208 réponses à ce sujet

[mybudgee]

Good work OP.
Welcome one and all...
To the MACHINE!

[Dominus]

I'm kinda old, kinda new. Been a BioWare fan since 2007, but didn't touch the forums until 2010.

Been blasting insanity and walls of text into this place ever since.

[TurianRebel212]

BSN will never be as fun or interesting as it was back the glory days of Mass Effect 3. OMG this forum was hilarious and so, so active when the ME3 sh!tstorm was in full swing. But.... I love this place and it provides many lulz. 

 

BSN is love, BSN is life. 

[A Crusty Knight Of Colour]

Pretty much every good friend I made when I first came onto the site has left. That's kinda sad and depressing.

 

As for me, I've had an account since 2009 but was only an occasional lurker until 2011 where I became an active poster.

[Dermain]

Pretty much every good friend I made when I first came onto the site has left. That's kinda sad and depressing.

 

As for me, I've had an account since 2009 but was only an occasional lurker until 2011 where I became an active poster.

 

Same, except the excessive toxicity post ME2, DA2, and ME3 all ended up with me going back to lurker status.

 

We'll see what happens in DAI releases.

[SofaJockey]

BSN will never be as fun or interesting as it was back the glory days of Mass Effect 3. OMG this forum was hilarious and so, so active when the ME3 sh!tstorm was in full swing. But.... I love this place and it provides many lulz. 

 

BSN is love, BSN is life. 

 

It's like a pre-game DLC all by itself 

 

Things get a little heated sometimes but often by misunderstanding. The real trolls usually stay away or get shut down.

 

Having an understanding of Poe's Law helps:

 

"Poe's law, named after its author Nathan Poe, is an Internet adage reflecting the idea that, without a clear indication of the author's intent, it is difficult or impossible to tell the difference between an expression of sincere extremism and a parody of extremism."

 

But pausing before posting is good advice anywhere on the internet .

 

And anyway, one's first 10 posts are the hardest. Folk are just chatting here, so there's nothing anyone has to prove nor feel that they have to have specific expertise to share,,,

[TheRealJayDee]

I notice that I come here less and less, even to Off-topic. 

[Dermain]

I notice that I come here less and less, even to Off-topic. 

 

I'm hoping that happens to me soon.

[Ren Roche]

I notice that I come here less and less, even to Off-topic. 

 

Same. This place just isn't as good as it used to be. Poll section gone, activity feed gone. Not to mention the amount of amazing people that left before or after the change from BSN to BF.

[Cheech 2.0]

There are good threads, and sh*t ones. Cool people, and some keyboard warriors. This place has it's up's and down's, but like a car crash you can't look away. Just remember no matter how sh*tty of a day you've had, you can pop on to BSN read some stupid as f*ck post and say at least I'm not that person.

[Inquisitor Recon]

Pretty much every good friend I made when I first came onto the site has left. That's kinda sad and depressing.

^

This.

 

This place sucks now. Not that it wasn't awful before, it was, but it was awful for the right reasons.

[Dobby]

I don't think place is very friendly for newcomers tbh. I though it was before, but it actually isn't.

[mybudgee]

I don't think place is very friendly for newcomers tbh. I though it was before, but it actually isn't.

*hugs*

[Dermain]

I don't think place is very friendly for newcomers tbh. I though it was before, but it actually isn't.

 

It's not as if it's welcoming to older members either.

[A Crusty Knight Of Colour]

I don't think place is very friendly for newcomers tbh. I though it was before, but it actually isn't.

 

It's not as if it's welcoming to older members either.

 

I think there are three issues at play.

 

The first is Moderation. Seeing as the mods are people paid to look through report lists, they aren't engaged in the community. The moderation style is reactive rather than proactive. They don't have a good feel for the forum culture, and don't use their positions to steer threads in productive directions or create their own content. It's just locks and bans when necessary.

 

This isn't all bad. The advantage being that it's a relatively lax forum if you know where the boundaries are. And I say that as someone just coming off a 3-day ban. Despite a lot of stereotypes, BSN isn't really a "no fun allowed" forum, the Lobby at least. Threads are free to go in whatever direction as long as they don't break rules.

