Communities and caustic things

[MidKnight]

http://rjbs.manxome.org/rubric/entry/1959

Ricardo Signes wrote this intriguing analysis of community dynamics on the internet. He says that web communities select for talented people but also for abusive people.

What do you guys think? To what extent does this article apply to our own community?

[Karl]

There gives those kind of spring-engine lobby #maim idlers players

1. TA or GTFO!
2. lol I have a Idea after 2 days I say okeh thanks bai
3. one-man-army that loves grunt work
4. Idler
5. I will rip'n'tear all of your life-work that you are feeding those poor minor individuals that trys to be different!
6. Voltagers that approximate life-time is up-to 1 month
7. Grave-yard-post-diggers that digs out ancient old mods/post that has been cursed since the roman seizers
8.I watched and I just lole'd
9. Just passing by
10. KGB-agent from the cold yet so hot war from something that evolves very big that permits only one-man faction

Ohhh TA-Spring-Engine-That-Dosent-Like-To-Be-Called-As-TA What should we do if we aren't for you?

We are all those individuals that always trys to gather fame and have a personal fan-bois meet-ups! In their private unknown dark-corner of the interwebs channels pub that everyone is welcome to enter and those that trys to be different will get a hard TA-slapstick to be beaten upon it!

Now go... Take you pick... Chose it wisely, with some luck you might receive an cursed holy grail if you chose it very verry wisely...

[PicassoCT]

We are not even close to free software's most wretched hive of scum and villainy. That's because, people say, free software is a meritocracy where the best contributors will be respected and last. Heck, that's why they're allowed to be abusive

[smoth]

What a pretentious pile of crap. Seriously mid, the guy having poems in his article does not make it profound. It is one guy's buttmad post about his feelings and experience with the interwebs.

here is a bit of actual thought in response to the blurb pic posted. The reason contributors stay around is not because of special treatment. It is because they have a reason to stay. They come BACK after a ban because they have a reason to be here. We all get temp banned and some of the ones who have been given massive bans WERE some of the major producers/personalities around here. Several people get banned all the time and none of you notice. The only time you lot do notice is if someone makes a big stink about it. Many people get banned and just move on to another place/game. Sometimes coming back months AFTER their ban ended claiming that they were banned waaaaaaaaaay longer than they were.

Just the standard baw crap that I hate about all internet communities. "but but so and so never gets banned/warned, he is above the rules." Yeah, ok, he is above the rules as far as YOU know and frankly most of the people who post that crap have no idea.

[SinbadEV]

"but but so and so never gets banned/warned, he is above the rules."

I think in many cases, the people who seem immune to the rules are just those who understand the rules best... and this is also why their always seems to be a lot of "abusive" people in the mix... If you figure out what things offend or do not offend the moderators you are better able to work just inside the lines while people who are unfamiliar with the way things work tend to accidentally step over the lines and get stomped for it.

[Johannes]

Well, it doesn't help that here you can never be certain who's banned and what for, or by whom.

[smoth]

"but but so and so never gets banned/warned, he is above the rules."

I think in many cases, the people who seem immune to the rules are just those who understand the rules best... and this is also why their always seems to be a lot of "abusive" people in the mix... If you figure out what things offend or do not offend the moderators you are better able to work just inside the lines while people who are unfamiliar with the way things work tend to accidentally step over the lines and get stomped for it.

and that is NOT often the content devs. we have all the subtlety of a raging bull.

[smoth]

Well, it doesn't help that here you can never be certain who's banned and what for, or by whom.

It isn't really your business anyway.

[SwiftSpear]

Well, it doesn't help that here you can never be certain who's banned and what for, or by whom.

They're banned by the moderation team for breaking the rules, or just being ethically trash. Why would you need to know who is banned?

[PicassoCT]

Flamewar memorial? And there names were melted into the obsidian errected, to tell generations to come- your father was here, and died a little inside, when he peered upon the work necessary to get his daydreamin real.

Lets see the positive side, unlike hollywood- we dont get aspiring "actors" and "actress" to make a living with porn. So you want a game done? Why not convince everyone in your family to throw in some money and transfer it to the following offshore account?

[Johannes]

Because the moderation work here seems quite arbitrary (whether it really is or not, nobody can really tell atm), having some transparency might encourage moderators to have some more consistency. Also wtf, you can be banned for being deemed "ethically trash" even if you break no rules ?

And to know which rules are actually enforced, by means other than pushing them myself.

Obviously it matters too to know whether a person can engage in conversation with me here or not.

[Das Bruce]

Trolling softly.

[Azhukar]

I think there are several "rockstars" here.

