Journal of Other Forum Analysis (Volume II, Issue 2)

[nachobro]

era really gets ad revenue from xbox? Why haven't any of the mods been told to quit their positions if they really support the boycott. 

cause their userbase uses adblock and has never seen the ads

[nachobro]

Mods need to take notes from Evilore. This is how you respond to terrorists in your community!!!

the correct way to deal with nintendies. treat them like their parents do.

[Taco Bell Tower]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/bluesky-uk-will-require-age-verification-id-face-scan-payment-card-starting-july-25-to-be-able-to-use-bluesky-without-restrictions.1240776/page-2#post-142535367

Will Resetera eventually have to comply with these laws? or are they not included in this stuff

Yes. Reset era has what our government consider adult content, namely the existence of trans people is occasionally mentioned.

Existence of trans people is considered adult content?  Is that why they want trans kids that badly?

[benji]

No one curr what you lot think about superman, give me Jeff marvels verdict

Jeff was embarrassed into deleting his praise of the Superman movie and purchase of a $23 cup, but that didn't stop him from going back into the Nazi bar to fight with chuds:

[Taco Bell Tower]

I really wish Jeff Marvel Superman would stop deleting his tweets.  He did pwnd Nazis but ends up being a Nazi himself and deletes his pwnage tweets.

[Uncle]

Sorry Superman, the new generation just doesn't care about you any more. 

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

genuinely a relevant song and genuinely like this band (they use NES hardware and GameBoys as instruments)

[benji]

era really gets ad revenue from xbox? Why haven't any of the mods been told to quit their positions if they really support the boycott. 

You can specify if you don't want certain advertisers to appear on your website. The staff have not announced that they have gone in and blocked Microsoft ads so I have to presume they have not asked MOBA to do this. For the same reason they haven't restricted Microsoft product threads. "It's not realistic." Era profits matter more than brown bodies.

[Gamegirl Nostalgia]

poc can't get IDs? y'all know that IDs are required in some countries to vote right? Non-white ones?

[Gamegirl Nostalgia]

Mods need to take notes from Evilore. This is how you respond to terrorists in your community!!!

I would rather have an admin talk to me like this instead of whatever corpo speak there is on Era.

I really really really hate when people on some shitty game forum think it's a legitimate business and talk like they're part of HR.

[Gamegirl Nostalgia]

Benji didn't like my newest Batman Forever post. He's not even a real fan.

sigh, this is all so tiring..

[benji]

I would rather have an admin talk to me like this instead of whatever corpo speak there is on Era.

I really really really hate when people on some shitty game forum think it's a legitimate business and talk like they're part of HR.

It's especially funny when like none of them have even ever had such a job where you'd have to write like that. It's what they imagine is professional communication. It's like when Nepenthe starts repeating a bunch of buzz words she's heard other people use in her word salads.

[Gamegirl Nostalgia]

You're not a peer if you reply to people like it's a business. You're a peer when you tell them to shut the fuck up like a normal person.

[Uncle]

gameboy nostalgia keeps dropping the subtlest hints to benji

[BIONIC]

So hi, I've done a lot of community management and moderation in my life. I made a bunch of mistakes at it as a teenager when I was young and inexperienced, but eventually it became a regularly part of my professional duties. I work with small communities as well as some large industry organizations. A reasonable portion of my doctoral dissertation dealt with it, and my forthcoming book (adapted from the dis) will as well.

I also do consulting and contracting on a client-by-client basis for various things. Most of those things are about game writing and development, but I'd be happy to talk with the staff if they wanted. No pressure or anything but I have the experience and it seems like maybe it would help. Y'all can shoot me a DM if you're interested.

[BIONIC]

I'm just guessing here but they could have said my bad, edited their post, and probably been fine.

Inflammatory comparison is literally in the general guide. I don't think they need to warn again for basic stuff.

I'm not gonna go back and forth on what counts as inflammatory when it clearly is inflammatory to compare forum moderation to civil rights abuse.

They didn't compare mods to good law abiding peace keepers.

You're right. The comparison does typically come up whenever people feel like mods are abusing their powers, so what I imagined the thought process was doesn't really hold scrutiny. Still, I get what [USER=2588]FUNKNOWN iXi[/USER] is getting at and that doesn't really change the crux of the rest of my post.

The comparisons aren't even needed. Plenty of people are making their complaints heard without it. Sorry for being short with my responses with you, I don't want to stifle the overall conversation. That's a conversation people want to have; I don't want to get in the way.

I'm in favor of transparency but I think it's also important that we take into account how the mods feel about it. After all, we're not the people who would be negatively impacted. They have the right to feel safe. They are making decisions that usually someone is not going to agree. And the role is important for the forum. If they say they don't want to have full transparency on who is making the decisions, then I think that's just how it should be.

