Maybe we could get rid of a certain someone's monthly attention seeking I'm quoting eso threads lol

I'd be for making forums for subscribers only.
Just because all those "forums going p2w too" posts would be golden.

Erm, no, this sort of thing gets abused (see sub-Reddits that allow downvotes). because too many people are too immature to not simply downvote a perfectly valid thread just because it is something they disagree with or states something they don't want to hear.

Adernath wrote: »

Thoughts?

No, I too desire the ability to anonymously bully newcomers. Driving people out of the forum and ensuring no one but the most toxic and deranged remain is the cornerstone of a healthy ghost town.

No, wait...

But, seriously, yeah, this would be abused in egregious ways. At the very least you'd see cliques form, that would obliterate any posts that dissented from their opinion.

Also, it would become functionally impossible to join the boards, because if a new poster came under fire, even if it was legitimately, they wouldn't be able to stick around long enough to find out what was happening.

Let people post what they want within the forum rules. If you don't like what they post, move on to another thread. No need to comment or have a 'dislike' button..........just move on.

There is an ignore user feature on these boards already.

Personally I am against things which upvote/downvote/bury/remove posts because I am of the more old school forums type.

I like to see when someone is being stupid, so I can tell them they're stupid and why. If someone is trolling I can call them out on it or report them to a moderator if they're actually breaking rules.

It's better to have the debates and tell that user who wants a nerf why something doesn't need a nerf and how they can improve and counter it than just hide them away and pretend they don't exist.

starkerealm wrote: »

Adernath wrote: »

I doubt that will create much work for moderators, likely the contrary.

It would.

It wouldn't take much to figure out where the critical mass is, and then surgically execute threads. It'd also mean that any descent, especially based on out of date information would be squelched immediately.

For example, six months ago, "everyone knew," bows were useless for DPS. It wasn't really true, not exactly, but, "everyone knew." So, if you posted a thread, explaining how to actually get them working, you'd be locked and deep sixed by your system.

It encourages a kind of mob rule system that would drive newbies away from the boards, and would enforce a kind of groupthink, where any thread that got out of line was snapped down. You'd also have a real risk of arbitrary posters making life miserable and bullying others for no legitimate reason.

This isn't an abstract concept either. Right now, I have a poster who's reporting a bunch of my posts, also a bunch of posts from a few other users. They're petty, they have a grudge, and they apparently have nothing better to do with their time, but off they go, reporting stuff because they disagree with me.

A few years ago, back before the LOL button was taken away, there was a poster, who had too much time on their hands, and who disliked something I'd said, who proceeded to find every post I made for a couple weeks, and LOLed them. I think I've estimated it was around 300, recently, though, thinking back it could have been somewhere around 500. One user, who felt the need to hunt down everything I said, and use the LOL button in an attempt to mock me.

So, yeah, that's people on the internet for you. They will take a system like the one you're describing, and use it punitively. And there's plenty of examples of this already online, if you feel the need. If you want to see what we'd get as a result, you need only read the comments on YouTube.

This is every reason why I hate those systems explained. Thanks starkerealm you get an awesome from me.

Right now I need to really close these boards of and go prep for my RP session I am running in 50mins. I think I have a forums addiction problem.

Sadly, I quoted instead of edited.

Yes, I too can be an idiot.

Turelus wrote: »

starkerealm wrote: »

snip


This is every reason why I hate those systems explained. Thanks starkerealm you get an awesome from me.

Right now I need to really close these boards of and go prep for my RP session I am running in 50mins. I think I have a forums addiction problem.

If you had mentioned this earlier - I'd have been happy to cover for you while you were gone.....

Digressing only slightly, it's a sad reflection on modern society that the younger generation is rather keener on silencing those with differing views to their own rather than hearing what they have to say and debating with them. We see it in the UK a lot with university student unions refusing to host speakers with controversial views whereas in times past a healthy debate would have been had and the controversial speaker sent packing after the debate rather than not being invited at all. Historically, silencing the opposition has never ended well.

As for this proposal, the "LOL" button was removed for a reason - it was grossly abused, and so would the OP's suggestion be.

I don't dislike.

Adernath wrote: »

Nearly every day I see on the forum posts which I dislike or do not agree.

