Journal of Other Forum Analysis

[Potato]

My own dad has gotten pissed and offended at me for calling him a cracker, pretty funny considering how he talks about "fragile liberals" needing their safe spaces.
But this is a man who thinks BLM is coming for us any day now so he himself is the definition of fragile.

https://www.resetera.com/threads/today-in-twitch-news-you-didnt-ask-for-top-streamers-hotly-debate-whether-cracker-is-as-bad-as-the-n-word-again-spoilers-its-not.871215/page-10?post=123053727#post-123053727

“Come on down for dinner son” 

“Okay, CRACKER”

“My dad is a total snowflake and fragile.”

“Don’t talk bad about me or I might hurt myself!! It’s a genocide!!”

Imagine the hell that poor man has gone through with that complete fucking failure of a child?

[HaughtyFrank]

Resetera mods:
"We have an incredibly difficult job and we're constantly swarmed with so many reports we have to lock threads over and over again to work through them but also we want you to now report posts you actually like

[Nintex]

WHAT AN INCREDIBLE POST  JUST WHAT WE WANT TO SEE THANK YOU FOR YOUR AMAZING POST IT IS THE BEST POST WE'VE EVER SEEN POSSIBLY EVER #FREEPALESTINE

All I saying is don’t bite the hand that opens your pickle jar.

THIS POST IS OFFICIALLY "HIGHLIGHTED" 

[Potato]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/israel-palestine-the-ongoing-israeli-genocide-in-gaza-see-staff-posts-for-posting-guidelines.772478/page-326?post=123048966#post-123048966

I'm never not going to be disgusted that Palestinian members have been hounded off the forum for being Palestinian while their own kind are being murdered methodically with the consent of the western world and there's not been any contrition on the part of the moderating team for doing so.

This. Not even an acknowledgment about this, not even a passing mention, not even a simple and easy "I apologize" or "sorry about that"

I bet the person causing the Palestinian members to exit this forum is just laughing behind the screen, saying "Who gives a fuck about what these Palestinians leaving the forum!"

https://www.resetera.com/threads/israel-palestine-the-ongoing-israeli-genocide-in-gaza-see-staff-posts-for-posting-guidelines.772478/page-326?post=123060747#post-123060747

I feel I should talk about this because it's the wording I used.

We don't have to condemn Hamas to start a conversation in this thread (anymore), but this was extremely and ostensibly the case for the better part of the ongoing genocide operations since Oct 7 in mainstream media (remember that video from I think a UK broadcast?) and even official speech (remember Israel and the US decrying South Africa's appeal do ICJ because it "didn't condemn Hamas", although it did?). It's treated as a civilizational baseline for discussion, whereas condemnation of the occupation is not. In that vein, it's very important to note we should be able to contextualize Hamas' actions in the face of that occupation without that being understood as whitewashing it.

Proceeds to whitewash Hamas and Oct 7.

Excuse me...what Palestinian members? 

There were none in the first place.

[Potato]

I been around this shit happening. Shits always awkward at best but more often a very public ass kicking when people are around.
Kinda found that shit hilarious sometimes.
*Full disclosure I'm a white trans woman who grew up in a black neighborhood.

https://www.resetera.com/threads/when-you-realized-you-that-black-friend.873072/?post=123074442#post-123074442

Being a small affiliated LGBTQ+ streamer is definitely rough especially when I'm too honest to use any of those manipulative tactics to grow my stream. I get what you mean, winning the game usually takes a piece of shit much like many other industries.
There are some bigger streamers I respect who are trans like me but they are few and far between.

Anyway sorry for going off topic.

Thanks. Putting in the grind had been hard especially with a severe mental illness that has prevented me from working anymore regular jobs.
Maybe if my guitar practice gets anywhere I'll be able to do more interesting streams.

Oh yeah, anyway yeah that vid was goddamn cringe.

"I can't work because of my mental illness, but I can stream games to nobody for hours at a time."

[Taco Bell Tower]

Noodlesoup got a highlight.

https://www.resetera.com/threads/protests-at-columbia-university-continue-as-groups-on-both-sides-of-the-aisle-call-for-action-to-be-taken-university-shifts-to-hybrid-classes.851787/page-12?post=122328234#post-122328234

My university is calling for divestment from Caterpillar, who has recently granted the school $1.2 million. Everything's going splendidly but we are anticipating agitators of some sort; there has been some push back from centrists/conservatives over social media. On the other hand, university policy is constructed in a way where the administration really can't do anything about us (considering that a spokesperson said that they cannot violate our first amendment rights, it'd be pretty damning if they sic the police on us).

