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These forums are degrading

StachuK1992

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I dearly hope and believe I'm not the only one here with the mindset that these forums have been degrading in quality. Something needs to be done, as far as I'm concerned, but I have no authority to do such; I'll try to excercize my voice.

There have been recent efforts made, allegedly, to help the quality of these forums, but they're simply not enforced.

I haven't seen anyone get banned in a while. There are obvious users which I would point out that I think need banning. Could someone please explain to me why nothing has been done?


I'm okay with the occasional question of "Is white cross the best?" which can be deleted or responded to in the fashion of "No; please ask these types of things in the one answer question thread. Thanks." What I'm not okay with is the same users repeatedly making some of the worst threads I've ever seen, and getting away with it with no reprimand.

I don't see why we let people (old users especially) post stuff that's just stupid.
And don't tell me mods don't see stuff like this. They do. We talk about it in IRC every day, and it's the same ~5 users that we talk about. It's very much a known problem.

"We just can't" or "that would be too harsh" isn't a very good reason for not banning a person for being stupid on purpose. Give people infraction points. They scare users. Make the rules actually enforced, otherwise there's no reason in having them.

Right now, I see this:
"Bad threads" are being deleted. That's it. Maybe people are getting some reprimanding that I just can't see, but considering the number of people (not) getting banned, I'd like to assert that not enough has been done.


Not only are terrible threads being made, but these 5 or so users degrade the quality of these forums *much* further by posting irrelevant information in theads that could actually turn out to be something good. I think these irrelevant posts do much more harm to ideas than anything else. They just distract from everything.


I just want to bring this issue to the forefront. Am I over-reacting?
I do not mean to flame any specific user. I don't mean to say "I don't like new cubers." I love the expansion of cubing.
I just mean to get a point across concerning quality control.

Maybe I'm just being an elitist jerk. I don't think so.

statue

Edit: I'm a mod now. Neat.
 
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chicken9290

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yeah your actually right. banning teaches good lessons. i got banned and i stopped spam posting right away
 

MaeLSTRoM

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I will agree with this. I'm on IRC some of the time and I have indeed seen discussions about this (I will not divulge information), but I also can see it working.
When I started out I made a thread with a rather stupid idea in it and was told it was a bad idea by several people. I read what they had to say, did some research and accepted this but some people do what I did, but then don't listen to the advice given, don't see how their idea was stupid and continually post about it in other threads, making people very annoyed (There is one good example but again, I'm keeping quiet).
So yes, this is a fair point and people should either learn to post respectfully with good quality or just not post at all.
 

emolover

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I have also notice there have been a lot of people using vulgar language at times. Both new and old users are doing this and it gets old.

I have also noticed a few users who will constantly badger you over a spelling or grammar error in you post. On in particular **ehheem he is in this thread**.
 

StachuK1992

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I have also notice there have been a lot of people using vulgar language at times. Both new and old users are doing this and it gets old.

I have also noticed a few users who will constantly badger you over a spelling or grammar error in you post. On in particular **ehheem he is in this thread**.
Bad spelling is one thing, and I don't really take offence to such.
Blatantly disregarding rules, or going out of your way to act stupid is another thing entirely.

We do ban users on a regular basis and try to deal with threads as they come up. A couple more moderators wouldn't hurt. I've sent you a PM.
All right, sounds good.



Edit: neat, 3000.
 
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Lucas Garron

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While I agree that the forum is getting hard to handle, I'd like to point out there's a bunch of work being done you don't see. I move many threads per day in order to keep the core subforums clean-ish. I also try to moderate inappropriate posts and threads, but they often get out of hand too fast.
 

blakedacuber

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Stachu I completely agree with your first post and have been wanting to same thing for a while but i presumed i would be flamed(which has been happening far too much lately).

I'd like to thank the mods though because i understand that it is harder than it looks.

When i first joined this site the thing that struck me was how well laid out and properly structured posts were, not only that but there were very few bad threads.
The recent rise of annoying, pointless, similar has been part the reason i haven't been as active.

Also can people stop being so picky about miniscule things such as a simple spelling/grammar mistake but dont get e wrong though it can be annoying.
One particular example saw was when a new member posted saying he/she avg'ed 1.xx and people flamed/made fun of it because he/she didn't put 1:xx
Sorry for ranting for so long but if you see such things could people PM the user about it and help them understand what he/she has done wrong and direct them as to what threads are helpful.

P.S. i think the search function should be slightly larger and stressed to be used before a new thread

thanks for reading:)
 

StachuK1992

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One particular example saw was when a new member posted saying he/she avg'ed 1.xx and people flamed/made fun of it because he/she didn't put 1:xx

I think in an instance like this, it's important to note the difference between just joking and flaming. I don't exactly know the instance to which you're referring, but I think this thought applies.
Perspective affects a lot of these kinds of situations.

As for the PMs helping people, I've been doing that for well over a year now. The percentage of people that actually listen is probably about 10%.
 

Zarxrax

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Hmm... While I would agree that the overall quality of these forums is pretty low, I don't know if its a recent occurrence. To me, everything seems about the same as it was a couple of years ago when I joined.

Like irontwig stated, I also think its more a lack of quality posts than anything else. Its been a while since I have seen anything particularly interesting posted here.
 

emolover

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I think this forum needs to be a bit more like twistypuzzles.com. Over there everybody is very supportive and you dont get made fun of like you do here. It might be because the mods are kind of strict but that makes the discussion over there is better quality due to the fact that everyone is nice and supportive.
 

JonWhite

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Well, well, isn't someone a half-year late...

I've had these observations since a half-year ago, when I first joined. All too often, I would see a user create a perfectly good thread, usually a poll thread (in the correct sub-forum, usually off-topic), only to have it hijacked by certain idi0ts (yes I just called you an idi0t) who post meaningless garbage (ponies, anyone?). Then guess what outrageous thing happens? Certain idi0t moderators even join in the garbage-posting fun!

After several pages of nonsensical posts accumulates, one can see the impact of these "thread-hijackers" -- while the first several posts were well-intended and thoughtful, there occurs a sharp and immediate turn: the post quality disintegrates into pure gibberish. What causes this drastic change? Only a job well done by the thread-hijackers.

Now, once a thread has been hijacked, what happens? Moderators come along, and lock the thread, a very reasonable action. But what else do they do? They ban the thread creator, not for flaming others, not for posting spam or ponies, not for creating a thread in the wrong place, not even for creating a stupid thread, but for having his/her thread hijacked and destroyed. These moderators fail to even read the original post to understand the original poster's intentions; these moderators instead rely on the general opinion of the thread-hijackers and their numerous acolytes in order to determine a ban.

So, thread-hijackers, You've accomplished your goal numerous times. You've caused countless members turn away from the site in despair, to badmouth the entire community elsewhere, to raise complaints in vain. Good job, now spend the rest of eternity burning in hell.
 
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