WotC boards (slighty ranty...)

[Coreyartus]

Am I being incredibly naive, or are the moderators at the Wizards boards power-mad? I have come up against several threads that get moved and locked for reasons that I would perceive as hasty, intolerant, and judgmental. I am continually surprised that the moderators have these draconian interpretations of their own boards rules, which they enforce seemingly randomly and totally at whim.

I used to like it there, but more and more, I find it simply a commercial tool for WotC's own glorification, managed by powerhungry lapdogs that won't allow ANY discussion or debate lest it degenerate into something unwanted...

Does anyone else get this feeling??

--Coreyartus

 

[Emiricol]

I never got past how slow their boards load

 

[Valiantheart]

There is little wiggle room for debate there unless in tows the wotc line. On the other hand, the posting usually becomes so out of control juvenile that there is little reason to hope for a reasonable debate anyway.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

I don't know.

Whenever I post there I have a feeling the first thing the boardmembers do is consult the WotC books/downloads to see if a WotC author thought of it frist. If that is the case then the WotC idea is "right" and alternatives are "wrong". This is a perfectly understandable attitude and I accept it as part of the WotC forum culture and I'll roll with it. But it still doesn't encourage me to hang out there.

 

[Piratecat]

I think you're being overly hard on them.

I'd guess that they have a relatively thankless and difficult job! The diificulty of moderating rises significantly as the size of the forum grows, and they have something like ten times the number of members that we do. In addition, I can only imagine that it's more difficult for their moderators to maintain a clear and consistent set of expectations for posting guidelines.

As I think about it, the fact that they likely have corporate pressure as to what should be allowable discussion might also be a factor. I find it a delight that moderating at EN world is as easy as it is, mostly because it's all common sense and policies I believe in and agree with. I'd be less happy if I had a parent corporation breathing down my neck while I did my job.

So I think those guys deserve a little benefit of the doubt, as frustrating as that might sometimes be.

 

[Coreyartus]

You're probably right, Piratecat, and I guess I should temper my attitude with a little bit of humility. They do have a tough job; I just don't like their (what would appear to me) shifty criteria of appropriateness. There is indeed a lot of immaturity sometimes, but with their new "ignore" feature, I had hoped they would let the tools they've provided do part of their work for them... I guess not, though...

I think I'll stay here with the adults on ENWorld for a while, and enjoy the company of perhaps a more enlightened (?) group of game enthusiasts.

--Coreyartus

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

I always liked the mods over at the WotC boards and I thought they did a great job...my problem was the constant flame wars, religious/political debates that turned into flame wars on the first page, and the general attitude of most of the people that post there.
Note: General. Not everyone is bad, just the community as a whole seems more slanted to flaming and yelling at each other. I'm so glad I found ENWorld...much calmer and more underhanded here.

 

[Buttercup]

Let me preface my comments by saying that I rarely go to the WotC boards because I find the company and culture here more congenial, so I don't know specifically what you're talking about.

However, from time to time someone here lays the same accusation at the foot of one or another moderator, and it usually means something like "I don't like the rules you made me follow." I've been a moderator elsewhere, and it's an extremely thankless job. In fact, it sucks. Further, in all my years hanging out on message boards, and usenet before that, I've never met a moderator who was actually "power-hungry". They're just folks like you and me. Sometimes they make bad decisions, sometimes they make good ones. In many places, they have pressures and political crap behind the scenes that us regular users never know about. Ultimately they're trying to enforce rules that they may not have made, and they have to deal with way too many jerks who want to argue about every little thing. Did I mention that the job sucks?

So my recommendation is, if the moderators did something you don't like, take it to email. If you can't resolve it to your satisfaction, and you can't shrug your shoulders and move on, then find a new community to hang out in.

 

[KenM]

My problem with the WOTC boards is anytime someone has some construtive critisim to say about them (i'm not talking about "you suck", but real, intellegent things that as a company I would want to hear, so I can bring a better product to the public) they lock it so no one else can say anything. To Me, that shows the company does not care about what the public thinks.

 

[Buttercup]

That's interesting, because there is a long history of WotC folks hanging out here, and engaging in open dialog with us plebs.

Of course, since Anthony Valterra left, I don't recall seeing much of a WotC presence here....