The reasons why "novel-talk" is taboo on WotC Boards?

[Teemu]

Discussing the novels how they relate to the game is allowed. Discussing the literary merits and shortcomings of the novels is forbidden.

 

[Klaus]

Discussing the novels how they relate to the game is allowed. Discussing the literary merits and shortcomings of the novels is forbidden.

This is correct. In the Eberron forums it's pretty common for Keith Baker to answer game stuff related to his novel, and fans have been wondering who will be Eberron's Drizzt, with many citing novel characters.

For pure novel discussion, the best forums are the Worlds of DnD ones.

 

[Razz]

So from what I gather is rather than ban the idiots doing all the flaming they just shut them down? Rather silly.

But one question of mine was this: a topic as sensitive and ripe with controversy as novels will undoubtedly flame more than any other message board topic. Why didn't those authors being bashed just...stop going to the boards?

I have the same reasoning with Howard Stern. If people don't like him that much then DON'T TURN ON THE STATION! The commen sense these days makes me wonder of our future

 

[Remathilis]

... at least SWd20 fans have a playable game....

That can be argued at times...

 

[Gez]

It seems so wrong to just ban discussion of a product on the company's website. I'm not even sure why they care if people trash them or not. I guess some egos must have been seriously damaged.

Some of the authors (I remember notably Elaine Cunningham) chated and forumed, until they were driven off by those rabbid dorks.

WotC first banned inconstructive criticism, but it just resulted in dorks nitpicking that their slander and insults were constructive. So they banned all criticism. But people still critiqued and eventually the mods decided it was for the better if they just banned all novel-related discussions.

The company seems to be adverse to simply banning troublemakers.

 

[wingsandsword]

That can be argued at times...

It's an excellent game, it's just that the support materials for it are essentially 5/6 complete, since there has been very little in official support since Episode III (a few web articles aside).

 

[shaylon]

I remember reading Elaine Cunningham speaking about this on her site, or her blog, but I could not find the post or else I would link it.

As I remember it, she basically said that she rarely responds to questions anymore because of trolls and people saying hurtful things. Bob Salvatore was mentioned in the post as well. Wish I could find it.

As for me, I think that they should have left the board up and tossed the negative posters. I don't go to the wizards' boards very often for just that reason, it is a bunch of 12 year old trolls, but I think that if they were managed better people would enjoy them.

As a side note I would like to thank ENWorld for doing a much better job of this. I am not sure if it is just a more mature audience or better moderation, or a mixture of both, but this site is indeed a pleasure to read.

-Shay

 

[PatrickLawinger]

I think it was because too many people were saying insulting things about certain authors.

Actually, I was told that one of the authors (not one of the "bigger" names) had their life threatened by a poster when some things got out of control. Several authors simply got together and said, "this isn't worth it, we won't participate anymore."

You have to remember that an author responding to "friendly" fans can easily and innocently provide information that can be used by some "not-so-friendly" folks for "bad things."

I have never really participated on the WotC board but I know a few people that do and I know one of the board moderators. It was a bit more than a "few bad apples." Real life threats of physical violence and death simply don't need to be tolerated by anyone for any reason. Several of the authors and moderators simply decided it wasn't worth it any longer.

 

[devilbat]

I have the same reasoning with Howard Stern. If people don't like him that much then DON'T TURN ON THE STATION! The commen sense these days makes me wonder of our future

While I agree with you "turn the station" comment, I wouldn't wonder about the future. The future is at hand on our very own boards. Whenever someone asks a question about the Forgotten Realms, there is always several posts ripping the setting, rather then answering the question. I certainly don't get the feeling that the negative posters around here are twelve year old trolling children. It happens here, there and everywhere.

 

[ssampier]

On the d20 Modern boards, there used to be a limited exemption to the Absolutely No Politics or Religion rule…. A newbie posting utter nonsense was apparently too far, and while the thread was locked and deleted (and the poster presumably banned), the exemption that had lasted for almost two years was revoked immediately (not that it would have prevented somebody from posting that).

With the Star Wars boards, since there have been no new sourcebooks for a year now, there is a lot of speculation about what's going on. They decided that all speculation shall be confined to one thread, then they closed even that thread and discussion of the future of the RPG is forbidden.

With the Forgotten Realms books, it gets pretty annoying when a major metaplot/storyline event for the setting is revealed in a novel, but you can't discuss how it works in a game context until a game sourcebook mentioning it comes out, and even then you can't reference the novel in any way, or else.

Wow. I used to love coming to Wizards.community. Over the years it just grew more tiresome and tedious; it seemed like any good idea that was not "canon" got shot down. Then the book discussion "problem" arose. I wasn't part of any novel discussions, but it seems redundant to block discussions of your products. Some of the favorite posters I enjoyed reading seemed less and less present.

...
As a side note I would like to thank ENWorld for doing a much better job of this. I am not sure if it is just a more mature audience or better moderation, or a mixture of both, but this site is indeed a pleasure to read.

I get the impression that EnWorld is more mature. I love coming here to learn other people thoughts without having to wade through 1000 flame-wars (well maybe one or two). The Wizards.community has more mature threads, too, but usually they have low traffic (looking at you "campaign workshop").

EnWorld is faster anyway.