This is something I haven't seen in a forum...

[PallElendro]

There are no Internet trolls/flamers in the Playground! Ain't that something?

[Blue Ghost]

The Playground is quite nice that way. Unfortunately, it is not entirely troll-free. There is a bit of a bad underside here, though not nearly as much as other forums I've seen.

[Objection]

Yeah, I've been on a lot of forums, ranging from one where practically everyone was an immature troll, including the mods, to some where the level of maturity is much greater. This forum definitely gets a high number on the maturity scale from what I've seen.

[Tebryn]

The Playground is quite nice that way. Unfortunately, it is not entirely troll-free. There is a bit of a bad underside here, though not nearly as much as other forums I've seen.

I'd really like to know where that is, I haven't seen it in my four years here.

[TheCountAlucard]

Trolls do come here. Then their threads get locked.

They either continue to troll, in which case they get banned, or they shape up a bit, and just have some fun on a forum where people can be nice to each other.

[Spiryt]

Yeah, probably rather strict rules of posting etc. have a lot to do with it.

To make things funnier people were mostly getting banned because of flaming in Gaming part of forum in some another heated discussion about as important stuff as 8th level spells in 3.5 D&D. :smallwink:

[Tengu_temp]

There are no Internet trolls/flamers in the Playground! Ain't that something?

It would be something if it wasn't wrong. There's a lot of trolls and passive-aggressive people on these forums, they just tend to troll in ways that let them avoid getting punished. You won't find anyone who will tell you "lol u suck", but there's a lot of folks who will, for example, indirectly offend you for liking a different game or playstyle than they do.


They either continue to troll, in which case they get banned, or they shape up a bit, and just have some fun on a forum where people can be nice to each other.

Saying that all trolls get banned, or that all people who get banned are trolls, is both very inaccurate.

[TheCountAlucard]

Saying that all trolls get banned, or that all people who get banned are trolls, is both very inaccurate.Fair enough, but I didn't say either of those things. Kinda got close with regard to the first, but I was just making a generalization. Shall I go back and edit my post?

[Tengu_temp]

Fair enough, but I didn't say either of those things. Kinda got close with regard to the first, but I was just making a generalization. Shall I go back and edit my post?

If you want to, I'm fine either way. I'm just here to clear misconceptions.

[Traab]

Heh, I liked the way it was done on my old everquest server message board. We had a forum for trolling. The entire point was you could be as nasty cruel, mean, and profane as you wanted.... but only there. Any topics that shifted in that direction got promptly moved to that forum. It was kind of odd, but you learned some freaking hilarious phrases. 95% of which I wish I could post here but I would get deleted fast.

Noone took it seriously, everyone had a blast, and it was a place where you didnt have to worry about offending someone because they all knew what they were getting into by posting a topic there. In fact, you could get compliments and internet applause by coming up with a new and interesting way to say, "I am sorry sir, but I happen to disagree with your statement, and it brings to mind questions about the type of person you are." that hadnt been done a million times before. Bonus points if people actually caught on fire from the sheer level of scorn and profanity you released. :smallbiggrin:

[Weezer]

This isn't a purely troll free forum, it's just more subtle. Generally takes the form of passive aggressiveness, subtle disparagement, willful misunderstanding, things like that. It's actually fascinating to examine, I enjoy following threads when this is going in.

[Tengu_temp]

Heh, I liked the way it was done on my old everquest server message board. We had a forum for trolling. The entire point was you could be as nasty cruel, mean, and profane as you wanted.... but only there. Any topics that shifted in that direction got promptly moved to that forum. It was kind of odd, but you learned some freaking hilarious phrases. 95% of which I wish I could post here but I would get deleted fast.

I had an idea for a similar thing for GitP once (a rules-free subforum that only members can even read, and with double no-no on pulling external baggage from there to the other forums), but I'm more than certain this would never pass here so I never posted the idea.

[Dr.Epic]

Well, there are specific rules against trolling/flaming so people know not to do that. And if they do, they'll either get scrubbed or banned.

[thubby]

we have good, reasonable mods that at least appear human.

though how humans have mi-there is no mind control ill never know

[Eon]

Trust me. The trolling doesn't get too bad because of the min- There is no mind control. Go back to your fun.

