Wolfire Games Forums

h2ostra wrote:Agreed.
For examples of this in action, see Armored_Wolf's apology, and Devilsclub's (repeated) departure from the forums.

Exactly. Cases in point. That's precisely what I mean by the problem sorting itself out. On this forum, I see the reactions of the community as the "Administrator", so to speak. If the community approves, the content is accepted. If the community is horrified, the content is generally swiftly removed.

Also, as a side-note, you don't want your children seeing certain things, but at times protecting them from these things and pretending they don't exist is more damaging for when they later discover such things.

Case in point: my girlfriend was under the impression until the age of around 13 or 14 that you became pregnant by kissing the opposite sex. Eh? Stupid parents.

Another aspect of a more rigid moderation will be that it cripples imagination through chilling effects. Anticipation or fear of moderation and rule enforcement will make (normal) people think twice before they post that off topic post. If that off topic post would spark a new discussion about another aspect of the original discussion or is itself much more interesting and valuable than the original thread the community will have lost something. Threads die down earlier and the forum becomes a less fun and interesting place to be. I think most of the interesting and funny threads in this community came forth because someone crossed the line at least a little bit.

There still is the problem with people like Devilsclub though, who won't listen if they get told off by most members. If they are persistent enough, they can ruin the community of course. Luckily if the community can sit those appearances out and goes back a little on nurturing those peoples trolling it will cease by itself.

tokage wrote:Another aspect of a more rigid moderation will be that it cripples imagination through chilling effects. Anticipation or fear of moderation and rule enforcement will make (normal) people think twice before they post that off topic post. If that off topic post would spark a new discussion about another aspect of the original discussion or is itself much more interesting and valuable than the original thread the community will have lost something. Threads die down earlier and the forum becomes a less fun and interesting place to be. I think most of the interesting and funny threads in this community came forth because someone crossed the line at least a little bit.

I agree completely. Off-topic posts often lead to more interesting discussions than the originally bland subject matter of a thread.

Renegade_Turner wrote:

tokage wrote:Another aspect of a more rigid moderation will be that it cripples imagination through chilling effects. Anticipation or fear of moderation and rule enforcement will make (normal) people think twice before they post that off topic post. If that off topic post would spark a new discussion about another aspect of the original discussion or is itself much more interesting and valuable than the original thread the community will have lost something. Threads die down earlier and the forum becomes a less fun and interesting place to be. I think most of the interesting and funny threads in this community came forth because someone crossed the line at least a little bit.

I agree completely. Off-topic posts often lead to more interesting discussions than the originally bland subject matter of a thread.

You just pwned topic starters everywhere.

What moderator closes topics that go off track? That sounds more like power abuse to me ...

Assaultman67 wrote:What moderator closes topics that go off track? That sounds more like power abuse to me ...

Just splitting a topic works better.

- Black
90% of teens today would die if Myspace and Facebook had a system failure and were completely destroyed. If you are one of the 10% that would be laughing, copy and paste this into your signature.

If Fournine or other mod/admin banned/reprimanded me, then I would continue to post roadkill pictures until I found out what levels of disgusting roadkill I could post without a ban/reprimand.
Maybe it's me that's messed up

Assaultman67 wrote:What moderator closes topics that go off track? That sounds more like power abuse to me ...

Never said the moderator would close the whole topic. Off topic posts being deleted is not so uncommon though. And there are chilling effects from that and there are benefits from off topic posts.

tokage wrote:

Assaultman67 wrote:What moderator closes topics that go off track? That sounds more like power abuse to me ...

Never said the moderator would close the whole topic. Off topic posts being deleted is not so uncommon though. And there are chilling effects from that and there are benefits from off topic posts.

For example, this entire thread no longer being about RobLikesBrunch banning.

But often(ok, maybe sometimes) it comes full circle to the original topic from a new perspective.

tokage wrote:

Assaultman67 wrote:What moderator closes topics that go off track? That sounds more like power abuse to me ...

Never said the moderator would close the whole topic. Off topic posts being deleted is not so uncommon though. And there are chilling effects from that and there are benefits from off topic posts.

Sounds more like power abuse is common ... That would be one good reason not to get more moderators for people against the moderation in the other thread ... I've seen moderators get overzealous quite often ...

Although it really does take a pro to be responsible enough not to abuse the moderating tools at all ... I admittedly used the tools to look up a few IP addresses every once in a while out of personal curiosity ...

I remember one time some kid was asking me to make some vehicle for him in UT2k4, but I told him no ... then some second account that was newly created PM'ed me saying something along the lines of "I don't know that other guy, but i definitely think it would be a great idea for you to make the vehicle! You should do it" ... and of course I'm like ... "This has to be the same guy" so i looked up his IP address ... something regular members wouldn't be able to do ...

Oh and they matched ... and i scolded him for pulling that shit.