[Archive] Spam

[Grimstonefire]

Grimstonefire:

Sorry if this does not seem a friendly post, but it would help to clarify a few concerns…

‘We are watching you etc’ being something people seem uneasy about as some sort of NEW police state??? It’s what the Staff have to do and have always done! Unless I am mistaken we have to keep tabs on issues and check most if not all threads. There are rules to any decent forum, and the only way for us to make sure they are abided by is to actually keep an eye on everything? If this is making people uncomfortable, there is not a lot we can do to change this. The only thing I can suggest is going to a forum with no staff.

On forums I’m on where I’m not staff I take it for granted that the forum runs smoothly and that rules are adhered to. In all honesty, because I know I am a mature poster I�?Tm not really bothered at all about what the staff do. I have never actually been warned on anything, only a few topics moved to the correct section etc. But when you have to actually spend ages checking through loads of posts (many of which may not interest you at all), you probably notice a lot more about the quality of posting generally than most members do. There obviously will be exceptions, I know some of you are on here more than I am.

So keeping an eye on everything is a good thing. If anyone here has been on a forum as active as CDO that supposedly ‘self regulates’, and has little involvement from staff of any sort I’d be very interested to hear how that is going… Better yet, give us all the link here and now and we can judge it for ourselves! Perhaps we can learn some lessons.

There also seems to be persistent accusations that the staff are suddenly pushing through loads of new rules with little or no thought about the consequences. From a members perspective I can see how this may be viewed, suddenly yet another thread appears with new rules. But ultimately our staff make changes that may appear unpopular in the short term, but are necessary in the long run. This is a point that (to name names) I think you are missing Thommy. You may not think these things we are supposedly arbitrarily hyping up into apocalyptic issues are even real issues at all.

But if you look at the intentions behind HB’s Swearing thread, my post count thread, Willmark’s spamming thread, all these threads are looking to improving how the forum functions in the long run. They may not even be HUGE issues now, but general improvements.

If you have problems with how these threads are phrased, that is one issue that we can consider. If you are objecting in principle because you don’t see the issue, that is misplaced criticism.

If there are concerned members they can:

Contact the Staff by the report thread function

Reply in whatever thread is in question

Pm a Staff member

To say that there is a �?~growing discontent�?T or anything of the sort without actual proof of names and responses is both unhelpful and unnecessarily making more out of an issue than it actually is. It would be nice to hope that if people have concerns they actually report them to the staff, but if you are privy to some general concerns that you don’t mind sharing (by pm or in the Immortals section), it would be very helpful.

I drew attention to our members of the report thread partly for this purpose, to provide hard data on things people are concerned about.

You have said that most of the changes we have implemented on recent things are not really hugely important, and yet here we are again supposedly causing an issue about "something�?�… Is it the actual theme of the thread that is the issue, or the way replies are interpreted?

Granted the changes we make may not be popular to a minority, but that is certainly no reason not to make the changes in the interest of the majority of current members and all our future ones. CDO is a forum for the majority, not the minority.

Until now we have not had formal systems in place to monitor things like spamming and the various stages to banning a member. Just because we now have these does not make CDO draconian.

It was probably remiss of us not to have these for the past 2 years, but better late than never. I apologise if the sudden creation of these systems is worrying for our members, but to be honest they should have been done a while ago. So if these �?~new�?T things do appear to be making mountains out of molehills it�?Ts only because they are new and we have to make them public knowledge eventually!

If people post in a sensible and helpful way, and abide by rules that are perfectly reasonable (and comparable to any of the decent fan forums), there is no reason for anyone to have any issues. If people persist in pushing the rules to the limit, or even breaking them, it is only right that the staff have a mechanism in place to request or direct people to be more considerate and respectful to ALL forum members.

People here may forget that the staff are actually proper people too. We are not faceless figures of authority for people to hurl flaming missiles at.

Damn, this is a long post. Anyhow, the point has been made.

Post properly and there is no issue.

