How should RPGWatch handle emote reactions going forward?

How should RPGWatch handle emote reactions going forward?

  • Any user can use any reaction with no restrictions whatsoever

  • Recipients of too many* negative reactions from a single user have the option to request mod. action

  • Remove the "rolleyes" and "unamused" reactions

Results are only viewable after voting.
HellRazor said:
I read the entire thread. Most of it is debate on the best solution to the "problem". But it didn't seem to me anyone cared much if they were kept, at least I don't recall any compelling arguments to that effect. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm not going back and re-reading four pages just to find the one or two people who think emojis are the bee's knees and a "must have" forum feature.

Regardless, IMHO, if the emojis are causing a problem big enough to cause concern among the mods, they should just be turned off. They don't add a whole lot to the quality of dialogue on this forum. I've never even noticed them, to be honest. If they are easily abused, hurt people's feelings, and make the moderators' lives more difficult, just shut them off.

The whole topic is kind of hilarious to me. A lot of angst over nothing. Facebook emojis would probably drive some of these guys insane. :p

If you go with #2, be prepared to have the same minority of users who already don't get along and/or who can't get along with others and/or are just here to troll other users (and probably already cause headaches for the moderators) constantly crying to the mods about how User X keeps posting a "rolling eyes" emoji on all their posts. (God, even just saying that sounds so immature and childish, but here we are). This is what assholes will do to piss other people off because posting something like a personal attack will probably get them banned. It's not a "forum feature" problem, it's a USER problem, and likely it's a very SMALL number of users who abuse the feature. Personally, I think it's a huge waste of time trying to moderate something like emojis, but if the consensus is that this a good use of the volunteer moderators' limited time, go for it. I don't really care about the emojis either way.
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In this thread, and the other one that lackblogger started, people have expressed that emoticons are an easy way to show one agrees/disagrees or likes/dislikes a post without having several posts just saying it.

Some have also said it is a good way to interact if one is reluctant to post for some reason, for example being shy.

Personally I think emoticons as well as emojis are good ways to try to color one's responses with emotions and facial expressions.
 
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HellRazor said:
But it didn't seem to me anyone cared much if they were kept, at least I don't recall any compelling arguments to that effect.
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To add to what @SveNitoR replied above, it's also quite clear in the poll results.

It's a discussion we already had when we moved the website, and probably before when reactions were originally added to the previous website. Again, that's something that could have its own specific poll for all the reactions and not only the negative ones, but I doubt many people would see them differently than a useful way to communicate their feeling about a post or a thread when they have nothing else to add.

The problem here is not the feature but the one trolling with it (or arguably how that situation came to be). If someone was being a troll when posting, you wouldn't remove the ability to post. :)
 
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I haven't voted in the poll yet, and I don't even know if I will. The site has this emoji feature that has been reportedly abused by (as far as I know) only one member. And this abuse gave birth to two threads ("Rules on Emote reactions?" and this one).

The way I see, a question that has not been properly debated is: In two full threads on this subject, why doesn't the member being referenced by lackblogger appear and say why he always targets him? If he doesn't like lackblogger's posts, couldn't he just say "lackblogger, I don't agree with you here and there because of this and that"? Exchanging ideas, debating a topic, aren't these the main functions of internet forums?

We're here discussing the changing in the emoji using because someone is negatively abusing the feature when in fact, if the RPGWatch staff team (moderators & admins) conclude that someone is abusing something, then in my humble opinion, this is subject to a yellow card (warning issue), and if such behavior keeps going on, a red card (account suspension or account ban, the staff team know what's the correct penalty). You don't have to, don't need to change any rules, for God's sake! Random guy is abusing a feature here (any feature, spamming posts, etc), just issue a yellow card and, if the thing continues, a red card. Go take a shower! Period.

I've read things here like "lackblogger is way too sensible", "lackblogger can't stand 100 or 200 'eye-rolls' or 'unamusing' emojis in his comments", "lackblogger has reason in his plea", "lackblogger has no reason in his plea"... All this fuss about the matter and Taluntain is racking his brains to possibly change a feature that, let's be honest, he didn't need to. He surely has better things to do (on this site and in his personal life, sure) besides changing the way Emojis are being/should be used.

It's up to RPGWatch staff to check and see (I don't know who properly will do that) if there's an abusement being frequently committed. Did the staff conclude that the abuse does exist? Issue the proper penalty. Did they not? Life goes on! Again I say: the way I see, there's no need to change anything.

Like I said previously, we have now two threads discussing the same subject. If all that fuss still didn't draw ArthurEloi's attention to what he's been doing, and the thin line that he's been walking on, sorry guys but nothing else will do.

FOR THE RECORD: this posting is not in defense of lackblogger, I'm not advocating for him, I don't know him and I have little, if any, interaction with him here on the RPGWatch. In the end, it's just my two cents on the matter!
 
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SirJames said:
Ummm....

I got into a weird funk yesterday. I kept thinking about ancient relics of a bygone era or something and got compltely black-out drunk and called old friends I hadn't spoken to for years and all this crap.

