'IMPORTANT DISCUSSION' TIME GUYS...

bahleted

author=Fallen-Griever link=topic=3269.msg64763#msg64763 date=1236175046
But, seriously, as far as I'm concerned this "topic derailing" stuff is being blown way out of proportion. Going slightly away from the subject at hand isn't derailing a topic, discussions tend to expand in scope over time and this is just a natural thing that people need to deal with. Some topics have, in my opinion, been overzealously locked, but maybe I was just a much more leniant admin back in the day.

But you are one person within an entire community, F-G, and while you've never had a problem stating your opinion (something about you that I can respect), your view is socially flawed. Discussions in the 'General Discussion' forum are meant to evolve well-beyond the scope of the topic, as in going so far off topic that they are almost their own new topic. However, in a forum setting, specifically designed for a certain purpose, such as 'Feedback on my Gameplay Please', moving far beyond the intended topic undermines the purpose of that forum.

The concept of a Forum came from our buddies the Romans, and while the Internet Forum has given rise to such intellectually elite concepts as the Blog and Twitter, the basic concept of the Forum hasn't changed much in the past 2000 years. We are still expected to follow rules of etiquette (presumably, our Roman friends didn't tolerate throwing sheep-dung at the persons they disagreed with) we are still expected to maintain some sort of decorum (although we are not all toga-wearing men in our 40's or beyond), and we are still expected to somewhat remain on topic.

The purpose of a forum is to discuss topics. People post to the forusm ebcause they want other's opinions on those topics, not opinions on things that ahve no bearing or significance to their topic. If Person A wants to talk about Topic A, and posts about Topic A, then Person B should either discuss Topic A, go make Topic B. Standard rules of logic dictate that if A <> B, then A will always <> B.

author=Fallen-Griever link=topic=3269.msg64763#msg64763 date=1236175046
For instance, the anime discussion was entirely relevant to Project DOAD because the game used exactly that style. That the style of art used could cause people to dislike/not play the game and the reasons behind that were, in my opinion, helpful criticisms for the developer to consider in future productions.

Excuse me, but who the heck are you to dictate what another person creates? If a person wants to create something based on dreams he or she had as a child, a fight he or she got into with his ex-lover, or a favorite genre of animation, you will not now, nor ever, have the right to say, in any way or through any criticism 'Maybe you should choose a different genre.' If that was not your intended point, then I apologize for jumping your case, but you sounded a lot like a censor for a moment. If that was you intended point, then I believe that you owe Skye an apology.

author=Fallen-Griever link=topic=3269.msg64763#msg64763 date=1236175046
That the opinions were negative and caused someone to throw a hissy fit and delete everything they'd created previously wasn't a problem with the thread derailing, it was a problem with someone being an oversensitive child.

I totally agree with you here, although I am not saying that the creator of the game in question acted that way. If someone cannot take criticism for their work, they don't need to be sharing their work with a developer community, or the public.

author=Fallen-Griever link=topic=3269.msg64763#msg64763 date=1236175046
Besides, you can't make a game and then expect people not to comment on the pros/cons of using a certain artistic style in your game, that's just naive, just like you can't showcase your project and expect people not to comment on the pros/cons of using a certain script or a certain battle-system or a certain character sprite. Seriously, if people had started talking about enzyme catalysis or Latin grammar or something then you'd have a good case to say that the topic had been derailed, but talking about something relevant to the topic at hand isn't derailing it at all.

While you make a valid point about people needing to expect criticism about their style, and I agree with you, again I feel that you are turning this into a justification for what was done to DOAD. And personally, I think that is not proper. The artist was asking for opinions on the content of the game, and the gameplay of the game, not on the style. That would be like the creator of Final Fantasy VI askign for other developers to look over his gameplay and balancing, and then getting his entire game trashed by said other developers because he chose to have Amano do the character portraits.

author=Fallen-Griever link=topic=3269.msg64763#msg64763 date=1236175046
That isn't to say some topics haven't been completely derailed, although I would like to point out that moderators have at their disposal the ability to seperate one topic into two if they so feel the need, thus saving topics from being locked and also creating a relevant discussion topic at the same time (at least I assume the moderators here have that ability as I assume this forum functions just like any other generic forum). This would be a better solution to locking threads that are deemed to have been derailed than simply locking them.