@Tarrakk

As you asked a specific question about your titles etc, I don’t think we could even do this just for one member, and we certainly would not want to. If you wish to have fewer slaves you can participate in Slave week

Note that although Willmark’s OP may have overtly been highlighting a few people, we would only need to contact people privately if this was an ongoing issue. This thread was intended as a none to subtle way of drawing our member’s attention to the same issue all in one thread. To give them a heads up without ‘warning’ them if you know what I mean

So now everyone has become aware of this the slate can be wiped clean and we can judge properly who is only posting in this way (considering they should now be aware). Incase anyone missed that, it is for an ONGOING unrelenting way of posting.

I’m sure Willmark did not mean it as a personal attack on any one person, more as a request for people who may post in this way to consider posting in a slightly different way. I guess also to prevent people from only posting in this way (which you certainly do not do).

[cornixt]

cornixt:

So like I said in my last post, out of fairness and a lack of respect to my fellow members here, I would greatly appreciate it if my part of the "Rewards System" were permenatly removed, meaning Titles and Slaves. That way, I could post a "One Liner" and not get penalized for it or have to worry about any other strict measures.

Tarrakk Blackhand

You can still post one-liners, but doing it excesssively is what is not allowed. The slave system actually rewards people who make good posts and contribute to the site. If you don't contribute to the site then you won't get many. If you don't want slaves then give them away to the people you think deserve them, but don't use it as some kind of martyr badge. You got quite a few slaves in a relatively short time, so take some pride in that people are giving you respect.

Sheesh, the staff are just trying to lay out the unwritten rules so that the site can operate more smoothly.

[system]

Kera foehunter:

So all this fighting is better than spam!!!is spam the problem ?? or is it that the staff doesn’t post and try to be inter active with the the members of this site ! Even a person that on all the time !! Never hardly see the staff posting with it members !!!

if your lucky maybe you see one staff member post for every 20 post from the members!!

So we want the staff to post more and maybe we will post less??

a point of view from a member that is always on!!

[Grimstonefire]

Grimstonefire:

I take it you all know btw that there are specific ways the system generates slaves for forum use?  Some of them you’ve probably worked out already.

One liners will not generate any slaves, but if I remember correctly there is a minimum word count for doing this. Can’t for the life of me remember what it is!

So anyone who really wants more slaves than the next guy or gal should bear this in mind.

@Kera

There are around 1274 members of CDO, of which the Staff are 9.  Staff duties take a lot of time, more’s the pity.

[system]

Kera foehunter:

im not going to argue this point!! The point is let see you guys post !!!

if you can lay down the rules !! Then post with the member!!!

[Grimstonefire]

Grimstonefire:

I’m not arguing either kera, honestly, in my reply here I am trying to get across how difficult it is to do both.

I do not have a huge amount of time to spend on forums generally.  No doubt this is the same for all of the people on CDO.  The staff have to prioritise staff duties over regular posting, or at least they should most of the time.

I really wish I could spend a long time posting the way I used to on HoH about all manner of interesting CD related things, but the sad fact is that the busier CDO gets (good for all regular members), the less time the staff will be able to actually post.

Having been a staff member virtually from the beginning of CDO I have noticed a marked increase in “staff time” in the last 9 months or so.  Which is a shame because I should have more time to post in the main forum because of my personal situation atm (I recently became a uni student again, so I have more free time… supposedly). Seems the more time I devote to CDO the more time gets sucked into being staff. CDO as a living force will take as much as you can give, and then some.

[GhraskDragh]

Ghrask Dragh:

The intention behind this was only to get members thinking before they are posting.

There is nothing wrong with the occasional one-liner, I myself am guilty of more than a few of those, the problem is on more than one occasion when visiting the site I (and others) have found myself trawling through 3 pages of new posts to find very little acctually contributing in anyway which effects everybodies enjoyment of the site. I’m glad people here get along so well with each other and want to keep in contact.

