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 Azreal13 wrote:

Loborocket wrote:

 Xenomancers wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:
Dakka is probably the nicest general forum you could find. We certainly have issues, but relatively speaking its a very civil place. Largely thanks to the mods who do a good job of policing and enforcing the rules(which really just amount to "play nice")

Agreed - I like the rules here. Some forums take it too far in moderating but seems the guys/girl here do a good job. I've never had a problem. Then again, I'm still pretty new here.

I actually disagree. I think the general tone of Dakka is negative. I stay here because it seems to have more traffic than other places. If other places had as much traffic but were not as negative I would go there instead. I have said it in another thread, I think the mods here could do a better job on controlling the negativity, but that is just my opinion.

The very topic of this thread (and the fact it has gone on for 3 pages) indicates there are others who share the same opinion. Maybe the mods should think about that as they do their moderation work?

That's dangerously close to calling for the Thought Police.

As has to be, surprisingly frequently, pointed out Dakka, and no other forum, is not a gestalt entity, it is comprised of individual people with their own opinions - if those opinions in the places you hang out seem negative, perhaps it would behoove you to look at the causes of those negative opinion, rather than those who hold them?

Calling for moderators to act against people because they hold different opinions to those that you (evidently) do is a dreadful, dreadful idea.

Predictable response. I never said anything close to calling for "thought police". I just said i think the moderators could do a better job than they currently do. Pretty sure it is possible to do the job without being the "thought police". I am not saying this is the "Wild West", but I have seen better.

I think they do a good job. Less is more in this case IMO.

There's nothing wrong with Dakka's moderation team, and the negativity you'll find on just about any gaming forum.

If you guys really want to see what a truly bad moderator team looks like, go check out the Reddit warhammer board, they've got a mod over there right now actively responding to people who take issue with him acting like a toolbag with "Bloooooooooooowwwww meeeeeeeeee"

Loborocket wrote:


Predictable response. I never said anything close to calling for "thought police". I just said i think the moderators could do a better job than they currently do. Pretty sure it is possible to do the job without being the "thought police". I am not saying this is the "Wild West", but I have seen better.

Predictable response.

How could the moderators do a better job without policing people's thoughts. If they haven't broken a rule, its kosher. Your perception of negativity is not shared by everyone, so there's no way a mod could 'fix' the negativity without policing what people can and can't say.

I find Dakka to have a fine mod team, and generally a solid board with a variety of content. Being one of the largest wargaming forums will obviously attract its fair share of conflicting personalities and opinions, but such is the price you pay for having a large, active, diverse community.

I wouldn't have it any other way.

Loborocket wrote:

 Azreal13 wrote:

Loborocket wrote:

 Xenomancers wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:
Dakka is probably the nicest general forum you could find. We certainly have issues, but relatively speaking its a very civil place. Largely thanks to the mods who do a good job of policing and enforcing the rules(which really just amount to "play nice")

Agreed - I like the rules here. Some forums take it too far in moderating but seems the guys/girl here do a good job. I've never had a problem. Then again, I'm still pretty new here.

I actually disagree. I think the general tone of Dakka is negative. I stay here because it seems to have more traffic than other places. If other places had as much traffic but were not as negative I would go there instead. I have said it in another thread, I think the mods here could do a better job on controlling the negativity, but that is just my opinion.

The very topic of this thread (and the fact it has gone on for 3 pages) indicates there are others who share the same opinion. Maybe the mods should think about that as they do their moderation work?

That's dangerously close to calling for the Thought Police.

As has to be, surprisingly frequently, pointed out Dakka, and no other forum, is not a gestalt entity, it is comprised of individual people with their own opinions - if those opinions in the places you hang out seem negative, perhaps it would behoove you to look at the causes of those negative opinion, rather than those who hold them?

Calling for moderators to act against people because they hold different opinions to those that you (evidently) do is a dreadful, dreadful idea.

Predictable response. I never said anything close to calling for "thought police". I just said i think the moderators could do a better job than they currently do. Pretty sure it is possible to do the job without being the "thought police". I am not saying this is the "Wild West", but I have seen better.

Dakka is overmoderated, but thats a result of being host to one of the internets most toxic GW based communities. Other fora which are smaller and non-GW related are a lot more chilled and grown up about things.

In terms of the original topic, 40k is generally a male-orientated community and online adds to the level of vitriol and toxicity that you find .The best thing to do would be make friends in an FLGS so that you avoid the SEN types that seem to populate these boards.

Predictable response.

A fine example of the petty tit-for-tat toxcity on these forums.

