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

[Hap Shaughnessy]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/trump-%E2%80%9Cwith-the-war-it%E2%80%99s-a-small-price-to-pay-let-iran-take-out-los-angeles-let-them-take-out-san-diego-this-is-a-very-small-price-to-pay-%E2%80%9D.1652029/page-5#post-161449138

A good portion of the Red voting base absolutely hates America.

[Nintex]

Paramount and Warner great company

Also Iran can nuke it for all I care

Who wants $5000

[Geoff Marvel]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/arrest-made-in-connection-with-tumbler-ridge-mass-shooting.1653091/


I doubt this makes it past 1 page since both are

[benji]

Way to save the thread, say Trump will use it as a justification to invade and Americans on Era won't even protest.

[Let's Cyber]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/new-employee-is-chronically-late-most-mornings-unsure-if-i-should-let-them-go-at-this-point-update-he-took-all-the-mints.1650271/

Of course Era doesn't understand the difference between monochronic vs. polychronic time frameworks. This racist shit-lib community is so predictable. The entire concept of being "late" is white supremacy and the residual effect of colonialism. 

[HaughtyFrank]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/arrest-made-in-connection-with-tumbler-ridge-mass-shooting.1653091/


I doubt this makes it past 1 page since both are

So a 30 year old trans was grooming a 15 year old into becoming a school shooter (and maybe also into becoming trans, who knows)

[Lonewulfeus]

Grooming is how they reproduce.

[benji]

I think you guys should wait for plagiarize to determine whether it's actually grooming or not.

[DavidCroquet]

 
DISCORD ALERT

ALL HANDS

DO NOT POST IN THE TRANS SHOOTER THREAD

I REPEAT...
 

(post count after 2 hours: 1 not counting the OP)

[Jansen]

From constructive 

Apologies if this has been a past-discussed or even frequent topic, but I wanted to offer my two cents on an issue I think is genuinely making ResetEra a difficult-to-stomach experience recently. It's not a new issue, it's just been building over time to a point where I'm struggling to stomach it. The number of power thread-posters sharing shallow, low-effort, and often rage-bait style news or content is too much. The vast majority of these threads create little meaningful discourse, offer little thoughtful sentiment, and serve little informative purpose to degree of needing a threat. They're the kind of posts even spammy subreddits would ban for being low effort. But on ResetEra, they're constant.



I genuinely like opening ResetEra and going over the threads made each day to see if there's anything interesting being said or discussed. But that's becoming so difficult, with Latest Threads being filled every few hours by another power-poster dropping 5+ new threads with no commentary or insight for a thin news story that doesn't deserve its own thread. And if you click on them, yeah, people are just going to be angry. I get angry. It sucks. There's gotta be a better way.



Maybe it's as simple as being a me problem. I can block the power-users making the posts so I don't see them. But I don't think it ends with the posts themselves. I think ResetEra fostering these kinds of valueless, spammy posts from users who could care less if they actually pull any meaningful conversation to them is leading to a culture of fly-by, angry posters and thread creators. It's leading to fewer purposeful, discussion-rich posts because why would anyone waste their time on something that will be quickly pushed down sub-forum lists by shallow news stories. And further, it's driving away users or pushing them further into corners of the website where they don't have to interact with the broader userbase who otherwise would make more substantial posts and contribute to discussions meaningfully. It's poison.



As someone who worked for content slop sites in the past, don't go this route. Don't foster it. Maybe ResetEra brass feels like meeting some arbitrary posts-per-day metrics is important and that's why little is being done to curb it. It's not. It's so not. It sacrifices so much more than it provides. Please make a new rule or rules that helps to cut out the low effort, unproductive news posts. Please push posters to put at least some sort of effort into the threads they make.



Just my two cents.

If you want to see more fun threads then make more fun threads. I don't want to be mean, but you've made all of four threads in the last nine years and all but one have been pretty dark or negative in tone.



The truth is that moderation staff only has so much power here. You guys all make the content, all we really do is ban people who break the rules and try and foster some good discussion. What you are asking us to do is to essentially ban the members you are talking about, members who have not actually broken the rules of the site simply because they make a lot of threads that don't meet your standards. Heck, we even give people the ability to filter out any and all political news, so you don't need to see any of that if you don't want to.



