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Started by Oluseyi Dec 1, 2001 at 2:17 AM 7 replies 800+ views

Original Post

Dec 1, 2001 at 2:17 AM

Dear GDNet Mods, Recently, a significant portion of the forums have been degenerating into flamewars, name-calling contests and meaningless banter. While I accept responsibility for a reasonable portion of that, I can at least claim that mine centered around "issues" and not personality. GameDev is slipping. I would like to propose the following:

Permanent Threads (not fora) that show up in the Forums listing, for topics that rise intermittenly such as "OpenGL vs Direct3D" and "C vs C++ vs Java vs <insert language>". I would then suggest that right after registering every new member be presented with a screen that lists those threads and contains a list to the For Beginners reference section. Feel free to modify as appropriate.
Condensation of related posts and removal of irrelevant ones. Given the amount of traffic that GDNet sees, I really think some form of archival would be healthy in terms of storage. Nevertheless, why not compact all the related posts on the same topics - especially the major bones of contention listed above - into single threads, minus all flames, repetitions, etc etc. This would essentially be a summary of the community's consensus on these issues, and would be closed threads that could not be added to. I realize this is a lot of work and am therefore willing to offer my services (as atonement, perhaps) in reviewing all those threads.
Stricter board rules. While I am aware that GDNet supports Freedom and Liberty and opposes Censoring, I feel that we (collectively) have abused that. Maybe, just for a short while, GDNet needs to institute a civility requirement. In the last couple of weeks I have, for instance, toned down my use of profanity and abuse; I have also tried to respond more eloquently and respectfully (I'm really feeling ashamed, eh?) Perhaps moderators could confer on a "Minimum Level of Decorum" and delete posts that don't meet requirements. Of course, there could be exceptions when the knowledge within a post is truly worthwhile, or where it's a quote... Seeing as this will place an even heavier load on the moderators, perhaps there would be a need to institute ancillary mods? Again, it's up to you.

I started lurking on GameDev nearly two years ago. Sure, there was the occasional outbreak but it was by-and-large a community focused and helpful. In reality, I place the blame for the recent behavior on the continuing exponential growth of interest in making games, but we have to come up with a way to meet that head on - the For Beginners references and forums do a lot, but we need to do a better job directing beginners there. Of course, there will always be outbreaks and people determined to be a nuisance, but I think we'd all rather they were the exception than the rule. Regards, Oluseyi B. Sonaiya [Edit:] Spacing/layout. Edited by - Oluseyi on December 1, 2001 3:18:41 AM

Floppy

Dec 1, 2001 at 2:40 AM

I approve of Oluseyi''s proposal as it does reflect the current state of the GDNet forum community.

The GDNet forums are for educating and assisting others in a civilized manner as well as creating an atmosphere of enjoyment and intelligent discussion while working towards our common developmental goals.

I may not have been with GDNet for as long as Oluseyi, but I firmly believe that his statements are valid as the sincere questions and answers are quickly being turned into "flamewars, name-calling contests and meaningless banter" as Oluseyi so eloquently stated.

Myopic Rhino

Dec 1, 2001 at 3:19 AM

You''re absolutely right; I''ve been thinking that we need to make some changes for a while. More than thinking, actually. Right now, the forum software doesn''t support a lot of the things you''re suggesting, and although it could be modified to do so, it''d take some hacking of code that''s already pretty hacked. But, we''ve already started to work on new forums. Since the changes we''re making will require changes to other areas of the site, it''ll take us a while to finish everything, but when we''re done, GDNet will be a nicer place to be.

terminate

Dec 1, 2001 at 6:15 PM

Also move the Spell Check button, I keep hitting it when I go to post. Also, mabey you could have two moderators for the more popular forums to quickly squish irrelevent/abusive/unappropriate content.

terminate

Dec 1, 2001 at 6:19 PM

Also, make some way to mark messages as read, I am constatly re-reading messages because I forgot I had already read it.

draqza

Dec 10, 2001 at 11:29 AM

Terminate: That''s not a bad idea, but you can kind-of figure it out anyway, with certain threads, since the forums have threads marked as "new posts since your last visit"... then, all you have to do is remember titles. But I guess maybe that was already the big issue, eh?

On the note of extra moderators, I think that, too, would be a good idea. I''d be willing to help with that, too, although should you do it I wouldn''t really be back to normal activity Jan 7 (finals week, and then 3 - 3 1/2 weeks at home on a dialup).

I might also be willing to help Oluseyi with reviewing threads for condensation, although I don''t necessarily agree that condensed threads should be automatically closed--they could be moderated just like any other thread, so assuming you actually keep them attached to the boards, in an archives section or something, rather than just saving the HTML and modifying the links/removing the reply buttons, people could put in their two cents and the moderator(s) of that forum would know to be extra aware of flames that needed to be stamped out.

I forgot to check the date of the last post, so hopefully I''m not jumping in on something that''s already been decided.
--

WNDCLASSEX Reality;
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Reality.lpfnWndProc=ComputerGames;
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RegisterClassEx(&Reality);

Unable to register Reality...what''s wrong?
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Dan Upton
http://0to1.org
http://www20.brinkster.com/draqza

Myopic Rhino

Dec 10, 2001 at 12:37 PM

quote:
Original post by terminate
Also, make some way to mark messages as read, I am constatly re-reading messages because I forgot I had already read it.

I didn''t really catch what you meant the first time I read this, but now that I understand, I have to shoot it down. Do the math: 25,000 users * 75,000 threads. That''s a lot of information to store. I''m not exactly sure how SQL Server stores booleans, but even if it only uses a bit, that''s over 200 MB (and growing rapidly). Nevermind the processing time required to determine whether or not to mark a thread as read. There''s just way too much overhead involved.

Spinal Confusion

Jan 18, 2002 at 7:57 PM

quote:
Original post by Myopic Rhino
I didn''t really catch what you meant the first time I read this, but now that I understand, I have to shoot it down. Do the math: 25,000 users * 75,000 threads. That''s a lot of information to store. I''m not exactly sure how SQL Server stores booleans, but even if it only uses a bit, that''s over 200 MB (and growing rapidly). Nevermind the processing time required to determine whether or not to mark a thread as read. There''s just way too much overhead involved.

You could use cookies to do this. Store the last reply_id an topic_id as a combination and use client side scripting to do the rest.

-Steven

Kylotan

Jan 19, 2002 at 9:41 AM

There is already some sort of tracking to show posts since your last "visit", but it''s never really worked properly

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