So, two very, very mildly naughty gifs (no real nudity or sex acts) in a 350 post thread, both by the same poster, is some epidemic of problematic imagery that makes surfing the site at work problematic?
Enh.
I’ve never posted a NSFW image here, that I can recall anyway, and it’s not what I come to this board for, I’m not interesting in a big fight to preserve my right to see poorly animated boobies.
I just don’t really see the “getting out of hand” characterization, as if a reasonable person couldn’t surf the board all day in TV/Music, Movies, Games, Tech stuff, and politics, and never see anything objectionable. I mean, I literally wouldn’t have even known where to begin looking for naughty gifs on this board. It seems more like a situation where you tell Nawid A (not on the ban list, I notice) to knock it off.
Way I see it, don’t spit in his eye or start multi-page threads about how much the forum sucks, and you’ll be fine. Also apparently there are several P&R triggers, but I stay out of that cesspool so I don’t know what they are.
P&R has always been the least moderated place here. To the extent that Tom has jumped into threads to say “stop reporting shit, I’m not doing anything about it.”
I’m just an anonymous new guy here at Qt3, but I have to say I don’t think any of the names on the recently banned list were names that, from an outsider’s perspective, seemed particularly troublesome. But I’ve only been posting here for a couple months and lurking for a few before that, and I’m fairly selective about what I read. Still, I hope there’s some recourse for those people who want to come back.
That said, there are definitely some members who do seem like unmitigated disasters who aren’t listed; who knows. I guess they don’t annoy Tom, so they stay?
THAT said, I apparently signed on right when all this drama boiled over and Tom left, so my initial few months here have been during The Anarchy Era. I will confess that I came here after hearing that the forums had a good bit of interesting discussion about games, and some of the unbelievably vicious commentary I ran into early on was pretty surprising. I’ve been into some Internet cesspits before, but adults in their 30s-50s telling each other to “get AIDS and die a slow horrible death” was disappointing at best.
I belong to a circle of friends, and I know one thing about true friendship: no friendship could last long if the terms were dictated arbitrarily by one member. This post saddens and angers me greatly, because while I may be on the fringes of this community, I really do love it and feel like I’ve gotten to know some of the posters here as people. Interesting, flawed, funny, whip-smart, wonderful people. However, what Tom is describing is a dictatorship. And that is no way to treat your friends.
This is not how true communities are made or maintained. This is toddler-level antics (“We play my way!”) and it makes me incredibly sad.
I can guarantee from first-hand experience that a period of amnesty wouldn’t make a lick of difference.
And as I mentioned, I hate that it’s come to this because almost every one of those people is capable of making a valuable contribution to the forum. What’s more, it kills me that over the years, I’ve come to know many of them, in some cases personally. Which makes it even more galling that we can’t come to some sort of detente about how to run the forum.
If you’re not actually going to be reading or participating in the damn forum, how much does it matter that they don’t agree with you about how it runs? As long as they stop PMing you or trying to Skype with you about the topic, will you even notice?
We’re back to “trolling is okay, just don’t disagree with Tom”, which is disappointing and childish.
EDIT: Athryn is right. If you don’t want to run and be involved with the forums and don’t actually want to spend time with us, then don’t. Just shut the thing down if you don’t like it anymore.
Yeah, I have to admit to being a bit baffled by his PM list. I mean some of those guys, I completely understand, like Abilio. But Hans? Really? And Charles? He barely even posts anymore, and from what I could see of his posts, he’d been just a low key contributor at this point.
Because I disagree with what most have said, I’ll say my peace about The List: There are several people on that list who I have found to be terrible posters. Antagonistic, rude, etc. Some of them regularly trolling. Some of them I’ve chatted with in games and they’ve been horrible individuals to talk to.
There are also many who I think are wonderful, polite and helpful people who I will miss seeing.
Just sayin’.
(yes, I get that the list is not based on their posting quality / attitude necessarily)
JM, I agree that it’s a vicious circle in some cases. But as the moderator of the forum, the circle has to end with me. I have tried to be patient, accommodating, and generous with all of you. At a certain point, we both need to acknowledge that no matter who’s at fault, it’s simply not going to work out.
Xerapis, as I mentioned, PMs have been dispatched to several folks and I think many of you can guess who those folks might be. Suffice to say, this is not over, so please don’t make any assumptions about who’s being “permitted to run wild and free”.
