Okay...because I'd like the subject to be discussed somewhat respectfully...

[FalloutJack]

Does anyone feel like the Wild West forum down further into the list upon the Escapist site may be something of a BAD idea? I think I can get the idea of it allowing some cutting loose, here and there, but I just found out about this and I'm not sure this will go as intended.

I wanted to discuss that here, and not there, so someone doesn't tell me where I can get off. Just for the record, can I get some honest opinions about this, a little discussion going on pros and cons?


No reason. I just like JoCo.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Um what are we talking about? I've been away for two weeks.

 

[MHR]

I don't think there are enough people with enough creativity to really exploit the lack of controls there.

Nothing illegal is allowed. That pretty much covers most abuse. Can't post about childrens pornos, drug sales or death threats, so what now? Have discussions about local KKK rallies? Please. Regular Escapist threads are edgy enough. I think the wild west might be a disappointment.

I was looking forward to "naming and shaming" but I don't hate anyone enough, so like, whatever?

 

[MeatMachine]

The reason why /b/ works is because it is totally anonymous; in that regard, it is almost wholly unique. I wish there were more sites like it, where people can comfortably and safely be as crass, controversial, and antisocial as they want[footnote]...within legal limits, of course.[/footnote] without the fear of being doxed, banned, traced to accounts on other sites, or even result in real-life consequences. Since the #GamerGate shit went down and even /b/ got purged and censored, I think having alternate, yet similar places to go is essential to keep people feeling confident in their ability to find a community they can enjoy.

Unfortunately, so long as I still have a username and account tied to my every word, I still have something of a reputation to protect and something of value to risk losing. Because of that, "Wild West" simply seems like an inevitable social trap for people who trust in the nature of it too much and who are willing to have their every word be traced to their profile.

I really admire The Escapist for trying out something as bold as emulating the nature of /b/, even in a very minor degree. However, the concept of a "Wild West" forum simply does not work unless you commit to it entirely, to include all of its nastiest potential.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

Ah jeez, I get post ninja'd, but not often do I get thread ninja'd!

Yes, I think it's a very poor idea. I'll post this little thing I said in one of the Wild West threads and elaborate on it further:

I feel like because things are going downhill slowly and mods are leaving (Possibly because of this new forum), this is simply a way of going "FUCK IT, do whatever you crazy people want! Just don't hold us responsible" and that comes off as a pretty bad idea. It's allowing things to go haywire without any regard to the rules that this site has so strictly upheld, which will probably only increase the rate in which it dies.

It'll increase post/thread creation and maybe a bit of traffic, but at what cost? This will just let trolls and rule breakers walk all over everything and everyone, and without mod enforcement, it'll probably drive people away faster. I hope they re-consider. Maybe I'm entirely wrong and am being pessimistic and it'll turn out to be a blast, who knows. I'm simply nervous about it all

I don't feel like there's a lot of pros here. It's fun to just have some BS with threads that have less rules, but pretty much having none besides the illegal stuff might not be the best way of going about it. No moderation support on these threads also sounds extremely sketchy.

My biggest problem is that it comes off as a "We don't care. Go be crazy and be a pain in the ass and shitpost all you want. Here's the place to do it" when The Escapist has been all about enforcing its rules firmly. While that may be a bother to some which could very well be why this sub-forum was made, these rules and the level they're enforced is why The Escapist isn't as much of a crap shoot as other forums. But looking at the mod list, half of our mods seem to have poofed away from us all of a sudden. I can't imagine why, and I can't help but wonder if the Wild West was either why they left, or a byproduct of them leaving.

Is this really what's best for The Escapist in this situation it's in? I wouldn't say so. Things are already slowly falling apart, so why create a sub-forum that could potentially speed up the process? Stuff like harassment, calling out users, insults, bigotry, slandering... All of these things seem like they could be a big issue in the Wild West. If this is indeed the case, why the fuck would anyone wanna be hanging around here anymore when there could be a big ol circle jerk of people making efforts to ruin people's reputations completely un-moderated?

