Many reviews praise the MediaPortal forums and the level of support provided.  Have you ever wondered how they work, who manages them, and what makes them so great?  Are you using them correctly and to their full potential?  Do you want to know who is using our forums?

Find out the Inside Scoop from one of our ‘Super’ Moderators:  Rekenaar.

For details on using our forums, use the FAQ button on the Forum Main Menu. Even after years of using the forums, I still managed to learn something new!

Our MP Forums - How Users Make Them Great

The success of our forums is due largely to the advanced skills and passion of our users, as well as the willingness of the MP Team, including our community developers, to answer questions. Just look at the number of posts by our Team and many of our users!

However, it is our excellent Forum Moderators and Super Moderators who try to ensure all user queries are answered and who keep our forums clean and well structured. Just so you know what they have to deal with - Forums: ~300, Threads: 76,169, Posts: 569,147, Members: 76,987!

How do they manage all that content?  What is the best way to use the forums effectively?

Here's the Inside Scoop from Rekenaar:

1. Where do our forum users come from? 

According to Google Analytics, in the past month the forums received more than 337,000 visits from 172 countries. The most visits by far are from Germany (107,708, 31.94%). In the 50th position is Luxembourg - 278 visits (0.08%) with less than half a million population. This map shows more detail, and the site usage shows the top ten countries.

Another interesting fact can be found on our main forum page, at the bottom, under Currently Active users: “Most users ever online was 2,253, 2008-04-19 at 19:45”. Did you notice that ten hours after the release of MP 1.1.0 RC1, there were just over 2,100 users online? One day later we broke that record! It now looks like this: "Most users ever online was 2,513, 2010-02-21 18:05".

Have you ever thought about the system behind it all to serve that number of concurrent users? A big thanks to our Web Administrator, high, for managing that part so well we never even notice.

2. What are the main duties and powers of a Super Moderator?
The main role is to keep the forums clean by enforcing the Forum Rules which you can access any time from the Main Menu. Also, see the Wikipedia description - this page not only explains moderators, but also most other aspects of an internet forum. 

A big challenge is to catch and delete spam and ban the user before it is seen by too many of our regular users. During the first 50 days of 2010 we banned 33 users for posting spam. Our forum administrator, high, sets the example. He banned 13 of them while I banned 9 of them. This is mostly a matter of timing since they try their luck at various times. Luckily, almost all 24 hours per day are covered by one or more Moderators/Administrators. The most optimistic spammer I ever encountered was in mid February where he posted 7 spam posts in 14 minutes. It was a short life, but he gave it his best.

We also often request more information, usually log files. A common misconception is that a Super Moderator will be able to read your logs and pin point the problem in the source code. Yes we all have looked at log files, and yes, we have sometimes picked up the odd problem. But in general we leave the technical stuff to our experts. So when we request log files, it is to ensure that the information is available when required.

3. How does a new Moderator learn the ropes and what do they need to know?
You learn by observing others and by reading the internal Team forums and Team Wiki. For me, mimicking PD (Paranoid Delusion) and Spragleknas did the trick. They are two BIG names on the MP forums! When we are unsure, we ask among ourselves. The guidance of our two forum administrators is also available to us. Thanks for that infinityloop and high!

To be a Moderator, you must be able to post.  You must have a desire to help others. Most of all, you must spend a lot of time on the forums. Spragleknas has even been called a 'forum whore' on the internal IRC channel.

4. How much time do you spend on the forums? 
It differs greatly from day to day depending on Real Life (RL) situations. I would say a good average for myself would be between two and four hours per day, not continuously though. Sometimes, while spending time with my family, I will check new posts for five to ten minutes per hour. The forum will show me as active for the whole hour, but I am not always constantly there. Other times I am reading for an hour non-stop and some weekends it might be a teeny bit more. Just don’t tell my wife!

5. Do you read all posts? 
I try hard to read everything, but it is not really possible unless I double my time in the forums. I definitely try to open all posts, have a quick glance and see if I can spot problems (spam, flaming, cross-posting, etc). When I see something I can respond to, I will answer if I have time, otherwise I will keep it for follow up later, providing someone else did not beat me to it.

6. Will users always accept the ruling of a Super Moderator? 
Nope. Some users really do not like to be reprimanded. So forum moderators have to be prepared for the odd public or private message assault. Luckily, with our great community, they are by far overwhelmed by the rest of the users defending you, thanking you, assisting you.

7. How do you contact a Super Moderator?
You can use the Private Message (PM) function on the forum (click on the Username and select 'Send a private message to...'); or, the Report Post button on a post (the small round gray button with an R in it on the lower left panel of a post). We are always willing to assist with moderation requests such as moving your post to another sub-forum. However please note that we will NOT provide general support via PMs. We believe in an open policy - by posting in the open forums - which ensures that more users are able to reply/help and more users will be able to read/learn.

8. How do you know who is the Moderator for a specific forum?
Let’s say you are viewing the Moving Pictures sub-forum. Just underneath all the threads you will see the sub-forum page numbers and just underneath that you will see the moderators for the specific sub-forum. If it is not there, then the sub-forum does not have other moderators and you revert back to the Super Moderators. 

For an overview of Moderators, just use the Quick Links on the Forum Menu and select Forum Moderators. That will take you to a page listing all Team groups. Moderators are at the top; Super Moderators are near the bottom. 

9. How and when SHOULD you use the Report Post button?
Let me first repeat that it is NOT meant to get support! It is mostly used to report spam posts, but you can basically use it for any moderation request. The first available moderator will respond if it is a valid request/report. If you use the Report Post button for general/support queries, you will just get a canned reply.

