On the subject of locking threads

IV_Mark_VI wrote:Is open suggestions like this frowned upon? I prefer to have an open discussion, as the ideas can be better formed if everyone can pitch in a say.

Agreed.

I was always under the impression that a thread becomes locked when it breaks the forum guidelines. All posters in a thread make up the thread, which is why one or two people can result in it becoming locked.

The creators should police their threads more closely and actively give supported verbal warnings to offenders to calm the situation. Sometimes it will work, sometimes a troll will be a troll.

Members shouldn't tell other members what's acceptable or what's not. That's definitely a way to get someone upset. Unless they just point them to the forum guidelines. Anyone can suggest people take their disagreement elsewhere, but without any power to enforce... and then when a mod steps in, it can look like they're taking sides.

No, best just to flag a thread to the mods to deal with.

As soon as I tell a member to tone it down, without any power to enforce it, that member may just flame me right back. Tolvo tries to assuage people, and sometimes it works, but many times it doesn't.

You shouldn't have to assuage people to be polite and courteous. It should go without saying.

IV_Mark_VI wrote:Is open suggestions like this frowned upon? I prefer to have an open discussion, as the ideas can be better formed if everyone can pitch in a say.

And was not implying decisions were arbitrary, but sometimes they can appear to be. Also, sometimes mods can make a bad decision or a mistake, and that's ok too. Everyone's human, and mods can be of any age and background. They will make errors in judgement, and everyone should be fine with that as well.

Everyone should keep in mind their goal is to have the best site possible.

Never implied that open discussions were frowned upon. Cycling through past threads, many forum decisions were made via an open discussion. It's the reason we solicit feedback and don't lock threads like this indiscriminately. The point I am conveying is that if at any point, any poster sees a singular opportunity for improvement or has a full laundry list, please alert us directly as well. All lines of communication are open, we aren't some opinion suppressing gestapo.

First of all I hope it never has to come to this. I very strongly disagree with this idea in fact and also the manner in which you choose to single out teens and young adults in your OP.

Banning solves nothing unless its used as a final option for a -very- serious crime. The threads I have seen around have never once made me go "JEE I hope x gets banned!" We are a community not a government or a daycare. I'm sure I've seen Serious and Tolvo diffuse a bomb talking about their favorite brand of shampoo once or twice before.

Discussions may be interesting to a point you wish to continue them, but they should never go to the point where an individual is singled out and exiled from the community because of their varied opinions. If you want to continue a conversation there is PM and an unofficial Skype group, you can even go on the wiki chatango and start a private chat if you really must. There is just no good reason to single out one person and dust your hands off and walk away... thats just my opinion, banning will never be justified in my mind in a thread about the pro's and con's of the DWGR or some in-game covenant.

Edit: I know this is mostly centered around individuals flaming to prove their point, but in the eyes of the person banned its going to be more about opinion than word choice in their last few posts. Not to mention this leads to a moment were So-n-so is banned from the chat and left unable to say what they want to say to people not noticing the ban responding, just the same feeling you have now towards locked threads, so it really solves nothing. We get enough repeat discussions on in-game morals and the like that the locked threads really havent been hampering some ungodly break through in knowledge on PVP rights and wrongs.

.. anyway I just wanted to make myself more clear so no one responded like "But yukon they's trolls" or something.. I dunno.

See, some people have bad days. I hate to consider it, but there was an incident where I essentially had a nervous breakdown near to my computer. I might have gotten banned, though perhaps for only a few days. Still when I was in that condition, it might have caused me to become even more furious and react in a worse way. I think how they are handling it is working well, perhaps there is a better way to do it but this works well. The main problem I just see is people feeling they are persecuted and getting turned away. I know sometimes it sucks to deal with people that flame, but the thing is if we talk with them in the thread we can often get them to understand. Sometimes threads also are very baitish.

If I see a thread, "What do you consider honorable?"

Alright, that thread is incendiary so it will probably lead to some arguments. But if its a new person, they probably have no idea, as well this thread really has nothing inherently wrong with it.

But often the threads aren't like that, they often have an agenda.

"What is the deal with people who think there is honor in Dark Souls?"

I'm just saying sometimes even the thread is the problem itself, often it is worded in a way to incite people to react badly.

And as Baal said, the Admins will see your PM's and give them consideration and talk it over with you. Even if for some reason they aren't responding feel free to PM it to me, and I'll find a way to contact them. It's not that they're against open discussion, but you know it's just kind of like talking to a manager about how to manage his employees in front of his employees.

Tolvo wrote:And as Emergence said, the Admins will see your PM's and give them consideration and talk it over with you.

Yup. We do most certainly read all the PMs we get and we take care to make sure that positive suggestions are followed up. At the end of the day, we are just people who care about this community and spend our spare time being a part of it. We aren't going to get everything right, or do everything everyone wants us to because we all have lives and full time jobs to tend to etc, but we do what we can to improve as time goes on and are very grateful to all of you for helping us to build what really is a mighty impressive community.

TLDR: You all smell and we never read a thing you send us. ;-)