One of the reasons I have slowed down on the forums is the massive influx of sheer assholes. Far too many people come here and talk shit and act like they know everything. I am an old collector that likes to take it easy, and help a fellow collector out. I send random stuff that will help somebody's collection, because it makes me happy not because I expect anything back. Now the new asshats are trying nickle and dime people, backstab, and just give game collectors a bad name. What ever happened to community??? I think there are far too many resellers here that don't really collect. Now I understand funding a collection by selling items, and i have no problem with people that own stores that collect. Why you ask?? Because they are collectors. The ones that have no interest in collecting and are just here to piss people off and make a buck can all F-off in my book.

I am a community man. I like peace and I want people to be able to work out there own problems. Talk it out like men, instead of crying for a mod at the slightest whiff of a problem. They are here to MODERATE, not play mommy and teach her kids how to behave.

AMEN BROTHER!
I too have noticed more and more old timers have started to disappear from the forums...

No. Everyone's opinions are dumb and only opinions that jive with the correct (read: my) opinion may be posted.

That is to say, I basically agree with Ghaleon is getting at. A lot of junk gets posted here and there. But I don't know if more moderation is the way to go about it. That said, I dunno what is the way to go about it!

I don't really like the concept of users voting posts up or down based on content, since people are babies and that leads to a lot of babies crying. But I dunno, maybe something like that? Maybe if you make a BST thread you are allowed to flag posts as spam if you want, and they're hidden?

PM SENT!

It sucks because these "old timers" are the mods lol

There are many old timers that aren't Mods. They keep in touch in other ways. The ones that are mods, don't post a lot because of members analyzing every word that comes out of their mouth. I think that they would like to post more if they weren't given as much shit as they seem to get. Then you have certain mods and the like that if they post that they are collecting a certain thing, or that something is hard to find, the price shoots up and everybody want it. That is the start of the "NA Effect".

There are some new members that are cool for sure, but it seems like the percentage is getting lower every month.

You can't have growth in a hobby without new guys.  Maybe you find yourself being able to relate to more of the veterans than new guys, but that's to be expected.  But if there were no new guys here, values would tank and your collection wouldn't be worth a dime.   Not to say that everyone does this for the money, but would you rather have a collection worth something, or a collection worth nothing?  I think everyone finds a bit of comfort knowing that if shit really hits the fan (death of a family member, natural disaster, etc.), they can probably turn some of their collection to cash.

I like the new crew because it reminds me of my roots.  They are usually looking for their favorites, they can't relate to sealed games, etc.  But once you see the size of some other collections on here, you get a bit humbled and realize we're all on the same team. 

As far as threadcrapping.... I'm 50/50.  Yeah I don't think you directly need to shit on someone's price, but sometimes prices are ridiculous.  Of course they shouldn't sell in theory, so just let it drop.

But when the person is of questionable character, I don't see a problem with someone mentioning that in their thread.  One that comes to mind recently is confizzle, who had a deal in place with alekx for a controller, then was fielding offers on that exact item through Finders Keepers.  Then basically acted like a pissed off teenager when confronted about it.

So yeah if he's selling something, people should know about his shady character.  Maybe when the HOS is up and running it won't be necessary, but for now that's the only way to notify people who don't keep up with the forums.  I certainly would appreciate it if I was about to buy something from someone who has a shady past.

I'd want the same, jonebone. Community is paramount. It wouldn't benefit us to sit back and watch scammers come in here and take advantage of us. So definitely, there's a time to speak up about that stuff and it goes back to self-discipline. Self-discipline, in turn, ties into MasonSushi's complaints of increased assholishness and the influx of new members who will postcount++ in a reckless attempt to belong. It's free to sign up here and we're always going to get those types.

I for one am a new user and can vouch for the pm sent as being very redundant and couldn't figure out why people were doing it. I actually did it once or twice because I wasn't sure why so many people did it.

