ENWorld Edition Bias

[Obryn]

Very well however I expect if that thread had been critical of 4E instead of thread crapping being deleted it would simply have been locked and gone bye bye.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Confirmation Bias.

-O

 

[catsclaw227]

Or quite possibly, a forum specific version of Hostile media effect.

 

[Echohawk]

My apologies if this detracted from your enjoyment of the thread.

No worries, it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the thread. I was merely pointing out that these forums do have a rule against challenging a moderator in public, and it is probably wise to bear that in mind for this thread.

 

[Oni]

Given that this is basically a dnd forum and not dedicated to one particular edition it wouldn't be surprising that there would be a slight bias toward the shiny new in print edition of the game.

 

[Rel]

I'm reasonably sure that it is against the forum rules to discuss moderation decisions in the manner that is occurring here. I respectfully suggest that if you have an issue with the moderation of a particular thread, that you take it up privately with the moderators involved.

Indeed that is a rule and if Shadeydm had a problem with how it was handled then he is more than welcome to e-mail me about it.

However, what I find particularly amusing about this case, is that Wisdom Penalty WAS BANNED. No, I didn't say, "That's it, jerk. You're banned for three days." right there in the thread. But the comment was uncalled for, way out of line, and he deserved the banning he got.

If you find it a useful data point for this thread, I am moderately pro-4e.

 

[garyh]

It seems slightly anti-4e to me. The reason being I frequent 4e threads and see lots of anti-4e posts from anti-4e posters, and I no longer frequent 3e threads, so I don't know if pro-4e folks are doing the same there.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

Slightly anti-4e, although that's almost certainly a "squeaky wheel" issue rather than a reflection of the actual demographics.

 

[Herschel]

To tell the truth, I almost quit ENWorld because it seemed so pro-4e that it was difficult to stay. Then, I discovered that there were only a few people that were causing this impression, and so I stayed and even started posting. As time goes by, my opinion has changed. What do others think? What is your impression of the prevailing attitude of ENWorld.

I'd say perception does not equal reality. In many of the threads I read, I notice all the "3E whiner victims trying to claim everyone is trying to tell them how to play their game." In the same vein, a lot of the writing styles are similar to those "RPG-only whiners" who were typographically screaming on the minis boards about how miniatures needs to cater more (*or only) to them.

In reality, the more you look, the more you find it's a pretty diverse crowd, you just notice things more based on personal bias/preference until you look longer and deeper than you may want, or quite frankly, have time for. But it's there and well represented.

 

[Eridanis]

Moving thread to Meta.
Since Rel has commented, I'll chime in, as well.

I think it's paranoid in the extreme to think ENWorld's moderators have any horse in the race other than smooth board operation.

Exactly so.

Don't count on it. A lot of moderator activity takes place privately, behind the scenes. I've discussed this with the mods before - not all warnings and bans are revealed in-thread. Often the offending poster is dealt with directly, with no publicity, so to speak.

Correct, as well. That's how we've handled things for years, and we continue to do so when we can. In many cases, though, a post is so egregious that we need to take steps to edit it before it causes a larger flamewar. In a perfect world, we'd be able to wait for someone to email us back when we ask a question about what they mean, and so forth. But the fact is, we have a lot of posts, and a lot of posters, and moderating is what we do when we're (ahem) doing our real jobs. We can't spend all day by the phone, so to speak.

Very well however I expect if that thread had been critical of 4E instead of thread crapping being deleted it would simply have been locked and gone bye bye.

In practice, it's quite rare for an entire thread to be locked. We prefer to have free discussion, and usually banning a problem poster will allow a discussion to get back on track. Sometimes we have to, of course, but it tends to be a last resort used if multiple people ignore warnings to back off. We don't care if a thread's pro- or anti- anything. We want people to have civil discourse.

Well, the moderators - AFAIK - have absolutely zero financial stake in ENWorld. It's not a paid job. Really, the only person who does that I know of is Morrus. Frankly, Russ is about the last person I could see encouraging moderators to moderate differently based on (of all things) edition preference.

I've been a moderator for nearly six years, and not once in all that time has Morrus asked us moderators, either in the mod forum or by email, to weigh financial considerations or edition preference when we moderate. (Frankly, if he ever said such thing, we'd be on the first plane to the UK to see where the pod people had taken the real Russ to.*) We're here to make sure ENworld is a fun and useful place for people to talk about their favorite game. That's our goal, and none of us have an axe to grind one way or another. Also, the full extent of my "pay" was a few pdfs a few years back. We don't do this for pay. We do it because we want to. And for the pun wars in the mod forum.

As for bias? I'm not a rabid fan of 4E, but I'm not anti-4E. I look forward to trying it myself one of these days, when I find enough people willing to play it. A game is a game is an excuse for friends to get together. Whatever facilitates that is cool by me - and by all my fellow mods and admins, I feel safe to say.

* Hmm.. sounds like a good Gameday one-shot. Hmm...

 

[nimisgod]

Definitely slightly more anti-4E to me. I used to go to the General RPG discussion forum "alls the times." But nowadays, certain threads drive me to seclusion in the 4E rules forum/cave more often than not.