Share your thoughts on CSPAM - YOUR INPUT NEEDED

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > C-SPAM > Share your thoughts on CSPAM - YOUR INPUT NEEDED

Azathoth: Apr 3, 2001

it's a leftist political forum for posting with other people who share similar beliefs

it should be a welcoming place for people good faith curious about the left and a place where everyone and everything to the right of that is thoroughly mocked. this includes people wandering in to spread the good word of neoliberalism, who can and should be mocked directly, until they either shut up and learn something or run off

threads should avoid ending up as only chat. that's how the trump thread got the way it did. that isn't to say that everything is strictly on topic all the time and there's no derails happen, but there's a point that i think we can all feel when a thread gets insular and weird

all of this happens now, to varying degrees of success

threads should be as lightly moderated as possible, as most problems are self correcting. if someone is being dumb and won't shut up, and it's not fun to mock them anymore, that's when a mod or ik should step in and shuffle them out so they don't ruin everyone else's good time

this has not been the case

a lot of the friction between the mods/iks and everyone else has come from overmoderation, which leads to a backlash, which leads to a hostile relationship developing between mods and the community

this is exacerbated by there not being any way for the community to get rid of problem mods/iks, at least until they melt down and post chipmunk porn in QCS, at which point they are grudgingly removed

no idea how you pick who gets buttons, but it's a broken process and something else should be put in its place

# ¿ Jun 25, 2021 00:02

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 04:39

Azathoth: Apr 3, 2001

Athanatos posted:

Small sample size I understand, but will ask now so future people who contribute can answer too:

XXX Topic threads can feel like chat threads, and sometimes wane away from the topic, but are mostly focused and come back, where as "chat threads" here are just random bullshit.

Seems to be...almost an animosity towards straight "chat threads." That about right?

Pentecoastal Elites posted:

I can't blame anyone for wanting a chat thread with their posting pals but every time I hear about weird or bad poo poo coming from cspam it seems to be from a chat or near enough thread. maybe this is incorrect but it seems like a common perception.

I'd like to go back to this, and reiterate what Pentecoastal Elites is saying here.

The problem with chat threads isn't CSPAM related, it's a known issue with chat threads forum-wide and it's why CCCC exists. They have a tendency to get weird and diverge from the wider subforum culture they're in, and end up just being weird and incomprehensible to anyone but the regulars.

That isn't to say that a chat thread will automatically turn into this, it absolutely is not a foregone conclusion, but once a critical mass of posters exists in a chat thread who only post in the chat thread and nowhere else in the subforum, then it's inevitable.

That's what the Trump thread eventually got to, and why so many people came out of the woodwork to defend it. The thread literally was CSPAM to them, and so closing it down was basically closing down their forum.

That's why picking mods out of any chat thread is a bad idea. Sure a chat thread is the one that generates the most posts by volume, but it's also the one that's most likely to diverge from the wider subforum culture, so it's easiest to get a mod that's out of step.

I don't think there's a problem now, but it's something that moderators here need to watch for, and anyone selecting mods needs to understand.

# ¿ Jun 25, 2021 04:02

Azathoth: Apr 3, 2001

Ardennes posted:

I mean every joke has a little bit of the truth in it? I understand the history of what’s going on, the question of how the bridge that gap in trust that exists at the moment.

I would hope good modding would be enough but there is also QCS issues that often don’t even really involved CSpam mods but often involve mention of the sun forum anyway.

Good modding will be enough, eventually.

But before then, whoever gets buttons here has got to understand that due to the actions of previous mods, they're not starting off with a whole lotta trust. And so part of building that trust is gonna be users busting their chops about mod tyranny and whatnot when they use those buttons.

Just start doing things right, don't be a whiny baby when someone makes a joke, and if someone points out that a bad call was made, don't reflexively double down on it. Listen and try to understand the concern.

Really can't stress that last part enough.

# ¿ Jun 25, 2021 04:52

Azathoth: Apr 3, 2001

Pentecoastal Elites posted:

e: we posted at the same time Athanatos so let me pare down my post:

if it's a big legitimate problem either come down hard on poop-touching of any sort or just outright ban talking about other forums. I think the latter is over the top, especially if it's only coming from a particular thread. The Dems thread sticks to posting unsourced quotes and seems to be causing no issues outside of the people who hate-read it looking for their posts. We can't, however, have any idea about what is actually happening without mod staff letting us know.