 

But the problem is that the users are encouraged to self moderate rather than being prompted by mods. And this doesn't happen too often. Myself included. Hell, I'm probably one of the worst offenders.

 

Another issue is Site Features. When the BSN actually had social features, Groups were a fantastic way to ingratiate yourself into the Community and find a niche for yourself. Even the edgier discussion Groups like Ghosts Purgatory had a real Community feel and sense of belonging. This was multiplied for the massive Groups like Chill Group or The Shelter which would even organise MP gaming sessions between forumites across the world and post their results in open threads for everyone to talk about.

 

When the New-BSN took that out, a lot of incentive and means to socialise was taken away. I'm actually on the Shelter splinter forum that has literally dozens of ex-BSNers who don't post here anymore after those changes were made.

 

The third is the diminishing userbase. With BioWare focusing it's attention on social media, the need to promote the forum is gone. So they don't. While I'm sure the idea was to bring the place back to the BioBoards days where the level of discussion was better, the switch to BSN and social features brought about a new audience who were used to that kind of website. In addition, the proliferation of high speed internet and social media in general means that the audience they had in 2005 would be vastly different in 2015. The people who come here now aren't necessarily the lore buffs exchanging essays on why detail x is a symbolic stand in for theme y, it's the thousand page character ****** threads or the disgruntled people who make an account to complain.

 

Don't even get me started on the forum sliding thing they do when they encounter opinions they don't like. Hell, I've done it in the past but it's become an epidemic. And it's less about finding amusing images or creating funny back and forths within threads (pyramid quoting, gif wars, spiderman threads, etc) and more about passive aggressive snipes at the OP for being inferior to you. I really don't like that edge to it.

 

As a result, we still see the kind of clique-ish behaviour that dominated BSN, but it's less likely to manifest itself in positive ways since the features for people to bond have been removed, there's less people to interact with and the mods aren't going to do anything to foster a sense of Community.

 

I'm not trying to go on a "it was better in the old days" or "BioWare suxxx" tangent. It's just that people's social circles in this place are smaller and harder to penetrate without groups, a poll section, image galleries and especially news feeds. Funnily enough, I think Bunz' idea to game with other BSNers was the closest thing to a community idea I've seen in a while. 

 

But we need to see more things like Dominus' and Fast Jimmy's Song Thread, the Hurt & Heal games, Behind the Monitor threads, etc. Well, we don't need to. But I can't see it getting better until stuff like that happens.

[LPPrince]

I think there are three issues at play.

 

The first is Moderation. Seeing as the mods are people paid to look through report lists, they aren't engaged in the community. The moderation style is reactive rather than proactive. They don't have a good feel for the forum culture, and don't use their positions to steer threads in productive directions or create their own content. It's just locks and bans when necessary.

 

This isn't all bad. The advantage being that it's a relatively lax forum if you know where the boundaries are. And I say that as someone just coming off a 3-day ban. Despite a lot of stereotypes, BSN isn't really a "no fun allowed" forum, the Lobby at least. Threads are free to go in whatever direction as long as they don't break rules.

 

But the problem is that the users are encouraged to self moderate rather than being prompted by mods. And this doesn't happen too often. Myself included. Hell, I'm probably one of the worst offenders.

 

Another issue is Site Features. When the BSN actually had social features, Groups were a fantastic way to ingratiate yourself into the Community and find a niche for yourself. Even the edgier discussion Groups like Ghosts Purgatory had a real Community feel and sense of belonging. This was multiplied for the massive Groups like Chill Group or The Shelter which would even organise MP gaming sessions between forumites across the world and post their results in open threads for everyone to talk about.

 

When the New-BSN took that out, a lot of incentive and means to socialise was taken away. I'm actually on the Shelter splinter forum that has literally dozens of ex-BSNers who don't post here anymore after those changes were made.

