I’m not sure this is true. Things feel mellow to me now compared to before.
Lot’s of people don’t like the way @Scoots_Choco posts. He’s direct and concise. But does anyone remember our old friend Kaarous Aldurald? He was articulate in his destruction like an executioner dragging out a kill to demonstrate just how good he is at it. And he just had posts deleted.
The old forums, like the old game, was much more HTFU or GTFO as i remember.
On the topic at hand; ISD have always allowed ‘edge cases’ and that goes back to before i was a frequenter of the forums with the venerable ISD Ezwal at the helm. ‘Edge cases’ is in fact a term he used a lot. And I’m glad that they do because it allows us freedom and leads to consequences that makes eve so great.
Like a child learning that the kettle is hot, someone making a bad post gets burned and learns a lesson. That’s not a bad thing to me. It’s also more common that the original poster of an idea become hostile to criticism than the other way round. Like the thread that inspired this one. And if we just silence them immediately it stops the idea dead in it’s tracks instead of allowing any kind of back and forth, any growth or refinement of the idea.
For example, in the following thread I’m callled ‘aggressive’, ‘troll-toxic’, I’m insulting etc but everyone in that thread is working towards a better game depite the ‘mud flinging’ and by the end of it I’d say it was productive thread.
If we just closed the thread or banned me for calling him greedy or people for calling me a troll, i think that thread and the forums in general would be lesser for it.
Regarding ‘eve isn’t for you’ posts. They are mostly correct. The vast majority of these posts are directed at people looking for something that fundamentally isn’t eve. They want complete ganking removed, to have a structure without wardecs, or their own deadspace pocket to play alone in. If i go to the WoW forums and demand they introduce non-consensual pvp so i can gank other players and take their stuff, the regulars would be perfectly justified by replying:
‘eve is that way---->’
Another reason for allowing edge cases is the way people dance on the line of what’s acceptable. You can personally attack someone or insult their idea without spelling out an actual attack. You can also goad someone like this into making a personal attack with the intent of getting them banned. And for that reason I’m glad ISD’s get to use their judgement rather than a hard and fast rule of what’s ok and what’s not ok. When someone responds in kind to Scoots, i don’t think they deserve a ban. And i think the ISD’s would think scoots is enough of a big boy to take it. If it gets out of hand the ISD’s can then step in as they see fit.
And that brings me to my ultimate point i guess. I think since it’s the ISD’s that are responsible for cleaning up our crap, it’s up to them (and CCP) to set the tone of the forums. If they said they were sick and tired of having to constantly moderate, clean up and that they wanted to make it more PC (for lack of a better term) or they thought the tone of the forums was detrimental to the experience as a whole, then they can make that happen and I’d of course follow suit. But if they are happy how things are, happy with how the forums reflect the nature of the game, why change it?
Contrary to some, i think we do more good than harm here.