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When did Wowhead General become such a horrible forum?
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Post by
Seventy9
Seriously, when did it start? And why?
I started using Wowhead shortly after it came out as an alternative to Thott-(Hunter Weapon)-bot. Back then it was a nice place, with helpful people commenting on quests and items etc, rating down bad comments so we didn't have to wade through pages of "hunter weapon" comments and the such to find relevant information.. This hasn't changed too much, and is still a great feature.
Then the forums came along. It too started off as a nice place, but lately seems to have descended into a place controlled by a few users who think they are demi-gods and seem to disagree with every man and his dog wanting to make a post unless it complies with their strict view on what should and shouldn't be posted on Wowhead General.
Now don't get me wrong, in the other sub-forums, you should only post relevant posts to that forum, however a general forum is just that, general. Since when is it not allowed to make a post telling people of your experiences? Since when is it not allowed to try and discuss with like-minded people the game in which you come to this website for?
Forum: an online discussion site
General: applying to all or most members of a category or group, not specialized or limited to one class of things
I see nothing there which could mean that the general forum on Wowhead should not be used for discussing WoW, and anything related to it.
So, to all the people posting replies like "cool story bro", "this is not your personal blog" and "twitter that way -->", please read the forum rules where it states: Spamming and trolling will not be tolerated. This includes abuse of CAPS, excessive/repetitive/cross posting, quote pyramids, completely useless posts, ASCII, circumventing locked topics, bumping, demanding class "nerfs", first *nd *rd *th, IBTL,
cool story bro/umad/(similar memes)
, etc. In other words,
you
are the ones breaking the rules.
/dons flame proof jacket and awaits "cool story bro" reply, or other useless responses.
Post by
Azrile
You are correct, while the comment sections contained on the majority of the site are still great and full of useful information, the forums are generally not as well 'moderated'.
The only names I really know from this forum are people that do nothing but troll nearly every thread, or else start threads for the sole purpose of trolling.
One other aspect that happens with a 'general' forum is that it gets filled up with lazy questions from people who don't want to use the database portion of the website to find the answer themselves.
Post by
Smaragd
As long as I can remember, this forum has been ridden by people repeating 4chan memes and discussion tendencies. It's not something new, although I won't say I've been active on these forums since they were first implemented (I only used the database before I registered).
Whether the rules should be reinforced or not is, as on most forums, highly dependant on the moderator's own discretion. The rules are guidelines, and while people should generally follow them, context is the most important thing. There are terrible threads and attitudes that may deserve to get bashed, but the mods are here to keep things from getting out of hand. Replies like "First!" are very good examples of how the situation, or context, might play a role in whether it's spam or not. Moderator decides. The point is to not have mindless trends just for the sake of having trends, which is indeed spam.
Post by
2259
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Matosawitko
This forum is
WoW
General. There's a forum for WoW Help, which is where a lot of the stuff from this forum really ought to be. There's a forum for site feedback. There's a forum for Off-Topic. Stuff that's about Wowhead should go in the site feedback forum. Other stuff that's not related to WoW or Wowhead should go in off-topic. Narrowly defined, topics in General should only go there if they
are
WoW-related but are not covered by any of the more specific fora.
If it's your intention to cause people to reconsider their lives, good luck with that - despite valiant efforts by various groups over the past several thousand years, there's been little sustained success on that front.
If you're just adding more noise to what you already admit is a noisy forum, congratulations.
Post by
Gnub
First of all - good post. This is exactly the type of thread that belongs on a forum - how ironic it may seem. :P
Since when is it not allowed to make a post telling people of your experiences? Since when is it not allowed to try and discuss with like-minded people the game in which you come to this website for?
Like it was stated below, the Forum Rules are - for the most part - guidelines, as it's hard to decide a thread like a binary. However, the case you're speaking of, is when a a thread doesn't promote discussion as is merely made to "tell a story". What most people posting these forgets, is that's normally incredibly easy to make a good story into a good discussion topic. When this doesn't happen, it turns into what people talk of: a blog post, where further replies only really serve the purpose of commenting to what the OP wrote... sadly, that's when things gets out of control most of the times.
You are correct, while the comment sections contained on the majority of the site are still great and full of useful information, the forums are generally not as well 'moderated'.
