This thread worth locking?Follow

http://ffxiv.zam.com/forum.html?game=268&mid=127680305395012826&page=1

Seems to have devolved into an argument over PC specs between TheBSTguy and Aurelius.

Edited, Jul 12th 2010 3:27pm by Darqflame Lock Thread:

If it makes any difference, I'm largely done with TheBSTGuy. It was a case of someone ranting and fussing and ******** in every thread involving XIV hardware requirements that he posted in and I got tired of it. Given that he lost his Scholar status overnight when I wasn't even around, I'd hazard a guess I wasn't the only one who found his diatribe irritating. And the same thing is starting to spill over in another thread. Someone wants to buy a piece of crap for a game that isn't going to run well on a piece of crap and when I (politely and without flaming or delicious dramatic goodness) point out that it's probably not worth it, they emoplode.

If you don't like people being crybabies about things, speak up. The only reason they carry on as long as they do is because I'm the only one speaking out against it while you guys all sit around and watch and then cry about the state of the forums. Do your part to encourage a higher level of post quality and you won't have butthurt nutmonkeys carrying on for days because they take silence to mean support while they get all emo and angsty with me. It's your community, too...if you want improvement, get involved. Don't sit on the sidelines and then lament the state of the boards when you opted to simply do nothing. Kaolian showed up for a few days and everyone calmed down a bit, and I've been doing my best to keep things as neutral and non-offensive as possible but one butthurt person leaves (or gets bant) and another one steps in to take their place.

Considering that the discussion in the thread later turned to the productive exchange of information when TheBSTGuy wasn't around I think that locking it would have been a mistake. Debates happen. Sometimes they get heated. Now that he's had a day to let the nonsense sink in he's actually asking me for advice on whether or not it would be worth upgrading his GPU. He's stopped ******** about his scores and condemning SE and all that other nonsense and he's getting into the solution. And in turn, I'm surpressing the urge to make smug remarks about his previous ******** comments about my future and apparent financial irresponsibility and I just spent 10 minutes poking around to try and find a reasonably accurate answer to his inquiry.

Contribute. That's all I'm saying. You dont' really contribute much. You're just as guilty of making snide comments in the past as anyone else and in terms of what you actually bring to the table in terms of discussion, it's next to nothing. So why SHOULD you be asking for anything to be locked? Everything worked out for the best and if you (as a non-contributor) had gotten your way, that couldn't have happened.

Most forums that have more than 3 posts/day are like that. As far as the speculation goes, sometimes it really is just fun speculation. Sometimes the speculation truly is stupid. Sometimes I think people confuse speculation for something other than what it is. Speculation is supposed to be a prediction based on available information. When the available information is ignored, it's not speculation...it's more daydreaming than anything else and as I know full well, heaven forbid you should show up and point to the information that renders the "speculation" moot. As one person with an opinion, I'm more interested in quality information. Sometimes it's hard to find and/or discuss that information when it's drowned out by...stuff. And I'm trying to be nice by labeling it "stuff".

It's more the tone people use when informing someone that their speculation is moot (or whatever).







I know I'm being polar, and most posts aren't like that, but even with a more mellow version of the goofus post, when I see enough of it, I tune out.

To be fair, I see a lot of that too, even when people politely and rationally explaining it to them.

/ 'emoploded' made me spit my drink.

It's not everyone, and I don't even mind it when it happens from time to time. Hell, I don't mind snark when it's done out of humor. It's the whole 'I know more than you about something, therefor you are a piece of garbage' mentality that shows up way too often.

What does? People overacting to mistakes and dumb questions by treating people like total cretins?

I just think a friendly environment would be better in the long run. Yeah, point out mistakes, but be civil about it. I like zam, and I want it to be my primary source for forum type interactions. That won't be the case if so many people get scared/pissed off that there are only 30 regulars.

Hi, you must be new to the internet : )

Just messing around. I agree with you, of course. And I try to do my part in the FFXIV forum in my own way. It's just that I'm not surprised that things devolve into flaming with relative frequency. Frankly, that's what I'm used to around here...and it used to be far worse, in my recollection. I may be a bit more cynical, but that doesn't mean I don't try to encourage positive change.



I pretty much agree. Like I said, I haven't been by forum=10 in years. I wouldn't even know who in the FFXIV forum is from the XI forum, either.

I don't agree with Aurelius' policy on dumb questions...we had a thread in there recently where I asserted that the best course of action is to point someone in the direction of the proper info source, and leave them on their way. There's also a tendency for people to rate-down anything they disagree with (but I highly doubt that's limited to the XIV forum).

But I chalk most of the negative stuff up to the fact that the game still hasn't come out yet. I think once it's been released people will be occupied with sorting out game things, so it'll be more cooperative.

I think that if you looked closely over the history of the forums, speculation and daydreaming are rarely met with hostility. If anything, it's the speculators/daydreamers that get hostile when they're confronted with the facts. It typically goes downhill from there. Some people are happy to just show up and shoot the **** and chat about this or that regardless of whether or not there's any substance to the discussion. Not everyone is like that. Sometimes people just want the information and if the information isn't clear they want to see the details hashed out until it either becomes clear or it becomes apparent that it's not going to be clear any time soon. Quite frequently, the "speculation" drowns out those kinds of discussions. I get labeled things like "opinion ****" because I'm frequently one of the first people to show up to a thread and point to the facts which really throws a wrench into the gears of people who would have otherwise had brilliant ideas except for all those pesky details getting in the way.

And sadly, that's going to ocntinue until the community as a whole ups their standards. It's one thing to point out the issues that may or may not be having a negative impact on the forums. It's something else entirely to get involved and try to create improvement. And relative to this thread in particular, simply locking threads because things are going a little sideways doesn't help with that. As Lubriderm pointed out...when the threads are simply locked or nuked, nothing gets resolved and the shenanigans just spill out elsewhere. And that's basically why I'm saying get involved. If someone emoplodes all over the place for no reason, having a half dozen people point out that they're going overboard is a lot better than having one person (typically me) beating them about the head and chest with sarcastic reason until they finally get so fed up they just lurk and karma camp me ;D

Lemurs are the vessels of world peace. True story.

I learned something today! And that's great, 'cause KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!!


::leaps into the air with one hand raised::

::freeze frame::