On 64D discontent

Posted by kevboh on Dec. 17, 2006, 8:01 p.m.

Lately there has been a lot of blogging about the problems with the community at large. See <a href="http://64digits.com/users/index.php?userid=Arcalyth&cmd=comments&id=11549">this</a> and <a href="http://64digits.com/users/index.php?userid=REZ&cmd=comments&id=11224">this</a>. That's just the stuff I could find in a two-second search, but yeah.

I want to address mainly the people who:

1) complain about new users

2) complain about moderators

3) complain about game acceptance

4) complain

So here is my opinion, mainly in reaction to the comments in arcalyth's blog (first link).

There should be 1 game moderator. Game acceptance should be community based, centered around a vote system and weighed with community participation. That way, standards are incorporated through the common belief, and users are motivated to become active in order to be able to lend a stronger vote towards acceptance. The one game mod only serves to handle users who abuse voting rights or to weed out imitation games.

The same goes for blogs on the front page. Let users gather together to cast some sort of "off the front" vote. If enough vote, it's off. Blogs wouldn't have to be censored at all that way, because if they were short/rant/unwanted, they would be confined to the user page.

Frankly, the main reason that I can see for people's current discontent is that they are not used to the site as a large community, and instead of treating it as such, they just place the blame on arbitrary reasons. If any problems lie in the way the site is moderated, it is a reaction to the way users act. And users, especially new ones, act based on what they perceive to be the norm.

Thus, no one- old users, new users, mods- should have special blogging/commenting privileges. We tend to overlook stupid comments by old members because we perceive it as old hat, but new members see it as how they should comment.

Basically, yes, there are problems in how the site operates on the moderator level. However, these problems are exacerbated by the actions of people who would rather critique the site than lend to it, and these people are pushed to extremism by the very users they influence.

Comments

beam 17 years, 11 months ago

Pacman, exactly. Kafei's games will be on the front page and that's the way it should be. Just because a lot of people don't like him doesn't mean he's hated, he definitely has his fans. However, if the community had a higher game production rate, then you'd have to need to worry because they'd get taken off within a few days because of other games being submitted.

Maxcore 17 years, 11 months ago

You have to realize that the only realistic way to do something is to have fair mods because if you give the users too much power it just becomes a flame war.

kevboh 17 years, 11 months ago

Perhaps.

But fair mods only matter when there are the users to support them.

Jabberwock 17 years, 11 months ago

Quote:
Thus, no one- old users, new users, mods- should have special blogging/commenting privileges. We tend to overlook stupid comments by old members because we perceive it as old hat, but new members see it as how they should comment.

Good point.

MrPacman- I wish you'd stop spewing your moronic crap all over the place. Just because you don't like Kafei, doesn't mean he's hated by everyone.

I disagree about voting on blog entries, though. If you think it should be removed from the front page, just report it, and then a moderator can take a look at it. Then, using their amazing powers of impartiality, they can decide what should be done with it. Which I believe is our current system.

Quote:
But fair mods only matter when there are the users to support them.
Not true. Moderators can do whatever they want regardless of whether people disapprove. And those who are that discontented can just leave.

Maxcore 17 years, 11 months ago

See you just proved his point. And thats the whole point of a moderator is that he does not need users to support him and he can make the best choice for the site as a whole and not as a popularity contest.

Acid 17 years, 11 months ago

I agree with Jabberwock.

I'm not trying to keep us off-topic but Kafei is cool with me…

kevboh 17 years, 11 months ago

Ugh.

Take petty squabbles somewhere else, please. If you don't like a user, well, too bad. Unless they do something legitimately harmful to the site or break ToS, they are equal to you here. Deal with it.

kevboh 17 years, 11 months ago

From the Terms of Service: Privacy policy:

Quote:
64digits.com believes that communities can only truly be built through interaction and participation among community Members based on trust, privacy and freedom of expression.

By that, anyone is allowed to do whatever they want. Their status as "loser" or "senior member" should not and will not determine the range of accessibility or accountability they have with the site.

tylerthemiler 17 years, 11 months ago

64D just can't be the same as it was with this amount of users. However, with the proper amount of moderation, it will still be an amazing community. Although your stated problems do excist, part of the problem is "senior members" want the site to be just as it is, which is impossible with how it flourished. That can be seen in sugestions of giving senior members more power. I totally understand their plight. They have been here for years, and all these new users want an equal share to the site's glory. Its all how you look at it. From a vets standpoint, its not fair for the new users to come in and use the site a little too crazy at times, but one of the main reasons that they sometimes misuse the site is that they "are" new and don't properly understand the rules and etequitte. I think communacation to the new users is critical. I know from expirence. My first (and only current) blog was cut off the frontpage. I just wanted to see if anybody cared to show me where I could find the resorces to learn how to sprint, but it wasn't long enough. I totally understand why it was removed, but I didn't know I was viloating site rules or making vets mad with my blog. A lot of the time, new users don't know how to flow with it. Lets face it, the learning curve for this site is a little steep.

Tyler

Dr_Eechmen 17 years, 11 months ago

Darned nice POV, tyler… and I have to agree with you on what you said.