Jeremy wrote:I think people should definitely be allowed to discuss whatever they want. So long as topic names make the topic clear I don't think it's a problem what people discuss.
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That's a ridiculous statement. I have never seen any child porn promoted on modified and I am confident that that will never happen. If it did happen I am equally confident that there would be a large outcry from the members - and even if the moderators did nothing - it would be clear that that person would be attacked (Verbally) and that the forum would be completely opposed to the post and the topic.
Brad seems to think that the members of the forum and either innocent naive and impressionable children or criminally insane psycopathic uncircumsised drug fiend freaks. I think in reality the majority of the members are mature and responsible people and the moderating staff should trust them.
Bradmin wrote:Well, I don't think it should soley be left up to the moderating staff to create those rules. I think Jeremy is right in that we got too far away from the community by doing things that way. I think the moderating staff is really here to fine tune and enforce the rules that the comunity decides on.
But Jeremy, do you think that these community decided rules should remain, in part, unspoken, as is currently the case, or do you think its a good idea for them to mapped out?
If the later, surely it should be the mods who take the first step, otherwise it would be imposible for anything to happen.
I'm not saying mapping some rules out will solve the problem of immature offensive posts - clearly it won't, however I think it will prevent people from being unfairly criticised as mods or unfairly censored as forum users. Or at the very least prevent such occurences from descending into a pointless free for all.
Its a matter of disclosure - I think the mods need to disclose what they deem inapproriate more clearly. I agree that there are mostly mature responsible people posting here, but at the same time i think these people have a right to know what the limits of the forum are - because there clearly are limits and at the moment it seems that these limits are essentially set at the whim of the mods acting as individuals in response to individual posts.
I think they should be mapped out. Actually they are mapped out in the mod forum - some of the other mods (and admins for that matter) just don't follow them.
In case nobody noticed, Sam hasn't afaik posted anything since he left and made these dozen topics about his leaving.
I think too that modified was a much nicer place when I joined. I thought that it was really great that there were over 1,000 users and almost no huge argues and stuff. Was it because there always was someone who knew you/some other one/everyone in real life, so nobody couldn't hide behind the internet status and post all the stupidness?
Are these conflicts just a part of the price that has to be payed for footbag becoming more popular?
These people who post that 'stupidness' around, don't even seem to be that active footbag players...I think.
I think everyone should moderate themselves more and ask themselves the question "is this really worth posting?" in advance. This way there wouldn't be that much crapola floating around and the Kicking Circle would be more funny (like it used to be).
I've been trying to decided if I should post on this topic for days now, partly because my points may not be vaild, and partly because I don't like pissing people off, or talking with pissed off people. I finally decided to post out of frustration, and because I don't think the mods are being represented by anyone else, save for other mods. This may be due to regular modified readers not looking here much, or because they, like me, wanted to stay out of the crossfire.
First, I personaly have not noticed any abuse of power, or even heard of that happening until I read this thread. So is it that I don't pay attention to those kinds of things, or is it that the mods are actually doing thier jobs and only editing the posts that need to be edited? The more I read this thread, the more I realize it's a matter of opinion.
That being said, a lot of people seem to be attacking the moderators, Brad(Splint) in particular. I have to say, becuase this is one of those things that's been bothering me, I think that most of Brad's mod editing in the past has been fine, and more recently the editing seems to be just as good. I've seen some angry/defnesive posts, but that's seperate from the editing he's done. I met Brad at the portland jam last summer, and he seems a little abrupt, but a good person and a great shredder, and as stated before, we are a *small* community, we need to stick together.
The other mods are also great, I've met Emily(Moxie) and she's just as nice in person as she is here (and she's very nice) , and Eric Chan has done wonders for the Trick Tips section (which was quite an admirable accomlishment). Also I've always considered Jeremy's posts to be very reliable and mostly objective, which has lead me to trust the mods in general. All of these mods (including Brad) have made some good descisions and/or changes for modified scince I've joined (roughly two years ago). A lot of this recent "Psyco power trip" mod editing is out of my league, because I personaly haven't had any of my posts edited, but I can see where the anger is coming from.
Normally I don't think that you should make a thread like this if you have a problem with a mod, and that you should talk to them directly via a PM, but due to the the ammount of people that seem dissatisfied with the mod editing, I think that this topic may have been a good idea.
