# Myths, Respecting Staff and Respectable Forum Conduct



## p1ngpong (Oct 27, 2015)

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.


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## BORTZ (Oct 27, 2015)

I have a few things I would like to add, nothing major, as P1ngpong has already covered most of the bases. The first is about the 3DS section in general. I am growing concerned with the number of entitled members who inhabit the rapidly expanding scene. Its great to see so much attention given to this newly hacked console. A lot of the ideas and homebrew coming from the scene is great, and almost reminds me of the DS homebrew scene, which admittedly, I only caught the later half of, after the R4 became king and ousted linkers for good. The only thing I cant remember from those days is all the hatred. Why there is so much bickering in the development and reception of new homebrew is beyond me, but it needs to stop. A little respect goes a long way. Everyone who makes a post on here, is another human, just like you. Sitting behind a keyboard, with thoughts and feelings.  Please remember that you are using the forums to talk to other people. Real people.  Some of them poured a few hours, or maybe a few days of their free time to bring you a little app the plays gifs on your 3DS. For free.


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## DarkFlare69 (Oct 28, 2015)

p1ngpong said:


> 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.


I admit to reporting Bortz' post 


p1ngpong said:


> the amount of bans happening is actually at an all time low.


It seems like a lot are getting banned/suspended because they posted often. If you ban some guy with 4 posts, no one's gonna notice. But i see a lot of people banned (teampleb, the meistro, djplayer, wateredfire19, and a bunch more)


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## DinohScene (Oct 28, 2015)

DarkFlare69 said:


> It seems like a lot are getting banned/suspended because they posted often. If you ban some guy with 4 posts, no one's gonna notice. But i see a lot of people banned (teampleb, the meistro, djplayer, wateredfire19, and a bunch more)



Spammers can make a lot of "semi-useful" posts in threads which have barely any real contribution to the topic but do add to the discussion.
Some people just reply to every reply and don't know when to stop or when they derail it by taking it to a personal level.


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## p1ngpong (Oct 28, 2015)

DinohScene said:


> Spammers can make a lot of "semi-useful" posts in threads which have barely any real contribution to the topic but do add to the discussion.
> Some people just reply to every reply and don't know when to stop or when they derail it by taking it to a personal level.



Exactly correct, I wonder what recently banned member that statement could apply to?


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## Tom Bombadildo (Oct 31, 2015)

Can we talk about the like spamming that's also been going on for a second? Because it seriously gets annoying to hop onto the Temp once in a while to check on whatever, only to find you have 100 alerts and 90 of them are likes from posts you made years ago. I don't mind getting 5 or 10 every now and again, but to come here and see someone just spamming likes on every single post you make is just getting too ridiculous.

EDIT: And I know you can just disable the alerts, but it's always nice to see when someone likes XYZ content, just not seeing someone like 9999999 of your shit.


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## p1ngpong (Oct 31, 2015)

Tom Bombadildo said:


> Can we talk about the like spamming that's also been going on for a second? Because it seriously gets annoying to hop onto the Temp once in a while to check on whatever, only to find you have 100 alerts and 90 of them are likes from posts you made years ago. I don't mind getting 5 or 10 every now and again, but to come here and see someone just spamming likes on every single post you make is just getting too ridiculous.
> 
> EDIT: And I know you can just disable the alerts, but it's always nice to see when someone likes XYZ content, just not seeing someone like 9999999 of your shit.



If you are referring to Margen67's like spam I have removed his ability to like all posts, status updates and blog entries and suspended him for that trolling too.


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## FireEmblemGuy (Oct 31, 2015)

p1ngpong said:


> If you are referring to Margen67's like spam I have removed his ability to like all posts, status updates and blog entries and suspended him for that trolling too.


I wasn't aware that you could suspend an individual person's right to like things, short of maybe setting up an independent user group for like-spammers. Kudos either way.


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## Tom Bombadildo (Oct 31, 2015)

p1ngpong said:


> If you are referring to Margen67's like spam I have removed his ability to like all posts, status updates and blog entries and suspended him for that trolling too.


Exactly, this is definitely helpful.


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## FAST6191 (Nov 1, 2015)

What others have said, I would have said otherwise had I needed to.

I am curious though. How many of those taking exception have found themselves under three strikes and you are out, or similar clear rules and punishments, type policies in schools, jobs, laws and other such things? I wondered at this as many seem almost patently unfamiliar with the "we do not need bad disruptions" model as seen in good workplaces, educational establishments, friend groups and pubs. If this is so then, if I might impart wisdom to the wisearses, you know that time moving to the new phase of education saw a "shit just got real" moment, in most cases the move to tertiary/college/university? This is pretty similar in scope and applicability to learn it now and spare yourself some aggro later.


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## Margen67 (Nov 2, 2015)

FireEmblemGuy said:


> I wasn't aware that you could suspend an individual person's right to like things, short of maybe setting up an independent user group for like-spammers. Kudos either way.


Given that liking is abusable because you can give alerts to a user by liking their posts, it would be stupid to not be able to revoke liking rights from a user.
And if you couldn't then that would just be bad design.


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## gudenau (Nov 8, 2015)

A while ago I made a thread calling out the mods, but not for being bad at there job; but being better than I would have ever guessed. Once again, the mods do a great job on this site.


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## Black-Ice (Nov 8, 2015)

I used to be the grand king of the Pokefloods

I miss my throne


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## Cyan (Nov 8, 2015)

I feel like I'm not doing a lot of moderation anymore, but that's due to time issue and also to increase in user's post or threads (especially in 3DS sections).
I can't read all the threads and sections anymore. I barely follow what I like and help when I can.
Sorry, I'm giving more work to other staff members.


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## VinsCool (Nov 8, 2015)

Cyan said:


> I feel like I'm not doing a lot of moderation anymore, but that's due to time issue and also to increase in user's post or threads (especially in 3DS sections).
> I can't read all the threads and sections anymore. I barely follow what I like and help when I can.
> Sorry, I'm giving more work to other staff members.


You are still a very helpful member


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## BORTZ (Nov 10, 2015)

Cyan said:


> I feel like I'm not doing a lot of moderation anymore, but that's due to time issue and also to increase in user's post or threads (especially in 3DS sections).
> I can't read all the threads and sections anymore. I barely follow what I like and help when I can.
> Sorry, I'm giving more work to other staff members.


Not really, Minox is taking all the reports


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## loco365 (Nov 19, 2015)

p1ngpong said:


> If you are referring to Margen67's like spam I have removed his ability to like all posts, status updates and blog entries and suspended him for that trolling too.


Wait seriously? I was one of the few people that didn't really mind it. Then again, I don't post all the time so I don't have a bazillion posts that need to be liked lol.

Anyways, I'm surprised you guys actually have to say this. I mean, it's common sense to just not act like a complete idiot. <sarcasm> Oh, wait, this _is_ the internet we're talking about. We do have to keep in mind that there are some people that are just above any and all rules. </sarcasm> The moderation on this site is quick to respond to most reports though, which is nice. It keeps the idiots, spammers, and bots at bay.


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