The forum rules.

[egor66]

The new rules are a step forwards in most ways but there are a couple of issues & holes in these that I am sure we all see, in the past FTB forums has been a very very interesting place to hang out & view the days hot topic, most of the time it was just one mod that has been hogging the limelight & the debates the flowed were at times very very heated but & this is a big but, the forumers have for the most part policed them selves (our selves) & only when some one has been more or less hell bent on closing a topic or just gone off the deep end has the topic closed & been replaced by a new one of the same type, this I beleave has been a good thing for FTB it showed that the forums have been a place that moded MC issues can be hashed out & even if there is no clear right or wrong answer it gives us the users a better understanding of the issues, its way to easy to have a blinkered view of any situation with out dialog from both side.

Now I find my self in a position that if I air my views to strongly or fall for the odd flame baiting I will most likely be banned, I am one of the people that if this rule was in effect 5 months ago would have been banned out of hand for my comments to a fellow forumer that I found abrasive & later apologized to with out reserve for my actions, if I had been banned I would not have had the chance to apologize, we are all mere humans after all & make mistakes, the undertone of the new rules is a little draconian & is more like what a lot of the f2p/game manufactures forums have become, IE if the forums have only flattering or nice friendly topics it gives the impression of a great/friendly/flowers & kittens forum no matter what the real situation is, not near that bad yet but heading in that direction, this stifles any meaningful debate from the get-go, lets face it 90% of the topics regarding 3 or so mods would not have lasted more than a page on near all of the other moded MC related forums, the first rule of fight club.....

The new rules can from what I see be easily manipulated to get a topic closed just as or more easily than pre-new rules, I can think of at least 2 ways to circumvent these rules off the top of my head & am 100% sure I am not alone, time will tell if this works out, I feel a little saddened by the new rules & there wording & how it pertains to the future, plus the new staff are going to have there work cut out policing the forums, again gz to the new staff.

Anywhoo just getting that off my chest.

 

[namiasdf]

If a heated discussion can maintain a level of logic and decency, there shouldn't be any problem with it. I have yet to come across an actual flame war ITF (in this forum). For the most part I feel like the posters here are a majority of mature people. I am not really sure what the new rules are, but if they prevent any heated discussion from occurring, what is the point of this forum? Pretty soon all the intelligent people will leave because their ideas cannot be expressed freely, unless we are turning this into a censorship. Perhaps FTB has secret plans to make billions and they want to start filtering their image for the masses.

Aside from the obvious joke, I hope this forum will continue to thrive. It is a great resource for me to find the knowledge I am looking for. Things like improving the performance of the game, to clearing confusion with any of the lesser-known obscure mods, I have found this forum to be of great importance in my FTB progression.

I know of much worse forums, trust me.

 

[Omicron]

I'm not sure which rule you are referring to. Looking at the rules page, a thread can be closed if people are disrespectful (i.e. verbally attacking each other instead of discussing the topic) or if the thread promotes offensive content (racism etc). Both definitions are pretty clear-cut. If you write a long, well-thought out post and end it with "and that's why you're wrong, you f***tard", then you're over the line and deserve moderation. No matter how well-thought out your post is.

(Don't laugh, I've seen exactly this happen on another forum, and the person in question proceeded to meltdown in a new thread filled with anti-moderation rage and got themselves permabanned. Nobody missed them.)

Besides: no social circle works without rules. IRL, rules are often implicit, and people avoid putting themselves in shameful situations. But on the internet, this theory applies universally. Thus rules need to be made explicit. As long as you keep calm and carry on being a normal, civil person, this has no effect on you. If you legitimately have to worry that the new rules do affect you, then you probably showed a kind of behavior in the past that would have been unacceptable IRL. Thankfully, realization is the first step towards betterment!

A wonderful example of the impact of moderation could be seen during the whole Greg vs. mDiyo fiasco. During the scant 24 hours this was a problem, a good number of FTB forum users made new accounts on the IC2 forums and flamed their hearts out in a downright disgusting manner, all the way to spreading nazi ideologies. These same people also participated in discussions here on the forums, and while they still were heated, it didn't degenerate to anywhere near the level seen in Greg's thread. Why? Because the FTB forum has an active moderation force that enforces the rules, and the IC2 forum doesn't. That's the reality of the internet.

By the way, F2P game forums are not all flowers and kittens. Much to the contrary, due to eliminating the barrier of entry especially for younger gamers, those forums tend to be the biggest and most wretched hives of scum and villainy on the face of the 'net. I could link you examples, but they would be even more offensive than the link I inlcuded above.

 

[Jadedcat]

I believe the op may be referring to the new rule found here . If in fact you do think we are stopping ALL heated conversations you might want to re-read post 2 of that thread. Heated debates are fine. Name-calling and bullying are not. And while yes that could be abused if the average poster was allowed to moderate threads , we have a team of moderators and experienced Global Moderators to oversee the forums. If in fact your conversational technique does tend towards "f*&^ you , you stupid c&*^, you must be retarded" etc then yes you will run afoul of this rule. If however your conversation just ocaisionally gets heated, the most you have to worry about is one of us removing any name-calling/insults from a mostly well thought out post.

Also its very rare anyone gets banned outright. We give warning points. You just cant see which posts we gave points for unless you are the one that got the warning. Unless you are posting porn, racism or homophobic content you aren't just suddenly going to be banned.

In otherwords, stop being so paranoid. Calm down and carry on with polite discussions of potentially opposing viewpoints.

 

[namiasdf]

Since when was porn.... ugh what...

I don't like this forum no more.