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

[Atmos Duality]

I've seen the Trolling/Flaming done before, often in "covert" fashions.
Most of which revolve trolling someone who is obviously unhappy with a subject, or posting a touchy subject that has no real solution. Also, comparison and "Vs" threads fall under this category, though some involve actual discussion.
Worse, there are some topics that end up congratulating the troll on being successful (why do we want to encourage that again? Humor and pranks are funny, but trolling is just becoming stupid).
The troll received positive reinforcement; what do you think will happen in the future now?

Others are the rare, virtual "Group beatdown" of someone who just said something hateful or incredibly wrong. "Mob Mentality". Most of these topics get locked in short order to curtail the damage from my observations.

The Racism...well blatant racism is uncommon here, but when I do see it, I report it, and the problem is usually dealt with within minutes.

Homophobia...I assume you refer to hate-speech being used in regards to homosexuals etc, because just being afraid of anything specific isn't exactly a crime or unethical.
Just as a personal example, fursuits weird me out, but I don't hate furries.

There are numerous other troll/hate statements I can allude to that bother me, but it's just better to ignore them and move on.

In my opinion, one of the things that's really dragging the quality of the site down are these obnoxiously repetitive fad topics ("The Last X is now Y, you can do Z with X/Y...").
Once they run their course, a similar/same topic pops up days later.
Why?
Why not just refer to the original topic?
Though to be fair, it's more of a nuisance than anything; I just avoid them.

 

[sageoftruth]

I haven't noticed much change. All that really happened was that the place got bigger. Usually there's a context to how the comments were made, which is why some would get wrathed and some won't.

Plus there's the fact that if you want people to get punished for bad things, then use the report button.

I haven't seen any examples of homophobia, well and serious ones at least. The ones I do see seem to be in a joking manner. Same with people calling other countries "cowards" or whatever.

As for trolling and flaming, well those seem to be the ones many misunderstand. There's a difference between expressing your opinion and straight up trolling. And many people here confuse the two.

Then again I wouldn't be surprised if most of the worst your referring to happen in the religion/politics forum. A place I never go.

Yeah. I think that's the case with me as well. I stay out of that section and I never see offensive material that doesn't make me stop and suddenly consider the merits of the person's statement. Maybe when I'm feeling courageous I'll dive in there and see if the poster is right.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

1. Making fun of the French, or Americans is not racism. "American" is not a race, it's a nationality. Any true racism on the escapist is usually dealt with fairly quickly.

This is entirely true and indeed it is a valid argument. I would point out that this argument intentionally ignores the spirit of the point being made. Crude remarks made on the basis of nationality make one just as much a bigot as crude remarks made on the basis of race.

 

[guyroxorz]

When I opened this thread I was expecting you to comment on the fact that there seems to be duplicate threads left, right and centre. The quality of the content is suffering, i don't think anyone here would disagree that the number of thought invoking or genuinely interesting threads has decreased severely. The quality of the responses to threads are also lacking the level of insight that they used to, the mods however seem to be increasingly present and do a stand up job 99% of the time.

Basically, shh, and stop whining!

 

[Woodsey]

" post after post insists that skin colour X is inferior or superior to skin colour Y;"

Alright, that just isn't true.

The only issue I have is that repeat threads come up quite often, and mainly from new readers - there does need to be a posting cap before you can create your own thread.

 

[ryai458]

I never see these problems, maybe you have very keen sense of insulting, is that right?

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

No. We've been here almost the same amount of time, and I would say it's been pretty consistent. However, you've made only 180 posts in over two whole years. I'm not usually one to pull out the 'MOAR POSTS' card, but really, I'm hardly a prolific poster and I've racked up a much higher post count. Perhaps it's a case of inactivity giving you a hazy memory and rose-tinited glasses.

 

[Sevre]

I'm going to let you evaluate my performance, but we never let any of that stuff slide. If it's not punished, you're not reporting enough.

 

[HK_01]

Yeah...I don't think so. It's probably just nostalgia clouding your judgement.

The quality of the forums here on the Escapist has remained at the same level over the entire time that I've been here + the 6 months or so I've been lurking before making an account.

 

[Jedamethis]

Nope, never noticed anything of the sort. Though that may be because I rarely stray into the Religion and Politics section, because I like to use The Escapist properly. For Escaping. I don't want to talk about serious things, I want to laugh and occasionally find other people's opinions on things and then laugh more.
Hell, that 'How do you like your eggs?' thread was the most fun I'd had on here in ages!

 

[Icarion (aka Stockholm)]

With growth comes pain, with food comes obesity. Nothing can grow without some degree of decline, wether it be in quality or quantity etc. But it seems like the only thing really wrong (in the way you outlined) is when a bunch of people gang up on someone who said something utterly heartless (like: "I'm terminally ill and can't afford medicine" "Cool story bro".) But like that other guy said you might frequent the Religion and politics board, where I try to stay away from.

 

[BreakfastMan]

I have not seen any of that. Where are you getting this? The rare occasions where someone insults another is very quickly rewarded with a probation. I have never seen any flagrant racism or homophobia in these threads ever.

 

[spartan1077]

I'm not exactly sure what you are refering to. If you could have copy+pasted some comments that you saw, we would've got a better sense of what you are saying-but most disregarding rules comments are deleted or edited. I have seen some homophobia, but the threads are usually in the REligion and Politics Forums and the title is "Your take on Homosexuals" or something along those lines.

 

[Jazoni89]

I think it has more to do with topic quality than anything. Like for example the "you lose the game" topic or that guy pestering people to play l4d2 topic as recent examples. Even those Anime topics or the your "the character in the last game you where playing is your ______" topics are getting seriously dull.

Then their has been all those troll topics over the past few weeks. Those silly nonsensical Fallout new vegas troll topics, someone wanting to commit suicide over final fantasy XIII and a certain girl who makes Piracy Is BAD! topics daily.

Seriously you can't look that much to see that the escapist is changing. Even earlier this year the amount of troll topics was very minimal.

I blame yahtzee for attracting idiots to this site. The game discussion board is becoming like Gamefaqs and the off topic discussion is becoming like 4chan.

Im still here to stay, but the escapist is slowly becoming a car crash you just can't help but watch.

(well we still have the awesome mods though who filters the shit a little bit)

 

[Rofl-Mayo]

I think the mods do a pretty good job of taking care of those people, I've seen like 4 or 5 people banned just this week.

 

[BlueberryMUNCH]

Yeah I don't really know what your referring too, but heck, I joined in this 'age of decline' so who am I to judge:/.

The forums are growing, and more and more...not so nerdy nerds are joining; maybe they aren't used to the normal etiquette we pride ourselves with?

Meh I dunno, BUUUT

Munch's fun fact of the day: You said 'the truly mindless slough'

...I LIVE IN SLOUGH WHEEEEEY! haha

 

[Hyper-space]

snip

On what forum are you on? holy hell this is just total BS.

WHEN has flagrant racism/homophobia been tolerated on this forum? point us to a specific thread or comment that supports your judgement on the Escapists quality.

 

[duchaked]

I don't see racism, but if white people from one nation hating on white people in another well that's nothing new

and I don't really recognize "homophobia" the way it's being used

 

[Tdc2182]

I have indeed recently noticed a high amount of criticism on America recently. It seems that people are now immediately condemning the US side a lot more than usual. In fact, just recently a thread about "why Russians are always the bad guys?" ended with a pretty astounding amount of answers like "Americans are stupid".

Its beginning to bug me, which is upsetting because I always enjoyed the Escapist for the fact that racism etc. was a rare find.

Now I'm seeing it on nearly every thread I get on.