A thread to complain about the small issues of the escapist forums.

[Lionsfan]

Seeing as the Escapist is so zealously coming down on low content posts, I wouldn't mind a thumbs up/like/thank you button. You know, for when you read a post that says exactly what you were going to, except better? When you have absolutely nothing to add, but still want to express your agreement? You know, those times.

I guess it would be nice if people weren't so angry all the time too.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE'RE ANGRY ALL THE TIME!!!11!!!1 NO WE'RE NOT!!1!!!! YOU'RE JUST TOO SENSITIVE!!!!1!!

 

[Dags90]

Wait, what?

What do you mean by autoplay videos? I suppose they just start playing without your commando? If so, that has never happened to me on this site, which is weird.

I think "all over the forum" is a bit much, I don't think the code has really caught on, yet. But I love the autoplay and time selection features.

 

[Altorin]

The sudden spat of "I've got X posts"

Yes, we get it, you're proud you hit X posts.
I don't care, I've got more than you. SUCK MY E-PEEN.

But seriously, it's kinda annoying. Especially when post count means jack shit to anything in this forum.

Do you have the most posts? I know that a lot of older people left, but I could have sworn there was a forum games person who had over 100,000 posts, but maybe I'm just thinking of something else

As far as I know, I've got the highest.
As for someone having over 100,000 posts here, you'd have to trawl through everyones profile to find them. Unless Kross added it to his rotation of post counts.

yeah, post count means "nothing".

In anycase, if someone had 100,000 posts, they're probably banned. I've seen a lot of very prolific posters banned over the years.

As for my least favorite threadtype, probably VS threads in disguise. There's one floating at around 300 replies about fallout 3/New vegas that's basically just turned into a spergfest, I can't even look at it anymore.

 

[Yopaz]

Captcha: Something that fits remotely to the post.

I don't care what your captcha says, nobody does.

Seeing as the Escapist is so zealously coming down on low content posts, I wouldn't mind a thumbs up/like/thank you button. You know, for when you read a post that says exactly what you were going to, except better? When you have absolutely nothing to add, but still want to express your agreement? You know, those times.

I guess it would be nice if people weren't so angry all the time too.

Well low content posts add nothing to the discussion and that's pretty much the point of a forum. Seeing how easy it is to avoid it I can't see the problem. When I see someone who says pretty much what I am thinking *I usually write something along the lines of "This guy got the right of it and I couldn't have said it better myself", all of a sudden you have avoided low content post. Thumbs up button is just an invitation to get people to try to be witty just to get thumbs ups on their posts which could cause even more derailings than we already see here.

Hoping that people wouldn't be angry is something I can agree on though. More energy goes into hating games that are bad than playing the good games.

 

[AngloDoom]

In a website that is basically rivers of chocolate and happiness from my perspective, there is only one thing that I hate on these forums:

Belittling.

I hate how the Escapist considers itself a civil and polite board, when really people quite often just aggressively or infuriatingly belittle each other's intelligence. As arguments go on, more accusations of strawman tactics and of evading crop up and everyone starts throwing out terms they clearly aren't comfortable with just to sound impressive often, I have to say, as if they're trying to parrot Yahtzee.

Almost every time I disagree with another Escapist I've been accused of one of the following:

- Dodging the question
- Not understanding the question
- Being stupid
- Being ignorant
- Trying to suppress freedoms
- Being mentally ill

Even when I try my hardest to keep things civil. I know 98% of these people wouldn't act so superior in person and I don't see why it's necessary just because they're on the internet.

Sure, other websites involved people actively attacking one-another, but on the Escapist it's often done in such a slimy, indirect way that it makes my blood boil.

 

[Sassafrass]

The sudden spat of "I've got X posts"

Yes, we get it, you're proud you hit X posts.
I don't care, I've got more than you. SUCK MY E-PEEN.

But seriously, it's kinda annoying. Especially when post count means jack shit to anything in this forum.

Do you have the most posts? I know that a lot of older people left, but I could have sworn there was a forum games person who had over 100,000 posts, but maybe I'm just thinking of something else

As far as I know, I've got the highest.
As for someone having over 100,000 posts here, you'd have to trawl through everyones profile to find them. Unless Kross added it to his rotation of post counts.

yeah, post count means "nothing".

In anycase, if someone had 100,000 posts, they're probably banned. I've seen a lot of very prolific posters banned over the years.

As for my least favorite threadtype, probably VS threads in disguise. There's one floating at around 300 replies about fallout 3/New vegas that's basically just turned into a spergfest, I can't even look at it anymore.

It does, I'm just saying as far as I know/hear about, I have the highest. It doesn't make me better than any one.
Or did I just misread the entire part of that post and made myself look like a tit?

 

[Patrick Buck]

Misleading thread Titles. Apart from that, not much really.
THE FACT THAT NO-ONE COMMENTS ON MY THREADS.
[small]*Cough*[/small]

I quite like reading fights, not sure why, prehaps I'm just a bad person, and I tend not to get worked up over thread-derailment, as long as it's funny, and as I'm easily amused, it normally is for me.

 

[Dags90]

Well low content posts add nothing to the discussion and that's pretty much the point of a forum. Seeing how easy it is to avoid it I can't see the problem. When I see someone who says pretty much what I am thinking *I usually write something along the lines of "This guy got the right of it and I couldn't have said it better myself", all of a sudden you have avoided low content post. Thumbs up button is just an invitation to get people to try to be witty just to get thumbs ups on their posts which could cause even more derailings than we already see here.

