Maybe there should be a minimum post length feature added. I think very little, that's also helpful, can be said in only a few words.
What about the positive one liners like "hype!" and "yes!" or something like that?I wish we ban "yikes" and "oof" and those kinds of one liner replies
And mods
On the flipside, have you ever assumed that someone's different opinion than yours was trolling and immediately accused the other member of doing so?
Instead of reacting to this and explaining your agreement/disagreement, there are multiple posters who are responding as if OP's 3-word post ban idea is the entirety of the thread. We can all do better.The only solution I see is a change of culture and that has to come from the members and moderation together. I think we need to be more strict with low-effort posts in serious threads. We have a whole hangout section for chatting and multiple community threads like the Playstation or Xbox where people can be more "lose".
Because that's one of OP's concrete suggestions. They even made it part of the thread title. So don't blame people for commenting on what is certainly one of the OP's main takeaways / main suggestions.Instead of reacting to this and explaining your agreement/disagreement, there are multiple posters who are responding as if OP's 3-word post ban idea is the entirety of the thread. We can all do better.
You do have to name the thread.I don't think the problem is three word posts, the root problem is significantly deeper than that. I believe the other thread that was locked more eloquently and clearly outlined the ongoing problems of the forum.
I recommend people reading the opening post to that thread.
- There's a difference between drive-bys and "drive-bys." Yes, I know that doesn't make sense, but hear me out. If the post derails the thread, if it's overly offensive, or if is clearly a post that is not a joke (e.g., not a tongue-in-cheek jab), then it's fair game for a ban/warning. That's not to say we see everything. We do rely heavily on reports for moderation due to the amount of posts that are made each day on the site.Since there is no feedback topic at all on this forum I assumed it would be okay to make one here.
In line with a topic that was just locked here I think we need to have a conversation about the level of discourse on Gaming Side.
Although Resetera is a place where we post news it is primarily a place where we can have discussions about our favorite hobby, videogames. Unfortunately it seems the level of discussion has slowly started to become something more akin to Twitter or Reddit. Lot's of negativity, quick reactions and little thought.
I don't fully know all the reasons this is happening, the world itself is becoming a little more "violent" and "chaotic" and online discourse has taken a nosedive for the last few years.
BUT.
I believe the biggest reason we are having this problem has more to do with the crazy amount of drive-ins or low quality posts that influence the "feel" of the threads. I understand the need to want to be part of the discussion (I'm not perfect in anyway) but... if you have nothing to say, why say it?
Let me give you an example. I just opened a random "Controversial" thread and took a random screenshot (I believe it's where I last stopped reading).
[Mod Edit: Image removed.] I removed it first you sneaky mods haha
Out of 4 posts, 3 are... nothing? (nothing against the users, it was a totally random screenshot).
Again, I'm not perfect by any means but I do feel I strive to either add something to the conversation, share my opinion in a semi-detailed way, or ask a question.
It's so easy to be incredibly negative if all you do is tell people off or write one-liners. It's so easy to DOGPILE on users that it makes those that are trying to share opinions scared to do so.
And crazier than all to me is how somehow we have started to normalize the fact that people can comment without even reading what the OP has written.
The only solution I see is a change of culture and that has to come from the members and moderation together. I think we need to be more strict with low-effort posts in serious threads. We have a whole hangout section for chatting and multiple community threads like the Playstation or Xbox where people can be more "lose".
I think we should give warnings and bans to people that clearly have not read OPs.
I feel this isn't necessarily an "Era" problem so much as society as a whole. While my wish is that people here can conduct themselves accordingly (trolls that show up, aside), there is a general feeling of us vs. them across the entire country at the moment. A lot of people on Twitter complain about the people here and my first thought is *gestures wildly at Twitter.*
There are various areas where I feel like we are generally on the same page - sexual assault/abuse is bad, believe women, black lives matter, etc., but Era is not a monolith. Some people are just shitty. An email address is not enough for us to determine whether or not someone is going to come in and cry about "mah politics in mah games!!!!11!! (alts notwithstanding...but that said, if you're an alt, we will find you)."
I do wish people would come together. I get the reasons for some of the polarization (for instance, those who want Trump out of office vs. those who are not comfortable voting for Biden)...I honestly do, and so does the rest of staff.
If you're a console warrior, though, there's no hope for you. If you are, please just PM me so I can get that ban out of the way.
But we largely agree with each other. Our differences should be stupidly small, like preferring a game over the other, but realizing that others may like/dislike different things.
I do encourage users to make more threads about games that they enjoy rather than those that they hate. Or hell, every day occurrences that they enjoyed rather than your look-at-this-shit-that-happened-today thread. I think it's important to be abreast of these terrible things, but there are 49 other spots on the front page of each forum that could be filled with good things.
We all need good things.
I saw two black bears and a brown bear today. My wife decided that we should head back on the trail when we noticed that two of the bears were like 20 ft. away though.
I've mostly given up on attempting real discourse on Era, especially when it comes to the business end of things, as most folks here aren't interested in the nitty gritty of the industry and seem to care more about what random Youtubers have to say (or making up their own theories).
But what irks me the most is when people throw out a shitty one-liner as the first reply and it gets quoted for pages and drowns out anyone trying to participate in a meaningful manner. We really need a "like" button for posts, because replying to something with "^ this" is effortless.
