After speaking to some staff on IRC last night and after seeing this thread and another one in the EOF I felt it would be appropriate if a senior member of staff made a post addressing some concerns from both the staff and members.
Firstly there seems to be a couple of myths circulating around that are contradictory to each other and which are simply not true. Depending on who you speak to and which posts you read around the forum you will either think that the staff do not moderate and warn enough, or that we are currently in a moderation and banning spree. Neither is in fact true, the staff as they usually do are acting appropriately to the amount of traffic and rule breaking that is going on at the moment. I see a lot of this hysteria about the amount of moderation coming from the newer members who are unfamiliar with the lulls and peak periods a forum such as this can experience. At the moment we are at a peak period of activity with lots of new registrations and lots of inexperienced people posting which always leads to more moderation simply because more new people equals more offtopic and inappropriate posts. If you are a member that has been around here for a length of time you would understand why this is happening, the 3DS hacking scene is at an all time high with lots of developments so of course you would see this "pokeflood" type phenomenon of increased member activity and moderation in kind.
So just to sum things up there is no under or over moderation going on here at the moment, we are just responding appropriately to increased activity and a flood of new members. Threads are being closed, posts are being deleted and people are being warned in the normal way. We are just in a busy period right now and someone who joined in 2014/2015 might interpret what they are seeing right now as abnormal when it really is not.
There is also a myth that has been circulating that there has been an increase in the amount of people being banned here recently. Once again speaking as the person who does the majority of the bans here I can tell you this is completely false, considering the amount of new members and increase in activity we have been seeing here lately the amount of bans happening is actually at an all time low.
Secondly I and a couple of other staff have noticed what could be described as a decline in forum etiquette and conduct from the newer members, this same 2014/2015 crowd. Now please understand I am not lumping all of you guys together so please do not take offence if you joined in 2014/2015 and have never done anything wrong. At the same time if you have misbehaved or been moderated recently I am not throwing you under the bus either but some of what we are seeing lately is definitely of some concern.
The first issue we have noticed is a profound increase in off topic (shit)posting that seems to be a trend lately. People seemingly posting just for the sake of it with trash replies and jokes that again leads to an increase in moderating and a perception by some that the forum is going down hill when it is not. This kind of reminds me of a fad that we encountered in around 2012 of people posting dumb gifs all over the place as replies that was equally as annoying. All I will ask regarding that is please think before you post and if you have nothing to add to a conversation do not add to it.
The second issue is a lack of respect towards other forum members being shown lately, new people in particular. To those who have been around here for a longer period of time you will know that with a "pokeflood" period with an influx of new members we will see an increase in n00by posts and threads being made by people. All I would ask is people show patience as we were all new once and 3DS hacking can be a daunting thing to the inexperienced and just report any useless threads and posts you may see. The way not to handle things properly is for 15 people to jump on a new person calling him a n00b and telling him to read stickies etc, you are just increasing a mods workload and not helping anyone by acting that way.
The third issue is a lack of respect and misunderstanding towards the staff that has become more prevalent over the past year or two that is a bit of a worry. People are quick to call out mods in both threads and PM, being obnoxious towards them and outright rude, telling us to fuck off, calling us idiots and so on just for doing our jobs. I definitely think that the more inexperienced people just don't get the logic and template behind how we run the site and what intentions we have when we do certain things. For example a long time member will see us closing a thread and know it is to keep things focused and in order, while someone newer will see that and instantly think "censorship" and will be quick to make a thread or send a PM calling us Nazis or worse and just generally completely over reacting to what we did.
All I will say in regards to how we run the site is that it is pretty much the same way we have run it for over a decade. Again new people may not appreciate that GBAtemp is in internet terms a very ancient site, we have been around forever and are still thriving because of the way we do things when many other sites have come and gone. This is a case of you trying to teach a grandmother to suck eggs when you are trying to tell our staff how to run the site. Not that member feedback isn't welcome, and of course none of us are perfect either but please before you criticize us for simply doing our jobs please give us the benefit of the doubt.
Anyway I just wanted to get a few of my thoughts regarding what I have been seeing lately off of my chest, I am sure other staff and members will add theirs too into the mix. I hope at least this post helps clear up and put at ease some peoples concerns and maybe helps people be more considerate about how they act around here in the future.
