【General English Communication Area】Forum Discussions – Everyone is welcome to participate; moderators must join

Well, this is indeed a very troublesome issue. In my personal opinion, the development of the general English section should follow the principle of \"it’s better to have fewer posts than poor-quality ones.\" First and foremost, restrictions should be placed on reposts; in particular, for articles such as essays and short pieces, only one post per day should be allowed. After all, few users actually read these reposted posts, and if several such posts are posted in a day, the chances of them being read are even lower. This not only wastes space on the forum but also risks making other discussion posts get overlooked. Of course, posts related to the application of English should be encouraged. At the same time, the rating criteria for the aforementioned posts should be lowered, with an upper limit set. On the other hand, it is necessary to **raise the evaluation standards for posts related to communication, and use incentive mechanisms to encourage users in this area to shift their focus toward such communication. Third, starting from March 1st, strict control should be exercised over the quality of replies. Whether they are from new or existing users, any replies that are empty and meaningless should be deleted, while those containing excessive spam messages will have points deducted before being removed. It would be best to create a post to clarify the scope of acceptable posts and establish uniform evaluation criteria. For example, some forum users as well as moderators from other sections often reply with things like “It’s useful; thanks for sharing,” etc. At present, some moderators in this section choose to delete such posts while others award points; in some cases, these points are even equivalent to those given for good replies, which is unfair. Therefore, it is very necessary to have unified standards for moderators regarding what constitutes an acceptable post and how to evaluate them. Fourth, for some long-form posts, especially those related to practical communication such as the \"Daily Phrase\" section in the Fun English area, such posts hold high educational value; one should learn from them and encourage more posts of this kind. That’s all for now; I’ll add more if I think of anything

The super edition put it well – nowadays, the general English communication forums are mostly filled with shared and reposted materials, with hardly any requests for help or discussions. Another phenomenon in the general English discussion area is that, regardless of the quality of the original posts or replies, several moderators give points to them. This is understandable; recently, there haven’t been many posts in this area, and it’s difficult for the moderators to meet their monthly requirement for managing posts. Seeing this phenomenon, I have been wondering how to improve it Unfortunately, my English skills aren’t very good, and I haven’t come up with any good solutions.

There aren’t many posts on general English; mainly, people don’t deal with it very often. There are only a few people who work in an environment where communication is entirely in English (you can do a survey if you don’t believe me). It’s a matter of interest – my English is pretty poor; I just come here occasionally to improve my skills, watch foreign movies, and accumulate some knowledge. You could try doing it every other day (the frequency can be adjusted if time is limited); for general English translations, it’s better to use sources such as movies or books – this helps to create a stronger impression as well

Now many friends are posting topics with similar themes, but slightly different content； There are many repeated questions about how to learn English well; such topics are already abundant on forums, yet there are still plenty of posts on them ； Some simply copy content from other websites, but it’s not clear where exactly that comes from; therefore, it’s not possible to take any action against those members. Even when guidance is provided, few of them follow it. If points are deducted, it’s hard to part with them, because I feel it’s not easy for them either; I’m not that heartless yet.

I agree with Hanshan’s view. I think that starting from today, all posts and replies related to questions on how to learn a foreign language well or how to improve listening skills should be deleted, unless they represent valuable personal experiences (of course, such content needs to be thorough as well, not just a few casual sentences). With all the discussions and replies that have already existed, anyone who has a question will surely find an answer by simply doing a search. I wonder what the other moderators in the general section think; I hope they’ll share their opinions as well, hehe

I agree with the above views. Starting from today, we need to limit the number of points that can be assigned to topic posts and replies. Posts that are useful or contain expressions of gratitude should not be deleted as spam immediately, but rather warnings should be given. For those who repeat the offense and ignore warnings, should point deductions be considered? Do reposts have a total rating limit?

After reading moderator Tianxiang’s reply, I thought about whether it would be possible to require that posts shared on our forum be treated as separate posts, with the total score for such posts kept within 5 points; it would be best not to give any scores as a form of encouragement. (Of course, scores given by members should not be removed unless they violate the rules.) Scores for discussion posts could be set higher to encourage participation, especially for those that offer insightful and high-quality contributions, which should be rewarded with high scores.