Actually, and I'm pretty sure the Mods will back me up on this, "This guy got the right of it and I couldn't have said it better myself" is also considered a low content post. It also adds nothing to the discussion. The big difference isn't that it's more or less against the rules per se, but that you're less likely to get reported for breaking the low content rule by your average poster, thus limiting mod scrutiny.

Which brings up a major quirk of largely crowd sourcing the moderation: Posts that are unpopular are much more likely to get reported. A lot of people hate "FIRST!" or "THIS!", but if you post something equivalent and are equally void of discussion that doesn't trigger the kneejerk "must report" reaction in people, you're a lot less likely to get Mod Wrath'd.

 

[Fractral]

The number of threads that turn into flamewars. I just avoid any thread with more than 3 pages- its not a definite rule, but generally more than that's gonna be a flamewar.
Also, the people who try to undermine other peoples arguments while ignoring the argument- often stuff like accusing the other of a 'straw man' argument, or something, when often the straw man is a straw man itself, and then it becomes a flame war.
Also, arguments in general. I don't like arguing with people.

 

[CrazyJew]

So much angry...

Umm...

Spiderman?

 

[DugMachine]

Such bullcrap what people can get away with on this site. I couldn't tell a guy to go fuck himself but if I write out a 20 page academic paper with sources as to WHY this person should do said fucking then it's fair game apparently.

 

[DugMachine]

Am I the only one that hates "You're never the only one!"?

IT'S A FUCKING FIGURE OF SPEECH!

Yup. Logically I get it but god damn everytime thread like that pops up SOMEONE has to point it out real sarcastic like. Italics and all

OT: Also the term "strawman". If you don't throw that in your argument about 50 times then you're debating wrong apparently.

 

[Yopaz]

Well low content posts add nothing to the discussion and that's pretty much the point of a forum. Seeing how easy it is to avoid it I can't see the problem. When I see someone who says pretty much what I am thinking *I usually write something along the lines of "This guy got the right of it and I couldn't have said it better myself", all of a sudden you have avoided low content post. Thumbs up button is just an invitation to get people to try to be witty just to get thumbs ups on their posts which could cause even more derailings than we already see here.

Actually, and I'm pretty sure the Mods will back me up on this, "This guy got the right of it and I couldn't have said it better myself" is also considered a low content post. It also adds nothing to the discussion. The big difference isn't that it's more or less against the rules per se, but that you're less likely to get reported for breaking the low content rule by your average poster, thus limiting mod scrutiny.

Which brings up a major quirk of largely crowd sourcing the moderation: Posts that are unpopular are much more likely to get reported. A lot of people hate "FIRST!" or "THIS!", but if you post something equivalent are equally void of discussion that doesn't trigger the kneejerk "must report" reaction in people, you're a lot less likely to get Mod Wrath'd.

You might be right there. Still I don't see a problem with avoiding low content posts. If I don't have anything to add I don't really need to post or express anything. This is also why I don't want the thumbs up system since that is bait for people who just want to say something they think is funny which wont add anything of use to the thread. All in all I think the low content post rule is good since it encourages everyone to make an effort into their thread response. Neither posting "This!" or pressing like requires thought.

 

[JoJo]

Anyway, I would appreciate if the forums counted word count, not post count. As a high word count is something that would indeed be appreciable, while post count is not, especially if you hang out in forum games or mostly post short posts.

This is actually a really good idea, I'd support that. Something I've come to notice over the years here is that a lot of the so-called "Forum Celebrities" tend to a post a lot of very short posts without much substance or insight. Not only would it help tackle that, it'd help balance out currently major boost which groups and forum games give. The only possible problems I can see is that it might be difficult to remove quotes from people's word counts and it might encourage people to make padded out OPs with whole news articles quoted just to boost their word count.

OT: An issue that's already been mentioned a couple of times is the moderation: generally I like the heavy moderation here and think it helps the community stay reasonable, however there are issues with it being community reported. The largest is that users with unpopular opinions are more reported than those who conform to the standard ideas, for example PFL of the R&P board was banned recently for a fairly minor infraction after a string of quick suspensions, presumably because people were eager to report him whenever he toed the line.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

Phrases like this.

'Why is "sexual harassment" towards women a worse thing to do than being a dick towards a guy?'

The worse thing is I can't even tell if serious.

 

[SpectacularWebHead]

Inb4 spiderman derail.

OT: Inconsistent moderation, although that seems to have calmed down as of late.

Lies, I think the mods specifically don't like me. Whenever I get into an argument, I can be tolerant to the point of lunacy whilst I'm getting torn to shreds by some guy, and the moment I say anything I get mod wrath. I only post this cuz you ninja'd me.

OP: Anyone who complains about threads they don't like ON THE THREADS they don't like. It's maddening. This, by the way, is the way to get things done, everyone can post their grievances in an orderly manner and no-one looks specifically targetted.

 

[New Frontiersman]

Truth be told, I'm not that fond of the community here, I only really have one person on here I really like. Most of the people here are pretty annoying, self-important, and not nearly as smart or funny as they like to think they are. The amount of elitism on this forum is also pretty off-putting, especially when coupled with the self-importance. Not everyone is like this of course, just some of the most visible people.

I find the levels of hatred that have been directed towards my home country in the past on this site rather unpleasant too. It's not exactly conducive to making me feeling welcome on this site.

Also, I don't like the gif avatars, they're pretty distracting and annoying for the most part. Some are okay. Most are not.

And at this point I suppose it's somewhat hypocritical of me to say this: but the amount of negativity and whining on these forums is absurd.