(04-22-2015, 03:48 PM)Oscare Wrote: In other words: it's not going to help, to put it bluntly.Exactly, its one of the most effective means we have of conducting positivity. Many people don't want to make posts praising someone, some will send PMs, many more happily hit that +1 rep button, and often leave a nice comment too.Â
I feel like we've circled the wagons with the guns facing the wrong direction: toward each other. This thread is full of high criticism and as much aggression and animosity as any thread on the forum lately.
While what we have been dealing with are a handful of controversial topics which have become testy and the occasional heavy-handed criticism of concepts and ideas these things are (sometimes) unfortunate, but are not a reason to demand vast overwhelming changes to a community that has been well run and well conducted for such a long time.
I know we all have our own prescriptions, but in the end it boils down to: don't be a jerk. Express your opinion respectfully, and don't hammer away at someone (or something) with the intent to obliterate it. Understand and accept that this is a large community with a variety of opinion and interest, and what what we all consider good RP and good use of time will vary widely.Â
These sorts of things cannot be moderated from on high. Board moderators can only do their best to work within a framework to keep the edge cases in check, overall the tone will be our responsibility as users to set.Â
I find it especially upsetting that those very threads most intent upon boosting the tone of the board also come in for harsh criticism. What exactly are we supposed to do? Cannot be too positive to each other, cannot be too negative. Only post when other people think its appropriate? How about we just accept all of the good that the community has to offer, and do our best to mitigate the bad.
I can't help but feel like all of these suggestions for any major changes are overreaction. Things are not bad, worthy of a moment of reflection, perhaps, but not (apropos a particular thread), of revolution.Â
This has been one of my very favorite web communities, and I've enjoyed it for over a year to the point that I tend to check it almost constantly to see whats going on. The idea that we cannot handle or manage ourselves had never occurred to me. But, if we're to be a community where we really have to trust the moderators to make things right, and we have to remove such dangerous tools as a reputation system from the hands of users lest new forum goers be intimidated, or undesirable habits be spread, then all I can say is that is not a community that will garner my interest, let alone my love.
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