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In the old days articles
which were "controversial" were allowed to run for a page or three
then closed down. Now they are not even opened for discussion, we understood
why they got closed down before; I cannot remember anyone proposing they run and
run.
To me this site is all about the good articles
which has not changed and the comments which has changed. So I will not now
read any articles I cannot comment on, this is not some sort of protest, this
is not some sort of sit in or whatever. To me it just seems a logical step; I
don't want anyone to do what I am doing, the rest of you may be happy to read
about it here and comment elsewhere.
The last time this happened months back. I reposted the sites article and we commented on the article there, I was asked not to do that, so I haven't again. I think if someone tried to precis an article or do their own for the Pub it would get closed down as well and I would agree with them there if we had already had our say in the main article. I respect the decision they have made, but I don't think they realise that once you go start to go done this road, more and more articles will come under the "controversial" heading, a forum thrives on its comments not the lack of them.
Comments
Regardless, whatever works for you.
Unless you expect a forum to be a pristine exemplar of order and nicety you are going to expect some bad posts now and then. I realise people can be genuinely offended by what has been said, I do not think that is always overdone, but it is becoming increasingly hard to distinguish the genuine from the drama.
Also I understand MMORPG.com is limited in the amount of time they can adjudicate the forums. But we have gone from them needing to check in once a day and saying "Ok two pages is enough" to stopping any comments at all.
I won't pretend trying to calm posters down always works, but it actually worked better than I thought it would. Don't name posters, talk about "the thread" rather than people.
I understand the desire to see some kickback, but we do see bans, people do get warnings, any kickback is going to be as long as a piece of string, how far do you want them to go? A permeant ban, on the basis of one post, yes I believe in second chances too much, but you can over do it.
You of all people, who spend a lot of your time telling posters to calm down and act like adults should know why articles about gaming companies that broach social subjects, employment conditions or politics have been locked for comment.
There is a crowd of people here who take any opportunity to spout political slogans about the "woke" and "SJWs" and all kinds of far right bias any chance they get.
I'm not even going to pretend that both sides do it because even though some of us who are pissed off by all the trash slogans and grossly insensitive, sometimes racist and often misogynist bile spewed here, will sometimes join in and react, it is most definitely not us doing the derailing that always, without exception, happens in those threads.
I'm not proud of letting my temper suck me in to responding and lashing out but I can't let all the offensive bile spewed here just ride. A personal failing I guess.
@Zegaloth brought up the Witcher TV series.
I was the one who started that thread because I had watched it, liked it and being related to the game, I thought here would be a good place to have a discussion about it... wrong.
All it took was a coupe of posts before Caffynated (remember that racist asshole?) turned it into a rant about how POC had no business being cast for that series because this was all about medieval Poland and they didn't have no stinking POC. Never mind the fact that neither the books, games nor TV series are not set on this Earth, much less Poland.
That thread was locked and I never got to have the discussion about the TV series I wanted to have here because the usual suspects wanted to make it a platform for spouting their hateful political tripe.
There's a crowd here that either doesn't have a normal outlet to discuss their far right politics or they do and still want to constantly inject it into topics here because... I really don't know... so I'll just go with "reasons."
Frankly IMO, It's about time those articles got locked because a large portion of the crowd here don't deserve the opportunity to spew their hateful bile every fucking day on every fucking thread.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
The other thing that often concerns me is we come across too much as a members only club, though I must admit I did not see it as "white dudes". That said I have questioned everything from the colour titles to trying to get us to be more welcoming as a community.
It has always been a tricky balance, I never thought the old way was great, just that it was better than no comments. I do think we will get "controversy" creep, after all a poster can raise a political subject bouncing of just about anything and guys that's not just the ones on the right, it is in my eyes anyone who is sufficiently political and there are a lot of them about on all sides and every which way. Myself included, you don't have to be a "political animal" to go on the occasional rant.
Anyone could post the definition of "discussion" but it won't matter because in the modern world of gaming it is all about i kiss your ass and you kiss my ass.
At one time journalists were free to write,now they are paid to write what they are told to write.Most of the entire internet is just buisiness,people out making money and should have been obvious 26 years ago when cookies were invented by a Netscape employee.
For years we were told they were to "improve our site experience"among a few other claims nobody was telling the truth.So these websites have been lying for 26 years and funny to still some doing it.
Journailsists used to have a code and if any writer crossed that line he would be blackballed by the internet and other journalists.We do see it but very seldom,example the IGN reviewer who got caught not even reviewing a game but still pretended to ahve done the review.Sasdly after all that a former IGN employee still managed to defend all her former IGN employees,like we should expect any different.My point is that even when proven a real asshat there are white Knights everywhere that are ready to use bleach on the stains.
Now a days very little is what it seems.There is an angle,agenda behind almost everything you read.It might be as simple as click bait or disguised advertising or a shill going about business one way or another.
One thing for certain is that for as long as we have had laws there are people out there trying to get around them or flat out ignore them.