Will post more updates after I'm finished with this final tomorrow. Won't be able to go all-in until then.

Last edited: May 6, 2024

[Besticus Maximus]

Tbf sitting on your own pretending to be an anime girl when you look like an extra from the olden days Time Machine Morlock horde while also being a protected mega poster on the internet’s most autistic forum checks out

[benji]

Chaseex came at the queen - big mistake:

It was out of control when it was founded upon wholesale Indigenous genocide, four centuries of African slavery, and aggressive land theft and economic disenfranchisement.

But yeah, now that farm-raised eggs are $6, there's advertisements on top of advertisements, and global warming in general keeps getting worse, the Westerners are finally panicking.

If by out of control you mean lifting billions of people from poverty, saving countless more with advances in science, technology, and medicine, and providing a quality of life to the average person that not even a king could dream of just a few hundred years ago, sure.

But the indigenous people and the slavery. Yeah, that was awful, although not even remotely unique to America or capitalism. History is nothing but conquest, every country is built from it. And we fought a war to do away with slavery. Plenty of other economic and political systems came and went, none dealing with these problems nearly as well.

We will see what happens in the next 100 years, but the previous 100 were unequivocally won by Western capitalists. It would make a hell of a lot more sense to put some tighter guardrails on the current system then tear it down to replace with… what exactly? Eastern authoritarian surveillance state? Finally setting up the socialist utopia, except this time do it right? I believe that.

https://www.resetera.com/threads/ok-capitalism-is-spiraling-out-of-control-right.868842/page-4?post=122894280#post-122894280

User Banned (Permanently): Downplaying Genocide and Slavery; Prior Serious Bans for Trolling and Transphobia

It's not downplaying genocide and slavery to say that it's better now without them.

[Averon]

People like Melody Shreds would be fucking homeless on the streets if it weren't for their loving parents still allowing them to stay--in other words mooch--at their home rent-free. And what do these loving parents get in return? Derision and mockery from their failure and goblin of a "daughter" that's larping online to get "e-cred" from other pathetic larpers.

But the parents are at least partly to blame. They should have instituted "tough love" years ago and forced Shreds to start fending for herself. Allowing people like Melody Shreds an easy "out" in life does them no good and only makes whatever ails them from being a self-sufficient person worse over time.

[Averon]

Remember grifter Keffals ERA went to bat for? Seems everyone has turned against her. Even fucking TYT

[Uncle]

People like Melody Shreds would be fucking homeless on the streets if it weren't for their loving parents still allowing them to stay at their home rent-free.

actually, they might be successful, happily married gigachads if it weren't for their parents allowing them to stay at their home rent-free

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

I know your post said this too I just wanted to post the song

[Puffy Fucking Baby]

Melody shreds would still be a bald retard still living with the parents, gender stuff or not

[Besticus Maximus]

1715893138[/url]']
Melody shreds would still be a bald retard still living with the parents, gender stuff or not

If the Nepenthe’s and dubs of the world weren’t privileged middle class inheritors melody shreds would have have good medical psychiatry and a solid social support system. But if the price of such things is not wanking in unison on Kyuujis discord for true and honest women then perhaps it is best to submit to digital holocaust.

[FunSlower]

They added a "highlighted post feature"

Until recently, when moderating the forum, staff was limited to handing out bans in an attempt to dissuade certain types of behavior. All we had was a stick, but with the addition of highlighted posts we are now able to reward users who make thoughtful, intelligent, empathetic, helpful, and, yes even, funny posts. In the past we would discuss how much we liked a post or a joke a user had made, but we had no way to reward said posts and show people how good they were. That changes now.

