Making the Forum a Safe and Comfortable Place

[andr01d]

@mods being to 'fascist' here
I myself was on the line of getting into serious trouble with the mods in the discussion about piracy because I always promoted to have at least one person playing advocatus diaboli (i.e. verbally supporting piracy) for the sake of the argument. (I feel, that an argument makes no sense if both sides aren't represented somewhat equally.—If all agree, what's the point in discussing?) I also heavily supported the idea of seriously punishing pirates, positioning myself on the line of actually insulting people.
But I have to say, that in the end we were all able to resolve the situation without having to ban anyone for giving out arguments pro piracy (that doesn't include people who tried to support piracy by actually referencing pirate sites, as that's against the forum's rules) and the mods never actually locked the thread or deleted my arguments. Sure I had to tone down a little, but that's alright so nobody get's hurt.

Therefor I have to say that the mods are doing a damn good job here. They are far from being 'fascist'.

@227
I always thought that it was Blothulfur's job to diffuse the tension by dealing out hilarious posts that have everyone crack up with laughter and are very often also very insightful.
Seriously, good job Blothulfur!
But I agree, we could use more people who do the same.

 

[AsTheDeath]

As Grindif said, I think that 'safe' really isn't the right word in this context, it's just that some of us are so certain of themselves at times that a different opinion (for example by someone new to the forums/series) gets hit pretty hard at times. A bit more tolerance for other opinions or at least a friendlier tone in disagreeing wouldn't hurt (and that goes for quite some people here!).

Other than that, I think these forums are pretty good and there's little to no actual trolling/spamming/insulting.

 

[elias_r]

I have an idea let's make a complaint box thread and stick it to the community section.
There anyone -anonymously for simple members- will be able to say anything with out feeling that he or she is been watched ,what makes him/her feel unsafe or complaint about other forum members behavior.

 

[gregski]

Personally I never felt my safety was threatened. I feel though like the forum is in "downward spiral" lately, as 227 called it.

I think it's mostly because there is no constant stream of new information from CDPR. Sure, latest news about Cyberpunk lightened the forum up a little, we had something to speculate about and make our wishes/projections, but that's about it. After the official Cyberpunk forum starts, threads about this game will move there.

I agree with 227 that some time ago, when the most heated debate was the piracy one there was more mutual respect. Now flaming and often rudeness (even if not open, but a more concealed type) is more common, especially that we had some really emotional topics lately.

I think it all started with all those "Witcher and women/misogyny" topics. And I think those topics are something that made me (at least) not so much comfortable with the forum as I was before. Not the topic of females in games itself, but the kind of discussion and emotions between members these topics started. Being involved in any of them was the least pleasant experience I had in this forum because of what kind of emotions those threads stirred between some of our community members.

 

[freesia.430]

I personally consider this forum as a safe place. I can come here and discuss various topics, not exclusively related to the Witcher games, with people who are mostly eager to listen and offer interesting opinions from every part of the world.

Of course that you can find people who don´t seem to be able to have a serious or fun conversation without offending others, or without disrespectful behaviour here as well. But I´ve witnessed something like that only a couple of times, and I must admit that to any inappropriate behaviour was a quick response from a moderator - so from my point of view, the safety of this place is okay as it is. It is true that I´m not easy to offend and I also understand that certain topics involve strong emotions. With that in mind, I enjoy being here.

I also must agree that the topics and the discussions in general have lost a lot of their former charm and fun. But as was already pointed out, it is most probably due to a lack of new information. So nothing all that suprising in the end.

All in all, this is a public forum with all kinds of people participating. You can meet jerks (sorry for using such an expression) everywhere, logically in here too. But as long as I can freely express my thoughts and opinions, I can deal with even emotional and sometimes "wild" discussions on my own. Plus no one forces anyone to be here...

 

[Guest 2091327]

Have just read the first few posts (will read the rest later), but those few posts were good examples of one aspect I don't like about this forum.

