Goodbye

Yes I saw the movie when I was a young teen. It made a big impact on me, because it was shortly after the Civil Rights movement, which I followed closely from a young age. People make assumptions in these forums all too often, and that's when things begin to degenerate.

In regards to enderandrew, he was not the suppressed vigilante like Billy Jack was. Billy Jack was a minority and unpopular voice - and that was my point. That is why the reference was not as accurate as it could have been. He has said that trolls reported his good intentioned posts. I don't know if this did or didn't happen. It would be an assumption on my part.

When there is heated debate, it takes two to tango. It doesn't matter whose "side" one is on. When fists start flying, both parties are guilty.

 

Pretty sure I was part of that massive thread deletion. I was bewildered by it, and still am. There was a lot of debate (typical for PvP), which is normal for that topic. It wiped out a lot of my post and like counts. At the end of that thread, after several warnings, locks, and some deletions, some of us that disagreed the most became friends and joked together. (*nudges blaquerogue*) So when the whole thread was deleted when some of us were actually laughing and joking was the real mystery.

I agree, it would be too difficult to notify everyone in an entire thread. But when a thread is almost 100 pages long, why would it need deleting when it had been left to stand for a couple weeks to start? The forum moderation here has been unusual, in my experience.

 

This is something my husband has been confused by as well. He's from Europe too, and there is no censoring in Europe, on TV or forums. Europeans are baffled why Americans, who produce an awful lot of debatable media, would censor the way we do.

I don't get it either.

 

Firelotus, I'm sorry to report it to you, but one of your mods has deleted entire threads. They did not archive them. They didn't lock them, archive them, move them, etc. They literally vanished, and with those vanished posts, my post count, and my like count, went down fairly dramatically (considering I was fairly new to the forum, 100 posts or likes is dramatic).

It has happened a few times. We are not making this up just to be trolls or stir any pots.

 

Mods do NOT have the permissions (access, power, whatever you want to call it) to delete anything. Their accounts are set up specifically so they can only flag a post for moderation and remove it from public view, but it is still there, and once it's reviewed, it can be re-activated if it was moderated inappropriately.

I'll even show you my interface (on the left) versus Lord Viator's (on the right). Notice he does not even have the option to delete? For those who are curious, "Unapprove Post" is what hides it and flags it for review.



Only Admins (so Lum and I) can delete a post (or a thread), and we do not do so unless it is requested by the original poster and does not have any replies on it. Oh, and I can think of a handful of duplicate posts we did that to when we had that wonderful duplicate post bug, though any with replies on both were merged.

 

Sorry I "liked" your post. But I do agree. These likes should be removed. I've seen a SotA guild post to each other, telling each other to go bump up like counts in the forums, just so they get more popular.

I have a screenshot of it. Yes, it does happen. It wouldn't happen if the "like" votes could be removed.

 

Then they should enable "dislike" counts as well. Just like Youtube does.

 

It bewilders my brain how people think that likes = popularity. The only thing it really tells you is who liked something someone had to say. It seems rather silly to read anything more into than that. I see a high post count on someone I think hmmm.. they've said a bunch of stuff some people seem to agree with.

Seeing my own like count certainly doesn't make me feel popular. If I have earned any measure of popularity I know it isn't because someone looked at my like count and thought.. "hmm I like that guy.. he's popular". It's because we hopefully agree on a bunch of stuff or I have hopefully conducted myself a respectful manner. And I'm pretty certain there's at least a handful of folks around here who'd like nothing better than to see my head on a pike in their front yard. (Also not a result of my like count I'm sure).

So my thinking is.. so what if people are artificially hiking each other's likes. It only works in their own minds. It's certainly not going to garner them any influence around here.

 

Then whether it's artificial or not, and since it doesn't matter one bit, then why keep like counts? You made the point.

 

Because it's a convenient way to support what someone else has to say without having to make a post yourself. I do believe that is why many people support them.

