Ok, so I am fairly sure that a lot of people who go to forums go there to converse. So my question is how do you feel about being cut off by locked threads? Perhaps the thread was too controversial, or the ones conversing were getting hostile, or maybe the topic was going off track. These are all things that happen in natural conversation, yet most of the time they are dealt with by the ones conversing. Now I'm going to go a little of topic but it will lead in to what I'm trying to get at; now for instance The Escapist bannes a lot of people at least by my opinion, and I think that defiantly raises the quality of the members of Escapist. Now why can't the people involved in the conversation manage the conversation themselves, are they not responsible enough? I realize that topics occur that are simply an abomination of conversation (sorry), and should be gotten rid of, but at least on these forums I find it rare to see those.

So the general question is; how do you feel about threads being locked, and do you think the responsibility to manage a thread should be in the hands of the individuals involved with the thread?

Well, both of the CAD threads were locked by people getting overly annoyed at the people that liked CAD. Sometimes, I get annoyed by locked threads but other times I'm not disappointed that they are closed, if they are just inappropriate or if they are a clone.

As much as I would like to say that people are responsible enough to manage their own threads, there will always be a troll to wreck things.

I've noticed a lot of people getting ye olde banhammer and a lot of threads being put under lock and key lately. I think it's a good idea to lock threads that have no use whatsoever or are double-posted or whatever. Though I don't see the use in locking the ones that are simply arguments. Like Taxi Driver said, it seems like a lot of people on The Escapist's forums are mature (at least for internet users), and I think they should be left to be resolved. If someone goes out of hand, ban them. Maybe delete the offending posts after an argument or something.

I like the introduction of Probation and 3-day bans. If you do something wrong, you learn from your mistakes but you aren't permanently removed from the forums.

Well I don't mind it here because the mods actually listen to us so if we just explain to them that it was a misunderstanding, or re-open a locked thread and make it more "user friendly" - and if it's a clone then the search button just sits back and says "I told ya so!" - but for the most part, a thread is locked for a good reason and if otherwise we can talk to the mods.

I wonder why some threads don't get deleted though, if there's so many clones why not free up some space and erase it instead of locking it?

Johnn Johnston:
I like the introduction of Probation and 3-day bans. If you do something wrong, you learn from your mistakes but you aren't permanently removed from the forums.

I've actually been wondering. What's the difference between banning and probations?

When you are on probation, you can still post. When you are banned, you cannot. Make a rule-breaking post while on probation, and you'll get a ban.

This has been done and ironicly got locked. I fear this thread will suffer the same fate.

That is pure irony. I mean, no irony comes purer than that.

conqueror Kenny:
This has been done and ironicly got locked. I fear this thread will suffer the same fate.

I searched, so I evidently didn't search hard enough or it's merely similar to something else. Why would it get locked, did I actually break the rules, if so I apologize because I didn't try to?

Well, last time I used the search function it only searched the content of threads rather than their names, so if that is still the case you are as innocent as OJ Simpson.

Bad example, sorry.

Taxi Driver:
do you think the responsibility to manage a thread should be in the hands of the individuals involved with the thread?

Hell no.

Threads get locked because of misbehaviour or error by those very individuals involved in the thread... if they could police themselves, there wouldn't need to be a lock function in the first place. So no, I can't condone the idea of thread participants controlling the lock button.

-- Steve

Johnn Johnston:
I like the introduction of Probation and 3-day bans. If you do something wrong, you learn from your mistakes but you aren't permanently removed from the forums.

as do i.

i usually, do what i call anti-trolling. meaning that i take flamers and trolls head on no matter where they drag the conversation to. the first time i tried that here, i got a 3 day ban.

fair enough, i knew that if they weren't going to tolerate me, that the initial trolls probably wouldn't be tolerated either. and when i went back and inspected my offending thread, low and behold.. the troll was flat out banned.

so i learned from my mistake and now respect this forum as a place for calm discussion and i just report trolls rather than argue with them.

and the MODS aren't bad at all. over at Kotaku i was banned because i suggested that maybe we don't want to play online games with military people since they are sort of still traumatized from war and may not be the most stable people to play a game with. i said this because i was threatened by an online US soldier who said he would shoot me if he met me.

apparently somebody at Kotaku was offended by that notion and BAN. so yes, the mods here are sensitive but i don't see them trying to implement some kind of social agenda or mindset.

