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Post by sic »

I must admit that I have not been around the forums as much as I should be. My excuse is that my life has been extremely hectic for the last month or so - I am in the process of leaving my current job, finding somebody to take over the lease on my apartment, and moving from the Seattle area to California, among other things.

As you may or may not have noticed, there's been some conflict between various members of this community. I'm not going to name names or blame anyone; I understand that personal issues and whatnot can manifest in anyone's posts. I'm not here to say that I'm disappointed, upset or angry. I'm not going to delete anyone's account, I'm here because these conflicts are bad for the health of this community.

We (the Maxcoderz Staff) would like to hear from the community - all of you. What can be done to remedy this situation? How can we ensure that this community of extremely intelligent developers, artists and designers continues to thrive?

I'd like to point out that the Maxcoderz Staff must lead by example - if we are not respectful and mature, then we can hardly expect the members of this forum to be.

Please keep this discussion on topic, mature, and thoughtful.
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Post by Andy_J »

You can start by not locking topics left and right. Yes, some of them are stupid, but it just makes us more angry and likely to post NEW topics about the same thing, or something even more ridiculous.

And following your own rules. Some days ago, I can't find the thread, DarkAuron made a post that went out of the size guildelines set by kv. Someone suggested that staff doesn't have to follow the rules. If that's the case, consider my account dead.
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Post by tr1p1ea »

I am afraid that locking of completely pointless topics will continue. This is only if they are silly topics that dont benefit the forum.

Why is there a sudden NEED for some people to spam on these boards? If you are bored, dont show it here ... please take it elsewhere.

That said such topics are not occuring so often now, it feels like the wave is over.

Jupiter must have been in an alignment with the second astronomical limit between orion and aries or something :).
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Post by hornzfan3211 »

It seems to me that the main reason there was a lot of spamming was because the noobs want to have a lot of posts so they wont look like noobs anymore. Now we also have the rankings back and i think that will cause a new wave of spamming.

I could be wrong but thats the way I see it
Last edited by hornzfan3211 on Fri 03 Jun, 2005 6:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by thecheat »

I hope you're wrong because another spam wave so soon would probably end this forum life.
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Post by Andy_J »

If there's actually half-way intelligent conversation going on (the Is Zelda an RPG thread comes to mind), the thread shouldn't be locked. That's just going to spur a new thread.
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Post by tr1p1ea »

Well, it will usually only be nonesense threads that are locked. I am not responsible for the Zelda RPG thread locking so i cant tell you the motive behind it.

I think that deleting incriminating posts is better than locking a whole thread.
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Post by benryves »

AndySoft wrote:You can start by not locking topics left and right.
This. If a post goes wildly off topic it will die its own death, rather than be nipped in the bud which means that people will then continue that discussion in another thread. The mods are a bit heavy-handed, whereas they should really just be there to keep things ticking over nicely.
Oh, and hide post counts and disable "rankings" else things just turn into a pissing contest for the most posts.
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Post by sic »

It's a line we have to walk carefully, I suppose. The rankings can be good because they encourage activity, but if people are too wrapped up in how many posts they have, then it certainly can degenerate into a "pissing contest".

I understand your complain about having topics locked/deleted. I'm going to talk to the rest of the staff about this and see what we can do - again, this is something that needs to be dealt with carefully. There are times when topics needs to be deleted, but I suspect that too many topics have been locked. But look at it from our point of view: if we see a topic that has gone completely off-topic, or has degenerated into angry, insulting posts (like the zelda thread), it is difficult for us to leave it alone. As moderators, I feel like we have a certain responsibility to keep things going smoothly.

I also understand that DarkAuron broke one of the rules that we set. This is a terrible example for the rest of the board, and I will talk with him about it. Staff most certainly DO have to follow the rules. If you see somebody breaking one, please PM me.
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Post by merthsoft »

I think that even if a thread is off topic, as long as the discussion is positive, it should stay open (like the "Heretic" thread in the Ideas section)...
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Post by pacHa »

benryves wrote:
AndySoft wrote:You can start by not locking topics left and right.
This. If a post goes wildly off topic it will die its own death, rather than be nipped in the bud which means that people will then continue that discussion in another thread. The mods are a bit heavy-handed, whereas they should really just be there to keep things ticking over nicely.
I totally agree.
Oh, and hide post counts and disable "rankings" else things just turn into a pissing contest for the most posts.
Please ! I really think the postcount shouldn't even be recorded somewhere... Actually it triggers stupidpost rushes IMHO.

And about sic's question : I think such a lack of maturity comes from the average age of the frequent visitors. People usually get their first calc quite soon (~14yo I think) and then they come to the forums to get games, try to program and so on. Unfortunately this being directly linked to what the community is based upon - calcs -, there's no real solution, except take the time to explain things quietly and have nice mods.

Just my 2 cents
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Post by hornzfan3211 »

pacHa wrote:
Oh, and hide post counts and disable "rankings" else things just turn into a pissing contest for the most posts.
Please ! I really think the postcount shouldn't even be recorded somewhere... Actually it triggers stupidpost rushes IMHO.
I have to agree with this. When I first joined ticalc.org, I tried to make a lot of reviews so I could be near the top. I soon realized (before I came to maxcoderz) that this was just like spamming and I absolutly despise spamming. The post counts just make people want to post like crazy. I wish those people would realize that the four members of the 1000 post club all have something intellegent to say in every post. They have never been one of the reasons a topic was closed. I wish people would realize this and stop spamming!!!
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Post by Shadow Phoenix »

hide the post counts...please...
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Post by tr1p1ea »

Well i certainly hope that everyone who posts does so for a reason other than to simply increase their post count. Now i know that glancing at my post count i may seem a little hypocritical but i do try to stay relevent to the subject at hand, to offer advice or encouragment etc. Besides i am a staff member and i try to stay as active as possible *hides* :).

It doesnt matter if your post count is 10 or 10000, you should always try to stay relevent.

Also i know that some of you may think that we go overboard with the thread locking. To be honest we are not locking threads "left and right" as some of you have stated. There arent THAT many locked threads ... and most of the locked threads are locked for a just reason imho.

The thing that most of you should realise is that the effects of moderating arent always seen around here. We have deleted a lot of random spam posts that barely any of you would know about. Only last week there was a post in the Metroid forum which called all of MaxCoderz a bunch of $@&*&^!!!. BetaSword also had a miniature nightmare with someone a month or so ago.

Dont be so critical of the staff please guys, we do our best.

EDIT - As far as the post count goes, i dont really mind if it is displayed or not. But i think it would be nice to at least show some kind of ranking so that you know who are veterans, newcomers or not.
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Post by thecheat »

well sending pm's warning them to stop helps a lot. you staff guy do do a great job.
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