Why are they closing threads ?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Blackghost, Mar 22, 2017.

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  1. Miracle Dragon

    Miracle Dragon Legend of the Hearth

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    The last 'I'm quitting SotA' thread was a bit of a satirical joke. The OP ended it with, 'See you Tomorrow!'.. they just meant they hit the 'quit' button by accident while using the menu system. perhaps it disappeared because the joke had run its course and then would only become misleading..
     
  2. Miracle Dragon

    Miracle Dragon Legend of the Hearth

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    @Duke Avery just reviewing, I think you had good reasonable questions, but it seemed to just continue a conversation that was in another thread? As for information about milestones for feature completeness, that's what we have the Quarterly updates for! @DarkStarr I think it's about time for 2017 Q2 Schedule Update? (maybe next week.. perhaps December's came a week early because of Christmas.)

    So basically, I guess many threads are closed when they are just repeating information available elsewhere..
     
  3. 3devious

    3devious Avatar

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    Yeah, we were teasing the OP of that thread for using clickbait. Our community has so many inside jokes, we're going to need a royal warrant for a wiki for people to be able to look it all up. :)
     
  4. Violation Clauth

    Violation Clauth Avatar

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    That would be the best epic joke ever... sota wiki still doesn't have a royal warrant! :-/ lol

    SotAInsideJokeWiki.com <- brought to you by His Majesty LB :D (btw that doesn't exist as of the time of this posting... )
     
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  5. Gideon Thrax

    Gideon Thrax Avatar

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    Not the case at all. There was no previous thread pertaining to the questions I had asked - my thread was born from a branch conversation in a previous topic where Berek said: "... create another thread ..."

    Even after my first thread was closed after just three replies I started yet another thread trying to ask the is SotA feature complete questions again, and that post eventually petered out and sank without anyone from Portalarium ever joining in the conversation. Lots of room for speculation as to why it happened the way it did, I just wrote it off as a bummer.
     
    Last edited: Mar 23, 2017
  6. Thwip

    Thwip Avatar

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    Threads get closed because they are/become hotbeds of conjecture, breeding discontent and misinformation.

    The thread referenced by the OP and this thread are great examples.
    This topic and tone it could easily degenerate into a hotbed of discontent that Berek would be smart to curtail before it infects the community.
    Some people are full of discontent, frustration, and stuff like that and they constantly spread it. That's why when one inflammatory thread dies someone starts another.
    If you constantly read it, take it seriously, you are liable to find yourself getting frustrated too.
     
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  7. 2112Starman

    2112Starman Avatar

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    I think it can be said as simply as this. If I gave my real opinion about the moderation here, they would ban me at this point, thats how disappointing I have been over the past year. My posts get deleted all the time that have no business being deleted. The moderation here is completely biased by the "cliche" of people and their friends. At this point, I know the people I can have a soft argument with to get my post deleted for no reason. I was once asked in PM if I should "take a break" and this is after a 5 figure pledge... I lost all respect for that person at that time and was an utter shock of "customer service". I have seen it dozens of times, if anyone here ever says to another, "well maybe you should quit this game, its not for you", they'll delete that faster then anything.

    This is not a representation of the devs and this game which I continue to be happier and happier with each release. I've gotten heavy into bug hunting in QA and those guys are work horses doing amazing jobs.
     
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  8. Hornpipe

    Hornpipe Avatar

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    Its title has been changed actualy.
     
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  9. 3devious

    3devious Avatar

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  10. Berek

    Berek Portalarian Emeritus Dev Emeritus

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    We rarely lock threads, apologies that it sometimes looks that way. Those that are locked are always responded to with the reason to try and give you as much transparency as possible. It's never to purposefully bury something, but most often because the thread has gone off the rails, needs to be closed or it will go off the rails, is old factually, or the discussion needs an actual end-statement by us, etc.

    If you have any questions on a specific case, please feel free to PM me anytime!
     
