Tinker Gnome
Adventurer
I post there and have been there for over three years now!!! 
I've given up on WotC's message boards. What about you?
- Thread starter Odhanan
- Start date
Nyaricus
First Post
Yikes! Me too... Personally, I am usualy over in the House Rules area of their boards, since I am always looking for new ideas.Treebore said:
What I really dislike about WotCommunity boards is how they continually purge them - there are some great threads that just bite ther dust there :\
Possibly the best resource for House Rules on the WotC boards are the works of a poster named Shaodwfoot, whom I shamelessly whore out his fantastic works to EN Worlders. Link.
I posted there from late 2001ish to Marchish 2002 (when I joined ENWorld, actually). My screenname was Colonel Klink, if anyone remembers that far back someone who only posted for six months.
[story time]
Well, about that time, a rather prominent poster by the name of Arturic was relating his stories of how bad his gaming group was. They were such bad stories and terrible situations that they were well read, and it was almost expected that he have nothing but bad experiences gaming.
Soon after, he invented the Arturic Shovel Awards, meaning people he would like to hit in the head with a shovel and bury in his back yard. If you've ever run accross "WHAM *Dig*Dig*Dig*" that's what it refers to. These also started out humorous, and only targeted horrible caricature, like the guy who picked his nose and rubbed it on your book. WHAM *Dig*Dig*Dig*.
As time went on, Arturic seemed to be running out of funny terrible stories to tell. Fortune it seemed had given him better groups, but he continued to post his anecdotes, although his rapier wit (and the guy really was quite clever) was targeted upon less deserving folks than before.
Similarly, the Shovel Awards began targeting playing styles and idiosyncrasies, rather than horribly awful people. "The guy who talks in an accent WHAM *Dig*Dig*Dig*"
In one thread, another poster and I came to the defense of a player in Arturic's group who was the subject of his ridicule, saying that perhaps he didn't deserve what Arturic had said about him. We then became the target of his sharp pen, and later rather offhandedly ignored our following posts stating his ire was uncalled-for and unappreciated.
The Wiz_O's not having done anything about it in-thread, I wrote to them voicing my displeasure. No response. I wrote again two days later saying I had written before and had not recieved any word from them, either privately by email or by posting to the thread. No response. After a week, I wrote a third time asking them to respond in some way, any way, about my concerns, and that not replying would result in my leaving the Wizards boards for good. No reply.
I have not posted since.
[/story]
Perhaps it was that the Wiz_O's were swamped by emails, but neglecting to respond to three seemed more like negligence than over-work. I found myself with no recourse on the Wizards boards other than to flame Arturic back, and I prefer not to do that.
I have found the Mods here excellent at addressing concerns and supremely just in the sentences they deliver, and unnecessairly polite even when it comes to banning. And that makes me feel warm and fuzzy about ENWorld.
A ship at sea is only as good as its officers, and the Mods here run a well-sailed ship.
[Epilogue]
Arturic later on apparently got upset at the Wiz_O's because they wouldn't support or defend him, I'm very fuzzy on the details; but whatever: Arturic got upset at the Wiz_O's and posted a thread in Meta explaining why he was leaving. It was not too well recieved, and it seemed few had much sympathy for his leaving. At any rate, he left... sometime in '03 I think it was. Who knows? Maybe he posts here...
[/Epilogue]
[story time]
Well, about that time, a rather prominent poster by the name of Arturic was relating his stories of how bad his gaming group was. They were such bad stories and terrible situations that they were well read, and it was almost expected that he have nothing but bad experiences gaming.
Soon after, he invented the Arturic Shovel Awards, meaning people he would like to hit in the head with a shovel and bury in his back yard. If you've ever run accross "WHAM *Dig*Dig*Dig*" that's what it refers to. These also started out humorous, and only targeted horrible caricature, like the guy who picked his nose and rubbed it on your book. WHAM *Dig*Dig*Dig*.
As time went on, Arturic seemed to be running out of funny terrible stories to tell. Fortune it seemed had given him better groups, but he continued to post his anecdotes, although his rapier wit (and the guy really was quite clever) was targeted upon less deserving folks than before.
