Quality of Discussions (STFU Mentality)

[Amity and Truth]

I consider this thread more of a question than a suggestion or a rant. Over a period of time a part of the GWGuru Community has developed into a rather aggresive crowd.


This crowd has a few key features:

• If something doesn't meet their opinion, they basically tell the other side to:
  "stop bitching", "stop whining", "go play WoW", "STFU" or "stop complaining"
  
• Add in insults to mock the other opinion. For example:
  "Learn to play", "Moron", "Retard", "Noob", "Idiot" etc
  
• They encourage each other to reach new heights of bashing the other side of the coin. It's not enough to disagree, it's most important for them to smash their "opponent". Popular variants include:
  "qft" - if someone has just flamed someone else into the ground
  "pwned"
  
• They provide zero arguments
  
• They block every suggestion with a "Not signed" and an insult
  
• Their posts are kept very short, an aimed shot into a barrel of oil. So to speak. Often, they don't consist of more than an insult towards another person.

These people have lead to a general decline in the quality of the discussions on GWGuru (Note, this is just my opinion) and bombard a lot of threads. The encouragement between them leads to a downward spiral which basically spiked to new depths with the release of Nightfall. From my point of view, they do not contribute to any discussions. They do not give any new insight, no new point of view. They however try to "bash" others.

My question is, how is GWGurus Stance on this? Is this behavior tolerated, encouraged or not allowed? If it is not allowed, would it be a good idea to report these posts (though they're plenty, especially currently)?

P.S.:
Once again, just my opinion and a question for i don't know the answer.

[Inde]

Oh we've had this discussion before... I'll try to find the link to it. For a quick summary, it's the entire community. Not just GWG. We do what we can, but it's a fine line until people start to cry that we are fanboi's, that we censor, that our mods close threads that aren't to their liking, and the rest you can imagine. I'll see if I can find that link.

[Lasareth]

Additionally, I'd like to mention that we don't stop modding just because people whine about our modding practices. Whether or not people think that we're catering to Anet is none of my concern, personally, and I think a large number of the other mods agree that those types of accusations have little to no effect on our overall management.

Amity, what you're referring to is flaming and/or trolling and is for the most part deletable (report the posts and we'll do our best to get to them). The best way to handle it, though, is just to ignore the trolls. They'll eventually go away if they realize there's nothing around for them to incite.

[beanerman_99]

I have noticed a larger number of banned people. Is this because of these types of negative posts or is it un-related?

[Lasareth]

It's always a mix of multiple things, including board rule infringements, sell forum violations, adbots, and (this one is a good way to get banned permanently) creating additional accounts to evade bans.

I think we're averaging our normal number.

[unienaule]

To what Las said about how we don't care what people think, I'd like to say that I always tell new mods that if you get a few PMs about how "you're a nazi," "teh rulz are g4y," "why u deltet my post joo hav no lif3" etc, that's not bad, it means you're doing your job right.

Also, if you're noticing more bannings, well, with Nightfall out, there are also more users. The percentage is probably still the same though.

[Malice Black]

What you are after will never happen, everyone formulates their opinion in different ways, some people use insults, some write essays that say next to nothing and others just like to argue. Being on a forum you are going to have to learn to deal with people as they come.

[Sid Soggybottom]

I think one of the main contributing factors to the "STFU mentality" is because often times people will complain and complain over and over about the same subject. And anyone seeing these complaints over and over again is bound to think "STFU already" There must have been over a dozen different threads about the A.I. these past couple of weeks.

I'm not condoning anyone just telling anyone to shut up without any sort of civil discussion but I can understand it. I can also understand letting people vent their frustrations but you also have to see that it's also frustrating to others who see the same freaking complaint threads pop up. Makes me want to say "STFU!"

[Makkert]

To stop this, the suggestion that was made on #gwg IRC regarding registering requirements by certain tests should be implemented .

[Not A Fifty Five]

heh, what an I.Q. test needing 20 to pass? I think it'd be pretty effective

[Malice Black]

Originally Posted by Makkert

To stop this, the suggestion that was made on #gwg IRC regarding registering requirements by certain tests should be implemented .

Nooo! I'd rather deal with the STFU people then the supposed intellects who write an essay every time they respond to a simple question.

[Not A Fifty Five]

you mean the people that show every retarded error that retards make in an attempt to piss of the original poster by posting meaningless stfu crap and brainless counters? I prefer those actually.

[Sid Soggybottom]

And then there are people who complain about the quality of discussions only to dismiss anyone who has a differing opinion as a "troll" Quite hyprocritical behaviour I say.

[Enchanted Warrior]

Message boards are infamous for such trolls. They live online and want to hassle everyone they can. In rl they are softspoken and/or feel dejected and pushed around by life. Here they can push back.

[Kuldebar Valiturus]

Actually, it's all the former WoW players that are now playing Guild Wars.

I came over from WoW myself last month, and they have some mean forums on Blizzard's website, I can tell ya.

Anyway, forums are mostly made up of people that like to argue/debate. Some appear to be tightly wound and others just beginning to use four letter words.

And some are normal, like me!

The forums are fine, really, there's actual discussions going on here. It's amazing.

So lern2play, nubs.

[Thallandor]

This thread cracks me up. Maybe the OP means something like this:

Forum PvP (Poster vs Poster) FTW!!!111

[Contempt]

Because it's a game forum... What do you expect, honesty? If you wanted some real discussion, why are you on a forum like this?

People just don't care and they really shouldn't. People generally play games to relax/forget about anything meaningful. When you begin to take stock in everything around you, you'll soon loose sight of what's actually important.

Things that aren't important:

Guildwars
Gwguru
everything else on the internet

So either accept that people will never invest time and effort into things they really don't care much about, such as their posts on a forum like this, or find a real discussion forum.

[Kuldebar Valiturus]

Jaded?

Why even get up in the morning? Life is full of unimportant things, and it's a safe bet that a hundred years from now it won't amount to much, but guess wha? That's not important.

What's important is knowing what matters, because knowing what matters is important.

And, last time I checked, people are important.

Behind every keyboard is a real person, software doesn't change that.

Guild Wars or a softball game. Guild Wars or a night out at the bar; it's all about people.

People are important.

It just doesn't make them perfect.

[Yanman.be]

I'm guilty.

[tomcruisejr]

quality of replies depends on the quality of original post.