The Worst Online Communities

[Sevre]

Why flame other communities? They're communities for a reason, because they enjoy each other's company, why else would they stick together?

I can't see anything productive coming from this thread.

DotA. Don't play the game. You WILL get flamed.

Except this guy.

 

[Toriver]

Frankly, the Escapist is pretty high up there. The idea that it is the only smart place on the internet has escalated to the point where people actually believe it, and the general attitude here is overall insufferable. The example that 10 times out of 10 is used is "we can actually have a decent conversation here, unlike GameFaqs/Gamespot/IGN". Well, big deal, you're better than the lowest common denominator. What about the countless forums that are equally as polite without the weird passive aggressive vibes going on?

We actually do have a pretty terrible reputation. It's mostly because of how strict the mods are, and the piracy rule[footnote]which is not conducive to serious discussion on a very important, videogame related topic[/footnote], instead of the community itself, but there you have it. We're regarded as slightly better than gamefaqs, but without the grudging respect.

OT: I don't know if it's still like that, but when I was a teenager, Gamefaqs was like 4chan, but with slightly better moderation. There's also the Steam Community forums, which tend to be full of people complaining.

Edit: <link=http://amplicate.com/hate/the-escapist>Here's a link showing some of the hate we get. I forgot, people also hate us because of the whole "last bastion of intelligence on the internet" meme that used to be common here, as well as for all of the Valve fanboys who, again, aren't really prevalent anymore.

Anywhere that has a politics forum. There absolutely can be no civil discourse behind anonymity between the sharply divided partisan landscape. Preludes to civil war.

Yeah, I used to be quite the regular on our R&P forum, but it's become so overrun by people of a single viewpoint that it's hard to get in a word of discussion disagreeing with them without getting flamed out of existence. It's gotten so bad we have a thread openly advocating the murder of a US politician [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/528.305368-Kill-her-kill-her-now] and rather than follow the forum rules and close the topic and/or put the banhammer to the offender, a mod actually had the nerve to post in the topic with a "personal opinion disclaimer" and leave the topic open. If that were to happen for a politician on the other side, I would bet forum policy would be enforced with a vengeance and the offender would not see the light of day in these forums again. The R&P forums here are not a place to go for good political or religious discussion: they've just turned into a leftist-atheist echo chamber where any opposing view is swiftly silenced and ridiculed without consequence, provoking banhammer-worthy levels of anger from the ones being ridiculed. It's shameful behavior from a forum that does hold itself to be such a "bastion of intelligence", and if I get modwrath myself for this, so be it.

 

[The Virgo]

The Half-Life 2: Episode Two forums have gotten pretty stale due to the lack of Episode Three info and the TF2 forums are a battleground of "THIS GUN IS OP, HURR!" or "THIS GUN IS UNDERPOWERED, HURRR!" and the like.

Worst though would probably be a CoD community, due to all those god damn brats.

Oh, and on the note of the first paragraph, what the fuck is it with all this My Little Pony bullshit? I see GUYS who have MYP avatars! Ponies are for 8-year-old girls! D-:<

Press the red button, do that and you won't ever be bothered by ponies again. Go on, under my avatar, the button, press it...

But you don't have a pony avatar. That really doesn't make any sense.

Besides, it's a waste a of report, since the mods don't seem to share my same dislike.

The other red button, directly under his join date.

Oh, THAT button. Yeah, I already made the mistake of pushing that button once before ...

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Frankly, the Escapist is pretty high up there. The idea that it is the only smart place on the internet has escalated to the point where people actually believe it, and the general attitude here is overall insufferable. The example that 10 times out of 10 is used is "we can actually have a decent conversation here, unlike GameFaqs/Gamespot/IGN". Well, big deal, you're better than the lowest common denominator. What about the countless forums that are equally as polite without the weird passive aggressive vibes going on?

We actually do have a pretty terrible reputation. It's mostly because of how strict the mods are, and the piracy rule[footnote]which is not conducive to serious discussion on a very important, videogame related topic[/footnote], instead of the community itself, but there you have it. We're regarded as slightly better than gamefaqs, but without the grudging respect.

OT: I don't know if it's still like that, but when I was a teenager, Gamefaqs was like 4chan, but with slightly better moderation. There's also the Steam Community forums, which tend to be full of people complaining.

Edit: <link=http://amplicate.com/hate/the-escapist>Here's a link showing some of the hate we get. I forgot, people also hate us because of the whole "last bastion of intelligence on the internet" meme that used to be common here, as well as for all of the Valve fanboys who, again, aren't really prevalent anymore.

