A friendly, but firm reminder: Forum Rules

[Frenetic]

Hi everyone,

A friendly but firm reminder. I and the other moderators have been noticing in popular threads that posts have been frequently descending from what was thoughtful and friendly debate into caustic and personal attacks.

Please keep to the forum rules (No personal attacks, threats or harassment of any kind.
Repeated trolling, topic derailing, drive-by one liners, image spam and general offensiveness are not welcome here.)

Please think about your tone before you post. Discussions can be productive, but quarreling is always destructive.

And for the forum member who is reading and behaving. THANK YOU. You the community forum member, have power and a voice. Instead of getting mad and adding fuel to the fire by replying to an offensive post, please report the post to us and we will review it and take the appropriate action.

[Kaiser]

I think you are better off sticking this (so it's above all topics) because it might get lost in the sea of ever going discussions. But yeah I agree, things have been going a bit too much south in those threads lately so good timing.

[Captain]

Welcome to violent city?

[evil_ash_xero]

Welcome to violent city?

Let's ass kick, together.

[Icarus]

And another friendly reminder from me: we have a process in place for disciplinary action, starting with warnings and moving on to progressively longer ban durations. But I myself have already noted to the rest of the team that I will be more flexible with this process, skipping warnings altogether and issuing direct bans if I feel that the behaviour of certain people is becoming disruptive.
For a while now, the quality of the air around here became toxic, contributing to the negative view of our community from the people outside of it. This was not only due to the behaviour of some newer members - posting shit, openly antagonising others and trollbaiting - but also from long-time visitors, people who should know better.

It's about time this was reversed.

[chempop]

^Probably can’t even 1CC Dimahoo

That was a friendly joke, but will a mod think it was a flagrant attack resulting in a warning/ban?
I guess what I mean is, if you don’t let the chempops, skykids, and trap15s joke around from time to time this, this place might become a bit less colorful. I’m a little concerned you don’t see a problem with skipping the warning or consultation with other mods before taking action against members with direct bans.

[Icarus]

We can tell when people are joking, and when it's a direct, unwarranted personal attack, thankyouverymuch. :p
You should probably leave the discretion in the decisions to us. If people don't like the idea of a Nazi mod patrolling the place, perhaps they shouldn't be dragging the quality of the place down. I've noted that there are a few people on here that think they can get away with anything because the mod team are generally lenient.

[chempop]

You should probably leave the discretion in the decisions to us.

You’re absolutely right, if I was a nazi mod I’d ban someone the instant they mentioned a touhou game.

[Icarus]

Don't worry, I do that anyway. Where do you think all the 2hutards have gone?

[Eaglet]

Twitch

[Softdrink 117]

Just wanted to pop in and say that I am in full agreement with Frenetic and Icarus on this. I also don't see a problem with cracking down harder on users who are contributing to the problem. The forum has always had an inclination towards more aggressive humor, and I'm fine with that -- in theory. But when threads devolve into heated off topic arguments and vicious personal attacks I feel that more direct intervention is necessary.

Lately I've even been seeing tweets or IRC messages complaining about the state of the forum almost every day, often posted by long-standing and positive members of this community. It really saddens me that it's reached that point.

Let's all make an effort to be more mindful and respectful in the future.

[evil_ash_xero]

I must have missed this. I hadn't noticed anything unusual lately (though, I don't read all the threads). Except for atheiestgod. And I don't know what's up with him.

[Blinge]

I'll have to disagree with Icarus' stance.

I think he should give at least one warning before bringing the hammer down, considering opinions on what constitutes a ban-able offence will differ between mods.

[evil_ash_xero]

I'll have to disagree with Icarus' stance.

I think he should give at least one warning before bringing the hammer down, considering opinions on what constitutes a ban-able offence will differ between mods.

I really doubt it'll get out of hand. But something like NeoGAF modding, could kill any forum for me.
I don't THINK we'll have to worry about that, as I've never seen any needless banning on here. Well, maybe one or two instances, but the forum members were pushing it a bit too much.

[brentsg]

I'll have to disagree with Icarus' stance.

I think he should give at least one warning before bringing the hammer down, considering opinions on what constitutes a ban-able offence will differ between mods.

I really doubt it'll get out of hand. But something like NeoGAF modding, could kill any forum for me.
I don't THINK we'll have to worry about that, as I've never seen any needless banning on here. Well, maybe one or two instances, but the forum members were pushing it a bit too much.

LOL I don't see it getting like that here. On NeoGAF you get banned for not thinking exactly the same politically correct thing the mods are thinking. That's totally different than being needlessly argumentative.

[evil_ash_xero]

I'll have to disagree with Icarus' stance.

