Generations Sub-Forum

[Badnik Mechanic]

I understand the frustration older members of the board have at changing atmospheres, and it will almost assuredly die down once the demo stuff wears out.

No it won't.

This kind of explosion of people spamming and outright breaking even the most basic of rules on the forum has been building for months. It's been mentioned repeatedly by people for months and I know that I've said it in several topics about the subject both before and after the status updates got removed for a short while.

Some people have the mindset now that the forum rules don't apply in certain areas, theres a post in the another topic from one memeber which more or less says that it's ok to spam the hell out of the generations forum area.

Since when do the forum rules not apply to specific forums? How can anyone expect the levels of spam and blatent rule breaking to ease when we're got people openly stating that?

I'm not saying bring back the 2005 rule scheme, because it would totally ruin the forum and the general videogaming forum would be totally dead. But even the most basic forum rules such as spam are just being ignored and new topics warning people about posting images only are just falling on death ears.

[Nintendoga]

I guess I should post this here.

I (and from the status updates, alot of other member too) have noticed a large increase in Spamming and joke posts in alot of the more recent topics, particularly the Generations sub-forum.

I'm okay with a joke post every now and then, but it has come to the point where almost every other posts is this. It is also very annoying I might add.

SO BEAUTIFUL!!!

or this

shit's about to go down! trololol!!!

Take the hidden assets demo topic for instance, I woke up this morning and saw over 30 new pages, so I thought that something extraordinary had been found. Unfortunately outta the 30 pages, 25 of those were comprised of mainly spam, or people re quoting posts with something they think is witty and funny (most of them were not funny mind you). The modern demo topic also has a ton of new pages, most of which I'm sure have the same problem.

I don't know what has made the members so hyper and active all of the sudden, maybe it's the fact that Generations is coming out in two weeks, or maybe it's because of the new demo, but it needs to decrease, or stop completely.

I'm good with a joke post every now and then, but it has come to the point where enough is enough.

I know you Mods and Admins are taking note of this and are trying to stop it, but I just wanted to bring this to everyone's attention in the forums, just to give them a sort of heads up or reality check that what most of them are doing is wrong.

I too am an offender of this, as I have made many jokes in my posts, and have also spammed quite a few topics every now and then, but thank god I know when enough is enough, and when the right time to make serious posts and when to joke around is.

I have realized that, but have you?

P.S. (This isn't meant to offend anyone as again not everyone is doing this, just a majority of members, hope this problem is taken care of as soon as possible.)

Thank you for taking the time to read this complaint.

Taken from my other topic, but I guess I should of posted it here first. Glad to see I'm not the only one who's noticed the "problem" in the Generations Sub-Forum.

Edited October 19, 2011 by Nintendoga

[Carbo]

No it won't.

This kind of explosion of people spamming and outright breaking even the most basic of rules on the forum has been building for months. It's been mentioned repeatedly by people for months and I know that I've said it in several topics about the subject both before and after the status updates got removed for a short while.

Some people have the mindset now that the forum rules don't apply in certain areas, theres a post in the another topic from one memeber which more or less says that it's ok to spam the hell out of the generations forum area.

Since when do the forum rules not apply to specific forums? How can anyone expect the levels of spam and blatent rule breaking to ease when we're got people openly stating that?

I'm not saying bring back the 2005 rule scheme, because it would totally ruin the forum and the general videogaming forum would be totally dead. But even the most basic forum rules such as spam are just being ignored and new topics warning people about posting images only are just falling on death ears.

I hope you're not implying that we're ignoring or not cracking down on spammers, or people attempting to justify it's validity.

Because that is flat-out untrue.

[Flyboy Fox]

I'm really not sure what the majority of the forum would like the staff to do. I don't say that facetiously; I honestly do not know. It seems that when the staff just give verbal warnings, try to monitor, and only take heavier action (strikes, suspension, privilege revoking) in extreme cases, we're told we're not harsh enough or not doing enough. But when we crack down on things, clear out posts, make stronger rules and suspend repeat offenders, we're told that we're not letting anyone have any fun and that we're making SSMB boring. Believe it or not, we do try to find a middle ground that's fair and firm without being a complete kill-joy, but it's getting to feel like we're damned if we do and damned if we don't.

