Things that need to be said and heard - Part 1

Talonblaze

Hrm, well if most people haven't noticed, the 'linking your account to your signature' thing is technically already being done in my profile. Despite me also listing the names of my alts.

To the solution about images and text being spammed in signatures, you could always have a text limitation for such links to prevent it from being spammed too much, no? Or only the use of one

[MOD]Polleus

SirHi wrote: »

Polleus and/or Denxi, User. Polleus has a forum, are we all ready to participate?

No I have forum software at my disposal. I haven't installed it and/or have a website hosting it yet. I have yet to determine if it would be beneficial to bring people away from these forums, which sort of defeats the purpose of us trying to unify this community.

Talonblaze

Polleus wrote: »

No I have forum software at my disposal. I haven't installed it and/or have a website hosting it yet. I have yet to determine if it would be beneficial to bring people away from these forums, which sort of defeats the purpose of us trying to unify this community.

Its probably not the best solution, as our voices would be heard even less by those who need it considering the distance that would segregate us from the others. Voicing our debates of crossfire on facebook, twitter or other posting media MAY generate attention and constructive forms, but if its anything that is meant to structure the community, that is Crossfire itself, it would have very little to no effect. Even more so here.

Its quite the odd problem trying to figure out how to make the topics of structured debates work properly in instances that aren't unfair or separating.

[MOD]Polleus

Kelathe wrote: »

Its probably not the best solution, as our voices would be heard even less by those who need it considering the distance that would segregate us from the others. Voicing our debates of crossfire on facebook, twitter or other posting media MAY generate attention and constructive forms, but if its anything that is meant to structure the community, that is Crossfire itself, it would have very little to no effect. Even more so here.

Its quite the odd problem trying to figure out how to make the topics of structured debates work properly in instances that aren't unfair or separating.

I agree. Creating an outside forum will only create a bigger separation from the groups in this community now. Where we can stay here and encourage such debates and discussions that will bring more people in here, rather than there.

I think it's in the way someone structures the opening statements and what subject those statements are on. We talk about how people can't have great discussions but when you see threads like "I hate (insert nationality/race here)", obviously there is bound to be flaming. If someone writes in intelligent, logical thread that is intended for discussion and directs such statements to be discussed, then I'm sure it has a better likelihood of happening. As I said, you create a thread with intent to direct at a particular person or race or to complain about a problem in a manner that will encourage unhealthy debate or statements, then that is what will happen.

Talonblaze

Polleus wrote: »

I agree. Creating an outside forum will only create a bigger separation from the groups in this community now. Where we can stay here and encourage such debates and discussions that will bring more people in here, rather than there.

I think it's in the way someone structures the opening statements and what subject those statements are on. We talk about how people can't have great discussions but when you see threads like "I hate (insert nationality/race here)", obviously there is bound to be flaming. If someone writes in intelligent, logical thread that is intended for discussion and directs such statements to be discussed, then I'm sure it has a better likelihood of happening. As I said, you create a thread with intent to direct at a particular person or race or to complain about a problem in a manner that will encourage unhealthy debate or statements, then that is what will happen.

This is true, but even the best well written debate may not always be met with equal responses, or even less desirable things that don't even relate to a topic. God knows how much flaming goes on, to OTHER people who post, even if its not the OP. Which in the end gets the debate closed and forgotten simply due to a 3rd party factor, which we know, happens alot. Someone's presence alone could be enough for immature and unstructured threads. Ironically, the Boredom vs Apathy scenario comes here. Most people flock under a banner not because they are bored and wish to stick up for something usually. I can take a probable guess that even here, most people skip 80% of the thread, skimming till they find something they find relevant and post something about that particular part, be it part of the debate or not.

Saidin

Just to respond to the last few things.

No one has canned any idea yet. There's plenty to discuss. But there has to be a balance here. Between what is worth doing and what isn't worth doing. For starters, as unfortunate as Polleus would like to say, creating incentive for people to be "more intelligent" is a necessary step.

Priority one for that, and as mentioned there really is no ETA for this. October will be a busy month. But we want to work on upgrading the forums and enabling some of these features.

