Why are the forums toxic?

Tasear

Seems like something we often say in passing but is it true? Obviously not always but I don't recall people saying forums to be positive place.

So let raise some issues that not just effect myself but others.

People posting mutiple threads

There's clear harssment to anyone who does in general section. This done to people discuss old or new topics. Sure moderation is there but I often see things ingored like. So let ask the question that goes along with? Why is a secret taboo to post mutiple threads?

Why do people belittle people for having to many stars?

It's often people get quoted with bettiling comments or forum farming by simply stating something. This seems progressive worst as people get more stars. Why do helpful people get punished?


Why is not okay to defend yourself?

If you have well intentions it best not to respond to baiters or this voliation of forum rules? Yet I often see people belttiled, jeered or harssed even more if say nothing?

There's other issues but making long posts seems be taboo issues too, so state a few others in quick succession, L2P, reroll to different class, necroing, dead horses.

Note: Answer is yes, I am annoyed but I am appart of a bigger issue.

Aesthier

Tasear wrote: »

Why are the forums toxic?

Because Forums are open to the community and the community is comprised of toxic people unable (or refuse) to think critically. (For the most part)

notimetocare

Mostly due to stupid questions.
The rest, salty people and trolls

Banana

Its the lag

Colecovision

I’m always grumpy because I’m not playing. I’m nice in game. Get grumpy here sometimes, but I don’t mean to. I doubt I’m alone on that.

Also, for some reason everyone thinks the characters we worked on for a year or more should get nerds. Sets a bad tone. Then internet bravery takes its toll. I absolutely promise people post things they would never say to people in real life.

Fwiw: I liked the guild thread.

Aesthier

This makes me wonder if it would be possible to get Alexa and Siri into an argument with each other.

Anyone able to test this?

Tabbycat

I don't think there's anything wrong with multiple threads unless they are all about the same topic and could easily be condensed into a single thread. If you make multiple threads about the same topic, just with different variations of, people start wondering if you are just making threads to draw attention to yourself. Like if I am going to make a thread about oh let's say William Shatner I am going to make one thread about him and not separate threads about him being the best Captain in Star Trek (I personally prefer Picard), how awesome he was as the Big Giant Head in Third Rock from the Sun and his weird commercials.

VaranisArano

Here's my opinion on why I don't like some of those things.

Multiple Threads - I get tired of repeating myself and its much more sensible and easy to understand if we keep the conversation in one or two threads if we want to have an actual discussion. Pretty soon it starts to feel like the poster is bandwagoning on a popular topic or decided that their opinion needed its own thread instead of just discussing it on the threads that have a ongoing conversation. If there are pre-existing active threads, I will point them out when somebody posts the 4th, 5th, or 6th thread on a topic.

Dead Horses - there are certain topics that show up on the forums every month or so that Im, again, pretty much repeating what I said the month before. Pointing out, "hey, this is a dead horse topic," is a way of saying, "look, most of us who have been around the forums have seen this topic many times before amd frankly, you didn't post anything that's going to make us change our stance." Of course, we have to take in consideration that sometimes its ZOS raising the dead horse...

Necroing Threads -
1. Oftentimes these threads contain old, outdated, or incorrect information
2. There's little thats more annoying than getting worked up over some bait question or tech question thats now fixed or commentary about builds...only to realize that the thread is a year old and somehow migrated back to the front page.
3. Mannimarco approves of thread necromancy. I don't.

imnotanother

These threads are reminding me of @UltimaJoe777

Tasear

Aesthier wrote: »

Tasear wrote: »

Why are the forums toxic?

Because Forums are open to the community and the community is comprised of toxic people unable (or refuse) to think critically. (For the most part)

What makes helpful people leave though?

Actually maybe I ask myself rethorical question? As I find myself thinking helpful people are often punished.

mb10

Ive never seen a gaming forum that isnt toxic lol

VaranisArano

Might as well ask "Why are people toxic on the Internet?"

We can all debate exactly what toxic behavior means on the forums, but I think it boils down to a combo of internet anonymity and "I'm right-you're wrong" conviction.

Tasear

VaranisArano wrote: »

Here's my opinion on why I don't like some of those things.