So, serious input time. What would YOU like to see the mod team doing to tackle this problem?

[Badnik Mechanic]

I hope you're not implying that we're ignoring or not cracking down on spammers,

I'm quite sure you are cracking down on it, but the problem is for every warning thats given it seems to be getting ignored and the problem has been building for months.

or people attempting to justify it's validity.

If you're saying here that people on the forum are not saying that "It's ok to spam certain areas" I think you'll find that people have been saying that. There was a post made about 40 min ago that says precisely that, if you want I'll glady PM you the link to it.

Edited October 19, 2011 by Hogfather

[Carbo]

If you're saying here that people on the forum are not saying that "It's ok to spam certain areas" I think you'll find that people have been saying that. There was a post made about 40 min ago that says precisely that, if you want I'll glady PM you the link to it.

Oh I believe you very much, because a certain member did this right to my face after a warning yesterday. What I was saying is, we ARE acting on these people as well.

[Nintendoga]

So, serious input time. What would YOU like to see the mod team doing to tackle this problem?

I honestly think you guys should be more stricter with this stuff. Sure we'll call you guys unfair at times, but you guys should do what you think is the best for us.

I'd rather have a strict so called "boring" neat forum, then a "fun" out of control mess of a forum.

Edited October 19, 2011 by Nintendoga

[Vertekins]

Spammers are posting irrelevant things and stuff that evokes imagery of sexual explicitness with impunity and I've even seen a post that outright boasts about a lack of concern for following rules. I've even seen posts boasting of how there's no mods/admins online, basically egging-on spammers. This suggests to me that the authority on this board is being outright disrespected and that it's "Ok" to post stupid, irrelevant and/or unfunny youtube videos, off-topic posts and image macros because they must believe that either the mods won't come down on them hard enough when they find it or...they just don't respect the authority the mods yield.

IMO, this should be fought with stricter moderation and repercussions for such behavior. Still, it's not my authority to demand what must be done, just suggest I guess . Roarey's brand of moderation back in the day may have been controversial but it's was effective and I got the impression that members knew their place and what was expected on the boards i.e Not pages upon pages of near-unending spam and disobedience of the board rules.

Edited October 19, 2011 by Verte

[Kuzu]

This place has been becoming an image board as of late.

[Badnik Mechanic]

About the 2005-2008 rule scheme.

I personally don't want those back. Now this might seem odd since I was staff at the time and it was my job to actually enforce those, and along with Violet, Flyboy (I think you were staff then), Tweeker and Chimpo we had to strike people for it, and whilst it worked for what Dreadknux and Roary wanted to change, I don't think we're at that level, I wasn't around for why the rules were brought in, but I do remeber hearing some of the stories about it, and from what I remember, it was a lot worse than anything since. From what I remember, there were topics which were like this.

"It's gr8, u sud get it,"

Aparently chat like that went on for pages and pages.

Also don't forget that SSMB back in pre 2005 was a very different place to it is right now, from what I've read, people didn't want anything done about the rules, they wanted to keep the text talk and all the other things that eventually got scrapped. It was for the best back then, as I doubt Sega would have worked as cosely with SSMB as they had done had it not happened.

I also don't want the 2005 rule scheme, because I don't think they're fair on anybody, memebers and staff alike, if there is any change in the rules, staff will for some people be seen as the villains, we've had more or less anything goes for a while now, so any change no matter how small will get some kind of reaction from some people. Bringing in the 2005 rules isn't the way to go, especially for what it would mean for every member on here, Almost all the topics in the main VG forum would probably be locked, as would most of the main Sonic topics. it would change SSMB totally and it's not the change that we should be going back to, because we're not at the same place as we were back in 2005.

Thats just my thoughts on the 2005 rules idea anyway.

But if you want a suggestion for what to do now... I think the image only/heavy gif only posts have got to go.