Soon as you sign up it flashes a red message from sqoon welcoming you. So I don't think, a new user might not be able to understand the system is a valid point. If the user can't figure out how to read a flashing red message that goes to a bolded inbox I highly doubt they are going to be able to find the bumped thread they created or for that matter create a thread at all.

I also think we (new users) are kind of ignorant to what has been beat to death already on this forum which people don't really care about seeing more threads of. So maybe some of the very annoying thread topics to avoid could be sent in the welcoming pm.

On a side note it would be correct to say that thread crapping on prices by new users especially would just make them feel singled out and not welcomed. I know I got this feeling when I posted a wanted thread for someone to install a modchip in a slim ps2 for me. W/all that is sold on here such as repros, pirates, homebrews, ... this just completely blew my mind on why it was locked and I still can't figure it out honestly.

That gets me to locking threads like that. Wouldn't it make more sense instead of locking the thread to just moderate the post and pm the user telling them why it has been moderated and leave it open so they can reuse that thread. Locking a thread just makes people think they are again unwelcomed and any post from them is unwanted and not welcomed here. Not too mention it causes more threads to be created and causes more clutter.

Just some of my thoughts anyhow.

It's really to stake claim to intimidate people who get to the thread later.

I usually use PM sent for two purposes. 1. To give someone that was easy to deal with a free bump 2. To make sure I can find the thread later in my "Threads that you have posted in". Yes I know that you can bookmark threads, I just find it easier to access some threads in my home.

For locating purposes later, you could look at your sent pm's and then look under that person's "threads started". Unless they start a boatload of threads that list we be shorter than the threads you have posted in.

What we have learned before page 3:

1) Heavy moderation of fluff posting is exhausting and probably will not happen
2) "PM sent" is a divisive issue
3) Veteran users don't post as often as they used to for various reasons related to new user conduct

Sounds like just about every other forum on the Internet. I feel kind of deflated saying that. But without implementing stricter rules for posting, the content is likely to continue being what it is.

How about implementing posting restrictions? I've heard of other forums placing some kind of limits on new users, where they can only make so many posts in a certain time period or their posts have to be approved by mod (or someone) before they will show up in the stream for everyone else to see. This could also be applied to problem users who are out of the noob phase.

I still like the idea of self moderating threads. That could also apply to the post limiting thing, where they could just ignore the drive by comments to keep the thread clean for other readers.

The problem with users self-moderating threads is it allows an OP with ill intentions to manipulate conversations to skew in their favor. Instances of a public deal between two people, for instance, could be changed by the OP for their own benefit. Or in the event of a simple quarrel, things could easily be altered by the OP to slant public opinion. I can definitely see how general clean-up would be a nice perk and probably cut down on threadshitting quite a bit, but it has its own downside.

I think it would be self regulating. If OP is a jerk, people will avoid their threads. You can always add in a moderator override option too. Having collapsed posts instead of invisible posts would be an option too.

I just think your idea is a doorway for bad times. Self-moderation offers a great potential for one-time scammers to change the entire thread to their liking, stating [falsely] that no one ever struck a deal with them. With no evidence to the contrary, what's to stop someone from picking clean several members in a few hours' time? Setting up transaction requests aren't even a requisite here (and the bold red words at the top of this page are a reminder that gift payments are way too common). That's why the original thread, in its unadulterated state*, is all that stands to bear witness against the OP's claims.

* - shit posts removed by mods being the exception

I like it when people post PM sent. There have been more than a couple times where I've been interested in something, but declined to PM because a friend had already went for it. Not really any need to crap on people prices, but there are a million things that could remain unsaid and don't, so I guess it's 6 of one, half a dozen of another. I don't really know about the whole "new people are jerks" vibe or anything else, I tend to judge a member on my interaction with them and/or the interactions my friends have had. I keep a small list of my own personal hall of shame, as it is, and it's a list of people on NA I won't deal with, either because they screwed over a friend of mine, or were a general dick to someone, or whatever. I'd use the foe list, but I don't want to miss anything. Also for a few NAers that have just lowballed the immortal hell out of me, it's just annoying, for instance, to have an item listed for $12 and another for $7 and get offered $10 shipped on both. Then see that member with their own thread and sky high prices on junk.