On a side note I have taken on board some of the things said and I do need to do some more work on my Chaos Dwarfs, so keep an eye on the blog :cheers

[system]

Kera foehunter:

See what happen you guy talk all the time about this stuff and the rules then you post it !!

So it alway comes off harsh ! and in your face! so this is why people take it to heart!!

the one liners the spam yes is the point of the topic… But you guys come back with novels on your reply!!you are telling people to much imfo back !! This is what add to the confusion !!

the point is it will work it self out!

and we do understand!!! Topic of this nature should be done in many parts

And remember You guys are our friends too!

[cornixt]

cornixt:

In response:

8 out of the top 11 posters are staff. I have nothing more to say.

[system]

wallacer:

Look at it this way.  Small towns have small town values, everybody knows each other and things tick along just fine.

As that small town becomes a city then some of those small town values get lost and people need rules so that everything ticks along as it ought to.  This is the price of success.

The rules that have been put in place (as outlined by Willmark) have not been put in place because the staff want to impose their vision for the site on others.  It has been done because people PM us worried about spam, confrontational posts and other things, and so we have to address their concerns.

I think I speak for the entire staff when I say that we do not want to become policemen.  I also have no doubt that the reality is that 99% of the members of this site will be utterly unaffected by these rules.  Seriously.  We’re just flagging a potential issue that has been raised with us by members to prevent it becoming a bigger issue in the future.  Willmark’s post will cause some ripples, no doubt, but it has succeeded in its primary goal, to make the point that quality of posting is a goal worth striving for.

Seriously, don’t lose a lot of sleep over it

[system]

Tarrakk Blackhand:

If you don't want slaves then give them away to the people you think deserve them, but don't use it as some kind of martyr badge.

cornixt

Cornixt, you're missing the point of my post about the slaves/ranking system.

I'm not viewing it as a "Martyr Badge".

It seems to me that the moderators want CDO to be the "Utoipa Site" in which every post is 100% productive and benificial to everyone on the site. Therefore, you established a ranking system that meant that the more people posted, the more they got rewarded for posting.

However, as more people joined, it became apparent that not everyone posted something that was 100% benificial. Some posts are 99% and others are 1%. It's true that there are some people on here that might only post the 1%. However, now that CDO is larger, it's become apparent that the ranking system is not working as originally intended. The 1%ers are shooting through the ranks and at the end of the day, there's nothing to be learned at all.

That's fine and it should be dealt with in a responsible manner, person to person.

However, instead of taking the 1%er's aside, the post was made openly and to all on CDO that post count was going to be dropped in certain areas because of the ranking system being abused. That put EVERYONE into a stirr because the good people that were abiding by the rules felt like they were being punished, the people that like the ranking system and followed it got upset and the mods got upset and at the end of the day no one knew what way was up. That ended with Kera walking off and possibly others.

Then we all had to calm down from that, Kera returned, and everything was getting better.  And now we get the new message about Spam Posts and how we're being watched, etc. This is where I got the term "Police State" from because this thread is saying that we either comply or face the penalty. It's an ultimatum post.

True enough, we ALL know that we're being "Watched" as we are on other sites. It's ok and expected. However, to get this message after we all thought the "Post Count" thing had died a quiet death is just adding to the pressure and turning on the tensions again.

Therefore, I am looking at the reasoning behind it all and coming to the same conclusion that all the hoopla is about post count. So what I'm trying to say by saying "Please remove my slave ability" is simply that I think "Post Count" is becoming too much of a stumbling block and I want to remove my option to benifit from it in order to just move beyond it and keep happy and keep friends.

I don't want to have people assume that I'm here for post count. I'm here to be a friend and make friends too. In my opinion, I'd rather loose the benifits from making posts than loose my friends.

So if it's a continual pain in the backside, then remove it entirely. All signs point to to this eventuality anyway.

Perhaps if you think me as a "Martyr", then look at who I'd convert. People that would rather avoid tension and drop a priveledge that is currently making the Mods upset in order to have the site be more friendly and productive. Is that a bad thing?