One person says things are fine, and gets +5 votes. Another says things aren't fine, and gets -4 votes. I've noticed this in many threads. Rock the boat a little and you get slammed with minus points. It's not just for spam or stuff like that, but if people write a coherent and calm post, but that happens to be going against the stream in some fashion, they get 'punished' with negative votes. Okay, so that doesn't mean much at the end of the day, but it's still one element that can make people feel 'unsafe' or 'unwanted' here.

 

[Garrison72]

Lol, and you get a +1. Getting rid of the point system might be a good idea.

 

[tommy5761]

Agreed with the point system . I don`t use it unless someone says they downvoted a post by mistake .

 

[freesia.430]

Well, it is true that the poiting system may seem interesting in the first but in the end, does a certain amount of points mean anything? As already pointed out by Pangaea, sometimes it just means that the expressed opinion matches with the majority...
I wouldn´t see it as a bad thing though. On the other hand, I could live without it of course, ha.

 

[wichat]

positive or negative point are not important to me and they don't make me follow the herd or stand against the stream. I guess they was implated to avoid publishing a second o third post with the same idea. If so, they don't do.

Maybe the negative point should be removed from the forum, as the positive point would be enough to give your approval. Judiciously reward is more effective than punishment by antipathy ...

 

[Purpleknight]

Sometimes the point system is nice, especially if its a doubt thread and one comes with the solution, you often can see in which post is the solution by the high amount of "+1". And that's usefull, at least for me, because then I can see better where is the solution to a problem I might have.

But besides that, although it didn't happened to me, I even find VERY annoying when in a discussion one gets lots of +1 and the other gets lots of -1. I just feel like if the people are behaving like childs pointing someone and saying "you're cool" or "haha, you're bad". And that's only one example of why I find the point system not nice and even heats up the discussion directly or indirectly (because I see some people commenting about the +1/-1 and reacting to that in the middle of the discussions).

My opinion is basically "Bye Bye, Points!".

 

[KnightofPhoenix]

After thinking about it some more, I think there is another group of TW players who might feel very uncomfortable coming here. Bioware fans. Yes people who love both TW games and Bioware games exist.

In a lot of threads, members here can get very unpleasant when it comes to Bioware games and I'm one of them. We immediately brand their games as "date-sims", or as idiotic, full of fanservice...etc, thus implying that their fans are all childish idiots, or "biodrones."
A lot of criticism is warranted, but I feel we often veer into ridicule, vitriol and hyperbole.

There are a lot of Bioware fans who could be great members here, as they do appreciate good storytelling, even if we have differing priorities / opinions. So maybe, for future reference, we can try to be more welcoming.

 

[Guest 2091327]

I agree, and think it would be better if either the whole point system was removed, or at least if the negative points were removed. Plus points are fine for the most part, so I think it would be better to just remove the negative points. If the post happens to be spam or something along those lines, a mod will either take care of it, or we can report it. There isn't really any need for negative points.

Apart from this probably small point, nothing has been mentioned apart from the early post about the mods. I haven't noticed that myself, but I did raise an eyebrow to secondchildren's reply to that post. Hopefully the people who feel unsafe or unwanted or unwelcome in some fashion have sent PMs instead, because in this thread we only really see posts from people who don't see a problem. If the mods have gotten feedback about a problem, so much so they made this thread, there clearly is one, and it should try to be addressed.

 

[Blothulfur]

Just looked at my profile and i've got over five hundred points, what the hell? I'm going to have to step up giving myself dislikes more regularly.

Alright who bloody did that?

 

[Sirnaq]

Pointing system is broken and useless, broken because you can downvote only once a day and upvote multiple times and useless because according to it i have excellent reputation. Also you can upvote and downvote your own posts.

 

[AsTheDeath]

I don't necessarily mind a point ('like/dislike') system, but I do agree that it doesn't work properly here. As Purpleknight mentions, in some topics it can actually be useful and a +1 instead of reposting the same message over and over again also (at least, theoretically) helps to keep topics less spammy. However, the +1/-1 mechanic doesn't seem to work that well in this aspect, because though a +1 if you agree is fine, -1 if you disagree is often perceived as a 'personal attack' and can cause confusion between a spam/insulting post and one that just voices an impopular opinion.