New forums however tend to be a lower priority because of the already abundant amount of forums here. The ultimate answer (as blunt as it is) is that if you want intelligent discussion create an intelligent thread, and ignore the people who try to ruin it. That answer might have to do for now, until we can find some sort of ideal solution.

Sending people away from here is not what we want to do. But everyone on ALL levels of the spectrum have to some how realize that everything on these forums has to involve everyone.

If you play our games, you should be able to participate on these forums. That's the nature of the juggernaut that is a game company website.

So we'll keep discussing and its good to have intelligent conversation of all kinds. It's a nice change of pace.

Talonblaze

[GM]Saidin wrote: »

...The ultimate answer (as blunt as it is) is that if you want intelligent discussion create an intelligent thread, and ignore the people who try to ruin it. ...

Problem with this is, even ignoring such, others might not. Regardless of the originally structured thread. Perfect example was my recent 'taking action' thread where the fight began that tried to overwhelm Rex. Most of us did ignore the banterings and continued with the debate, but such inevitable things are generally the problem.

I can handle a tl;dr comment. Not a big deal, but when its driven out and hammered to the point of no continuing is when things get pretty down. As, its pretty hard to have an entire forum grow tolerant to anything thats said and ignore words. Regardless of the original intent. Heh, and there's always people who love just starting stuff to close a thread and claim e-victory.

But I am looking forward to future upgrades, more than we could ask for in our small fraction of Crossfire's population. ^..^ Thanks.

[Andre]

[GM]Saidin wrote: »

The ultimate answer (as blunt as it is) is that if you want intelligent discussion create an intelligent thread, and ignore the people who try to ruin it.

Sometimes that can't be ignored, since trollers are really annoying and make us get enraged so much that we really have to write something.

The ultimate answer to that answer passes by opening new moderator applications. Our moderators are competent, but aren't enough to handle so many forumers.

Ric3Ninja

^.^ nice post... kinda sums what comm should be like

[MOD]Polleus

[GM]Saidin wrote: »

For starters, as unfortunate as Polleus would like to say, creating incentive for people to be "more intelligent" is a necessary step.

A very necessary step at this point. Agreed.

[GM]Saidin wrote: »

Priority one for that, and as mentioned there really is no ETA for this. October will be a busy month. But we want to work on upgrading the forums and enabling some of these features.

Whether such features are implemented now or later, as long as its even being discussed, I am optimistic. I can't speak for others, but I am patient and willing to wait for such features. They will help this community in the long run.

[GM]Saidin wrote: »

Sending people away from here is not what we want to do. But everyone on ALL levels of the spectrum have to some how realize that everything on these forums has to involve everyone.

Agreed. We want to create unity in these forums and encourage others to follow suit. By separating to another forum, that defeats the purpose of the whole goal to create one, strong community.

[GM]Saidin wrote: »

So we'll keep discussing and its good to have intelligent conversation of all kinds. It's a nice change of pace.

Will do. I'm glad this thread has not lost its life yet. Looking forward to creating Part 2 and possibly more in the future.

iSkorn

[GM]Saidin wrote: »

Just to respond to the last few things.

No one has canned any idea yet. There's plenty to discuss. But there has to be a balance here. Between what is worth doing and what isn't worth doing. For starters, as unfortunate as Polleus would like to say, creating incentive for people to be "more intelligent" is a necessary step.

Well's he/she is absolutely right. But at the time being, a lot of the people posting either choose not to post "smart", or perhaps are new to a forum and do not understand the mechanics of what is accepted and what is not. Other forum's use infraction systems (which could push away members here, but make the community more tame), karma systems (but it appears their is limitations with this version of vB?), and special "user groups" with rewards such as participation in a special private group with its own forum or exclusive moderator permissions, etc.

I think that if it is not already; a "How to use forum" thread should be created and pinned by the forum staff; and then go into the rewards / punishments for not following the rules. That's a step 1. Reward's can be determined later, but I think an infraction system might be slightly beneficial.....if its used.....use it mostly to force people to take more than 5 seconds to say what they want to say.

And as for signature permissions? I think that would be a great incentive for those who want a personal, reflective signature. Of course their is problems with the IMG, and even some text information in the signature, but that is why that permission should only be earned.

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IGN: SI-Skorn