I think that this thread is quite problematic
per se, for reasons that Skykid and others correctly point out. Since I have been mentioned a few times, for reasons that I find somewhat inappropriate, I'll say my two cents on the matter.
But first, a couple of suggestions. I apologise when I repeat points made by other users, and thank them for bringing the points into the discussion before me.
I'd suggest that we need a better way to store information, e.g. a wiki.
First, I think that, with a streamlined "news" section, distinct from a "shmups discussion" section, it would be less stressful to get new information, and we would be less prone to pointless fights.
Second, I also wonder how could we stored STs, articles, scans, translations and other material for future preservation, as well as ease of access for new readers. Again, plodding through sections without finding the relevant bit of information leads to frustration and irritability, I guess.
This is hard, unpaid work. I started working on a well-formatted .pdf of my
Border Down ST, and figured out that it would have taken at least 40 hours of work, to turn it into a 30-page readable work.
If we can figure out a way to save the several important articles we have on the forum, and make them easily accessible, we should all profit from this, especially for those who are new to the forum.
Then, on with the topic.
Skykid wrote:...or I'll side with Randorama on banning
I am not that much for banning, the "ban, plz" or "ban everybody in this thread" is a comment I make when I think that people are acting like total dicks. I had users to ask for my ban as well in equivalent circumstances, possibly not here, though. It says, in a perhaps unpleasant way, that something's not working the way it is supposed to work.
Now, my way of approaching this kind of comment is that, if another uses invites the administrators of this forum to ban me, I'd take that he dislikes my attitude. If he doesn't say why, not even once in a thread, I take that he is just angry about something, but can not express this anger in explicit terms.
I would ignore this kind of behaviour, but I'd take in consideration someone that says: "Rando, your latest comments suck because of A, B, C reasons, so get the fuck out of this forum". If his criticisms would actually be based on actual reasons, I'd try to address these issues in my posts.
Said this, I am well aware that I invoked eugenics when people re-iterated a certain point in a given thread, over and over and over again.
I am pretty sure that I motivated why I used such a hyperbolic remark at the very beginning, and did not repeat why I made that remark, later on. Given the nature of forum threads, it makes the "invocation" particularly annoying, I guess, especially because one would have to recover from some post in the backlog of a thread, the initial motivation for a hyperbolic, not serious remark*.
So, I wouldn't actually ask for the permanent ban of anyone in particular. But since we're here, I'd like to make some suggestions on vastly reducing a certain type of post that I really find disgraceful.
I'd suggest that temporary, relatively long bans should be dished a bit more easily, and systematically in the following conditions:
1. Posting the same narrow argument over and over again. It renders the conversation meaningless.
2. Normative posts.
There is an increase of posts on how people should do things, of late, that leaves me rather perplexed.
Are there really so many individuals that can't handle other individuals with opinions different from theirs?
Do we really have this much amount of Nazis, on board?
3. Noise pollution. I have noticed that roughly 2 threads of 3 become a shitfest once they outlive their usefulness.
Say, I open a thread and ask: "When Raiden 5 is out?". By post #10, I get an answer.
By post #15, somebody has already hijacked the thread into something else, and likely a shitfest.
4. Completely off-topic answers. No, if the thread is about apples, don't rave about how much you like oranges, and venture into a flame-war if somebody points out that you're off-topic.
5. Dismissal of other people's comments as being based on ignorance, lack of reading comprehension, whatever.
General rule of writing, any level of writing: if someone doesn't understand what a writer has written, is the
writer's fault, who did not write in a clear and precise way (enough).
My solutions, which may be worse than the problems themselves, are:
1. Temporary ban and warning, then perma-ban on recidive behavior. We all need to avoid the urge of stunning others into our point of view by sheer obsession, no matter how viewpoint is.
2. Permanent ban. I am not mentioning Nazis by chance. Anti-democratic, pathologically anti-social behaviors start from defining narrow rules to be imposed on others, so this is a type of behavior that must really be stamped out.
3. Thread lock, removal of useless posts, temporary ban to the hijackers. If a thread is a query about something, the thread can be locked and stored once the query is solved.
4. Removal of useless post, temporary ban to hijackers. See above.
5. Temporary ban, permanent ban on recivide offenders. I'd say that half of the forum is made up of non-native speakers of English, so people may have a hard time figuring out the message behind a poorly written, rambling post. So, please learn to write, we all have to, thanks.
NTSC-J wrote:I really wanted to quote Randorama calling Icarus pompous and joke about the irony there
Please explain, Julian. Whatever discussion this is related to, I never called Simon/Icarus pompous. My latest gripe with his arguments was about something else, which I decided to let go. Everybody has moments of madness, and I think he (S/Ica) had one.
Generally speaking, I don't recall calling people names, and I try to make clear that I criticize, no matter how negatively, a position that a user is currently expressing, not the user himself. This is generally not true of several other users who seem to read the poster's name, and decide by this bit of information alone whether the post is good or not.
He's a great player and if I met him, or other "troublemakers" on this forum, we'd probably be able to get along fine.
I don't doubt this, but a forum is based on written communication, and we necessarily need to keep higher standards. There are no faces, no body language that tells us the full range of ideas that we are entertaining, when we discuss. "Social tension" is by default higher, so let's keep the standards higher.
Overall, I am quite sure that everybody on this forum have issues of various types, but those should just be left at the door, so to speak.
Anyway, I think I'd flog you as soon as meet you, NTSC-J. You definitely look like a someone I'd spear-tackle in a heartbeat, eye-gauge a little bit, and not even feel guilty about it. Hmm, I think I'd do that to half of the forum and possibly be happy about it, I guess.
*I'd expand on this on request.
"The only desire the Culture could not satisfy from within itself was one common to both the descendants of its original human stock and the machines [...]: the urge not to feel useless."
I.M. Banks, "Consider Phlebas" (1988: 43).
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