Nothing lasts forever. One of my favorite examples of self-moderated community is Hacker News. I’ve been reading it, and occasionally commenting, since 2009. Over these last 12 years, it has slowly declined to where it is now: the discussions are much more polarized, respect for others is scarcer than it used to be, and people are much more interested in scoring a point instead of having a conversation and understanding each other. It’s nowhere near as bad as a gaming forum, of course – I’m just using it as an example of “online community entropy”
I don’t really blame any of the community managers or mods on these forums, by the way. It’s a hard, thankless job to care for and nurture an online community, and – if you stop and think about it – it doesn’t really add that much to the company’s bottom line. The handful of people Funcom has on these forums? They’re doing their best.
I do miss those times you mentioned, though. Andy held the line for a while this year, but I get the feeling that something is going on at Funcom (or maybe just Conan Exiles) and everyone is too busy.
This is what I’m getting from them right now. Alot of fan feedback coming form Consoles from last patches, alot of issues that need tweaking PC side. Hard post with out everyone taking a thread off topic asking for 100th time when its gonna be fixed.
I also think there just more careful with flavor text now, since few people with no back bones or sense of humor can’t handle few jokes. I enjoy forum humor, specially when staff is involved.
Its one of reason to come here! I miss those days from Capcom, Square, Koei Forums etc…
Ugh i remember my flag levels - like i even can give link where, until i deleted my post because i tought that i comented about what that user added , i got banned by mods at start - first flag ever, but then later i figured those are random raccoons who dont have anything to do and that post author that advertise post edited it 290 times, so sure my words “” Comeon, no need to cry and spam so much someone will play “” looks like harassing someone but that post owner actually writed it like under heavy depression at start xD nobody cares… xD
That flagging should work like well everyone can flag it for mods to check it not automated… so example if u get 10 flags forum moderator looks at it and choose delete or no… otherwise its nonsense to flag if someone is against what u think, nowadays mostly seems some brain problem century, everyone is soo touchy without even reason, cant hold that someone has other opinion and starts to grief others instantly … Humans need to lerearn some things that times ago was normal but now is this…
Times ago example of arguing like boys :
""U know blbalbalaa “”
“” no its not like that i think - lalalala “”
""oh yea ? “”
““Yea””
Easy fist fight, that ends in both drinking and talking about life problems that makes them equal
Nowadays
“” I think like that !""
““Oh yea?””
““Yeah””
– crys and run to press autoflag
so what changed? I blame beer makers that make weak beer now xD
edit line : accidentaly uploaded before finishing - so and with all this stupid whieners who are so touchy nobody believes IN actual damn problems that are happenings because its like that storry about wolf, while one crys without reason , some other place actual sh*t is going on and nobody can help because need to talk and calm those who crys -.-
why i say this? i have best experience in this thing :C
Most of the flags come when people start personal attacks against FC, the Devs, the Mods, or other forum users.
I have noticed a lot of posters think that since FC is a company, they can say anything they want about them.
If you cannot get your point across without a personal insult, then you need to be flagged.
Yes, people abuse the flag system, who is really shocked or surprised?
That pretty much describes what I’ve observed on the internet as a whole over that time period. I’ve seen some really heated flame wars in the past, but even those were still full of people trying to understand each other’s position through all the insults. I know it’s cliche, but it really was like watching two guys beat each other bloody and then go drink some beers together. What’s happening on the internet today is something else entirely.
Personally I’m convinced that Twitter is in fact one of the main culprits behind the decline of civilized discourse in society. Or more to the point, it’s incomprehensible popularity. Other social media sites share some blame, especially as you get further along the timeline, and there are other factors involved as well, but Twitter is definitely one of the big ones.
