"Opera features" forum

A Former User

I am a rather new convert to Opera stable (I've been using it for roughly 2 weeks as my everyday, default browser). I have been following O ever since the release of O15, and followed the blog posts and the outcry at the (then) lack of bookmarks, and the loss of O12 features, etc.

I have come back here these last few weeks, and it seems like the outcry has not abated. While I'm not suggesting this forum turn into a "fanboys only" club, unfortunately the unabated outcry seems to have crowded out every discussion of the newer features, especially Speed Dial. I would love to get a discussion going on how people actually use speed dial (I've tried a couple of times these last few weeks and always go back to the bookmarks toolbar): for example, what bookmarks go into what folders, if they have online bookmarks and no toolbar, how they integrate Stash, etc. I've tinkered with decreasing the folder size when there are too many....

What I'd love to see is a heavily moderated "Features" forum, where only posts explaining how they use a various feature, is allowed in that given thread. For instance, I'd love to start a Speed Dial thread, in which people can explain how they use it--but I know that within 3 posts, it would devolve into a flame war between those who hate SD, and those who have learned to live with it. I'd love to see a features only forum, where the only posts allowed would be those explaining how they use a particular feature. If you don't use a feature, then post in a thread that is devoted to your own subject matter. If you hate speed dial, go ahead and hate, but post in the bookmarks thread and explain that.

I would think that this would help newcomers learn to adjust to these new features, which would help Opera as well as users such as myself. Like I said, I'm not there yet but I'm more than willing to see what others are doing. Perhaps it would even be such that your post has to be approved by a mod in order to appear.... I don't know. I just think that since this is the only place on the internet where Opera users can communicate with each other, a great opportunity is not being utilized to its fullest.

A Former User

Agreed.

Forums without effective moderation are a complete waste of time. Long ago, before the release of Opera 15, the old forums were not completely useless. There were still flame-bait threads, but one could steer clear of them, and the Customising Speed Dial and Custom Opera Buttons threads were largely free from such flame-wars.

Block lists in the old forum helped to a great extent. One could add the Fanboys and Trolls to a block-list, making it easier to avoid their comments. They still caused disruption though, because other users who were not on my block-list would respond to them.

The only solution is effective and prompt moderation. On the forums that I moderate, there is no spam, and no disruption because spammers never get past the moderation queue, and disruptive threads promptly get moved to a hidden forum, or locked.

It also needs a Mail forum, a Customising forum, and access to all of the old content.

A Former User

If forum moderation is such a time-consuming activity (I'm not denying that at all), then perhaps only posts with mod approval beforehand need be allowed. Such a theme wouldn't really require instantaneous feedback or dialog, anyways--all folks would be doing would be to show and explain how they use them, and perhaps why this is better than bookmarks (for them).

A Former User

I think this is a great idea, it reminds me of those user "testimonials" that some vendors display in their websites and would serve as a showcase for Opera features, but at the same time difficult to accomplish in the current form of the forums. For this to work I think there should be an official area where the rules are known and the posts are moderated before appearing.

There's a fine line between censorship and keeping a forum moderated allowing freedom of speech.
I think the moderation is already getting a little better lately, as after some users' input the moderators are closing threads where there aren't legitimate complaints and end up being hijacked for something else or personal offenses. I think some topics could be closed by considering them as duplicates. It looks like this is the right way for me? I recently became a moderator, but I mostly take care of spam and base my decisions in the official forum rules.

A Former User

There's a fine line between censorship and keeping a forum moderated allowing freedom of speech.

I believe that to be the case as well, although of course the critics of Opera's current trends have plenty of freedom to raise a stink in pretty much every forum here. It would be nice to see clean threads of people demonstrating how they use these new features (I'm especially interested in SD, with a distant second being stash, although that seems more basic). "Testimonials" sounds a bit like advertising blurbs--most likely this is not what you meant. I was just thinking of people who have found ways to cram dozens of bookmarks into a SD start page--explaining how they did it. Even if this were heavily moderated, Opera critics could still post whatever they wanted, in other places.