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NiGHTMARE

These forums = BAD :(

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Do you remember one of the original reasons why so many people hated newdoom.com? It was because of the attitude of the forum mods, randomly deleting and locking threads for no apparent reason. I'm very sad to see that the exact same thing is now happening here.

With the closure of a certain Deepsea related thread, it seems that even relatively reasoned, factual debate is now banned from these forums, which can definitely not be a good thing. I can see how maybe a mod might disapprove of that thread, but really, no one was getting harmed by it, and most of the posts seemed to be reasonably intelligent in nature. It's not as if there was outright flaming going on; disagreements between posters should NOT be a reason for closing threads. If you disagree (how ironic) then I suggest you close all the forums except for 'Questions', because disagreement is inevitable. Well, unless we were all clones or robots or something, but that clearly isn't the case.

As well as this, it's becoming increasingly noticeable that the various mods and admins seem to all have completely different views on what is and what isn't acceptable. One mod might see a thread, and think that it's okay. Then another one comes along and decides to close it or post hell it. I've even seen threads created by one mod closed by another, for goodness sakes!

Will it get to the stage where a post asks a Legacy related question, and the post immediately gets post helled simply because a mod hates that port? Perhaps not, but I think you can see my point. I've seen many forums and message boards over the years, and so I think I have enough experience to tell you that letting mods do whatever the heck they like is NOT how a forum should be run. Mods and admins, you have to remember that as well as policing regular users, you also have to police YOURSELF. Your actions should be for the good of the forums and the majority of the users, not for yourself.

I would like to ask the DW forum mods and admins to please all get together, and come up with a reasonable policy for EXACTLY what is and what isn't acceptable on these forums, and then let us know what these things are, perhaps via another FAQ. I know there is no decent alternative Doom related forum (which is a shame in itself), but if the DW forums don't return to their former glory soon, I'm afraid I'm going to be leaving them :(

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I don't place myself above other people, IMO anyway. I try my best to SERVE THE USERS not myself. I use my discretion on when a thread is turning bad. If I Post Hell a thread, there is a damn good reason. Anyway, I think you're overreacting here, unless you can provide examples.

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First of all, please note that I'm not saying that I think that mods believe they are superior to everyone else or anything like that. Having said that, they obviously DO have to think and act differently than regular users.

For one thing, forum mods have to bear in mind at all times that freedoom of speech is and always should be much, much, MUCH more important than censorship. There will clearly be things that are blatantly unacceptable, such as outright flaming. Debating should be ENcouraged, not DIScouraged. If it gets heated, that's only because the people involved believe strongly in what they're saying. Even if they can't convince each other of what they're saying, they might convince other people.

Anyway, to get back to the specific subject of the DW forums: the unneccessary closure of threads is just something that I've been noticing more and more over the past few weeks. A good example: posts that mods deem to be in the wrong forum. Why close them or post hell them when you can move them to the right forum? I'm sorry to say this, but the only possible reasonable I can think of is laziness.

This one is a good example. It covered a reasonable subject matter, and there were no stupid replies or anything. It was simply in the wrong forum. There was no reason to post hell it when it could have easily been moved.

This is another good example. Why on earth was it post helled? Simply because it was called "crap"? If so, why not rename it instead?

Here is an example of a thread made by one mod getting post helled by another one. Okay, fairly stupid subject, but clearly one mod thought it was okay while another one didn't. If DW had an organised policy on what's acceptable, things like this wouldn't happen.

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yeah these forum suck the cock, why am I even still here

oh look new posts in general sweet

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yeah these forum suck the cock, why am I even still here

Because, as I already said, there is no decent alternative to these forums.

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NiGHTMARE said:

This one is a good example. It covered a reasonable subject matter, and there were no stupid replies or anything. It was simply in the wrong forum. There was no reason to post hell it when it could have easily been moved.

This is another good example. Why on earth was it post helled? Simply because it was called "crap"? If so, why not rename it instead?

Here is an example of a thread made by one mod getting post helled by another one. Okay, fairly stupid subject, but clearly one mod thought it was okay while another one didn't. If DW had an organised policy on what's acceptable, things like this wouldn't happen.


1) that was posted in Questions, does it contain a question? Nope.

2) I do agree with that

3) Wtf? DAMN YOU PRITCH ;)

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bigbadgangsta said:

1) that was posted in Questions, does it contain a question? Nope.