At the end of the day, you're balancing two competing interests with each other. Accountability and safety. And someone has to make that call and for me it's easy choice to defer to those whose safety would be potentially compromised. After all, it's not I that would be making the sacrifice.

Keep in mind that a "permanent" threadban for this thread only last less than a year since they create a new thread every year.

I can see why the post was actioned in this instance (and I don't think it's some kind of malice/bad faith action). I can also see there is confusion about it, and a variety of takes, that indicates to me that the banner is not clear enough. And when banners are not clear, people seem to really jump to conclusions about said ban.



If by good experience, you mean had a ban reversed, then yes. I had a ban reversed within about a day.

It's not explicitly stated in the general guide. But that's not to say it's not against the rules. The guide itself says (I'm paraphrasing) it's not a comprehensive list of written rules and that is because it would be impractical to try to list every single possible violation.

People have complained about people's low effort posting for ages, particularly when someone doesn't even appear to have read the opening post. When the opening post is just the article it is not a stretch to think people should read an article before commenting. So while not explicit, it's arguably implied by the existing guide.

That said, I do think it would be preferable to have more established rules explicitly put into the guide.

Ban appeals have always been through tickets. Nothing there has changed... ban appeals for other people you mean? I guess I can understand if that's what you mean.

This cunt literally just exists to fluff the mods in the constructive thread

[books]

Back in the day, twitter famous folks would delete @ replies after a while to keep their feeds focused on comedy or one liner jokes. Jeff isn't twitter famous tho and it isn't 15 years ago.

Inflammatory comparison is literally in the general guide. I don't think they need to warn again for basic stuff.

I hate hate hate when posters start writing like mods.

[Uncle]

the reason all these constructive people get got is because they say "this is just like the time I got banned here a month ago, for an unjust reason, by an unspecified mod whom everyone knows I'm talking about"

 RELITIGATING BAN, MISREPRESENTING MODERATION  

all they have to do is say "there's another forum I used to be a part of where I got banned for saying X thing unjustly by a mod most people there didn't like, they always dug into your post history to find reasons to ban you. as far as I'm aware that forum slowly died as everyone who used to enjoy it slowly bled out and the mods dissolved into infighting, a cautionary tale to be sure"

[benji]

So hi, I've done a lot of community management and moderation in my life.  I made a bunch of mistakes at it as a teenager when I was young and inexperienced, but eventually it became a regularly part of my professional duties.  I work with small communities as well as some large industry organizations.  A reasonable portion of my doctoral dissertation dealt with it, and my forthcoming book (adapted from the dis) will as well.

I also do consulting and contracting on a client-by-client basis for various things.  Most of those things are about game writing and development, but I'd be happy to talk with the staff if they wanted.  No pressure or anything but I have the experience and it seems like maybe it would help.  Y'all can shoot me a DM if you're interested.

About
Our time and activity, when not dedicated to survival, is directed toward forming and telling stories about ourselves. While many narrative experiences today are passive (one reads a book, watches a film, attends an opera,) I have been especially taken with narrative experiences that are participatory in their structure. In addition to utilizing the traditional tools of narratology – from the theoretical work of the Russian formalists to semiotics – I am also intrigued by forms of narrative that are growing in popularity. While allowing a group to influence the direction of a narrative is not a new literary strategy, the practice has become far more widespread with the growth in popularity of games and gaming. Though there is usually an individual directing the process, the story cannot advance without the participation of the group.

The rise in popularity of games has expanded the audience for and scope of participatory narrative experiences. No longer do all players need to be in the same room, or even in the same country, to work together on constructing a narrative. Many exciting questions arise from these new narratives – and bring with them new troubles, dissonances and theoretical positions to pursue. How closely do players and their “avatars” correspond? What occurs when the limits of technology interfere with the intended structure of a narrative? What dynamic elements emerge from the ability to alter a story mid-thread? These questions are just some that focus my research. Additionally, there is important work to be done taking into account the wider social contexts under which these games are produced: issues of gender, race, representation, portrayal and even creation are all hot-button subjects right now, and no examination of the medium would be complete without accounting for these questions.

https://www.literature.pitt.edu/news/faculty-profile-series-justin-bortnick
https://allfatherproductions.com/games.html
https://redpagespodcast.com/
https://jabortnick.com/

https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/2893070
https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/2391322

In this article, the author draws upon their own experience as a commercial alternate reality game designer and interviews with other working professionals, examining how the form moved from its origins as outsider art into the realm of commercial production and then beyond that as a tool of political influence. The article traces the long history of misinformation and conspiracy in American politics and demonstrates how the introduction of entertainment industry design methodologies has altered the production of disinformation campaigns. From Andrew Jackson and the New York Slave Conspiracy of 1741 through Gamergate and QAnon, the article argues that while conspiracy has always been a central part of American culture, the introduction of modern game design has altered the landscape, and that only by recognizing how our work as designers is being co-opted can we can begin to work to prevent additional social harms.