Below are a number of posts that we have chosen to highlight in order to show everyone the sort of thing we are looking for:

https://www.resetera.com/threads/announcing-new-feature-highlighting-posts.873306/

It's kind of like a 'like' system but only the mods get to like posts 

this is gonna be so bitchin. I cannot wait for a contentious viewpoint to be highlighted

[JoeBoy101]

Noodlesoup got a highlight.

https://www.resetera.com/threads/protests-at-columbia-university-continue-as-groups-on-both-sides-of-the-aisle-call-for-action-to-be-taken-university-shifts-to-hybrid-classes.851787/page-12?post=122328234#post-122328234

My university is calling for divestment from Caterpillar, who has recently granted the school $1.2 million. Everything's going splendidly but we are anticipating agitators of some sort; there has been some push back from centrists/conservatives over social media. On the other hand, university policy is constructed in a way where the administration really can't do anything about us (considering that a spokesperson said that they cannot violate our first amendment rights, it'd be pretty damning if they sic the police on us).

Will post more updates after I'm finished with this final tomorrow. Won't be able to go all-in until then.

Last edited: May 6, 2024

I see they have the same MO for highlighting posts as they do banning users for them: Wait until everyone has moved on and do it quietly in the dark.

[Nintex]

Remember grifter Keffals ERA went to bat for? Seems everyone has turned against her. Even fucking TYT

The left is eating itself on a global level, whoever runs the cabal has them commit hara kiri in broad daylight.

Why is Majoras Mask there, what was the Stone Tower Temple trying to tell us.

[nachobro]

lmao everyone hates the mod-only upvotes, no fuckin shit. yet these dopes couldn't see that coming somehow

[HaughtyFrank]

Remember grifter Keffals ERA went to bat for? Seems everyone has turned against her. Even fucking TYT

Trans activists have already declared TYT to be Terfs because Ana Kasparian said that she doesn't like to be referred to as "person with uterus"
A non zero chance that they'll take exposing Keffals as further proof of terfness

[HaughtyFrank]

lmao everyone hates the mod-only upvotes, no fuckin shit. yet these dopes couldn't see that coming somehow

I'm not sure about this.

I think (and hope) that the intention is good, but this just further cements ResetEra as not being community-driven, but rather moderator-driven. On any other communication platform (forum / social media), the "highlighted" posts would be determined by the community (via upvotes or likes or whatever mechanic), whereas here, it's yet another mechanism for moderators to control the users. ResetEra is increasingly positioning itself as a platform where the 0.01% control both the carrot and the stick, which is part of what has driven entire sub communities away from this platform. Not sure if this is the way to go.

The idea to let users use the "report" option to suggest highlights for moderators feels like a patch rather than a feature. I understand that this is a work in development as "report" is very obviously not an appropriate element in terms of UX design for suggesting a highlighted post, but even if there was a dedicated button for making a suggestion, it's still not enough.

I'm definitely worried about the direction the forum is going, and I know I've been punished in the past for speaking up against moderators, but I really just wanted to share my thoughts on this. The idea is benign (I hope and think), but I'm not sold on the execution. Giving even more power to the moderators is not the right path.

https://www.resetera.com/threads/announcing-new-feature-highlighting-posts.873306/post-123079902

[Superstar]

I still think it's funny that they could jump through some hoops and tangently link any investment to arms dealers like Boeing and Lockheed and instead they go after a company that makes construction equipment. And doing that in Central Illinois where there's going to be plenty of crossover in the farming industry will really win the masses over.

[Nintex]

This is a pretty great idea, but I think visually the border feels out of place and the "Highlighted" text could be better position to help it seems highlighted. Can I add a simple CSS change as a suggestion here?

Sit down and listen Chud. They spend MONTHS on this 1px border in between mental breakdowns, MONTHS, learning this 1 line CSS code to draw a border.

"B-Dubs Yes B-Dubs!!! Nepenthe said excited. I'm a software engineer now, I can draw borders with CSS!!!"

"B-Dubs raised his head, wiping the gobs of pre-cum from his lips. He could not believe his eyes, there it was a gold shiny border, twinkling like Nepenthes eyes."

is there a way to disable seeing these?

Delete your account

[benji]

I don't really understand the difference between the highlighted posts and the pre-existing threadmark system.

[benji]

This is a pretty great idea, but I think visually the border feels out of place and the "Highlighted" text could be better position to help it seems highlighted. Can I add a simple CSS change as a suggestion here?

Sit down and listen Chud. They spend MONTHS on this 1px border in between mental breakdowns, MONTHS, learning this 1 line CSS code to draw a border.

