Today we launch City Hall, the newest enhancement to the 43 Things community. 43 Things is very much a community of the people, by the people, for the people and in that spirit City Hall is the place where the community gives back and keeps the spirit of the site in balance. We’ve tried to take some common features on community sites and make them more participatory. Here’s what City Hall has to offer:
How To Use 43 Things: where users can ask questions about the site and other users can help with their questions.
Community Guidelines: we wanted to clarify the rules of the road on 43 Things. Let us know if you have other suggestions for this area of the site.
Contact Us: a new form for contacting the Robots.
Neighborhood Watch: for users who have been around a while, a tool for voting on suspect accounts that have been reported as naughty by other users.
We are hoping that this is just a start to make it more obvious what drives 43 Things—it is you. The community here shares goals, writes entries, and cheers each other on, but now they can also report abuse, answer user’s questions, and vote on suspect accounts.
If you have other ideas for City Hall, let us know about them.
March 26, 2007 at 12:55 pm
I didn’t think it was there a couple of hours ago! Great idea, though, and looks to be well done!
March 26, 2007 at 7:39 pm
Great enhancement. I especially like the easy form to contact the Robots as that was something a lot of people had trouble finding.
I’m not sure I understand the tallies in the Neighborhood Watch as I’ve voted for some things and they’ve counted and then for others it doesn’t make a change in the count.
Also, it’s nice to see Laurel over on the right here.
March 27, 2007 at 10:26 am
Wow, this is cool! I like the Neighbourhood Watch. But I can’t vote for suspending users. After clicking the “Suspend this user” button, it just redirects me to the 43T homepage. I successfully defended a user, though. Do I have to have a certain “status” (”users who have been around a while”) to be able to do this?
March 27, 2007 at 1:02 pm
I love it because it seems quite fair. One technical difficulty - when I flagged somebody, it gave me the option to vote on somebody else’s report. However, when I voted and gave my reason for defending that person, it took me back to the same place to vote on the same person, as though I had submitted nothing. So I tried it again, and it was an endless loop. I don’t know if my vote or my comment were recorded.
March 28, 2007 at 7:33 pm
The guidelines are much clearer than before, which I appreciate. They made me realize that I probably stepped over the line a couple of times. Sorry.
The one area I feel is not clear is on how the robot coop feels about self-destructive goals and entries. For example, there are a number of “pro-ana” goals and postings; as someone who in her dim past struggled with an eating disorder, I find these distressing. At the same time, are you going to be ones to tell folks not to make these?
I also am aware that drawing the line at what is self-destructive is not easy. For example, as a non-Christian, I may write about engaging in activities that certain Christians may feel endanger my immortal soul - but is that going to be a reason for someone else to complain or censor these?
March 28, 2007 at 7:34 pm
The guidelines are much clearer than before, which I appreciate. They made me realize that I probably stepped over the line a couple of times. Sorry.
The one area I feel is not clear is on how the robot coop feels about self-destructive goals and entries. For example, there are a number of “pro-ana” goals and postings; as someone who in her dim past struggled with an eating disorder, I find these distressing. At the same time, are you going to be ones to tell folks not to make these?
I also am aware that drawing the line at what is self-destructive is not easy. For example, as a non-Christian, I may write about engaging in activities that certain Christians may feel endanger my immortal soul - but is that going to be a reason for someone else to complain or censor these?
March 28, 2007 at 8:02 pm
Thanks for the appreciation. We tried to cover the areas of prohibited content on there as clearly as we could.
We don’t stop users from having pro-anorexia or suicide goals on the site. We find it distressing too. If you go and look at the eating disorder or suicide goals, you’ll see that we spell out specific guidelines on those pages as well as list additional resources. If you see someone giving instructional advice on how to harm yourself or others, please flag them so we can boot them off the site.
March 30, 2007 at 6:38 pm
I guess the community guidelines explain why my account was deleted. I would suggest that along with deleting posts you feel don’t fit with the spirit of the site or for whatever reason that you email the person who’s post you are deleting with the reason their post is being deleted. That way they aren’t left wondering. People make mistakes sometimes and it would be beneficial to offer constructive criticism on their posts.
God Bless!
March 31, 2007 at 7:45 am
Why the 43things site goes down ? Great community guideline, we appreciate it.
March 31, 2007 at 7:46 am
Why the 43things site goes down ? Great community guideline, we appreciate it.
April 11, 2007 at 5:27 pm
It’s a good idea. And now it’s easier for us to help remove those annoying people that advertise batteries and real estate and whatever else they try to sell.
And by the way, listsofbests isn’t working. Is it supposed to not be working or is it just me? 43T is working. And allconsuming is working. Argh. I wanted to update my lists. ohwell.