As those of you who read this particular forum will know, we've been deciding upon some changes recently. For the benefit of those who don't come here often, here's a summary of the changes the administration and moderators will be making to HLP.
1) We've removed the old guidelines for what is an acceptable post on HLP. Rather than having a list of rules saying what you can and can't do, we now have a list of guidelines covering what we'd like the atmosphere here on HLP to be like. Hopefully the change will result in less friction between forum users or between forum users and the moderators. You can (and probably should) read the new guidelines
here.
2) Along with the guidelines the moderators have had a chat internally about how we'll be moderating HLP from now on. Some of the changes include
a) Trying to ensure we don't lock threads due to the actions of a few troublesome users. We'll try to act faster to avoid trouble by telling people to calm down, failing that we'll tell the users causing the problem not to post on the thread any further so that those who were discussing the matter calmly can continue.
b) We'll be giving more feedback on reports made to the moderators. In the past, although moderators read all the reports, it may have seemed like nothing was done. In the future we'll try to report back to say what action (if any) resulted or why we felt that the situation didn't require any action.
c) We'll be using the forum's warning system to warn you should your post be reported. This is simply another way of giving out more feedback about reports. We'll make it clear when your actions have actually gotten you into trouble.
d) We'll be posting a thread in this forum so that people can see the outcome of any formal warnings or bans we give out.
e) We'll definitely be adding more moderators at a future date. We considered adding them now but we decided to get the wrinkles ironed out in the new system before adding them. Axem has been promoted to join the Administrators on HLP and we may also consider adding other people at a later date too.
3) We've taken a decision to make licensing a more important part of any mod release. We'd like to see everything that is released on HLP by one of our members given clearer licences so that everybody knows who can use or modify it. The discussion on how we'll be doing this is still ongoing and can be found
here.
As you can see, these are quite large changes, so we're going to need the support of the HLP users during the transition period. If something isn't working, we need to know about it quickly so that it can be fixed. Remember though that the moderators are users too, and that anything that isn't constructive criticism will be treated the same way as any other abusive post.
As always, any other suggestions on how to improve HLP will also be given a fair hearing.