Quote:
Originally Posted by =PF=Coastie
This subject is really a double edged sword. You are damned if you do and damned if you don't.
A forum is a place where people trade thoughts, ideas, concerns and opinions. As long as these posts are not vulgar or blatently break forum rules, they are fine.
It may be a tough pill for some to swallow, but the easiest way is to simply ignore "that guy" that gets under your skin with every post.
Asking a moderator to choose what is a valid concern in a post and what is not is just ridiculously impossible. Ten different moderators could have ten different opinions on what is valid and what is not. Especially when you consider the vast diversity of people on this forum from all over the world.
My 2 cents!
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Some of the best moderated forums i've ever frequented used the "split topic" method, with bans reserved for personal attacks and rude behaviour. Whenever people went off topic in a thread where it was critical to maintain on-topic-ness, a mod would just cut the offending posts or parts of a post and paste them into a new thread made for just that purpose, with an easy to identify name. In our case, this would be "xx-yy-2010 Friday update pruned and off-topic posting".
People can still ramble on about whatever they want if they can't contain themselves, but it's easy for those not interested to just side-step it and focus on the main theme.
In any case, this new rule is only for the update threads. In fact, it was very recently that it was announced the rest of the forum would be open to more off-topic discussions in an effort to keep a healthy exchange going at all times, so it's not like we're being stiffled here. After all, we are the ones asking for a tighter grip on the update threads.
I still wouldn't do it this way (outright bans) but then i'm not the one who has to spend time enforcing the new rules and since we have the rest of the forum open to a wide variety of other subjects, it's all good and fine by me.
However, i totally agree with you that this had to be communicated in a clear fashion. Just how much straying from the screenshot is going to be allowed is something everyone needs to be made aware of before they start reading and posting in the update thread.
For example, if someone posts references to back up their claim that a cockpit gauge needs a correction, is this on topic or not? Or what if someone posts historical references that pertain to tactics and employment of certain weapon systems (for example "this kind of flak gunner emplacement only had one gun of type X and not two")? Same for purely technical matters that pertain to the accuracy of 3d models, etc. Finally, posting the usual praise can pretty repetitive ("thanks for the update","awesome work, keep it up" etc), is this going to be off limits with the thread focusing exclusively on discussing the update's content, or not?
I'm all for imposing some limits on the update threads, it's just that they need to be clearly communicated so people know what to expect.