How could the moderators do a better job without policing people's thoughts. If they haven't broken a rule, its kosher. Your perception of negativity is not shared by everyone, so there's no way a mod could 'fix' the negativity without policing what people can and can't say.

I find Dakka to have a fine mod team, and generally a solid board with a variety of content. Being one of the largest wargaming forums will obviously attract its fair share of conflicting personalities and opinions, but such is the price you pay for having a large, active, diverse community.

I wouldn't have it any other way.

This is why forums that are over-moderated suck - dissenting option laced with bitchy, pick a fight comments tend to shut down legitimate discussion or argument. I know someone who got a ban for stating facts in an off topic thread that were contrary to the belief of the OP and the prevailing mod. But never let facts stand in the way of an opportunity to throw the mod-weight around.

 melkorthetonedeaf wrote:
Lol at

 DarkLink wrote:

a number of top posters are openly female,

Go to the P&M forum! Best place on the internet! #1! (Also I want Tyranid earrings now).

What is pretty cool is several of the BOLS girls are posters that I've seen for years, posting just like everyone else, nothing special, fit right in. Then after picking up on contextual clues you realize 'hey, X is a girl, I never knew that before'. Prime example of how stupid it is to think that wargaming should only be a men's club.

I wonder if there's a correlation between those who criticise the moderation team and those who themselves have acted in a way to require frequent moderation?

 Azreal13 wrote:
I wonder if there's a correlation between those who criticise the moderation team and those who themselves have acted in a way to require frequent moderation?

That would be my guess.

Every now and then we get a real doozy of a new poster who breaks all the rules, often just because they want to.

 Furyou Miko wrote:
Who is it then? 'cause my German partner has no idea!

Just click the picture (well, it has been spoiled already now ).

 Azreal13 wrote:
I wonder if there's a correlation between those who criticise the moderation team and those who themselves have acted in a way to require frequent moderation?

Absolutely not. You bring up part of the problem. FAR too many times, situations occurr like this...
1.person posts an opinion in a polite manner. This opinion will differ from someone else who has posted earlier in a thread. There is no quotes or anything of that nature. just a seperate opinion posted by a different person.
2. the earlier poster instigates a flame war with quotes directly telling the polite poster that they are wrong and stupid and calling them names.
3. A few of their buddies jump on the bandwagon and continue the harassment. name calling insulting family members who are not even involved or whatnot.
4. the polite person reports the behavior and as the mod has the same original opinion asthe person who instigated the assault so joins in with the flames, name calling and so forth without taking any action against the group breaking the rules.
5. The polite poster points this out and is immediately told they broke a rule (insert made up reason but the REAL reason is that they were able to prove a point in a polite manner without breaking the rules and the action is done out of frustration of this) and action is taken against them.
6. Eventually the polite poster joins the ranks of those who just keep their head down and their opinions to themselves because they know the routine.

Remove the underlying cause and you remove the need. Your confusing a sympton of the problem with being the problem itself. Although I forsee a closing of the thread and actions taken against all of us who have politely given our opinions without breaking any rules. possibly posts edited or removed to hide the issue as I have seen done in at least one other thread.

I've never seen a mod join in on a flamewar. If that happens you should PM another Mod or Yakface.

Do you have a link to such an event on Dakka?

Oh noes, the thread's been EVILed.....

Dakka moderation is not so bad. I would say that actually, if you:
- are careful with your language (no swearing that is not catch by the filter)
- do not post in Off-Topic
you should be fine.
If you do post in Off-Topic, well… you might happen to get the Random Mod Attack randomly triggered by something you said. For instance, saying Saudi Arabia is disseminating a lot of hateful speeches. That was deemed inflammatory, but if we look at the definition of hate-speech in most western countries, it is just factual.

 EVIL INC wrote:

 Azreal13 wrote:
I wonder if there's a correlation between those who criticise the moderation team and those who themselves have acted in a way to require frequent moderation?

Absolutely not. You bring up part of the problem. FAR too many times, situations occurr like this...
1.person posts an opinion in a polite manny. This opinion will differ from someone else who has posted earlier in a thread. There is no quotes or anything of that nature. just a seperate opinion posted by a different person.
2. the earlier poster instigates a flame war with quotes directly telling the polite poster that they are wrong and stupid and calling them names.
3. A few of their buddies jump on the bandwagon and continue the harassment. name calling insulting family members who are not even involved or whatnot.
4. the polite person reports the behavior and as the mod has the same original opinion asthe person who instigated the assault so joins in with the flames, name calling and so forth without taking any action against the group breaking the rules.
5. The polite poster points this out and is immediately told they broke a rule (insert made up reason) and action is taken against them.
6. Eventually the polite poster joins the ranks of those who just keep their head down and their opinions to themselves because they know the routine.