[Surfing HalfOrc]

Yes, it is nice to not see the suffix "-tard" attached to every political point of view. :smallsmile:

That, and not seeing the word "sheeple" except in describing mutants in a post-apopalyptic game setting.

The only locked thread I didn't agree with was the Class and Level Geekery thread in the OotS main thread. I never posted there because some of the technical aspects of calculating details was kind of boring, but some folks got majorly hung up on a minor detail about Celia flying with Roy. This led to arguments that got out of hand, and finally what seems like a perminant shutdown. Too bad, really, I kind of liked seeing all the details of each major character, in case I needed a fully detailed PC or NPC in my own one-off games.

But the threads I was so glad to see perma-gone were the tedious passave-aggressive and downright aggressive-aggressive "Was X morally Justified in doing Y to character Z?" :smallannoyed:

[CoffeeIncluded]

Heh, I liked the way it was done on my old everquest server message board. We had a forum for trolling. The entire point was you could be as nasty cruel, mean, and profane as you wanted.... but only there. Any topics that shifted in that direction got promptly moved to that forum. It was kind of odd, but you learned some freaking hilarious phrases. 95% of which I wish I could post here but I would get deleted fast.

Noone took it seriously, everyone had a blast, and it was a place where you didnt have to worry about offending someone because they all knew what they were getting into by posting a topic there. In fact, you could get compliments and internet applause by coming up with a new and interesting way to say, "I am sorry sir, but I happen to disagree with your statement, and it brings to mind questions about the type of person you are." that hadnt been done a million times before. Bonus points if people actually caught on fire from the sheer level of scorn and profanity you released. :smallbiggrin:

You know, that's a fantastic idea!

[Traab]

I had an idea for a similar thing for GitP once (a rules-free subforum that only members can even read, and with double no-no on pulling external baggage from there to the other forums), but I'm more than certain this would never pass here so I never posted the idea.

Heh, I doubt it would work well here. While the rant forum was a free for all zone, the rules of conduct everywhere else were a lot looser as well so it was a lot easier to go from psycho raving lunatic to hyper dumb teenager who thinks he knows everything. Better than psycho raving lunatic to stereotypical proper british gentleman at least. It was a bit of a grey area, and the mods let things slide a lot of the time, but there was always the random idiot who couldnt control himself and pushed too far. Luckily, as it was a server board with maybe 100 regular posters, everyone knew everyone both in game and on the board, so we self policed alot.

Its funny, but we even had something that ive never seen work on any other mmo ive ever played. The ****list. If you had a problem with a player who say, ninja looted the rare drop you have been camping the last 72 hours straight to get, (it happened, and even longer times than that) you could report him on the board, people would chime in to either share similar tales, or to defend the person, and after a week it would be decided if this was a legit posting and so was stickied as a warning to avoid the player, or if it was unwarranted, like an accident or someone who genuinely didnt know the rules, like a new player, and hence was removed. If it stuck, the players would make an effort to find every single character owned by that player and post the names so we knew to avoid ever playing with them.

It worked REALLY well. A combination of small (compared to games like WoW) server pops, and slow levelling kept people mostly honest. What good is that epic gear you stole going to do you if noone will let you join their raids? You cant even give it to an alt because they would eventually figure it out and the new guy would get added to the topic with your name on it. Back when I played, solo wasnt an option at all for half the classes, and most of the rest could barely do it at all. I think maybe 3 classes were effective at soloing past level 20 so you NEEDED groups to enjoy the game.

[Rockphed]

Well, there are specific rules against trolling/flaming so people know not to do that. And if they do, they'll either get scrubbed or banned.

Sometimes I happen upon scrubbings and wonder what manner of mischief they conceal. I suppose in many cases the only people who could tell me are the mods, and I suspect part of their training includes taking oaths to never disclose the exact nature of the things they see while performing their duties. Also how to live on less than a wink of sleep a day and a crumb of cheese.

More seriously, the general dearth of trolls and flaming can be attributed to rules that take a very dim view of such and a team of mods that are pretty on the ball. Back when the mod-squad consisted of Roland and Rawhide and Alarra it took a while for threads to get scrubbed. Now things get taken care of in short order.

