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[JoshuaFH]

I really don't like the term "Undesirables", as it evokes thoughts of prejudice, in a weird sort of way.

I'd say that, somewhere along the line, long before alot of the old oldies got here, someone had managed a self-sustaining spiral of friendship, community, and chillness that got bigger as it dragged more and more people into it, and eventually culminated into the forum you see today.

I, too, have visited many forums in my time, but this is the only one which had what it took to keep me coming back to it again and again. I can safely say that this is my home on the internet. I am a bit embarrassed though, as sometimes I have tell my RL friends that I need to make time to talk to my "internet friends".

[Siquo]

Has everybody just forgotten about VN? Or did i just tear open an old festering wound that should stay the forgotten beast that it is/was?   

Things have exploded here, too. An entire forum was deleted and various people were muted or even banned (AFAIK, I kept away from that place). There's still muting happening on a regular basis, with the big difference being that it's done by people who don't care about your standpoint, but about the way you say it. Most moderated forums die because of bad mods, and unmoderated forums explode into nonsense until everyone decides it's gone too far and everyone leaves. It's a good forum. People come for DF, they stay for the company.

And rest assured, my GF is sometimes (almost) jealous of the time I spend with you guys

[Ultimuh]

Sadly, I werent around at the time of VN.. or.. never visited that place..
Then again.. why would I be sad about it? 

[Ochita]

VN is VN. Its no longer part of this forum, expect in spirit.

Plus we dont really have any radicals here. So its a chill atmosphere.

[IronyOwl]

Toady One emits calming internet-transmissible pheromones.

I actually think this is largely true. Toady and ThreeToe break up fights and such, but they always do it in a very mellow, "Come on guys let's calm down" sort of way. I think that lends very nicely to the mellow atmosphere, since even the mods are calm and civilized.

[PTTG??]

Oh yeah, I kinda forgot that I'm hosting the VN export over on my website. I think. I haven't checked on it in a long time.

[warhammer651]

We use a lot of soap and whitewash. That is generally enough to remove the worst stains, but we still flood the rooms every few weeks with a mixture of....


Oh you meant THAT sort of clean. That is caused by the learning curve scaring off most everyone else.

[Nadaka]

VN is VN. Its no longer part of this forum, expect in spirit.

Plus we dont really have any radicals here. So its a chill atmosphere.

I'm a radical.

But yep. These forums are pretty chill. Only comparable internet experience I had before this was the D20 Modern and Vacuum Elemental RP forums on the old Wizards of the Coast site before the 4e/Gleemax changes and the removal of the best forum anywhere.

[Zrk2]

See the last quote in Aqizzar's sig for an example of forum moderationing.

Also DF filters the populace, reducing assholery in two ways:
1. It gets rid of the stupid people that bitch and complain.
2. It leaves no stupid people for the smart people to RAEG at.

Which leaves me as about the worst it can get here.

NINJAS x3

[scriver]

We have learnt to amplify our relaxed states.

Oooooooooooooooooooommm

[alway]

Yeah, the learning curve of DF means just to get in the upper forums you need to have above average IQ and tons of patience. Drifting down to the lower forums then occurs if you find yourself enjoying dwarf fortress's gameplay enough to explore the rest of the bay12 forums.
It's also pretty hard to do standard trolling since upper forums DF culture causes us to find things like breeding captive mermaids in order to suffocate their children at birth to be as hilarious as it is horrible. I would disagree with Ochita's statement about not having radicals; we have plenty, and likely more than you would find in a random sampling of people. It's just that we are internet savvy enough to mostly know how far to take things.

I have yet to find a nicer internet community than this; I too consider it my internet-home.

[Enzo]

I think a lot of it also has to do with the fact that Toady treats this forum very professionally, views it as representative of his business. He lives off donations, and I expect a good deal of them come from active forum members. Most forum members have a lot of respect for Toady, and know that causing trouble on the forums is directly messing up Toady's shit. I think this is why most of us do a decent job of self-moderation, and when a mod does have to step in, we don't second-guess them. Most of us, anyway.

That, and I agree with the sentiment about DF's learning curve weeding out the idiots to a large extent.

[darkrider2]

Most forum members have a lot of respect for Toady, and know that causing trouble on the forums is directly messing up Toady's shit.

That's no lie. Toady is like a second father to me. This is also my internet-home.

[FuzzyZergling]

Anybody here ever been to the VG Cats forum before it was nuked?
Thit place was nasty.

[Itnetlolor]

Make something so easy, even kids can understand it in a snap, then anything associated with it will become just as  childishly easy. Kids can be cruel, and so can a forum that plummets down a tantrum spiral because of such manners. At least, that's my logical conclusion of how things tend to fall apart in certain forums. A general example, let's say, could be the Minecraft or BSF forums. It's attracting much of the young to very young crowd, and that average maturity is just as young/childish. Too many kids in a single room can cause some problems and/or damage to sanity and the overall environment, even if moderated.

Probably not the best phrasing I've done, but still explains my point a bit. DF is a good introduction to patience and critical thinking, just by the sheer difficulty on it's own (playing and modding), and it does transfer/translate well when going into the forums. Even then, we have our times of acting immature, but at least it doesn't always degenerate into malicious immaturity (trolling); but it instead is more the equivalent of someone playing a prank or saying a funny joke, and everyone else joins in on the joke and tries to one-up each other. When things eventually reach a breaking point or going out of hand, then a moderator (or the almighty Toady One or ThreeToe) jumps in to bring discipline into the room.

Being on the bandwagon, I am in agreement. As a forum home, I have seen this as a nice community to be in, and just as well, have yet to find any place better. I think most-everyone knows their place in the forum, and knows when to talk, provided they have something to contribute. Any other forum member tends to warn other members before/during/sometimes after moderation takes place, if they're going to far with a topic or reminding them of certain guidelines (see HAPPY thread). We have some decent sub-moderators/ninja-mods patrolling the forums as well.

EDIT:
I guess it's best to say that our structure is overall good, despite how dirty it tends to get. We just know how to prevent the forums from corroding itself apart. It's treated like a great bridge. It'll have rust here and there, but with a regular checkup while enjoying the view, everything should stay intact.