So I'd be in favour of removing the -1 button altogether, since you can already report bad posts, and just '-1'ing if you disagree isn't going to help any discussion forward.

 

[Mihura]

After thinking about it some more, I think there is another group of TW players who might feel very uncomfortable coming here. Bioware fans. Yes people who love both TW games and Bioware games exist.

In a lot of threads, members here can get very unpleasant when it comes to Bioware games and I'm one of them. We immediately brand their games as "date-sims", or as idiotic, full of fanservice...etc, thus implying that their fans are all childish idiots, or "biodrones."
A lot of criticism is warranted, but I feel we often veer into ridicule, vitriol and hyperbole.

There are a lot of Bioware fans who could be great members here, as they do appreciate good storytelling, even if we have differing priorities / opinions. So maybe, for future reference, we can try to be more welcoming.

I am ok with people joking with the games from bioware and hating it, it is obvious their opinion but I am not ok with calling people biodrones and always saying shit about the fans that play their games. Joking about things on a concept level is different than doing that to a group of people. The same goes to console players that come here.

To tell the true there was one time that I felt treated but it was in the old forum, I do not even remember the name of the user. I have to say that now there is a more open environment to discuss certain things but it still far from perfect. The mods in my opinion are doing a good job no complains here.

 

[volsung]

All of this caught me by surprise, I never expected this forum in particular to be unsafe. I think the mods do an excellent job removing whatever spam posts do exist which means there isn't really a chance for people to accidentally click on unsafe links. This community is also, to some extent, self moderated for the sole reason that it is mainly composed of relatively mature people. We don't like flame wars, trolls, or any kind of insulting behavior, and I've seen many cases where the users themselves cool things down. In this area, Blothulfur is an excellent mediator. His participation is always clever and usually hilarious. I can't see anyone feeling offended by his, mine or anyone else's language considering this *is* the Witcher community, a game with more than enough swearing.

However, I do have to point out that recently in several topics there have been some heated discussions that were completely unnecessary. We are a small community and I suppose it is normal that our way of treating each other becomes more informal with time, but it may be somewhat disrespectful at times. We are adults here, and we should know how to deal with situations when our opinion is not shared by the majority, or when we have been proved wrong by a solid argument.

While I personally couldn't care less, I've seen a good amount of direct accusations and insults recently. I can't believe a GAME forum might lead to this, especially when most of us are allegedly mature. We play games for fun, not to argue about who is better than who at doing something irrelevant for life (like pressing buttons). These situations may drive people away or may prevent them from expressing their honest views on certain topics, fearing they may be ridiculed for liking a certain feature or asking for help in easy mode. I feel we are too quick to judge, maybe because we are a small community and have become used to each other.

So what can we do to make others, who possibly do not even post regularly, feel welcome?

First, they should know our community moderators rarely actually moderate people. Most of our opinions and posts are permitted because, traditionally, we have been relatively respectful towards each other. Swearing, controversy, and so on are OK within the right context. We however do not tolerate cultural, religious, ethnical or any kind of ideological discrimination. Any person acting this way does not represent the community and will likely be moderated. Offensive users can always be reported, our moderators are active members and will notice sooner than later.

Second, let's cut the crap. Different people like different kinds of games, period. Also, people have different types of obligations and enjoy games in different ways. The Witcher universe attracts a wide variety of people, and not all of them are "pro gamers". I'd like to keep it that way. Even in a community built around a computer game, there are things to talk about other than games.

Third, chill. Such heated arguments about why games this and why games that, honestly it's laughable. Not very different from little kids arguing about who gets to play who. Why get angry? It's a waste of energy and time.

Not sure what people actually mean by safety, but I think we could at least make this community a little more welcoming.

 

[goopit]

We are a small community

I wonder why we're so damn few!?

 

[Garrison72]

I wonder why we're so damn few!?

Get used to it my friend. This is no main stream game. The witcher remains popular in eastern europe, not the rest of the world.