Part of the issue is that the world sucks right now and everything is horrible everywhere. Beyond that you have social media platforms literally training people to only engage by reacting to stuff and only with the most inflammatory content imaginable that appeals to their specific niche interests. Scroll up for a discussion about someone who wants us to do something about silly British food threads. Not every thread needs to appeal to every person.



I'm going to be brutally honest here now: make the sort of threads you want to see. You talk a lot here about the sort of threads that you would like to see more of, but you don't make any of them and you put the responsibility to make them appear onto the moderation staff. Users make the majority of the threads, users make the majority of the posts, if you are not seeing the sort of threads you would like to see then make those threads! If you want to see more of a specific kind of discussion then have that discussion, make the thread. And I don't mean just making one thread and saying "job done," it needs to be more than just a one-off thing.



There is a give and take here. We offer a platform, we enforce a set of rules, but users are the ones who decide what they want to discuss. We're not editors running a news site, I don't oversee a staff of writers making threads, this is an internet forum and the users largely just discuss what they would like to discuss. Sometimes that is sales numbers, sometimes that is brown British food, sometimes it's politics, sometimes it's pooping, but at the end of the day the users are the ones who decide what gets talked about. If you want to see a certain kind of discussion then start making threads and having the discussion. We cannot force people to talk about the stuff you want to talk about, but what you can do is to actually try and have the sorts of discussions you would like to see.



The truth is that if more people made more positive and thoughtful threads, then you wouldn't really be complaining since they would drown out the threads by what you call "power users." But the problem is people want to act like it's our job to make those threads and discussions happen. Look at all the tools we offer for users to engage with each other and then look at how many actually get used. We're a gaming forum that literally has a feature that people can use to organize group play, from basic sign-up sheets to literal tournaments, and if I don't organize that stuff myself it largely doesn't happen.



People need to take more of an initiative. If you want to see more of a certain kind of thread, then make those threads. This is why I keep pushing for people to actually make new threads on the stuff that interests them instead of just bumping old ones. Regular users decide what we talk about by making threads and if people don't make threads then they cede their ability to help steer the broader discussion on this site. If you want to see more comics threads, then make more comics threads. If you want to see more threads on books, make more threads on books. If you want more sports talk, make more sports threads. At the end of the day, this site isn't what the moderation staff makes it, this site is what the users make it. The moderation staff can try and steer the ship, and god knows we've been trying to push people to have more fun and to not assume the worst about each other for years now, but at the end of the day it's the users who decide what this place looks like and if you don't make threads, if you don't make the sort of posts you want to see, have the discussions you want to have, you cede that ability to the users who do those things.

I get ya, man. I know the feeling and have been in your shoes before. I don't begrudge you wanting to stick to the philosophies that have made ResetEra what it is and which continue to drive its success. You're absolutely right that all I'm offering here is criticism and no particularly helpful answers. I was being reactionary, but sincere in my intention.



It's tough. Say a change was made. If moderation made an effort to limit these power-users and low-effort threads, does that result in richer content growing or returning? In my experience managing communities, not really. Forums aren't forests where flash fires regenerate ecosystems. It takes a lot of time and work to rebuild back to something better after making notable changes -- even if those changes are self-evidently good. Who does that work then, who makes those posts? Also in my experience, I know y'all are already probably overworked and asked too much of. So I can hardly begrudge you for responding defenseively, saying that I should do that work, that everyone should do that work. If only it was so simple!



Even so, I'm happy to have made the post and thankful for your response, if only for the visible conversation on the topic. Regardless of whether it's ultimately productive or not.

I am not responding defensively, I am telling you the objective truth. I am begging you to help. The site's users are what drive discussion. You guys make the threads, you guys make the posts. I cannot force people to make better threads, I cannot force people to make better posts, I cannot force people to post about specific topics. The moderators have a responsibility to the community, yes, but the community also has a responsibility to itself to try and act in ways that benefit it. Refusing to take an action is ceding the power to affect change to those who do choose to take an action. There's an old quote, "History is made by those who show up" and the other, unsaid side of that is "If you don't show up, you don't have a say in how things unfold." If you stay home, you're basically saying you're fine with however things turn out. We cannot fix everything ourselves, we need help from the users when it comes to stuff like this.



All you are doing is telling us to fix something that we have very little power over while taking no responsibility to help make things better. There's a give and take here, we do not have ultimate power. The users decide what gets discussed, we just make sure people are decent to each other while they have those discussions.



The fact is RedbullCola is absolutely correct in their assessment.