[Wyntonian]

I told my girlfriend I found a place with almost no trolling and she didn't believe me. :smallbiggrin: I know that it's not entirely gone, but most of what I've seen is at least polite, if not accidental.

[Delwugor]

GitP is one of the more politer forums I've been to. Sometimes that works very well sometimes it just leads to passive aggressive exchanges. But just like trolling it is usually easy to ignore with thick dwarven skin.
BTW Dwarves are immune to measly mind control tricks, sorry mods got to try harder than that!

[Killer Angel]

It would be something if it wasn't wrong. There's a lot of trolls and passive-aggressive people on these forums, they just tend to troll in ways that let them avoid getting punished. You won't find anyone who will tell you "lol u suck", but there's a lot of folks who will, for example, indirectly offend you for liking a different game or playstyle than they do.


Those kind of behaviour, are both signed under "trolling" in the forum rules. You only need to report them.


Saying that all trolls get banned, or that all people who get banned are trolls, is both very inaccurate.

Inaccurate, yes. Very inaccurate, no.
Of course banning can come from a lot of different things, not only trolling, but regular trolls, sooner or later, get banned.

[grimbold]

i see trolls all the time here! just look at killer angel! :smalltongue: (Wait for it folks...) :smallbiggrin:

[Killer Angel]

i see trolls all the time here! just look at killer angel! :smalltongue: (Wait for it folks...) :smallbiggrin:

If I would say it was unexpected, I would be a liar... :smallwink:

[Prime32]

Those kind of behaviour, are both signed under "trolling" in the forum rules. You only need to report them.Except that if the troll is subtle enough, you'll get banned for reporting people for no reason. Likewise, some people here are easily offended and report anyone who disagrees with them.

[Siosilvar]

Except that if the troll is subtle enough, you'll get banned for reporting people for no reason.

I... is this a thing that can happen? It's not in the rules and hints at improper modding. Banning those who cause more work for the mods is contrahelpful* and just... defeats the purpose.

*The word that's supposed to be here slipped my mind.

In any case, I think this edges a bit close to a couple of the yellow-curved-fruit topics.

[Tengu_temp]

You can't get infractions for reporting people. Otherwise I'd be banned ages ago.

[Fiery Diamond]

I... is this a thing that can happen? It's not in the rules and hints at improper modding. Banning those who cause more work for the mods is contrahelpful* and just... defeats the purpose.

*The word that's supposed to be here slipped my mind.

In any case, I think this edges a bit close to a couple of the yellow-curved-fruit topics.


Banana mind control! :smalltongue:

[ForzaFiori]

*The word that's supposed to be here slipped my mind.


unhelpful? useless? worthless?

As to the actual topic, I can honestly say this is the most polite forum I've ever seen, and I've seen a bunch of them.

[Fri]

unhelpful? useless? worthless?

As to the actual topic, I can honestly say this is the most polite forum I've ever seen, and I've seen a bunch of them.

Yes, but polite doesn't means nice though. Just ask those gentlemen who's been killed in a gentlemanly duel :smallbiggrin:

I wonder if people who's saying that they never seen hostility/troll/whatelse in the forum has ever stepped outside of friendly banter. What do they call people slinging flaming rocks to each others at the gaming forums as I wonder.

[Remmirath]

This is one of the nicer and more reasonable forums I've seen, certainly for its size. Yes, even including the Roleplaying section (although I do find myself often avoiding that section for the simple reason that I seem to disagree with most of the people in it most of the time, so there's not much constructive conversation I could usually engage in there :smalltongue:).

The rules and moderation are a large part of it, I'm sure. Most of the worst places I've seen have had little-to-no or inactive moderators.

[Asthix]

That 5 people on the Playground game in SMBG gets around the no trolling rule nicely, by not mentioning any names.

[Serpentine]

Except that if the troll is subtle enough, you'll get banned for reporting people for no reason.Uuuuuuuh... Yeah, no. I've reported people specifically for what I suspect to be subtle trolling many times before, and I haven't gotten so much as a PM about it. If it seems like someone's following someone from thread to thread and reporting everything they say, then maybe you'll get done under the "No Harassment". But I believe I can say with pretty much complete certainty that no one ever has nor ever will be "banned for reporting people for no reason".

No, this is not a challenge.

[Pika...]

