Suggestions for the Forum

Question

Hi Happy Cow team! I'm still pretty new here, but I love the forum here. For people like me who are the only vegan at work, or the only vegan in the family, it's a great place to bond and discuss with like-minded people or just escape the workday for a few minutes. It'd be nice to see a few more resources put into the forum to increase activity and raise the quality of posts: 1 - You need mods! I'm a long-time poster on a sports forum online and the one thing that keeps that forum moving and clean are mods. All are just active members who volunteer for the role. They start at lower levels of authority and raise up to super mods, admins, etc. I have to believe there are employees or ambassadors at HC who can take this on and also deploy some active members to (1) police the forum for stuff like this: https://www.happycow.net/forum/recipe/simple-tasty-recipe-for-all-to-enjoy/4742 and other website spamming and (2) Create regular content; questions of the day, contests, featured product threads....something along those lines. 2 - Points for posting. I think the member points system was an awesome idea to get people reviewing and populating locations on the app. I also think it could boost the forum/discussion activity if people get points for starting threads (specifically ones that get responses, to keep people from blasting more and more threads...but again, a need for mods prevents that), replying to threads, etc. Just as they do for posting recipes. 3 - App access. Mobile access to the forum is pretty good on a smartphone browser, but there are apps like Tapatalk that pool multiple forums together so you can keep up and post. Doesn't have to be a build-out on the HC app. I know the restaurant directory is the baby of HC here and I love it, but it'd be great to see the forum boosted if/when resources on the HC side allow it. More activity there could create some Ad revenue with plant-based companies looking to advertise....they are the only ads I don't mind because I discover veg products that I didn't know existed (like the first pages in every VegNews issue). ☮

herwin · Answer

1. agree with that. especially with create regular content. 
2. buh, i dont believe in a point system. :-)
3. No opinion.

i would like to see a total redesign of the Forum with regards to the Topics. 
I miss a topic that discusses the latest news. And how about Vegan Politics, discussing how veg friendly and green oour politicians are. Lastly , Religion and Spirituality, sorry but it invites people to post absurd things and most of the topics are so infantile. Any non veg stumbling on these reli posts must laugh his head off.

Suz · Answer

1. Agree in theory ... mods would be great! Wish I had the time to create content. I don't. Happy to participate in discussions, which I've done way too little of so far.

2. Love the point system for exactly the reasons Crito mentioned. 

3. No opinion.

Interesting idea about the ads and how VegNews ads bring info on relevant products to the community. Not sure if this is the place for ads or not.

Crito · Answer

Certainly need volunteer mods. The long time members and ambassadors who you can trust. At the very least they can delete spam and reported posts that violate terms (like the pork ribs guy). I used to be a supermod on a sports forum and it was just a big crew of people (all who had jobs or students) that just were trusted to police the forums. Works pretty well and costs nothing. Just need trustworthy members to do it. 

Not sure if there’s a philosophical reason to avoid ads on here or just aesthetics and reputation. But I have to believe the Yelp of vegan establishments could easily sell some ad space to plant based companies. Especially bigger budget companies like Daiya and Beyond. Forum traffic isn’t huge but I’d imagine the rest of the site gets some good numbers, no?

Crito · Answer

Ok this [censored]: https://www.happycow.net/forum/recipe/buffalo-not-chicken-pasta-salad/5064 is why you really need some active mods deleting posts and banning troll users.

Mountainmystic · Answer

I agree with Crito. The forum is getting spammed with posts from club/cooking/recipe posters lately on very frequent  basis. There are other trollers too. I get tired & frustrated having to read these posts. It doesn't make me want to spend much time on forum, when there's trollers & people posting non vegan & vegetarian related matter. It diminishes the quality of this forum and credibility, if it can't be maintained for content posted.

Crito · Answer

I was a volunteer super mod on a sports forum for a long time. Deleted spam, banned users, merged duplicate threads, closed dead ones, started polls and gameday threads. 

Between work and kids I don’t have the time I did when I was a mod, but clearly I make it on here almost daily. I’d be happy to volunteer for that here if needed. 

This forum is a different platform so not sure that’s even possible for outside users or something that HC would even want.

