DRLFF.

I come to you with an interesting proposition.

Users both old and new have seen how our fair forum is being bombarded with posts and threads such as this one.

This is not a new phenomenon. It is merely an infestation that has increased its infectiousness.

Now I know a lot of you do not like me, but what I propose is simple:

If you see a thread like this, do not post in it. Do not ask the OP questions about his problem; Do not insult him or make fun of him. Do not communicate with them--at all.

The problem, at its root, is that we have a community that encourages such nonsense. We see a poor luser, incapable of digging themselves out of a relatively shallow hole and we jump to their aid.

To that, I say no more, DRLites. We should stop encouraging this nonsense. And so now, I petition to all of the advanced users, the spriters, the coders, the moderators: Do not let this pass. The best way to remove this infestation is to force it to change--to force it to change for the better.

If someone's post is illegible because of poor typing, or poor English--say nothing! If the user opts not to make a decent attempt at communicating their message or problem, do not try to help them!

If we stay the course on this new bearing, the solution will have solved itself. We will develop a userbase that is capable of solving its own problems, and we will develop a support forum with easy-to-browse, easy-to-search questions and answers.

Think: It is easy for one modder to tell the OP in the aforementioned post how to solve his problem--but suppose his problem is a simple one? His thread is poorly titled, and his query is indecipherable. If someone has this same problem, we will be forced to answer it ad nauseum! If we force the user to restructure his query, we make it easier to solve his problem, and we make it easier for future users to solve their problems!

Just imagine, a day where users actually use the search function!

Insert your commentary here.

Regards,
Eric

Addendum: It has come to my attention that some users think that this is me telling people to stop helping everyone! This is plainly not true. I have already outlined to you at least one post that is worthy of ignoring.

But there are plenty that are deserving! This thread is a fine example of a well-worded communication. This is a user who took the time to articulate their problem and deserves the priority of the DRL community's support.

Edit: As this thread and discussion has evolved, the community has included valid, useful insight to expand this original idea. Please do not consider this edict to be the final word in the matter. It is just how I felt, when I wrote it, a successful program could be created. At this point, I concur (as does a portion of the community) that this original concept needs revision. I am not supporting or discouraging any specific addendum the community has provided, but I am acknowledging that the proposition in its original form is flawed. That is why I brought the idea up to the community as a whole--to discuss the best course of action.

I want to take the time in this edit to thank those members that have taken the time to provide helpful, meaningful dialogue in hopes of bettering the community of a game and product they enjoy. I always want to take the time to say that if you aren't going to contribute positively towards the discussion, your responses will be promptly snipped from the thread. If you're going to post saying OMG THOR THIS IS SUCH A BAD IDEA, please read through the commentary first.

Wow.

I think we all should boycott this thread. No one respond after this post.

If you are an advanced CC user, you should ignore this thread until the OP reformats his post and tries not to organize a hivemind to ruin our already spoiled attitude towards newbies, can't you see his obvious ruse?

We can also just better ourselves and help people instead of proving we're total badasses by being total clowns towards them, if the post is illegible just ask for a better description, usually if you approach these users nicely they will respond nicely, too, and they will feel more comfortably. Then your expectations will be lived up to magically by itself.

That's your decision, although I am curious to hear why you are so against this idea, comrade.

Because this elitist attitude towards people that are possibly not linguistically educated is completely unnecesary.

Its not targeted at the uneducated. Refer to the first post I linked. The user in question is perfectly capable of communicating normally--they just chose not to. For example:

---


He is obviously capable of communicating. He even admitted the communication problem was the result of rage. His other posts are completely coherent. He's obviously not illiterate, so your argument in this instant is moot.

Force the user to communicate properly to get their problem solved, and things get better. Like I said--I dont think we should not help people. I think we should just try to help people in more than one way. You have a good point, but I'm trying to give people the benefit of the doubt that they are capable of communicating.

Some people are not native speakers of English. I am aware of this, as is everyone else. Grenade, being of East European decent, has improved his English skills as a result of us forcing him to rephrase his questioning. Not only is that good for us, but its good for him.

You're misinterpreting a genuine attempt to help at elitism.

This is why we warn and possibly ban people for making terrible posts when we see them?

That's not the right solution to the problem. You of all people know how that backfires. This is an alternative to expelling them from the community.

Ban people all you want, they can still come back all they like.

Currently, whenever I get a message from somebody asking me to deal with low quality posts, I will add a warning and contact the user. There are 2 or 3 users on here that have much improved since then.
I agree with increasing post quality, but it's not something that can be easily enforced. Usually, though, contacting the person will help, and if doesn't, we can deal with it.
As Cortex Command nears completion, it's likely that a forum cleanup and possibly complete restart will occur, and this kind of thing will definitely be considered.

I have lol'd . This sounds like revolution . In one hand ODIN is right . Some stupid post like this V Are anoying . Well i think , that ODIN is completely right .

On the second hand we can hurt our forum fellows . Some of them are really retard and they need our help . I will help a person only if person's post have at least 60% of infomation about crash .

I think it's a good idea, but I think you have to face the fact Odin that some people just aren't mature enough to do this. They can't stop themselves from attacking the person making the silly thread, but I like the idea of boycotting silly threads. People just don't know how to do it is all.

Hello, everyone.

My name, is Falcon X. And I approve this thread.

Sincerely, Falcon X.

Then you use the moderating staff to police those people. The people who are bad at communicating shouldn't be the focus of the moderating staff. Let the community help them.

The moderating staff is the group responsible for dealing with said immature people. Besides, this thread is less about people getting trolled and flamed and more about the actual helpers not helping.

Who cares if some thread serves as a honeypot for a troll. If the troll wants to waste their time in a dumb thread, let them. Keeps them out of the rest of the board until they get banned.

On the other hand, the goal of this is to convince the helpful members (and they know who they are) to stop aiding the people who make dumb "Help!" threads. Once you remove the source of their solutions, they will be forced to change.

1. If you don't want to bother yourself about poor English, stop reading the support forum.
2. Positive reinforcement works better than negative reinforcement.

I propose a similar solution, except with the emphasis on improving the poster rather than boycotting him. If a user posts an illegible post, one poster, ONE, should post something to the effect of "Please rephrase, can't understand what you mean". After that posters should stay away until the OP figures out how to say what he wants to say.

Then do that. The real point I'm trying to drive home is that we need to be proactive about dealing with community problems--which we are not.

Send the user a PM. And don't restrict it to one user. The more people that let him know, the more he knows its unacceptable.

I think this a great idea! This greatly hinges on having a vigilant, active moderation staff however. While I love every single one of you guys, including the moderators, they really aren't on the forum as often as I would like and several flamey threads go about their business for awhile before being locked.

If we don't have a moderator there to watch these threads and respond to the flamey/misguided OP with a quick and helpful PM the OP will surely go around and continue being an idiot/misguided individual. This can work, but it absolutely needs moderators who will respond to users who have lost their way with helpful and kindly worded PMs.