Yes, but polite doesn't means nice though. Just ask those gentlemen who's been killed in a gentlemanly duel :smallbiggrin:

I wonder if people who's saying that they never seen hostility/troll/whatelse in the forum has ever stepped outside of friendly banter. What do they call people slinging flaming rocks to each others at the gaming forums as I wonder.

Well, even during the 3.5/4th edition war people were more civil than anywhere else on the net. WotC forums? Forget about it.


However, I am angry people say there are no trolls on here. I worked hard for my Troll status! :smalltongue:

edit:
Oh wait, I am an Ogre now. Silly me. :smallbiggrin:

[Karoht]

If you go to less fan site forums and places where more constructive discussion is fostered, you tend to find less trolls. Fandom or Fandumb is where you tend to find trolls the most. Places where scientific topics are popular, objective topics recommended, subjective material usually left in the Misc section of the forum.

Also, any place that discourages the topics of Politics or Religion have a tendancy to have few to zero trolls.


I would hypothesize a correlation. Incidence of trolling is directly proportional to the frequency and allowance of controversial topics. Subject to moderator reaction and reaction time.

[Pika...]

Subject to moderator reaction and reaction time.

That brings up another good point. The mods here might have a reputation among the various sites for being hard, but they do their job.

[Shyftir]

If only there were forums where politics and religion could be discussed civilly... Sigh. But that's like dreaming about a D&D game without Monty Python quotes...

[Mercenary Pen]

contrahelpful*

*The word that's supposed to be here slipped my mind.

Maybe counterproductive?

[Drascin]

Basically, there is plenty of hostility, it just doesn't end up with everyone calling everyone else a retard like usually happens in most places, because the moderation keeps a very tight eye. But people still call each other poopyheads plenty, they just have to use the academic way of doing so (http://www.missmab.com/Comics/Vol_1264.php) :smalltongue:.

I will have to agree, however, that there is very little trolling as such. Arguments here seem to stem more from both sides thinking the other part is really dumb for believing what he says, than from people intentionally riling others up. Trolls seem unusually sparse here. People here want to behead each other on legitimate mutual dislike and disagreement, instead of one side just being aggravating for the lulz.

[Knaight]

Well, even during the 3.5/4th edition war people were more civil than anywhere else on the net. WotC forums? Forget about it.

There are plenty of places that handled that better than GiantITP, which also have a much lesser amount of subtle trolling and flaming. Granted, WotC isn't one of them, but being better than the WotC board is less something one should aspire to and more the assumed default state - though WotC is nowhere near the worst.

As for people being banned for reporting too many posts - does the reporting architecture even show who makes the reports?

[super dark33]

Well, im my playgrounding years, ive seen a few STFW's (Spamming-Trolling-Flameing-[Internet]Wanderers), but before i could even report them, ive seen theyre posts scrubbed and their accounts banned.
Trolling is indeed an anomaly here. what i hope is that no troll society will decide to invade us. (http://xkcd.com/591/)

[grimbold]

Well, im my playgrounding years, ive seen a few STFW's (Spamming-Trolling-Flameing-[Internet]Wanderers), but before i could even report them, ive seen theyre posts scrubbed and their accounts banned.
Trolling is indeed an anomaly here. what i hope is that no troll society will decide to invade us. (http://xkcd.com/591/)

that comic made my day :smallbiggrin:

[Tyndmyr]

Also, any place that discourages the topics of Politics or Religion have a tendancy to have few to zero trolls.

I dunno, star wars vs star trek or whatever has plenty of trolling. Look through say...basically any youtube video comments section, and you'll swiftly lose hope for humanity.

That said, I've noticed that at least cordoning off politics/religion to a specific forum is desirable to keep conflict arising from disagreement from affecting the rest of the site.

Trolling still exists on GiantITP, though. It just takes a more subtle metaform. Well, slightly more subtle anyway.

[Pika...]

I dunno, star wars vs star trek or whatever has plenty of trolling.

To many, that is a religious topic. :smalltongue:

[grimbold]

the trolls here are almost artists :smalltongue:

[Lord Hakura]

Basically, there is plenty of hostility, it just doesn't end up with everyone calling everyone else a retard like usually happens in most places, because the moderation keeps a very tight eye. But people still call each other poopyheads plenty, they just have to use the academic way of doing so (http://www.missmab.com/Comics/Vol_1264.php) :smalltongue:.
Agreed, profanity is not required to cause insult, and many insults can be hidden in a line of words. Also, that comic is hilarious.