Similarly, the Shovel Awards began targeting playing styles and idiosyncrasies, rather than horribly awful people. "The guy who talks in an accent WHAM *Dig*Dig*Dig*"
In one thread, another poster and I came to the defense of a player in Arturic's group who was the subject of his ridicule, saying that perhaps he didn't deserve what Arturic had said about him. We then became the target of his sharp pen, and later rather offhandedly ignored our following posts stating his ire was uncalled-for and unappreciated.
The Wiz_O's not having done anything about it in-thread, I wrote to them voicing my displeasure. No response. I wrote again two days later saying I had written before and had not recieved any word from them, either privately by email or by posting to the thread. No response. After a week, I wrote a third time asking them to respond in some way, any way, about my concerns, and that not replying would result in my leaving the Wizards boards for good. No reply.
I have not posted since.
[/story]
Perhaps it was that the Wiz_O's were swamped by emails, but neglecting to respond to three seemed more like negligence than over-work. I found myself with no recourse on the Wizards boards other than to flame Arturic back, and I prefer not to do that.
I have found the Mods here excellent at addressing concerns and supremely just in the sentences they deliver, and unnecessairly polite even when it comes to banning. And that makes me feel warm and fuzzy about ENWorld.
A ship at sea is only as good as its officers, and the Mods here run a well-sailed ship.
[Epilogue]
Arturic later on apparently got upset at the Wiz_O's because they wouldn't support or defend him, I'm very fuzzy on the details; but whatever: Arturic got upset at the Wiz_O's and posted a thread in Meta explaining why he was leaving. It was not too well recieved, and it seemed few had much sympathy for his leaving. At any rate, he left... sometime in '03 I think it was. Who knows? Maybe he posts here...
[/Epilogue]
Last edited:
MarkB
Legend
I had been a regular reader of the WotC boards for two years before I started reading ENWorld (I actually first came here to stave off withdrawal symptoms during a service hiatus on the WotC boards ), and I continue to participate in them. I used to be a regular on the Eberron boards, but after Keith Baker curtailed his participation there, I found that I wasn't finding as much of interest. However, I'm still a regular participant on What's a DM to Do, and frequently browse other general D&D forums.
My main participation, however, is the Real Roleplay boards. I currently DM two games there, and play in at least half a dozen more. I've found that the standard of role-playing there is generally better than in other forum-based environments such as RPOL, and the level of game drop-off due to player/DM apathy is a lot lower.
), and I continue to participate in them. I used to be a regular on the Eberron boards, but after Keith Baker curtailed his participation there, I found that I wasn't finding as much of interest. However, I'm still a regular participant on What's a DM to Do, and frequently browse other general D&D forums.My main participation, however, is the Real Roleplay boards. I currently DM two games there, and play in at least half a dozen more. I've found that the standard of role-playing there is generally better than in other forum-based environments such as RPOL, and the level of game drop-off due to player/DM apathy is a lot lower.
Like many others, I started off at WotC boards.
For a long time I thought Enworld was just some vague site that hosted the creature catalogue. Fortunately, I eventually found out there's a bit more to Enworld than the updating of 2nd edition monsters to 3rd edition.
I much prefer here to there, but I still post over there occasionally. Its not the (apparent) kids who annoy me, but the aggressive posters who use the smallest mistake as an excuse to treat you like a moron.
I actually have one person on my ignore list over there, which I've never done anywhere else. I decided it wasn't worth the effect on my blood pressure the person's condescending attitude was having.
(For what its worth, he took me to task for saying "bonus language" when I meant "extra language given free by the DM to the PC" and for suggesting a common sense house rule when obviously only items written by WotC were worth discussing as a possible solution to someone's gaming problem.)
For a long time I thought Enworld was just some vague site that hosted the creature catalogue. Fortunately, I eventually found out there's a bit more to Enworld than the updating of 2nd edition monsters to 3rd edition.
I much prefer here to there, but I still post over there occasionally. Its not the (apparent) kids who annoy me, but the aggressive posters who use the smallest mistake as an excuse to treat you like a moron.
I actually have one person on my ignore list over there, which I've never done anywhere else. I decided it wasn't worth the effect on my blood pressure the person's condescending attitude was having.
(For what its worth, he took me to task for saying "bonus language" when I meant "extra language given free by the DM to the PC" and for suggesting a common sense house rule when obviously only items written by WotC were worth discussing as a possible solution to someone's gaming problem.)
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