[D3RANG3D]

[HeavenIsAPlaceOnEarth]

94 user active, lets see how that goes.

Everyone wants to know what Jeff thinks

Jeff Marvel, the Twitter (X) user? ZeoVGM who loves to spend time in the Nazi bar?

[Uncle]

So hi, I've done a lot of community management and moderation in my life.  I made a bunch of mistakes at it as a teenager when I was young and inexperienced, but eventually it became a regularly part of my professional duties.  I work with small communities as well as some large industry organizations.  A reasonable portion of my doctoral dissertation dealt with it, and my forthcoming book (adapted from the dis) will as well.

I also do consulting and contracting on a client-by-client basis for various things.  Most of those things are about game writing and development, but I'd be happy to talk with the staff if they wanted.  No pressure or anything but I have the experience and it seems like maybe it would help.  Y'all can shoot me a DM if you're interested.

About
Our time and activity, when not dedicated to survival, is directed toward forming and telling stories about ourselves. While many narrative experiences today are passive (one reads a book, watches a film, attends an opera,) I have been especially taken with narrative experiences that are participatory in their structure. In addition to utilizing the traditional tools of narratology – from the theoretical work of the Russian formalists to semiotics – I am also intrigued by forms of narrative that are growing in popularity. While allowing a group to influence the direction of a narrative is not a new literary strategy, the practice has become far more widespread with the growth in popularity of games and gaming. Though there is usually an individual directing the process, the story cannot advance without the participation of the group.

The rise in popularity of games has expanded the audience for and scope of participatory narrative experiences. No longer do all players need to be in the same room, or even in the same country, to work together on constructing a narrative. Many exciting questions arise from these new narratives – and bring with them new troubles, dissonances and theoretical positions to pursue. How closely do players and their “avatars” correspond? What occurs when the limits of technology interfere with the intended structure of a narrative? What dynamic elements emerge from the ability to alter a story mid-thread? These questions are just some that focus my research. Additionally, there is important work to be done taking into account the wider social contexts under which these games are produced: issues of gender, race, representation, portrayal and even creation are all hot-button subjects right now, and no examination of the medium would be complete without accounting for these questions.

https://www.literature.pitt.edu/news/faculty-profile-series-justin-bortnick
https://allfatherproductions.com/games.html
https://redpagespodcast.com/
https://jabortnick.com/

https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/2893070
https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/2391322

In this article, the author draws upon their own experience as a commercial alternate reality game designer and interviews with other working professionals, examining how the form moved from its origins as outsider art into the realm of commercial production and then beyond that as a tool of political influence. The article traces the long history of misinformation and conspiracy in American politics and demonstrates how the introduction of entertainment industry design methodologies has altered the production of disinformation campaigns. From Andrew Jackson and the New York Slave Conspiracy of 1741 through Gamergate and QAnon, the article argues that while conspiracy has always been a central part of American culture, the introduction of modern game design has altered the landscape, and that only by recognizing how our work as designers is being co-opted can we can begin to work to prevent additional social harms.

[Gamegirl Nostalgia]

benji the doxxer strikes again

[Straight Edge]

[HeavenIsAPlaceOnEarth]

modern comic movies wish they had this.

Damn, I don't remember Nicole Kidman's character being so horned up.

She's looking at him like "Imma fuckin' destroy that batdick".

[BIONIC]

User threadbanned: Breaking thread rules, ban litigation

I understand that this is an enthusiast site primarily focused on video games and video game news. It's this combined passion that brings so many of us together. To me, actions speak louder than words and history has told us how the site operators want this site to be run in regards to moderation. To be quite frank, until journalists, developers, reporters, etc decide that how the site operates is unfair, I suspect nothing will change. Despite the constant bleeding of users and communities that this site has had over the years, this site still drives a metric shitton of traffic because so many people come to Era for getting news, breaking news, lurking for info, rumors, etc etc. In many ways, these third party players have just as much power in shaping how the site operates and I imagine that most of these third party individuals have no interest or impartial to some of the problems that this site has been facing. We've had instance of instance that led to people leaving and the same mistakes continued to be made. While the intent to do better from staff is fully believable, actions are ultimately what matter and this is where the site falls short every single time. If the staff continues to feel that they are right and no effective change is made in how the site operations are handled then this will happen again, as history as shown us.



