D&D 4E Danger Will Robinson! Level of moronic posting in 4e forum reaching hazardous levels

[Plane Sailing]

Just got to vent for a moment.

I can't believe the moronic stupidity I'm seeing from multiple posters in the 4e forum at the moment. In the thread about 4e having an actual system for 'story awards' there are so many people who are going over the top in their ranting about "the stupidity of WotC producing collectible quest cards", "It is totally ruining my game", "well, it may be a good idea for 10 year olds". Fully 3/4 of the posts seem to have missed the whole point of the article and focussed in on one bit of advice that will be in the DMG about a way that might help your players.

Ranting because there is a bit of advice?

Henry's joke about closing the forums to everyone else for a while is starting to sound appealing

 

[Rel]

I hear ya brother. I hear ya.

 

[Henry]

Ranting because there is a bit of advice?

Henry's joke about closing the forums to everyone else for a while is starting to sound appealing

What's happened is that the scraps of real information are all devoured, so the Piranha are turning on each other again.

I can't wait for those preview books to hit, it'll be a feeding frenzy all over again.

 

[Piratecat]

I've just passed Alex's annoyance level, and climbing!

Most people are fine, you notice? But a couple people are just being jerks.

 

[Henry]

Speaking of which:

This is a message from TwinBahamut at EN World - Morrus' D&D / 4th Edition / d20 News ( http://www.enworld.org/forums.php ). The EN World - Morrus' D&D / 4th Edition / d20 News owners cannot accept any responsibility for the contents of the email.

To email TwinBahamut, you can use this online form:
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This is the message:

In case this message via email system doesn't say so, I am TwinBahamut from the EN World forums.

Right now, the EN World 4E Forum is getting more and more unpleasant, and I find myself enjoying myself less and less every time I come here. The main problem is that it seems no matter what thread I visit, I see people complaining about the "bad names", "the flavor changes", "it is too much like a videogame", "it is not my D&D", or other related complaints.

I have no problem with people having complaints about Fourth Edition, but it has gotten to the point where they are disrupting any enjoyable discussion of the rules and flavor of 4E. The recent Paladin Smites thread is a good example. It is the best look we have had at new mechanics for 4E, but very little discussion of the mechanics has taken place in a five page thread. A lot of the discussion has been bogged down by Driddle throwing in a "4E is videogamey" complaint with no clear connection to the topic, other people complaining how "it is not D&D", and other such things. Meanwhile, at the same time, there are at least four active threads dedicated to complaining about the way WotC names things, and that conversation is still spilling over into pretty much every other thread in the forum.

There are plenty of threads for for those who don't like D&D, and those who want to argue with them, to have their discussions, but there doesn't seem to be room at all for optimistic discussion, or pure discussion of the game mechanics. All I want to do is have a place to talk about 4E rules mechanics and flavor, without getting bogged down in countless unrelated discussions and rants. Right now, it doesn't seem that the place I want is at EN World.

I'm sorry I haven't posted here much, just very little time lately, but I wanted to pass this on, since it looks like I'm the only one he mailed it to (probably because of some in-depth exchanges between us in the "videogames" thread).

 

[Dinkeldog]

Maybe start setting up a separate forum for the griping threads and tell everyone in the regular forum that if they want to start complaining, they can do it elsewhere. I have absolutely no tolerance for the whiners--I've got 100 that I deal with each day already (again, not time to pick up moderating again.)

 

[Plane Sailing]

I really feel for Twin Bahamut, and I'm sure that there are probably dozens of people who feel the same way but haven't emailed us about it.

I think that the gripers are in danger of hijacking the forum, with an 'its the troof' argument (cf the occasions where we see complaints that 'If you stop me threadcrapping, I hope you stop people who threadcrap in my 'I hat joo' threads too).

Any chance that we could do a trial month, say, where we say "OK. Some of you don't like 4e and that's OK. It's not for you. BUT, the 4e forum - for the next month - is going to be limited to discussions about things that are revealed about 4e that people want to talk about. If you hate something that is revealed... keep it to yourself"

 

[Plane Sailing]

Or following up from Dinkledogs suggestion, have a "Whining thread". If you want to whine, post it there.

 

[Rel]

I think not liking or even "hating" stuff is a legitimate part of discussion and shouldn't be squashed. I also think that it's far easier for people to generate energy about stuff they want to bitch about than stuff they want to sing the praises of. The unfortunate part is that a thread about "How X sucks" is much less likely to be derailed by a positive comment about X than a thread about "How I love X" is to be derailed about a negative comment.

The problem is that when you have polar opposite views of a subject then it's much easier for the discussion to get out of hand with arguing instead of it being a more reasoned exchange of ideas.

I'm getting the kernel of an idea about this that might be worth considering. I'm going to mull it over for a little while before I post it.

 

[el-remmen]

I agree with Rel (SHOCKER! )

Not liking or being critical of 4E reveals is totally legitimate and plenty of people who can do this while keeping an open mind and not being snarky should not be punished for the actions of others.

Case in point: ME

I dislike the vast majority of everything I have heard about 4E so far, but I still want to be able to talk about it and express why I don't like it, and I don't want it to be in a "whining forum" either - that sounds like a nightmare waiting to happen.