I'm not going to tell you to not do it.

I'm simply going to suggest that it is a horrible idea and that it may stop many people from posting.

Of course, I'm not going to tell you that.

I will.

It's a bad idea and splits the forums unnecessarily. I won't stop posting but it will make Massassi less of an enjoyable place. I enjoyed the switch from inanity to serious discussion from thread to thread. Now it'll just become a borefest of serious religious/politicial discussion on one hand, and a cesspit of 4chan and SA crap on the other hand. You just effectively destroyed the continuity of the forums.

This is a silly and patronising idea. We can separate nonsense from actual discussion with our brains.

Joker says: " WHY SO SERIOUS? "

There's nothing patronizing about it?

It's not about you being capable of separating serious from non-serious. It's about alleviating a concern that serious threads cannot take place because of the overly-silly atmosphere in the discussion forum.

Edit: as well as allowing a more open, free environment for more silly threads.

It cracks me up that Matty keeps telling us our opinions are wrong.

It's more like I don't need to be hassled over a decision that has been made, will not be reversed, and isn't up for discussion. Some people seem to think that they're welcome to tell me what to do, far after the topic had been closed.



Not all share your view, and it works on the other side as well.



Talking about an open ended test? That's great. Suggesting that I'm proposing this idea, with the goal of alleviating a feeling of insecurity and cutting down dissidents? That's a totally different ballgame.

You assumed a situation, imposed it on me, ignored any possibility that this was to benefit the community, not to harm it, and best of all suggested that because this community is small that we should not enforce many rules.





Do you really think your sarcastic attitude is going to help your argument whatsoever? All it does is make me care even less about your opinion over the situation. You by far are the most offensive out of the group posting on this thread, and it's childish.

You speak of earning respect? If you truly believe that, then play by your own rules or don't suggest them at all.

Nary a word you have posted on this thread has been constructive nor civil. Frankly, it seems apparent to me that you harbor resentment over the Steven situation still and are using this as a way to come at me.

agreed...

Also, you people suck. we're just trying something out for fun. Its not like theres much else going on here.

To be honest, I can't see it being used much. The totally non-serious threads generally turn up in waves, and we'll have enough time without any that are particularly amazing, only to have seventeen on the first page that everyone loves for a fortnight before reverting back.

I think we'll all just eventually forget it exists, like most of the other forums on this site.

A concern voiced by whom exactly? We have serious discussions, like the fascinating one about Prop 8 that turned into a theological discussion. It was spliced with occasional silliness, but that doesn't mean we're incapable of maintaining an intellectual conversation.

A discussion forum contains discussions, and any discussion in real-life will have elements serious debate and elements of banter. Any sensible person can handle this. The assumption that we can't, and that we're all children that need to told how to 'play nice', is very patronising indeed.

Every individual here is silly, and intelligent, simultaneously. Every thread reflects this. That is what makes this forum relaxed, close-knit and interesting. Separating the forums will just make this place boring.

I'm not going to point fingers, if the person wants to come forward that's fine. It's not like they were alone in that concern.



That same explanation could be used for any and all rules we have.



That's fine if you believe that. Some of us do not. If it fails, and dies, then I won't have any problem merging it right back into the discussion forum.

I think you have to accept the massassi community for what it is. And when you post no matter how serious or un-serious your intentions might be the responses will cover the entire spectrum.

I don't think this will need to be tested for very long. Based on the replies of non massassi "staff", it has already failed.

I'm not sure if you noticed, but you never cared about what any of us said - you still don't, civil or not. Why should I bother trying to convince you, when you completely disregard or attempt to refute everything we say? I gave up on trying to be civil with you, now I am content just making jokes.

One thing I have learned from Massassi is that the most vocal of our visitors are not always the most prevalent. I'll be giving it till at least Friday.

I don't harbor much resentment over Steven being banned - he's a jackass for sure. I do have issues with why it was done. He did plenty of stupid things worth being banned over, but that wasn't one of them. What he got banned for was something he said to you, in a PM, that affected no one but you. He made you mad, so you banned him for it. It had nothing to do with anyone's mom, and everything to do with him pissing you off in a private and personal way. So you responded in the most immature way possible - flexing your muscles.

So you're suggesting that I would just ignore it? Pretend he didn't say anything? That's such a fantastic solution!

It had nothing to do with flexing muscles, and you know it. If he had sent that PM to another one of my staff members instead of me, I would have still banned him. You're using the "flexing muscles" as an excuse.

Imagine if you were a teacher in school and some kid comes up to you after class, after threatening him with detention for misbehavior. And he just says straight to your face, "**** you". What would you, as a teacher, do? Wave at him and tell him to have a nice day? Pretend it never happened? Absolutely not.

I may regret some things I have done, but that situation is not one of them.

man if i had a nickel for each time someone complained about a ban, id have a decent sum of money!

...Except you're not a teacher, and we're not children. The more you treat us like it, the more we will just **** off and this dwindling community will dwindle into obscurity.

So what would be your response to the situation? I'd love to hear it. No really, good luck.

You're an adult. If someone tells you to **** off, you ignore it and get on with your life. Your job is to moderate the forums, and if he was being a cock on the forums then ban away. If he was just being a cock just to you, then do precisely what us mere mortals would have to do and ignore it. You're not some all-mightly parent figure to a bunch of unruly children that must demand respect.

