Are OcUK one of the best quality forums?

I got introduced to Ocuk from an old housemate (Didgemaster iirc) and i've always found this place helpful for hardware, software and general life probs alike. Ive never joined another forum but tbh they all, like what has been said before have HUGE sigs and avatars and are just full of flaming tbh.

why has the quick post thingy been disabled? i though it was my firefox adblock :confused:

Ive also served a sentence (month+ ban for my sig being toooooo big) was bamboozled as to why for a while :D

Overall Thumbs up friendly peeps friendly advice 4tw! :D
 
You could argue that some of the rules take something away from the forum, but in terms of "quality" i think the OP's post is probably true.

Only thing that annoys me are the people that ONLY post stuff like "better delete that swearie mate ;)" or "Id remove that before a mod sees it" and stuff like that, without even adding anything to the thread... it's lame as hell, do they think their going to be made moderators or something for being busy bodies?

Also not the rule that says you aren't allowed to discuss TV episodes that haven't aired in the UK is pretty lame, but i guess its not my rules so its tough luck.
 
yeah, these forums are good. i dont really post on that many forums, but i've been a member of a fair few. this is the only one where i've really gotten involved with any community and gone to a meet or something. when i joined here, it was for the hardware stuff, but i stayed because it was such a great community. i've made a good few really decent friends on here as well, which is nice. i guess that's an indication of how good the forums are.

i can see where the people who dont like the heavy moderating are coming from, it's weird as most other forums dont have the moderation OcUK has and i found it difficult not telling people to **** off when they said something retarded...but once you get used to not saying anything if you've got nothing constructive to say actually makes the place more enjoyable, imho.
 
I agree, a heavy hand is required with forums of this size to prevent anarchy.

This is the only forum I visit, aside from one other much smaller forum with a much more mature user base and quite specialised subject matter. Considering I spend 14 hours a day behind a keyboard, I think that must prove something ;).

Edit: Loving the new server. Makes forum hopping so much more pleasurable.
 
cleanbluesky said:
An observation - the fact that we have strict family rules and hardly any insults (plus a copious team of mod who sometimes seem to live on these forums) mean that we have one of the most pleasant-to-browse forums?

Just surfing a few others for information and I didn't realise just how much of a haven for insults and unneccesary bad language forums can be...
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.....Well having not read off the following relevant posts on this thread, I will still let my daughter read them...... as I know its a good place for good general stuff too go on....
 
[Rose tints] I'm not sure that they are quite as they were in their heyday of a few years back [/Rose tints]

but they are the best that I have ever frequented, the sheer post turnover keeps things interesting, and the 'heavy' moderation is a small price to pay for keeping the undesirables out!
 
I haven't been on that many different forums to compare OcUK to, but I like it here. Sure, everything has a downside but it's a small price to pay IMHO.
 
OcUK is one of the few forums I visit regularly and it's the only one whose community I've got to know and become involved with. I've learned so much and I hope I've given back a good amount, too.

I don't have a problem with any of the rules because I don't often swear in Real Life and in any case, ***%**£$"£& communicates the point perfectly well, I think.

Credit to Spie, the mod team and the rest of the members for making this place what it is.

On the whole all the members are great and this is my refuge away from the horrible teenage/MySpace/GIF sig side of the web.

There is the occassional strange person (like Johnny Girth ;)), but that's understandable as methinks the memberbase is mostly representitive of the general UK slightly-geeky-but-still-a-wicked-person population.

There's also some awesomly talented people here in many, many areas.

Sure, there's better places for specialities (AVforums, Sitepoint, fredmiranda), but very few have the community this place does and very, very few manage to combine an extremely large subject area with a concentrated spread of talent and just plain ol' decent people.

I also believe this forum is one of the largest of its type in the UK, if not the largest. Either way, as the old story goes...
American serviceman to British serviceman: "How does it feel being part of the second largest navy in the world?"
Brit to American: "Not bad....how does it feel being second best?
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Group hug!
 
Yep its a superb forum covers a lot of Subjects 800-900 on at a time at night thats insane biggest forum ive seen. :)



*Ocuk slips me some money ;)
 
This is the most heavily moderated forum I've been a member of, but then again this place is also the neatest and most orderly forum I've been a member of, as well as the most helpful, and entertaining. There are certain cliques that manifest themselves in various ways which annoy me a little, but I suppose that's inevitable, and I probably wouldn't have mentioned it if I was in any of those particular cliques, not that I want to be. But like I said, it's inevitable. And of course those who use these forums/the internet to seem superior to others in whatever way, that's a bit silly really, there's no need for that. I just admire the fact that there is always someone around to help or discuss things with about anything, whether it be general chat or computer related.
 
When i first registered i mainly posted in the hardware forums to learn about my PC as i had just built it, i found it to be an excellent help and found the people there to be friendly. I think in the hardware forums it sometimes takes quite a while to get a reply but thats probably because people have seen the same questions over and over. I used to ask hardware questions on an airgun forum and would receive like 10 replies by the time i had 1 on here. I now much prefer this GD forum to any other Ive used as there is a wide range of people, not mainly over 35's etc that you tend to get on some forums. I come here almost every day now so yes its a good forum IMO.

