74 réponses à ce sujet

[Astorax]

Marvin TPA, you lookin for a break from the forums?

What did I just say a couple posts up?

Flaming is not acceptable.

[Eurypterid]

purplesunset wrote...
 For example, you can't ever say anything bad about x, y, or z.

Astorax summed the issues up quite well, but I'm wondering where you got this idea from?

[ABCoLD]

Astorax wrote...

The ONLY problem I see (and I'm trying to get it changed) is that the top forum and the only forum that doesn't require registration, is the NO SPOILER general forum. My personal preference is that the 1st forum to appear in the list would be the spoiler general forum, and that neither the spoiler and no spoiler forums would be open to non-registered posting. That way the people that don't know any better and don't pay attention post by default into the spoiler forum. Personally, I feel that would solve a LOT of the accidental posting of spoilers.

Truth

[Reinoc]

Soretooth wrote...


Here's a potential solution: The fan posts whatever he/she wants. However, the post will not appear immediately. The post goes through a filter where a Moderator scans the title and content. The Moderator then places the post in the appropriate forum. It takes the decision out of the fan's hands and puts the decision squarely in the Moderator's hands, WHERE THE DECISION UTIMATELY LIES!! What's so hard about this?

  I hope this is a joke. Really. It would take an army of 100 moderators scanning the forums at all times, doing nothing else of their time. I'm not sure people are aware that people with the "Moderator" tag are volunteers. Bioware employees have the "Bioware" tag.

[SheffSteel]

Let's see,,,, sometimes people complain about crime in a way which is whiny and irritating. But it is a fact of life that people break laws. Therefore, we should abolish laws. Sound good?



(For those who're following along at home, "law" = "no spoilers".)

[wanderon]

The problem is indeed that different people have different ideas about whats a spoiler and whats not and for the most part protecting those who do not wish to be spoiled is not enough of a priority at this point to require any sort of practice or methods that might be seen as annoying to the rest of the forumites who could care less about spoilers.



For instance it would be a rather simple thing to arrange for some heavy duty warning labels right on the topic posting and reply screens in this (No Spoilers) forum that spell out specificly what is or is not considered a spoiler and threatening severe consequences for those who violate that policy even one time. (like a 3 day ban)



Putting the warnings and information about exactly what IS a spoiler right at the point where people are posting should at the very least eliminate those who are posting spoilers inadvertantly becuase they do not understand whats allowed and whats not and perhaps those who do not want a 3 day vacation from the forums as well leaving only those who either do not care or can't be bothered to pay enough attention to even realize the warning are there .



When this idea was proposed in the sticky thread about spoilers at the top of this forum it was pretty much dismissed as too annoying - hence my comment that at this point in time protecting people from spoilers here is not a high enough priority.



For the record my personal take on whats a spoiler and whats not is pretty severe - I do not think people should be talking about:



specific battles and/or tactics etc for those battles,



specific characters other than in the most generic terms - no information about exactly who you might meet or where or when or what sort of impact they are going to have or not have - even information about the best way to build your companions should probably be relegated to the spoiler forums.



Once in the spoiler forums there should be absolutely NO spoilers posted in topic titles so people who wish to see spoilers about certain aspects of the game (like beating a specific battle) can do so without risking seeing major spoilers about other areas they have not yet visited posted right in topic titles where they are impossible to ignore - I for one have already had a major plot twist spoiled in this fashion.



The concept of having every post read by a mod before it is obviously impossible in a venue that has threads often moving off the front page in a matter of minutes and the concept that anyone who doesn't want to be spoiled should just stay away is an unfair and selfish concept as well. These forums exist to serve all game owners and potential game owners not just those who don't care whether or not they see any spoilers when visiting.

[purplesunset]

Astorax wrote...


purplesunset, nowhere do we ever say, don't badmouth or say something negative about the game, or x,y,z whatever. Our policy is don't flame other community members. The Bioware devs have coated the game with some special flame retardant material that can handle all the negativity you can throw at it. I personally discourage threads like "This game sucks" because it's totally non-constructive. It tells the developers nothing about WHAT you don't like, so they can make it better...but we don't delete/modify/lock posts that are negative in a constructive way. It's just silly, you can learn more from negativity most of the time than you can positives.

Right. If you guys take the time to spell things out like this before locking a thread, it would be much easier to understand your policy regarding critical posts.

Some of the DLC threads though were locked for seemingly no other reason than "bah...not another one !"  That didn't put you guys in such a good light. I'm referring to the recent one, which I can't find anynmore.