While that's all true, responding with a 3-word post when OP is clearly asking for better discourse strikes me as needlessly petulant.Because that's one of OP's concrete suggestions. They even made it part of the thread title. So don't blame people for commenting on what is certainly one of the OP's main takeaways / main suggestions.
Much of the other stuff is just "We should have better threads / better discourse" - absolutely!
yeah. i understand and agree with raising the level of discourse on this side but more words doesn't mean more thoughtful content
While we generally discourage things like thread-shitting (for lack of a better term), tbh there are times where it just happens and makes sense. If weekend-era makes a thread about their specific shitting style, I don't think I could bring myself to ban someone who simply responds with "lmao."yeah. i understand and agree with raising the level of discourse on this side but more words doesn't mean more thoughtful content
sometimes you see someone write a multi paragraph screed of pure nonsense and there is nothing more to do than hit them with a lmao
Isn't this already happening? I'm only here from time to time but in the past I've seen warnings and even bans for drive by postings, has this changed?I think we should give warnings and bans to people that clearly have not read OPs.
As I stated above, it's not really a black-and-white situation. Sometimes, those drive-bys are funny. Sue me, I like to laugh :P. The majority of posts are fine, and an innocuous joke here and there is fine. If it's a horrible post, or offensive, or leads a page-long derail, then I'm happy to bin 'em.Isn't this already happening? I'm only here from time to time but in the past I've seen warnings and even bans for drive by postings, has this changed?
How would you propose a two-sided discussion in a thread about racism/bigotry/corruption/etc?Current Era has much deeper problems than just people posting one-liners or reaction posts. Some of the problems have already been mentioned in this thread
- inconsistent moderation with a tendency to turn controversial threads into one-sided echo chambers
It is, yes (at least technically, but we do not specifically have that functionality atm), but it's really one of those things where this is on the users - there are definitely threads where one-word answers are....fine. Like if I said I hadn't showered in 3 months I think it's ok if someone responds with "yikes."I'm not a technical person by any stretch of the imagination, but isn't it possible to make it a requirement to have at least 10 words in your reply? In other words: 10 words or you reply doesn't get posted? Maybe have a message pop up if you try to reply with only "yikes" or "awesome"?
I'm sure I have seen something like that on another forum back in the day.
I feel exactly the same. It would be really nice if there was a "This person has done so and so" specific section, that's not part of "Gaming". I use resetera mainly for news on games, and it has gotten more and more difficult to shift through the threads for the stuff I actually want read and be part of. To be honest, recently it's gotten so bad, that I've started to avoid visiting - I can feel it affecting my mood, though it really shouldn't.I took a look into that locked thread and to be honest, I was actually planning on making something similar myself.
I'm part of the ''I just want to talk about games'' side I guess; To share knowledge of forgotten games, or to make tributes of favorites.
Such as these:
The beautiful world of Mirror's Edge. (Warning: Image Heavy)
UPDATE: More screenshots from the first game added! I was a big fan of the original Mirror's Edge. I would play it every now and then throughout the years and the beauty of the game never ceased to amaze me. The sense of exploration, wonder and parkour elements is what made Mirror's Edge an...www.resetera.comThe beautiful world of Mirror's Edge #2 (Image Heavy)
For those that missed my first thread, you can find it here: https://www.resetera.com/threads/the-beautiful-world-of-mirrors-edge-warning-image-heavy.70660/ With the year 2020 fast approaching, I've decided to start yet another playthrough of one of my favorite games, Mirror's Edge. This is...www.resetera.comBeen playing a game called Kenshi, wanted to share my adventures.
So I took a chance on a game that I knew nothing about, and it's a genre I don't necessarily play very much but I do love games like Mount & Blade, Shadow Tactics, and Total War: Shogun 2. Apparently this game was in development for 12 long years, and came out of Early Access this month. Of...www.resetera.comDragon's Dogma - Love & Appreciation
The original Dragon's Dogma released back in 2012, on the PS3 and Xbox 360. Directed by the man himself Hideaki Itsuno, gracing us with his take on the Action Adventure Hack & Slash RPG genre. Featuring a quest system where some quests could be completed in different ways, allowing the...www.resetera.com
I try my best to make meaningful threads on this site, I really do. Unfortunately, in some cases, it gets lost under the aforementioned problems of this site.
It gets tiring and makes me mentally fatigued.
Like, I get that ResetERA wants to be a platform for gaming, but they also want to be a platform for calling out shady things in the industry. That's ok!
The thing is, it's mixed in together with the gaming threads people make on this website. I like seeing threads like this one, connecting Dark Souls and Depression:
Dark Souls is a Powerful Metaphor for Depression
With the game's impending re-release on modern systems, I wanted to draw attention to the ways Dark Souls reflects and represents elements of depression. Please consider this a Content Warning for depression. If you are suffering from depression yourself, I beg of you: Seek professional help. If...www.resetera.com
Eh, I don't know, just my 2 cents.
Personally, I think some of the pressure comes from the technical limitations on this platform. People are used to their likes and their retweets and their raction emotes to posts on discord. Maybe it is time to let this charming old 2000's style of online conversations die and revamp the technical side to be more modern?