"B-Dubs Yes B-Dubs!!! Nepenthe said excited. I'm a software engineer now, I can draw borders with CSS!!!"

"B-Dubs raised his head, wiping the gobs of pre-cum from his lips. He could not believe his eyes, there it was a gold shiny border, twinkling like Nepenthes eyes."

It's probably something like this rather than anything they did: https://xenforo.com/community/resources/threadmarks-pro.6615/

[nachobro]

getting a gold star from the mods like you were in kindergarten its the dumbest and yet the best site on the internet

[Echelon]

I thought the mods were exhausted from all the reports they can't get to, and now they've given themselves more work?

[nachobro]

I love it in theory but worry a bit about the Reddit risk where ideology becomes skewed because of a positive reinforcement of popular opinion, not because of credibility or weight of evidences.

brother i got news for you

[benji]

I'm not sure about this.

I think (and hope) that the intention is good, but this just further cements ResetEra as not being community-driven, but rather moderator-driven. On any other communication platform (forum / social media), the "highlighted" posts would be determined by the community (via upvotes or likes or whatever mechanic), whereas here, it's yet another mechanism for moderators to control the users. ResetEra is increasingly positioning itself as a platform where the 0.01% control both the carrot and the stick, which is part of what has driven entire sub communities away from this platform. Not sure if this is the way to go.

The idea to let users use the "report" option to suggest highlights for moderators feels like a patch rather than a feature. I understand that this is a work in development as "report" is very obviously not an appropriate element in terms of UX design for suggesting a highlighted post, but even if there was a dedicated button for making a suggestion, it's still not enough.

I'm definitely worried about the direction the forum is going, and I know I've been punished in the past for speaking up against moderators, but I really just wanted to share my thoughts on this. The idea is benign (I hope and think), but I'm not sold on the execution. Giving even more power to the moderators is not the right path.

https://www.resetera.com/threads/announcing-new-feature-highlighting-posts.873306/post-123079902

We should ask the community about the direction they think the forum should be going:

NeoGAF was the most popular video game forum. I suspect that era is over now. One of my concerns, and many, many other members' concerns with that forum is how the owner financially managed it. It became user hostile with viglinks, intrusive ads, and hijack your browser mobile ads. More importantly, it was a forum built up of community generated content for free, moderated by unpaid volunteers, all set up for the profit of one single person. This set up disgusted me and I know it disgusted many others.

During the mass exodus, I knew this is our chance as a community to fix the above issue. If the community made the content, the community should be the ones determining how to spend the site revenue. I offered to fund the entirety of Resetera to accomplish this goal, but the current forum owner ignored me. There's a lot going on, I guess.

I understand this forum is new and there's a lot to work out. Perfect. Since we're not on a determined path, I propose all revenue generated by this forum be used to pay for the forum itself, to generate ways to create better content for the community, and send all other revenue toward another, gaming related causes. For example, game development for the underprivileged, the underrepresented minorities and women, Child's Play kind of endeavors, etc.

Granted, yes, the site is new, there's no money, no one's determined anything with money, etc., etc. However, it's important to have this discussion now. We can work toward being a better, more inclusive community. Do you have any thoughts on how the site should spend its generated revenue, if it ever gets to that point?

I wish they'd allow posters to be monthly contributors. Maybe some type of vanity flair for their avatars as thanks.

The people who maintain this community (both on the technical side and the moderators) should be given some sort of compensation, imo. The fact that the mods on such an immense site like GAF were being asked to donate their time is absolutely insulting given how much the site was pulling in from ad revenue, and how much that community was shaped by it's moderation. It probably gets complicated with determining who to pay and how much and on what basis do you decide that scale, but I feel like it's something that should be considered if ResetERA maintains it's momentum of users and content creation.

I definitely agree that it should ultimately be effectively a non-profit forum, but I'd like to donate to Cerium and some other folks first for the huge amount of work and time and money they put in for the community over the last week.

I also think that if revenue goes towards charities or some cause, it should be focused on fighting against abuse in all its forms -- abuse by the government (donations to the ACLU), abuse towards employees particularly in the games industry, and physical and institutional abuse of women.