As for slaves...I have been sending them off. Why do you think I only have 1.

[system]

Auretious Taak:

So…diplomatic use of the english language thrown out the window to spam a 13 paragrapgh essay that could have read as simple as:

Recently there has been a vast increase in the amount of short, non-contributive posts to threads. Commonly percieved as ‘Spam’ these posts don’t have a place in the CDO community as they detract from the overall feel of openness and community spirit that has been an underlying and key them of these boards and the CDO community as a whole. As a staff member, I and my colleagues have recieved numerous complaints from a large variety of members both new and veteran alike concerning the increase in non-contributive spam posts to threads on the boards. As such we have decided to take measures to decrease these posts drowning out contributive conversation. That is to say, many of these posts that are being complained about are often short one word/liners and are spammed across many threads within minutes (the worst case of this sort of abuse thus far has been 15 threads in less then 3 minutes).

As a member of CDO, I enjoy the community spirit and discussion, the friendly atmosphere and the way many of our members talk to each other during trheads whilst still contributing to the prevailing discussion of that thread or where said discussion has evolved to. This notice is not intended as a threatening gesture against posting short responses, or discussing how life has been (or any other personnal communication that keeps the community closely bound inf riendship) whilst also discussing why a blunderbuss can’t be fired more then once in Mordheim but can be every turn in Fantasy for example, but rather as a notice to say that the moderating staff are going to be stepping up responses to repeat offenders of mindless spam that does not contribute anything worthwhile to the community as a whole.

In sum, the moderating staff will be a little less relaxed on the rules of the forum from now on, but as a whole, there should be no real noticeable impact on what you can say and do on these boards in relation to the past atmosphere on CDO. If spamming does persist by posters in order to increase post count or just because they can, and we as the moderating staff see a repaeat pattern in this we will be sending a PM your way and expect a response within a reasonable time frame. If the PM is ignored then we will unfortunately be forced to take more drastic action such as a notification of temporary site ban or dare I say for continued offenders, a permanent site ban.

We are here to ensure the continued survival of the Forum and it’s close knit community as well as its’ mission in promoting the Chaos Dwarf cause to the world and ultimately bringing them back from the edge of oblivion and into the WHFB game system. If you have any questions regarding any of the points raised here, please send me a private message and I shall get back to you forthwith.

Many thanks for your time,

On behalf of the moderating staff, (Insert whoever posted it here).

Nothing was offensive, there were no real issues in the diplomatic turn of phrases and more importantly the message there would have been communicated without a big ass broo-har-har. When Thommy H says that you guys came off as too strong, he is right. We’re up to 3 pages of back and forth discussion and it is all tense and worrying.

I can’t find who said it, really should be doing university work right now, but the cap that owns a hobby store that posted up why he responds with ‘Good Job’ or ‘Well done’ after 5-20 other posts explaining points why has VERY valid points. Why say somethinga lready said? There is no point to it, yet equally you want to support the persons efforts. Thus this statement:

I can assure you this: the days of adding 5 word or less responses that add nothing or as simple as “great job” or “I like that” are OVER.

in this context, I feel has not been addressed properly and rather is violent in its aggressiveness to state ‘Stuff you, if you can’t say anything useful piss off and don’t say it.’

Geckilan brings up the best point to date, the way it’s been approached thus far is going to force alot of prominant posters into lurkers if that. If we can’t contribute in a relaxed way as we have for fear of being warned or having our posts edited without an edited response saying exactly why it was edited (this is a pet hate, when a mod mods something on a board and doesn’t give a reason, mark of a bad mod to be honest) in the first place then why bother posting? If we aren’t posting why the hell are we here and stuff lurking that’s totally boring. Does that bring across the point? To Sojourns counter of Lurkers being encouraged to post because there is no more spam going, lurkers have been the prominant population here since I started posting last year and there were no spam prevailing messages there. Lurkers are lurkers for the simple fact that as with lurkers everywhere, they don’t contribute because they don’t feel like it or prefer to not get directly involved, or can’t be arsed. Saying that getting rid of all this spam will encourage lurkers as a whole to post more is stating to us all that you’ve not been on multiple (at least 5 as a minum) massed gaming forums before because it won’t work…infact too much clamping down on the rules lawyering drives people away, away and not lurking. All those inactive lurkers, the vast majority don’t even remember we are here…

There are those that are casting dispersion and disharmony on the site, that are causing members to consider leaving the site. We know who you are, and are watching. There will be more coming on that later.

