Quote Originally Posted by Iscah View Post
Not the game itself, but forum moderation.

It could make such a difference having an active moderator or two that speak up, enforce the rules, observe conversations and step in where necessary. The best forums I've been on are ones where moderators have a real presence.

Warn people that a discussion is getting out of hand and that they should be careful.

Lock duplicate threads when there's already an active one on the same topic.

Recognise patterns of behaviour instead of moderating individual posts in isolation. We can all identify certain recurring trolls, so why is it so hard to shut them down on sight?
I have mixed feeling on this.

Anyone remember the 1000+ posts Summoner thread here in the NA forums? I still have yet to learn why that was shut down. So many good concrete and detailed ideas, instantly purged. The Monk thread before that? Purged. ...And then we're told we don't provide detailed feedback or scatter it across too many threads.

Heck, the iconic "WAR/DRK" conflict likewise, in just a small port of total posts in each, has managed to shut down several otherwise constructive threads.

Likewise, I'd rather allow for satirical posts, trolling or otherwise, than censor certain posters "on sight". If they haven't done anything bad enough to be banned according to a reasonable evaluation of the TOA, then why should they be censored? I, for one, enjoy the occasional Titan-man/fist/bro post, and the discussion they prompt are more often pertinent than not, even if for seemingly the wrong reasons.

Personally, I think just improving on the forum infrastructure -- similar to as was done for Overwatch's forums or the like to make replies and relevant new posts, etc., more visible to users and allow for varyingly more general or specific (i.e. more "threaded") communication -- would do far more than more community "management".