Best advice in the thread. @DulXboxOne
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I think to solve the problem, the forum could sport a ādownvoteā system. If the community repeatedly downvote a single userās posts, and their posting exceeds number in [y] time period, then the system could impost a temp ban. If someone posts 3 times a day, but theyāre seldom voted down, then itās safe to assume that they are adding value.
To me, this seems like a fair way to prevent trolling and keep the forums clean.
Cool topic. Iām looking forward to other peoplesā ideas.
I just mute threads that annoy me. Then they donāt show up in my feed at all.
Good idea. The simplest solution is often the best 
I agree with this statement.
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DISCLAIMER: I am not great at organizing my thoughts.
I understand the sentiment, and agree that as far as new threads go, weāve gotten quite the flood of unconstructive nonsense lately - enough to drive at least one brave soul to make a thread to open discussion on how to remedy it.
Itās tricky though. As a public forum and internet community, weāre in a tough spot where everyone is entitled to their wrong opinions, and some are more vocal than others - but to limit oneās ability to express their aforementioned opinions invites more negativity and trolldom. The internet is a scary place, and weāre all choosing to gather here, in spite of the inherent risks to our sanity. To enforce such limitations would likely encourage the affected to post even less constructive threads, and would invite open hostility. Yeah, threads like that can be closed, but weāve only gotā¦ what, two forum moderators? I think ultimately it would just make more work for them.
The most troublesome part is the non-gameplay nature of so many threads that pop up in gameplay subforums. Every little ridiculous nitpick gets itās own thread, often in duplicate, along with various satire and shxtposts, and more yammering about costumes than Iād have believed if not for my own eyes. While a good handful of members are indeed habitual shxtposters, just as many are insightful and constructive, and a whole bunch of folks fall somewhere in between.
KI is a pretty esoteric game once you move beyond the basic system mechanics. Many characters have non-obvious objectives, and the information we get in-game (while well beyond what many of itās peers provide) is often incomplete, outdated, or incorrect. Sure, there is plenty of instructional and otherwise helpful info available elsewhere (Infilās guide, various YT channels, etc), but people should be able to find technical gameplay help on the games official forums as well; hell, Iād go so far as to say we here at UCForums should be the first stop for this stuff. Unfortunately, new players that may find themselves here looking for aid (pretty sure weāre linked in-game) will have to slog thru the aforementioned mires of nonsense without being discouraged by how difficult it is to find the thread theyāre looking for (if it exists). Even with the search bar available, there is so much garbage floating around that there is still a daunting amount of scrolling and hoping involved. What we should be doing is finding a way to elevate tech-talk above costumes and crying and aesthetic nitpicks and hypotheticals. I think this could best be accomplished with a slight rework of our subforum structure, perhaps a dedicated subforum for āAestheticsā or a division of the Suggestions thread into āGameplayā and āAestheticā? [[this is a little short-sighted]]
@TheWeebSkeebās idea about downvotes is sort of dangerous, as we have to account for the abuse of trolls and misuse out of spite. In a perfect world, those would be a non-issue, but this is the internet, and a downvote system is a liability. Sure, weād be able to downvote the trash into non-existence, but when a troll gets mad, we can count on downvotes to constructive threads as well. Sure, this could be kept in check by moderator action, but thatās even more work for our few moderators. On the other hand, an UPVOTE system for bumping/keeping threads relevant may not be a bad idea (essentially a revision of LIKE on OPs), but that depends on demographic numbers. If we have an upvote system in place, and weāre still adrift in costumes and fatalities, well thenā¦ weāll see with our own eyes the ship is sinking. What then?
@STORM179 @BigBadAndy @xSkeletalx
These guys make excellent points, and provide less-than-ideal, but indeed the best available solutions. Mute the threads that irritate us, flag the bogus threads/posts, chins up, carry on, hope for the best. We should definitely make a point of helping our mods out by making better use of the flag function, for sure.
But seriously, restructured subforums and more diligent flagging for cleanup would help us all out soooooo much. We have to be realistic with our expectations from the staff though, there are only so many of them, and they are real humans with real lives tooā¦
ā¦and I lost my train of thought. I think I made my point(s), though.
This is my point about using the flag system. I have a visible notification when something has been flagged, which brings it clearly to my attention.
If I read a threadās initial posts after its creation but not long enough to have it ātracked,ā I may NEVER see a problem post if it isnāt flagged unless I happen to be directly tagged in someoneās post, or it catches my attention from the top of the Latest list. Itās up to those of us on the moderation team to make sure the forums stay clean and accessible to everyone, but itās also the communityās responsibility to assist us with flags.
