The Negativity Bin.

Commonly on MMO forums is a section for moderators to move posts that ultimately meet a certain criteria and are thus deemed overly negative.

I would like to suggest that we add such a section to SOTA forums, possibly entitled ''The Negativity Bin''

Here are a few ideas to help structure the section for best results overall:

1) The Negativity Bin would not be able to be viewed if you are a guest. In other words, not logged in.

2) The Negativity Bin is only able to be viewed 5 times per day, per IP, before becoming invisible.

3) Only one post per day should be allowed on any thread inside the Bin.

4) Direct quotes and likes are disabled for posts inside the Bin.

5) Threads that end up in the Bin will be hotlinked from the section they originated.

I believe under these conditions, people will start to find a common boundary on what is and isn't too overly negative, thus reducing negativity overall and without giving the impression that negative feedback isn't sometimes important as well at this stage of development.

There is a large playerbase here and strong viewership on these forums, so it's easy for negativity to gain momentum, and really no guidelines for where the line should be drawn, which historically leads to locked threads, causing some players feeling disvalued or stifled.

Negative feedback is very crucial at this stage of development, and we want players who have a negative outlook to end up having a positive one, so that's why establishing a boundary around negativity through providing this secondary option is the best solution for the problem and the best overall fit for SOTA.

The feel I get from SOTA is that the community plays a huge role in the game itself, and we're lucky to have so many awesome people here, but since final wipe many of the players with a positive outlook are spending their time enjoying the game.

If it's any help, I would be willing to invest some of my own time to help moderate in this regard. After all, it's the least I could do to repay our Lord British for the countless hours/days/weeks/months and years of entertainment he has so graciously provided.

Feel free to add to this any thoughts thou may be having or if there's anything missing, I think that pretty much covers it though.

 

I think negative feedback should be responded to by the team at portalarium where they can further explain why they make some of the decisions they made.

Not a convoluted plan to attempt tp sweep it out of the way.

Transparency is the price they must accept for crowd funding the game before it's complete and monetising the product before it is complete.

Prospective players also deserve to know the current status of the project.

If there's lots of negatiovity, time to adjust course. If the negativity is unwarranted, I am sure it will fade to the dull roar it is in every game, rather then what it is now.

 

Sometimes being too positive is just as harmful. Being completely blind to issues is just as bad as being very negative.

 

negativity can be very honest...I dont think bannishing everything negative into an own Forum will have the result you thought off.

If people dont feel heard here, they'll go to reddit or steam...

 

If they start censoring us I guarantee there will be a community movement to reddit as our new forum, not a good idea.

 

Well there's constructive criticism and then there's doomsaying, aside from which there's also people who are just plain cynical, which can be amusing to some but leaves a bad taste in the mouths of others.

On top of that, your point about it being crowdfunded also means a limited budget for both the number of developers and the amount of time they can invest in responding to every single post, be it negative or positive. If you're expecting that a developer should log on and say 'thanks for your input' to every negative 'the end is near' post, just because you're a backer, you should try to understand that it would be taking away from time that could be spent developing the many things that are still already in the works.

The idea wasn't as much to sweep negativity under the rug, as it is to ultimately reduce the amount of time needing to be spent moderating the forums in the first place and reduce the amount of posts that developers need to sift through to find the constructive feedback, so that their time isn't wasted on taking shots directly to their morale.

It's a tried and true method for solving these issues, I've personally seen this succeed on countless other forums, and actually the limiting of viewership in the section is an improvement on the idea which I came up with to keep people from sitting in there all day, which can sometimes be unhealthy for people, and thus the community itself.

Taking a look at some of the replies in this thread, it's easy to see that there is a startling deficiency already being bred here in the way people are posting opinions without being constructive.

For example, I haven't even posted the criteria for what would be considered negative enough to be moved into the Bin of Negativity, yet nobody who has replied has offered any ideas for how to go about deciding as such. Just plain No this and No that, isn't the type of negative feedback that will help make this game great.

 

Its been proven time and time again that the only way real issues get fixed is by us hitting the forums and bringing awareness. Your idea of a "negativity bin" is ridiculous. The game is in development and it is our job as testers to raise hell about every issue so that when the game is released it is the BEST version of the game possible.

 

They already are censoring 'us' if by us you mean negative postings.

Sofar it's been happening too little too late IMO, once a thread reaches 10 or more pages worth of posts, when really said threads had already outlived any chance for usefulness they ever had by the end of the first page.

This solution offers a secondary method for censorship, which doesn't end the conversation entirely, with the hopes that it will end itself rather than get too far out of hand.

It's a pretty good idea and like I say it's tried and true.

 

I'd rather have a red panda bin with new pictures and gifs of cute red pandas updated daily.

 

Man there once was something important written in history....

just not sure ...

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances"


nah that it was not... crap i forgot.. 1st Amendment?...nah... who cares.. must have been something unimportant.....

 

Exactly. I hate seeing threads get locked and posts getting edited by mods.

This alternative solution limits all that facism by reducing the need for mods to do anything that would go against the 1st amendment.

By the way, your sig is riddled with spelling and grammar errors.

 

If I can keep track of the forums and provide feedback with my limited time, the developers can at least post acknowledgement of issues, or confirm when controversial items work as intended. I think you could pretty easily pick a few very visible issues many players are having at the moment and some dev feedback would go a long way. Maybe I missed something but don't they have a community manager?

Frankly, I think the best way for them to reduce negative feedback isn't some overly complex modding solution. it's to stop making such rash and controversial decisions that affect backers negatively and push people towards COTO.

 

No. Playerbase is small. Stop censoring even more. You want to see real negativity.. check other forums where the banned ppl talk. Reddit etc.

 

Unless your on Facebook. they can censor at will.

 

The degree of negativity should be used as a knowledge tool to measure (and even, to some extent, prioritize) what backers are concerned about.

Even a 'plain no' post in a thread is constructive in terms of statistics.

 

Rediculous Idea... Censoring of criticism next?

 

Man... unfortunately this forum is neither owned by Congress nor any other US government entities. It is very important, but still.. sometimes people forget that 1st Amendment does not apply to private sector.


Anyway, this negativity bin should be name as "Ain't Nobody Got Time For That!" forum category.

 

The public is funding this game (more than 10 million USD so far and many people paying thousands). If the private sector funded this game they would have much more legal rights. That's one reason I don't like Kickstarter. When you buy stock in a company you have some ownership in the company. With Kickstarter and SOTA you don't own any part of the company. The only right I see is the right to complain. And that's not even a real right either. And you want to take that away or limit it?

 

So the answer to people being upset, with excessive moderation (among other concerns), is more moderation.

The beatings will increase until moral is improved.

 

The purpose of the forums is constructive criticism. If you want to say lots of glowing, wonderful things about the game, use twitter.