I don't know what the moderating practices of this forum are, F-G, but if that is the case, then perhaps they need to look at that option. Either way, I agree that there needs to be work on both ends. The Moderators need to moderate and the members need to try and stay on topic. It's a two way street.

author=MayorAnime link=topic=3269.msg64777#msg64777 date=1236182034
Because I see a lot of people here who have never submitted anything, not even once, and yet post as if they are the authorities on this community.

This is an awesome sentence.

I am sorry I should have created a "Where the hell is Demon Tower, you bastards?" topic instead. I also do not think the EMDE3 topic needed to or should have been locked.

Seriously...this is a real issue. But I do not think publically chastizing the site for the actions of a few individuals is a good way to go. Because either...

A) It is just the actions of a few individuals. Warn them, the problem will go away.
or
B) It is the tendency of the entire site, and as I've learned in my life, you can't really sway the tendencies of a lot of people even if you lecture them or chew them out. If it's what they're going to do, it's what they're going to do, and no amount of yelling at them will fix it.

What amazes me is how much this snow-balls...like I think the skill people need to learn here is not "Don't make a comment that is slightly off-topic..." so much as it is, don't comment on posts that are off topic so much that the focus shifts to them.

author=Max McGee link=topic=3269.msg64807#msg64807 date=1236193086
What amazes me is how much this snow-balls...like I think the skill people need to learn here is not "Don't make a comment that is slightly off-topic..." so much as it is, don't comment on posts that are off topic so much that the focus shifts to them.

author=Shadowtext link=topic=3269.msg64808#msg64808 date=1236193276
When you're in a community where about 90% of the participants have ADHD (primarily inattentive in most cases) and (to pull a number out of thin air) 20% are on marijuana, your topics are going to get derailed. It's just a byproduct of....'scuse me, I forgot I was supposed to be researching some programming topics for my latest project at this moment.

I think that this sums up the problem, from a community stand-point, indubitably well. Unfortunately, you can't justifiably punish someone for being young or having ADHD, OCD, PCP (-sob-), so you have to wait until they actually screw up.

Why can you not punish people for being young, and why is mental not-perfectness a reasonable explanation for people here sucking at staying on topic in the first group of forums?

Max: It is directed at a small group of people because RMN is a really tiny forum.

The solution, aprilschild, is obviously to kill off everybody with X chomosomes (person x) so that no tongue-in-cheek, instigating comments are made.

MODIFY: holy gazoomba, I just realized that I made an excellent example of a tongue-in-cheek half-relevant comment.

author=Craze link=topic=3269.msg64827#msg64827 date=1236195729
MODIFY: holy gazoomba, I just realized that I made an excellent example of a tongue-in-cheek half-relevant comment.

:o

Well, I guess I'll offer myself up to the slaughter first, seeing as how I have two of 'em. Now the only posters left will be the YY's, like that prison ship in Alien 3.

Uh, but yeah, this is kind of how these things get started.

author=Max McGee link=topic=3269.msg64807#msg64807 date=1236193086
What amazes me is how much this snow-balls...like I think the skill people need to learn here is not "Don't make a comment that is slightly off-topic..." so much as it is, don't comment on posts that are off topic so much that the focus shifts to them.

This is the real problem here. Somebody makes a semi-releveant post, alright that could be a problem. When everyone posts their own shitty retort (and then the retorts to those retorts) you get a bunch of shit topics.

I wonder if we should change the Makerscore by a certain percentage for posters that consistently cause topics to be derailed? Like say 5% to 10% (downward, of course)? I'm actually afraid of posting topics as it is.