Me too. Thing is, I'm not sure that a dislike button or similar would work - for all the reasons already presented, but mainly because it would be open to abuse. I'd rather see healthy debate, sensible arguments and questioning via forum posts... without resorting to name-calling or belittling or the plethora of other childish remarks constituting a 'reply'.

Or, you could just ignore them, as I often do. Play the game instead.

Sylosi wrote: »

Erm, no, this sort of thing gets abused (see sub-Reddits that allow downvotes). because too many people are too immature to not simply downvote a perfectly valid thread just because it is something they disagree with or states something they don't want to hear.

^This is how you react to a non-troll thread that you disagree with.

A troll thread, you ignore, or maybe report and then ignore if it's particularly bad.

But a thread you simply disagree with should be responded to with calm, constructive criticism of why what the thread is suggesting is wrong. If you keep your posts constructive, mods won't remove the post, and it has the bonus of telling the original poster why you disagree with what they're saying. That's much more useful and much less negative and prone to abuse than a "disagree" button.

Adernath wrote: »

I agree with you that there are people out there who may have all time in the world to create 100 forum accounts in order to use the 'dislike' or 'troll alarm' option on a thread they don't like. This is however the only way I can imagine that this system can be abused. But in reality I doubt that there are many people who actually would go through that. And only those people require moderation.

The misunderstanding is thinking that one person needs to push the button. When you incentivize an action, more people will engage in that action. Tell them, "push this button and make that person go away," not hide their post, but actually punish them, without any adult supervision? Yeah, they'll push that button. They'll jab it, repeatedly and gleefully. The more immature, the more they'll pound on it.

One person isn't the problem. It's the collective result of 100s of small minded little trolls with their fingers on the button that you should worry about.

Adernath wrote: »

Let's say we have - besides of the 'Insightful', 'Agree' and 'Awesome' button - a 'Dislike' button. If e.g. after one week the sum of the first three feedback points is not more than 30% of the total amount of points, the thread gets locked and a forum moderator informed.

We did. I mean, literally, when the forums first went live there were five buttons. LOL, Insightful, Agree, Awesome, and Disagree. Disagree didn't survive to launch. It was abused. Now, it didn't have any direct banning capacity, but if people were willing to abuse it just on the opportunity to say, "no, you're wrong," anonymously, what hope would we have if they could also remove posts or lock threads with that?

Adernath wrote: »

Let's take your example of a thread in which you explain how to use bows effectively. If you do that in a meaningful manner (you say by yourself: It wasn't really true that the bows were useless, so you certainly would have made your points), I am quite sure that your thread will earn more 'insightful' than 'dislike'.

I wouldn't be so sure. For a couple reasons. One: the ignorant will always outnumber... well, everyone else. It is far easier to cling to a piece of information, regardless of its validity, as gospel truth, and attack anyone who questions it, than it is to understand all of the nuances involved.

As it was, threads talking about 2h builds or bow builds were shouted down by the minions of a few YouTubers. Minions who didn't understand the intricacies of the mechanics, and in most cases weren't skilled enough to even be affected by the bow's shortcomings. But, they held onto this one fact, in abstract, as absolute truth. And attacked everyone who questioned it.

Adernath wrote: »

This would also be an example that to dislike an idea does not necessarily mean to disagree on a matter, although they often go hand in hand. In your case I would perhaps disagree with you, but that does not mean I would click on 'Dislike'. It depends on how the button is called anyways. If it would be called 'Troll alarm' then certainly you won't get much points in that category with your post.

At this point, you're over-engineering a problem that doesn't need to exist in the first place. If you disagree with something someone posts, you can tell them.

Part of the reason that the Disagree button was removed in the first place was because it didn't promote meaningful debate. When you get people talking to each other you can learn, you can find new information, you can understand what's going on a bit better. When you say, "LOLz ur rong!" nothing of value is gained.

Or, you don't offer up a disagree/dislike/pull-out-and-nuke-the-site-from-orbit button to begin with. You leave report and ignore where they are, and if someone has a rational cause for disagreement with what someone else posted, they can challenge it. Because, in challenging what someone else said, you can learn from them. Even when they're an idiot. Even when they don't know what they're talking about. You can still learn things. Maybe not what they intended. But, you can learn from what they say, don't say, understand, don't understand. You just need to pay attention and interact.