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Hey whats up my fellow dudes. Its been 6 months or so since we did one of these. Lots of things have changed in Games in that span of time, for the better I hope! Lets go over some stuff and then you guys can post thoughts and ideas and whatever and we'll see where it goes from there okay 1) Reports are way down! Like way way down. I remember posting a screenshot in the last one of these that was a days worth of reports. It was actually 3 pages. That poo poo was nuts and I complained a whole bunch about it. Well guess what, we generate like between 5 and 10 reports a day now on average. This is a pretty drastic reduction when you were looking at like between 80 and 120 reports over the span of a couple days a half year ago. I did a lot of study on this and here is the conclusion that I came to: the more you punish people, the more reports get generated. It looks like it became kind of a thing for some dudes to take note of what people got punished for and then actively go out and find other instances of that offense to report it. It was kind of loving crazy. 2) Probations/Bans are way down! In the month of June, 13 dudes got a probation or a ban. June, due to E3, is arguably the busiest time for Games, and then only punishments that were doled out were for permaban evasion, goatse, and spamming giant walls of text. As for the months before and after that? Even less. Gone are the days of getting smacked for not using the shift key or talking about something slightly offtopic during an information lull. Gone are the days of a mod swooping in and punishing someone for calling you a dork for having a dumb opinion. I would say this is a pretty good thing but you be the judge 3) The Imp Zone! The Imp Zone had some growing pains. It had a really terrible stylesheet that drove people away. Now it's a pretty drat good little subforum. I hope those of you that post there a lot enjoy it and also enjoy your representative IKs Zen Death Robot and Zoq Fot Pik because they're cool dudes. Theres also one more thing I want to talk about before I go. Megathreads were a pretty big concern in the last thread. Some of us actually brainstormed a lot of ideas to try to come up with a solution and none of them seemed very feasible. One of them was actually creating individual subforums for each genre of game where megathreads go and then having the base forum of Games be for just general Games discussion but picturing more than half of the page being taken up by links to each subforum ended up looking like a goddamn unreadable mess. I'm still trying to think of other stuff but for now Megathreads are what they are and we just kind of deal with it. Alright go!
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Aug 8, 2014 19:16
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Well probations and bans are way down because, as far as I can tell, you can post basically however you see fit. You could post in a nuGBS way constantly if you wanted and make a bunch of white noise and I expect you would not be punished for it. Someday people will figure this out to the detriment of this subforum. Othwerwise wow! Games is still a pleasant place to read and post and I'm glad a little of the starch is gone.
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Aug 8, 2014 19:34
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I'm so happy we are allowed to make fun of scam games like star citizen openly. Absolutely a step in the right direction.
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Aug 8, 2014 19:55
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Probations/Bans being down are linked to Reports being down. It sounds more like posting standards being lax is what might have caused the lull in policing. You said it yourself, old offenses, like not using the shift key, are more accepted nowadays. As is going off topic. It stands to reason that maybe other "posting rules" might have also gone out the window without anyone consciously realizing it. It's also entirely possible that because you don't respond to reports, people just don't bother reporting at all. There are 1400 users browsing Games when I last checked (a couple minutes ago). I find it hard to believe that out of all of them, in a month, only 13 of them will act like shitheads. Does this number include the subforums? Even if it it doesn't, it still sounds odd.
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Aug 8, 2014 20:03
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Kewpuh posted:3) The Imp Zone! The Imp Zone had some growing pains. It had a really terrible stylesheet that drove people away. Yes the days of the hammock were terrible but now we are through the bad times and can move on
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Aug 8, 2014 20:05
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YOURFRIEND posted:Well probations and bans are way down because, as far as I can tell, you can post basically however you see fit. You could post in a nuGBS way constantly if you wanted and make a bunch of white noise and I expect you would not be punished for it. Someday people will figure this out to the detriment of this subforum. I dunno, I kind of disagree here. I think there are maybe 4 total threads that fit this description and they're pretty much contained and also quite funny - Gamers.txt, Xbone Shark Tank, Wii U Hate thread, and that anime thread with the enormous anime tits. All of the other threads, and there are a shitload of other threads, all read pretty much the same to me. I will say that people dont get punished for slapfights anymore and I made that choice because it actually turned out to be pretty much the same as far as occurrences go. Even when we tried to punish people for arguing with each other over something stupid, it still happened all the time. Now it happens all the time but almost every instance of it gets resolved between the two dopes pretty quickly and then its all over. I much prefer this route instead of trying to babysit people disagreeing with each other. That isnt to say that we wont step in if things get really out of hand but that hasnt really been the case. Liquid Penguins posted:I'm so happy we are allowed to make fun of scam games like star citizen openly. Absolutely a step in the right direction. I agree. RickDaedalus posted:Probations/Bans being down are linked to Reports being down. It sounds more like posting standards being lax is what might have caused the lull in policing. You said it yourself, old offenses, like not using the shift key, are more accepted nowadays. As is going off topic. It stands to reason that maybe other "posting rules" might have also gone out the window without anyone consciously realizing it. Oh dont get me wrong, a lot of people still act like shitheads, but I honestly feel that its better for them to either get ignored or trolled back than for a mod to step in over something that is almost always harmless and easily ignored.