It’s not that I think they specifically set out to create this situation, but the fundamental design of the platform necessarily prohibits thoughtful analysis and discussion while simultaneously encouraging greater emphasis on “scoring points”. There’s even been some studies showing you are dumber for having used it. As in, people who get their information from Twitter are far more likely to get basic facts not just wrong, but wildly wrong. All because they’ve been convinced that having the “correct” opinion is far more important than understanding any opinions, even their own.
Yeah, no. Like I said, I agree that there’s flag abuse, but the scope of it is definitely exaggerated, and mostly by people who get flagged a lot and then claim that it’s because of that.
I honestly wonder whether those who claim this is a such widespread problem ever bothered to actually read the forum guidelines? Here’s one choice bit:
Here’s another:
And here’s one of my favorite parts:
You know what’s much more prevalent than flagging abuse? Posts that go against those guidelines.
So next time any one of you feels tempted to claim they’re being targeted by flagging abuse, perhaps you might wanna reflect on why you’re getting flagged so much. Is it really that people don’t like your opinions? Or is there, perhaps, room for improvement in how you express them?
And to every one of you who keeps trotting out that old chestnut about how “people should have a thicker skin”, I’d like to reply with “people should learn to look in the mirror”.
Yeah, definitely Twitter. Both Twitter and Facebook are often indescribably toxic, both contributed to the 21st century’s equivalent of the Eternal September, but Twitter practically destroyed the long-form UGC on the net.
I agree to a certain point. But if you really want to mess around you can make several forum accounts and then flag the hell out of peoples posts without them ever knowing.
Personally I am against a flagging system for various abusive reasons. I would be ok with it though, would Funcom name the flagger under the flagged posts. Because then people get held accountable publically for what and who they flag.
This whole thing is weird. Thousands of websites have flagging systems on their boards. Sports sites, game sites, this one obviously. But only this website have I seen a constant demand to flog, bully, or attack those who flag posts (and unlike the narrative in this thread, the majority of posts I see flagged/hidden are done so with good reason, with only a small minority that definitely don’t deserve it.) But the attacking of community members is for sure consistent with members on this forum. So extending those attacks to people who flag? Not surprising.
About the only thing I agree with is the auto hiding system. A post that is flagged shouldn’t be hidden (with a button to reveal in this case), in my opinion. Either the post violates forum rules and should be flat out removed from public view, or it doesn’t and it should be left alone.
Calls for public flogging are ridiculous otherwise.
I love Twitter. I use my real name, real personality, real facts. It’s like a Fight Club for thumb-people.
As soon as I got here I learned as much as I could about Discourse, then promptly forgot it. The next time I reacquired the rules was after I got flagged for the first time. Ahh, like your first PvP death, you always remember it…
JJ was recently flagged because she responded to my optimistic post with the spit-take GIF. That one had me scratching my head, and I instantly went right there and gave her a heart. It seemed mean, and honestly, a bit tactical. The reason I mention it is because media is also what got me dinged.
Which brings me to my point: in the King of Media sites, there’s a long-standing tradition of calling out downvotes on videos. Check out any popular YT clip, inevitably there’s a comment or two about how “apparently 58 people cannot Pump Up The Jam.” With 500 likes. It does go both ways.
Thanks for that great post, Mage. It’s one of your most brilliant ones.
Yeah, but people mostly go to YouTube to watch videos. Sure, there are comments and there are lots of people engaging in those, but they don’t clutter up your YouTube experience.
If YouTube was like Conan Exiles forums, then you would subscribe to a channel and for every 10* videos with content you find interesting you would get at least one complaining about the downvotes on other videos.
Yeah, there will always be undeserved downvotes, dislikes, flags, or whatever, on any platform of your choice. And there will always be those who prefer to believe they were downvoted or flagged unjustly, rather than reflect on the implied criticism. The question is what’s more prevalent, the former or the latter?
Given the guidelines I quoted and given the average post quality on these forums, I remain to be convinced of this theory that flag abuse is somehow rampant…
* For nitpickers: this number wasn’t meant to be accurate.