My mistake then, I guess we don't understand each other at all.





Cheers, I think I'll follow your lead.

The thing is that the community is made by those who show up. The users who make a couple of posts every day or make threads about the topics they find interesting, fun, or important. It's made by the users who engage with each other and have discussions. Moderators help steer the ship, but at the end of the day how this place looks is as much your decision as it is our decision. We all create this community together and we all have a responsibility to each other to act in ways that benefit the entire community. That's why moderation bans people who act like dicks and regular users make posts about the things that interest them or make them laugh.



I'll talk to DUC and maybe we can implement some filtering on the Latest Thre
ads page, but at the end of the day if you want to see more of a certain type of thread then you should make those threads.

[Taco Bell Tower]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/new-employee-is-chronically-late-most-mornings-unsure-if-i-should-let-them-go-at-this-point-update-he-took-all-the-mints.1650271/

Of course Era doesn't understand the difference between monochronic vs. polychronic time frameworks. This racist shit-lib community is so predictable. The entire concept of being "late" is white supremacy and the residual effect of colonialism. 

OP updates

I've ready every single post and appreciate the input, seems unanimous. I'll let them go on Monday.

I guess when I used to read these threads online in the past I'd always be "lol yeah fire their ass", but when you're in the chair making the decisions and dealing with these situations directly that affect real people, especially as someone new to this, it feels a bit different.

For the record, in terms of performance, this person also muted the front desk phone and would only answer if they were looking in that direction and saw the phone light up, otherwise if they were writing something down or looking away it would go unanswered since there was no ring.

They were also not reliably setting up follow-ups in our EMR system, just dropping it quietly and not mentioning anything and patients not even knowing. I found out another manager was still absorbing some of the front desk job functions - when I asked that manager why they were still doing this at week 8, they told me they don't want to overwhelm the new employee.

At week 6 we also had a patient terminate care with our clinic group over a botched and mangled outgoing referral this person did that was borderline nonsensical.

To be fair, they were a super nice person, very sweet and outgoing with everyone, and did other parts of the job well related to smaller organizational things.

So yeah, I probably messed up here by giving them to much slack.

Well, I let them go.

Called them into my office around lunch, explained the situation, and said we had to end their employment effective immediately. I was expecting to be hit hard either with tears/crying or pure anger, but instead it was just a super casual - "Oh...ok". I was sitting there thinking like, wow, that's it? And then they asked me "so do you still want me to come in tomorrow". I was like uhhh, no, we're ending your employment effective immediately. I then had him speak to our HR person to go over final pay and benefits stuff, termination papers, etc.

And before they left my office they asked if they could take some of the mints in the bowl at the front desk before they left, and I said sure (we have a big bowl of mints at the check-in/check-out counter for patients). When I went up to the front at the end of the day the bowl was completely empty. I asked someone up there what happened to all the mints (we top it off like every other morning) and they said the new front desk employee took the bowl and dumped all the mints into his bag before he walked out.

[benji]

From constructive 

Apologies if this has been a past-discussed or even frequent topic, but I wanted to offer my two cents on an issue I think is genuinely making ResetEra a difficult-to-stomach experience recently. It's not a new issue, it's just been building over time to a point where I'm struggling to stomach it. The number of power thread-posters sharing shallow, low-effort, and often rage-bait style news or content is too much. The vast majority of these threads create little meaningful discourse, offer little thoughtful sentiment, and serve little informative purpose to degree of needing a threat. They're the kind of posts even spammy subreddits would ban for being low effort. But on ResetEra, they're constant.

The truth is that moderation staff only has so much power here. You guys all make the content, all we really do is ban people who break the rules and try and foster some good discussion. What you are asking us to do is to essentially ban the members you are talking about, members who have not actually broken the rules of the site simply because they make a lot of threads that don't meet your standards. Heck, we even give people the ability to filter out any and all political news, so you don't need to see any of that if you don't want to.

Part of the issue is that the world sucks right now and everything is horrible everywhere. Beyond that you have social media platforms literally training people to only engage by reacting to stuff and only with the most inflammatory content imaginable that appeals to their specific niche interests. Scroll up for a discussion about someone who wants us to do something about silly British food threads. Not every thread needs to appeal to every person.

