re trolls and flaming

[myseren]

This is mainly posted to see how other forum users feel, but also to show my disapproval of the way the forums have been handled, but in a constructive way.

[dc77066]

This is mainly posted to see how other forum users feel, but also to show my disapproval of the way the forums have been handled, but in a constructive way.

...and to see if there are any posters left...

[rob01]

I'm confused as to why the list of moderators for these forums didn't get involved before irreplacable members of this community have had to be banned (permanently) by a community liaison.

[omsop]

This is mainly posted to see how other forum users feel, but also to show my disapproval of the way the forums have been handled, but in a constructive way.

the Forums should have been handled more strictly from the very beginning, that way, alot of the nonesense we read would have been dealt with fast.
Its bad enough tempers get raised ingame, but they shouldnt be allowed to get out of hand here where we have moderators who supposedly read everything, and every post can be reported by anyone.

Also, i too hate the ppl that say, if you dont like PvP then Leave.. i have been with Ryzom since the very beginning and it was Never about PvP, but lately thats been the main concentrating point of Nevrax, so obviously ppl will get upset and leave, but thanks to Jessica's new letter, there is hope that new content is on its way, hopefully this will keep all party's interested and staying with Ryzom and keep some of the anger out of the Forum's.

[genod]

Short term bad, long term good if the rules are fully upheld by the moderators and not abused (by silencing the often sought, seldom achieved 'constructive critisism' posts). After the initial shock of being made to take responsibility of one's own postings fades, things could potentially become civil once again. If there ever was such a time, I don't recall such an occurrance on a videogame forum :/

And I totally agree with you there Posmo (you came in during my typing ).

[kostika]

I have moderated large forums in the past (mostly music ones) and I can understand the need for control. But there are good and bad ways of doing these things.

[sydius21]

I think they went way overboard.

[navra]

If I said what I really feel about it I would be banned.

PS: I hope our votes are confidential. I don't want to be kicked out because of that too.

[iphdrunk]

All,

Although I agree that some form of moderation and control was necessary (for example, some threads easily becoming chat rooms with oneliner posts, tone of the posts lacking courtesy, etc.) and the sporadic personal attacks, I'm afraid the new rules, although valid, have been applied a bit too strictly (so to speak).

My main concern is, to be honest, the "transition" : we went from a very loosely moderated forum to a strict set of rules in no time. Sanctions were applied immediately, and those were severe sanctions. Players were caught offguard, too. Maybe the fact that when reading a post, one cannot truly get the tone of the post, maybe some posters were using their usual tone, without being truly aware of how it could be interpreted and without bad feelings. Cultural differences too. It is well known that different communities express things differently, some are more direct, some are more subtle. One can interpret direct statement as offensive, while others don't. the transition could be done smoothly.

There is another factor: the bad timing. I'd dare to say that part of the cause of the forum was degrading, was related to Episode 2 (I already posted about what scares me of PvP. Forums in PvP games aren't usually nice) but, in our context, things were getting calmed down, we had new hopes, avatars were changed back, Mrs. Mulligan letter was somewhat reassuring (although I still think it was a bit empty, and an announcement of another outpost delay, but that's another subject).

Finally, let's not forget that the Ryzom team are humans too, and stress and nerves can affect them too. No one likes his work been critized continuosly, be constructive or not, with little praise.

Personally, for what is worth, I think most of the bans I've witnessed were, imho, unjustified, but I place them in this particular context (which doen't make them valid). I'm sure that most of the banned players, as members of the community, can of course act in an adequate way, but I just hope it isn't too late.

To my best, I tried to understand all the parties involved and all the posters, from the players, to the Community Liaisons are human, and can, of course (myself included) hit 'the button' too fast. Not that I think that Jyudas ban was specifically targetted to silence him, but when reading the thread, I couldn't help thinking of a referee that cautions a player with a red card, other players disagree, and the referee ends us showing red cards to anyone who talks to him.

Xavier has posted several times after the new forum rules were announced. He also mentioned something in the lines of "you cannot be harsh and don't expect a fight". Well, it also comes down to service support, and the patience towards clients.

What do I expect? what would be a possible outcome? I'd like to see something in the lines of "Considering the x,y,z factors, forum access will be restored for banned players. We kindly request that the new forums rules be observed. We learn from our mistakes, but we believe that those rules are required to restore the usefulness of the forums, etc."

Yours,

[noceros]

Anissa, I cannot have said it better myself. I think you've hit the nail on the head.