[Adria Teksuni]

There is a search function for a reason. Trust me, if they permitted it there would be 15 threads on the front page all about the exact same thing. It can get verra ugly. If they had to give detailed reasoning everytime they shut down a duplicate...well...you get my drift.



As far as the OP, it is a sad fact of life that wizard's first rule doth indeed apply. People are stupid. They will post spoilers no matter how many stickies or rules are there, and the mods, being mortals and not mechanolinked psychic gods, will take time to get to them.



I also avoid teh intarwebz like the proverbial plague when I've started a game, for that very reason. This game doesn't even have a particularly big twist in it. The KoTOR forums were a nightmare for a verra long time regarding spoilers.



Unfortunately, avoidance is the only way to be sure to not get an ITS. Internet Transmitted Spoiler.

[Eurypterid]

purplesunset wrote...

Astorax wrote...


purplesunset, nowhere do we ever say, don't badmouth or say something negative about the game, or x,y,z whatever. Our policy is don't flame other community members. The Bioware devs have coated the game with some special flame retardant material that can handle all the negativity you can throw at it. I personally discourage threads like "This game sucks" because it's totally non-constructive. It tells the developers nothing about WHAT you don't like, so they can make it better...but we don't delete/modify/lock posts that are negative in a constructive way. It's just silly, you can learn more from negativity most of the time than you can positives.

Right. If you guys take the time to spell things out like this before locking a thread, it would be much easier to understand your policy regarding critical posts.

I think many times we do point this out (or something similar). But when a post is just a blatant troll or flame attempt, there's really no reason to post a long explanation of how to be critical. That person is obviously not interested in constructive dialog.

Some of the DLC threads though were locked for seemingly no other reason than "bah...not another one !"  That didn't put you guys in such a good light. I'm referring to the recent one, which I can't find anynmore.

I know I personally took to task many of the game 'defenders' for being total ***hats in threads where someone was posting useful criticism.

If you can find the thread you're referring to, I'd be interested in seeing it (toss me a link if you want). I did lock one yesterday that was basically complaining about the price of RtO, but I pointed the OP to the sticky thread when I locked his.

Modifié par Eurypterid, 15 décembre 2009 - 07:39 .

[Astorax]

As Eurypterid stated, we usually do, as a matter of policy, post to say why we're locking a post.



Also, we try to lock down duplicate threads, which may be what you're referring to. So basically, if we see a rash of threads pop up that are about the same subject, then we'll try to funnel the information into one of the threads and lock down the others.

[Jesse van Herk]

For those who don't know where the site rules are, they are linked in the footer of every page on this site.  Please follow them.

[  http://social.bioware.com/page/site-rules ]

[purplesunset]

Eurypterid wrote...


If you can find the thread you're referring to, I'd be interested in seeing it (toss me a link if you want). I did lock one yesterday that was basically complaining about the price of RtO, but I pointed the OP to the sticky thread when I locked his.

When I type "dlc" the search function starts from 2 months ago and only goes as recent as  1 month ago...at least for me.

I'm pretty sure that the RtO thread was not the one I'm talking about.

I'm sorry to sidetrack the discussion here. Perhaps I was just letting my own prejudices against mods (and domineering authority figures in general hah ) color my perception. I'll be more open-minded in the future and see how things go.

[Adria Teksuni]

I say stomp on purplesunset like the anarchistic rebel she is!



RESPECT THEIR AUTHORITAY!

[Landozelig]

The first thing that might help would be requiring registration to post in ALL forums. If you bought the game, then it should be no problem to type in your cd key so you can post. If you didn't buy it, you have no right to anything BioWare is offering. However, by not requiring registration for the general forum, you are allowing all the pirates and trolls to post in there. They haven't done BioWare the courtesy of purchasing the game, so following the rules of the forums by not posting spoilers is not high on their agenda. If their user account isn't tied to their game key, they have nothing to lose as they can be banned from the forums and create a new account 30 seconds later. You could allow anyone to view the forums but require registration to post.

These are just some ideas - I'm not saying they're perfect or will even work. I'm certainly not saying they'll end all the problems. There are far too many idiots out there that like to ruin things for everyone. You can find them on forums, online playing games, even in this very thread 

[Adria Teksuni]

So people who rent the game are SOL?



Bioware wants to have the ability to help anyone and everyone who enjoys their games, even ones who borrow them. Or people who pop on with a quick question about their legally acquired and fully paid for product and don't want to go through the entire registration process. I do not see this as a bad thing.

[Phat-Phreddy]

Landozelig wrote...