Sorry if I posted some weird shit. I have no fucking idea what happened last night. There's a hole in the wall and everythings a mess and this headache might kill me. :)
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All you posts were as weird as always, so no reason to be worried.
 
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Redglyph said:
The problem here is not the feature but the one trolling with it (or arguably how that situation came to be). If someone was being a troll when posting, you wouldn't remove the ability to post. :)
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Actually, if a user was just continually trolling in a way that was disrupting the forum, I would hope they'd eventually be banned. Thus removing their ability to post. :p
 
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henriquejr said:
The way I see, a question that has not been properly debated is: In two full threads on this subject, why doesn't the member being referenced by lackblogger appear and say why he always targets him? If he doesn't like lackblogger's posts, couldn't he just say "lackblogger, I don't agree with you here and there because of this and that"? Exchanging ideas, debating a topic, aren't these the main functions of internet forums?
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Here's another question that hasn't been debated:

If only one user is abusing it, why not deal with the one user instead of trying to change the way the entire forums work for everyone just to stop the one person abusing it? Just tell the guy to knock it off.

RPGWatch already has a rule against trolling:

Trolling

Sowing discord in a discussion by starting arguments or upsetting people by using inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages with the deliberate intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or disrupting normal on-topic discussion is forbidden.
 
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The issue is the one member who started the original thread and caused this poll.

He shall not be named as I don't like him.:whistle:
 
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HellRazor said:
Actually, if a user was just continually trolling in a way that was disrupting the forum, I would hope they'd eventually be banned. Thus removing their ability to post. :p
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That was exactly the point. It has been suggested more than once since it's indeed border trolling, and I'm sure it will be debated by the moderators but, as @Couchpotato and others said, I don't think the problem is entirely black and white. That's why it's worth discussing it a little here before taking any decision, I suppose.
 
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lackblogger said:
Trying to stave off the negativity is our USP, even if we fail at it sometimes, or even regularly.
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So "negative" opinions are not allowed here? Who is the "negativity police"?

If I think your opinion is ridiculous, and I click on a "rolls eyes" emoji to indicate that, am I now an enemy of the forum for spreading "negativity"?

Do we all have to learn to speak in baby talk so we won't accidentally offend someone?
 
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HellRazor said:
Here's another question that hasn't been debated:

If only one user is abusing it, why not deal with the one user instead of trying to change the way the entire forums work for everyone just to stop the one person abusing it? Just tell the guy to knock it off.
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That's the same thing I wrote earlier in my post (I don't know if I made myself clear, English is not my natural language).

Quoting myself:

"We're here discussing the changing in the emoji using because someone is negatively abusing the feature when in fact, if the RPGWatch staff team (moderators & admins) conclude that someone is abusing something, then in my humble opinion, this is subject to a yellow card (warning issue), and if such behavior keeps going on, a red card (account suspension or account ban, the staff team know what's the correct penalty). You don't have to, don't need to change any rules, for God's sake! Random guy is abusing a feature here (any feature, spamming posts, etc), just issue a yellow card and, if the thing continues, a red card.
(...)
It's up to RPGWatch staff to check and see (I don't know who properly will do that) if there's an abusement being frequently committed. Did the staff conclude that the abuse does exist? Issue the proper penalty. Did they not? Life goes on! Again I say: the way I see, there's no need to change anything."

And I agree with you 100%. No need to try and change the way the forum works.
 
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HellRazor said:
So "negative" opinions are not allowed here? Who is the "negativity police"?

If I think your opinion is ridiculous, and I click on a "rolls eyes" emoji to indicate that, am I now an enemy of the forum for spreading "negativity"?

Do we all have to learn to speak in baby talk so we won't accidentally offend someone?
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It's about nuance. It's not about negative opinions as much as it's about a negative mindset

The negativity police used to be, ultimately, Myrthos, just as whatever rules Taluntain wishes to enforce, if any, would make taluntain the whatever that is police.

The codex has an overriding 'mindset' to it's site that "That game you like, it's shit", and that bleeds into the site itself, so that most threads are, essentially, just bitch threads and rabid fans, with most of the general talk bored by the noise.

So threads there are very difficult to keep track of as the majority of them regularly break down into just plain insult-fests and people competing to see who can shit on something the hardest.

It's not that 'negativity' is to be warned against, it's more about watching out for people who use the negativity as trolling tool, lest threads become useless flame wars between the usual trolls and their targets, the rabid fans.

Myrthos kept quite a tight reign on this kind of thing, and as a result barely any moderating needed to occur, as everyone had a pretty good idea of where to draw the line - everything is a line drawing exercise - there's no such thing as a binary no negativity or all negativity (even on the codex, people who are just 'too much' get removed eventually).

As for negative emojis, of course a little negative emoji here or there doesn't matter. The point is that the site has functioned for 20 odd years without them, and the reason it did so was because it didn't match the 'vision' for the site. The mindset. And, exactly as predicted, the second they were implemented, someone started trolling with them.
 
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