Taxi Driver:

conqueror Kenny:
This has been done and ironicly got locked. I fear this thread will suffer the same fate.

I searched, so I evidently didn't search hard enough or it's merely similar to something else. Why would it get locked, did I actually break the rules, if so I apologize because I didn't try to?

I think it's just because mods prefer the PM option, I am sure I have seen this exact same thread a while back.

Anton P. Nym:

Taxi Driver:
do you think the responsibility to manage a thread should be in the hands of the individuals involved with the thread?

Hell no.

Threads get locked because of misbehaviour or error by those very individuals involved in the thread... if they could police themselves, there wouldn't need to be a lock function in the first place. So no, I can't condone the idea of thread participants controlling the lock button.

-- Steve

Offline you don't have somebody who jumps in during a conversation and takes away your ability to speak, yet you don't see constant raging arguments and out of control citizens.

Taxi Driver:
Ok, so I am fairly sure that a lot of people who go to forums go there to converse. So my question is how do you feel about being cut off by locked threads? Perhaps the thread was too controversial, or the ones conversing were getting hostile, or maybe the topic was going off track. These are all things that happen in natural conversation, yet most of the time they are dealt with by the ones conversing. Now I'm going to go a little of topic but it will lead in to what I'm trying to get at; now for instance The Escapist bannes a lot of people at least by my opinion, and I think that defiantly raises the quality of the members of Escapist. Now why can't the people involved in the conversation manage the conversation themselves, are they not responsible enough? I realize that topics occur that are simply an abomination of conversation (sorry), and should be gotten rid of, but at least on these forums I find it rare to see those.

So the general question is; how do you feel about threads being locked, and do you think the responsibility to manage a thread should be in the hands of the individuals involved with the thread?

tread lightly, for this is hallowed ground

threads are locked for a reason and a good one

Taxi Driver:
Offline you don't have somebody who jumps in during a conversation and takes away your ability to speak, yet you don't see constant raging arguments and out of control citizens.

Offline you're not talking to a bunch of strangers in front of 1000 other strangers, any of whom can interject at any time.

One fix for that is to take away the "stranger" angle, but that itself requires a lot of skillfully imposed structure. Spaces that do this aren't big, free, open fora where anyone can cruise by and read and post everything.

-- Alex

Taxi Driver:
Now I'm going to go a little of topic but it will lead in to what I'm trying to get at; now for instance The Escapist bannes a lot of people at least by my opinion, and I think that defiantly raises the quality of the members of Escapist.

Yeah, you know just the other day I was feeling kind of left out because everyone around here's been banned and I haven't yet...

Taxi Driver:

Anton P. Nym:

Taxi Driver:
do you think the responsibility to manage a thread should be in the hands of the individuals involved with the thread?

Hell no.

Threads get locked because of misbehaviour or error by those very individuals involved in the thread... if they could police themselves, there wouldn't need to be a lock function in the first place. So no, I can't condone the idea of thread participants controlling the lock button.

-- Steve

Offline you don’t have somebody who jumps in during a conversation and takes away your ability to speak, yet you don’t see constant raging arguments and out of control citizens.

But this is the internet we are talking about, where social norms and common sense mean nothing. If you want to say whatever you wan't go to 4Chan.

Taxi Driver:

Anton P. Nym:
Threads get locked because of misbehaviour or error by those very individuals involved in the thread... if they could police themselves, there wouldn't need to be a lock function in the first place. So no, I can't condone the idea of thread participants controlling the lock button.