This is gonna go to hell fast. It's a silly little idea now that it's fresh and people can dick around with it. But once the layer of fun settles down, all that it's gonna become is a pure shit-posting war, and could potentially be worse than R&P if mis-handled. And considering the CoC and reports are disregarded in the Wild West... I have no reason to believe otherwise.

This isn't like The Escapist at all

 

[The Jovian]

Snip

Yeah, this really doesn't sound like The Escapist, it sounds like they finally gave up or it's basically what they think of safe spaces. Either one is a pretty stupid reason to do this. And do you want to know the worst part is (until of course someone starts slandering)?

These Wild West shitposts appear on the website's most popular forum threads box, no really they do. It's how found out about it. Why thank you Josh, now I have to sift through a mountain of shitposting and bullshit in order do find the popular threads that I'm actually interested in contributing to, thank you for ruining that small bit of convenience for me.

And even if that weren't a problem, moderation exists for a reason and that reason will become glaringly obvious in the next few day.

 

[Neverhoodian]

One of the things that convinced me to join the Escapist forums in the first place was the moderation and resulting civility that followed (at least if you avoided R&P and later GID). It certainly wasn't perfect; old threads are littered with the corpses of well-liked members that got the banhammer, and the less said about the Jimquisition Adblock fiasco the better. There was also the issue of certain users exploiting the rules by perfecting the art of passive-aggressiveness, often in an attempt to goad users they didn't like into responding and getting a warning/suspension/ban. When all was said and done though, I'd gladly take the Escapist's moderation over nearly any other message board out there. It kept out the riff-raff, was reasonably lenient and cultivated (mostly) intelligent discussions.

But this...this has "bad idea" written all over it. I fail to see why such a subforum is needed in the first place. It's not like the internet is lacking venues to vent one's spleen, shamelessly advertise or act like a dick; one need look no further than the comments section of just about any major social media site or hop onto an online multiplayer game. R&P and GID were bad enough for breeding animosity amongst members, but this is going to open the floodgates in a way those subforums never did.

I can easily foresee scenarios where users stop coming to the site because they were harassed by total assholes who never got put in their place by the mods. I don't see how this is going to cut down on the workloads for mods either; they're undoubtedly going to get reported posts by folks in the middle of a flame war where emotions are running high, requiring them to frequently check in on yet another subforum (how many are we up to now? Nineteen?). I don't even think it'll cut down on the spambots. I'm no expert, but they seem to give zero fucks about designated areas and proceed to post en masse across multiple subforums.

If there's a silver lining in all this, my personal goal of getting a Neo badge just got a hell of a lot easier if I'm willing to lower my standards.

EDIT: Could someone explain the creation of the "Biowarriors" subforum? Did BioWare ban a bunch of users from their forums recently, or were the forums taken down entirely? Just seems a bit odd they would get their own subforum here when previous "refugees" from sites like GameTrailers did not.

 

[Fallow]

Have any of you considered that you aren't forced into reading the Wild West forum? It seems like an important aspect.

 

[Wrex Brogan]

...there's a Wild West forum? I can't seem to find it in any of the forum searches, I'm guessing it's only a premium member thing or something then?

Either way, if it is a 'free-for-all' forum then... fuckin' christ, someone somewhere wasn't thinking that through. There's enough thinly veiled hatred around here, it's all going to go to hell in a handbag if people get a free go at calling each other massive cunts. The solution to rampant passive-aggression isn't opening the doors to let all the aggression in.

Ah well, then again, there's only like... one mod? Two, maybe? At least it cuts down on their workload by giving everyone a place to be colossal pieces of shit that they don't have to look after.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Have any of you considered that you aren't forced into reading the Wild West forum? It seems like an important aspect.

Sure, but that doesn't make it any less dumb. Despite my love for shitposting. It screams desperation: "Look kids, we're fun! We can be fun I swear!"

 

[Silence]

I have experience with such a subforum on another forum. It is awesome.
That said, there you need 25posts to see it and 50 to post, and there`s a warning:
Do not post here unless you are absolutely sure what you are doing.

