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[Sowelu]

spell checked, and proof read

For what it's worth, I wouldn't mind if it was standard protocol for people to use their browser's spellchecker and double-check their grammar--on the honor system, of course.

And yet people on the lower forums are MUCH BETTER about this than on the upper forums.  Huh.  Maybe we're not all bad after all?

[Max White]

See, now we are starting to get a standard in! This is good people. The ethics of the bay12 general forum says "Don't spell like a moron"

This, of corse, expels me from the forum. I bid you good day!

[Vector]

spell checked, and proof read

For what it's worth, I wouldn't mind if it was standard protocol for people to use their browser's spellchecker and double-check their grammar--on the honor system, of course.

I'm in total agreement on this one.  There's minor grammatical errors, and then there's stuff like basic capitalization.  I don't even mind awkwardly formulated sentences... goodness knows I'm a frequent enough offender myself.  But it only seems like basic manners to make sure one keeps oneself in line.

See, now we are starting to get a standard in! This is good people. The ethics of the bay12 general forum says "Don't spell like a moron"

This, of corse, expels me from the forum. I bid you good day!

... You don't seem to spell like a moron, as there was only one typo in that entire post =/  So... meh.  Maybe you were just kidding.

[Sowelu]

Yah, you're cool, Max.

And besides, I don't think of it as "spelling like a moron".  I think of it as "spelling like you're in a hurry", in which case hey, just slow down, relax maan~

[Max White]

You all thought you could get rid of me like that? HA! You havn't got a clue. 

Point and case! We all like good spelling. However bad spelling because, well, grammer is just not your thing, seems to be not as bad. I think "lul sup u guis i jst pwnd sum n00bz" is what we think of when we say 'bad' spelling, and picture perfect "Good morning gentlemen, I would like to discuss the slaughter of elves today!" is 'good' spelling, but there is a middle ground.

So, try to not spell like a moron, for the most part, would be a better rule.

[FuzzyZergling]

I have not read this entire thread, but I would like to say that I have never been offended at anything I have read on these forums. (Not even the Atheist Threads!)
As such, I do not see any reason why any change to the forum rules, or anything else greatly affecting forumites, would be necessary.
Just my opinion.

[Vector]

The weird thing here is that we seem to have a lot of people chipping in and saying "I think we shouldn't change things because I haven't personally been offended," when perhaps we should be asking "how can we alter the forums to make them more welcoming to the community at large, rather than only ourselves."

I've been offended by a number of things I've read here.  This is why I think I'd make a terrible moderator--I'm good at arguing and being fair-minded as long as I don't have power, but I'm just not chill enough to restrain myself when it comes to "things that make me irritated."

Meh.  So what I'm saying, really, is that I think there's some things we can agree to--that we should be, in general, able to discuss what we like as long as we keep calm about it--but as-is, something about what we're doing right now is bugging people.  There's got to be a middle ground.

[malimbar04]

I have not read this entire thread, but I would like to say that I have never been offended at anything I have read on these forums. (Not even the Atheist Threads!)
As such, I do not see any reason why any change to the forum rules, or anything else greatly affecting forumites, would be necessary.
Just my opinion.

speaking of which, as a relatively active participator in the recent atheism thread, I'm very impressed with how relevant it's stayed. We only had a couple of trolls, which were largely ignored or addressed properly. Other such threads across this series of tubes, in my experience, fall apart within the first couple pages, and never fully recover. I generally have to fight honest-meaning trolls and malicious one-sentence hacks for the entire thread until I give up and get something to drink.

[mnjiman]

Too much over thinking is occurring in this thread.

Simple solution to a simple problem, not enough OPs so introduce more OPs (like 2).
The only issue is picking the OPs. Which should be done based on known behavior and trusted and active forum peoples who (hopefuly) have past forum modding experience.

[Toady One]

It doesn't take very long to moderate the forums.  If people are having trouble because the discussions they start are being derailed by spam, then they should report that and we'll take care of it.  That certainly rises to the level of using the report button.  That's what it is for.  I don't mind some silliness, but spam and image posts lead to porn, etc. as they did with VN and as they have on occasion in the happy/sad threads, so it's good when the outright goofy no-content spam is kept to a minimum to stop that kind of problem, which will have to be dealt with.  Nobody is going to like every thread on the forum and when you have enough people around, you aren't going to like everybody.  I don't think general discussion has become the new various nonsense, and I hardly ever get reports from forum games.

There seems to be a sentiment that we are deleting more categories of posts lately.  I'm not sure if that's the case, because the ones we remember getting rid of (discussing it amongst ourselves just now) were pretty atrocious/trolls/spam/etc., but we'll try to be mindful of this since it has come up a few times in the thread.

[Max White]

Well pray to Armok I don't get in. I would totally ban each and every one of you. 
But realisticaly, who would make for a good admin? Who do we trust to that level? I guess Retro, being thread maker, is in the running... Anybody else who we think does a good job at this sort of thing?

EDIT: I was just ninja'd, by toady one. Best day of my life!!!! Well Toady seems to beleive the situation for numbers is under controll, so I think we can leave that issue, as he has a better idea that any of us.

[Jay]

It doesn't take very long to moderate the forums.

No, I'm sure it doesn't.
Probably because a vast majority of the problem cases aren't reported until they flare into something particularly nasty.
If we had active moderators who were actually somewhat-part of the threads, they could stop the fights or whatever before they got bad enough to require reporting.
Hell, even knowing that there's a mod on active patrol like that would possibly weed out some of the offenders.

Sorry, but the forums really have outgrown the two of you.

[Max White]

See that's why I would make a horrrible mod. Were I in charge I would snap a mod stick over Jay's head for questioning the business model, but that dosn't seem to be Bay12's business model.

But that brings me back to my first question. What level of maturity do we want? Is this a place were we want the shadow of moderators to float above our heads, causing an odd hush to what is overwise enjoyable, and useless babble? Would we be better off living in fear of a mod, but being able to walk the streets of this forum without fear of trolls?

[Jay]

See that's why I would make a horrrible mod. Were I in charge I would snap a mod stick over Jay's head for questioning the business model, but that dosn't seem to be Bay12's business model.

But that brings me back to my first question. What level of maturity do we want? Is this a place were we want the shadow of moderators to float above our heads, causing an odd hush to what is overwise enjoyable, and useless babble? Would we be better off living in fear of a mod, but being able to walk the streets of this forum without fear of trolls?

Haha.  Yeah.  There was no reference to a business model there.

As far as maturity..  I'm one of the main proponents of our semi-moderated system.  However, there's a limit to what the two brothers Adams can do to keep it at that as our community grows.

[Max White]

Haha.  Yeah.  There was no reference to a business model there.

Sure there was. In Toadys business model, the forums have few moderators. notably, two. You said this structure wouldn't surfice as the forums grew in popularity.