Lastly, the kind of topics that are in the Discussion section can be very offensive, or on the taboo side of normal conversation (such as politics, homosexuality, smoking, drugs, etc.) and I think that the warning at the bottom of the icon should be changed to a more serious one if this turns out to be a problem. I also disagree that there should be an age limit to who can view these topics. I mean, who's first encounter with drugs or homosexualty was after they turned 18? I may just be beating a dead horse now (which is another taboo topic along with skinning cats), so I'll quit now, so not EVERYONE hates me and gets tired of reading usless crap. But all in all, I agree with the ammount of editing done in the footbag section of this footbag forum.
sniikeri wrote:
I think too that modified was a much nicer place when I joined. I thought that it was really great that there were over 1,000 users and almost no huge argues and stuff. Was it because there always was someone who knew you/some other one/everyone in real life, so nobody couldn't hide behind the internet status and post all the stupidness?
It was because we all freestyled and had something in common. Now that people are posting links to this board on myspace, facebook, .org, etc we are getting a lot of circle hackysack hippies in here that none of us know. It just brings the level of discussion down to a very low level.
sniikeri wrote:
I think too that modified was a much nicer place when I joined. I thought that it was really great that there were over 1,000 users and almost no huge argues and stuff. Was it because there always was someone who knew you/some other one/everyone in real life, so nobody couldn't hide behind the internet status and post all the stupidness?
It was because we all freestyled and had something in common. Now that people are posting links to this board on myspace, facebook, .org, etc we are getting a lot of circle hackysack hippies in here that none of us know. It just brings the level of discussion down to a very low level.
Yeah that's what I thought myself.
Okay I've a got a very, very wild idea:
Could modified be turned to an invitational board? You know, like Gmail.
Although this would make it harder for the newbies to start (which I really wouldn't like to see happening) but people could read these forums as guests.
Only the registered (=invited) people could post. The Getting Started -subforum could be still open for everyone.
I am not suggesting this because I'd want modified become more "elitist", nothing like that. I just wish more people would know each other in real life too and not just through internet. This would force people to stand behind their words.
And for starters there's always footbag.org forums. I've heard that they are going to make there some changes, I support that.
I like it, and maybe incorperate that with the IFPA rule changes as well. So like if you register as an IFPA member, you can access the posting parts of the site, and people could read it at all times, just not post unless you got invited.
The only problems I see are, how would people be invited? Would they have to know a freestyler that could vouche for them? Or by posting in the Getting started section, could they gain recognition from a member and then be invited? The only other problem is what happens if one newbie gets invited, then gives his friend the invite, and then that friend gives all his cirlce kicking friends an invite, then all those people give thier drug dealers invites, then all those people give thier buyers invites... and so on?
Half the battle is getting up the courage to start posting on one of these forums. A lot of people start off here posting smack and worthless topics and end up actual shredders. There's a lot of weeding out that's done on modified that really helps footbag grow.
nick_landes wrote:The only problems I see are, how would people be invited? Would they have to know a freestyler that could vouche for them? Or by posting in the Getting started section, could they gain recognition from a member and then be invited?
I don't know how that would really go, but the basis is that you need an invitation from someone who already is a registered user before you can register.
nick_landes wrote:The only other problem is what happens if one newbie gets invited, then gives his friend the invite, and then that friend gives all his cirlce kicking friends an invite, then all those people give thier drug dealers invites, then all those people give thier buyers invites... and so on?
That is possible, but how likely? I mean, as far as I know there's no drugs problem on modified now when everyone can register.
Nagasake wrote:This is a terrible idea.
Half the battle is getting up the courage to start posting on one of these forums. A lot of people start off here posting smack and worthless topics and end up actual shredders. There's a lot of weeding out that's done on modified that really helps footbag grow.
That bolded part goes for "yours truly" as well.
I recognize this problem that the starters would have and I really don't wish that footbag looses any potential 'followers'.
The Getting Started, maybe Trick Tips* too, could still be open for everyone. And everyone could still read all of the other sub-forums too.
I wouldn't realize my idea immediately, I'd wait to see how the footbag.org forums will be after the changes. Footbag.org forums need a better status before my proposal could be realized.