I'm hoping I'm not breaking any rules by posting this (and if I am I apologize as I may be unaware)but I wanted to reference the bolded and share my story. This isn't to relitigate or bring up my ban but my hope is that this anecdote illuminates why I personally don't feel comfortable with ticketing. And I can imagine why many others have problems with shuffling things to tickets.



As discussed in the previous pages, I can 100% understand why someone would think that I was making an inflammatory comparison. English has a lot of nuance and there are ways the language works that's not to its benefit more often than not (I studied English in college and it is honestly such an awful language for so many reasons due to syntax). However, as many others have pointed out, there is a much more positive way to read my original post especially in the context of what I was trying to do. I find it ironic that I personally would get banned for the very thing I was trying to prevent. Of course, I was pretty upset and put in a ticket. I don't think my ticket is unreasonable. My phrasing in my request makes this quite evident as well. "Can you help me understand..." It comes from a place of trying to understand where the other party is coming from in case my phrasing was poor or whatnot. I didn't get a response for days (granted it was 4th of July the day after) so I followed up.

Eventually I did get a response and the response wasn't an explanation for the ban. It wasn't clarification about the context. It wasn't about helping me understand the reader's perspective. It was a simple one sentence response "Having reviewed your ban we have decided that it should remain on your record." Not only that but I also discovered that someone had told me how specific facts about my previous threadban were communicated in a way where I look awful. I'm grateful that people were curious enough to dig into the topic further and find the context of the threadban but there were some users eager and ready to believe the staff's version of events.

How am I supposed to trust the staff; that they're going to communicate fairly with a ticket when this is the type of response I get? How am I supposed to believe that other people's ban appeals are going to be viewed in good faith? The crazy part is that I was notified a few hours later that I was unbanned (I didn't even know that I got unbanned. I had already clicked the "I Understand" green button because I effectively lost the appeal). I appreciate the moderation team repealing my ban and I'm grateful I can participate in this forum and in this thread but my story is one that fills me with dread every time I post here because I don't know if I'm going to incur the ire of the wrong person. The only reason I continue to post here is because I want to have faith that we can make this site better and want to empower others to share their experiences that provide legitimacy to our concerns instead of it being mislabeled.

for as much as I’ve heard discussions of the community misrepresenting the actions of the staff, seeing this happen (leading to the push back and silent reversal of the threadban) was illuminating to say the least

Well, if we needed more than a hypothetical for why folks don't feel safe with the ticketing system, that's as good as any.

holy shit

shameless

lol

can we get an official definition of what the staff considers “litigation”

Wow. Just disgraceful.

How is it ban litigation if you are no longer banned?

this really isnt it, christ

Literally a recapitulation of the entire problem, from the DK thread to this very moment, in one image. All kayos was doing was presenting it as an example to support the point that Theswweet was making.

Unreal.

I love these fucking mods

[davepoobond]

At this point you could be banned for saying you agreed with everything the mods posted and who they banned

[Averon]

It's a fucking video game forum...allegedly. 

Both the users and the mods are taking it way, way too seriously. Mods act like they are enduring constant torture and threat of harm for merely being mods there. Every action they take must go through several layers of bullshit and obfuscation lest they be overrun and killed by the hordes of Nazi chuds just waiting to do so. Users are acting like an abused lover who can't take the hint to leave to get away from the abuse and instead thinking nagging and pleading for the 127th time will be different.

There must be other online communities these people can go to.

And, remember, the vast majority of them are middle-aged. They are in their 30s and 40s (some touching 50) acting this way.

[Gamegirl Nostalgia]

It's almost as if these whiners need to make their own forum or join the bire. 

[davepoobond]

It's a fucking video game forum...allegedly. 

Both the users and the mods are taking it way, way too seriously. Mods act like they are enduring constant torture and threat of harm for merely being mods there. Every action they take must go through several layers of bullshit and obfuscation lest they be overrun and killed by the hordes of Nazi chuds just waiting to do so. Users are acting like an abused lover who can't take the hint to leave to get away from the abuse and instead thinking nagging and pleading for the 127th time will be different.

There must be other online communities these people can go to.

And, remember, the vast majority of them are middle-aged. They are in their 30s and 40s (some touching 50) acting this way.

they mention a lot about mental health etc, but its like why are they making their supposed sacrifice to do something the overall community doesnt seem to want AT ALL.  government serves the people, the people do not serve the government

[benji]

Literally a recapitulation of the entire problem, from the DK thread to this very moment, in one image. All kayos was doing was presenting it as an example to support the point that Theswweet was making.

Former dealer shocked to find gambling in the gambling den.