Flaming bashng and general nastiness on forums

Gotta love where Ngruk plugs in this...plug!

Let's see...I'm a designer (you didn't specify what kind here and I haven't read anything else yet, so.....) and I have almost 10 yrs game exp. I'm a crafter!! Just look at all the stuff in my "craft room" upstairs (much to the chagrin of my hubby) and am still waiting for some game to allow floral designer as an ingame craft! (yes, I have a zillion ideas and even offered some elsewhere)

Close enough??

Originally Posted by Laethyn

This one always gets me

The scripting part is easy. The documentation is easy. Oh, also, I don't seem to have a licensed copy of UnReal or Bigworld hanging around, despite my spamming the company begging. Geez, haven't these people heard of PLEs?

Agreed, When it comes to creative jobs to me experience means little as skill and creativity seem more important. After all you want fresh ideas coming in from the creative side, experience does more to hamper than to help that imho.

I tried to get a licensed copy of the UnReal engine, but for some reason they just didn't want to budge on that $350k price tag of theirs, gees.

Go figure!

Back to the topic for a sec and sorry for the lateness of my post...I think I need to visit more often. Sorry.

Something that hasn't been touched on in this thread is that a lot of the flamers and trollers feel they have some anonymity. Most of the time these people wouldn't say what they do on forums in the real world. That freeness really lets that inner troll out. How many times have you thought to yourself, "Oh I shoulda said <insert witty comeback> to that jerk!" On the forums you not only have time to think about what you're going to say but you are free to say it and with very few repercussions.

I don't know if there is an easy solution to the problem. What the CMs need to do is keep control, as one person said, of their community. I believe one way to keep control is to keep the community engaged and entertained. = )

Just my two coppers worth. Be back in a <looks at wrist, bah no watch!> in less than a year this time, promise!

ECO!!!! (HUG)

Piro, myself and our staff, have always been very vigilant about maintaning order on our boards! I think it's one of the reasons we've been so successful and why Sigil had selected us as their Test Server forum site. You were there - at Sigil, anyway!

People are known by actions more than actual name. It's the old, "You never know that guy behind the computer is a 400 pound dalmation" thing. True that, but their colors still come out and they get known over various sites. The board admins use to keep in touch about this and that to watch for. Great group! I can only hope this remains the flavor of the day when new games/sites come out. The flames and fire just ruin it for everyone except the drama whores.

Dat ain't me, babe!

(of course, I'll come get ya kicking and screaming if you're not back sooner! THAT could be dramatic!)

Since this got bumped.....

While there has always been flame wars in forums, hell even on old bbs's back in the day I will be honest....I love a good back and forth flamewar between a few intelligent, insightful people. Game forums went seriously downhill after WoW got insanely popular...that and the growing online console presence.

It took what was a somewhat niche and close community and opened it to the masses. Not that I think that's bad thing, long as there is big money in gaming they will keep making good games

Off topic but an interesting note..... Saw a story on CNN today about Modern Warfare's release and how based on sales they would probly make close to half a billion in the first month. The story compared it to movies and other media.....A good movie will make more in the long run due to DVD and other media, but a hot, anticipated game is like instant cash Was a interesting couple min piece.

My 2cp....

I love a good, back and forth debate/discussion. I hate a back and forth flamewar.

I refuse to turn over management of a forum to anyone until they can recognize that there is a difference between the two. There can be a very VERY fine line between the two, and it can further be blurred by your own personal experiences and opinions, but that line must be drawn, and it must not be crossed.

It's certainly not an easy thing to determine. And I've been managing a pretty big site for close to 10 years now.

Things liek target audience of the forum. Target audience of the product the forum is there for, the area of the forum, just knowing the people (when it comes to punishment.) etc. etc.

Here, take for example Bob Salvatores forums:

His target audience is a younger crowd.
The audience of his forums ranges from young teen to folks in their 60's and 70s.
The other day, someone posted a picture thread about "eye Candy". started off with some photos of Megan Fox. Personally, I had no problems with the pictures (actually, ahem, I saved them what? I'm a guy. Don't judge!), but the pictures were pushing the limits and could very very easily tip that scale. I removed the entire thread.

The original poster? Nothin' Not going to give him a warning. I know the guy, and his intent was NOT to start something that shouldn't be there. It's just who he is.

Some folks might cry foul that I would treat a long time forum member differently than say if someone had posted that as their first post. To bad. Of course I did! Because again, the intent can have alot of meaning. I've seen people post things with intent to be cruel to others. And I've seen people post things that while yes, it may be extremely offensive, it's who they are. They were not intending to be mean.

Or take me for example. I'm not a jerk. But I come across as one because I'm quite blunt.

We've had, in the past, things posted that just started a forest fire!! You know how quickly those can get out of hand! And yes, we will remove a thread and send the reason to the OP. We might even - ok, we do - make a post about why the thread was removed and remind them of our "rules" of the board. Piro also made us a graveyard to put things because, now and then, there will be issue taken with our reasoning and we can go back and double check the logic. Also gives the other staffers a head up about what happened.

About "offensive posts" that might be "who they are:" Regardless, the poster has to also remember where he/she is. While we may know they have an edge to them, we send them PM's to ask them to please be cautious and take into consideration that we have folks of all ages, religions, races, etc and we never want to offend. Sure, you have to watch because you can't always be "PC" in everything. That just makes it worse. People are people, after all, and this "PC" thing has become a joke and an erroding factor in much of our country. Not trying to start anything here, either, but the overall thing is that you have to use your brain when you mod a board. Piro and I don't always see eye-to-eye about everything, but we discuss it and we both have wins and losses!

The sites that let the flames fan, just for the prestige of having the largest fan base, are thorns in many sides. The sites like ours usually gets the overflow and we have to spend more time monitoring. But, that's ok...if they want to do that, it's up to them. We quickly find out who the ones are that dup posts onto various boards and deal with them. The frat of web admins is mighty!