A Request To The Ns Community
MonsieurEvil
Join Date: 2002-01-22 Member: 4Members, Retired Developer, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
in Off-Topic
<div class="IPBDescription">Everyone was new once</div> Heya NS fans,
Lately, the forums have been getting a little, well, snooty. People have tended to reply a bit more condescendingly, or perhaps treat new players with less respect then they are due. There's also been a tendency to try and moderate threads by people who aren't mods. And there've been too many flamewars, by NS forum standards.
<b>This needs to be stopped pronto.</b>
A lot of effort has been spent in the NS community to keep it very friendly, social, and PG. We want our forums, channels, and servers to be a refuge from the majority of the online world where anarchy reigns, and admins are nowhere to be seen. We can only do this with <b>YOUR</b> help.
In the next few weeks, the countdown to NS 1.1 is going to begin. This means that the publicity campaign is going to swing into high gear. All those screenshots, movies, battlefield stories, and the rest are going to bring a lot of new faces into the NS community. A lot of new faces that are not NS experts, who have not been playing since October 2002, have not been following the mod since July 2001. Basically, a lot of 'newbies'.
<b>These players are what will keep NS alive!</b>
They need to be welcomed, and treated with patience and respect. Again - <i>patience and respect</i>. This means that when someone asks some silly question for the 20th time that day, and you have nothing good to say, <i>then you have no reason to post.</i> First impressions are what counts in the online world, and if the first response someone gets to 'how do I evolve into an Onos?' is 'SUYF read the manual, n00b!' then that player is likely never to ask anything again. You and the NS team cannot afford for this to happen.
So, on behalf of the dev team, the mods, and the ops, I am asking you think before you post that flame. My moderators have also been told that we're tightening up, and they are going to enforce this new mindset with extreme force if necessary. This means you will get a thread lock and a PM if we find you getting out of hand. Then a temp ban. Then you will be gone forever. We don't want to ban anyone, but this is what it will take to maintain the peace and goodwill in here, we will.
That's all. Please make sure your friends and mates read this post (it will be stickied in a while). Ignorance will not be an excuse.
Thanks, and get ready for NS 1.1. It's going to be affecting your grades and work performance sooner than you think! <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->
Lately, the forums have been getting a little, well, snooty. People have tended to reply a bit more condescendingly, or perhaps treat new players with less respect then they are due. There's also been a tendency to try and moderate threads by people who aren't mods. And there've been too many flamewars, by NS forum standards.
<b>This needs to be stopped pronto.</b>
A lot of effort has been spent in the NS community to keep it very friendly, social, and PG. We want our forums, channels, and servers to be a refuge from the majority of the online world where anarchy reigns, and admins are nowhere to be seen. We can only do this with <b>YOUR</b> help.
In the next few weeks, the countdown to NS 1.1 is going to begin. This means that the publicity campaign is going to swing into high gear. All those screenshots, movies, battlefield stories, and the rest are going to bring a lot of new faces into the NS community. A lot of new faces that are not NS experts, who have not been playing since October 2002, have not been following the mod since July 2001. Basically, a lot of 'newbies'.
<b>These players are what will keep NS alive!</b>
They need to be welcomed, and treated with patience and respect. Again - <i>patience and respect</i>. This means that when someone asks some silly question for the 20th time that day, and you have nothing good to say, <i>then you have no reason to post.</i> First impressions are what counts in the online world, and if the first response someone gets to 'how do I evolve into an Onos?' is 'SUYF read the manual, n00b!' then that player is likely never to ask anything again. You and the NS team cannot afford for this to happen.
So, on behalf of the dev team, the mods, and the ops, I am asking you think before you post that flame. My moderators have also been told that we're tightening up, and they are going to enforce this new mindset with extreme force if necessary. This means you will get a thread lock and a PM if we find you getting out of hand. Then a temp ban. Then you will be gone forever. We don't want to ban anyone, but this is what it will take to maintain the peace and goodwill in here, we will.
That's all. Please make sure your friends and mates read this post (it will be stickied in a while). Ignorance will not be an excuse.
Thanks, and get ready for NS 1.1. It's going to be affecting your grades and work performance sooner than you think! <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->
Comments
There are far too many young people on these forums, not just 'new players', and it really does get on my nerves. Not just because they are allowed, but because I don't think anyone should be allowed to use chatrooms/forums until they are at LEAST 15/16. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Until they can act 16 online. There are 20 year olds who have the maturity of toddlers once you put a mouse and a keyboard in their hands.
As soon as the control starts to slip, you start losing the charm the forums once present.
