Ryzom

Thanks for your input guys and ladies, appreciate it.

The topic for this thread is posts, and how some people post with their game names and some don't. Which in most cases is not a problem for me. However, recent threads have been overly critical or downright hateful to some players and guilds. While I respect the forums as a means for the community to voice opinions, share vids/pics, recruit guild members, etc, or just plain have fun, it has also become a tool for trolls to flame and hide in annonymity. It was pointed out to me that game names mean little to nothing in a heavily populated game, and how the internet itself gives a certain "cloak of invisibilty" to everyone. Understanding that not all are going to agree with my ideas or opinions, I still put my voice out there along with my identity, in-game. As I said, these forums are for the community and for all to voice concerns and opinions. I was told it would be nearly impossible to control or verify whether or not people use their character's name on a post, and that may be true. But right or wrong, noob idea or elder's brilliance, I and many others put their "face" (game name) in the post. I am not afraid of consequences from something I might say, expecting all to agree with me on issues is fantasy at best, in-game or in RL. What I am looking for is community discussion on the annonymous flamers. It is possible the person who just ripped your (or your guild's) guts out in the forums is the same person who is helping you dig, fight bosses, explore, etc. Why won't they be open about it? I am not ashamed of my posts, and don't hide from what I say, same as many others. Is there a way to require people to use the character name if they want to post? Understanding of course that one could create a new char on Silan and never play it, but use that name on posts, or some other way to remain annonymous and "go for the kill". Thoughts anyone?

I hate it when people are not prepared to put their names against their views, but some people are chicken like that. I especially dislike those who post mainly insults and whinges but dont want to be identified.

Some others have their reasons such as keeping your ig characters views seperate from their own which I can only understand for rp reasons.

I'm not one for giving a crap what people think of my opinion and gladly argue my points as some may have noticed, each to their own I guess.







here's me thinking you'd post something really contraversial like the colour of ratara's underwear or proof Jayce is cheating on redslayer with Sunce

I don't know if anyone else does not include their character name(s) in their signature for this reason, but it's one possible reason, so...

I don't list my character names in my signature because my opinions, beliefs, and expressions have nothing to do with theirs. It's not that I wish to hide from repercussions - I don't. But I don't want people to change the way they regard and interact with my characters because of something they didn't say/do and might not even agree with. It'd be like judging a character in a television drama based on something the actor did.

In other words: RP reasons.

Mind you, it goes both ways, in that I don't consider what people think of my characters to be indicative of what they think of me. So doing this doesn't benefit me in any way other than preserving realism in RP.

dakhound wrote: here's me thinking you'd post something really contraversial like the colour of ratara's underwear or proof Jayce is cheating on redslayer with Sunce

Was keeping it low key and in discussion format, didn't want to name names and start a flame myself, and i understand the RPers having differing opinions about game issues that their char may not have. Just wanted some input from the community as a whole on the topic.


Ratara wears underwear??

dakhound wrote:I hate it when people are not prepared to put their names against their views, but some people are chicken like that. I especially dislike those who post mainly insults and whinges but dont want to be identified.

Some others have their reasons such as keeping your ig characters views seperate from their own which I can only understand for rp reasons.

I'm not one for giving a crap what people think of my opinion and gladly argue my points as some may have noticed, each to their own I guess.

What he said.

I don't even have a sig, let alone one with my character's name in it, but I've never seen that as a means to hide from repercussions. I may be overly conservative in his regard, but I just feel uncomfortable with everyone and anyone instantly knowing who my character is. My thoughts here are that for the bulk of the Ryzom population it really shouldn't matter; I'm just 'another Ryzom player' to them anyways. The players who I spent considerable time with ingame, if they frequent the forums as well, know that the character belongs to this account (or should if they pay attention ).

I've seen other 'anonymous' posters being scolded for not including their ingame name, but I never have been personally, so I assume nobody so far has taken offense to any of my posts. And since there are enough people who do know my character's name, if I really stepped out of line here on the forums I'd definitely feel the consequences...

Meanwhile, I personally don't believe the anonymity really adds to the flaming. Yes, there are some people who post hatefull comments without revealing their character names, but they are but a few. Most of the hatefull comments come from people who are comfortable with their own hatred and do have their character name in their sig. And as you said, those who really want to flame anonymously will find other ways of doing so.

I kind of assume someone flaming a guild in the forums, even anonymous, will stay far away from that guild ingame too. If there are really people out there who zealously flame person A or guild B in the forums, then go on their characters and pretend to be the best of friends with that same person or guild, it seems to me they themselves would be the ones with the largest problems.

Those anonymous posters who do stay out of the personal and political arena usually do a very nice job of presenting interesting suggestions and ideas.

The craven folks who hide in the dark and sling mud are not only offering worthless opinions they are almost always so sadly misinformed as to be worth nothing more then the poo they sling.

Pero

Personally I couldn't give a toss, Its a game, opinions here are just opinions about a game, its not real and of no particular consequence. If flaming / trolling gets out of hand, there are moderators to delete posts and censure the posters.

I've actually got a thing about that in my sig i think? but for people who don't post their names for whatever reason - i accept it, but i dont really understand it.

Hi Zyra, here are my thoughts as promised:

1. Anonymous trolls suck.

2. Anonymous trolls will find a way to be such no matter what we do.

3. Every post has an account name attached. That is the identity of the person, as far as Ryzom is concerned. Character names come and go, many if not most have at least one alt. I have all of my slots filled, personally, though I use the other four chars rarely. At least two of those I consider disposable. The account name stays.

4. We all know that account XYZwhatever is a person who posts nastygrams. If we know the name(s) of that person's character(s), what action will we take to exact retribution for forum behavior? Aggro dragging? Other forms of griefing? If we do so, what does that say about us?

5. I believe in free speech. Passionately. As in, that is one cause I would actually consider dying for. Sometimes anonymity is the only way a person can speak their true thoughts without fear of retribution.

6. If someone actually breaks the Code of Conduct they may be disciplined as per that code. If they are simply being a loud-mouth and a jerk, I don't see any recourse that doesn't negatively impact everyone else. Our CSRs and forum moderators have the power and authority to address these things, and they use it. (Even on me once )

7. Technicalities. Those of us who identify character names do so in our sigs. I can easily lie in my sig. I can call myself Zyratuan or Jayce or DoubleTap or whatever I know how to spell... Or I can have no sig at all. The functionality required to pull in character names from game data is not available in vBulletin 3.5.4. (Lookie down there at the bottom of the page. This forum is run by a third party software package, which has no connection with Ryzom other than Nevrax and its inheritors are/were customers of the company that sells vBulletin.)

8. Anonymous trolls suck.

9. Anonymous trolls love attention. Starve them of attention and they will go away. Any other action just encourages them.

My conclusion:
Anonymous trolls suck. But we're stuck with them, kind of like the useless dreck that's left after you've eaten all the good parts. Just chuck it and move on.

My opinion:
I rarely give any weight at all to anonymous arguments. Unless they are very well reasoned and supported. Then again, I rarely give much weight to non-anonymous arguments unless they are very well reasoned and supported.

My message to Zyra:
I understand and somewhat agree with your feelings. I just don't see a good way to fix it.

My message to trolls:
STFUthxBuhBye