And seph had also done that previously, and pritch had already told him to stop. The next step was to post hell the thread and hope he saw it there and hopefully that would send the message better.

But I am rather irked with the closing of the deep thread.

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bigbadgangsta said:

1) that was posted in Questions, does it contain a question? Nope.

Sephiroth said:

anyway have u seen doom in an arcade. or would u like to see a doom only arcade system

Even if it hadn't have been a question, it still doesn't explain why it couldn't have been moved to Rants & Raves or wherever instead.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think any of the mods are doing a really, really bad job or anything - YET. But it's a minor problem that quickly seems to be getting worse. IMOH, the DW mods - to use a suitable geeky analogy - should be acting more like the Borg and less like the Ferengi ;)

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NiGHTMARE said:

Anyway, it still doesn't explain why it couldn't have been moved to Rants & Raves or whatever.

I said:

And seph had also done that previously, and pritch had already told him to stop. The next step was to post hell the thread and hope he saw it there and hopefully that would send the message better.

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Mods are people, just like members. a member makes a dumb thread the same way a mod might delete a good thread. this shit will always happen, and it's not really even a big deal. imo, i think the mod's have a good record in terms of keeping the forums friendly and productive.

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No, do not "paint the thread yellow" please.

And danger of being banned? Oh, come on. I hardly think that this forum and its mods and admins have gotten to be so terrible that they would ban me simply for this thread. BBG said it himself: he does not consider himself to be superior to everyone else. I hope none of the other mods do either. Which means that they are all open to, and should happily accept, criticism. As long as it's not unfounded criticism, of course.

I hope you realise that, without criticism, nothing can improve. What do you think the country you live in would be like if no-one was allowed to say what they thought was wrong with the place? Hell, the US was founded on the basis that the colonists had serious criticisms of their former government, most importantly the way that government treated them.

My initial post in this thread (and I hope my subsequent ones as well) was a reasonable, well thought out, non-flamming statement of my opinions. I am not attacking anyone personally, and currently no-one else is either.

There is no reason to close or post hell this thread. I wrote what I wrote because I like these forums, but think there is an area that is open to improvement. I certainly didn't write anything with the intention of making the forum worse or upseting anyone.

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i think the forums are fine. but some mods/admins should quickly change their attitude (i.e. linguica, not to insult you).

Those two sentences pretty much sum up much my whole point :) Well, except that bit about Linguica. I dunno what you dislike about his attitude, but personally I have no problem with him (or, as I said, any of the other mods and admins).

BTW, I just noticed that all three of the post helled threads I linked to were ones post helled by Pritch. I assure you that this is merely a co-incidence, and is nothing personal whatsoever. I'm sure there are other examples I could find of other mods doing similar things ;)

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NiGHTMARE said:

BBG said it himself: he does not consider himself to be superior to everyone else. I hope none of the other mods do each. Which means that they all are, and should be, open to fair criticism.


Moderators ARE above users in terms of priveliges BUT they can have that taken away. Moderators are here to serve the users, they have responsibilities. If they get the "holier than thou" attitude (which I HAVE NOT SEEN FROM ANY MODERATOR OR SUPER MODERATOR) then it is probably because they view Moderatorship wrong IMO. Like I've said before, Moderatorship isn't power, it is a job.

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I actually liked that the deep thread got closed. Even if no one was flaming anyone (well, considering) at the moment, everyone knows what becomes of any prolonged discussion with deep.

But yeah, I agree with NiGHTMARE. As all the mods know already. :\

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bigbadgangsta said:

Moderators ARE above users in terms of priveliges BUT they can have that taken away. Moderators are here to serve the users, they have responsibilities. If they get the "holier than thou" attitude (which I HAVE NOT SEEN FROM ANY MODERATOR OR SUPER MODERATOR) then it is probably because they view Moderatorship wrong IMO. Like I've said before, Moderatorship isn't power, it is a job.

You only say that cause you haven't been a mod for long enough :P

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bigbadgangsta said:

Moderators ARE above users in terms of priveliges BUT they can have that taken away. Moderators are here to serve the users, they have responsibilities. If they get the "holier than thou" attitude (which I HAVE NOT SEEN FROM ANY MODERATOR OR SUPER MODERATOR) then it is probably because they view Moderatorship wrong IMO. Like I've said before, Moderatorship isn't power, it is a job.