Dont show it on the frontpage.

 

[K12]

It's a genuinely interesting question to me whether having a no-holds barred free for all area would mean that people get a chance to blow off steam and make the rest of the forum more relaxed OR if it just lets people safely gain confidence in acting like trolling arsehole and they then proceed to de-railing and fucking up other areas of the forum.

We shall see... and rejoice or despair accordingly.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Err some context is needed? I have no idea what this wild west forum or what exactly you're on about?

EDIT- Oh ok, there is a "Wild West" subforum if you simply click on the forum button tap above. It's basicaly a outlaw/ barren wasteland sort of thread where anything goes as long it's not illigal or porn.

Either way, I guess I kinda ok with it at its current state as long it doesn't become popular.


Also why is there a "Biowarriors" subtopic? Apparently it's "A place to discuss games for exiled fans of the Bioware Forums", why canter to them especially when it has no topics in it so far? Does it have a large fanbase cos I'm not seeing it?

 

[Bobular]

Give it a week and we'll see what it evolves into.

It could be quite entertaining to see what comes of it, I just don't think it should get onto the front page, especially as Wild West has no rules about titles but other parts of the forum do.

 

[anthony87]

I'm actually quite interested to see how it'll turn out. Surprisingly I have enough confidence that the majority of people here won't suddenly turn into raging cunts the moment a "no consequences" zone appears.

And if people do turn into raging cunts then at least they'll be confined to a particular, easily avoidable section.

You'd swear the rules were being gotten rid of across the entire site with how some people are reacting.

 

[tippy2k2]

Seems pointless at best and incredibly stupid at worst.

Pointless at best that we can already see; the threads down there right now are literally pointless as they're either bad puns, bad jokes, or just swearing because...reasons? Once the novelty fun wears off, what's going to be left? A handful of threads about stuff that we can't normally talk about (I imagine a "Moderation Sucks!!!!" and "Adblock rules!!!!!" will show up soon enough), a bunch of empty joke threads as the novelty is gone, and a place for people to insult each other outside of the normal threads because they're not allowed to call each other names in the other threads.

Incredibly stupid because I come to this site BECAUSE of the CoC. It's a subforum that goes directly against what (I assume at least given the much looser rules at other sites) many people come here for. While it is in it's own subforum section, it's not exactly crazy to think that the attitude there can bleed into the other subforums pretty easily...

It's their site so they can do what they want as I just will not go there (although I've had a weird question about adblock so maybe I will dip my toes there in there). This just feels like a bad sign that management just doesn't quite get and/or appreciate what makes this site unique.

 

[IceForce]

I've dicked about in it a bit already, but to be completely serious about it, I don't think it was needed. Usergroups already filled that niche; anyone could make one, and they are largely unmoderated, a la:

If the powers-that-be wanted to make a new subforum that could actually be beneficial and serve a purpose, then I wish they'd make a 'NSFW' subforum. A place where nudity (both real and animated) could be posted freely, and sex/sexual issues could be freely discussed and talked about without having to worry about accidentally bumping into the 'PG13' rule this forum apparently has.

Hell, put an age gate on it and a big 'NSFW' warning, and block it from showing on the front page, if they are worried about people accidentally clicking on something they might not want to see.

 

[IceForce]

Also, I wouldn't mind getting some input from a few moderators on this. I'd be interested in hearing what they make of this new subforum and how they expect it to play out.

To any mods reading this...

... to reply and offer your thoughts.

 

[EHKOS]

Well, I am/was (it's dead now) part of a forum that was basically just The Wild West, and we had fun. It also just ramped down on it's own until all the members just drifted off. So I think we can have some good times and eventually we'll just tire ourselves out.

 

[IceForce]

Someone above mentioned an interesting point; do posts in the Wild West still count towards the Neo badge? Because if so, that would be a bit weird, - issuing a badge for never being moderated, when you mostly post somewhere where you CAN'T be moderated...