Let the Mod Admiral help:

Show Some Effort

Being the Original Poster (OP) of a thread means that it's up to you to provide the foundation for good discussion. When you create a thread, you should include more than just one or two short sentences; make sure that there is enough substance to sustain an interesting conversation. Write as clearly and articulately as possible. Consider whether you're presenting the subject in a way that will generate good discussion. Make sure you are posting the thread in the correct section of the forum, and use the preview feature to double check your work before posting. After creating your thread, consider adding a Cover Image to spruce up its presentation. Do not make provocative threads only to bail on them after the first post. All of the rules outlined in other parts of this document also apply to thread creation.

Pick a Good Title

The first part of your thread that anyone will see is the title. Your top priority should be to clearly convey the point and the 'hook' of your thread. Grammar and punctuation are appreciated. Do not use all caps or emojis in titles. Do not post clickbait -- these are titles designed to draw attention by deliberately withholding or misrepresenting relevant information. If you are citing a source, you may want to mention the source in the title. If you need to change a title report your own post and let the staff know what new title you would prefer and why. Moderators may independently change a title to reflect an update or otherwise improve it.

Handling External Content

Please do not create threads that include magazine scans or illegal links to copyrighted material. If you create a thread based on an article, please do not copy and paste the entire article -- use excerpts instead and link to the full text. If you create a thread based on a video that is heavy on content (not merely a trailer or the like) please include a written summary of the video and/or an explanation of why people should watch it. Make sure that external content is credited and not misrepresented.

Do Not Create: Shock Threads

These are threads about news or content that is just disgusting and/or shocking, with little potential for discussion other than outrage. Nobody gains anything from these threads and you should not make them.

[BIONIC]

Having a paycheck for 2 months and then get a whole bowl of mints on the way out while being completely worthless at your job sounds like a win to me tbh

[Taco Bell Tower]

From constructive 

Apologies if this has been a past-discussed or even frequent topic, but I wanted to offer my two cents on an issue I think is genuinely making ResetEra a difficult-to-stomach experience recently. It's not a new issue, it's just been building over time to a point where I'm struggling to stomach it. The number of power thread-posters sharing shallow, low-effort, and often rage-bait style news or content is too much. The vast majority of these threads create little meaningful discourse, offer little thoughtful sentiment, and serve little informative purpose to degree of needing a threat. They're the kind of posts even spammy subreddits would ban for being low effort. But on ResetEra, they're constant.

The truth is that moderation staff only has so much power here. You guys all make the content, all we really do is ban people who break the rules and try and foster some good discussion. What you are asking us to do is to essentially ban the members you are talking about, members who have not actually broken the rules of the site simply because they make a lot of threads that don't meet your standards. Heck, we even give people the ability to filter out any and all political news, so you don't need to see any of that if you don't want to.

Part of the issue is that the world sucks right now and everything is horrible everywhere. Beyond that you have social media platforms literally training people to only engage by reacting to stuff and only with the most inflammatory content imaginable that appeals to their specific niche interests. Scroll up for a discussion about someone who wants us to do something about silly British food threads. Not every thread needs to appeal to every person.

Let the Mod Admiral help:

Show Some Effort

Being the Original Poster (OP) of a thread means that it's up to you to provide the foundation for good discussion. When you create a thread, you should include more than just one or two short sentences; make sure that there is enough substance to sustain an interesting conversation. Write as clearly and articulately as possible. Consider whether you're presenting the subject in a way that will generate good discussion. Make sure you are posting the thread in the correct section of the forum, and use the preview feature to double check your work before posting. After creating your thread, consider adding a Cover Image to spruce up its presentation. Do not make provocative threads only to bail on them after the first post. All of the rules outlined in other parts of this document also apply to thread creation.

Pick a Good Title

The first part of your thread that anyone will see is the title. Your top priority should be to clearly convey the point and the 'hook' of your thread. Grammar and punctuation are appreciated. Do not use all caps or emojis in titles. Do not post clickbait -- these are titles designed to draw attention by deliberately withholding or misrepresenting relevant information. If you are citing a source, you may want to mention the source in the title. If you need to change a title report your own post and let the staff know what new title you would prefer and why. Moderators may independently change a title to reflect an update or otherwise improve it.

Handling External Content

Please do not create threads that include magazine scans or illegal links to copyrighted material. If you create a thread based on an article, please do not copy and paste the entire article -- use excerpts instead and link to the full text. If you create a thread based on a video that is heavy on content (not merely a trailer or the like) please include a written summary of the video and/or an explanation of why people should watch it. Make sure that external content is credited and not misrepresented.