Remove the underlying cause and you remove the need. Your confusing a sympton of the problem with being the problem itself.

And by 'far too many times' you mean 'about as often as a cat barks', right?

I happen to agree with Azraeal's observation, and think that you're wildly exaggerating--like when you state that harassment and insults against family members occur. I've been a member here for over 4 years, and I can count the times that sort of thing has happened on one hand, and I don't even need anything to help me count the number of times (zero, if you hadn't guessed) where moderators have let it pass or joined in, never mind both.

From where I'm standing, you seem the have a vendetta against the moderation team, going as far as to heavily imply that they regularly partake in hate posts against members, and ban people for disagreeing with them. This is simply not true, and begs the question: if it's so unfair, why are you still here?

I find bolterandchainsword to be a much more pleasant experience than dakka. She should check that out.

He got banned on Warseer!

Edit

dammit, that was only funny if it was the very next post.

Damn you Las! *shakes fist*

Well this thread has been moderately insulting towards women, men and the Dakka population. Can we move onto South-East Asia now as they haven't been mentioned yet?

Those people complaining that Dakka is a hive of scum and villainy - perhaps it is, and if so, go somewhere else and stop your holier-than-thou muck-slinging.

Or perhaps it's just your opinion because you're the issue and others react to it. Either way, hush.

 Azreal13 wrote:
He got banned on Warseer!

Anyone worth talking to have been banned from Warseer .

Can I play the card that is "If you're not playing the current edition you shouldn't be on a forum discussing it" but replaced with "If you don't like how the moderators do things on a forum, you shouldn't be on it"?

But as far as community's go Dakka is pretty good, things can get a little bit heated when people have opposing views, but where don't things get heated?

 Mozzyfuzzy wrote:
Can I play the card that is "If you're not playing the current edition you shouldn't be on a forum discussing it" but replaced with "If you don't like how the moderators do things on a forum, you shouldn't be on it"?

But as far as community's go Dakka is pretty good, things can get a little bit heated when people have opposing views, but where don't things get heated?

Well, that's sort of the point...where DON'T things get heated? Because she'd really like to go to that place instead. A place where someone says *thing you don't agree with* and the default response is "cool, I like hearing other people's thoughts and ideas on this thing we both love! Thanks for sharing!" instead of "Here are all the reasons you're wrong and should feel bad for being so wrong."

Maybe this sounds sort of weirdly, impossibly idealistic, but that's the sort of environment on the penpalling and book club forums that she belongs to. Her experience is that a more positive atmosphere correlates with a larger number of women being involved, but if there's a way to find that on dakka or a similar "mainstream" forum, that would be awesome too.

Is there any interest in trying to find/make a "safe space" somewhere on dakka? Even just a thread that the mods agree to police a little more intensively or for which slightly stricter rules are applied?

Evil INC, I'm curious, can you maybe link some examples from the forum to illustrate what you're saying? I wouldn't call the general environment on dakka "pleasant" much of the time, but aside from one particular moderator I wouldn't say that the sort of thing you describe is characteristic of the forums, even here...but maybe I'm missing it. The mods piling on at least...the first bit is a little uncomfortably familiar...

EVIL is notorious for making these sorts of accusation in all sorts of threads, dude, and then spectacularly failing to back them up.

Generally because they haven't happened, or a seed has been taken and blown out of all proportion.

It's kind of his schtich, and what prompted my "this thread's been EVILed" comment.

Try 4dchan

DaKKaLAnce wrote:
Try 4dchan

I'm impressed we made it to page 4 before someone tried this joke...at least I assume it's a joke. And that the "d" is a typo, which spoils it somewhat...

It's not exactly a typo

http://1d4chan.org/

NO!

- Mean Boys

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:

 Azreal13 wrote:
He got banned on Warseer!

Anyone worth talking to have been banned from Warseer .

They ban anyone who says anything negative about GW. They have more banned members than they do active ones. lol
Azreal13, your later statement is untrue.

office_waaagh wrote:


Evil INC, I'm curious, can you maybe link some examples from the forum to illustrate what you're saying?

Yes, agreed - I'm curious too.

Some links would be helpful!

Thanks!

 EVIL INC wrote:

Azreal13, your later statement is untrue.

PROVE IT

I LOVE 1d4! I also like fatguys.