No, sorry, that doesn't work. I knew you'd try to go this route.

See, if you allow crap like that to go on, for people to back talk you on an administrative decision, they will think that they can just get away with whatever they want. I've seen it happen time and time again, not just here, but other places too.

This has nothing to do with age, but instead a sense of maturity. If he can't accept the fact that he was in the wrong, and finds the need to attack me for doing so, then he needs to be banned. It's a sociological truth.

Could I have ignored it and let him be? Absolutely. But that would have only led to more problems down the line. You don't resolve situations by ignoring people. Certainly not as staff.

Seems it's being discussed anyway.


Which I still think is true. This forum is largely frequented by adults. Everybody knows everybody else, for the most part. It's not a forum of thousands where users can be a dick to someone and then just fade back into obscurity.

The Dinosaur Comics forum is significantly bigger than Massassi at this point, and (while the fact that DDC tends to appeal to people's better sides and that hipsters and artists tend to be less vicious than Star Wars nerds does probably help here) the forum is almost completely unmoderated. In several years I've only ever seen one regular user get banned for any length of time (not counting spambots).

It's not a hellhole. People are usually fairly nice to each other. They have silly threads and intelligent discussions and have produced some great collaborative projects.

If you want to lay down some basic rules like "don't spam the forum with a thousand threads" or "don't call each other names" and enforce them equally, regardless of stuff like the seniority/popularity of the users involved (including staff status), I don't have any problem with that. That would be awesome.

i don't have a huge problem with the new forum...it depends on how organized you want to be. On one hand, you have everything in a single forum, on the other you end up with something like JKhub (neither one of those is ideal).

For a while now I've thought we could at least merge the three editing forums, given the amount of traffic they get (or maybe COG and JK editing). The music forum is also kind of pointless.

That is my opinion.

Also, I don't agree with that, Mort. Pissing off a website runner guy is fair grounds for getting banned (if that's even what happened, I missed the whole thing). It's not like..the law.

Only because I'm nice.



But how is that any different than what we have now? If you're implying that there is staff favoritism, then point it out when you see it. I don't want that just as much as anyone else.

225. Wookie06

Staff disrespect.
7 days.

Massassi gets like, 3-4 new threads a day. If that.

I don't see any gain from splitting them. I also don't like how you encourage contentless posts there, while also lumping some decent threads in with it (camhoez, post your, etc). If you want to make a contentless stupidity goes here forum, do it. Don't put the good stuff in there too.

Geez, all this arguing. Coolmatty already said over and over that if the 'silly' section dies it will be closed.
So if you don't like it, don't post in it.
It's the old fashioned way to protest, it works and doesn't involve flaming the people that work hard to keep this site together.

And before anyone thinks I"m just sucking up to the mods here, I won't be posting in the Insanity Ward.



EDIT:
do, however, fully agree with Greenboy:

Try closer to 30 threads a day, on average for this month.

Thrawn: I don't see how that's favoritism. He was being straight up disrespectful and I didn't put up with it just as much as I didn't put up with Steven with the freelancer joke crap.

If he PMed something like that to SF_Gold would you do the same thing?

This is awesome.

CM enforces rules
CM HATES FUN
CM makes sandbox for ****s and giggles - CM loevs fun?
NO CM HATES FUN

If he bothered to report it to me, sure.

I support this move because the only reason I come to Massassi is for the internet drama and this thread is feeding my addiction, thx ;^>>>>>>>>>>>>>

CoolMatty, I don't doubt you have the best interest of the website in mind, but surely what's best is what the majority wants, and every indication suggests this move is very unpopular. And before you mention the mysterious silent majority agreeing with you--the only feasible reasons for this majority to be silent would be if they're actually neutral, or nonexistent.

I say let your changes stand for a few days and if a large body of users don't show up agreeing with you then go back to The Way Things Were

ps ;^> is the most punchable smiley ever ban anyone who uses it :rant::rant::rant::rant:

30 new threads in the discussion forum every day? No way.

Anyway, everyone stop being all butthurt, so we can actually have a decent discussion of how to make things better.

@CM: Could we have a poll of what stuff should be considered "contentless"?

When Jon`C raged on me way back when I had to spend about an hour bugging mods about whether the flaming rule was actually enforced

Eventually they banned him (for a day), assuring him it was only because I asked

I DISAGREE

DRAMA IS BAD, YOU SHOULDN'T LIKE THAT STUFF CAUSE SANTA WILL NAUGHTY LIST YOUR ***

Dude, I stopped believing in Santa ever since I was brought into a Hallmark store by my mom and saw a Black Santa ornament and fell into a hissy fit such as only a spoiled racist ruddy-faced little urchin could throw.

That was like two Christmases ago so I've had time to get over it *shrug*

I agree. 30 is way, way of an exaggeration. On a busy day, I say around 5. Unless I'm browsing the wrong Massassi for the past 5 years.

I also agree on the point of what constitutes "contentless". If I wanted, could I start 50 threads titled "penis" if I wanted to over there essentially destroying any thread growth? If left up to members and no real rules, the internet shows us that spam and genitalia-related posts always win.