- Kith
- Sep 17, 2009
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You never learn anything
by doing it right.
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D&D has an identity crisis driven by staff not knowing what the gently caress they want it to be, despite there being clearly outlined rules on what it should be. there are a handful of ways to remedy that, but for the most part my feedback(s) have not changed since the last feedback threads i participated in
from january:
i apologize if any of this comes off as rude, i'm having a really hard time thinking clearly and i'm having extreme difficulty articulating myself politely
as someone who has experience in organizing communities and discussions, this seems like a bundle of half-measures that attempts to please everyone by working in everyone's suggestions instead of taking an angle of attack to tackle the symptoms of the problems. as i see it, the first big problem is that D&D is roughly 50% US Politics and 50% Everything Else, and encouraging even more threads to be made in D&D that are US-centric is asking for Everything Else to get drowned out even harder. the second big problem is that USPol is too many things at once: chat thread, news thread, tweet dump thread, Who's The Lefter Leftist Thunderdome, and occasional animal pictures thread. this list addresses the symptoms of the issue, but not the source, and will likely cause other issues down the line.
to that end, i would like to counter-propose the following:
- Create a USPol Subforum. Containment forums are not unknown on Something Awful, and they are extremely effective. Probably my favorite example is Other Blizzard Games - it's slow, but very well-organized, and it keeps Other Blizzard Game stuff out of the WoW forum and out of Games, making it extremely easy to find what you're looking for and/or contribute to the relevant discussion. (edit: rip OBG)
- Sticky three threads in USPol: USNews, USChat, and a Megathread directory. USNews can be your slow-mode only tweet-dumping thread, USChat can be your US-flavored GBS chat thread, and the Megathread directory is... exactly what it sounds like.
- Encourage users to make specific threads instead of living in the Chat thread forever. Futhermore, Mods and IKs can push users to splinter off into specific threads if necessary or take their discussions to more appropriate locations.
- Move all US-centric D&D threads into the subforum, for what I hope are obvious reasons.
i feel like trying to keep USPol in D&D is a mistake. There's just too much to it, there are too many users using it, and it requires too much moderation as a single thread. diluting the USPol experience into smaller and more manageable chunks is the best way to reduce moderator burnout and to keep things from spinning out of control like they love to so much these days
from september, and especially relevant to the current situation WRT Fancy Pelosi:
Speaking as someone who more or less lurks D&D since previous moderation practices (or lack thereof) have slowly but surely discouraged me from posting, I think this is probably the best example of what's wrong with D&D:
 There are no current thread or forumban restrictions in this thread. If you are one of those things in D&D, you may post in here to give your opinion.
In essence, people who do dumb or malicious poo poo are given endless second chances because the appropriate level of punishment is either never meted out or never enforced.
Quite frankly, I don't think D&D needs more moderators or IKs; what it needs is an admin who's capable of directing and supporting the existing moderation team, along with clear and concise guidelines on what is unacceptable behavior and the appropriate actions to take when encountering said behavior. There are enough cooks in the kitchen, now you need a chef - and ideally one who is not part of the existing D&D hierarchy, since D&D on the whole has a very "us vs them" mentality where disagreements frequently make lifelong Posting Enemies™. Honestly, even if it was just someone whose only job is to look over the ModQueue and approve reasonable-looking punishments would probably do wonders for moderator confidence: nothing sucks worse than queuing up a ramped probe for a consistent pattern of lovely behavior and then seeing the initial placeholder sixer expire before the real thing gets approved.
I know it's not the simple "nominate a moderator" answer you were looking for, but unfortunately the issue is too deep for simple answers.
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