 

The third is the diminishing userbase. With BioWare focusing it's attention on social media, the need to promote the forum is gone. So they don't. While I'm sure the idea was to bring the place back to the BioBoards days where the level of discussion was better, the switch to BSN and social features brought about a new audience who were used to that kind of website. In addition, the proliferation of high speed internet and social media in general means that the audience they had in 2005 would be vastly different in 2015. The people who come here now aren't necessarily the lore buffs exchanging essays on why detail x is a symbolic stand in for theme y, it's the thousand page character ****** threads or the disgruntled people who make an account to complain.

 

Don't even get me started on the forum sliding thing they do when they encounter opinions they don't like. Hell, I've done it in the past but it's become an epidemic. And it's less about finding amusing images or creating funny back and forths within threads (pyramid quoting, gif wars, etc) and more about passive aggressive snipes at the OP for being inferior to you. I really don't like that edge to it.

 

As a result, we still see the kind of clique-ish behaviour that dominated BSN, but it's less likely to manifest itself in positive ways since the features for people to bond have been removed, there's less people to interact with and the mods aren't going to do anything to foster a sense of Community.

 

I'm not trying to go on a "it was better in the old days" or "BioWare suxxx" tangent. It's just that people's social circles in this place are smaller and harder to penetrate without groups, a poll section, image galleries and especially news feeds. Funnily enough, I think Bunz' idea to game with other BSNers was the closest thing to a community idea I've seen in a while. 

 

But we need to see more things like Dominus' and Fast Jimmy's Song Thread, the Hurt & Heal games, Behind the Monitor threads, etc. Well, we don't need to do. But I can't see it getting better until stuff like that happens.

 

Honestly, off topic right now isn't all that fun. It used to be, but now it seems a bit hard to actually hold a conversation before it devolves into something else, whether its spamming, trolling, cliques having their off topic banter, or just thread death.

 

Its a bit sad. On another website I frequent I was told by a fellow BSNer(and I quote), "But Off Topic's been a lost cause for a while now"

 

No one should have to feel that way. But its a sentiment shared by many at the moment.

 

Funnily enough, I recently used the word "proactive" as well, when messaging someone about how to make things better around here.

 

I mean, I've been around here a long time. So have a few of us that are still kicking. Our join dates aren't accurate because we had a presence on the much older Bioware forum pre-BSN;we've seen it all.

 

I've spent a stupid amount of time on this forum across various different subsections talking to loads of different people. I remember days when the forums were better across the board. I thought with the introduction of this new forum post-BSN that we'd have a return to some good forum fun, but we really haven't.

 

Moderation has become less personal, developer interactions have become less frequent+involved, off-topic posting/trolling/spamming has been given more of a pass, and old troublemakers that were guilty of that have returned to resume their old ways.

 

Then you have some, not all, but some newcomers that don't understand how this forum works and jump in assuming its like others they've used, which causes a bit of a rift.

 

You end up with a confusing experience.

 

I think there are things that can be done to remedy this, I just wonder if the people in charge are willing to do so and be proactive towards making this place a cleaner, more active, and more positive place with the experiences to match.

[A Crusty Knight Of Colour]

Honestly, off topic right now isn't all that fun. It used to be, but now it seems a bit hard to actually hold a conversation before it devolves into something else, whether its spamming, trolling, cliques having their off topic banter, or just thread death.

 

Its a bit sad. On another website I frequent I was told by a fellow BSNer(and I quote), "But Off Topic's been a lost cause for a while now"

 

No one should have to feel that way. But its a sentiment shared by many at the moment.

 

Funnily enough, I recently used the word "proactive" as well, when messaging someone about how to make things better around here.

 

I mean, I've been around here a long time. So have a few of us that are still kicking. Our join dates aren't accurate because we had a presence on the much older Bioware forum pre-BSN;we've seen it all.

 

I've spent a stupid amount of time on this forum across various different subsections talking to loads of different people. I remember days when the forums were better across the board. I thought with the introduction of this new forum post-BSN that we'd have a return to some good forum fun, but we really haven't.

 

Moderation has become less personal, developer interactions have become less frequent+involved, off-topic posting/trolling/spamming has been given more of a pass, and old troublemakers that were guilty of that have returned to resume their old ways.

 

Then you have some, not all, but some newcomers that don't understand how this forum works and jump in assuming its like others they've used, which causes a bit of a rift.