    Last edited: Mar 23, 2017
  11. Burzmali

    Burzmali Avatar

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    We need to changer Berek's title to "Officer in the Department of Pre-derailment" ;)
     
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  12. Graynight

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  13. Chaox

    Chaox Dev Emeritus Dev Emeritus

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    I've had a tendency to close threads as I reply to them. My mindset stems more from living in our task-management system Jira all day - when a task is done, I "resolve" or "close" the issue. That bleeds into how I will answer questions on the forums sometimes.

    I've seen this can be construed as impolite, so I am working on that tact of mine.
     
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  14. Rufus D`Asperdi

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    [​IMG]
     
  15. Roycestein Kaelstrom

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    Head of Anti-S**tposting Unit
     
  16. MrBlight

    MrBlight Avatar

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    I like Duke Avery's posts in here. I was gonna quote em but mobile.

    Sometimes theres good reasons threads are closed.
    Other times it seems like something isnt going in favor of SOTA and gets closed. Or sometimes a good argument will come up that puts them in a rough spot where they need a direct answer, and this is either flooded by the same select individuals trying to answer for the devs, or trying to derail the thread knowing it can then be ignored.

    Its not hard to cycle back through the history and see that some were closed that shouldn't have been, and that some were left really open ended with weak statements on the closing.

    Mix that in with the deleting of specfic posts, ( not all with a notice or a reasoning) the report button being spammed by people who dont like what they see, and then tempers flaring, .. .yea.

    Personally ive had threads/posts deleted, closed and moderated that i think had no business being touched. (thats not to say i havnt had a few that deserved it) Outside of the official forums you see a lot of negativity and examples of forum bias. And i think the moderation has led to an even more fueled, hate following of SOTA.

    While i dont envy Berek and some of the other mod's jobs, i do think they go over board sometimes. Again, some deserve to be closed, but the ones that stand out to me are ones where a topic gets heated or too long, and the thread is closed asking the specific issues brought up to be re posted in a more specific thread. The player does this, and then has the new thread closed.

    Personally i read the forums to answer questions here and there, but im hardly on here anymore. I know the majority of my guild and friends ( who havnt left sota ) dont even bother with the forums, largly due to these issues.

    As proffessional as Berek has been in these issues, i simply dont agree with the moderation in these forums, and i feel in a lot of cases it either comes off as avoidance of critical questions, or blatent favortism. But thats just my take on it.
     
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  17. Ashlynn [Pax]

    Ashlynn [Pax] Avatar

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    It did seem weird that one thread got locked because the "discussion had run it's course". I mean what kind of reason is that. Lock threads for being toxic or causing huge moderation issues, but that one didn't seem to be either - and it seemed to remain civil too. =P

    I suppose I have a different threshold for forum threads though.
     
  18. Net

    Net Avatar

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    Oh, interesting insight, might explain why other devs (not only in SotA forums) often close threads after responding to issues.

    PS: I also think that some threads are closed after posts derailing the thread (or being against the rules) have been deleted, so it seems theere was no reason for it to be locked.
     
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  19. Burzmali

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    That's the major reason why claims of heavy handed moderation aren't ignored like they are on most forums. I've read through the community guidelines and some of the larger threads aren't in violation of any specific rule. You don't have to be much of a cynic to jump to the conclusion that having multiple long running threads describing the game's shortcomings on the first page of the forum isn't exactly ideal from a marketing perspective, especially when your revenue strategy revolves around making frequent sales to the existing player base.
     
  20. Elwyn

    Elwyn Avatar

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    In some cases, I'm sure that they was closed because of topic drift, and the posts that got mod attention were deleted at the same time that the threads were closed.

    The subject line was changed (possibly by the original poster) because it was joke clickbait. (The reason he "quit" is that he hit quit instead of exit to menu.) Changing the title of a thread can make it a little hard to find the next day.

    There are too many shirts getting posted around here.
     
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