Has anyone else noticed the drop in standard of the Escapist forums?

[Grey_Focks]

I have literally seen none of the things you mentioned. I HAVE noticed an increase in stupid threads, such as, "Am I the only one?", "Your now the *blank* in the last game you played!", and, well, this one. Ofcourse those are just trends, and they too shall pass.

 

[LogicNProportion]

While I do not in any way support racism, serious flaming, and homophobia (I do support trolling, and so there. )...

Sounds like you've got a stick up your arse, mate. The Escapist is still plenty good, (Its even my most frequent used site.) has the usual influx many sites annually get as they become more popular. Blame Yahtzee.

Most serious offending threads get closed, and offending users get banned, suspended, and put on probation fairly frequently.

Note I said 'serious flaming.'

I think the world would be much better place if some people were told when they were acting like complete morons. Some people need to be called out, and if that means somebody has to say "No, you're stupid.", then so be it.

 

[Flac00]

Where the hell have you seen the Flagrant Racism and Homophobia? On the incredibly rare occasion I do see it here, the thread gets locked and a ban's put in place pretty quickly.

I honestly havent seen any either, so your not the only one. Though on the whole flaming thing, the guy does have a point.

 

[Snotnarok]

I've never seen that, you sure you didn't load up the gameFAQs forums on accident?

I mean I was called a ****** for just asking what PSP games people were looking forward to (pre PSP release) and it turned into a flamewar PSP vs DS by the 4th post. That was also my 3rd post there and 2nd to last post.

Flaming? Yes I've seen that because I was flamed by a few escapists, one more than the others because I posted some news and he was giving me crap about it. I honestly didn't care because he was just being an jerk for the sake of it.

 

[Bernzz]

In my time on the Escapist, the only racism I've seen displayed here has been played, quite obviously, as a joke, using common beliefs/misconceptions about a race/country to make the post funny. It's light, harmless joking, and if someone has a problem with it they can take it up with the joker.

And I haven't witnessed a single display of homophobia, might I say.

The only way this forum is declining is bad spelling/grammar and bad posts/threads from new people.

 

[tijuanatim]

Honestly I just think the site has become more popular, with this popularity we are seeing an influx of new users starting the same topics over and over again. (Best weapon, and countless Zombie Apocalypse threads for example)

 

[drbarno]

Out of the stuff you have mentioned I have only seen a couple of trolling threads, which were quickly moderated.

 

[roostuf]

Huh? Well i don't know what to say on one and you could be right my friend, i have seen my far share of ban's and probations on the escapist ever since i arrived so you may have a point. On the other hand it could have been like this all the time.

I just hope that the escapist doesn't change its policies to accommodate the increase of morons that are migrating from the shit-holes of the internet*cough*(4chan)*cough*.

But then again im paranoid again the Escapist will most likely bust their asses back down to www.hell.com(not an actual site).

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

I haven't seen open trolling or hate speech anywhere around here without the offender being moderated shortly afterwards. That being said, there is a noticeable drop in quality with a flood of boring and uninspired threads (e.g. "Am I the only one..." threads) but I suppose that's to be expected on any forum that gains a bigger posting audience.

Not to mention the "The last _____ is now ______" threads that won't go away.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

May I ask you one question - when was this Golden Age of the Escapist?

I certainly don't remember it.

Well there is no real Golden Age of the Escapist but the Escapist as I already said in my post here goes through phases. New users make lots of repeat threads involving Halo and JRPGs, etc. Eventually a new idea that is good is copied and done to death and beyond into Oblivion like the "Ask a X, Y or Z" threads started during the height of Furburt's activity in this part of the forum more recently this has been "The last X from game now wants to Y or is Z". Then there is usually a massive culling of users around MM. The ones that go are usually the ones that would of gone anyway or were skating the realm of the banhammer anyway. This is usually follows by lots of new users entering and a few old Vets going the Escapist isn't what it used to be. The other Vets retreat back to various Fortresses and surround themselves by friends they have made and never usually venture outside Forum Games, IRC or their user groups. For example I never see Furburt or Hublib around these parts of the woods nor Pimppeter or so many other people I could really go on for ages. While I myself would not count myself amoung their close groups of friends they are some of the prominent of late that haev fallen back to their safe havens.

 

[DiMono]

Well, based on the responses in this thread, I'd say it's just you.

As for my own observations, I've been an active poster for a little less than 2 weeks now, and in that time I have seen a tremendous amount of "User was put on probation/suspended for ___" text in threads. In fact, I've seen so much of it and been so impressed by it that I recommended a similar system earlier this week on a site I'm an Admin of. Based on what I've seen, there is no lack of wrath being distributed here. If you have specific posts in mind, I think you're going to have to share them with us so we can see and judge for ourselves.

 

[IamQ]

Homophobia and Racism? Where? I remember last month seeing someone using the word "gay" to describe something being bad "Dude, that game looks gay" or something along those lines. But that user was banned fast, and he had only posted 9 posts previously, so the intruder went away quickly.

 

[Lord Beautiful]

The only real drop in quality I've noticed is that there is a greater number of people who don't seem to care about grammar or spelling. Otherwise, not much has changed.

 

[irani_che]

usually the racism/ homophobia/ flaming comments come on threads titled "ask a ....... anything" or other threads that seem noble but end up being full of self important ppl and flamers. if you see one please request everyone to stop
also, what is with the number of girl/girlfriend advice threads? this is that escapist! i come here to ESCAPE the day to day crap, not talk about it.
Finally stop whinging about piracy the ppl who do it are collosal dicks but for $50 a pop they are going to continue pirating no matter what you say.
the last NPC you killed/talked to is now your gf/neighbour/boss/you threads are still good, maybe they should be put into a forum of their own as they are game related and still popular

otherwise i like these forums,

JUST NEVER EVER PUDDI PUDDI PUDDI ME

 

[Latinidiot]

I haven't seen much of a drop.

Then again I was recently on vacation so things might have changed while I was away.

Yes. I rule the place now. Your tax is due in 3 days. It will consist of cookies, cake, and insubstantiality, and it will be on my desk, packed in a flaming skull.


OT: It's just a trend with the boring topics. The amount of trolls, racists, and homophobes hasn't grown significantly. It's just that there's a bit of a down on interesting topics.

 

[thenumberthirteen]

I'll say the same thing I say in all these threads. I haven't noticed a marked drop in the quality of these forums, and they seem to be as good as usual. Of course there are always the odd trolls or flamewars and some topics get latched upon by people with prejudices. On the whole I have not seen what you're talking about.

The mods are quick as always and, if anything, can be overzealous. It's an Internet forum and some things are par for the course.

To be honest what I'm sick of seeing are these damn rant threads. Ironically many, though not this one thankfully, complain about seeing too many repeat topics. The irony is lost on them.

In my 3 years here the only marked change I've seen is an increase in post frequency. There are a lit more high post count users than when I joined.

 

[Flying Dagger]

I thought this was going to be about the rise of idiots on these forums, sadly not.

 

[MetaMop]

Apart from the occasional 'Feel free to be ignorant about gays/non-whites' thread, I haven't noticed much bigotry or trolling.