Trolling is a base pursuit, far from what occours on these forums. What happens here is that great art of debate and argument. Where one seeks not to hurt or harm the other, but save them from the most grevious of faults, that of being Wrong.
</sage moment>
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This is not a signature, I typed it at the bottom of my post.

[Cespenar]

I will have to agree, however, that there is very little trolling as such. Arguments here seem to stem more from both sides thinking the other part is really dumb for believing what he says, than from people intentionally riling others up. Trolls seem unusually sparse here. People here want to behead each other on legitimate mutual dislike and disagreement, instead of one side just being aggravating for the lulz.

This.

Also, the closest stuff to trolling I see in this forum are threads like "Why do people like X that much?" or "I've watched/read/played X, what was all that hype?", but since I can't decide whether it's subtle trolling, naivete, genuine curiosity, or some other thing, I don't ever report on those.

[RabbitHoleLost]

That, and not seeing the word "sheeple" except in describing mutants in a post-apopalyptic game setting.
I learned the term sheeple from this the Playground, actually.

As most have already said, we don't have overt flaming. Most of those who do that, either get banned, shape up, or adapt to learn the ways of subtle insults that fly under the radar.
There is a lot of passive aggressiveness to this forum that will purposefully push someone to the edge, and then report them once they do that.

[Knaight]

Agreed, profanity is not required to cause insult, and many insults can be hidden in a line of words. Also, that comic is hilarious.

I'd go so far as to state that those who need profanity to insult other people are extremely bad at creating insults. That isn't to say that profanity doesn't have a role, merely that it is largely ineffectual on its own and effective insults tend to still be effective with the profanity removed, if not to the same degree.

Granted, my familiarity with insults is primarily as a recipient, so what I call general trends might just be what works on me.

[Lord Hakura]

Quite true, but it depends on the intelegence of the person being insulted. For example, if you called someone a "retarded fudge~nipple" most people would gather that you are trying to insult them. But if you said "your intelegence is comparable to that of what could be found on the base of my shoe" it requires a degree of intelegence to work out that you are calling the person an idiot.

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Not a signature, I typed this on the bottom of my post.
Please excuse any spelling errors in the above post, mobile keyboards are no the most easy to type on.

[Knaight]

Quite true, but it depends on the intelegence of the person being insulted. For example, if you called someone a "retarded fudge~nipple" most people would gather that you are trying to insult them. But if you said "your intelegence is comparable to that of what could be found on the base of my shoe" it requires a degree of intelegence to work out that you are calling the person an idiot.

Eh. Plenty of people would take more issue with "retarded fudgenipple" involving at least one slur than being insulted by it.

[Tyndmyr]

This.

Also, the closest stuff to trolling I see in this forum are threads like "Why do people like X that much?" or "I've watched/read/played X, what was all that hype?", but since I can't decide whether it's subtle trolling, naivete, genuine curiosity, or some other thing, I don't ever report on those.

Hmm? Nah, that's not at all trolling. That's merely an innocent question about opinions.

The trolling, as it occurs on this forum, is a result of responding to people in an intentionally obtuse manner, misinterpreting everything they said, and basically writing an intentionally misguided post responding to something they didn't say. Repeat until anger is achieved. Report angry poster.

Profanity is merely a means to an end. It may not be at all insulting, it is the context that is insulting, not the specific words used in the process.

[Glass Mouse]

So, what you're all saying is, this forum forces people to be as subtle as you have to be IRL when insulting someone? Y'know, where you have to be careful people don't just smack you upside the head.

Isn't that the best we can hope for? :smallwink:

[Tengu_temp]

So, what you're all saying is, this forum forces people to be as subtle as you have to be IRL when insulting someone? Y'know, where you have to be careful people don't just smack you upside the head.

Isn't that the best we can hope for? :smallwink:

Wrong. It's not subtlety, it's avoiding the forum rules. These people still aggrevate and/or offend plenty of other people and don't get punished because what they're doing is technically within the rules.