This is, excuse me for saying, partly the users faults as well. We moderators can't see everything happening, unless we actively read every single post of the forum - which naturally is bordering impossible and/or super-human. We're highly dependent on your reports to track down the stuff that makes the forum (and comments too) a negative place for the others. Keep reporting folks, it actually helps.
One other aspect that happens with a 'general' forum is that it gets filled up with lazy questions from people who don't want to use the database portion of the website to find the answer themselves.
That is unfortunately hard to do anything about, and I know why people gets tired of seeing these posts all the time. The big difference here lies in how you react to it, even though you're incredibly annoyed, but sadly it's an evil circle that the good old saying "Give a man a fish, and he's fed for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he's fed for a lifetime" applies more than you can imagine.
Post by
Varicelle
What i find a tad irritating are the strings of useless / pointless comments cluttering Wowhead's database.
You can find pointless conversations and predictions taking place in the comments section of items that are *not even in the game yet*
Wowhead database used to be a neat and tidy place where important information prevailed, now you have to fight your way to it, distributing -1's as you go.
Sorry if my english is shaky and / or doesn't make sense, but i just wish people would refrain from "this dropped for me yesterday" and "i solo'ed it with 3 friends" type of comments ...
Post by
Seventy9
One other aspect that happens with a 'general' forum is that it gets filled up with lazy questions from people who don't want to use the database portion of the website to find the answer themselves.
I understand that happens a lot, not only on this forum. But on other forums, it's usually courteous to welcome and help new members, not belittle, berate and otherwise bash them at every given opportunity.
This forum is
WoW
General. There's a forum for WoW Help, which is where a lot of the stuff from this forum really ought to be. There's a forum for site feedback. There's a forum for Off-Topic. Stuff that's about Wowhead should go in the site feedback forum. Other stuff that's not related to WoW or Wowhead should go in off-topic. Narrowly defined, topics in General should only go there if they
are
WoW-related but are not covered by any of the more specific fora.
Agreed, but instead of replying with hate, which is what most people do, making this sub-forum a little less hospitable, why not help show the newcomers what a nice community this is and point them in the right direction? If you don't have the patience to do that, then don't reply (BTW, that's not aimed at you).
If it's your intention to cause people to reconsider their lives, good luck with that - despite valiant efforts by various groups over the past several thousand years, there's been little sustained success on that front.
If you're just adding more noise to what you already admit is a noisy forum, congratulations.
I would hardly call asking people to be a bit more polite on a forum asking them to reconsider their lives? Unless they are that negative in real life, in which case, there would be no helping them. My post was not to add to the "unnecessary" posts on here, I am just airing my thoughts and trying to find out why people are so negative.
Since when is it not allowed to make a post telling people of your experiences? Since when is it not allowed to try and discuss with like-minded people the game in which you come to this website for?
Like it was stated below, the Forum Rules are - for the most part - guidelines, as it's hard to decide a thread like a binary. However, the case you're speaking of, is when a a thread doesn't promote discussion as is merely made to "tell a story". What most people posting these forgets, is that's normally incredibly easy to make a good story into a good discussion topic. When this doesn't happen, it turns into what people talk of: a blog post, where further replies only really serve the purpose of commenting to what the OP wrote... sadly, that's when things gets out of control most of the times.
That is exactly my point though, and what I cannot understand. Arguements on forums are inevitable, thanks to
internet anonymity
(NSFW), but a heated debate is another league from flaming someone just for getting something wrong, be that posting in the wrong sub-forum or not using correct spelling and grammar.
One other aspect that happens with a 'general' forum is that it gets filled up with lazy questions from people who don't want to use the database portion of the website to find the answer themselves.
That is unfortunately hard to do anything about, and I know why people gets tired of seeing these posts all the time. The big difference here lies in how you react to it, even though you're incredibly annoyed, but sadly it's an evil circle that the good old saying "Give a man a fish, and he's fed for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he's fed for a lifetime" applies more than you can imagine.
Pretty much exactly what I said. Shame there's no real way to moderate it.
Post by
90137
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
93865
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Azazel
See the guy above me? He's like Wikipedia. Full of useful information and words you can have nightmares trying to understand as a non-native English speaker. Except Wikipedia isn't an a**.
If I had to point at someone ruining the General forums, he would be my first thought.
