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Message: <blockquote data-quote="helium3" data-source="post: 3921169" data-attributes="member: 31301">First of all, I'm in agreement with Umbran and a couple of the other posters. Civility shouldn't be that hard to maintain and discussion (which generally requires differences of opinion) is why we're here. However, if civility is to be valued over discussion and the forum divided into different camps that aren't allowed to mingle, then there's not really a point in coming here in the first place.Secondly, I haven't really had a problem with people saying things that my grandmother would take offense to, other than pro-D&D statements in general. She did think it was devil worship after all. I have yet to report someone to the moderators in the years that I've been coming here, and nothing I've read on the 4E forums has even made me consider clicking that button.That being said, I've also noticed a definite decrease in the level of enjoyment I get from perusing the board. Why? I'm not entirely sure but I think it has something to do with the proliferation of threads and posts that are almost entirely about people spouting off their opinions and not really contributing to an actual discussion in a useful way. I'm here to talk about all things 4E, not wade through a river of snarky two liners that also happen to inarticulately express a completely subjective opinion. If I wanted to subject myself to that I'd go hang out in a coffee shop full of ironic, self-obsessed hipsters. I live in Seattle. They're easy to find.As for what to do about the problem in general? Here's what I would do if I were in charge:I'd split the forum into two sub-forums, with one labeled "discussion" and the other labeled "opinion."The discussion forum is, obviously, about calmly discussing what we know about 4E. Opinions are allowed but posts that ONLY contain an opinion and not something more substantial are strongly discouraged. I'd even go so far as to say that posts that simply say "I agree" or "I disagree" should be discouraged. There's no snarking. There's none of this "I'm going to say something really offensive but use words that make it sound like I'm being friendly to get away with it" garbage. As far as moderating is concerned, it operates under the old "Eric's Grandma" rules for behavior, but it's much more strictly moderated than usual. Far less tolerance for bad behavior than currently seems to exist on the boards. If you step out of line, you get warned the first time.The other "opinion" sub-forum is sort of like the PvP zones you tend to find in MMO's. Or, if you please, the "two minute hate" in 1984. In either case, you're thoroughly warned ahead of time what you're getting yourself into if you post there, so you can't complain if you later decide that it leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Threads titled "I hate gnomes and think they should die", "Wizards wants to eat your soul for breakfast" and "I heard that Mike Mearls likes Ranma 1/2" are all perfectly okay. As are bluntly worded objections to the opinions expressed in the titles. The level of moderation is lower (so the mods can focus on the other forum) but the rules about what sorts of things you can complain about are much tighter and far less subjective. If you contact a mod about something going on in the "opinion" sub-forum and it doesn't fall under the very specific rules about what are reportable offenses, you yourself stand a fair chance of getting banned simply for wasting a mod's time.Under this sort of a regime, people that want to discuss can do so and not have to be bothered by trolls and people that just don't have much to say other than "yeah, I think that too." And people that just want to vent off some steam about something they're upset about? They can go to the "opinion" sub-forum and vent until their spleens explode.Thanks for your time.</blockquote>

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