Not such a Beginner ;)

Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 8,396
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The Front Page
Not everyone who visits VeggieBoards is in the same spot of the path towards Veg*nism. Some may be just thinking about starting a Veg*n lifestyle while others may have already been Veg*n for years. The front page of the site is intended to invite further discussion on featured articles/discussions and to perhaps join the site if they have not already. Please keep in mind that the articles are not meant to be an "authority" on any topic. They are simply meant to open a discussion where everyone can respond with their thoughts and maybe include some research they have found. It is 100% okay for people to disagree, even passionately. That is how we all learn by hearing all sides to a topic and reaching to reach our own decisions. I do not (nor does our tech staff) write the articles. We have a team of writers that we use. I would much rather have our featured articles and topics come from members of our community. If you are interested in being a guest author on VeggieBoards, please feel free to contact me. Social Media Yes, we do have a very active Facebook page. Some of our Facebook followers are members here, while others may only follow us on Facebook. We want to be able to reach people no matter where they choose to spend their time online, including here or on social media. The featured post regarding our Facebook page is simply letting those who may just be visiting our site for the first time know that we also have a Facebook page. |
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Thank you for addressing our concerns. This community has been around for more than a decade, and it means a lot to us. We have lost scads of great contributors due to different admins changing things and making it less veg friendly here.
Does your team of writers get paid? Would our members be paid for article submissions? Why were member articles not brought up before? |
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The Front Page
Not everyone who visits VeggieBoards is in the same spot of the path towards Veg*nism. Some may be just thinking about starting a Veg*n lifestyle while others may have already been Veg*n for years. The front page of the site is intended to invite further discussion on featured articles/discussions and to perhaps join the site if they have not already. Please keep in mind that the articles are not meant to be an "authority" on any topic. They are simply meant to open a discussion where everyone can respond with their thoughts and maybe include some research they have found. It is 100% okay for people to disagree, even passionately. That is how we all learn by hearing all sides to a topic and reaching to reach our own decisions. I do not (nor does our tech staff) write the articles. We have a team of writers that we use. I would much rather have our featured articles and topics come from members of our community. If you are interested in being a guest author on VeggieBoards, please feel free to contact me. |
They work for VerticalScope. Guest articles would not be paid but we would definitely allow an author bio with a link to their site.
Although we have asked our moderator team if they wanted to write guest articles for our Featured Articles and Topics (We currently have one that was posted by Dave in MPLS and one by Werewolf Girl.) I had not yet asked the members if this is something they would be interested in doing. The team currently discussing the ideas offered within this thread. As an example, the idea about common questions for those new to the site. We could use individual common questions (for featured topics) that all members could add their thoughts to. Once we had several of these, we could create a sticky (for common questions) with links to the threads. |
https://www.veggieboards.com/forum/sh...d.php?t=200593
Trolling does not seem to be taken seriously on this forum case and point. Sometimes one person will have 5 new silly threads you have to scroll through on the first page of active topics. Also the vegans can be a bit hard on the vegetarians sometimes which kind of sucks. In truth though the good far outweighs the bad so I will stick around ![]() |
Just an FYI, when I was moderator, I sent numerous private messages to the author of "My Dad" and other threads with warnings and pleadings, only to be ignored. I then asked the administration if it would be possible to put these types of trollish members on moderated status so that their posts would have to be approved by moderators before being seen by the public. The moderators do not have the power to do this. Again no response, nothing. I left shortly after so it's possible something was set up after I left. It's also difficult to simply ban members and delete threads without a mod consensus unless it is something really obviously rule breaking, like spam or promoting meat eating.
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I suspected something was going on when Leeds stepped down. And then when the Numerous Repetitive Question Threads weren't dealt with, I thought there was a mod problem (not enough, or hands tied by admin).
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Posting inappropriate content: You should consider VB a family-friendly site. Meaning, content which you wouldn't be comfortable viewing at work or with family members around, isn't appropriate for VB. Etc etc...
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In reference to the front page: in my opinion, it's pretty awful. It just seems so...commercial, for lack of a better way of putting it. The numerous stock images give it a feel of a website that was put up quickly and with little care or thought by someone with no interest in the topic at hand. In other words, it just seems like "filler". I actually hesitated in joining again when I saw the front page because it was obviously not the same site that it was previously. I understand that things change and everything evolves eventually but it's not always for the better. I think this is an example of just that. Honestly, I don't know what the answer is, however, I think some good ideas have already been put forth in this thread and they definitely warrant a closer look.