…

In closing know that the entire Staff is watching, we already have a good idea who are the chief culprits to begin with…

@willmark, make up your mind. 1st you KNOW who these people are and then later on you ONLY SUSPECT? And you wonder why there is such a vehement outcry against it all…

What I want to know from this quote directly above is - are you watching and looking at people’s private messages? There is a reason they are called private messages after all (and no, no images et al that will get the board in crap off the board host are ever traded, just much more private messages) and if they are being watched then stuff that…And yes, this last comment seems shady, but it is an honest one. Many people use private messaging to establish friendships from forum posts with people who they seem to get along with. This may well extend to flirting back and forth innocent or otherwise and usually then moves on away from said forums, but by the statement of you staff are watching us all, it’s like you’ve established yourselves as domineering overlords above and away from us mere mortals and it’s really an uncomfortable thought, hence the outcry against the statements. You’re mods and admins, no need to accentuate that with glorified statements of your inherent powers…

Auretious Taak.

[system]

wallacer:

No, your PMs are not being watched.

It’s not really a question of us acting as Overlords.  It is simply that when members PM us saying that they are annoyed about spammy posts in threads we need to address those concerns.

Please don’t read more into it than is there.  The style of Willmark’s post was deliberately chosen to make sure the point got across.  There is nothing more to it than that.  I assure you he doesn’t want to be the bad guy here.

We’re just addressing concerns that were made by members to do something about the spam posts appearing in threads.  Please don’t be under the impression that this is just facism by stealth.

[Willmark]

Willmark:

Was it heavy handed? Sure. Did I enjoy making this post? Nope, not one bit. I can tell you this; I did not personally relish this. This is not my idea of a fun way to spend time.

However as an Admin its part of the unpleasantness that sometimes goes along with it. Funny accusations are leveled that we are going out of our way to please everyone. We knew full well this wouldn’t sit well with those that felt they were/are the offenders.

Perhaps we should allow these changes some time to take effect before we rail against them. After all, the staff have to deal with the site as a whole, but we only see the parts that we choose to. Personally I haven’t noticed any plague of one liner spam posts, but then again I tend to look at modelling/army lists/theme posts where they perhaps aren’t so prevalent. One line posts hardly stick in my mind anyway, as its not my job to moderate (boy that must be fun :cheers).

Baggronor

Quoted for truth. Anyone who thinks we are out of touch must be on a different site. The Staff has given up plenty to make this site the best it can be, and when certain members  say �?oyou are out of touch�?�, its almost laughable because they have no idea what goes on for the totality of this site. Its VERY easy to sit back and �?oMonday Morning Quarterback�?�  things after the fact, its quite another to see everything that goes on in this place, daily. Grim and Cornix alluded to it, cant be said enough.

Am I apologizing for doing a thankless job that half the site is applauding? Nope. Am I aware that people are going to call me a dictator and throw around terms like �?oPolice State�?�, �?oStalinism�?� etc… sure. If that is what you want to see. I suggest that everyone reads tjubs response again, its dead on:

Im sure most people that reads this thread gets the message, “think before you post…”. And yes, I too think there has been alot of nonsense posts lately, but that doesnt mean you cant make short replys to ex. hobby threads as Xanders pointed out…

tjub

The fact that this discussion is going on is a tribute that we will let you speak your mind, to say your peace. There are plenty of sites out there that would have banned members for past actions without even blinking an eye, care or worry about it. Some have commented on it, we don�?Tt act out of spite or malice or with an intention to harm, its not what was this is about. Its about leveling setting everyone at the same time. In the future there is now no way anyone can say �?oI didn’t know�?�.

