Baldrick: how about a new rule

[tenders]

a rule where if people start to insult other people in a thread,they are banned. i personally,am really getting sick of people answering a thread,and trying to start some kind of war. this only ends up with the thread being locked,which i don't think is fair for the rest of us

[Bradskey]

LOL. Here, here! Its more than ridiculous when people start getting personal in discussions about the technical aspects of video processing. Even if you honestly think somebody is a total moron and spews misinformation, I say politely disagree and get on with your life. Let the mods squelch any real troublemakers.

[donpedro]

Another type that pisses me off is when on post

"How do I do xxx in product ABC?" somebody answers

"ABC Sucks. Throw it away."

or

"XYZ is the best. Buy XYZ."

Maybe whoever starts the post should have right to delete posts that are in that kind of type. Otherwise most of the posts will end-up in some form of war.

[tenders]

LOL. Here, here! Its more than ridiculous when people start getting personal in discussions about the technical aspects of video processing. Even if you honestly think somebody is a total moron and spews misinformation, I say politely disagree and get on with your life. Let the mods squelch any real troublemakers.

it isn't always about video processing/and or/misinfo.

the problem is that people can't seem to refrain from making personal comments directed towards others. this is not polite,and i see it getting worse as time goes on.

the mods are not here 24/7. i think it is also up to us as members to try and stop any potential problems from occuring.

[bbb]

New rules are not always a good thing.

What if a mod starts insulting posters? For instance, what if they say "quit repeating questions you lazy bumass" or "use the search engine jerkoff." Will a mod be banned too then? Or are they immune? If mods are immune, won't this make mods too power mongering? Mods will be able to insult posters but posters can only sit back and humiliatingly take it. Does this make these forums or a world a better place? I know that mod power mongers exist on some forums (e.g., battle.net) where mods exact insults and ban posters who try to defend themselves. Such forums tend to dwindle in posters and it becomes an overly restricted forum where little new info is posted.

What about underhanded evil people who tick people off without using insults purposely to goad the other person (who they don't like or don't share same opinions) into an angry backlash post? Will both be banned or just the person who had his nerve stepped on?

What I'm afraid will happen is that these forums controlled by a few buddy buddies--posters kiss mods ass and are favored by the mods and have more leeway to post. These favorite posters then can abuse their favorite/friends-of-the-mod status by intentionally getting people banned who don't share their opinions. This will result in a corrupt forum just like governmental systems where people in power help out their friends at the expense of the public. This will cause people to lose faith and go away and will no longer support this website with donations.

Remember that the spirit of vcdhelp.com and the internet is to share information. So, just focus on the info and ignore the rest. The "no warez" rule is to prevent the SPAA/RIAA/MPAA from shutting down this site. Other rules like "no thread hijacking" or "no multiple posts on the same question" is to make the forums efficient for information distribution and sharing and location.

Flaming and verbal insults tend to occur when there is a difference of opinions. Generally, it's not a big problem. Only if the person is randomly attacking people for no reason should serious action be taken. These random attackers are very very few in number and ARE in fact banned quickly. However, when general flaming and insults occur, usually both parties are at fault. The best thing to do is to not incite further anger by using non-insulting, non-personally directed language and ignore their personal insults. Moreover, sometimes critical verbal remarks are justified against nasty, shady, rude people who post misinformation or spam or like to tick people off. So long as critical remarks are kept at a minimum, it can be easily ignored. Let's keep vcdhelp.com an informative, new info packed, and verbally free place. Too many rules can choke the life and spirit out of these forums.

Last word of advice: it doesn't hurt in this world to grow thicker skin.

[housepig]

I agree - I don't think a new rule is the answer.

I think the only answer to it is for people to ignore the posters who only want to start stirring the pot. If no one rises to the bait, they tend to seek out other boards with a more easily inflamed population...

the problem with a rule is that "hostile" posts, to a degree, are open to interpretation, and would open a floodgate of complaints to the mods.