Do Not Create: Shock Threads

These are threads about news or content that is just disgusting and/or shocking, with little potential for discussion other than outrage. Nobody gains anything from these threads and you should not make them.

[Greatness Gone]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/new-physint-details-from-kojima-evokes-metal-gear-series-already-has-plot-more-cast-details-physint-is-his-40th-anniversary-project-more.1651570/#post-161420164

Hollywood-obsessed sexist hack masquerading as an "auteur" who somehow gets a pass from a LOT of folks around here despite a LOT of folks around here morally grandstanding for practically everything else.

Radical thought, but maybe people like Kojima because of his 30 year track record of making best in class video games?

[HaughtyFrank]

B-dubs wondering where all the fun thread creators have gone 

[Hap Shaughnessy]

B-dubs wondering where all the fun thread creators have gone 

https://www.resetera.com/threads/jennifer-lopez-sparks-criticism-from-fans-after-posting-shirtless-ben-affleck-photo-for-fathers-day.732591/

[Chumbawumbafan69]

These people forget that it's 2026, people have sex... and play video games. At the same time

  

It felt like Gen X writing. Colin Jost saying they don't play much games because they have sex felt very 90's.

 

haha

people only have sex if they don't play video games

btw it's 1985

RE gets extremely upset when people make "gamers are virgins" jokes because in their mind that should be reserved for evil rightwing incel chuds and not wholesome socialist wlw allies.  
 
Newsflash, you're all disgusting gamers in the eyes of society.  
 

I can't believe how much that sex joke cut some of you, lol.

 
this guy gets it.

Wasn’t there a thread recently in which many of them admitted to being virgins with no hope or desire to change that? This joke may have hit a little close to home.

[Geoff Marvel]

 
DISCORD ALERT

ALL HANDS

DO NOT POST IN THE TRANS SHOOTER THREAD

I REPEAT...
 

(post count after 2 hours: 1 not counting the OP)

Damm I was wrong it didn't make it past 1 reply not 1 page

[Orange Juice Box]

[Orange Juice Box]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/trump-%E2%80%9Cwith-the-war-it%E2%80%99s-a-small-price-to-pay-let-iran-take-out-los-angeles-let-them-take-out-san-diego-this-is-a-very-small-price-to-pay-%E2%80%9D.1652029/page-5#post-161449138

A good portion of the Red voting base absolutely hates America.

Same.  I don't want "to watch our country be taken over by a group of people that hate America. They hate America" Allowing them to even run is "treasonous".  But the Right-wing is an "ideology that is driven by hate and seeks to purge all dissent."  They really just want to create "a repressive regime that they alone control."

You get the idea

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

[Boredfrom]

In case you're still doubting this bitch is full Nazi:

Spoiler: the everything app (click to show)(click to hide)

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

So much anti semitism, is like reading g r/mexico and r/rmexico.  (  )

[Gameboy Nostalgia]

 
DISCORD ALERT

ALL HANDS

DO NOT POST IN THE TRANS SHOOTER THREAD

I REPEAT...
 

(post count after 2 hours: 1 not counting the OP)

Groomed her to be a mass shooter. Jesus.

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

Close yet so far

[Hap Shaughnessy]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/platinumgames-ceo-atsushi-inaba-talks-nintendo-switch-2-offers-brief-comment-on-bayonettas-future.1650505/page-2#post-161362246

 User Banned (2 Weeks): Antagonizing other users, misuse of the report system.

You sure sound like one.

Bayo 1 on PC did nothing to bring the series back to life, it only still exists because of Nintendo as much as it pains you.

I don't give a shit about Bayo or pc, pc players are some of the dumbest posters on this site.

 User Banned (permanent): Antagonizing other users, misuse of the report system. Ban made permanent upon user request.

[Hap Shaughnessy]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/openai-releases-722-math-manuscripts-on-github-covering-hundreds-of-math-problems.1653181/#post-161480455

So we burnt down the environment to solve some math stuff that at the present time has no actual applications....

Ok....

[benji]

Wasn’t there a thread recently in which many of them admitted to being virgins with no hope or desire to change that? This joke may have hit a little close to home.

Are you literally not understanding that as long as y'all are not ending capitalism there's no hope anywhere and it would especially be wrong to force more people into the endless suffering of this hellscape that never ends? How can anyone even get turned on when we're literally boiling the planet in lava just to solve worthless math problems and allow techbros to pornify every woman in gaming against their will? Like are you serious right now? Do you even see the contradictions? Just look at the dialectics!

