Member Survey Results and Discussion

[Dev]

Evening!

 

First, thank you to everyone who responded.  In two days we got plenty of feedback, and the results are consistent enough that I'm confident we have a representative sample.  That being the case, I decided to close the survey and stop harassing you all about it.

 

Here I'll go into the answers we received.  Everything will stay anonymous, but if you made a suggestion you can probably expect to see it addressed here.  If there's anything you'd like to add to these findings, don't hesitate to comment below.

 

Question 1.  How do you identify?

 

 

I'm very happy to see this much diversity in the responses.  I know we have more MtF members than others, so it's great that everyone felt comfortable sharing their opinions.

 

Question 2.  Should social sharing buttons be added to forum content?

 

 

This is a pretty even split.  When this survey was created, the other forum admins and I were talking about whether or not to add buttons to make sharing on Facebook, Twitter, and other social platforms easier.  In the end, we decided to leave it up to our members.  The thing about these results is that just as many of you are concerned about the privacy implications of such a change as wouldn't mind if we went ahead with it.

 

Because there's not a clear majority agreeing with adding these buttons, we're not going to do it.  We feel it would be a violation of the trust so many of you have placed in us.  We do want to find ways to make the site seen and bring in more active members, but this is clearly not the way to go.  (As an aside, if anyone has ideas for publicizing the site, feel free to drop me a line. )

 

Question 3.  Is there anything you would change or add to the forums?

 

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I wish I could edit my posts.  Sometimes I find typo's in something I wrote or there is a better way to say something or I'd like to add clarification to something I said.

 

We disabled this feature for a reason, unfortunately.  It came to be that, in controversial discussions, some less scrupulous members developed a habit of materially editing their posts to make those who commented look hostile, uneducated, vicious, or otherwise undesirable.  As with all other decisions we've made with regard to forum features, turning off post editing was done with an eye toward keeping everyone's reputation and the integrity of the community intact.

 

That being said, nobody minds a typo here and there.  If you need to clarify a post or make significant edits, you can PM any forum moderator or administrator with the text you'd like to add or change and we'll be happy to make the edit for you.  When we do this, we can add a comment at the end showing the edit was made so readers are aware.  Do be sure to choose a staff member you've seen active recently, as we don't get email notifications telling us to check our PMs.

 

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I wish I could "thumbs up" something someone else wrote.  I might agree with them but don't have time to write a whole comment.  I think it would be encouraging to the person who wrote it as well.

 

This can be added.  The overall forum feature it's part of is more complex with a bunch of bells and whistles that might be more detrimental to the community than good for it, so I'll harass my fellow admins and we'll hammer out the details.

 

Edit May 5: admins are tossing this back and forth, and there has been some conversation about whether the number of "likes" on posts could lead to people feeling left out.  We're thinking about ways to avoid that.  I'll add a comment down below to let everyone know whatever we figure out.

 

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I REALLY wish there was a way to delete ALL my content.

 

This can actually be done.  It's an admin-only feature, one that the forum software itself won't let us share with anyone else.  Some things to keep in mind here:

 

• If you'd just like one or two posts deleted, you can PM any moderator or administrator with links to those posts and we can get rid of them for you.
• If you'd like all of your content to be removed, PM an administrator and ask us to take care of it.
  • This will erase all of your posted content to the forums, including posts, comments, photos, blog entries, and everything else.
  • It cannot be undone.
  • Search engine archives may still retain some or all of the content for a good while after it's removed from this site.

 

One other thing that may complicate matters is the issue we had some months ago with the forum software going rogue and deleting member accounts.  While we were able to restore some of those accounts, others were lost and members had to re-register.  If you had to re-register, anything posted by your original account now has no account name tied to it, and we can't use this feature to nuke everything.  Still, if there's a post you know is causing problems, contact an admin and we'll do our best.

 

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Maybe a Trans Relationship category if there isn't one.

 

I'll get this added in the next day or two.  Dating and finding companionship are issues we all face (well, except those like me who do their best to avoid this ), and I agree we should give everyone a place to do so.  There will have to be strict rules surrounding this forum, though, because we do welcome members under 18.  We can't have explicit conversations about our sex lives in an open forum.

 

Edit May 5: spoke too soon.  It's been pointed out to me that this has been done elsewhere and inevitably turns itself into a mixture of "Dear Abby" and "hey everyone I did that sex thing," neither of which would add anything to the quality of the forums.  Don't hesitate to bring the topic up in the General forum, though - relationships with others are part of being human.

 

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I think a journal section would be a good idea. There seem to be a lot of posts that get new threads that could easily be all together in some sort of self journal. And questions could be asked directly. Possibly even have journals not pop up in the recent posting list.

 

Have I got news for you!  The forum's built-in blogs feature does exactly this.  I've never used it myself, so please don't quote me, but I believe you can also choose when posting a blog entry whether you want it to be visible to other members on the site.  If this is an option, you should be aware that forum staff will be able to see what you write regardless of your settings.

 

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I don't know if it's forum-specific, but I would like to have the ability to edit my profile name, etc

 

This is another feature we turned off on purpose, because we had a number of members who decided it would be fun to change their names to something vulgar or obscene.  That doesn't mean it's not an option for you, though.  If you'd like to go by a different name, please log out of the forums and email me using this form.  While this is something any administrator can do for you, the username you log in with is the same as your display name, so if you're signed in when we do it you could end up locked out if you're logged in when the change is made. 

 

I typically reply to emails within a few hours, so you won't be logged out for long.

 

Question 4.  What do you think of Discord as our new home for chat?

 

 

I consider this a win.  Nobody loathes it.