 

You end up with a confusing experience.

 

I think there are things that can be done to remedy this, I just wonder if the people in charge are willing to do so and be proactive towards making this place a cleaner, more active, and more positive place with the experiences to match.

 

Seriously, if you lose interest in the BSN and leave before hitting 50k, that will be the greatest tragedy to ever happen here.

 

[LPPrince]

I don't think place is very friendly for newcomers tbh. I though it was before, but it actually isn't.

 

True,

 

It's not as if it's welcoming to older members either.

 

 

and true.

 

I get the feeling that Bioware's decided the forum isn't worth dealing with as much as before. Like they weighed the costs with the returns and decided that being here and keeping this place positive doesn't bring enough good to Bioware as a company or to the games. At least, being present. Looking from away, offline, lurking;I imagine they still do that to an extent.

 

But talking to us and keeping things bright has become a memory rather than a feature.

[A Crusty Knight Of Colour]

Did anyone actually take him up on that offer? I know people are scared of his Based God status but that can't be anything but a good thing to start gaming with fellow forumites.

 

Haha, I have no idea. I'm Mustard Race and I live in Australia (timezone), so I couldn't play with him in any case, but yeah. It would've been nice if someone took him up on the offer.

[LPPrince]

Seriously, if you lose interest in the BSN and leave before hitting 50k, that will be the greatest tragedy to ever happen here.

 

 

You'd probably be the only one to think that. 

 

I don't even know what'll happen once I reach 50K. I haven't planned anything and I know I'll get there because I've committed way too much time to this place to bail on it. I'm always going on about making this place better, finding ways to promote positivity here, to decrease the spam and trolling, to increase the discussions and on-the-point posts, to keep people friendly and welcoming, etc etc. I wouldn't be a very good me if I quit and effed off to be somewhere else.

 

I just wonder if anyone can hear me anymore. You posts words on a screen and hope people will read them and understand, the greatest hope being that they'll listen and consider what it is they're reading and keep it in mind. But lately its like the words we type get lost in the breeze.

[BronzTrooper]

You'd probably be the only one to think that. 

 

I don't even know what'll happen once I reach 50K. I haven't planned anything and I know I'll get there because I've committed way too much time to this place to bail on it. I'm always going on about making this place better, finding ways to promote positivity here, to decrease the spam and trolling, to increase the discussions and on-the-point posts, to keep people friendly and welcoming, etc etc. I wouldn't be a very good me if I quit and effed off to be somewhere else.

 

I just wonder if anyone can hear me anymore. You posts words on a screen and hope people will read them and understand, the greatest hope being that they'll listen and consider what it is they're reading and keep it in mind. But lately its like the words we type get lost in the breeze.

 

BSN's too big now for anyone short of the mods to change it.  There's too many 'TL:DR'ers out there that'll actively skip over long posts (I'll admit, I've done this quite a few times) and post whatever they feel like.  Plus, all new members see when they jump on here is people complaining, trolling, flame wars, etc. and assume it's the norm and decide to follow suit.  There's the occasional thread that's positive, but they're usually drowned by all the negativity.

 

Still, the fact that someone is trying to make BSN more welcoming shows that the forums aren't completely beyond hope.  I salute you, ser!

 

[LPPrince]

BSN's too big now for anyone short of the mods to change it.  There's too many 'TL:DR'ers out there that'll actively skip over long posts (I'll admit, I've done this quite a few times) and post whatever they feel like.  Plus, all new members see when they jump on here is people complaining, trolling, flame wars, etc. and assume it's the norm and decide to follow suit.  There's the occasional thread that's positive, but they're usually drowned by all the negativity.

 

Still, the fact that someone is trying to make BSN more welcoming shows that the forums are completely beyond hope.  I salute you, ser!

 

*snip*

 

God, don't get me started on the complaining, the trolling, the flame wars, the off-topic conversations better suited for private messages or an activity feed, etc etc

 

Then there's the whole clique thing. People partner up into groups and basically post the same exact things everywhere, derailing thread after thread after thread and I get the impression newbies think thats the norm, leading to them picking up the bad habits.

 

It sucks.