Comment about moderation (rift thread)

[Fishyface]

Over the past few days the rift general discussion has degenerated from a civil discussion to a "my game is better than yours" contest. All productive discussion has stopped about the game and the only thing people post on is wow vs rift. I really enjoyed the topic because i was new to the game and learning quite a bit for this post. Now if you post anything concerning rift content you get called out for not comparing it to another game. Or that i cant see the obvious flaws in the game.

Now ive reported this twice to the mods and waited a few days still nothing has been done to put this thread back into order. If this type of disruption is allowed to invade threads i dont think your going to keep people posting there for long because having to defend what you like to play in every post gets old fast.

[Lysah]

Why defend it? Ignore the trolls and continue whatever discussion you'd like with the people who are genuinely interested.

We are literally just about to get new mods, give it some time.

[llDemonll]

We are short-handed, as Lysah said, and can only do so much towards moderation of the megathreads. Unless we actively moderate them, checking back every 20-30 minutes throughout the day, a lot of the moderation in those threads comes from user reports. I talked to you in PM (which is always a nice way for you to voice concerns to moderators of the appropriate section in a more personal manner than just reporting posts) about reporting posts so that when we are away we can check-in when we do get reports, and I've received only one report from you, ever, and it was from before I talked to you by PM.

The Rift thread, while it may seem like a pissing contest, has some heated discussion, but more "productive" discussion than the other megathreads simply because there is a physical game to discuss. People get into heated argument, talk about mechanics, talk about changes, etc., etc., and while the thread does a bit of a roller-coaster between semi-bashing and productive, insightful discussion, it always seems to swing back to constructive discussion and therefore we try not to interfere too much. The active people in the thread know how to keep on-topic as best they can, and when people do come in the thread just to troll or bash the game (without providing any reasoning as behind why they don't like certain concepts) they are either straightened out or taken care of as promptly as possible.

If you've never played another MMO and are base-lessly commenting on Rift comment, it's a fine line. Most everyone is at MMO-Champion because they played WoW at some point or another, and so there are many "newbies" to RPGs on the forums here. Without providing any sort of context as to what you don't like or something to compare it to, people perceive it just as bashing the game because you can, not because you have something to compare it to. Making a constructive "bash-post", as we will call it, is hard, but can most definitely be done. It's like writing a compare-and-contrast essay for school; not fun, but you can better portray your viewpoint to others by having something of comparison.

Maybe the thread wronged you in the past but reading through the thread, the past 4-5 pages have been productive discussion (in terms of "productive discussion" on the internet). If you have specific case examples or recent pages where people are way out of line I'd be happy to talk to you more in-depth about it than our last PM, just shoot me another

[Fishyface]

@demon

Ive sent in one report to you and one report to 3clipse about the issue so more mods would know the situation instead of just one. In his pm i took some quotes from the thread with page numbers about what i thought were issues within the thread. Ill PM you what i sent to him when i get the chance so you know this isnt a case of me just reporting once and coming to complain about it because nothing was done.

Im fine with "newbies" comparing because everyone uses some anecdotal evidence when talking about games like this. I have no issue with people using the thread to bring these type of comparisons forward and the intentions behind are purely informational. Now, i do have a problem with people using this guise as a way to be passive aggressive by disguising a post that is more incendiary with some wording that suggests its comparing the two games. This is what has been the driving force behind the latest "heated discussion" as you call it.

Maybe i need to read the rules some and see if this falls under anything. Oh well my point of view ill get in touch later.

[Karteli]

I've seen the same with GW2 fans .. as soon as you bring up something about the game that is a concern, no matter what the concern... if it doesn't have or should have (or won't have) you get trolled and accused of bashing etc.

I brought up my statement that the trinity will still be in effect in GW2 (even without classes, players will gravitate to the roles)

I'd say don't let it get to you, just ask what you need to ask or say what you need to say (provided it's not offensive).

Someone nice will answer you .. and for the not-so-nice, well depending on the circumstances reporting would be an option.

[Ebontail]

Rift is still around? But how is that possible WoW's not dead like they said it would be.

[Judge Malthred]

Best you can do is continuously encourage the discussion you want, and advise all who want to do the same to flag the people trolling your post or posting un-constructively.

It takes a while, I ran a thread that spanned about 300 pages in all its incarnations from thread capping on the wow forums for Archaeology and we had a lot of trolling, but everyone voted them down and after a while the thread was mostly constructive discussion.

[Karteli]

After rereading everything and seeing Demon's post, I'd say just do what you normally do.

You can't possibly police everyone, but you can be nice. It's hard to say who is sincere and who is deviant.

The problem exists in all the forums really, even GD.

[Maleagant]

I leave you with this short video by Totalbiscuit about my game vs your game people.

[Sunshine]

There are new mods on the forums now, so hopefully that will help coverage. If you've got complaints about specific mods or moderation decisions (or lack thereof), feel free to send me a PM.