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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jeremy E Grenemyer" data-source="post: 2557429" data-attributes="member: 12388">Razz,For a good 2-3 years I spent a lot of time on the FR Novel Board (before being banned, of course) hammering away at the jackasses who thought that simply having an opinion about a novel or author was a legitimate reason to share it, especially if it was negative or hurtful.I swear that forum was like a black hole; sucking in every half-brained, immature, weak minded, unimaginative and uneducated jerk that worshipped the concept of "Canon" Realms Material and that couldn't comprehend that the Realms were a shared world setting (read: The setting --and thus the reader-- have to bend in both directions to accommodate each other, because Ed Greenwood wasn’t the only guy writing for the Realms and thus gaming material from sourcebooks and setting material as presented in novels didn’t always mesh, which any reasonable person could live with).WotC's still-evolving at the time moderation policy, the lack of moderators, uneven moderation and an almost non-existent work schedule per moderator didn't help either.  This meant there was at least one Mod per board, but that didn’t mean they were there or that they would do the same thing another mod would, even when something was reported to them.  The Mods didn’t seem to understand or pick up on over time the key issues that caused Flame Wars (at least on the Realms Boards), so things never really improved.  The Forums (including the novel forums) got bigger, but not necessarily better.That said, without the mod work that was done at that time, things could have been a whole lot worse.My personal, non-fact based and entirely speculative opinion is that as things progressed (and IMO got worse) the novel authors got together and told WotC up front that the **** had better stop on the novel boards, or else.  Again, entirely speculative: I would put Elaine Cunningham at the front of such a group, if for no other reason that she’s written at some length on the topic of fan behavior online towards novel authors.Methinks WotC gave the Mod team a tiny bit of time to adapt, then pulled the rug out from under them (by banning all novel talk) without warning before the team could adjust to the new policy and show they could enforce it.  I think WotC pulled the plug (again, IMO) in part because they weren’t getting anything for their investment of time and resources from the novel boards except bad press; they were literally spending money to invite nasty-minded fans to come and spread uninformed B.S. about the novels to other fans (read: WotC’s customers).  Since the boards exist solely to promote WotC’s products (being a community is its secondary purpose), there was little point to continue the novel forums.I’d really like to know why WotC simply didn’t just zero in on the handful of jerks and official warn them into a banning.  Give ‘em enough rope and they’d have hung themselves, you know?On a side note:  I still to this day find it hugely ironic that WotC was so sensitive about Novel talk, yet astonishingly (incredibly, stupendously, etc…no word is too big, really) lax in its enforcement of trash talk directed at the Game Designers, especially when 3.5 came out.  If somebody dissed a novel author, their thread was closed and they got an official warning.  If somebody dissed a game designer, well then you got a touchy feely mod response, no post editing from the mods and no “memory” from the mods that a few jackasses (my term) intended to keep at it, forever.Advance the timeline 6 months to a year, and now we have the sort of iron mods WotC could have used years ago (the sort that take no prisoners and simply shut things down that get out of hand).  Too bad they still let trash-talk against game designers fly…J. Grenemyer</blockquote>

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