The Banhammer and You: A User's Guide to the Forums

Susan Arendt

Nerd Queen
Jan 9, 2007
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CuddlyCombine said:
sorry user name taken. said:
CuddlyCombine said:
Helpful, but I'm still willing to bet that hardly anybody's going to read it.

i did >.>
Anyone serious about the forums will (i.e. myself, you). Badge miners and postcounting freaks probably won't, or give it a skim at best.
Good. I hope they don't. It'll make it just that much easier for us to notice them and weed them out. We're not really interested in keeping postcount whores as part of our community.
 

CuddlyCombine

New member
Sep 12, 2007
1,142
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Susan Arendt said:
Good. I hope they don't. It'll make it just that much easier for us to notice them and weed them out. We're not really interested in keeping postcount whores as part of our community.
Meh. The part I find most crucial is that people use the report button instead of posting in doomed threads to ridicule, or posting in duplicate threads to tell people they've already been made...
 

Eclectic Dreck

New member
Sep 3, 2008
6,662
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Excellent points I would say. Honestly, I've been surprised at just how far one can go without being banned. Often, simply posting in a thread covering a contentious topic can get you banned on other parts of the web.
 

Shapsters

New member
Dec 16, 2008
6,079
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Very good guide for teh n00bz. I got Probation for ONE Lolcat, one. Thats all :( Anyways, good guide!
 

Alex_P

All I really do is threadcrap
Mar 27, 2008
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The66Monkey said:
Personally i joust think that the escapist is a very nice mindless forums since if i say anything stupid in a intelligent enough way it's accepted while in other forums you have to stand up for everything you say plus that you have to dodge idiot posts by genuinely stupid people.

The "care-bear" style of the escapist can at least be said to be a very good place to be introduced to forums and the internet i myself have learn a lot about the ways of the net but like everything else in life one eventually steps away from the safe arms of a "care-bear" forum and into the more real and rawer parts of the internet.
See, when "standing up for everything you say" means explaining the same elementary crap over and over again to a slightly different set of people (or the same set of deeply obstinate people), you're never actually going to be able to talk about something that means a damn. Your example ranting racist might "broaden" a discussion about racial issues a bit with his crazy ranting racist viewpoint, but he also drains all the depth out of it.

The best forums I've seen are small, intimate affairs that have a specific purpose -- to talk about X -- and moderation that keeps the discussion about X. They challenge you to be a worthwhile contributor rather than an armchair ranter or a drive-by ego-stroker. And all of that demands actively resisting being part of the "raw" Internet with its bullshit culture of anonymity and random aggression.

Now, the Escapist can't be a place like that -- it's got a much bigger and wider audience and the primary goal is to keep that audience entertained and sociable rather than to enable their creative acts or grow their understanding -- but there's still a lot to learn from small, functional creative communities on the web. I think the most important thing for users to learn is not to wallow in identity; the "social network" phenomenon of this decade has really bled all over message boards, too, feeding a culture where posting something trivial about yourself qualifies as "discussion".

-- Alex
 

Lord Krunk

New member
Mar 3, 2008
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SimuLord said:
I learned a long time ago (thankfully through others' rather than my own experience) that if someone makes a tasteless racist or sexist joke, it is perfectly OK to laugh at it, but to quote the post and let someone know you laughed at it? Verboten.

Like most of the Internet, the Escapist falls into the trap of politically correct bigotry---it is perfectly fine to rip Acceptable Targets [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AcceptableTargets], but go after a pet liberal cause (with a "kitchen/sammich" joke or anything that's racist toward any race other than white people) and you're up a creek.

It's not as bad as some sites (I once got a three-day suspension from GameFAQs for---I am not making this up---stating I planned to vote Republican), but it is still ultimately a tilted playing field that makes it a lot less shocking that sites like Conservapedia and Metapedia exist.
I disagree with this, as it's not what you say, but how you say it. You can still be a homophobic zionist pirate fanboy without any restrictions here, but the requirement is that you have reasoning behind your argument and aren't rude about it.

I'll give an example (not resembling my own opinion):

Fanboyism:

Wrong said:
stfu nubs u suk half life iz for PC fags halo is teh winzorz lolol
Intentional spelling errors, no explanation as to their opinion and the use of the word 'fags' in an offensive way are all factors involved in why this person would quite possibly recieve a probation at best.

Right said:
I consider the Xbox to be the superior gaming device over the PC. My reasoning is that a keyboard and mouse is more uncomfortable to use than a controller, which moulds into your hand. Also, I consider consoles better for gaming as they require a lot less care, do not succumb to viruses and are purpose-built for my needs.

Half Life, in my opinion, was not that great a game as it was mostly story driven and had frequent parts where you were forced to stand around in unskippable cutscenes for up to 20 minutes rather than actually play the game. Halo is more of a game for me, as it provides bigger challenges, more enemies to shoot and not a single dull moment.
See what I did there? I just turned a post that was pointless, dull, illegible and stupid into something genuinely warranting discussion, giving the user a whole lot more respect by his peers. here one would have been banned, the other would not.

