The Gaming Den

Fbmf closed a thread titled "Thin skinned much?" in IMHO with the explanation "Locked because the OP is sort of a "Threads" post."

What's the rule there? I don't disagree, and I've seen other threads locked for similar reasons, I just can't find the rule it violated.

(by post instead of PM because I hope the answer helps other folks too)

I was also curious about this.

echo

There was an old thread called "Threads that make you laugh, cry, or start cross-board RPG flame wars" or something. It was basically a place where people here would link to really stupid threads from other forums and mock them endlessly.

It caused a lot of problems because people from elsewhere couldn't really handle being mocked somewhere on the internet that they'd never heard of before, and so they would come over with the unstated goal of dropping the general IQ of these boards in the hope of making people here so stupid that we couldn't insult them.

It sort of worked - in that the signal to noise ratio dropped so low with all the newbs' shouting that we started getting irritated at people who linked up because then the swarm of idiocy would begin.

It was determined for the sake of the board and the desire for intelligent commentary that threads like that would be locked and not tolerated.

To the Fence Builder: That really should be put in the CoC, though.

*Note: This post has been brought to you by Snark.

ah, the 4chan problem.

That makes sense. Thanks!

More specifically, a group of select idiots were openly trolling other websites, and then posting the results here. They'd make posts full of nothing but insults without any real information, and then link to it in the thread before anyone had even responded.

DragonChild wrote:More specifically, a group of select idiots were openly trolling other websites, and then posting the results here. They'd make posts full of nothing but insults without any real information, and then link to it in the thread before anyone had even responded.

I've read about this one or two times here, can anyone show me the thread where that happened? Looked into several threads that seemed fitting but no results... or did the whole thing go to the trashcan?

It is trivially easy to find, but seriously - bringing it up again will likely do no good.

If I get into an argument on another website, feel like there's a flaw in the other side's position, but can't find it, is there an acceptable way to ask the Den for advice?

Go ahead and post it. Make it clear you are looking for the flaw in said posters argument and not interested in opinions on said poster.

Game On,
fbmf

I kinda miss the make fun of things elsewhere thread.

I was very much in agreement with the ruling at the time. Because people were using the make fun of things thread as a goon air drop to have people raid some other forum and start posting offensively, or as a place to find such threads and forums to go and join and disrupt, sometimes even openly admitting to "trolling".

That shit really couldn't be allowed to fly.

But really I WANT to be able to point at posts around the Internets. Put them here and have people make fun of them HERE (and NOT in whatever innocent forum or thread they originated from).

Is there some way we can have some strict rules that allow this or is it just un-doable.

Maybe...
1) You may not be part of the thread you are making fun of.
2) You and other TGDMs may not join the thread you are making fun of.
3) You will cut and paste materials from the thread, you will not link to it.
4) Something like that...

I mean I can see where those rules are pretty weak to subversion, but I really don't like that we've lost the ability to point and laugh at ridiculous things on the Internets...

Because people were using the make fun of things thread as a goon air drop to have people raid some other forum and start posting offensively, or as a place to find such threads and forums to go and join and disrupt, sometimes even openly admitting to "trolling".

That shit really couldn't be allowed to fly.

why

PhoneLobster wrote: Maybe...
1) You may not be part of the thread you are making fun of.
2) You and other TGDMs may not join the thread you are making fun of.
3) You will cut and paste materials from the thread, you will not link to it.
4) Something like that...

1 and 2 are pretty much unenforceable. If you wanted to avoid getting caught, you just sign up with a different user name and you have plausible deniability. 3 would work slightly better, but a determined user could just copy-paste the text into Google and search for a direct match very easily.

I think if there's going to be any amount of linking/quoting from other sites, we're going to have to realize that people can join that other forum regardless of if they should or shouldn't. I think fbmf's suggestion is probably the best we're going to get.

They clearly ARE unenforcable. The best we can get is some sort of gentleman's agreement to make fun of things in a civil manner. You know, without a fuckwit like Psychic Robot following links to get his retarded Troll jollies on other forums and ruining it for everyone here by forcing us to ban making fun of threads entirely.

The best we can do is make it clear we don't want to export our local trolls worst behavior and if that fails, and it would likely be fairly clear when it did sock puppets or otherwise (the problematic posters aren't exactly... subtle), well, too bad then Psychic Robot really HAS ruined our ability to make fun of other parts of the Internets in all ways and in all threads forever and ever and ever.

I mean really best thing we can do here is ASK people to behave and see if that works. I would rather like to try because there ARE things I would make fun of out there.

Edit: Three "Best We Can Do"s thats gotta be some kinda record.

I'm gonna say "No" for now, because a gentlemen's agreement to play nice on this forum just wouldn't work, as Psychic Robot was kind enough to let us know above.

Also, I'm afraid it would encourage counter-trolling and/or butt-hurt-edness if it gets out that another message board is being ragged on and banty roosters like Plebe would show up and just create more work from me when our forum started crying "TROLL!"

[/The Great Fence Builder Speaks]

Psychic Robot wrote:

Because people were using the make fun of things thread as a goon air drop to have people raid some other forum and start posting offensively, or as a place to find such threads and forums to go and join and disrupt, sometimes even openly admitting to "trolling".

That shit really couldn't be allowed to fly.

why

You were here when Plebe was here, right? You saw the rampant thread-crapping, right?

Do you not understand why that is a bad thing?

Maybe as a moderator I have a different perspective, or maybe you're a special kind of asshole.

Game On,
fbmf

fbmf wrote: Maybe as a moderator I have a different perspective, or maybe you're a special kind of asshole.

Can it be both?

It's unsurprising that Psychic Robot in particular doesn't understand why threadcrapping is a bad thing, since I recall him *being* one of the people that *did* the threadcrapping that led to the rule being instated.

So, "special kind of asshole"

fbmf wrote:Also, I'm afraid it would encourage counter-trolling and/or butt-hurt-edness if it gets out that another message board is being ragged on and banty roosters like Plebe would show up and just create more work from me when our forum started crying "TROLL!"

But if we let them take our freedoms, the terrorists win.

God damned terrorists.

You were here when Plebe was here, right? You saw the rampant thread-crapping, right?

Do you not understand why that is a bad thing?

Maybe as a moderator I have a different perspective, or maybe you're a special kind of asshole.

yep.

but it's just the internet. personally, i enjoyed plebe's antics.