Bye Bye

2 Thumbs up. I think it's a great idea. One would *hope* that folks would, while openly expressing themselves...show they have the ability to exercise some restraint. I would think there are other areas as well ( a few things come to mind) where volunteers from the community could be of service which would I think promote a lot of good will as well as the by-product of good PR.

reminds me a bit of being a Counselor in UO back in '98... I think it freed up the staff quite a bit but...
1 step at a time.

@E n v y , I don't know ya other than what I read in the forums but hey ,,, I think you'd make a great Mod Dude

 

@dallas One other thought I had. PLEASE if you go this route have an option turn OFF alerts and notifications in that forum. For those who don't participate, I REALLY don't want them to have to get spammed with lots of alerts for a forum they may not want to be part of (this would directly affect your team as well).

 

I'm not familiar enough what features our forum software provides for, but I would hope that the "ignore" command would turn off all alerts/notifications for any individual that you were feeling harassed by.

 

Call the forum alternate mores.

 

Captain Jack Sparrow often disagrees with things he hears and sees here on this forum but always finds an interesting, creative, or funny way to deal with such things! Captain Jack does not know to what degree Envy is involved int he Development process of this game, but believes that rewarding a member of your community with his own subforum to act out against other users here, because he was moderated and has threatened to no longer participate, would be a serious thorn in your flawless forum policy Governor Dallas...

 

Yeah, the ignore would work great if you want to completely ignore someone, but that person may be a great contributor in dev+ and the normal forums where you don't necessarily want to miss out on their posts. My thought was not specifically harassment related, but more that someone who isn't involved and has no interest in that forum would be able to ignore alerts on that forum specifically if they get tagged (which would prevent devs from being tagged by someone who thinks something is a great idea and is too lazy to bring it over to the normal forums).

I understand though that it is dependent on the software we use.

 

And to think earlier I was restraining myself from suggesting calling said sub-forum The Arena..

 

That will probably help Dallas but it won't really fix the issue as people that post outside of this sub forum will continue to be threatened or banned by the moderators over meaningless problems, which will continue to lead to people feeling resentment in backing the game. I think there is a bigger problem here and if the mod team are simply following the direction of Portalarium on this, then I respectfully believe Portalarium lacks the knowledge of how to establish/maintain a successful and healthy forum that encourages debate without crossing the line.

As it stands for me I'll continue to encourage people to avoid the Steam/SOTA forums and use alternate means to discuss the game, though it's admirable that yourself and Starr take the time to comment on issues that effect the players. I hope you get back and enjoy the rest of the weekend over there.

 

You know I've been on this forum nearly every single day since the first day of the KS.. and despite all the complaining from some people about moderation I've never once seen any actual evidence of any of them being out of line.. and every single time someone blames the moderators that I've noticed it's always.. and I do mean always because they somehow broke forum rules such as being blatantly disrespectful.

I'm not saying the moderators are perfect.. but people blaming moderators and not accepting responsibility for their own behavior doesn't help.

 

@Bowen Bloodgood, Generally discussing a ban on the forum results in another ban for discussing the ban, so people tend to discuss such matters in outside channels.

 

That, (not you), is a problem. We have to suggest other forums for people to go to so that they can speak freely about the game. People have to tip toe around feelings to post on the Sota forum so they go elsewhere to chat.

 

Didn't know that.

 

Bwahahaha me head is so be-jumbled by the thought of a less moderated forum I don't know whether to laugh at the expressive and humorous freedom of it all, or cry at the inevitable bad feelings that will occur in our until-now extremely well behaved forum.

It strains against my soul but my gut tells me this would be a negative for SOTA. This community is less acrimonious than any I've ever observed. We should be careful about not tainting that.

Although I'm 110% in favor of a lightly moderated but respectful off-topic forum (along the lines of our current state of moderation), any forum in which the gloves are truly taken off would not be good for this community or the game.

In the past I've bristled occasionally about being moderated but I've come to view the level of respect here as an asset worthy of the hindrance of occasional censorship.

Tread carefully. Ever heard on Pandora's Box? And no that's not a sexual reference.

 

However... If his most bitter rival was ALSO given Moderator privileges on same said subforum perhaps the scales would be balanced... Savvy???

 

Oddly for me.. actually discussing someone getting banned doesn't seem all that appropriate.. but a lot of people have complained about moderation in general and assume that too will be moderated just for bringing it up and you know.. it never seems to happen. But if that's it.. discussing someone getting banned is your only issue.. That has nothing to do with discussing the game itself.

Maybe I just can't relate to not being able to discuss the game in a respectful manner. Anyone who really reads me posts knows I've often disagreed with how things are done and I am sometimes quite vocal about it. Never been moderated for it.. never seen anyone else moderated for that. Seen plenty of posts before they were moderated and you know what.. each and every one of them deserved it.

This has absolutely nothing to do with being able to "speak freely" about the game. It's HOW you choose to do so. I do not understand why so many people don't seem to get that.

 

I am sorry but I to have had my hand slapped for being OVER ZELOUS, and to create something like this does NOT help, all it does is say "don't feel like following the rules, go post here" The "here" is already out there in other places that player are setting up, guild forums, other non Port Asc forums . . . .

Port should NOT cater to someone who cannot adhere to rules you have established.

Yeah I too feel that there are ALOT of posts that are over moderated to accommodate the "thinned skinned" , easily offended people out there, BUT . . . . . .

Start to do it on the forums and next time it is in the game - this would be a VERY slippery slope.

And as for the ability to Block forums I have asked for this at least 4 times, as there are Forums (or posts) I do not wish to have pop up in my what's new, and have been told each time this is NOT something they are looking at.

Ignoring a person, does NOT block you from seeing a post they made if someone else posts below it, all you end up with is the 2 or later post and have no idea what the OP is / was :-(

 

I, along with other team management, are always consulted prior to any ban on any community member. To my knowledge, no one has ever been banned for discussing a ban unless forum policies were violated during the discussion. There is no forum policy stating that bans of community members cannot be discussed.

 

ok, you two are weeded out not to be moderators

 

Aye, I see what you mean Budner. It would be nice if there were a forum though that you could post your negatives about the game without being considered toxic to the forums and fear of being banned. Most everyone here is passionate about the game, but do have concerns about certain parts of the game, but aren't trying to be mean or extremely toxic...they see legitimate problems. A lot of us have spent a lot of money on this game, so we're here for the long haul, no matter what. I'm not easily offended, I know that when people type things out it doesn't always come out how we actually speak. You could very easily have a negative conversation in real life without ever raising your voice, which I think most "negative" posts probably are, just can't presented that way just by typing. By not being able to hear people speak, and only seeing what they type, it's difficult for some people to understand there's no harsh tone to it.

 

LOL I actually volunteered when they first asked.. but I'm actually glad I didn't get the job. I would have to show even more restraint that I already do and that's not easy some times.