Another point that needs be said, don�?Tt confuse the internet with free speech. This site is owned by Xander that means that every one of us is here by his leave. We have been pretty liberal here for the most part, most sites aren�?Tt, Its at the point that when its get abused when its an issue.

With all this being said I want this site to go backwards. Backwards in the sense that this site should be with Chaos Dwarfs as the focus. No one wants to kill the community spirit here, least of all me. Want to have a great community spirit? That’s precisely what OT is for. This isn’t an all or nothing despite what people are asking or posting. This is everything to do with posts be cluttered with comments that have nothing to do with the thread itself.

Unpleasant as it may be sometimes things need to be said, sometimes the methods in the end justify the means even if people disagree with them. I�?Tve got a tough skin and if people want to vent and rail against me I�?Tm fine with that to; I didn’t want or intent to be a bad guy, but if people want to perceive me as that, I can’t change that.

Angryboy2K brought up a good point about minimum word length for a post. It could easily be turned on. Its not something we even thought about or discussed. We are trying to avoid getting to that point so if a shot needed to be fired across the bow so be it.

Auretious Taak- the last thing I care or want to do is read people�?Ts PMs, even if I could (I can’t and don�?Tt have the time to do so either). What you PM is none of my business or any of the Staff�?Ts unless you bring it to us.

And contrary to popular belief I do not enjoy lording “power” over anyone, being a staff member means one thing: work, the last thing in the world it means is “power”. So far we have never banned anyone, I can�?Tt even remember personally deleting a post, and I respond at length to almost any PM sent my way. Sounds a far cry from lording over anything.

[system]

Tarrakk Blackhand:

I recommend we vote Auretious Taak as CDO’s official Spin Doctor or Public Relations Writer. His revision of Willmark’s post was more productive and harmonious. It made me want to help out more. Well written!

[system]

Auretious Taak:

Willmark:
Auretious Taak- the last thing I care or want to do is read people�?Ts PMs, even if I could (I can't and don�?Tt have the time to do so either). What you PM is none of my business or any of the Staff�?Ts unless you bring it to us.

I was about to say Willmark had sent me a PM concerning this already and that I was happy with the response and elaborated on what I actually meant more solidly rather then being a little vague if I was, but then I noticed it was you Willmark. Heh. :p

However as an Admin its part of the unpleasantness that sometimes goes along with it. Funny accusations are leveled that we are going out of our way to please everyone. We knew full well this wouldn't sit well with those that felt they were/are the offenders.

This last sentence does not sit well with me.

You are implying that anybody who has raised a disagreeing point to anything stated in the original posting were/are said offenders to teh spam et al that you are looking at eliminating or at least cutting down. It directly states that myself, Thommy H and Tarrakk Blackhand amongst others are guilty of said actions and makes us feel like crap to be honest. We aren't guilty in the way you have worded things. It comes across as if it is a great and hideous crime and that we should feel less of ourselves because of even daring to post an objectionable response to anything here...

I recommend we vote Auretious Taak as CDO's official Spin Doctor or Public Relations Writer. His revision of Willmark's post was more productive and harmonious. It made me want to help out more. Well written!

Tarrakk Blackhand

My thanks for the comment, I'm going to blame almost 4 years of having to deal with online MMO politics as the cause of writing more diplomatically if I am annoyed enough to do so...:hat off

Auretious Taak.

[system]

madhat:

i,am considering leaving this forum. because i never will support sites that stops you from saying

what you want and when you want. good luck with the building of perfect site.

being threatened as the first thing u see on a website is not a good commercial!

a nice little new Iran.

:mad

[system]

so.sad:

Guys, please stop this complaining for now and wait to see what actually happens.

This is just another rule, the world will not break into pieces because of it.