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Aug 8, 2014 20:40
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I think megathreads are mostly working out fine these days. As someone who has always hated megathreads, I think their transition over the past few years from "post a million things about a game" to "self contained community of people who play the game" has really helped. Reddit is partially to thank for this transition, because every game has a subreddit teeming with all of the posts that clogged up megathreads before. Megathreads now are a great place to discuss things going on in the game's community, new news about the game, to connect with others who are playing the game, and to discuss more abstract ideas about the game. In the past there'd be lots of dumb arguing, repetitive questions, and things along those lines. With the threads becoming a bit more community-like, the community sort of polices itself. Adding outlets to shitpost, like the "let's watch pro GAME" threads or necessary spinoff threads for wildly popular games, also helped significantly. So if some trend is really making GBS threads up a thread, there are established ways to deal with it that are generally used. The classic make a rule against it in the op of the thread or the more recent make a spinoff thread for people to continue that trend in. Like the hearthstone complaining thread. In the past spinoff threads were usually for super touchy topics, but it seems to be a bit more common now for topics that aren't controversial at all. RickDaedalus posted:Probations/Bans being down are linked to Reports being down. It sounds more like posting standards being lax is what might have caused the lull in policing. You said it yourself, old offenses, like not using the shift key, are more accepted nowadays. As is going off topic. It stands to reason that maybe other "posting rules" might have also gone out the window without anyone consciously realizing it. Most of the other poo poo posting trends are cyclic or self correcting and thread regulars know to ignore or skip through it. The PoE thread has desync discussion, minecraft threads have people sperging about mod authors or how the game could be so much more while posting really bad ideas, and most of the other threads I read are quite alright. Despite the low number of reports, things are as good as they have ever been. If not better. Khorne fucked around with this message at 20:53 on Aug 8, 2014 |
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Aug 8, 2014 20:50
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Kewpuh posted:I dunno, I kind of disagree here. I think there are maybe 4 total threads that fit this description and they're pretty much contained and also quite funny - Gamers.txt, Xbone Shark Tank, Wii U Hate thread, and that anime thread with the enormous anime tits. All of the other threads, and there are a shitload of other threads, all read pretty much the same to me. I will say that people dont get punished for slapfights anymore and I made that choice because it actually turned out to be pretty much the same as far as occurrences go. Even when we tried to punish people for arguing with each other over something stupid, it still happened all the time. Now it happens all the time but almost every instance of it gets resolved between the two dopes pretty quickly and then its all over. I much prefer this route instead of trying to babysit people disagreeing with each other. That isnt to say that we wont step in if things get really out of hand but that hasnt really been the case. That's basically how I feel too. Most of the forum seems to work OK, and the occasional cats-in-a-sack bickering tends to work itself out, and everyone else gets to point and laugh. Also you can post any dumb opinions about games you want and not face anything more painful than the utter disgust and condemnation of your internet peers, so that's good.
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Aug 8, 2014 20:52
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I've never had this much fun arguing about pointless things on the internet with other people who hate good games nearly as much as I do.
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Aug 8, 2014 21:11
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I agree with basically everything, except that I think that Star Citizen is real, and it will be the greatest game ever made.
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Aug 8, 2014 22:38
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I've got no problem with megathreads. On Neogaf, you get new threads for every piece of news that day, followed by seven pages of the stupidest poo poo you could imagine, but here I'm happy just following the threads for each game or console instead.
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Aug 9, 2014 00:22
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Imp zone has quickly become my favorite subforum. So, yay for me.
