The Official Forums is an EXTREMELY poor example of a "Good Community"

[xxmiamorecadenza]

After being hit with a demeaning and all-too-common racial stereotype after mentioning my race and gender on here and that post being upvoted I realized this place and the people here aren’t the greatest.

I also admit Ive gotten real heated here before. And now at this point I maintain a distance and glance at the occasional thread. But I keep interactions to a minimum. It’s done wonders.

[Atelier-Bagur]

Just remember, this is the same place someone got jumped for daring to suggest a jump button might be a good idea to add to the game, that's all you really need to know.

"Got jumped"

Did you just intentionally do that?

[DezereDawn]

"Got jumped"

Did you just intentionally do that?

actually... i didn't, but jesus christ lmao

[Saraide]

The problem this forum has (or the benefit, depending on how much you enjoy forum drama) is a lack of good moderation. People can just throw around most nonsense and generally not get punished for it by moderation. Some particularly inept trolls will sometimes get their posts deleted aswell as the occasional heated gamer moments. Now as some other people in this thread have pointed out that active moderation doesnt automatically equal good moderation. Good moderation is hard, you need enough people qualified to account for the many posts and you need to have very qualified people able to distinguish which parts of a post are productive to discussion and which arent.

This thread existing is an example of a lack of moderation. Nothing constructive can come from meta discussions and in a well moderated forum they would be thrown out immediately.

[Raoabolic]

It's the internet, who cares, lol. Besides, the people actually playing tend to be nicer than here simply because no one really cares if your forum account gets Kaiten'd, their service account on xiv on the other hand...

[Atelier-Bagur]

The problem this forum has (or the benefit, depending on how much you enjoy forum drama) is a lack of good moderation. People can just throw around most nonsense and generally not get punished for it by moderation. Some particularly inept trolls will sometimes get their posts deleted aswell as the occasional heated gamer moments. Now as some other people in this thread have pointed out that active moderation doesnt automatically equal good moderation. Good moderation is hard, you need enough people qualified to account for the many posts and you need to have very qualified people able to distinguish which parts of a post are productive to discussion and which arent.

This thread existing is an example of a lack of moderation. Nothing constructive can come from meta discussions and in a well moderated forum they would be thrown out immediately.

I think its just the fact that they dont want to overly police the people here just like they dont actively hunt down addon users because its not in their interest to antagonize their playerbase, unless they have to.

Ive seen some moderation with the posts though especially ones where people directly insult other users even if the insults use tame words such as "nimrod". I say this from experience because I called somebody that but apparently that was too offensive for the forums so they temp suspended me for it lol.

But yeah the mods do listen to these threads though, just not interact with the community.

[ICountFrom0]

TL ; DR

OP, sees trolls trolling, mistakes them for the normal members of the forum.

[Kaurhz]

It's certainly not a good community on here by any stretch of the imagination, but then I generally don't expect anything too grand on a general forum discussion page.

That said, many of these issues do stem from a multitude of factors:

- Many people have many different opinions, and people cannot handle a difference of opinion too well, and this is exhibited in a variety of ways, be it personal insults or passive-aggressive attitude, or just a general pointless and sarcastic monologue. <- The proverb - Treat people how you wish to be treated - exacerbates this point very clearly, and some people find themselves fairly incapable of self-reflection to actually see when they are being obnoxious.

- This forum is supposed to be a place for feedback, the unfortunate circumstance is many of these issues are left to fester for too long, but then generally speaking refinement and immediate addressing of concerns is not a quick process. Extending from this, the developers and some players, potentially many players on this forum have a different philosophy behind what the game should be, and thus problems that do fester also are not addressed because they don't align with said goals. <- People also don't like this, but then a larger part of this, until very recent the developers haven't expressly stated the reasoning for certain changes or directions. < - This whole paragraph leads to people posting and responding to counterpoints in the most abrupt way possible. Not warranted, but understandable.

- A lack of proper, or rapid moderation means that people take the full course of advantages that come with being on the internet (e.g., the internet is largely anonymous for most people so they can express themselves without restraint, moreso when proper moderation isn't taken)

- In general, there is a lot of immaturities on the forums, and this is from people who may otherwise consider themselves mature.

[SlouchyBard]

- Many people have many different opinions, and people cannot handle a difference of opinion too well, and this is exhibited in a variety of ways, be it personal insults or passive-aggressive attitude, or just a general pointless and sarcastic monologue.

So if I dont like someone's opinion it gives me the justification to be a jerk because that is how some people want to "express" themselves? Sweet.

I do agree with your points though.

[VerdeLuck]

Most of those threads just go on for too long. It usually goes
1 - person suggests something
2 - people give good counter arguments
3 - OP or people with their opinion respond back
4 - back and forth for a few rounds
5 - people get bored and start to get more and more hyperbolic because why not? no one is changing their mind
6 - it devolves into trolling.

like most forums once the trolling starts, it's too fun to stop. That's why we have a 100+ page thread about dps meters, it's too fun for people to get firemage to reply again and again and bait him over and over.
if you want serious discussion, interact with about the first 5-10 pages of a thread then ignore it.