Multiple Threads - I get tired of repeating myself and its much more sensible and easy to understand if we keep the conversation in one or two threads if we want to have an actual discussion. Pretty soon it starts to feel like the poster is bandwagoning on a popular topic or decided that their opinion needed its own thread instead of just discussing it on the threads that have a ongoing conversation. If there are pre-existing active threads, I will point them out when somebody posts the 4th, 5th, or 6th thread on a topic.

Dead Horses - there are certain topics that show up on the forums every month or so that Im, again, pretty much repeating what I said the month before. Pointing out, "hey, this is a dead horse topic," is a way of saying, "look, most of us who have been around the forums have seen this topic many times before amd frankly, you didn't post anything that's going to make us change our stance." Of course, we have to take in consideration that sometimes its ZOS raising the dead horse...

Necroing Threads -
1. Oftentimes these threads contain old, outdated, or incorrect information
2. There's little thats more annoying than getting worked up over some bait question or tech question thats now fixed or commentary about builds...only to realize that the thread is a year old and somehow migrated back to the front page.
3. Mannimarco approves of thread necromancy. I don't.

What about mutiple threads about different topics? Is issue of theme or poster themselves?

Respect4Elders

Aesthier wrote: »

This makes me wonder if it would be possible to get Alexa and Siri into an argument with each other.

Anyone able to test this?

"Look Siri, don't start up with your white zone sh** again. There's just no stopping in a white zone. "

paulsimonps

Don't let them get to you Tasear. I like your threads. Its fun to see most peoples poll responses and comments added to them. And your sorc healing stuff is always great.

disintegr8

The anonymity of the internet allows people to say what they want without direct consequences.

Mureel

I think it's because a lot of people really need attention and that they aren't getting it in other aspects of their lives, so they act out here.

I think some is also due to some people not having much good in their own lives, so they are negative in game too.

I think that some people have had a hard time with successes as we measure them as a society, so their successes in game are very serious/valuable to them.

I think that gaming serves as almost a microcosm of real life in that how you are in real life is going to be echoed in game, but much more obviously because the interactions are brief compared to real life interactions which will have ongoing repercussions.

I think how people act toward each other in game is a big pointer to how they act in real life. Just in real life there are consequences and there is time, so in game you get a really concentrated version of the personalities you're dealing with.

psychotrip

Aesthier wrote: »

Tasear wrote: »

Why are the forums toxic?

Because Forums are open to the community and the community is comprised of toxic people unable (or refuse) to think critically. (For the most part)

This is kind of a hateful way of interpreting it. It's pretty simple: people are generally roused to "action" over something negative. This is just a basic product of evolution. Even if it's just being a keyboard commando on the internet (which I fully admit to being at times), we feel compelled to respond to what we perceive as negative experiences.

Because of this, people are more likely to come to a forum when they want to share a negative experience or opinion. As such, we're also more likely to be in a bad mood when we're on the forums.

This isn't meant to excuse harrassment or bullying, but I do think it's perfectly normal to be a bit overly critical when you're on the forums. That's just how people work.

Tasear

mb10 wrote: »

Ive never seen a gaming forum that isnt toxic lol

Maybe that speaks to greater issue? Is audience it attracts? There's always some level of toxicity but more doom and gloom then sunshine is an issue. We see people even ridiculed for questions? Do people simply not speak of the postive things?

strangeradnd

Believe me this isn't toxic by most standards. Head over to Bungie for a few minutes and you will gain a new appreciation for the civility here.

Tasear

psychotrip wrote: »

Aesthier wrote: »

Tasear wrote: »

Why are the forums toxic?

Because Forums are open to the community and the community is comprised of toxic people unable (or refuse) to think critically. (For the most part)

This is kind of a hateful way of interpreting it. It's pretty simple: people are generally roused to "action" over something negative. This is just a basic product of evolution. Even if it's just being a keyboard commando on the internet (which I fully admit to being at times), we feel compelled to respond to what we perceive as negative experiences.

Because of this, people are more likely to come to a forum when they want to share a negative experience or opinion. As such, we're also more likely to be in a bad mood when we're on the forums.

This isn't meant to excuse harrassment or bullying, but I do think it's perfectly normal to be a bit overly critical when you're on the forums. That's just how people work.