Firstly there seems to be a couple of myths circulating around that are contradictory to each other and which are simply not true. Depending on who you speak to and which posts you read around the forum you will either think that the staff do not moderate and warn enough, or that we are currently in a moderation and banning spree. Neither is in fact true, the staff as they usually do are acting appropriately to the amount of traffic and rule breaking that is going on at the moment. I see a lot of this hysteria about the amount of moderation coming from the newer members who are unfamiliar with the lulls and peak periods a forum such as this can experience. At the moment we are at a peak period of activity with lots of new registrations and lots of inexperienced people posting which always leads to more moderation simply because more new people equals more offtopic and inappropriate posts. If you are a member that has been around here for a length of time you would understand why this is happening, the 3DS hacking scene is at an all time high with lots of developments so of course you would see this "pokeflood" type phenomenon of increased member activity and moderation in kind.
So just to sum things up there is no under or over moderation going on here at the moment, we are just responding appropriately to increased activity and a flood of new members. Threads are being closed, posts are being deleted and people are being warned in the normal way. We are just in a busy period right now and someone who joined in 2014/2015 might interpret what they are seeing right now as abnormal when it really is not.
There is also a myth that has been circulating that there has been an increase in the amount of people being banned here recently. Once again speaking as the person who does the majority of the bans here I can tell you this is completely false, considering the amount of new members and increase in activity we have been seeing here lately the amount of bans happening is actually at an all time low.
Secondly I and a couple of other staff have noticed what could be described as a decline in forum etiquette and conduct from the newer members, this same 2014/2015 crowd. Now please understand I am not lumping all of you guys together so please do not take offence if you joined in 2014/2015 and have never done anything wrong. At the same time if you have misbehaved or been moderated recently I am not throwing you under the bus either but some of what we are seeing lately is definitely of some concern.
The first issue we have noticed is a profound increase in off topic (shit)posting that seems to be a trend lately. People seemingly posting just for the sake of it with trash replies and jokes that again leads to an increase in moderating and a perception by some that the forum is going down hill when it is not. This kind of reminds me of a fad that we encountered in around 2012 of people posting dumb gifs all over the place as replies that was equally as annoying. All I will ask regarding that is please think before you post and if you have nothing to add to a conversation do not add to it.
The second issue is a lack of respect towards other forum members being shown lately, new people in particular. To those who have been around here for a longer period of time you will know that with a "pokeflood" period with an influx of new members we will see an increase in n00by posts and threads being made by people. All I would ask is people show patience as we were all new once and 3DS hacking can be a daunting thing to the inexperienced and just report any useless threads and posts you may see. The way not to handle things properly is for 15 people to jump on a new person calling him a n00b and telling him to read stickies etc, you are just increasing a mods workload and not helping anyone by acting that way.
The third issue is a lack of respect and misunderstanding towards the staff that has become more prevalent over the past year or two that is a bit of a worry. People are quick to call out mods in both threads and PM, being obnoxious towards them and outright rude, telling us to fuck off, calling us idiots and so on just for doing our jobs. I definitely think that the more inexperienced people just don't get the logic and template behind how we run the site and what intentions we have when we do certain things. For example a long time member will see us closing a thread and know it is to keep things focused and in order, while someone newer will see that and instantly think "censorship" and will be quick to make a thread or send a PM calling us Nazis or worse and just generally completely over reacting to what we did.
All I will say in regards to how we run the site is that it is pretty much the same way we have run it for over a decade. Again new people may not appreciate that GBAtemp is in internet terms a very ancient site, we have been around forever and are still thriving because of the way we do things when many other sites have come and gone. This is a case of you trying to teach a grandmother to suck eggs when you are trying to tell our staff how to run the site. Not that member feedback isn't welcome, and of course none of us are perfect either but please before you criticize us for simply doing our jobs please give us the benefit of the doubt.
Anyway I just wanted to get a few of my thoughts regarding what I have been seeing lately off of my chest, I am sure other staff and members will add theirs too into the mix. I hope at least this post helps clear up and put at ease some peoples concerns and maybe helps people be more considerate about how they act around here in the future.