Edited October 19, 2011 by Hogfather

[Flyboy Fox]

Something else to bear in mind is that we are a much bigger forum now than we were back than. We have more members, more forum areas, and influx from more other forums. What works well with a small(er) community doesn't necessarily work as well with a larger one.

For example, the 'making an example of offenders' technique of banning or suspending serial offenders works well in small communities as it removes the main problem and scares the smaller offenders into better behaviour. On a larger forum it has much less effect; suspending or banning one person is barely noticed at best and doesn't significantly reduce the problem. However, to suspend/ban ALL the people exhibiting the behaviour to varying degrees would be time-consuming and impossible and would probably spark a riot. And when so many people are contributing to the issue, it would take far too much time and post-history checking and staff discussion to decide who to verbally warn, who to strike, who to suspend and who to ban... and even then, people would compare punishments and feel hard done by.

It's easy to say that we should be stricter, but much harder to put into practice.

[Ferno]

I can't think of anything that hasn't been already suggested. You guys are doing a great job as far as I can tell. I'd say get a teeny little bit stricter, but only for a short time, and get more relaxed after after Generations is out, though I'm not telling you guys how to do your jobs or anything like that. ._.

Also, it's just an observation, but you guys seem stretched thin at times, and there's quite a few times when I notice that there's a vast amount of people online and no mods. And whenever we do have a couple mods online, it seems like they're alone with all this work, and they almost seem overwhelmed. I remember in the past there were a few more than we have now, evenly spread across the forums at any given time. You guys think it's time for a few more? Some well qualified people who can provide some extra help running the place? Forgive me if that was a dumb suggestion, just brain storming over here.

Can't think of anything else to add really.

[Velotix von Skruviktorrius]

You've heard what I want already. A little dash of fire and brimstone never hurt anyone. (<--- This analogy sounds so ridiculous.)

What I will touch on though is this:

It seems that when the staff just give verbal warnings, try to monitor, and only take heavier action (strikes, suspension, privilege revoking) in extreme cases, we're told we're not harsh enough or not doing enough. But when we crack down on things, clear out posts, make stronger rules and suspend repeat offenders, we're told that we're not letting anyone have any fun and that we're making SSMB boring.

[Jeffhog]

Now that you mention it, we could go for a few more moderators if that's the case. When mods from one time zone are out of commission or is simply not around, another could take its place.

I mean, there are times that mods aren't around for a while - not blaming anyone because people obviously have lives off the computer screen - so if we have at least one moderator all the time, that'd be perfect.

[Carbo]

[Flyboy Fox]

[Velotix von Skruviktorrius]

All that's left to say is that Sean's earlier post about this never happening seems pretty funny now.

[Pelly <3's U]

.......Not really. This isn't even close to old levels of moderation. This is still basically akin to what I said in the first page of the rules and regulations topic, it's just kinda reaffirming it for both members and mods. It's not even that different from what we've been doing earlier either, when image macros were especially bad we did the exact same thing and gave strikes for them.

What Sean said is we will never go back to the old pre-wipe crackdown on posts, and honestly we won't.

Also about adding new moderators, we did add Carbo when gens was bad before.....but he took weeks of searching to find (I kid you not). I don't think there's anyone on the forums right now (at least that we're aware of) that we would feel comfortable adding to the team.

[Flyboy Fox]

Agreed. This isn't going to be a return to days of being given a strike for having a sig image a few pixels too high, or being chewed out and yelled at for having a couple of spelling and/or punctuation errors. Overall, nothing is changing regarding general forumwide rules and the type of forum SSMB wants to portray itself as (a fun and quirky but mature discussion forum). They're the same as ever. This is just a specific crackdown on a particular problem that's been getting out of hand recently - one that needs to be dealt with using a firm hand and no compromise. But this is definitely not a return to any kind of oppressive and trigger-happy 'regime'. Don't be worrying about that.

[Sami]

I won't speak on anyone else's behalf, but I'm very happy about this. Thanks a lot for listening, you guys. It's rare that I see interaction between the community and authority like this, and it's very much appreciated.