Major forum changes

I've got over a year's experience in adminning for one of the most populous SS13 servers, which is a game notorious for needing admins because it's so easy to grief in it. These two issues are things I've seen often in other places, and it's not OK.

Cherry picking posts, for one. It's sadly common, and happens when a post is overly rude and just generally unacceptable, but the victim party was doing something like complaining about the state of the forum, or about the mods/devs, or something like that. Often times the guy will get off with a warning or won't even be PM'ed, I've heard horror stories where the victim was banned for "provoking", or "Being rude".

The other thing is moderation without moderation, or fixing the post, but not the poster. This is when something is dealt with OK, they're given a standard warning or ban, but they're not told WHY they're being warned, or what they did wrong, or how they should improve. This isn't OK, either. I haven't seen this happen in the starbound forums until now. Though that may be because bans and warnings aren't really talked about.

All in all, this is, sadly, one of the things I'd put up on a billboard with the words "WHAT NOT TO DO", because it really was not handled well. I've thrown my name into the hat for the aforementioned new moderators. I'd like to hope that this post doesn't hurt those chances, god only knows I know forums where it would.

 

Geez dude, sounds like YOU need to be posting in the moaning forum.

 

If I put myself in your shoes, I would have used them to walk away from the situation, would not have gotten a warning at all, and left whoever was arguing with me to argue with himself. You kept going back, kept provoking, got a slap on the wrist. Nothing but a slap on the wrist. If you can't handle a slap on the wrist for participating in a two sided argument, (and using your fair share of passive aggressive insults, which are still insults) don't ask for stricter moderation.

In fact, I'm showing that the actual warning you got was for off topic posts, and you got 0 points from that. That's less than a slap on the wrist. You got away with more than I would have let you get away with, and you got away with less than the person you provoked did. So yes, we do need to be stricter, because you got absolutely no punishment for ignoring a moderator warning and repeatedly going back to incite more arguments with a guy using thinly veiled passive aggressive attacks.

But hey, "it's not technically against the rules," right? Since you were convinced you were doing absolutely nothing wrong.

 

I just want to throw my two cents in and say a stricter approach may be necessary at times. People often do not know when to walk away. Heck, I'm sometimes guilty of this behavior myself. But there are cases where moderators need to step in and 'protect people from themselves', as it were.

There have been quite a few threads that have gone from people bickering back and forth with each other that inevitably turns into people outright flaming each other for several pages before getting locked. And once it does get locked, then people cry foul because the thread was closed when they were in the middle of fighting when it really should have been nipped in the bud in the first place.

Just to give one example (not gonna name names) : There was a certain topic that got out of hand because of a single person making outrageous demands, despite a dev and a mod telling them to stop. That person continued even though almost everyone knew they were overstepping their bounds, but (seemingly) nothing was done to nip it in the bud because the thread went on for several more pages before getting locked. *And the demands from that one user lead to some other unnecessary stuff to prevent a shitstorm later on down the road. That's pretty horrible and shouldn't have came to that.*

I understand that mods can't be there 24/7, and I know you'll be criticized (hell, maybe even outright hated) whatever you do, but I'm of the opinion that moderators should step in before the spark sets the whole forest on fire. Some people would say you're abusing your power. I would say you're doing your duty as a moderator to keep the forums awesome for the level-headed people who already know when to walk away

*Edit

 

I was thinking of this when I was sleeping.

When you post on a person's profile, you can only 'like' the main comment, and not the replies! It'd be good if this was changed.

 

Again, the reason i am asking for stricter moderation is the argument would not have gotten as far for any warnings to be issued in the first place. Why can you not see this? Of course i was doing no wrong in defending my position and naturally i would defend against personal attacks, As for not walking away, the conversation was long over (For four days) until the other individual decided they were going to pull me back into that thread with a long winded waterfall of insults. Calling them childish which was what i did several times was hardly insulting considering it couldn't be farther from the truth. Wasn't even stirring the pot remotely.. I mean if i were to put it to an analogy they were an angry bull slamming their head against a brick wall repeatedly expecting a different result every time and playing the. "UMAD" card. But merely an observation of the fact that it was four days later and here comes the hate right?

I thought that bending the situation to remove blame from the staff and just pin it on the guy who points out that it was a farce was below you. I see i am wrong for assuming that. I personally give two shits if i did anything wrong in your eyes. The point of this conversation is the lack luster attention of current mods and admins, and anything i have done wrong since the first post i put on these forums won't change that.

If you have the power to stop a shit storm before it gets to its climax and refrain from using it for what it's intended for, that's not my problem. Like i said, i would gladly accept that infraction. Won't hurt me in the least. Apparently the mod that went through and handed out the infractions took the time to read the posts.. Probably why i have none, Did you happen to think of that? If you are clearly that unhappy with how it turned out and would have done things differently, then perhaps you should take the initiative to pass that knowledge to those who are working under you or with you.

I didn't lose my cool. Actually if anything i lost composure because of the fact a mod HAD POSTED in that thread but was more than willing to let the personal insults bombard the battlefield without even batting an eyelash at it.

Again. Not trying to be a douche, i just see this as a serious problem you are unwilling to come to terms with. Now that i have put that forward as a suggestion for major changes. I think i am done here.

 

can you stop
---
Internet-law, Article V:

"Not trying to be a douche" invariably translates to being a douche.

In other news, I actually have no idea what is going on.

So instead I'll make a random suggestion totally not relating to anything: can I have a music player on the website? Like, the Starbound Soundtrack plays while I browse the forum? Using another music player is so tedious :c

pls gais

 

But then it'd reset when you change to a different post..

 

:c

B-but I thought Omni was a wizard...I-I thought he could do anything

 

Don't you have Playback and Volume buttons on your keyboard? It's actually easier to use separate software.

 

Sarcasm, my dear Watson.

 

...but. But since you knew that then your request makes no sense! And so...

Clearly, i am being outwitted by a great intellect.

 

And yet here you are causing another shitstorm because of the same inability to walk away. Every time you post, it goes like this. Every time.

 

You're kinda fueling him by saying this. Just ignore and let the on-topic posts continue.

 

He's not wrong though.

Fortunately, Donseluke's set 'ignore' on my replies, which means that I can actually respond to anything he says without copping a verbal assault back for daring to disagree with him. I still don't know why he did it, but geez I'm thankful for it.

 

*This is probably an unpopular opinion, but hey. Feedback is feedback.*

This post is not talking about Calris in particular, but I have to disagree with what I see here.

Can we please have a rule to discourage people from publicly saying who is on their block list? Whenever I see this kind of thing it's always some sort of iteration of "oh hey person Y, I have user X on my block list, here is why."

It should be private and not be stated publicly on the forums. If you're really compelled to say such a thing, then send a PM instead of making it a public display.

It's almost as bad as someone posting in a thread saying "reported because <action/opinion I disagree with here>".

Dude, just report it and state your reason to a mod. Don't publicly state why.

 

The liberation and respect of my people.

 

SmallTeeth. he he he.

 

How bout a dislike button.
If you're going to have a Like button, why not the other.

I bet that poor thumbs down feels rather left out...