I mean FYAD can run goonlulz threads without becoming loving weirdos about it so if it's predominantly coming from eg. the Climate Change thread that's probably representative of an issue with that specific thread, which ties back into the megathread culture talk. If it's coming from one thread that thread should probably be broken up or retooled because I don't think anyone wants that and it's probably a sign of a weird insular posting environment. If it's coming from a handful of users they should be punished for it, full stop, and I don't think that would be any different if it they were posting in any other subforum.

if it's a more global problem and we can't really handle it maybe it's time to make it a rule, but I'd like to know more about where it's coming from and if these posters catch and punishment for it

As someone who has advocated for less moderation, this is a case where there is a need for strong moderation.

I've been on SA a long time, and one of the cardinal rules of mocking forum-wide is to not touch the poop. This applies literally everywhere on the forums and it certainly should apply here.

If someone is PMing someone at random about a post they made in a thread they weren't participating in solely to call them an idiot, that's something that should be dealt with harshly.

It should also be something that the mod doing the punishment should drop into the thread when it happens, call out the person who did it, and then tell everyone not to do it. Make it an official forum rule if that helps, though I think "no harassing people over PMs" is kind of a no-brainer.

The specific point though is to name and shame.

# ¿ Jun 25, 2021 21:01

Azathoth: Apr 3, 2001

When someone reports a post, it should be appended to the bottom of the post who reported it and the reason they put in.

For legit reports, it's a non-issue. Everyone but the person in the wrong will look at it and agree.

If you wanna go cry to teacher because someone was mean to you or your buds, you should be prepared for everyone to see you do it.

Bet that'd cut down on the number of bullshit reports pretty quick.

# ¿ Jun 26, 2021 20:04

Azathoth: Apr 3, 2001

Red Baron posted:

I like this idea because it will give rise to the comedy report option but I dislike it because it will give rise to the comedy report option and modding already doesn’t pay, so this seems like it would just gunk up the works.

Seems like the kind of behavior you can discourage by handing out punishments for that too. If you think a comedy report is worth a day or a week probe, go for it, but if you wanna skate on it, it better be pretty drat funny.

# ¿ Jun 26, 2021 20:11

Azathoth: Apr 3, 2001

cumshitter posted:

harton is literally a god. just like zeus he descends upon c-spam like a golden cloud of weed smoke and says "lol, poofing beefers" and we wonder what he means. is he directing us? did he do something? what has changed, now that we have seen our lords from mount olympos dare to descend from their heights and talk to us?

harton is unstoppable and powerful and he is 100% right every time, just like green glenwalled.

you cant punish harton for being strong just because weaker posters mangle his proclamations from the sky. thats an individual problem for them, and an inability to beef a poof in their heart and accept the posting strength of harton

this is that thread. stop fighting it. you think about beefers all day, let them into your heart

I get that never dropping your gimmick is literally a part of your gimmick, but the fact that you could two couldn't help but come in here and poo poo up a thread for a couple pages posting a dumbass catchphrase while everyone else was engaging like normal people is a pretty powerful argument for shuffling the chat thread off to CCCC

# ¿ Jun 27, 2021 02:59

Azathoth: Apr 3, 2001

cumshitter posted:

lol shut up nerd

aww I don't even get a catchphrase drop? weak

# ¿ Jun 27, 2021 03:01

Azathoth: Apr 3, 2001

Tiler Kiwi posted:

do want to clarify i genuinely don't want to see the chat thread hosed with by mods/admins without the people in it being on board with whatever happens, because its not that big of a deal for me to just not click it, and a bigger deal to the people who post in it, a lot. even if i say mean things about it.

i should probably have emphasised that more since i have a star next to my name but for real, if you think anything i say gets genuinely listened to as sage advice by some cabal you are way more doomer then i could ever be

As someone who has also said mean things about chat threads, this is the correct opinion about them. Whatever distaste I may have for them, as long as they're having fun and not messing with anyone else's good time, they deserve to stay where they are.

# ¿ Jun 28, 2021 20:20

Azathoth: Apr 3, 2001

real cspam, provisional cspam, new cspam, official cspam...

# ¿ Jun 28, 2021 22:19

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 04:39

Azathoth: Apr 3, 2001

Epic High Five posted:

Let's not neglect to mention euphronius' NBA emporium of deeply cursed but probably true opinions

legit one of the best threads on the forums

# ¿ Jun 28, 2021 22:45

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