[Gameboy Nostalgia]

That story is horrific. 

A TikTok account, which used the same profile image under the username "jessestrangg", featured multiple reposted videos of the transgender mass shooter who killed six people at a Christian school in Nashville in 2023.

[yetanotheraccountholyf]

me, an intellectual, also someone with ability to ban whoever and decide what is allowed and good and fun and what isn’t, also can lock threads on a whim(”can we not?”): 

I have no power here. my hands are tied. I wish things were different. be the change you want to see in the world. we are but a speck of dust, here for a brief moment, observing, never interfering, soon to be gone like tears in the rain. someone who’s good at community management, I’m begging you to help me budget the fun threads. 

also did I tell you about The Algorithms?

[Daffy Duck]

From constructive 

Apologies if this has been a past-discussed or even frequent topic, but I wanted to offer my two cents on an issue I think is genuinely making ResetEra a difficult-to-stomach experience recently. It's not a new issue, it's just been building over time to a point where I'm struggling to stomach it. The number of power thread-posters sharing shallow, low-effort, and often rage-bait style news or content is too much. The vast majority of these threads create little meaningful discourse, offer little thoughtful sentiment, and serve little informative purpose to degree of needing a threat. They're the kind of posts even spammy subreddits would ban for being low effort. But on ResetEra, they're constant.



I genuinely like opening ResetEra and going over the threads made each day to see if there's anything interesting being said or discussed. But that's becoming so difficult, with Latest Threads being filled every few hours by another power-poster dropping 5+ new threads with no commentary or insight for a thin news story that doesn't deserve its own thread. And if you click on them, yeah, people are just going to be angry. I get angry. It sucks. There's gotta be a better way.



Maybe it's as simple as being a me problem. I can block the power-users making the posts so I don't see them. But I don't think it ends with the posts themselves. I think ResetEra fostering these kinds of valueless, spammy posts from users who could care less if they actually pull any meaningful conversation to them is leading to a culture of fly-by, angry posters and thread creators. It's leading to fewer purposeful, discussion-rich posts because why would anyone waste their time on something that will be quickly pushed down sub-forum lists by shallow news stories. And further, it's driving away users or pushing them further into corners of the website where they don't have to interact with the broader userbase who otherwise would make more substantial posts and contribute to discussions meaningfully. It's poison.



As someone who worked for content slop sites in the past, don't go this route. Don't foster it. Maybe ResetEra brass feels like meeting some arbitrary posts-per-day metrics is important and that's why little is being done to curb it. It's not. It's so not. It sacrifices so much more than it provides. Please make a new rule or rules that helps to cut out the low effort, unproductive news posts. Please push posters to put at least some sort of effort into the threads they make.



Just my two cents.

If you want to see more fun threads then make more fun threads. I don't want to be mean, but you've made all of four threads in the last nine years and all but one have been pretty dark or negative in tone.



The truth is that moderation staff only has so much power here. You guys all make the content, all we really do is ban people who break the rules and try and foster some good discussion. What you are asking us to do is to essentially ban the members you are talking about, members who have not actually broken the rules of the site simply because they make a lot of threads that don't meet your standards. Heck, we even give people the ability to filter out any and all political news, so you don't need to see any of that if you don't want to.



Part of the issue is that the world sucks right now and everything is horrible everywhere. Beyond that you have social media platforms literally training people to only engage by reacting to stuff and only with the most inflammatory content imaginable that appeals to their specific niche interests. Scroll up for a discussion about someone who wants us to do something about silly British food threads. Not every thread needs to appeal to every person.



I'm going to be brutally honest here now: make the sort of threads you want to see. You talk a lot here about the sort of threads that you would like to see more of, but you don't make any of them and you put the responsibility to make them appear onto the moderation staff. Users make the majority of the threads, users make the majority of the posts, if you are not seeing the sort of threads you would like to see then make those threads! If you want to see more of a specific kind of discussion then have that discussion, make the thread. And I don't mean just making one thread and saying "job done," it needs to be more than just a one-off thing.