Still not convinced? I'll step it up a notch (again, not my opinion, just an example):

Homosexuality:

Wrong said:
fuk u fags, cuz ur all SHIT go bak to amsterdam where ur WANTED
It really doesn't need saying. Offensive comments, unnecessary caps lock, spelling errors and god knows what else is the reason why anyone who would post anything like this will receive a suspension.

Right said:
Homosexuality is a touchy issue on my part, as I was raised with the firm belief that it was a sin, as well as previous incidents in my life that I would rather forget.

I also consider sodomy unnatural; an act that no man was intended to do. Argue with me all you want, but that is my belief.
This was hard to write for me as well, because I have no idea why you would dislike homosexuality unless you were either a psycho-christian or told to dislike them by your 12-year-old peers. Anyway, I did my best.

The above quote may be debated by some, but the poster has at least given his reasons and contributed to the discussion in a polite manner. Also, a post like that will not receive moderator wrath for that very reason.

That's my observation, anyway.

scotth266 said:
Lord Krunk said:
Excuse my uninformed-ness, but what does BB stand for?

And as for necroing threads, I am not too sure how to say when it's good and when it's bad. Really, I deem it to be good until a month after its connception, but others (like PurpleRain's Quote Thread) tend to survive.

Thanks for the feedback though; I'm glad that these few hours of work wasn't a waste of time on my part.
Ah, it's the tags added onto text, like the small or color things. Flagrant abuse of these is uncommon, but it happened in the past apparently.

And as for the necros, I asked Tendo about it. Apparently it's ok to necro something as long as you have added something significant to the discussion. Still, you might want to stick in a note telling people to avoid it when it comes to news threads. I mean, did we really need to be reminded of Soulja Boy's attempt to make a game about himself?

Also, you need to change the bottom to include [small](Permanent).[/small] Just for the lulz :D
Oh, you were talking about BB Code; I have a few ideas of what would be bannable offenses, so bear with me until I can write something up.

As for Necroing, it still isn't necessarily bannable unless the one doing the necroing happens to be a spambot, so I'll leave it out.

Thanks for the advice, by the way.
 

Lord Krunk

New member
Mar 3, 2008
4,809
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UPDATE: Added a new topic, 'Badges and Bannings', which can now be found on the OP. Pictures courtesy of Nivag.
 

Doug

New member
Apr 23, 2008
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Lord Krunk said:
[HEADING=2]Con-clue-shon[/HEADING]​

In the end, the moderators are the people that keep the Escapist a great place to be. Don?t make their lives harder by causing trouble; embrace the community for what it is (freaking utopia), contribute and participate. We aren?t a totalitarian empire, we?re a friendly message board devoted to the gaming industry.
Indeed *quaffs champagne and adjusts his monocle*
 

painfull2006

New member
Jul 2, 2008
461
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Ouch....

You might want to add "Resurrection of old threads" to the probation list

its a stupid thing to be put on probation for and lost me my Neo :O!
 

scotth266

Wait when did I get a sub
Jan 10, 2009
5,202
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Lord Krunk said:
Oh, you were talking about BB Code; I have a few ideas of what would be bannable offenses, so bear with me until I can write something up.

As for Necroing, it still isn't necessarily bannable unless the one doing the necroing happens to be a spambot, so I'll leave it out.

Thanks for the advice, by the way.
I believe that wilson's thread on BB code might be of some assistance on that matter: it has some examples of truely obnoxious code just for this subject. RAINBOW POWER!!!

And I'm glad to give it. Helping the kiddies to realize what will and won't fly in these here forums is fun stuff.

Ah, and apparently you can get probations for the necroing(I'm guessing for repeating it, not by accident): ask painlfull2006, he posted above.

Glad to see that you added a section on the badges, by the way. I'm still a-goin for the Neo, though given my insane amounts of activity here, I'll likely hit the post count before the six months are up :D
 

johnman

New member
Oct 14, 2008
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I got put on probation in marhc mayhem for stating ym own personal opinion, which was fair enough but 2 posts down i justified and put out the flames i started, then got suspended.

No epic poster badge for me im afraid :(
 

IrrelevantTangent

New member
Oct 4, 2008
2,424
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Absolutely fantastic. Lord Krunk, I congratulate thee, on creating a thread as useful as this. I'm in favor of it being stickied, if that's possible.
Again, well done, and I have no critique in particular, other than the fact that I'd like to raise a complaint about the Neo badge- I do recognize that the Neo badge is awarded for those that have proven to have incredible worth, and those that have proven to be truly useful to the community, but may I suggest that the requirements for the badge be edited to 3000 posts, or 3500 posts?

Maybe even 4000 posts? 5000 posts seems like an impassable wall for more than a few people, and I'm sure I speak for the badge enthusiasts when I say its requirements may be a little too steep.