Where has this gone? The recent round of arguments has been unfortunate and preventable. I blame all parties involved for the departures of several board members recently (including the departed). There is always a way to cool down the conversation, and instead actions that could only make things worse were taken. The fact that this board hardly needs moderation is fantastic. But that means that the members should be more careful to self moderate so this state can continue.

Unfortunately, I see ACs paarticipating in this kind of squabble as often as other members. ACs are the de facto leaders in our community. When they are party to these things, they legitimize them. It needs to stop. I simply don't want to see our community lose anyone else because people can't keep from making personal jabs at other members.

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SG

Ghost's Paint Blog, where everything goes that isn't something else.

Hear hear!

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We are returned!
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I agree as well. We all (including me) could stand to be a little nicer to each other.

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Night Lords 0.1
My Trade Thread

Less QQ more pewpew.

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AFK with real life, still checking PMs

Amen, brother. Words to live by.

I'm actually surprised that more people don't blow up in other people's faces given how negative most list response comments are. You're more apt to see a post on dev boards with the words "I don't like"/"I think it should be" then one with any positive reinforcement. More often then not the opinions are based on perspective rather than based on actual playtests too.

The anonymity of the internet definitely plays a part in all of it but I think the larger villain is the failure to recognize that a list can be balanced in more than one way. There is no single right version of a given list. Nor is it true that a list is wrong because it is different from how you would do it.

As to the solution, self-moderation is all well and good but in the end I don't think it works. We wouldn't see people leaving if that were the case. I think a stronger admin presence would work though. If someone steps out-of-line, slap them on the wrist and ban them for a month. If they do it again do it for two. A third time, a year. I think people would get the idea that their behavior isn't appropriate or tolerated if this were the case.

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Dave

Blog

NetEA Tournament Pack Website

Squats 2019-10-17

I must have missed all this ... I was too busy arguing on TMP ...

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Legion 4 "Cry Havoc, and let slip the Dogs of War !" ... "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

Dave, that'd be harsher than the B&C, which is already one of the most harshly moderated 40K forums.

That said, I do think it'd help if there was at least a "flaming" option in the report function. It would make it seem like something that was taken seriously.

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The Apocrypha of Skaros 1.1
Rogue Trader Expedition 0.4
The Horus Heresy 0.5
Night Lords 0.1
My Trade Thread

I would expect that 24 hr then onto 48 hr and then onto a week timeouts are sufficient. Wargamerau does this, and even if they do get it wrong sometimes, 24-48 hrs is not a life changer.

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Frogbear is responsible for...
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That seems to miss the point though. If the banned time is simply "no big deal" then there's little to no consequence for stepping out of line.

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Dave

Blog

NetEA Tournament Pack Website

Squats 2019-10-17

It gives people some time to cool off and forces them to think before posting more trash that would have inflamed the situation i guess?

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AFK with real life, still checking PMs

24-48h is enough to get people to cool their heels and wind their necks in. You don't want to remove members of the community for a disagreement that spilled over.

Of course, there's a few other things to mention (from someone who's lurked a long time):

1) Bitchiness between gaming groups. There's factions on here constantly sniping at each other and it's unhealthy.

2) Public spats that should be private. AC disagreements that turn personal should probably not be for all to see. Are there private boards for ACs?

3) Frustrations over delays. This is obvious, I think, and the source of most of the angst I've read over the past few months. Hopefully once things have kicked into gear then most of the more angry disagreements will disappear. Unfortunately, if things DON'T kick into gear then it'll probably be a major flameout that ends up forcing things forward.

But yeah, there's not a lot wrong with having moderators willing to edit some posts and hand out quiet requests to keep things civil.

A mod just posting a warning in a thread would probably be enough without the temp ban. If it gets that far the people involved have probably made appendages-of-slaanesh out of themselves in most observers' eyes anyway, a public warning draws attention to this even more sharply and could be seen as punishment enough

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AFK with real life, still checking PMs

Honestly, a PM from a mod saying "calm down" would solve 99% of these problems. Draconian bans are not needed or warranted.

This is something that does concern me, and that I have discussed with the mods and NetERC. It is something that - to my knowledge - has sprung up somewhat suddenly recently. Discussion has become more heated recently, and I am not sure if this due to a drive to get projects completed, or a general build up of frustration. I am also aware that moderation has been slack recently, and it is something that I will be looking into.

Firstly, I should point out that I have had several discussions with several people, and one thing keeps coming up. There appears to be a belief that I monitor and read every post on every board here. While I would very much like to, I am fortunate enough that these boards have grown to a point where this is simply not possible for me. This assumption has meant that many people have assumed that I am aware of 'heated' posts and threads, where I have actually missed them, and this has lead to further frustration, which I totally understand. Therefore, I ask that, if you see a post that may be heading in the wrong direction, just report it via the link with a quick note. I would rather step in earlier and prevent things getting out of hand then leave things to go beyond a certain point. People here are generally great, and I dont think that anyone sets out to upset another member here, and often a quick note or closing a thread for a day or two to give people time to cool off does the trick nicely. So, please do report any posts that seem to be heated. You dont need to make a judgement on the post or thread yourself, and I may not even agree and feel that things are fine, but at the very least it will point me at a thread, that I can then keep my eye on easily.

Secondly, the I will make changes and additions to the warning system here. As a general rule, moderators have the ability to hand out warnings, that are displayed with the member information to the left of a post. These are time limited, and will disappear after 60 days. When a certain number of warnings are received, posting rights are disabled. Moderators (including myself) are not limited to handing out a single warning. If a post is bad enough, I have no problem with handing out several warnings. This feature has traditionally been underused here. Simply put, we have not needed it. However, it seems that it would be good to utilise this feature when required, to reinforce netequette at times.

I have always been proud that this is one of the more pleasant and laid-back boards available, without harsh moderation or a lot of in-fighting. It is important that we keep it this way, and I am happy to hear any suggestions on this. We should not ever get to the position where members feel that they dont want to be here anymore because of the reaction and hostility that they perceive. Bans should always be considered a last resort.

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