Thanks I honestly never thought about it like that. It answer part of my question.

Saucy_Jack

Respect4Elders wrote: »

Aesthier wrote: »

This makes me wonder if it would be possible to get Alexa and Siri into an argument with each other.

Anyone able to test this?

"Look Siri, don't start up with your white zone sh** again. There's just no stopping in a white zone. "

Fantastic. I'd post the next quote, but I'd rather not be suspended from the forums hahaha

VilniusNastavnik

[Snip].

Forums are usually toxic. Sometimes it's due to community unrest with Developers not listening to themelves, o they need to vent and you get a clash of the opinion with die hard, sweaty fanboys vs filthy cazuals.. othertimes, it's just people being trolls.

If anyone remembers the first few months of Dragon Age Inquisition.. To quote old uncle sheo..
"You know, I was there for that whole sordid affair. Marvelous time! Butterflies, blood, a Fox, a severed head... Oh, and the cheese! To die for."

Myself and a dozen others were building the DA:I wikipedias. Fextra and myself spent quite some time collaborating on the fextralife forums, we were hunting out bugs and issues with the game and feeding back to the Developers. Locations of items, and solutions to puzzles for those too lazy to figure it out for themselves. Datamining and updating equipment, and quest objectives. After a while the devs gave us a response to all our feedback a the bugs were just getting worse.. It's our game.. your opinion is not needed.. and the forum exploded. I changed my sig to "Bioware, we break it, you buy it" Bioware Amelia was relieved as Community Moderator, and most of us got a ban from the forums.. Penguinfetish got a permaban. Coldflame, myself, and a dozen others got a weekend ban. Those who knew what was going on ended up changing their signatures to #free(name) until we got off our bans. In the end, we finished working on the wikis and then that was it we walked away from the forums all together.

This forum though, ZOS is a bit better than Bioware in that regard, and appear to actually take on feedback as well as get involved in the community. Just wish they would be a bit more involved. Hire a few more community moderators, and actually get involved with discussions not just "We have removed several posts due to baiting and flaming". There are things a lot of us want Dev feed back on, and it is why we post in the forums. I think people have this mind set of, if we make a lot of topics about it, they might take notice.. but this just makes it hard to keep track when it is easier to go through 12 pages of one lengthy in depth discussion that 10 topics with 5 post.

[Edited to remove image/profanity]

zyk

They're not. I mean, toxic is subjective -- some people call anyone who doesn't agree with them a troll -- but these forums and this community are very very very mild by online game standards.

Aesthier

Take into consideration that most people who are actually enjoying themselves in the game aren't partaking in the forums because they are "in the game".


Most people visit the forums when something in the game causes a break in their enjoyment; be it anything from a bug to a question.

So to me, the forums are a place of bias from the get-go. Happy people are playing the game and unhappy people are on the forums voicing their malcontent. (with a smattering of those simply asking honest questions)

Tasear

zyk wrote: »

They're not. I mean, toxic is subjective -- some people call anyone who doesn't agree with them a troll -- but these forums and this community are very very very mild by online game standards.

I speak of overall experience. As lately scales been tipping a bit. Many people have taken some over top hateful actions as of lately. You see it in weekly luxary vendor, or blanant attacks aganist doctorEso or Knowledge.

I like this game and not others, so I think issue is good asire. I genuinely want be have a good experience so yes to myself being apart of the issue to say something, but issue does exist.

While nothing can really done, but simply awareness is better then keeping silent.

Sixty5

There have been a number of low effort, spammy topics of late, that feel like nothing more than an effort to farm rep, or to start up arguments.

Additionally with other topics being made where a user offers an unpopular idea, then refuses to accept any arguments against that idea, the thread is going to devolve into poop slinging, one way or another.

ZiRM

It's just the way gaming forums are. It's not right but life isn't fair. mumble mumble rubble rubble rabble...

kadar

Why are the forums toxic?

1) People are toxic

2) Internet anonymity removes the natural consequences of a toxic person's disregard of tact, respect, and positivity.

Samadhi

ArchMikem

There's evil in everyone. > Expressing it in public means suffering consequences. > The Internet provides a veil of anonymity and safety. > Expressing it on the Internet means people can be as evil as they want without fear of consequence.