Image macro spam posts?
Pushing own agendas into forum rules? (politics/religion ban)
Abusing "stolen" TA projects/txt mods while infringing themselves?
Marking others as trolls whenever you disagree with them?
Logical fallacies all around disregarding argumentative policy?
Moderator telling user to "fuck off" because of opinion conflict?
Moderating while heavily invested in a topic?
Attempted censorship of TA projects from subforum listing?
Hostility towards newcomers having game ideas?
"Community Lead" not actually interacting with community?

All tolerated. Community management is broken. Moderators are doing whatever they feel like doing. No cohesion or transparency.

Queue remarks of me being a big bad "troll".

[smoth]

^ always the victim

[KaiserJ]

i try to be as transparent as possible

azukhar i'll go through and address your points i suppose...

Pushing own agendas into forum rules? (politics/religion ban) - this is good. we haven't had a shitstorm due to political differences as far as i know. maybe it's not the best rule, but there are so many other avenues to have a political discussion that it seems insignificant to include it on this site.

Image macro spam posts? - these are bad. in fact it's rude really to jump into a topic and try to either insult it or drag the conversation into something unrelated.

Moderator telling user to "fuck off" because of opinion conflict? - never saw this

Moderating while heavily invested in a topic? - i specifically avoid moderating anything related to my projects. people are free to shit all over them and they do repeatedly.

Hostility towards newcomers having game ideas? - this really annoys me too.

Abusing "stolen" TA projects/txt mods while infringing themselves? - not against the rules, should it be?

Marking others as trolls whenever you disagree with them?
Logical fallacies all around disregarding argumentative policy?
Attempted censorship of TA projects from subforum listing?
"Community Lead" not actually interacting with community?

missing the point of these above; the troll bit comes down to the fact that some people would rather argue than have mods step in... i.e. reporting a post, then when i visit the thread, the reporter is in there generally being offensive and shirty and starting shit, which pretty much invalidates a report to me. if your neighbours are playing loud music at 1am, you don't call the police and THEN throw a brick through the window, that's just stupid. and that's what i have to deal with... social retards who don't understand simple human interaction, and i'm not going to hold their hand and make everything okay for them.

i'm not out on a guard tower watching all of you 24/7. i respond to reports and PM's and make my own judgement, which is generally to do nothing, because as i've mentioned people on here don't really seem to care about moderation anyway, they would rather just fling their own shit.

but fair enough, i can do more to protect threads posted by new forum members (regardless of their tone) and i can do my best to remove image "spam" (which, you have to understand, is based around opinion... i may see an image i deem unrelated, when in actuality it's on-topic, but i'll try my best)

i guess my biggest mistake as a moderator (and this relates to the posted article) that i figure you can show people the correct way to act via kindness and subtle correction, but when i really consider it, i'm wrong: the sort of people attracted to this project in the first place seem to be largely proud cunts who are used to being treated as the smartest in the room.

TL:DR if you've been trolled, use the report button. do not engage the troll and lower yourself to their level. this is especially important if you're citing admin abuse, because i've never seen it, and i'm not GOING to see it unless you draw it to my attention. thankyou.

[CarRepairer]

Well, it doesn't help that here you can never be certain who's banned and what for, or by whom.

If upon banning you want an announcement like "This person was banned for posting an offensive picture depicting X" which would stir up drama and responses, then the end result is giving the troll exactly what he wanted. Might as well not bother banning him. Silently removing the content and troll is the obvious course of action.

If you want to know why someone was banned, ask them yourself (the victim in question would no doubt be honest with you since you don't trust the moderation here).

[smoth]

I think it is cute that regret is pro politics but finds image macros unacceptable. One of these things is part of internet conversation, the other is something people have consistently proven incapable of conversing objectively. His entire strategy is to post and complaining enough until someone has a weak moment and caves. He wants politics back because they are **great flame bait and he is here to chat, he doesn't care what, just to talk pointlessly. So he wants politics back so people get inflamed and will engage with him but image macros are terrible.

**btw, that is called trolling for an argument and where trolling originally came from as a term.

[Azhukar]

Moderator telling user to "fuck off" because of opinion conflict? - never saw this

http://springrts.com/phpbb/viewtopic.ph ... 15#p520915

Abusing "stolen" TA projects/txt mods while infringing themselves? - not against the rules, should it be?

It already is against forum rules, specifically in the felonies section:

"11. Discussion of specific projects' licensing status is not allowed under any circumstances other than in very good faith and a highly positive and productive manner, unless sanctioned by the license holder."

It would be nice if you knew them all.

[gajop]

If upon banning you want an announcement like "This person was banned for posting an offensive picture depicting X" which would stir up drama and responses, then the end result is giving the troll exactly what he wanted. Might as well not bother banning him.

Create an RSS feed for banning notifications! Also integrate it in game.

[smoth]

Spring isn't a game.

Also he said fuck off not fuck you. Big difference!