Proposed change to the sightings forum format.

[Metroplex79]

Originally Posted by Aras

Well, not everyone wants to put there whole information out on the internet. When you live someplace like Toronto, it covers quite a large area, but what if your in a town with a smaller population? That might make some people feel too exposed for their comfort.

Well duh!!!!!!!!!!

But a town would help in determining if that Sighting is in my neck of the woods, or if it's in some other province.

I live on the Earth and would like to do a local meetup.

NOTE: And I would like to add that I just noticed that I forgot to mention the "can do local meetup" part into my post that you quoted.

[RNSrobot]

Originally Posted by Sun Swipe Prime

IMHO any sighting that's more than a week old isn't really worth much. From my observations, on average the number of BC sightings posted per day is less than 5. I try to peek into the sightings any time there are new post just to see what's out there. It takes up less than a minute every day to keep up. When I'm looking for something all I usually have to do is back up a page and skim the last weeks worth of sightings which is usually less than 35 short posts. That takes me less time than typing in a search.

IMHO if you enforce a format it makes people less likely to post a timely sighting because it's a hassle to format things to an exacting standard on a phone or to to have to return on a desktop and edit a post because it wasn't formatted right.

Also if I don't post A sighting from my phone then there's a good chance I'll forget. I'm sure it'll be like that for others too and the net result is less sightings posted. Personally, I'd rather have the unformatted sightings than no sightings at all.

Hallelujah brother sunswipe!

[Sun Swipe Prime]

Originally Posted by Robimus

I think setting an example(as many already do) and encouraging others to include important information is the answer more than significant changes to how the sightings forums work.

I agree with this.

Originally Posted by Robimus

I admit I fail to see the issue with the size of the sightings forum. Maybe if someone can let me know if there is something I'm missing.

I don't see any issue with the archival information in this forum either. Sometimes it's neat to see an old post about how abundant an old figure was back in the day.

Originally Posted by Robimus

There are easy ways to circumvent the years worth of posts by simply clicking the "new posts" button every day or two or clicking "last" at the top of the sightings page to get the latest posts.

One of the ways I make my life easier in this forum is I've changed my setting's so when I view a thread I see 100 post instead of 25. This helps me when I'm looking for something because all I have to do is click the "last" link, and then press CTRL-F to do a text search for what I'm looking for. If I don't find it I back up a page, and try again. It takes like two minutes.

If it's not in the last 200 sighting then it's unlikely been seen for quite a while, or it hasn't been seen yet.

[steamwhistle]

Originally Posted by Robimus

This isn't something that would be policed. Staff are stretched thin as is.

I wasn't saying it should be policed.

I think we're on the same proverbial page here, just trying to improve the presentation of sighting reports. The creation of this thread makes it sound like a standard format should be a requirement. Pestering people who don't conform to the format would just deter them from posting, and we wouldn't want that either. It is a good suggestion though. I have always tried to be so clear when I have posted in sightings.

[Nomad]

If there's a format in the OP of my sightings thread I'll follow it, but to be honest I dunno if its worth policing other than in terms of certain people using the forum to troll or otherwise be annoying.

[Buhawi]

Just remove the login requirement. That's it.

Why was that implemented anyway?

[cannabisprime]

Originally Posted by Buhawi

Just remove the login requirement. That's it.

Why was that implemented anyway?

Probably $10 Alt fiasco at Ontario Walmarts?

[Rev]

I like the idea of guidelines for format. It would clean things up and takes little effort.

[Shockwave 75]

It's good to see more like minded people, which mean it's not just me who sees a need to change things. I agree with who ever said it that the only policing should be all that's already done, which it just keeping out spammers and trolls.

And I kind of agree that sometimes the "nothing to report" sightings are a little annoying, but I think that's only because we've come to equate them with those annoying posts people make in other discussions that are just "I have no opinion on this".
At the end the "no sightings" are kind of helpful. Like someone else said, if I saw that someone had been to a certain store within the last few days and found nothing I probably wouldn't bother to go there.

I agree with Robimus, that if we all just start using this format, maybe others will see how helpful it actually is and start to use it too.

Frankly, IMO, it seems like most of the nay-sayers just don't want to use it because they either fear change or they're just lazy.
Sorry that it might take an extra couple minutes to post a sighting, but seeing as how it looks like so many other people are willing to do it for you, maybe you could reciprocate and do it for them too.

[Rev]

I find "no sightings" extremely helpful.