- housepig

[tenders]

I agree - I don't think a new rule is the answer.

I think the only answer to it is for people to ignore the posters who only want to start stirring the pot. If no one rises to the bait, they tend to seek out other boards with a more easily inflamed population...

the problem with a rule is that "hostile" posts, to a degree, are open to interpretation, and would open a floodgate of complaints to the mods.

- housepig

yeah but people are riseing to the bait,and lets be honest here,if someone made a personal comment toward you,would you not respond?

who exactly is seeking out other boards? cause i see the same people here all the time.

[Bondiablo]

that idea of the original poster being able to delete replies sounded good.

[housepig]

yeah but people are riseing to the bait,and lets be honest here,if someone made a personal comment toward you,would you not respond?

I probably would respond, in fact I have responded here and there, but I manage to respond without turning it into a slagging flame-fest (usually some sarcasm is as deep as I get).

If people rise to the bait, they should be educated.

This is a community, and as such we all create the environment here. If we encourage people to not have flame wars and not respond to trolls, in general the message will get across.

We shouldn't need to turn to the moderators for every little thing - we should be able to handle this stuff as a community.

And I have seen (on other boards) people who come around to start shit. And when word gets out that UserXX only posts to try and start something, people start to ignore everything UserXX says, and not pay any attention to their posts... and they go away.

(Or they get super childish, and sign on with a new user name, which works for about a day until they give themselves away, either by starting the exact same arguments or by their grammer and the way their posts read.... and they get ignored under a second user name...)

- housepig

[adam]

We have a private forum where we suggest users who should either be warned, or banned outright. Sometimes 1 post is enough to get them banned if it is obvious they are only here to start trouble. Other than that, we just look for a pattern. If someone cannot engage in a discussion without resorting to flaming, then they will probably get banned eventually when their conduct gets out of hand.

The best thing you can do if you think someone is breaking a forum rule or just out to cause trouble, is to report the post using the link in the bottom of their post. This helps us better monitor things to try and prevent problems before they start.

I don't think a totally objective banning policy would work. We just have to do this on a case by case basis.

[pacmania_2001]

I agree with Adam, cases need to be dealt with on an individual basis.

In some cases it might seem that a person is flaming another when in fact they are just sharing a private joke (i.e people paying out TGPO).

[vitualis]

that idea of the original poster being able to delete replies sounded good.

However, the problem then is that on longer threads, a lot of GOOD information (if not most) is contributed by members other than the original poster. This would give the original poster the power to censor other people's posts.

Remember, you don't OWN a thread even if you start it. The closest thing you get is to be able to edit your own POSTs and even that ability has been abused in the past (notibly by the now departed KingJohn).

Regards.

[Faustus]

These guys are a dime a dozen, they come and go. Personally I think everything is fine the way it is. Use the system, point out bad threads to the Mods and as long as you have good mods the system works. Lucky for us we have good mods here.

[Hardcoreruss]

I agree flaystus

[Will Hay]

New rules are not always a good thing....last word of advice: it doesn't hurt in this world to grow thicker skin.........
<snip, original detailed above>

Very wise words bbb
Will

[Redd]

yeah but people are riseing to the bait,and lets be honest here,if someone made a personal comment toward you,would you not respond?

People are what they are. Everyone suffers from the same ills of Human Nature. What it is, is what it will be.

I've finally gotten to the age where I can just ignore it. Can't take an inanimate object (Computer) personally. What's the use?

Life is short, get on with it.

[Codesmythe]

I totally agree with several of the people above. Simply ignore the people tring to start a fight, etc. These kind of people seem to have a short attention span anyway, and will go away if ignored. If they get abusive, the Mods can be called in with a clear need.

This is a great board. Fewer rules equals more freedom. So far, this board has had relatively few problems, as far as I can tell.

Good job guys 8)

Just my two cents...