Reading it back perhaps you can see why this is not a valid moderating policy? And why it drives engagement and traffic down?
That is an awful take to have. If sections of the community act in a negative and abusive way, then their input into a conversation about a wargame is not an excuse to allow them to carry on with that behaviour. Their input is, frankly, not worth it. And you say there is no excuse for that behaviour, but you give an excuse within the same paragraph! That individuals "cannot help themselves." You're suggesting these individuals have no agency in their decisions, that not only is there an excuse for that behaviour, but that it's somehow worth people being made to feel bad because these individuals have so much value to the community? This is why so many members of the community, and from other communities, see these forums as a toxic environment.
So, in the new FAQ clarification thread: https://forum.corvusbelli.com/threads/faq-1-2-news.40814/page-3#post-426583 due to some issues a new moderation rule was introduced. As you can see after reading the rule, discussing it in the topic in which it appeared is a violation of the rule. Personally I do not have a problem with the rule, but I think that it isn't bad for people to discuss or contest it. Hence this thread. Relevant posts quoted.
I am fairly certain that above posts (and this one for the matter) are in violation of the new rule introduced (as they are in a rules clarification thread but they are about something else than the game rules in question. In order to have a place to comment on the new rule I have created a thread: https://forum.corvusbelli.com/threads/discussion-on-the-new-moderation-policy-can-be-had-here.40827/
Psycho genuinely needs to think if his position on these matters reflects those of the community at large. Everyone has their own individual viewpoint anywhere between "they cannot help themselves" and "personal responsibility matters", and I think he is sitting a little far to the former for my liking at least. Edited for positivity!
Hear hear @WiT?! Letting people be extremely rude to volunteers and creators on the creators' own forum leads to burnout and retreat by the creatives. Please do wield the banhammer, @psychoticstorm . Your efforts, IJW's, and the authors' are appreciated. Your desire to keep useful input around is commendable, but it's not worth the price of abuse. Infinity has a large, productive, helpful community. The few turds who resort to personal attacks repeatedly are not worth keeping around for their occasional good ideas. There are plenty of better people around with similar or greater depth of insight. Time to grow up, folks. Debate ideas, don't be dicks, especially to volunteers and creatives. Not that hard.
As you can see I moved your posts here, though the thread will be not in the correct order because of when the posts were made.
Of course, it's "use nothing but red text, wave a finger and ensure users are aware they can slur and insult each other with complete impunity, leading to a one of the most toxic and despised hobby Fora in the internet". It's very effective and has achieved all of the goals. The 2022-23 goal is essentially becoming Dakka.
It could also be good to remember general warnings are given publicly, requests of specific members are made privately. The seeming desire to see folks pilloried in the public square is rather barbaric.
Could simply be a matter of perception/impression. I stand by my original assessment, that folks don’t just want bans issued, but that they want to see it happen as well. That’s the way I see it.
Shutting down certain threads and not others is questionable. Got examples for the weakness? I agree we should issue bans, imagine how polite everyone will become and then we'll really be able to see if and how much favoritism there is. This will at least allow threads to stay open so topics actually get resolved.
I will push back on this: It is more that we want to see consequences. The current moderation policy passively supports aggression, sniping, and disrespect by not correcting such behavior. You have people actively attacking even moderators, because they know they will not be punished. Because a few bad actors are allowed to continue, the general forum atmosphere is more hostile and less trusting. There is less discussion and more threads devolve into attacks back in forth between a couple members. Years ago, we had lots of varied dialog and tons of new threads. People created guides, battle reports, and gave feedback on tactics and lists. You see that in some areas, but whole sections of the forum are quiet. While some of that is due to the pandemic, I feel a good portion of it is due to the general hostility of the forum. Because of the environment fostered by the current enforcement policy, new players are actively warned not to check the forum due to the toxicity. Infinity veterans, with all their knowledge and experience, leave the forum for private sites that enforce better behavior. This is the Official Forum for Infinity the Game: it should be a nexus for great discussions about the game and new releases. For the sake of the Infinity brand, new (and old) users should not have to deal with such a hostile site.
For myself, I don't care about seeing people publicly punished, but I do want to see behaviour publicly condemned. In particular, believe it or not the forum has this official rule: "Offensive, insulting, discriminatory, racist, sexist or aggressive posts will not be tolerated. You can disagree with someone and remain polite." Moderators should be clear when posts violate this rule. Instead, we see some truly abysmal behaviour get labelled "political discussion," which gives the very unfortunate impression that CB does in fact tolerate discrimination, racism, and sexism. It's a real bad look.
Sure nobody needs to be publicly castrated, but I want mods on peoples asses right from the get go even if it's in PM. I dont care what anyone thinks of me right now, cause im happy to have everyone play extra nice and then if there are still problems after, at least we'll see who really is who...
So, two things: One, not banning people because they might, one day, have valuable feedback doesn't make a lot of sense. Whether or not they have valuable feedback is irrelevant to how they conduct themselves; users that cannot conduct themselves in a civil manner need some kind of real, tangible punishment; otherwise there is no incentive to correct their behavior. And any functioning adult is capable of providing feedback and having discussions without resorting to personal attacks. Secondly; every aggressive user that is allowed to run free on these forums drives people away. I am sure CB is aware of the reputation the official forums have. The price of letting those who cannot control themselves run amok is that users who don't want to deal with such behavior leave. And who is more likely to have valuable feedback: a single user that cannot control their temper, or all the people who *can* control their behavior, but choose to not participate in discussions due to that user? This is the only official forum I've been on that does not perma-ban people for unrepentant personal attacks. And that includes Warhammer 40k, Warmachine, Xwingtmg, and a dozen for video games. Along with many subreddits and official Discord channels. I don't care if the ban is public or private, but when people launch personal insults, there needs to be a consequence. I don't care if its a warning system, a points system, whatever. But users need to be clamped down on. Before more people decide to take the route IJW did and just... leave.