There is a give and take here. We offer a platform, we enforce a set of rules, but users are the ones who decide what they want to discuss. We're not editors running a news site, I don't oversee a staff of writers making threads, this is an internet forum and the users largely just discuss what they would like to discuss. Sometimes that is sales numbers, sometimes that is brown British food, sometimes it's politics, sometimes it's pooping, but at the end of the day the users are the ones who decide what gets talked about. If you want to see a certain kind of discussion then start making threads and having the discussion. We cannot force people to talk about the stuff you want to talk about, but what you can do is to actually try and have the sorts of discussions you would like to see.



The truth is that if more people made more positive and thoughtful threads, then you wouldn't really be complaining since they would drown out the threads by what you call "power users." But the problem is people want to act like it's our job to make those threads and discussions happen. Look at all the tools we offer for users to engage with each other and then look at how many actually get used. We're a gaming forum that literally has a feature that people can use to organize group play, from basic sign-up sheets to literal tournaments, and if I don't organize that stuff myself it largely doesn't happen.



People need to take more of an initiative. If you want to see more of a certain kind of thread, then make those threads. This is why I keep pushing for people to actually make new threads on the stuff that interests them instead of just bumping old ones. Regular users decide what we talk about by making threads and if people don't make threads then they cede their ability to help steer the broader discussion on this site. If you want to see more comics threads, then make more comics threads. If you want to see more threads on books, make more threads on books. If you want more sports talk, make more sports threads. At the end of the day, this site isn't what the moderation staff makes it, this site is what the users make it. The moderation staff can try and steer the ship, and god knows we've been trying to push people to have more fun and to not assume the worst about each other for years now, but at the end of the day it's the users who decide what this place looks like and if you don't make threads, if you don't make the sort of posts you want to see, have the discussions you want to have, you cede that ability to the users who do those things.

I get ya, man. I know the feeling and have been in your shoes before. I don't begrudge you wanting to stick to the philosophies that have made ResetEra what it is and which continue to drive its success. You're absolutely right that all I'm offering here is criticism and no particularly helpful answers. I was being reactionary, but sincere in my intention.



It's tough. Say a change was made. If moderation made an effort to limit these power-users and low-effort threads, does that result in richer content growing or returning? In my experience managing communities, not really. Forums aren't forests where flash fires regenerate ecosystems. It takes a lot of time and work to rebuild back to something better after making notable changes -- even if those changes are self-evidently good. Who does that work then, who makes those posts? Also in my experience, I know y'all are already probably overworked and asked too much of. So I can hardly begrudge you for responding defenseively, saying that I should do that work, that everyone should do that work. If only it was so simple!



Even so, I'm happy to have made the post and thankful for your response, if only for the visible conversation on the topic. Regardless of whether it's ultimately productive or not.

I am not responding defensively, I am telling you the objective truth. I am begging you to help. The site's users are what drive discussion. You guys make the threads, you guys make the posts. I cannot force people to make better threads, I cannot force people to make better posts, I cannot force people to post about specific topics. The moderators have a responsibility to the community, yes, but the community also has a responsibility to itself to try and act in ways that benefit it. Refusing to take an action is ceding the power to affect change to those who do choose to take an action. There's an old quote, "History is made by those who show up" and the other, unsaid side of that is "If you don't show up, you don't have a say in how things unfold." If you stay home, you're basically saying you're fine with however things turn out. We cannot fix everything ourselves, we need help from the users when it comes to stuff like this.



All you are doing is telling us to fix something that we have very little power over while taking no responsibility to help make things better. There's a give and take here, we do not have ultimate power. The users decide what gets discussed, we just make sure people are decent to each other while they have those discussions.



The fact is RedbullCola is absolutely correct in their assessment.

My mistake then, I guess we don't understand each other at all.





Cheers, I think I'll follow your lead.

The thing is that the community is made by those who show up. The users who make a couple of posts every day or make threads about the topics they find interesting, fun, or important. It's made by the users who engage with each other and have discussions. Moderators help steer the ship, but at the end of the day how this place looks is as much your decision as it is our decision. We all create this community together and we all have a responsibility to each other to act in ways that benefit the entire community. That's why moderation bans people who act like dicks and regular users make posts about the things that interest them or make them laugh.



I'll talk to DUC and maybe we can implement some filtering on the Latest Thre
ads page, but at the end of the day if you want to see more of a certain type of thread then you should make those threads.

I swear there’s a rule about outrage threads and not to make them, yet here we are, rage bait threads on the daily

[Besticus Maximus]

Silent Panda is ruining that forum faster than AI is unemploying trans warhammer experts