swear or have strong opinions.

If this is the end for Fab's, it's only temporary, we'll rise again. We'll rape and pillage Ent Inc and ruin your crops.

I'm a bit surprised that mods can't see into private groups without being a member, but I guess that makes sense... always just assumed I could be monitored at any time. However, that being said, private groups can be an escape where people can have conversations without any random person seeing or commenting on it. I understand the reasoning, but deleting private groups if they don't switch to public seems harsh, especially if the group is active but the person who runs the group hasn't been seen for weeks. There's no way for an admin to force a switch?

I won't answer specific groups question. We'll examine the groups one by one and decide what to do with them.

1) In general if there's only been a little drama and a lot of non-drama, we won't hit you for drama. (we may close you for other reasons)
2) Forcing a switch would be far too cumbersome. And again, it would only help with one aspect of the problem - the bigger problem, the existence of nearly two thousand user groups, would be unsolved.
3) In general, yes, groups that have no specific topics will be closed. They're kind of like miniature forums, - dozens of them - and it complicate our job immensely.

Wouldn't it be easier to just let those that own/have made a group close it on their own?

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Originally Posted by BMGF Anime Master

Wouldn't it be easier to just let those that own/have made a group close it on their own?

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I doubt that some users would willingly close the groups they own. :-p