I sadly watched as the Day of Defeat forums turned from an extremely cool place to hang out, to endless flame wars, country bashing and near all-out racism. Thus Curator, Shell-Shock and the other admins have come in cracked down seriously on all the users and now the community that once was kind to each other is now bitter beyond belief. The 95% of the veterans hate admin team, the admin team 'puts up with' the veterans and the community I once knew is just piles and piles of spam.
If you posted a thread over there now, expect very little help and a truckload of sarcasm, snide remarks and the rest. The forums lost it's old skool charm.
As a 2+ year veteran of DoD I can sadly assure you of that....
Once you lose the 'good ol days' where everyone cared for each other, you let loose the dogs of war. As long as the admins keep laying down the smack and the community tries to get along with each other I'm sure it'll be a very long time before I start losing interest in the NS community.
Why <i>YES</i>, I <i>AM</i> a hypocrite.
The key thing is respect - none of us, from the guy who just downloaded the mod after seeing it on PHL, to the handful of fans who have been around for two years, really deserve more respect than anyone else.
However.. the new people to the community are just that, new. They're not exactly going to be as familiar with the atmosphere that should be maintained in the community, so they have a bit more leeway when it comes down to things. Whereas one would certainly expect anyone who has been around for quite some time to be able to demonstrate a decent amount of respect to anyone.
Part of the consequences of knowledge is that you need to help others understand your knowledge rather than use as a tool of superiority.
Rawr.
They refuse to ask/take help from the "veterans" and that's **** people off.
So newbies get hated by everyone <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
On that note I am quite happy to hand out bans as equally as respect on irc, which you receive depends on how you behave <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->
I'm more of a nice compassionate guy, take a second to defend these people in a thread, or to kindly point out a mistake and tell them that its not a big deal, but some people on the forums will make a big deal out of it, or something to that degree. It really snuffs out any downers fire since you've made it a dead topic.
;)
Friendly, but evil admins help a great deal, especially if they have the "evil" presence.
For example, on forumA:
"oo looks its admin01! lets just flame cos he doesnt care, he wont ban me cos i done tnothign haw haw!"
forumB:
"Ooo now admin02 is online, i think i'll hide so he doesn't think about banning me for kinda insulting that newbie earlier."
A very good example of how this is done is the Homeworld Relic forums (I'll post a link here if anyone wants it). - Which has been goign since late 1999, and is still a friendly place. INTELLIGENT(sp?) discussions regularly take place, flaming as a whole is shunned out of the forums beyond recognition - if you flame even once, you get a nasty warning from afformatentioned "Evil" admin, and it will have been written personally by him, which adds to its potency.
In short, flaming should be shunned beyond all recognition. For example, anyone who posts saying "OMg n00b, use the search function" and only that should have that post deleted and be warned harshly by the admins of the forum. If he/she does it again, temp ban. Again and permanent ban.
^^ my opinion
Greatest. Line. EVAARR!!! <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
Good post guys, I'm pretty happy about all the positive feedback so far.
Next time someone calls you that Pie, just tell them "I know you are poo poo head!"
Agreed.
<!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
As long as the newer people come in here and respect everyone equally im fine. I only "flame" someone when they say something totally uncalled for or, if they are "Flaming" other people with their own misinformation. IMHO, i beleive that the NS forums are perfect as they can be right now. As long as you dont go into the suggestions forum....then your fine <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
I hope we will do fine.
oh and btw just watched the HL2 video for the gizilanth time and want to say WOW again just for the sake of saying WOW. <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->
I say we merge the newbie forum and the S&I forum, and rename it to ""elite" town" newbies will be attracted to this forum, Lining them up for fast and vicious flaming!
*cough* I agree there is too much newbie-bashing going around. your postcount means nothing <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
[edit] lol leet speak translator .... |20x [/edit]
Totally agree
Making a mistake. Fine.
Speaking your mind in a respecful manner. Fine.
Blotting out text and editing away is almost as bad as an admin who bans someone for being new.
(Braces for incomming mod wrath)
Bleh I felt I needed to say it, whatever. <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif'><!--endemo-->
Anyway my take on it is this. You really shouldn't be here unless your 17. According to the ESRB anyway. This is a Half-Life related board, as it is a mod. WHERE ARE THE PARENTS? <!--emo&:angry:--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/mad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='mad.gif'><!--endemo-->
I just hate the newbies who won't listen to what anyone else says.
Heck, i've started doing micro-flames of the "vet's" now. because Newbies are no fun. I don't know them enough to make fun of them.
Like Burr, who really should stop drinking. Or Venmoch, with his tentacles. or Geminosity, with it's sexual ambiguity.