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[noodle0117]

On most of the forums I see for other games (such as the minecraft forums, the League of legends forums, CoD forums ect.), I see players cursing left and right, immature people posting stupid and pointless comments, trolls running rampant (destroying doors, floodgates, and threads alike), and the majority of the fanbase alienating any newbie players they see.

But when I look at the bay12forums, I see a friendly community full of players asking for help, players giving help, players sharing their unique and unusual experiences, and players with some of the most eccentric imaginations ever. There are seldom any trollers, seldom any flamers (in comparison to the other forums I've seen), and the community here seems to be capable of achieving an almost ridiculous degree of organization (as seen by the many successful "properly played" succession and community games).

Heck, often I even enjoy reading and commenting on the forums more than the game itself.

So I just wonder, what exactly is it that makes the DF community so different from all the others that I've seen?

[rridgway]

Instead of taking our rage on other people, we take it out on elves?

[Jeoshua]

Different as in...

Psychotic below the surface?

[Zesty]

The ASCII deters the impatient players?

[Xgamer4]

The ASCII deters the impatient players?

If I had to guess, it's a combination of this and our learning-cliff keeping away the rude and impatient.

[Deon]

Also it may be the general aura spread by Toady and the lack of "evil moderators". For example, even in worst cases Toady only deletes "bad posts" and gives polite warnings. The only time I saw him angry is when some guys tried to reverse engineer DF.

So it may be a long tradition of "dwarfiness" which everyone adopts as he stays on forums, and I personally love it.

I wouldn't ever get 12k+ posts on any other forum .

P.S. Yeah, I blame "dwarfiness". You know, people are often ignorant or rude here, but it quickly turns into "dwarf jokes" and an easy solution to any grudge is "magma". We just can't be serious about problems here .

P.P.S. Also I think that if there was an "average age" in forum stats, it would be a bit higher than on other forums. It plays a role too, people with some age behind them tend to be more stable in the internet environment since you know, it's just a game. I don't mean younger players are crazy maniacs, but children usually view everything too radical/personal/important.

[Uristocrat]

We also tend to drive off the easily offended.  If DF and its magma-roasted kittens didn't do it, then LCS probably would.

[Thief^]

It's not the only forum like this, I'm a member of an amateur game development forum (for a specific bit of software) that's extremely welcoming, all the more impressive as the primary audience are schoolkids.

There's a similar learning cliff with that, too.

[Mister Always]

Of course we're all polite. Everyone else has a lever that pours magma into the world.

Do YOU want to burn? No? Then shut up and get along!~

[Oliolli]

I have to agree with the '"Learning cliff with spikes, upside-down portions, caves wfilled with monsters and goblin crossbowmen firing from below" weeding out the people who couldn't live with these sorts of things' -theory.

But then again, most forums also host a number of people simply complaining how hard it is for them to learn the game and raging about it.

Go figure 

[Urist is dead tome]

Another part I would imagine, is the large amount of loyalty to Toady and Dwarf Fortress in general. Just last night I even had a dream I met Toady.

[noodle0117]

Well technically we still do have quite a lot of people who don't understand some of the game aspects.
Only difference is that they don't seem to make as big of a commotion about it, and that everyone else seems to be a lot more willing to help out.

[Gorjo MacGrymm]

Its funny that this thread was written at the same time a thread in the general discusion was sritten about whats wrong with the forums and why did so many people just get banned.  Basicly, the upper forums is where people talk about the game.  Its the lower forums where the nastiness happens.  And it annoys Toady a great deal.  I think that everyone is so nice and welcoming up here is because everyone loves the game so much.

[Zesty]

Basicly, the upper forums is where people talk about the game.  Its the lower forums where the nastiness happens.

Huh. That's probably why the community appears so nice. I never had the inclination to talk about anything other than the game.

[Sutremaine]

True that. The sort of person who sticks with DF long enough to post in the upper forums has some degree of patience and organised thinking, and any forum-disrupting personal views they might have are put aside in favour of talking shop when in the DF forums. I like that the forums are focused, but there's still room for a bit of messing around.