Mark
 
I read quite a few different forums but this iswhere I "live". I don't like all of the rules but I stick to them as much as I can and I've had to adjust my posting style a fair bit to accommodate. The rules I do like are the sig sizes and avatars. It just makes the place so much neater and easier to read.
 
Good point from the OP and I have said previously that the forums are so heavily moderated is the reason I enjoy them like I do and the reason I have not taken flight elsewhere.

For every thread to turn into personal insults would be a bit pointless and unappealing to me.

Laughs, cries, happiness, sadness, bon amis, meets and a lot of enjoyment. That sums up the OcUK forums for me and I personally don't see the need to go elsewhere. :)
 
Doohickey said:
This is the most heavily moderated forum I've been a member of, but then again this place is also the neatest and most orderly forum I've been a member of, as well as the most helpful, and entertaining. There are certain cliques that manifest themselves in various ways which annoy me a little, but I suppose that's inevitable, and I probably wouldn't have mentioned it if I was in any of those particular cliques, not that I want to be. But like I said, it's inevitable. And of course those who use these forums/the internet to seem superior to others in whatever way, that's a bit silly really, there's no need for that. I just admire the fact that there is always someone around to help or discuss things with about anything, whether it be general chat or computer related.
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I don't agree with the clique comment at all. Not in GD anyway. I can see how one might appear to be present in Sports but thats just the regulars not allowing any n00bs or visitors who only call in to cause trouble to get away with it. The Motors forum suffers from the same thing but its worse.

The techy forums may suffer from it but I've never found them to, and GD certainly doesn't.

While I'm here I don't understand what you're saying as regards the superior comment.
 
cleanbluesky said:
An observation - the fact that we have strict family rules and hardly any insults (plus a copious team of mod who sometimes seem to live on these forums) mean that we have one of the most pleasant-to-browse forums?

Just surfing a few others for information and I didn't realise just how much of a haven for insults and unnecessary bad language forums can be...
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for information, this place gets 9 out of 10, but its not the best forum as it does have issues in key areas,

rule enforcement: on many many many occasions people are suspended for hugely trivial things when its a clear as day the offence in question was a mistake on that persons part and a simple warning would have sufficed. Then there’s the inconsistency of how its enforced, 1 person will get a week ban for an offence, the next person who has broken the same rule gets his post edited and a warning in yellow.

Contact (or lack of): 80% of the mods dont reply to e-mails, it seems some forget the OCUK forums aren’t just another forum, there a sales pitch for the OCUK store and how people are treated on the forums directly correlates to the perceived level of service overall. a classic example is an e-mail being sent to 7 mods warning them of a new member who may have possibly been trying to defraud 2 other forum members via the MM. None replied and the member is still here.

Where to go for customer service:

an example is customer service query’s, you have no section for them in the forums, and yet dont answer the phone lines half the time and dont respond to support e-mails allot of the time so generally there is a feeling of your damned if you do and damned if you dont.



But even with these issues, OCUK is still one of the most informative places to be with regards to current technologies, also having some members who work for these company’s is hugely beneficial to the community. I dare say we’ve had info before the press has had it at times. So I give ocuk 7.5/10 overall. :D
 
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Best forum Ive visited, I've visited other but this is the only fourm I keep coming back to.

Keep it up mods and peeps :D

I need a drink fewwww...
 
locutus12 said:
rule enforcement: on many many many occasions people are suspended for hugely trivial things when its a clear as day the offence in question was a mistake on that persons part and a simple warning would have sufficed. Then there’s the inconsistency of how its enforced, 1 person will get a week ban for an offence, the next person who has broken the same rule gets his post edited and a warning in yellow.
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Incorrect. There are very few offences that carry an automatic week-long ban. More carry a 48 hour ban and a lot simply get edited and warned unless a person is repeatedly offending. Of course the severity of the offence dictates the length of the suspension.

locutus12 said:
Contact (or lack of): 80% of the mods dont reply to e-mails, it seems some forget the OCUK forums aren’t just another forum, there a sales pitch for the OCUK store and how people are treated on the forums directly correlates to the perceived level of service overall.
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Incorrect. All mods reply to mails. Otherwise they wouldn't be mods. however, we are human and sometimes real life stuff takes us away from our PCs. Yes, even me. So if you don't get a response in a timely fashion try emailing a mod who is online at the time and explain your situation.

locutus12 said:
Where to go for customer service: a classic example is an e-mail being sent to 7 mods warning them of a new member who may have possibly been trying to defraud 2 other forum members via the MM. None replied and the member is still here.
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Either this will be being discussed amongst the relevant mods or something happened to the mail. This will not ever happen. We do not ignore such issues.

Put simply, I don't believe you :)

locutus12 said:
another example are customer service query’s, you have no section for them in the forums, and yet dont answer the phone lines half the time and dont respond to support e-mails allot of the time so generally there is a feeling of your damned if you do and damned if you dont.
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Damned if you do what? The forum is run entirely separately to the shop. The mods do not work for OcUK. This is common knowledge.
 
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