When I read through this topic there are many posts made by staff members that basicly explain the “new” rule as follows:

"before you make a post consider if you are making this post to add a point to an ongoing discussion or just to boost your post count"

From what I understand this should be common sense and there needn’t be a rule for it. If the staff thinks otherwise, well, whats not to like about this rule?

Its right, the opening post was not exactly diplomatic but rather threatening, which is not a good thing.

BUT the opening posts also states that if you are not guilty of such behavior you need not feel threatened at all.

Since there are so many complains about this rule now I get it you feel threatened? I don’t think you need to since all you guys are making valid statements in most of the topics I read till now and the occasional one liner is not necessarily bad like it has been pointed out already.

So while I can perfectly understand your points I personally do think its too eraly to complain.

Is there anybody out there who was banned because of this rule or got a PM by the staff yet?

Perhaps its because I’m german that I do accept rules too easily. But as you pointed out already this rule is not affecting 99% of CDO’s posters. So why complain about a sth. that hasn’t done anything bad yet. Why say “I’m leaving CDO because of the staff acting like dictators”. The new rule doesn’t prevent you from saying what you want. In fact it has been stated several times that the staff encourges you to say wat you think. All the rule does is ask you to “stay on topic” and “not repeat yourself over and over agin”.

Lets start complaining as the staff starts to use this rule to threaten random people. Until then, there is nothing wrong with it, I think.

(please keep in mind that this is my personal opinion, I’m just speaking for myself and I’m not saying that my opinion is the only acceptable out there)

[Xander]

Xander:

It seems to me many people are complaining about how they were informed of this new rule. The language used might not have been diplomatic enough. If this is true for you, I apologize for this grievance.

Some people think this rule goes well beyond other forums and launches us into totalitarianism. If this is true for you, ask yourself how many times you have been censored on this site, or how many people you know have been banned.

Some people are afraid they won’t be able to post short sentences that are still on-topic. I assure you that you will be fine. Mostly we are talking about getting people to stay on topic. You don’t have to write an essay, as some have implied.

Short and simple: we want posts to be on topic. If you want short posts in rapid fire succession, the Off-Topic section was built for this reason. The rest of the site is for various Chaos Dwarf interests, and we want posts in these threads to be on-topic.

[system]

two_heads_talking:

I dunno. I think kera brings up a very solid and valid point. If the only time we see staff post up is when the hammer gets dropped, then, whenever we see them post, we get the ‘doomed’ feeling.

I also sit in TommyH’s camp. I don’t agree with Tommy all the time but I wonder why this is all of a sudden an issue. I think this all could have been handled with the ‘culprits’ in teh background through pm and banhammering.

I don’t mind rules changes, but I didn’t realize this was an issue, as it doesn’t seem like anyone brought it up.

As for 15 messages in 3 minutes. Hmm, I know I have a limited amount of time to post and tend to do so in a quick fashion, and I know that in a case or two I’ve seen a mssage stating that I’ve tried to post too quickly and must wait 15 seconds or 10 seconds or so. So, given that, I’d say 15 messages in 3 minutes is impossible just based on the 15 second warning. I’ve even seen a 30 second warning before… so that would mean 6 messages tops in 3 minutes if the 30 seconds is the rules…

Sometimes I add alot to a thread and sometimes not much at all, besides the… “awesome, good work, that looks great”… and while some might see that as spam, I bet the person who is receiving that praise won’t be saying, hey, two_heads_talking is spamming my thread with praise, please remove it. In fact, I’d say you shouldn’t drop the hammer unless the OP has raised a concern and then you can look into it and decide to ‘let it go’, ‘warn the person’, ‘give them time off’ or just plain ban them.

As for staying on topic. No forum ever has been able to completely control that. Thread drift and random odd thread shifts happen. If it gets too bad, just admin/mod it, split the thread and keep the topic on topic and the non-topic stuff in a newly defined thread. add a link to the non-topic stuff and say, ‘keep on topic you monkeys…’