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Aug 9, 2014 00:28
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The only problem I have with megathreads is finding the new threads I haven't seen yet that I may want to read or post in so I can bookmark them. Like maybe there could be a sticky where people post that they have made new threads or something so I could just check the new posts there. Like TG's recruitment megathread sort of. Assuming people post in it.
Kylra fucked around with this message at 00:32 on Aug 9, 2014 |
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Aug 9, 2014 00:29
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Games is cool, Imp Zone is cool (gently caress off hammock), and the SS13 thread(s) still continue(s) to be the best thread(s) in all of Games.
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Aug 9, 2014 01:40
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Please ban everyone who openly hates "anime". Thanks.
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Aug 9, 2014 01:40
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elf help book posted:Please ban everyone who openly hates "anime". Thanks.
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Aug 9, 2014 01:49
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Told you goons needed a subforum to go and be dumb videogame-style. I haven't seen one of those drawn out slapfights that ends in everyone getting probated or a thread getting locked since we started messing with stuff. So that's a plus.
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Aug 9, 2014 01:56
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So basically Games is more accepting to humor without people getting angry about it? It is truly a great day when you're not afraid to post on Something Awful!
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Aug 9, 2014 01:58
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Grump posted:So basically Games is more accepting to humor without people getting angry about it? I can agree with this with the caveat that new GBS is really boring after a few days of posting and if the quality here slides to that it's gonna be a bad day for me. 
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Aug 9, 2014 02:21
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Pladdicus posted:I can agree with this with the caveat that new GBS is really boring after a few days of posting and if the quality here slides to that it's gonna be a bad day for me.
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Aug 9, 2014 02:23
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Imp Zone should be a forum wide standard.
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Aug 9, 2014 02:52
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Jon Joe posted:Imp Zone should be a forum wide standard.
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Aug 9, 2014 02:53
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Endorph posted:The last thing I want is more Taint Reaper posts. On the other hand, virtualboyCOLOR doesn't post in Imp Zone.
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Aug 9, 2014 02:58
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Pirate Jet posted:On the other hand, virtualboyCOLOR doesn't post in Imp Zone. I swear that the ignore user feature is the only thing that keeps me sane when he posts. Feel free to say the same about me.
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Aug 9, 2014 02:59
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Grump posted:So basically Games is more accepting to humor without people getting angry about it? I'm really getting that impression as well and I think the GBS 2.1 shakeup is to thank. Before then, if you joked in a thread or even lightly sassed someone for an unpopular opinion in jest you'd see nerd rage and probably a bunch of reports that were pissing off mods/admins. GBS 2.1 allowed for goons to get out a LOT of aggression and frustration and it spread out from there and benefited a lot of subforums. Now, I can make jokes (nothing pisses off nerds more than jokes, I find, lighten up if you're one of them because there are worse things outside the basement) and criticize users for stuff (as long as I'm not a dick or they were the dick first) and it's made the forum a lot more warming.
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Aug 9, 2014 03:54
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Jon Joe posted:Imp Zone should be a forum wide standard. I agree with this.
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Aug 9, 2014 05:49
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I think it's good less people are being banned for posting wrong about video games or whatever. Also everything seems a little chiller, so good job, Games.
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Aug 9, 2014 06:40
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The lax moderation style is so much better than the old one, please never go back
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Aug 9, 2014 06:55
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Here's a question, though: How come mods acted so loving tyrannical before ~mid 2013? There was a rule to not use dangling participles in GBS at one point. I mean, come the gently caress on. Did you guys feel like you had to do that for Something Awful's image? I was honestly afraid to post half the time on these boards in fear of a ban or probation, but most posts per day count has gone way up recently. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check the one probation I have. It's for spoiling text from a 15 year old game that isn't plot crucial. I'm just really happy SA is a chill place now, okay! 
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Aug 9, 2014 07:19
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Megathreads are cool and chill posting is cool please don't "solve" megathreads just let everything be cool how it is.
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Aug 9, 2014 07:20
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Liquid Penguins posted:I'm so happy we are allowed to make fun of scam games like star citizen openly. Absolutely a step in the right direction. Almost forgot: if the goon who bought my avatar reads this, thank you so much. Every time I post, it makes me smile. Blazing Zero fucked around with this message at 07:56 on Aug 9, 2014 |
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Aug 9, 2014 07:53
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Blazing Zero posted:Thank you for this, Kewpuh. It's one thing to constantly poo poo on ho-hum or sorta bad games, but star citizen is a hilarious disaster and anyone who spent more than a car payment on it deserves to be mocked relentlessly.