They certainly should make money off of it but I hope they give back a bit more than that other site did. There is a lot of time and effort put into something like this and wouldn't mind if the admins were paid well as full time gigs and the mods as part time gigs. It's amazing the other site had members giving things away, participating in secret santa's, etc and never once did I see the site owner give back.

I'm fine with them making some money. It won't all to one person and at least they seem like good people who won't ego trip and brag to us about how cool they are. But Gaf did rub me the wrong way. One person shouldn't profit off the hard work of others.

I have no problem with people making money.

I do have a problem with just admins/owners getting money while mods don't get anything. Mods keep the forum in check.

yeah tyler becoming some self-righteous edgelord driving around in his porsche 911 using wealth he made from a website he stumbled upwards into, has always rubbed me the wrong way. this site will end up the same if ad revenue goes towards making someone or a select few wealthy vs maintenance, expansion, and charity

Yeah, this really needs to happen if we want to stop another apocalypse from occurring.

Pay for the site.
Pay the Admins/Mods.
The rest to charity.

Labor should always be compensated. The eventual money should go first to pay the server's cost and the mod team. Whatever is left we could donate it to charity or to sponsor crowdfunding projects voted by the community

the revenue should go to the mods for moderating, pretty sick that those guys didn't get paid before.

Mods moderate and the community makes the content. Both are important functions. The mods should not be the only ones paid.

I fully understand that the owners of this domain have all the power at this point and they'll do what they want. That said, what do people think of the possibility of setting this up as a non-profit corporation? It undoubtedly serves a public purpose. Donations or contributions would be tax deductible, everyone working on the site could be paid competitive wages, and any profits would be put back into the site for use however the community decides.

I agree with this. The main problem wih the old forum was that one single person profited and ran it like a dictatorship, couldn't be questioned, criticized or challenged. If you take personal profit out of the equation, this forum automatically gets much better.

I was really surprised to discover the mods on gaf were not being reimbursed at all considering the amount of crap they had to put up with, the time they devoted and how much revenue the site was pulling in.

I don't know what monetization plans resetera has planned but, hopefully the staff don't get shafted, and I wouldn't mind donating some money to help the site.

The problem on the old forum was that only one person (who was largely hands off) was making money while the people working their asses off were unpaid. That was wrong and flawed.

Alternately, they could set up a Patreon for the moderation staff, split equally, and let us decide how much to pay the moderators.

I feel pretty strongly that this time around the admin and moderators and other staff should share in the profits of the place, unlike before when only the owner got rich from the contributions of a community of so tens of thousands.

Moderating a forum is a thankless job, I've seen on GAF, Social BioWare Network (when it was still up), and the Battle.Net forums. A community is only as good as the moderators overseeing it and they need to be paid to have a stable incentive in continuing doing their work. So yes, paying moderators should be prioritized before allocating the revenue elsewhere.

Absolutely fantastic for sure. I'm not surprised this issue hasn't yet been addressed. It's still early. But I figured we should start the conversation now. It's a massive way for us to distinguish our community.

Imagine funding really great gaming investigative journalism. Or a unique indie game. A documentary on a game development. Sending underprivileged kids to game development school. We can do that.

Mods and administrators should be paid a salary. It's a tremendous amount of work to keep a place like this running and moderated, and it's completely unfair to expect people to take on such a commitment without helping them to pay the bills.

Or to put it another way, salaries ensure that we can retain the best admins and moderators. It's an investment in the site, and an important one.

Any profit above that fair salary should go to charity.

I really think the ideal structure for a forum like this is a co-op. The site would be owned by the entire membership of the site, who would then elect a board of directors to actually run things.

While I have no doubts about the good intentions of the current admins, we have just seen what can happen if a community depends solely on one or a small number of individuals.

[Uncle]

getting a gold star from the mods like you were in kindergarten its the dumbest and yet the best site on the internet

benji I believe this post has enriched the forum and provided thoughtful commentary, would you please give this post a gold star

[Besticus Maximus]

I guess eventually it'll settle down but for a while it's going to be unbearable watching people fall over themselves trying to get their condescending little pat on the back.

But that's the system right now 

[Taco Bell Tower]

getting a gold star from the mods like you were in kindergarten its the dumbest and yet the best site on the internet

benji I believe this post has enriched the forum and provided thoughtful commentary, would you please give this post a gold star

If only the new bire would give moblin the silver color, that would be much better.