Anywhere that has a politics forum. There absolutely can be no civil discourse behind anonymity between the sharply divided partisan landscape. Preludes to civil war.

Yeah, I used to be quite the regular on our R&P forum, but it's become so overrun by people of a single viewpoint that it's hard to get in a word of discussion disagreeing with them without getting flamed out of existence. It's gotten so bad we have a thread openly advocating the murder of a US politician [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/528.305368-Kill-her-kill-her-now] and rather than follow the forum rules and close the topic and/or put the banhammer to the offender, a mod actually had the nerve to post in the topic with a "personal opinion disclaimer" and leave the topic open. If that were to happen for a politician on the other side, I would bet forum policy would be enforced with a vengeance and the offender would not see the light of day in these forums again. The R&P forums here are not a place to go for good political or religious discussion: they've just turned into a leftist-atheist echo chamber where any opposing view is swiftly silenced and ridiculed without consequence, provoking banhammer-worthy levels of anger from the ones being ridiculed. It's shameful behavior from a forum that does hold itself to be such a "bastion of intelligence", and if I get modwrath myself for this, so be it.

Yeah, I am a liberal, and I still find the stuff that goes on in that forum ridiculous -- especially since I'm not an atheist. Funny thing is, when a really big political topic (such as the debt ceiling) comes up, there is almost always a topic about it in off topic, and it tends to get fairly flame-free discussion, with people from as broad a spectrum of political beliefs as can be expected, considering how disproportionately atheist and liberal this forum is -- not that the conservatives or theists around here help. Many of the conservatives around here are so crazy that it makes all but the craziest liberals around here (and by that exception I mean the ones who are in favor of things like Eugenics) look sane, while the theists have pretty much given up on arguing with the atheists, which makes threads that touch on religion look really one sided.

[sub]Off topic, but I'm starting to regret that footnote. I wish the tech team could get a version of it that always puts the footnote in the right person's post, but it's not going to happen, since the users weren't even technically meant to figure out how to use it; the content creators use the same editing system we do.[/sub]

 

[Devil's Due]

We have threads about how shitty other online communities are.

That speaks volumes as to how low the Escapist is.

I've been here since '08, we can go much lower at times fairly easily about many issues.

With that in mind, The Escapist has my vote for the Worst Community, as we pretend we're the height of most communities and that we're tolerant or understanding, despite the countless threads and polls that obviously show otherwise for us. Sure, other communities are horrible, like YouTube, but they really don't know better or pretend to care. We know better, yet we act the same at times.

I wonder if I will get harassed or praised (most likely ignored, however) for this post.

EDIT: We have our own hate club? That's... fairly amusing, and while I do understand some of their points, I must admit a lot of those are hilariously wrong or just trying to be "edgy" from what I've seen compared to their comments. No place is safe from ignorance or misinformation it appears.

 

[-Drifter-]

Yeah, I used to be quite the regular on our R&P forum, but it's become so overrun by people of a single viewpoint that it's hard to get in a word of discussion disagreeing with them without getting flamed out of existence. It's gotten so bad we have a thread openly advocating the murder of a US politician [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/528.305368-Kill-her-kill-her-now] and rather than follow the forum rules and close the topic and/or put the banhammer to the offender, a mod actually had the nerve to post in the topic with a "personal opinion disclaimer" and leave the topic open. If that were to happen for a politician on the other side, I would bet forum policy would be enforced with a vengeance and the offender would not see the light of day in these forums again. The R&P forums here are not a place to go for good political or religious discussion: they've just turned into a leftist-atheist echo chamber where any opposing view is swiftly silenced and ridiculed without consequence, provoking banhammer-worthy levels of anger from the ones being ridiculed. It's shameful behavior from a forum that does hold itself to be such a "bastion of intelligence", and if I get modwrath myself for this, so be it.

Yeah, I'm sorry I had the audacity to say something along the lines of "Personal opinion: when you're upset about political decisions, you should vote". If anything I was providing the OP with an alternative to a forum rant. Last I checked this is a discussion forum wherein constructive criticism is welcome.

I left the post in question up for some time because it seemed that the purpose of the individual's post was to express a hyperbolic level of dissent rather than to divulge a murder-plot. Obviously people couldn't handle that kind of discussion/were offended, so now the post is gone.

Posting this complaint here is the least constructive way to have your concerns addressed. Here are two alternatives:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/groups/view/Ideas-for-The-Escapist
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/groups/view/Moderation-Team

Mod wrath? I'd rather have a civil discussion with you, personally.

- Nas