Kind of a help-me-help-you sort of situation.
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This prompted another little thought regarding the community and the flag function:
I think a lot of us are actually quite āfairā-minded people. The OP doesnāt DIRECTLY address it, but comes very close - there are a lot of threads containing a volatile opinion (often poorly worded) whose intentions are obviously to encourage conflict and negativity, often flat-out hostility. The trouble is that the fair-minded individuals see these threads, and acknowledge that everyone is entitled to their opinion, and so cannot reasonably flag the topic despite itās ill-intent being clear. Instead of flagging, weāll engage these topics (which is not smart, as weāre merely taking the bait), and the snowball starts a-rolling. While the obvious solution is not to engage, that doesnāt ensure the topic will sink, as others who share the volatile and ill-informed notions will pipe up with their agreement, and the thread will find itself bumped and bumped. The more rational amongst us often feel an obligation to include a factual argument in these threads, lest they float about uncontested where strangers/new users may find them and risk being misinformed, which is a whole new yellow snowball unto itself. This phenomenon, I think, is the heart of the OPās issue. (@DulXboxOne correct me if I am misunderstanding or misrepresenting you here, please).
What is your suggested solution? Is flagging on the grounds of bait appropriate? I know I am guilty of lending my two-cents to these, as are a good handful of us. We should indeed stop lending bumps to such threads, but if our rational consciences are our impetus, what would be a better alternative?
Iām guilty of not flagging things - I am very reluctant to use this tool. Itās the ālive free or dieā streak in me but it pisses me off to get a notice that one of my posts has been flagged. Itās also a little āone size fits all.ā The flag is the solution for posts that cheerfully wander off-topic as well as for people posting snuff films. So I personally prefer to apply a pretty high standard for flagging things and Iāve already seen some āflag warsā in threads where people get mad and start flagging things. Never underestimate the power of the Internet to devolve into a food fight.
But I would just like to reiterate that I donāt think ānew laws!ā Is the answer. We are all beating around the bush here but thereās two guys posting a high number of barely relevant and often trollish threads, either on purpose or due to whatever emotional/mental challenges they have. This isnāt a democracy even if we have limited self government (like Hong Kong). The mods know who they are. So, either get permission to bop them or else we all just deal using the current tools. We donāt need new rules.
Part of my reluctance is that, with as much as I post on here Iām sure thereās people that think Iām an ā ā ā (and theyāre probably right). As much as it pains me to admit it, I like wasting time here and it would upset me to get booted off. But Iām sure someone could round up a bunch of off topic and argumentative posts Iāve made and put it in front of the ādeath squadā to make a case that āthis joker needs to go!ā Then weāre in a race to vote everyone off the island, and ultimately whatās the point of having a forum?
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I can only speak for myself but I would hope there are some others that feel the same way as I do and can get some information from this topic. I often feel a bit gun shy about using the flag feature because what I feel is a reply that is irrelevant to the topic at hand or a topic itself is not worthy of discussion is different than others.
Itās kind of a slow down of discussion right now because every character of S3 has been revealed but there were some instances where I could have flagged several posts a day just because of repetitiveness. The Definitive Edition Announcment, the Gold Gargos Skin DLC, hype for every new characterās release, and Iām sure others that I canāt think of off the top of my head. These just generated repetitive topics popping up in General Discussion.
I have started using the mute feature which is probably what I should do in this case however instead of flagging.
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I was going to include something like this in my post but I felt like I was getting a bit long winded. Iāve had a few posts of mine flagged with a āReally?! THAT got flagged?ā Reaction from myself. But then other topics where things were completely off the rails of the topic but nothing was ever done about it.
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If thatās the case, we apologize for missing some of these.
At the same time, as mentioned above, with the help of users appropriately using the flagging system, weāll make a judgment call on what happens.
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No need to apologize. I ment absolutely no mallace or ill-intent by what I said. Iāll try to be more proactive with using the flag system.
This may have the possibility to backfire. If unpopular members post discussions that arenāt against the rules, then it may be used as control.
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Checks and balances. Always.
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But what does that mean though?
Good point. Two ways around that:
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Call the button āflag as post abuseā instead of ādownvote.ā That way, honest people donāt downvote something just because they disagree. Keeps this forum from becoming Reddit.
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Temp ban is based on a volume of flags. Once you get, say, 50 unique flags (about 33% fewer than the number of responses a normal character survey gets on these forums), youāre temp banned. That way, a dishonest person would have to organize a small movement of dishonesty in order to troll someone. Unlikely.
I donāt necessarily think anything should be done about repeat posters. Just running through the thought experiment to wonder how a system could achieve the goal while being fair.
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