Quote from: BOZwell, you mix the letters in his name around and you get e-v-i-l

that should have been obvious.  

What? You didn't know Levi's true identity?




Don't let that turtle avatar fool you.

Quote from: FinairaSo how does one actually decide what makes a good ban on free speech in terms of forums?

Number one, you're thinking about it in slightly the wrong way.  You have no guarantee of free speech on any message board.  You are there at the sufferance of the people who run the board -- at least if the people who run the board have any sense whatsoever.

If you talk about the net as a whole, THEN you have total and complete freedom of speech.  You can say anything you want *somewhere*.  You just have to find like-minded degenerates of whatever subgroup(s) you belong to.  

Quote from: FinairaI understand that some people prefer forums that let them say what they want but where is that line?  Most forums that I've ever seen make it pretty damn explicit with what is acceptable and what is considered over the top.  So are the forums not just censoring things before they hit the page by explaining what is and what is not acceptable?

Here, it's pretty easy.  If it's a brand-new account, like Julius Sleazer, we have no problem immediately pulling the trigger and destroying the account immediately.  We have a lot of jokesters who make alt accounts, so there's a good chance that an annoying account is one of the current member's fault, any way.    (JS wasn't, apparently.  Apparently he's one of the mouth-breathers that infests RPGNet.)

If you're an actual existing poster, though, you'll get a warning.  Maybe even two or more warnings, depending on how much you annoy us.  What annoys us?  We'll tell you when it happens.  Long, bitter experience shows that if we spell out what is and isn't acceptable, rules lawyers will debate it and try to use our rules against us.  We are all gamers, after all; rules lawyering is second nature to a lot of us.

So we give rough guidelines -- cuss all you fucking want, bitches.  Fight, but don't go stalking people from thread to thread to attack them.  Have FUN.  If you're not having fun, what's the fucking point?

And if you persist in annoying us, don't be surprised if, when you log on, everything is suddenly in Babelfish-translated Japanese.  :deviousgrin:

Quote from: shooting_diceMeh. The main obligation of an online community is to *be* a functional community.

Amen and Hallelujah!!!!!

I want to be able to get together and talk with some cool people about gaming.  Sure, voices may be raised, punches may be exchanged, I may fuck your wife, but in the end, we're having fun with this.  :bow:

For the record, even though he was apparently posting obscenities directed at me, I had nothing to do with Sleazer being banned. The mods did that; i never complained about him nor asked them to intervene.

I do, fundamentally, agree with Shooting Dice that consistency is the most important aspect of moderation in a forum.  What the modclique at RPG.net isn't wrong because its "too strict", if you want to play it "too strict" that's fine, its not to my tastes but I can understand the motivations for going that way. Its the hypocrisy of the double-standard. That people can say things about a certain group, a certain game, or a certain person and get away with it, while people saying the same things about other groups, games or people will be taken out.  In some cases, even two people saying the same thing about the same object will be treated differently, because one is part of the "clique" and the other isn't.

The RPG.net crew aren't using moderation to try to insure a free and open forum for debate and conversation; they're using it to promote their particular world view, their particular "darling" games, their own little clique's delusions.

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPunditWhat the modclique at RPG.net isn't wrong because its "too strict", if you want to play it "too strict" that's fine, its not to my tastes but I can understand the motivations for going that way. Its the hypocrisy of the double-standard. That people can say things about a certain group, a certain game, or a certain person and get away with it, while people saying the same things about other groups, games or people will be taken out.  In some cases, even two people saying the same thing about the same object will be treated differently, because one is part of the "clique" and the other isn't.

I agree with this.

Quote from: RPGPunditThe RPG.net crew aren't using moderation to try to insure a free and open forum for debate and conversation; they're using it to promote their particular world view, their particular "darling" games, their own little clique's delusions.

I think this misses an important point as to the nature of their "particular world view".

RPGNet is ran as a business interest. Part of the method they use to measure the success of interest is traffic.

"Names", such as GMS, John Wick, basic anyone considered to be a 'real' game designer or insider- attracts traffic. Anything that causes those names not to post there, be it moderation of those names or a lack of action against same is bad for traffic. Thus bad for business.

Any site operating under those conditions will (following good business sense) be hypocritical in their moderation. It is a given.

This is way pre-change in ownership RPGNet was such a open and even handed experience. It had nothing of its own on the line.

Quote from: RPGPunditFor the record, even though he was apparently posting obscenities directed at me, I had nothing to do with Sleazer being banned. The mods did that; i never complained about him nor asked them to intervene.