Or let's put it this way.. keep the ability to like.. just don't display the total count publically but let users view it in their profiles. Would that be a reasonable compromise?

 

I think that's a good compromise, point being that the SotA staff can see the amount of support a post gets, and the poster themselves. Having a forum full of quotes and "Yes, I agree" would be tedious.

 

Then it wasn't a mod who deleted it, but you or Lum, without notifying the posters. But with 100 pages, I imagine it would be hard to notify everyone. But at least one whole thread was deleted, not moved. I seriously looked for it, and many of us commented on feeling discouraged that it was deleted. I personally invested many hours of time reading and writing posts in one particular thread, and my post count definitely went down. I was so upset by that, that I started taking screenshots of my post counts so when it happened again, I wouldn't be called a liar.

My post counts have gone down as threads have been cleaned and sanitized. I've looked for my former posts, even the hidden ones. They aren't there.

If that 100 post thread is merely hidden, would I be able to see my hidden posts?

 

For backers deleting threads and hiding them is the same result and it is similarly disrespectful.
It is this sort of disrespect towards the customers that is upsetting.

So if the thread is only hidden, why not remove the offending posts and restore it, unlocked?

 

Another thing that "likes" can do is let somone you don't always see eye to eye with know that some things they say, you agree with and common minor disagreements or differing ideas don't mean you are just a hate filled beast who only interacts with them when you are "attacking" them.

And they can go a long way to smoothing out feelings in a text-only world where we can't hear voice tone or see facial expressions and body language.

I think the thumb thing is good.
Everyone in these forums has said things I like and agree with on some topic at one time or another, and the friends I've made here have made comments or expressed ideas sometimes that I didn't agree with too (I'd like a thumbs down option...I'd use it on my friends the most).
The thumbs are actually community builders mor than not.

@Caliya~Thumbs up to you, friend.
@Bowen~I have to give you a double thumbs down on thisone, brother, nothing personal...I'm smiling while I do it.

 

This posting made me wonder about this question.
Can the OP of a thread delete it, or will deleting their first comment (the OP, for whatever reason) unhook or erase everything behind it?

 

Silence.

FL: "DO NOT FEED TROLLS"

How about ban the bashers A.K.A. TROLLS!!!

Don't silence me, I can silence myself. I never ever bash someone because they have a different opinion than I. In The Dev+ forum, before it went public with the recent pledge changes, I saw the Lord tier take a major value blow with the new pledge tiers and additional lot deeds. I saw it one way, someone else saw it another. He gave me his best detailed reasons why the Lords didn't lose value. But I still felt the way I did. After a few posts back and forth, I agreed with him and that the Lords may have lost value in one area, they gained in another and then also looking at the dollar amount in the pledge difference, it made sense. We did not call each other stupid or cursed each other out. We just debated. I have never seen Enderandrew abuse someone, call someone a bad name or even attack someone on a personal level. Maybe I missed something. Maybe because the thread was removed from public view now so I can't verify this. But what we are talking about in here is the bashers who do nothing but bash the game, bash the Dev team and keep on bashing with no suggestions or opinions to better the game. I know I am not going to like everyone's ideas or even everyone is going to like mine, but to just keep on bitching with no constructive suggestions or ideas and not be banned is unacceptable.

So, which Basher A.K.A. Troll should I report first, since reporting people in here seems to shut people up???

Silence!!! (since I already broke my own rule from earlier)

 

Simple, don't click like. There is your "dislike"

 

Disagreement is unacceptable? I happen to think that bitching is a form of constructive criticism.

John: I really like the toast they have planned in the game!
Jane: But dry toast is no good! It's too bland!
John: Don't you have anything constructive to contribute? I want you banned.

 

Silence

 

The reason forums typically disable "dislike" counts is because a lot of times users don't explain why they dislike something, and that isn't helpful. A second poster can always explain his dislike, and then he can get likes from other users, and that accomplishes the same thing, but its more constructive.