The first thing that might help would be requiring registration to post in ALL forums. If you bought the game, then it should be no problem to type in your cd key so you can post. If you didn't buy it, you have no right to anything BioWare is offering. However, by not requiring registration for the general forum, you are allowing all the pirates and trolls to post in there. They haven't done BioWare the courtesy of purchasing the game, so following the rules of the forums by not posting spoilers is not high on their agenda. If their user account isn't tied to their game key, they have nothing to lose as they can be banned from the forums and create a new account 30 seconds later. You could allow anyone to view the forums but require registration to post.

These are just some ideas - I'm not saying they're perfect or will even work. I'm certainly not saying they'll end all the problems. There are far too many idiots out there that like to ruin things for everyone. You can find them on forums, online playing games, even in this very thread 

So by this logic, I would not be able to partake in game discussion because my copy of the game is in my wifes possesion until xmas morning.

[Kalcalan]

Landozelig wrote...

The first thing that might help would be requiring registration to post in ALL forums. If you bought the game, then it should be no problem to type in your cd key so you can post. If you didn't buy it, you have no right to anything BioWare is offering. However, by not requiring registration for the general forum, you are allowing all the pirates and trolls to post in there. They haven't done BioWare the courtesy of purchasing the game, so following the rules of the forums by not posting spoilers is not high on their agenda. If their user account isn't tied to their game key, they have nothing to lose as they can be banned from the forums and create a new account 30 seconds later. You could allow anyone to view the forums but require registration to post.

These are just some ideas - I'm not saying they're perfect or will even work. I'm certainly not saying they'll end all the problems. There are far too many idiots out there that like to ruin things for everyone. You can find them on forums, online playing games, even in this very thread 

Actually these are not bad suggestions. Why not make game registration compulsory? I for one grow weary of the no spoilers forum as I find more spoilers in there than in the rest of the forum.

It's pretty obvious that the moderators have a hard time keeping up with the community and I can only salute their efforts. Nevertheless, I'd like to seize this opportunity to encourage them to take action more often and be stern about forum laws.

I find the trolling really appalling. People will say that this is the internet and to a certain point they are right but there are too many violations of forum rules and often name calling that prevent constructive discussions and invalidate the purpose of these forums.

The saddest part is that Dragon Age is an M rated game and that would lead us to expect some maturity that is severely lacking.

Putting spoilers without a notice means a significant disregard for other players and their right to enjoy the game and discuss it before finishing it.

I stopped reading the forum before completing my first playthrough because of that attitude and the blatant disrespect that some posters show to the community as a whole.

In order to stop all this nonsense you, the moderators, have to take a stance and weed out all the posts that break the rules, only then will these posters who disregard others and can't read CAPITAL letters take notice.

Really, this has to stop.

[wanderon]

Perhaps the main reason the general forum for ANY game is left open (registration not required) is becuase it is a place where POTENTIAL game owners can get information about the game prior to purchasing.

[Astorax]

^^ What wanderon said.



The problem is not to clamp down harder on the forums IMO, it's to open it up a bit more and allow non-registered posting in a forum that allows for spoilers as well as the no spoiler forum.

[Kalcalan]

wanderon wrote...

Perhaps the main reason the general forum for ANY game is left open (registration not required) is becuase it is a place where POTENTIAL game owners can get information about the game prior to purchasing.

In that case, they'd know pretty much all there is to know about the game by reading this part of the forum...

That being said I get that registration is not an option (I didn't think about people renting the game for instance, my bad) but still, the current situation is simply not acceptable. I know moderators have a huge task but they should be more strict and not just about spoilers but language as well (some posters clearly think that using foul language make them look cool).

[maladictor2009]

calm down and smoke some weed.

[bjdbwea]

I think moderators should also correct the spelling from some posters. (Not really, but they should encourage the worst offenders to show some courtesy.)

Modifié par bjdbwea, 15 décembre 2009 - 09:39 .

[Kalcalan]

Astorax wrote...

^^ What wanderon said.

The problem is not to clamp down harder on the forums IMO, it's to open it up a bit more and allow non-registered posting in a forum that allows for spoilers as well as the no spoiler forum.

I'm not sure that doing this will solve the problem because (no offence) this can only confirm that it is indeed not working (i.e. forum rules can't be enforced). Still, if that's what it takes then go for it. IMO this spoiler situation can't
be worse than it is now.

maladictor2009 wrote...



calm down and smoke some weed.

Thanks for making my point.

Modifié par Kalcalan, 15 décembre 2009 - 09:39 .

[Adria Teksuni]

Creating a non-registration required spoilers forum won't solve the problem entirely, but it may help reduce the issues. Nothing will solve the problem entirely but removing the forums altogether.

[maladictor2009]

people always go completely out of line on the forums, what is up with that. in the old days we didnt have forums for oure games we just enjoyed what was giving to us.