It's quite simple, really. If you don't want to read n00bspeak, don't go into the support forum. If you want to be useful, tell the poster to improve their English in exchange for help.

EDIT: I don't suppose the mods/admins can make the support forum button point to a page telling you to search first before posting?

This is why you make a rules post and sticky it in the forum so that they look at it. If they don't then they obviously don't care. Be descriptive with the rules as you want them to be with their posts. Simple.

IRC much? Daman and Demetrius, two enormous flamers and trolls in IRC who likely would have been banned ages ago in many other communities, are still around. And whenever a responsible person gets mod powers and bans them, somebody else with higher powers demods the mod and then unbans the aforementioned offenders. It's a mesmerizingly stupid dance that I've seen played out countless times on IRC, and I don't go there anymore because of the abuse that I - as well as other respectable community members - suffer at the hands of these ever-present trolls.

I've often wondered if this moderation mentality spills over into the forums. But, I haven't really seen too awfully many threads degenerate into a trolling massacre on Mod Making, Mod Releases, Scene Releases, or even General. Usually if a thread derails into a flaming mess, there's some other reason for it, like the opening post being... silly. Or a mod being released that obviously has no thought or effort behind it. Maybe it happens in General Chat more, I don't know, I don't go there.

THOR, while I appreciate your sentiment and am also annoyed by people who seem to see no reason to be legible on the internet, I propose an amendment to your own proposition. Perhaps instead of not responding at all, we should agree that ONE person should respond by telling them that they need to re-write their post legibly before they get answered, and THEN don't respond further until they do so. Otherwise, the poster will have no idea as to why they aren't getting a response. Remember, if they're not smart enough to post in a comprehensible fashion, then they probably aren't smart enough to realize right away that people might not be too keen on that. They need to be told. Now, if they still don't change, then we can just report them, or completely ignore them, or do whatever we see fit.

Does this sound like a good compromise to all of the above arguments?

Exactly. Whereas ♥♥♥♥ like this: viewtopic.php?p=244545#p244545 is not helping anyone.

Rather than gambling and hoping we get a good moderator team, we should make a "test" of some sort.
As in, selecting a few capable people to become moderators for a day or two, make a topic that's already derailed from the OP, and stage a massave flame war. And we will see how they will react to the thread. Rather than picking the uncapable vetrans/cool people to do the job.

Except the people you just insulted happen to be the mods right now. And Data doesn't really check in here that often to appoint new ones.

heh, tim, i thought you were linking my post for a second there. almost raised an eyebrow *chuckle*
i agree with darlos. also, if this "proposition" becomes a rule, it should be added to the rules so that the near illiterate still have some warning.

I think this is a good Idea. It's a bit like Facepunches Smartness system, like if you use lol, omg or retarded speak like that, it would take smartness of you.

There's a problem with that, though. We don't want to be Facepunch.

thank you for recognizing a good point...


♥♥♥♥. really, who likes the way facepunch is? sure it's an interesting place but even if you deal with it the harshness is pretty grating after a while.

Honestly, I'm just glad this topic is being discussed. You might not like my idea, you might love my idea, or you might want to make some revisions--that's fine.

I'm just trying to introduce some dialogue to the community. It's been awhile since the community has had any input into the management and style of the forums. At a minimum, I was hoping it would be a forum, so to speak, for people to voice their opinions on the topic.

I think people have made some pretty good addendums and amendments to my suggestion, and that properly incorporating such amendments could result in a good forum policy. I'm not going to either advocate or criticize anyone's responses or suggestions (at pain of being considered in capable of taking criticism myself). The staff should take the original post into consideration, and then additionally consider the suggestions the community has made.

I don't think that is a bad way to govern this community.

Love me or hate me, I think we all can agree the topic needed to be discussed. I'm not trying to advocate backseat moderating, or some kind of lame "user revolt." I'm just asking, as a member, that the community try to help the overburdened staff by attempting some community policing of topics--be it the Support forum, mod making, or general. Each user can help out in their own way,

Anyway, like I said, I'm just glad it's being discussed in the open. =]

personally i think after what you did ♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥ over and deleting a bunch of ♥♥♥♥ not much of what you say is to be taken seriously anymore. it was really childish.

That could be abused.
I mean, you could screw up something and get the post rated to like, -900, even though it's good overall.
That's FP's feature. We shouldn't try to rip them off.

I just want to ask, who are all the people who were moderators/administrators over the whole course of DRLFF, and did how well did they do?
My memory about old DRLFF is fuzzy.

oh come on neoseeker, now you're being childish. THOR has learned from his [epic] mistake, apparently, and the community is in one piece again, so let it slide, or at least dont bring it up every third disgruntled post. hes being mature, lets all follow his lead, shall we?

I love how when all arguments fail, people turn to the "lol thor deeleted" point. Seriously Neoseeker, ♥♥♥♥ petty. Thats old news now, get with the times.