I think he should give at least one warning before bringing the hammer down, considering opinions on what constitutes a ban-able offence will differ between mods.

I really doubt it'll get out of hand. But something like NeoGAF modding, could kill any forum for me.
I don't THINK we'll have to worry about that, as I've never seen any needless banning on here. Well, maybe one or two instances, but the forum members were pushing it a bit too much.

LOL I don't see it getting like that here. On NeoGAF you get banned for not thinking exactly the same politically correct thing the mods are thinking. That's totally different than being needlessly argumentative.

That's true. I just don't want to see ANY forum end up anywhere near that. It's awful.

[Icarus]

I'll have to disagree with Icarus' stance.
I think he should give at least one warning before bringing the hammer down, considering opinions on what constitutes a ban-able offence will differ between mods.

So let me make a few things clear first:
- I made my stance on modding quite clear to system11b BEFORE he gave me mod powers, and I had no objections.
- I also tend to leave initial modding to the others and observe proceedings beforehand, as the other mods are more lenient, but I WILL step in immediately if I feel that things have degenerated to such an extent that action needs to be taken. I am lenient with punishment, but I am also flexible about it, and will judge the situation appropriately.
- And as such, while I will ALWAYS consult with the rest of the team about appropriate action, it is also at my own discretion about how and when to use my mod powers.

I don't expect to insta-ban anyone, not now, nor in the near future. In an ideal world, I shouldn't have to use my mod powers at all. But I will make my position on this very clear: if I personally feel that someone's behaviour on the forum has degraded to such an extent that repeated warnings will have no effect (see: Pretas and his myriad of aliases), then instant banning is justified. I've already said that the first ban should be a 24hr timeout, but the severity of the punishment is and will be proportional to the misdemeanour.

If you don't want to do the time, don't do the crime.

So in short, don't you worry about how I do my modding. I've helped run this forum before, and I was asked to do it again as the admins felt that the ship needed to be corrected before it went off-course. You might think nothing needs to be changed here, but a lot of us feel a number of both new and old visitors have contributed to the degradation of quality here. That needs to stop.

おわり。

[Xyga]

This reminder is a good thing.
I like to know mood poopers (including me if I do) will get slapped and kicked out.

Been a near decade-long member of another community before registering here, and they...didn't do it.
It turned into a depressing (and kind of deserted) place as a consequence.

[Ed Oscuro]

The good work is much appreciated, mods / admin team, and let's everybody get hype! (The good kind, together.)

[Stevens]

This community is small enough as it is, we should be making this a place people want to be.

[pestro87]

@Icarus Can we also issue insta-bans to anyone who beats my scores?

In all seriousness though, sounds great! Also, glad to hear that the mod team is actively following the activity in the threads and that they're doing their best to improve the situation.

[ACSeraph]

I think we should ban trap15 if he doesn't start up STGT soon.

[Squire Grooktook]

(see: Pretas and his myriad of aliases)

This might be a bit mean, but thank you for that. This forum is so much more entertaining now that I don't have to read his toxic anti-everything crap anymore.

[Strikers1945guy]

I think we should ban trap15 if he doesn't start up STGT soon.

Everyone else wants him banned for not releasing the Ibara mame stuff

[cools]

Nice. One of the reasons I rarely post here anymore has been all the fighting going on. Good to see action being taken.

[Icarus]

One other thing I'll add: we do have a post reporting system in place here - while we do try and keep an eye on as many threads as we can, there are far too many to watch overall. I don't frequent Off-Topic that much, for example, but other visitors do. We do appreciate when people flag up potential trouble anywhere using the post reporting system, and we do take the reports very seriously, so please continue to use it and be our eyes and ears.

[trap15]

I think we should ban trap15 if he doesn't start up STGT soon.

[Strider77]

I feel like I've been missing out on something. I use to post more but have become more of a hermit in the past 4 years.

I remember skykid getting into it in the movie thread, dunno about the rest.

[Oniros]

I haven't been here for that long but I did notice a lot of antagonism lately. Good on the mods for bringing this up. Thread should be stickied IMO.

[Frenetic]

I wanted to reiterate the point that Icarus (thanks fellow mod!) made earlier in this thread.

You, the community forum member, have power and a say. Instead of jumping in and adding fuel to the fire by replying to an offensive post, don't get mad. Report the post to us and we will review it.

Instead of getting mad and adding fuel to the fire by replying to an offensive post, please report the post to us and we will review it and take the appropriate action.

We may not always get back to you personally when we close these reports, but rest assured we will give them the attention that they deserve. We have already intervened on prior threads, warned users, took action where needed, and will continue to do so in the future.

This is a community effort and with your help, we'll all continue to make shmups forum a good place to hang out.

-Frenetic