I agree to impose restrictions on reposts: each post should contain no more than 5 shares. If three reposts are made in one day, the total number of shares allowed should be no more than 10; posts exceeding this limit will be deleted or moved to the trash folder, while additional posts may be deleted after a point deduction. Additionally, for some forum members who have made special contributions, such as tutuliu, who is in charge of the “One Sentence per Day” section in the Fun English area, and SM_S E XMM, who handles the crossword puzzles, I think it would be unnecessary to give them separate scores for the “One Sentence per Day” posts and crossword puzzles they share on a regular basis. Instead, a total score could be given at the end of each month (with the “One Sentence per Day” entries being combined on a monthly basis), in their last post of that month – of course, it should be a relatively high score. For topic posts with a relatively uniform format, such as jokes or poems, and low levels of interactivity, it is recommended to use a consistent scoring system, for example, “3 points for wealth”. Finally, for discussion posts that initiate a topic, if the content of that topic is detailed enough to attract many users to participate, it is recommended that a minimum score be set. Similarly, for replies that provide detailed answers and thus earn recognition from the post owner or various moderators, there should also be a uniform minimum score, in order to motivate everyone’s enthusiasm and initiative. However, for questions that are too simple, such as those consisting of just one or two lines of text, it is recommended to set a lower starting score to prevent anyone from taking advantage of such simplicity. Finally, regarding the general area, I wonder if all of us moderators could consider creating a post together to list the standards/content that define spam posts, for the benefit of other users. If any moderator wants to add more content to it, they can simply click to edit the topic.

Miniascape is right; you should first draft a standard plan for the general area.

OK, there’s an experiment in the afternoon; I’ll do it in the evening and deliver it by early morning at the latest

1. There are some reproduced articles in the section that are copied verbatim, without any personal opinions or raised questions; the number of such articles should be strictly controlled. Because moderators cannot spend a lot of time reading each post individually before taking action to manage them; this would reduce management efficiency, and such posts also do not provide any real help to readers to any extent. For those who post such things, it’s usually awkward to ask them to delete the posts, after all, they too are contributing to the development of the forum. How to impose restrictions – I hope everyone can come up with a feasible plan. 2. Posts that appear to be advertisements, as well as those that provide links without any explanation, can be considered for direct deletion. There are relatively few posts in Section 3 that truly spark discussion; the name \"General English Discussion Area\" is quite broad, so people treat it as a mix of everything, putting anything inside it ； If the focus is made clearer, such as with a title like “English Grammar (or Usage) Discussion Area,” people are more likely to tailor the content of their posts to fit this theme, thereby generating more posts that are purely technical in nature. This is just my personal opinion; I hope everyone can offer their feedback.

One more thing: regarding the statistics on the number of times something is managed, I’ve noticed that scores are used as the main criterion. There are some posts for which I don’t want to give a score, but due to the need for such statistics, I still end up giving a score arbitrarily. There are also often meaningless posts that attract many people to rate them, leading to an overload of ratings. But I hope the moderators can take a closer look at the content of the posts and provide appropriate comments or summaries. It would be great if salary bonuses could be given based on the number of comments posted by moderators or the quality of those comments. This will certainly lead to a decrease in the number of times moderators need to intervene, as being able to write comments requires careful reading of the content and thorough reflection, but the quality of such management will definitely **improve**.

I agree very much with Kakashi’s view, because I often adopt such an idealistic approach when giving ratings. Originally, there weren’t many posts in the Professional English section, and the amount of management work required was low. But in order to meet the mandatory standards for management, points are usually given just for replying, and more points are awarded to beginners. I hope that high scores will encourage everyone to engage in discussions and more communication. The professional English exam is coming up soon, and there aren’t many posts being made in this area; if people pass the exam, it will become even quieter here. Since the volume cannot be increased, I will focus on quality instead – improving it. As mentioned above, being able to write reviews requires careful reading of the content and thorough reflection, which indeed increases the difficulty for moderators in managing things. But on the other hand, it also gives them more opportunities to think more and learn more. I think this is feasible – reform the moderator evaluation system.