 

Question 5.  Is there anything you would change or add to our chat rooms?

 

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I haven't registered because of the additional "sign up" that's required. I realize it's a whole different site - I'm just explaining why I haven't used it.

 

The issue with this is that in order to provide chat rooms, we have to use third-party software.  There will always be a need to sign up separately.  Now that we're using Discord, I can tell you we have a provider who is as committed to keeping your information private as we are.

 

If you're referring to having to fill out the chat interview form as a new chat member, I have good news!  Forum members aren't required to do that.  Filling out this form is mandatory only for brand new members we've never met before.  If you're already registered here on the forums, simply let a chat admin know your forum name and you'll be given full member privileges.

 

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a better link between chat and the forums

 

This may actually be a possibility in the future.  There is software being developed right now that will act as a bridge between the forums and the Discord software, making it possible to use your forum login both here and in chat.  It's still in its beta stages, though, and because of that getting involved with it now would be ridiculously expensive.  It's also not yet compatible with the most recent version of the forum software.

 

If the person suggesting this meant something else, or if others have ideas on how we can bring chat and the forums closer together, I'd love to hear them!

 

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Not sure if it's even possible but showing when people log in or out in the CC. Like the old chat.

 

Doesn't this sound like such a simple thing?  Yeah.  Apparently it isn't.  I've been looking for a bot that can tell us when this happens since we started using Discord.  I haven't found one yet, but I will keep looking.

 

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Pronoun roles and/or sexual orientation roles

 

With the limitations we've had to put in place to protect ourselves from trolls, spammers, transphobes, and raids, I'm afraid this will never be possible.  As it stands, we already have 18 different roles, and those are just what's necessary to keep members and staff organized and keep the bots happy.  Any more than that and the list would be exceedingly difficult to manage, trying to work around the gender / sexual orientation roles.

 

We'd also have an endless stream of people wanting something new added to that list of roles because they feel what we had already didn't fit them exactly.  (This is something we've experienced before.)  Not only would that create a lot of work for the chat admins - both creating and assigning these roles - it would make it very difficult to manage the essential, functional roles.  And while it is true that some bots allow roles to be self-assigned by members, if we invited that function into chat we would lose our carefully crafted protections against the attackers I mentioned above.

 

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I don't know what the possibilities are with this, but it would be nice if new chat members, who log in for the first time, would automatically connect to a mod room or mod pm, in order to get an interview done, before entering the main chat rooms. Just because it's more likely that people find this chat in order to insult.

 

This is a very valid point.  LGBT servers in general, and transgender servers in particular, are targeted for abuse by vicious people at a far higher rate than others.  Since this suggestion was made, I've locked down server security, reworked role permissions, and installed two new bots to help prevent attacks and other viciousness.  So far, we haven't had any issues - our protections seem to work very well.

 

The bots and server protections can't protect you against malicious PMs, though.  For this reason, I highly recommend right-clicking on the server icon, choosing the "Privacy Settings" option, and turning off the ability for other server members to send you direct messages.  This way, anyone who finds you by joining the server looking for people to troll won't be able to send you anything nasty.  If you meet someone in chat you'd like to have a private conversation with, you can add them to your friends list and they'll then be able to send you messages.

 

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I think maybe have different ranks for adults and minors so no one gets confused.

 

I really like this idea.  It might be tricky to implement, but I'll discuss it with Stu.  Watch chat to see if we manage to pull it off.

 

Edit May 5: I don't think I've ever changed course on an opinion so fast in my entire life.  My head is still spinning.  It was pointed out to me, rightly so, that giving the perverts who like to show up on trans sites an easy way to find the minors is a bad idea.  In case anyone wonders why there's a full team of admins and moderators, here's a shining example.  They're smarter than I am.

 

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change text color

 

This isn't something Discord allows for, unfortunately.  There are some very specific text color changes that can be made by pretending you're writing computer code, but you can't choose what color you'd like to use.  I settled on using Discord in spite of this, because its other features make it worthwhile.  (And also, it eliminates the possibility that people will choose colors that are hard or painful to read.)

 

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More bots / bot functionality

 

If anyone would like to see something added bot-wise, feel free to bring it up with me.  There are some other things that are currently possible that I haven't implemented because there's serious abuse potential.  There's also one bot that looked like it might be both fun and useful, but I had to pass on installing it because there was no way to turn off the pornography feature.  The last thing we need in a chat room where minors are welcome is pictures of naked people.

 

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Daily Discussion Topic Room

 

This will happen in the near future.  We're plotting and planning like the devious villains we are, and as soon as we have a workable way forward we'll get it going.  When the topic rolls over, I'll post a summary here in the forums for further discussion.

 

Thank you again!

 

The rest of the questions didn't leave room for discussion - I simply wanted to see how everyone is using the site.

 

Please share your ideas, questions, and comments below!

[Daisy Mae]

I love the ideas that have been identified here. I am sorry I just joined today and couldn't contribute. I am just getting to get the feel of the site, but what I have seen so far this looks like a place I am really going to love being a part of . Thanks for having me.

 

~ Daisy Mae

[Timber Wolf]

Because of having the stomach flu Thursday and an inspection to prepare for today, I was unable to do this. Sorry. But with regard to the question on different ranking for adults and minors, I think it would be helpful having something to denote a poster as a minor. There are times I would answer someone differently if they were a minor than if they were an adult. Even checking their profile doesn't always work, as many don't post their age.

 

Lots of love,

Timber Wolf?

[Dev]

In and out to say the post has been edited with info on recent discussions about a few points raised.

 

Timber Wolf, I hope you're feeling better!