Offline you don't have somebody who jumps in during a conversation and takes away your ability to speak, yet you don't see constant raging arguments and out of control citizens.

Offline you can see the other guy's expression, and you can tell when you've been misunderstood or gone too far. Online, many people can't. Also, offline conversations are usually one-on-one or in small groups where peer pressure is more effective at keeping conversations under control; online, it's one declaring to many and peer pressure doesn't work the same way. Thirdly, offline conversations are rarely between anonymous parties; online, most posters consider themselves in some way anonymous which leads to fewer constraints on interpersonal behaviour.

On top of all that, in the offline world if some loon decides to monopolise a public space and shout at passers-by in an offensive manner odds are someone will call the cops who can indeed take away said loon's ability to speak in that forum.

-- Steve

Alex_P:

Taxi Driver:
Offline you don't have somebody who jumps in during a conversation and takes away your ability to speak, yet you don't see constant raging arguments and out of control citizens.

Offline you're not talking to a bunch of strangers in front of 1000 other strangers, any of whom can interject at any time.

One fix for that is to take away the "stranger" angle, but that itself requires a lot of skillfully imposed structure. Spaces that do this aren't big, free, open fora where anyone can cruise by and read and post everything.

-- Alex

That's true, but like I said there is a lot of banning, so the members that aren't banned must be lucky or more responsible.

sammyfreak:

Taxi Driver:

Anton P. Nym:

Taxi Driver:
do you think the responsibility to manage a thread should be in the hands of the individuals involved with the thread?

Hell no.

Threads get locked because of misbehaviour or error by those very individuals involved in the thread... if they could police themselves, there wouldn't need to be a lock function in the first place. So no, I can't condone the idea of thread participants controlling the lock button.

-- Steve

Offline you don’t have somebody who jumps in during a conversation and takes away your ability to speak, yet you don’t see constant raging arguments and out of control citizens.

But this is the internet we are talking about, where social norms and common sense mean nothing. If you want to say whatever you wan't go to 4Chan.

What is 4chan? I hear it brought up on these forums a lot in a negative way.

Taxi Driver:
What is 4chan? I hear it brought up on these forums a lot in a negative way.

Birthplace of lolcats. Generally a place for anime/manga fandom and random pop-culture stuff. Here's a Wikipedia article.

When people mock 4chan as a cesspit, they're usually talking about /b/, its most popular subforum, which tends to be heavy on shock comedy and porn.

-- Alex

Taxi Driver:

What is 4chan? I hear it brought up on these forums a lot in a negative way.

It's been said that 4chan is responsible for most of the horrible things that happen over the Internet. That's an exaggeration, but not by much.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4chan

EDIT: Ninja'd! :O

Thais:
Yeah, you know just the other day I was feeling kind of left out because everyone around here's been banned and I haven't yet...

You know, I post in another forum where the mods would give you a day ban (in jest) for a remark like that. Most of the mods there are really easy going, but weild the ban hammer when needed. We recently had a thread solely for the purpose of suggesting changes to other forum goers names, and at least three were changed for a couple days.

I'm sure if you asked nicely the mods here could sort out a one day banning for you.

A one day ban is a light tap on the noggin from the banhammer.

Anton summed up a lot of my personal philosophy on forum moderation. I will however point out a couple things.

Locked threads:
We lock threads. It's not something we do to spite our users, or perpetuate some sort of secret agenda. We want to promote intelligent discussion. That sometimes means removing certain discussions from circulation and letting the more well thought out posts rise to the surface and the jetsam to wash out to sea.

Banned users: A ban is normally a short ordeal and often no more than a slap on the wrist. I know, the term ban seems so final. Here, bans are normally short ordeals and really only boil down to loss of posting privileges for a few days. There are longer bans but they are used in conjunction with warnings and other bans.

We also have some guidelines for posting though most long term users understand that common-sense is the real moderator of this forum.