Do you know what a canned reply is? It is a Forum function for moderators where we create reply templates. When replying with “standard feedback” we can just select the entry from a drop down list and the reply is populated. For example, that post where we request more information - no we do not type it from scratch every time. 

10. What do you think is the best thing about MP forums?
Definitely the great user community. You mentioned the 76K users in your opening comment. Even with that large number we rarely see any flaming. Mostly it is one big family with lots of very knowledgeable users willing to assist wherever possible. 

It's the same in the Team Forum. One of the skin designers recently announced he needed an operation. You should see the number of posts - more than 60 at time of writing - offering help and wishing good luck and speedy recovery. What a great example of how close the Team is.

The next best thing is definitely the SEARCH facility. Go check it out right after reading this. The advanced search page has some really nice options. For example, search for posts made by developer Tourettes in the past two weeks containing the text 'nvidia'. Easy, within a few seconds you are presented with a list of posts. In general, it is much more rewarding to search and find an answer right away, rather than post and wait for someone else to assist.

11. What is the best way to get help using the forums?
The first thing you should know is that a meaningful title for your new thread will drastically increase the number of views and therefore increase the chance for a quick and applicable answer.

Following the support guidelines and posting in the correct sub forum will most definitely be to your advantage.

You should also enter your system specs in the User Control Panel (CP) and keep them up to date. This is very helpful information for anyone trying to answer your question(s).

Most of all, be polite, otherwise the answers will not be those you are expecting. That is just human nature - it is much more inspiring to help a friendly co-user than a rude or angry one!

12. What is the biggest problem we have in the forums?
We frustrate our developers and testers by not following the support guidelines. Users look at the log files (or NOT!) and decide it is not necessary to post it as there are no errors in it. I have learned, the hard way, that even if there is nothing noticeable in the logs, it may contain lots of other useful clues for the trained eye. The exact SVN revision you are using, your operating system, file locations, active plugins, and much more that can shed some light.

Another problem we sometimes have is users posting copyright material. Now I will shamelessly summarize a discussion between PD and high on the Team Forum …thanks guys.

We cannot let you post images that may be copyrighted. The principle of “fair-use” works in some countries but not everywhere. Unfortunately Germany has incredibly tough legislation regarding copyright and we cannot afford any infringement to impair the future of our project.

We do allow screenshots, including fanart, and we do allow users to share their own work, but we do not want to build up a download-base for fanart. There are various places on the internet that specialize in that, such as htbackdrops.

Also, it is generally not a good idea to include many large images in one post.  By attaching images, they will automatically resize and be 'clickable'.  But if you link to or insert images keep the size small. Users can always click on an image to enlarge it.

You may have noticed high recently changed the default image size to make posts more readable, but the original image is still imported, so don't link to a lot of large images or you will get a notice.

13. What is the correct way to submit a bug report?
I really can’t explain it better than infinityloop has in the forum sticky post on Submitting Bug Reports. 

It is important to test by using the default Blue3(wide) skin when reproducing the steps and collecting the logs. Also you should disable third party plugins to ensure it is actually a MediaPortal problem.

Providing the exact steps to reproduce the bug is crucial.

Follow these basic guidelines to ensure we do not waste the valuable time of our developers - after all, they are the reason you are reading this. 

14. How many forum posts go unanswered, and why?
Unfortunately there are a few. When I use the forum Advance Search function to search for posts the past month without a reply, in all the regular open forums, the count is 260. Twenty five of them are deleted posts – yes, deleted posts are still visible to team members. Thirty five of them are not even three days old; in other words, there is still a fair chance they will be answered. That leaves us with 200 posts in the past month. It may sound like a lot, but look again at the number of posts mentioned in your opening statement. It is a very small percentage.

Why are some posts unanswered? That can be for various reasons: bad luck, bad timing, not following support guidelines, not using a meaningful thread title, posting in the wrong sub-forum, etc. The bottom line is that most posts are answered.

If your post is unanswered and you want to try your luck in another relevant sub-forum, request a moderator to move your post rather than submitting a cross-post. Remember that cross-posting is against forum rules.

What is cross-posting? Basically it is posting the same content to two or more threads. After we move your post, you can always bump your thread (did I say that aloud?) to bring it to the top of the list. PLEASE be reasonable and do not bump your thread after only a few hours or even a day.

15. How can users help?
With the enormous number of posts on our forum, the team relies heavily on the community to assist us. The team is just not big enough to reply to each and every forum post. So if you ever wondered how you can start helping the team even without coding knowledge, this is it. Join in the fun...share your knowledge and experience.

In fact, when we are considering who to invite to the team, we often look at a user's posts in the forums and their willingness and ability to help other users.

16. What features would you most like to see added to or improved in our forums?
Our admins are always quite quick to improvise and provide nice functions. Look for example at the Live Posts button [only visible to registered users as it causes additional load to the servers]. Select it, sit back and watch TV while your browser automatically loads new posts, each with a short summary, as they are posted, in real time! Meanwhile, your wife feels you are watching a movie with her while your left eye is following the forum. 

What I am actually saying is that our forum features are right up there with the best, and so are our users!

What a GREAT 'hobby' we all have!!

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What I can't figure out is how Rekenaar manages to watch a movie and monitor the forums at the same time! I suspect he has his laptop by his side, so his wife probably knows exactly what he is doing.  Maybe she is just secretly proud of how much he cares, and all the help he gives us all!

I think the best way to comment on this interview is to quote from a review I read about MediaPortal:

"...if it's user error, or a known issue with something in your setup, they'll let you know. Or you'll be pointed in the direction of one of the many fans who'll more than likely guide you with the aide of previous postings on the comprehensive forum to a cure."

Wow! Thanks to all our moderators, team members and forum users for making our forums so great. I think our forums are actually one of the awesome 'features' of MediaPortal!