Mountainmystic · Answer

As Albert Einstein said, Insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results.

herwin · Answer

that's an odd attitude for a scientist!😉scientists often do the same experiment done by fellow  scientists to see if the result is the same or not.
anyway, ppl brilliant in one field or discipline, are often just as nitwitz as as all the rest of us in other fields. lol. Just bc he  was Einstein doesnt make him a philosopher or, just to say something, a good cook. :-)

Mountainmystic · Answer

Yes in experiments, one repeats things over and over. What I meant by this was that I expect spammers & trollers to stop doing the same things over & over. I expect different results. Einstein was a great man and I think of him as my mentor. He used more than 10% of his brain, unmatched by any living human who uses 3 to 6% at best. Open your mind and the possibilities are unlimited as a vegan. Met some vegans from Vegan Outreach today. How wonderful it was.

herwin · Answer

spammers. they make laugh. they are spamming on a forum that has between 10 and 20 daily visitors. lol. World Dumbest Spammers.
Einstein. Once i was a fan of him also. Until i asked myself that one critical question.  WHY? Why mr genius does eat meat while he fully knew about vegetarianism its ethical and health aspect? Einstein ONLY AT THE END OF HIS LIFE switched PERHAPS to a veg diet. His most famous vegetarian quote  with regards to vegetarianism
"Nothing will benefit health or increase chances of survival on earth as the evolution to a vegetarian diet." is actually HALF of what he really said, but for convenience sake (vegetarian propaganda) the last part is cut off. Einstein continues with saying that regretable the vegetarian diet is too dificult for him to follow. I read it in one of the many books of Einsteins biography.

THIS Einstein quote is online though. Read it.

"I have always eaten animal flesh with a somewhat guilty conscience," 

So here we have a motherfukker who knows about animal cruelty (his guilty conscience) but hey what the fukk, it taste so [censored] good, just shut yr brain down and gobble that delicious meat, dont let ethics get in the way with it. 
Despicable attitude. The worst. No. That is why, in another thread, praised Mr Wynn. That is a man, who as soon as he got the knowledge, acts on it. What a great way.
Einstein? Braniac yes. Wise? i dont know. 
oops, i forgot smilies😄pls read with smilies, and THANK YOU for sharing your thoughts. i am not attacking them, as i said, i once felt the same😉just sharing how i view it now. :-)

herwin · Answer

most probably its just a phase i am in and next year i will have reached an opposite conclusion about Einstein.😄o well...

Crito · Answer

Ha fair enough. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it propaganda. Maybe selective info. 

But it shouldn’t undermine the principle that one of the brightest minds of the 19th/20th century was aware and communicating the issues of animal consumption. 

It’s a very deep cultural issue to overcome. The social grouping of even two meat eaters justifying it to each other is hard enough to overcome, much less communicating it to a global audience at a time much different than now. 

So yes it’s frustrating that he’s hypocritical on the issue, but we shouldn’t ignore the value we can extract from his take on it.

Crito · Answer

Ha fair enough. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it propaganda. Maybe selective info. 

But it shouldn’t undermine the principle that one of the brightest minds of the 19th/20th century was aware and communicating the issues of animal consumption. 

It’s a very deep cultural issue to overcome. The social grouping of even two meat eaters justifying it to each other is hard enough to overcome, much less communicating it to a global audience at a time much different than now. 

So yes it’s frustrating that he’s hypocritical on the issue, but we shouldn’t ignore the value we can extract from his take on it.

Crito · Answer

I love that a troll thread can become a debate about Einstein. You guys are the best lol

Mountainmystic · Answer

Herwin & Crito--excellent points you made. I will think on what you said. Just think if Einstein had been a vegan. He would have been so much more.

Mountainmystic · Answer

Yes, one can be a braniac and so smart, but it's what one does with the knowledge. One can use it for the advancement of good or bad. Or others can take the knowledge and do good or bad. I think it is harder for men to become vegans or vegetarians, because of the way we are programmed & socialized from birth, when raised by carnivore parents. The add social pressure to conform & fit in. 

Look at the time Einstein lived in. It's easier for us living in this current time, when we have networks of people & the internet to communicate with other vegans & vegetarians. Even though few people participate in the forum regularly. Had Einstein been on Happy Cow forum, he would have had a place to feel less isolated in his thoughts & less pressure to conform to meat eater mentality. Think about it. And why don't more people use the forum?

herwin · Answer

o sure, especially in that time it must have been hard to actually switch to a vegetarian diet\ lifestyle. but thats my point, if he truly was such a bright mind, he could and should have done it. become an example for everybody. not dilly dally like the rest of us. :-)

Mountainmystic · Answer

I agree. He should have. But then we wouldn't be discussing it now. We are the examples now.

herwin · Answer

hm, i am afraid i am certainly not a good example. i am the dilly dally type. i can shake hands with Albert in that aspect.😉

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