OK, we're gettng a little annoyed here!

[Patlin]

Thanks Wulf, a good response. It reminds me of a problem we see all too easily in our UK news broadcasts nowadays - there is almost a mantra which says "there are two sides to every argument" and even if one side is represented by 95% of scientific opinion, they still give equal airtime to whack-jobs who oppose the idea "to give a balanced view".

Tonight at 11: Renowned astronomer confirms that the sun will rise tomorrow. We'll also here from various experts asserting that the Sun will not rise tomorrow, that there has never been a sun, and that tomorrow will never come.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

As for enjoyment of the site, I don't think that is a specific part of the rules. EN World is not here to provide anyone with a certain level of enjoyment. If someone is attacking you, or saying things that are generally regarded as offensive, that is one thing. If someone is just being annoying through snarky responses, or just not contributing to a thread, ignoring them is very effective, especially on a messageboard where you don't have to actually speak over them.

I think you misunderstood - I enjoy ENW in part because of the rules in place and as such I will act in the interests of my own enjoyment by reporting inappropriate posts. Rarely those ones which are directed towards me, actually.

Perhaps I missed it, but I didn't really see "false reports" as the cause of mods being overwhelmed, Morrus's OP seemed to me more about an increase in actual bad behavior. Thus I interpret the calls for "thicker skins" (combined with regular use of such terminology on Certain Messageboards to indicate the superiority of not moderating objectively abusive behavior) as being about legitimate rules violations reports as well.

 

[helium3]

Perhaps I missed it, but I didn't really see "false reports" as the cause of mods being overwhelmed, Morrus's OP seemed to me more about an increase in actual bad behavior. Thus I interpret the calls for "thicker skins" (combined with regular use of such terminology on Certain Messageboards to indicate the superiority of not moderating objectively abusive behavior) as being about legitimate rules violations reports as well.

Well, most of the OP is about how they're getting emails from both sides about how the other side is being naughty. He even uses the word truckload at one point.

So is the problem literally "false reports?" I guess not. It's probably more akin to a symptom, rather than the illness itself.

Fundamentally, the issue is that lot's of people are getting their feathers ruffled and for some reason they all feel that the normal strategies they usually employ for dealing with it aren't working. So, they use the only other strategy they know how to implement and start sending complaint emails to the Powers That Be.

 

[Remathilis]

Thanks Wulf, a good response. It reminds me of a problem we see all too easily in our UK news broadcasts nowadays - there is almost a mantra which says "there are two sides to every argument" and even if one side is represented by 95% of scientific opinion, they still give equal airtime to whack-jobs who oppose the idea "to give a balanced view".

Really? We have a whole channel devoted to that!

 

[TwinBahamut]

I think a lot of good can be done simply by keeping a topic to a single thread. Right now, it feels like every topic gets dragged into every 4E thread at some point, and that the same topic can have far too many threads talking about it. I think the whole "naming" issue is a very good example of this. At one point we had more than four active threads dedicated to the topic, and every other major thread (such as the Smites and Feat threads) had a lot of people discussing that issue in there.

If there was more encouragement to keep all of that discussion in one place, then a lot of the bad feelings from controversial issues may not spill into other threads and keep those threads at least a little more civil.

A rlated idea might be to temporarily ban polls in the 4E forum. They contribute a ot to the above problem, and most polls right now are of the "I am trying to prove that my stance is the correct/popular stance" kind, which creates a confrontational atmosphere.

 

[Umbran]

It also happens to be the basis of all civilization, so I have that going for me.

The single basis of all? I think not - Civilization has many legs: our tribal-based altruistic behavior patterns, and cognitive abilities leading to the application of enlightened self-interest also have major parts to play.

And thanks for the segway: those latter two are what this site has always been based upon. What folks have tended to forget is, despite our disagreements, we are still all gamers who love D&D - we may love different aspects of it, but we share many commonalities as well. And, it is in our own best interests to work together, rather than to try to browbeat each other....

 

[Driddle]

It is in our own best interests to work together, rather than to try to browbeat each other....

... Unless there's a honkin' magic item at stake, then it's every gamer for himself. How much experience do you get for browbeating the average board member?

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Well, most of the OP is about how they're getting emails from both sides about how the other side is being naughty. He even uses the word truckload at one point.

So is the problem literally "false reports?" I guess not. It's probably more akin to a symptom, rather than the illness itself.

Fundamentally, the issue is that lot's of people are getting their feathers ruffled and for some reason they all feel that the normal strategies they usually employ for dealing with it aren't working. So, they use the only other strategy they know how to implement and start sending complaint emails to the Powers That Be.

Right, the truckload of reports I took to mean that people were reporting for very minor things, many unwarranted, and that if people had "thicker skin" they would not be reporting as many posts that really did not violate the rules, but seemed to due to the fact that the heightened level of...aggrevation(?)...is making people more sensitive.

 

[Keldryn]

I hate to say it, be we've become just like a Star Wars forum with one camp refusing to see anything positive about the prequels and leaping on every opportunity to tell people who like them how terrible the movies are, and the camp of those who like the prequel films leaping on everyone who criticizes them.

It always takes two sides, but in my experience, it's usually the "bashers"/haters who start the whole thing going. Not by expressing their opinions or voicing criticism, but by the thinly-veiled insults that they express indirectly. Many of the posts have an unspoken "and you must be an idiot if you actually like this crap" or "your tastes are not as refined as my own" or other equally condescending tone. And because of this, every negative opinion is taken this way in very short order and everyone on the other side gets defensive now the haters "must be stupid if they can't see the positive qualities."

People at both extremes are prone to threadcrapping once passions start to heat up, and it doesn't really matter who started the whole thing at that point.

If all that you can contribute to a discussion is a snide remark that essentially says one of:

"You're obviously less intelligent than I am."
"Well, your tastes just aren't as refined as mine yet."
"When you've been playing as long as I have, you'll see things differently."
"If you were willing to put as much time and effort into the game as I do, you'd see things differently."
"Well, if a dumbed-down approach appeals to you, you're welcome to it."
"If you weren't so afraid of change, you'd appreciate why this works better."
"Well, if those are the books/movies/whatever that you like, it's no wonder you think this way."

then don't say anything.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Stop being fair about bans. Make them public, arbitrary, and random. Just grab any somewhat uncivil person you see, temp band them, make it public you temp banned them, and don't give any justification for why they deserved it more than the other somewhat uncivil people.

This is kind of how China accomplishes the almost impossible goal of censoring the internet. Rather than come up with an official list of bad sites, they arbitrarily send people to jail. This causes all the ISPs to very diligently self-censor.

The point is if there are clear lines you can always go right up to them and play around. If there aren't, and you know you could be punished unfairly, you'll stay as far away as you can.

This post is impossible to respond to without violating the no politics rule!