I agree with you 100%. I haven't seen any DW forum mods with what I'd consider to be a god complex (though certain ops in certain IRC channels are a different story... ;) ). However, problems also arise at the opposite end of the scale, when mods forget they're mods and start acting like regular users. That is, regular users who just so happen to be able to delete and close threads and ban people :)

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NiGHTMARE said:

This is another good example. Why on earth was it post helled? Simply because it was called "crap"? If so, why not rename it instead?

It's not because of the name, it's not because of the replies, it's simply because that was the most worthless reason to start a thread. Seriously, the site just went down for a few hours, no need to cry about it on the forums.

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Well I am not an admin anymore so the current shape of DW doesn't quite concern me. Anyway, let's take a look at these prime examples :

This one is a good example. It covered a reasonable subject matter, and there were no stupid replies or anything. It was simply in the wrong forum. There was no reason to post hell it when it could have easily been moved.

Pritch was half-right to ban this one. I would have deleted all posts but the one concerning Romero's note on the subject. Still, it's a vague question and the Question forums, according to Ling, is to simply cut to the chase and get info on focused, well-defined questions.

This is another good example. Why on earth was it post helled? Simply because it was called "crap"? If so, why not rename it instead?

The Zdoom site is up and running. Everybody knows all the stuff that happens to notgod on a daily basis. What's the point in having a thread like this? That would give me free way to post "Why X is down?" threads, X being any single site that goes down, even if it's for a couple of seconds.

Here is an example of a thread made by one mod getting post helled by another one. Okay, fairly stupid subject, but clearly one mod thought it was okay while another one didn't. If DW had an organised policy on what's acceptable, things like this wouldn't happen.

Lüt and I ussually gave incredibly retarded threads a certain lifespan, just to see if it actually turned good. Obviously this did not held any further.

As for the Deep thread, I haven't checked what are you talking about, but I'm mostly sure it suffers from the usual symptom of "Discussing in Internet is like winning the Retard Olympics". This threads ussually get locked/posthelled when there's nothing intelligent/useful left to say. It's clear deep has no intention to freeware DeepSea, and any personal attempts at changing his mind should be addressed to his mail account. The thread has no purpose altogether.

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I'll think I'll TRY to get back to the correct subject matter.

Zaldron said:

The Zdoom site is up and running. Everybody knows all the stuff that happens to notgod on a daily basis. What's the point in having a thread like this? That would give me free way to post "Why X is down?" threads, X being any single site that goes down, even if it's for a couple of seconds.

First of all, 'everybody' does not know what happens to notgod.com. What about newbies? Second, post helling is a little extreme in this case. Couldn't it have been closed instead?

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Post-Hell is a double-edged sword. Not everything that falls in there is crap. It was designed as a comedy repertorium besides its main function as a dumpster. Stupid, senseless and/or idiotic posts with certain comedic relief or amusing replies save from getting completely deleted.

It got post-helled just to keep it out of the way. Locking a thread is generally done to keep the information found on that thread open to the public. The public does not care about this thread, hence it's post-helled. Newbies don't even know what's Notgod. ^_^

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BTW, I think you pointed out some bad examples. If you have an underlying clue that hasn't been pointed out yet I might agree with you. I've been away for quite some time and I don't know what the mod's been doing lately.

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Zaldron said:

BTW, I think you pointed out some bad examples. If you have an underlying clue that hasn't been pointed out yet I might agree with you. I've been away for quite some time and I don't know what the mod's been doing lately.

not much. the forums have been very good except for a few flamewars. try looking at the FAQs that were made in general. the mods arnt too bad.

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the_Danarchist said:

Depression? Ha! I've had depression my whole life, but am I flaming anyone?

Well, quit suffering and go to a doctor, explain your problems, and he might prescribe you to something to make you feel like a normal person. Depression can be just a chemical imbalance that can be corrected with medical help.

Back on track: I'm far less concerned about the post helling and locking of threads than I am with people getting banned.

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This thread is a Catch-22. If I could figure out the mod options, I could probably make all the off-topic and incriminating posts disappear with one sweep of my browser (which I'm willing to bet RailGunner would like). On the other hand, if I did clean up this thread, I'd be actively proving NiGHTMARE's original point: the moderator who will delete anything for a silly reason. Damned if I do, damned if I don't. Idunno, what would you guys do?

I'm not gonna Post Hell this thread, at least. Trolling and pointless fat aside, this is a rather thoughtful topic.

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