Post by
93865
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
581897
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
pezz
One other aspect that happens with a 'general' forum is that it gets filled up with lazy questions from people who don't want to use the database portion of the website to find the answer themselves.
That is unfortunately hard to do anything about, and I know why people gets tired of seeing these posts all the time. The big difference here lies in how you react to it, even though you're incredibly annoyed, but sadly it's an evil circle that the good old saying "Give a man a fish, and he's fed for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he's fed for a lifetime" applies more than you can imagine.
Lock those threads. Be polite, explain why you're locking them, but lock them.
Hell, give one regular in each class forum moderator power in that specific class forum. It's not like 'Read before posting' fails are that hard to spot and deal with. It's 0 extra work for the full mod crew and it removes a lot of the rage potential. Do that, and maybe instead of the Warlock FAQ being deleted, because the creator of it rightly saw it had become pointless, you cut out all the drama before it starts.
See the guy above me? He's like Wikipedia. Full of useful information and words you can have nightmares trying to understand as a non-native English speaker. Except Wikipedia isn't an a**.
If I had to point at someone ruining the General forums, he would be my first thought.
I'd point to the vitriolic reaction that erupts whenever Aetsu clears his throat, personally.
Also: OP, I have more posts than you. You are wrong.
Post by
173035
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
YesterdaysHero
Seriously, when did it start? And why?
There's a simple equation for most of your answers regarding the internet and forums in general. It's satire at it's heart, but also completely 100% true.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/3/19/
I notice that the trolling as to do with inane threads. Something that can be found out without creating a useless thread, as the answer is attained by using the search field. When that's not used, as per human nature, the OP is normally pounced on given a thorough boot stomping.
For nearly any other instance, refer the linked equation.
Best explanation I can give.
Post by
pezz
Without intending to patronize you, I honestly don't agree. It's simply not that hard to read all posts and threads if you can read at a decent pace, nor does it require more than perhaps 15-30m a day to do so. But then again, I can read exceptionally fast.
Question, Gnub, what's your day job?
Except you'd have to spend 15 mins every 2-3 hours reading to properly keep up with new threads and lock them before they become flame fests. I imagine all the moderators here have things to do during the day and check wowhead in the evening, at which point the disaster threads are already several pages long. I don't know about your boss Aetsu (if you even have one, you come across as someone who doesn't like working for others), but mine would definitely be very unhappy if he found me checking wowhead at work :S
Split up the forums between mods. One guy checks professions/pvp once a day, and theorycrafting once a month (lol at that board, seriously.) Another two mods keep up with WoW general, adopt my idea earlier in this thread and leave the class forums well enough alone, not that hard.
See the guy above me? He's like Wikipedia. Full of useful information and words you can have nightmares trying to understand as a non-native English speaker.
My English is at a level equivalent to native, and I don't know half the words he uses. My best guess is he's either a linguistics professor/student or spends a lot of time checking the synonyms section of dictionary.com to make himself sound superior. Don't worry about it ;)
Really? He's never used a word I haven't read. I've really never felt like his posts were purposefully overly complicated linguistically.
Post by
93865
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Azazel
See the guy above me? He's like Wikipedia. Full of useful information and words you can have nightmares trying to understand as a non-native English speaker.
My English is at a level equivalent to native, and I don't know half the words he uses. My best guess is he's either a linguistics professor/student or spends a lot of time checking the synonyms section of dictionary.com to make himself sound superior. Don't worry about it ;)
Really? He's never used a word I haven't read. I've really never felt like his posts were purposefully overly complicated linguistically.
You live in an overeducated (imo) country like Germany? =P
`stu-ie,
If one person says something? Meh, it's not worth giving weight to. Everyone's got an opinion on something, and we all know what they say about opinions.
Two people say the same thing? Possibly means something, then, but again it's only a couple people, so whatever.
When dozens of people say the same thing? Pay attention, there's probably something to it.
BTW: He's not wrong about you.
There's a word for this. It's called groupthink. In essence, you're advocating demagoguery.
The majority can be wrong. Sometimes one man really does have the right answer. The world at large isn't the high school quad and reality isn't determined by consensus.
Implied in your viewpoint is that attempting to figure out the truth of things for oneself is an exercise in futility because no one individual or opinion can ever be right about anything.
Dodge
Post by
278980
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
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