So yeah, that was a convoluted mess of a post, but whatever, I'm afraid I'm turning into one of those older guys that doesn't post so much, might as well try and throw my stupid opinion in.

If we could choose which forums showed up in our view (Gamer's Gauntlet, BST, etc), that might have the desired effect. It seems to me like we would like to clear out the huge amount of BST activity showing up as we try to keep in touch with the community. With the ability to uncheck BST, as well as any others that we haven't interest in, the latest topics/posts would be much more useful. Then, if we're interested, we can go the long route to get into BST.

Ends up having the same effect, but might be more feasible on the logistics side of things.

I'm sorry but this is stupid. Limiting someone for absolutely no reason is wrong. Thats like going into a restaurant wearing a black coat and being refused service because in the past people who wear black coats has caused arguments.

Now having this applied to problem users at any phase I would go for. However stereotyping someone by limiting their account just because they are new is discriminating.

I don't know how seriously to take this post. Because dress codes are a real thing. In reality, you have to wear what you have to wear to get into certain places, whether it makes sense or not. Ensuring new people are on the level before giving them full access to basically anything is pretty common practice for almost any club or community I can think of. If the problem is "discrimination" of people by restricting their posts, why is it ok to "discriminate" against problem users. It's just really bizarre language to use one sentence after saying you're down with limiting what a whole group of people is allowed to do.

That said, I'm pretty sure I agree with the point you're trying to make even though the way you're presenting it doesn't make any sense. I'm totally not for having new users on mod approval, for example. I think that's a pretty sucky way to grow a website. It's a huge turnoff if you join a forum and you can't do anything. I've even joined other classic Nintendo forums that had that sort of thing in place. It served at best as a deterrent for new members to even bother. At that point, we aren't just reducing worthless junk, we're reducing pretty much all growth altogether.



Though, to talk about something you didn't mention at all but I don't feel like editing in other quotes, I do think self-moderated threads could indeed work. But instead of the OP being able to delete posts, they can just hide them. There could be something at the top of the thread indicating there are hidden posts. Other users could click a button and those posts would show up. If there's any real problems with the thread, the posts are all still available. If there's any bullshit in the thread, those posts are hidden.

I don't know shit about coding though, so maybe that would be way more work than its worth, or perhaps totally impossible.

What I was implying was a reference that had nothing to do w/a dresscode scenario. However in comnparison to your dresscode scenario. How about I worded it; because you had on a $1000 armani "black" suit?

It was an example that restricted people based on other peoples actions and that is not how things should be done.

I could have gave any scenario such as you can't shop here because you are tall and tall people have stolen from us in the past.

It's just wrong to limit someone for actions performed by someone else. Innocent until proven guilty

This makes a lot more sense.

If I had to do do one or the other,  I rather the community slow its growth and the prices tank.  Having a super large community with assholes and high prices, doesn't do anybody any favors except the people that resell games. I honestly don't care if my set takes a nosedive in price, and I don't bank on it in an emergency.  I collect because I enjoy owning the game and having them on the shelf . I don't think anybody should take comfort , or bank some part of their financial future based on the prices of video games. Prices just like stocks and can change in an instant if somebody finds a huge stash of them.  Just my opinion though.

This paragraph touches on MasonSushi's post and the entire forums in general: I remember reading a sticky to the tune of "treat others with respect and kindness, it's a small community, we're a tight bunch here let's not be jerks to each other, etc". Not sure if that's still around or not, but the FAQ is littered with rules and guidelines that support this concept of treating others as you'd wish to be treated. Sometimes I see the mods/admins drop by a thread and put someone on the spot for being an asshole, to chill out, etc. Most of the time that'll defuse things. Sometimes folks just need to be reminded that we're all human.