There is a lot more to the bigger picture but i am out of time explaining it all,people can pay attention for themselves.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.
That's why I am not saying there is an easy solution, this is devil and the deep blue sea territory but what others see as justified I see as giving up.
The posts from the other guys have opened my eyes to the depth of feeling about this, I had not realised some people were taking this so personally. All I can say is lets treat this like a problem not a war and we may be able to arrive at a better state of affairs.
Not ignoring replies but of till the morrow.
Brenics ~ Just to point out I do believe Chris Roberts is going down as the man who cheated backers and took down crowdfunding for gaming.
Well, I guess we get what we pay for.....
Over on MOP they have like 10 articles regarding the Blizzard situation, some with more comments than they ever normally see, yet somehow none of them have been shut down.
Is there a better class of posters over there? Or is their staff better at keeping things under control by being willing to use moderation instead of lockdowns?
Every time a thread is shut down a little something dies that day as the "bad guys" manage to stifle conversation, and this site and apparently some posters in this thread are quite willing to let them do so.
Feels like people would rather yield to the terrorists rather than fight back.
Pity.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
I think the use of the report button and temp bans are the best method to police forums, much better than shutting conversations totally down.
It's like in order to prevent people from dying in hospitals due to a few bad doctors the solution would be to shut all hospitals down, problem solved, right?
Of course not.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
I expect the same applies here, especially at times when what needs to be sorted overwhelms those available to sort it.
It's better to shut it down when you can't adequately stem the tide.
I have to agree with the poster who questioned were all those articles really that MMORPG related? Some were very "gaming industry bubble" and not my main reason for reading the articles on here. But if it's put up we should be able to comment all the same.
Having been in charge of more than one guild forum I know it can be a time sink, and we never had the sorts of posts you get on here. I think in some way without good reason that's how I expect us to be here, colligate not at war.
This is throwing out the barrel because of a few bad apples, even those who fully support the move see them as a minority of posters. We can report, we can block posters, there is moderation on the other threads, to me is that not enough? Clearly for some of you it is not enough and you are fed up to the teeth with what has been happening.
So my way forward is to see if we can make the site a more colligate place, more calm downs not rile ups and hope that feeds through to how the staff perceive posters. That said we can't create a forum utopia and like Slapshot said people do not like their perspectives challenged about anything. But we can at least try.
In order to stop harm to themselves and their patients a Marriage Councilor does not allow guns in their office.
And side note: It's not always "stupid stuff" that gets people banned. Sure, that's part of it but most often it's people who simply can't accept that other people might feel differently, and feel compelled to try and stop that person from speaking. There's a huge difference between some guy posting racial crap and someone reporting a person because they said bad things about a game they like. And it's also a fact that moderation is highly subjective. Say something that isn't strictly in line with the group-think at MassivelyOP and your comment will be moderated. I much prefer MMORPG and if they need to turn of comments on a couple of articles a year, in order to save themselves the headache of banning their customers then I accept that.
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
Now, you've brought this up before, how posters are being banned for having opinions about games that others don't like which I honestly don't see.
Usually those posts with strong opinions contain some sort of overly caustic insult or retort which I believe is why they get banned, not because their viewpoint itself was an issue.
People need to learn how to disagree in a civil manner, we all over step the line sometimes on this, often being overly condescending, arrogant or are nauseatingly repetitive in multiple back and forth replies trying to prove our points to others.
Again, the issue is not the report button, but more about the content of the posts or the moderators being either too sensitive or perhaps just too weary from having to keep order on the playground so they sit some folks in the corner.
Most bans these days are not permanent, nor even overly long, if someone disappears for good it's usually by their own personal choice, being whiff about having been moderated.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
The biggest difference though was that the printed letters were well written and well reasoned more often than not. There were no "You suck. Stick an ice pick in your eye" crazy shit.
These days everyone has a digital megaphone and the percentage of well reasoned speech vs. the lunatic ravings we can't help but hear, I would guess is 1 in 100 or even lower.
I'm tired of sickos and morons screaming their vile ravings in my ear.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
There are a few reasons for that, age and what has become acceptable today and "free post". Teens did not right letters to the FT, but they are all over social media now and the standards of behaviour we could expect all ages to hold to have fallen. It is not about anonymity, you could send in an anonymous letter, it is about what is seen as acceptable today. That said people did send what were often called "crank letters", but they were rare compared to the deluge we have today. Of course another factor is you had to pay to send a letter, these days you don't online.
Just like we had far less "wxyz" rage on the street we did not get it when people communicated, now we do. Also social media has become the go to place to become indignant, rant, complain and get outraged, a habitual use is already imbedded.
The argument about reasoning with them on here last occurred when we were talking about the pandemic last year I think. I think it worked there, we had a poster telling us that those dying were just part of the normal deaths each year due to respiratory disease. We tore that apart for all to see. That is the way to handle it, but it can start forum wars which start to undermine how rational and reasonable you sound if you are not careful.