I was very gently trying to say that “comment on self-moderation” is not especially prevalent here. Personally the YouTube comments sections are pure comedy gold. You just need to hike past the inevitable guy who pipes up four years later with “lol how come 95 peeps ain’t pump up the jam.”
My single greatest message board experience was at The Straight Dope. They had/have a strict policy of “no open commenting on moderation or face temp ban.” At the time, likes were not a thing. Even commenting on someone’s ban would draw a mod warning. Commenting on flagging was also warnable, as we all could just imagine the numbers of reports…
It was civil, and then all of a sudden it wasn’t. I left long before I lost the fondness of it.
My apologies, it went over my head. Not enough caffeine on a Friday morning
That’s one of the reasons why I used to like Hacker News. I still do, but I used to, too. It has upvotes and downvotes, but their intended usage is asymmetrical. Where upvotes are intended for general praise (e.g. agreement, appreciation of insight, and such), downvotes are intended only for comments that don’t add to the discussion (e.g. no-content replies, sarcastic quips, flames, and such). Comments about downvotes always get downvoted and almost always receive a reply pointing to the guidelines and explaining that talking about downvotes does not add to the discussion.
For a time, the community used downvotes the way they were meant to, and the place was awesome. Nowadays, they’re used mostly the same way downvotes are used everywhere. Fortunately, another thing Hacker News does really well is hide the comment scores from everyone except the comment author, so that keeps the “herd downvotes” and “score competition” largely at bay.
I’m glad Discourse has only likes, instead of both upvotes and downvotes. It can be toxic here sometimes, but with downvotes it would have been the Capital Wasteland…
I think some people just do not understand that subtle sense of humor. You actually have to type it out and then add J/K J/K J/K, and add a dozen laugh emojis.
Using aLtErNaTiNg CaPs on social media will always bring out the misguided outrage also. Always amusing.
“An escalator can never break: it can only become stairs. You should never see an Escalator Temporarily Out Of Order sign, just Escalator Temporarily Stairs. Sorry for the convenience.”
A lot of the flagged posts I see, and I open them just like everyone else automatically, contain either insults directed at someone or are wildly off topic.
I don’t get this whole conversation, if you’re getting flagged frequently, it’s your bad. Nobody is targeting you simply because they don’t like you. You’re being flagged the vast majority of the time because you have posted something against the forum guidelines. And then instead of being prompted to perhaps change the content of your posts, you just continue on and blame it on others.
For example, calling some unknown person a coward in back to back posts. Not forum appropriate.
No, I don’t think it’s a good possibility. Let’s break down the what you’re describing:
If there’s one person that has a personal issue with you, that still means that your posts need to be flagged by someone else who legitimately considers them flag-worthy before they get hidden.
If there are two people that have a personal issue with you, that means that they need to be following you around the forums doggedly and keep flagging everything you write. Apart from this being improbable, it’s also something that mods will notice sooner or later. Funcom does notice flag abuse.
If there are three or more people that have a personal issue with you, then maybe it’s not them, it’s you.
From what I can see, this is currently not a configurable option in Discourse, although I confess I didn’t dig into the actual source, mostly because I don’t have the time, but partly because I’m not really into Ruby
This seems like one of those amorphous problems. I have loosely followed this thread, but haven’t seen any specific cases of targeted flag abuse. Does it exist? I don’t know, maybe. How could you even prove it? The only guaranteed way to stop it would be to remove the option or show who flagged a post. I’d be fine with either, the only time I’ve ever wanted to flag something I couldn’t figure out how to. Though I’m also not very sensitive to most of the flagged posts I read, so I don’t benefit from them as is.
I already said that the flag abuse exists. Nothing I said in my reply to you contradicts that. What I did say, repeatedly, is that it’s not as widespread as you and some other people claim. I also clarified why I think your theoretical “good possibility” isn’t.
According to you. It seems to work well enough that most people don’t think it’s a problem worth raising a big fuss about.