In addition (and this may be an unpopular opinion but I'm going to throw it out there anyway)...if the current administrator is non-vegetarian then I see that as a primary issue in and of itself. Simply put...you can't understand this lifestyle and all the things that go along with it if you're not actually living the lifestyle. For example, I may have a rudimentary knowledge of airplanes but if I've never actually flown one myself, I don't need to be the administrator of a forum catering to pilots. I'm certainly not trying to offend anyone...I think it's just a matter of needing to have a genuine, working knowledge of what you're involved with. For the record, I was a member here years ago when it actually felt like a real community...back when you would see several familiar names posting frequently and always with helpful advice and insights. It definitely doesn't have that same feel now. Just my 2 cents... |
So Verticalscope pays non-vegetarian, non-veggieboards members to write articles about vegetarianism. And you might allow members, many of whom have been vegetarian for many years and have helped others on this forum, to write articles for our forum, but not pay them. LOL.
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We have a team of writers, who work here, so they get paid to write for a large majority of our sites, there are a few vegetarians on the team of writers and in the company there are also a good amount of vegetarians and a few vegans. On the forum support team is a few vegetarians and some of our spouses are vegetarians. I myself eat mainly vegan, but that is dues to health issues and allergies.
Verticalscope owns the site, but we let the staff do what they like to the forum. So if anyone wants to volunteer to be part of the admin team, then by all means let us know and Cricket will stay in the background. You all seem to have great ideas! so use them. We can't pay users for their articles because that means they are employees and can cause some legal issues for us. Don't forget we are based in Canada and have to follow the governing law of the province. I brought in Cricket to try to help the site grow, she generally is quite good at it, but i would be more then happy to build an admin team that can do all that while the support team takes care of the tech stuff. The home page articles were only being written to help keep the front page active, google will de-rank a site with a dead home page, which means no one would see the site since it would loose its position when you google common terms. So it was to ensure people looking for information can get to the site. Most traffic coming to the site comes from google search of key terms, so the home page rarely comes up when you google, it is generally a thread topic. So the home page is not as much of a deterrent as you think. The people who come to the site when we post an article and see the home page and generally already a vegetarian or vegan, so the controversial article and the responses actually will attack more vegans/veggies then not, since they will want to participate. It is statistics and trail and error and A LOT of looking through google anylitics of a site. Since starting with the articles one the home page again we have moved up the ranks in google placement, so we are getting noticed more, and despite what you all think, more users are joining and staying. So really it is all trying to keep this forum relevant and a resource for new vegans/veggies as well as getting people who currently live that lifestyle to come and talk about things. You are all correct we are not experts on the vegan/vegetarian lifestyle BUT we are experts on forums and the software that runs them.We are here to ensure the site is healthy and that it is relevant in google so that people can find it. So if you want to help rebuild a moderator team, and get people in place to manage the flow and get content on the home page, then lets do that. But if not then you need to trust that Cricket has the best intentions and the forums health in mind. Helena Manager, Community Management. |
You are all correct we are not experts on the vegan/vegetarian lifestyle BUT we are experts on forums and the software that runs them.We are here to ensure the site is healthy and that it is relevant in google so that people can find it.
So if you want to help rebuild a moderator team, and get people in place to manage the flow and get content on the home page, then lets do that. But if not then you need to trust that Cricket has the best intentions and the forums health in mind. Helena Manager, Community Management. |
The home page articles were only being written to help keep the front page active, google will de-rank a site with a dead home page, which means no one would see the site since it would loose its position when you google common terms. So it was to ensure people looking for information can get to the site.
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Snip
VeggieBoards was founded by Michael- a vegetarian, who had an interest in veganism too- in 2001. Under his leadership, VB became a phenomenon, the best veg*n site on the web. But Michael's work was voluntary- not for profit- and in 2012, for personal reasons, he felt obliged to give it up. Rather than close VB down, he saw fit to sell VB to Huddler, a non-veg*n management company, in the hope VB could survive as a viable veg*n website. This is when the first "great exodus" occurred. Many of the old-timers objected to Huddler, and chose to leave. On the other hand, some of us stayed. I was not ready to give up what for years had been my "home away from home." Huddler was very lucky to have found Jennifer C- a veg*n- to administer their new site. Jennifer re-organized what was left of VB, and worked with the moderation staff to bring back the old esprit de corps. But then, Huddler sold VB to VerticalScope, Snip. |
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