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Aug 9, 2014 07:54
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Kylra posted:The only problem I have with megathreads is finding the new threads I haven't seen yet that I may want to read or post in so I can bookmark them. Like maybe there could be a sticky where people post that they have made new threads or something so I could just check the new posts there. Like TG's recruitment megathread sort of. Assuming people post in it. Instead of bookmarking threads we like, it should be possible to hide threads we know we'd never be interested in reading. That way we'd see all our favourite threads, as well as any new ones that popped up.
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Aug 9, 2014 08:09
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I was a little worried right after the rules relaxed and we got that deluge of poo poo posts, but it really seems to have worked out for the best in the long run, better less stuffy atmosphere and still all the good stuff about Games. So yeah I was wrong there, you did a good job. things are great as they are now, the main issue with megathreads was linked to the stuffy atmosphere and the having to respect everything, even poo poo like Star Citizen, the changes got rid of those issues.That loving Sned posted:Instead of bookmarking threads we like, it should be possible to hide threads we know we'd never be interested in reading. That way we'd see all our favourite threads, as well as any new ones that popped up. This is a great idea, I'd totally love to be able to hide the threads for stuff I got no interest in.
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Aug 9, 2014 08:29
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Grump posted:Here's a question, though: It was just kind of the way it was for a long time. Like with me, I got kind of dumped into modding Games when Zorak got moved to just anime forum and LP or whatever. So I went from having like 0 reports ever to deal with when it was just MMO HMO to having a ton. So I'd open up reports forum and see like 75 shits in there and be like "okay so theyre reported for not using shift key I guess a punishment is required here since thats the way its always been okay then" *mashes 1 day probation button* and it was like this for pretty much everything. I can tell you that with me, there was basically zero loving thought that went into any of it, just 100% status quo. There were always punishments before for typing like a baby or arguing with people or doing whatever so I guess I thought my job was to just keep it going the way it was. It was probably like this for all of us for the past few years. Like, I think maybe we thought the heavy moderation was to thank for making Games better than Gamefaqs or whatever the other games forums are but in reality I think maybe Games was better because the quality of posters were better to begin with and it was kind of lovely of us in retrospect to not see that.
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Aug 9, 2014 08:34
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it's good
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Aug 9, 2014 08:40
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I wouldn't mind mods keeping a hard line about low effort posting, but stupid internet slap fights are all good. This is a comedy forum, after all.
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Aug 9, 2014 09:07
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That loving Sned posted:Instead of bookmarking threads we like, it should be possible to hide threads we know we'd never be interested in reading. That way we'd see all our favourite threads, as well as any new ones that popped up. Also, I really like the new chillaxed mood going on here, and I love the Imp Zone. So good.
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Aug 9, 2014 09:31
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In a world where a megathread gets shut down because a dude livestreams him reading the OP for 5 hours....that is a good world. Other than that I don't feel that it is currently going to poo poo. The imp zone as kinda the GBS buffer where you can let out that inner shitposter is good; and in the threads I frequent it all has been pretty normal and actually funny/helpfull.
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Aug 9, 2014 10:21
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Kewpuh posted:It was just kind of the way it was for a long time. Like with me, I got kind of dumped into modding Games when Zorak got moved to just anime forum and LP or whatever. So I went from having like 0 reports ever to deal with when it was just MMO HMO to having a ton. So I'd open up reports forum and see like 75 shits in there and be like "okay so theyre reported for not using shift key I guess a punishment is required here since thats the way its always been okay then" *mashes 1 day probation button* and it was like this for pretty much everything. I can tell you that with me, there was basically zero loving thought that went into any of it, just 100% status quo. There were always punishments before for typing like a baby or arguing with people or doing whatever so I guess I thought my job was to just keep it going the way it was. It was probably like this for all of us for the past few years. Like, I think maybe we thought the heavy moderation was to thank for making Games better than Gamefaqs or whatever the other games forums are but in reality I think maybe Games was better because the quality of posters were better to begin with and it was kind of lovely of us in retrospect to not see that. Thanks for posting this it clears up a lot. Games is a good forum (and one of the only ones growing in users!) and a lot of that has to do with the change in attitude.
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Aug 9, 2014 11:42
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