This much is true. For the record any n00b who comes on the board and uses his first posts to launch vitorolic unfunny attacks on other posters will be banned on site, especially when the only non-attack posts he makes are test posts.

No if the attack is funny to read he may get off with a warning and a jack ass avatar for a week.  We can always use teh funneh round here.  However, that said, it might be safer to say 'Hello. My name is Slim Shady' before doing a lame as impression of his insult skills.

Quote from: GunhildaAnd if you persist in annoying us, don't be surprised if, when you log on, everything is suddenly in Babelfish-translated Japanese.  :deviousgrin:

I am sitting here in awe of the wonders of punishments like this....:heh:  Amusing, effective, and quite magical seeming indeed.(what with my not understanding the advenced tech involved.)

Quote from: gleichmanAny site operating under those conditions will (following good business sense) be hypocritical in their moderation. It is a given.

This is way pre-change in ownership RPGNet was such a open and even handed experience. It had nothing of its own on the line.

Yes, you make a decent point, when it comes down to it, about money being part of the equation. Your examples are pretty dated, however. The darlings there these days are Rebecca Borgstrom and Bruce Baugh.

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPunditYes, you make a decent point, when it comes down to it, about money being part of the equation. Your examples are pretty dated, however. The darlings there these days are Rebecca Borgstrom and Bruce Baugh.

RPGPundit

I'm dated, being there at the start of the conversion but leaving shortly thereafter.

Borgstrom is unknown to me. Baugh however is an old 'friend' and was a pet even back in my day although not a very significant one.

Quote from: RPGPundit...Rebecca Borgstrom...

Isn't she the lunatic woman who works for White Wolf?  The one who's the bane of Exalted rules because she has no fucking grip on reality whatsoever?

Quote from: FinairaSo how does one actually decide what makes a good ban on free speech in terms of forums?  I understand that some people prefer forums that let them say what they want but where is that line?  Most forums that I've ever seen make it pretty damn explicit with what is acceptable and what is considered over the top.  So are the forums not just censoring things before they hit the page by explaining what is and what is not acceptable?


((Btw, Levi, I love you and everything....you're still crazy.))

I got a messageboard from proboards, the messageboard equivalent of hotmail.  My first action as chief mod was to throw out the entire built in censored words list.  So far (in about two years) nobody's done anything that crossed a serious line.  Of course, in that two years, we've only got about twenty members, and hardly an are still active.

Quote from: CyberzombieIsn't she the lunatic woman who works for White Wolf?  The one who's the bane of Exalted rules because she has no fucking grip on reality whatsoever?

You nailed it.

The aforementioned lack of a grip on reality also means that the most pretentious "artiste" faction of the hobby gloms onto her work like dog shit on new loafers.

Well, that and the fact that she's a girl. With a vagina and everything. Amazing!

This hobby is really wretched at times.

Quote from: YamoThe aforementioned lack of a grip on reality also means that the most pretentious "artiste" faction of the hobby gloms onto her work like dog shit on new loafers.

Generally anyone connected with WW is questionable in my eyes.

Anyone have a link to something that shows her in full lunatic mode? I'd like to see and confirm for myself.

Quote from: gleichmanGenerally anyone connected with WW is questionable in my eyes.

Anyone have a link to something that shows her in full lunatic mode? I'd like to see and confirm for myself.

For what it's worth, she's not *really* a lunatic, in the sense that she seems like an awful, crazy person when she posts.

It's more the tone of her work (it's fruitier than a Wiccan faerie vampyre sipping absinthe while browsing the discount cape rack at Hot Topic) combined with the horrid fawning from her creepy fans.

Nobilis, her Exalted stuff or even her fiction blog thingy are good places to sample her style.

I rather like Rebecca.  Sure Nobilis is pretentious as all fuck, but it's supposed to be.  She's one of the funniest people in gaming as well.  Here's a quote from an RPGnet thread about script immunity, with everyone debating if it made for a good game or not if the players knew their characters couldn't die.

Quote from: Rebecca BorgstromI've found that script immunity is a pretty conditional power--- it seems really good at the early levels when you're mostly fighting playwrights and directors, but at later levels when you're dealing with cinematographers and narrativists it's not as useful as immunity to fire.

That said, I think that it's perfectly reasonable to downgrade script immunity to just removing the first 10 points of damage from each dramatic moment. That way you don't have PCs farcically trotting around completely ignoring the scripts that are trying to kill them, while at the same time, in the hands of a really competent director or a mob of individually wimpy thespians, a script is still a lethal weapon.

And then there's this

Quote"Rubber ducky," says Morpheus, "you're the One."