These forums

[shrekiejai]

Originally posted by rashidi1:

This field intentionally left blank

That kind of behaviour is less tolerated in some other subforums..and This field intentionally left blank you should refrain from being abusive. Ackter and Kriss may defend the game, but in the last couple of months, everyones tolerance is at an all time low. You do show a lack of understanding on what the games industry is all about. Its fair to say that perhaps FM2008 is not a groundbreaking product, and its fair to say that for some the enjoyment of the game isn't what they had expected, the industry is loaded with software companies who release poor products without adequate support. That is not the case with SI. They have made mistakes and have been forthright in their admission, but that does not give you the right to be abusive.

Demanding that they release a product that is "patch-free" shows a complete lack of understanding of the industry in general. They have been cases of software companies that have released brilliant games and found themselves out of business..case in point "Looking Glass Studios"..may i suggest you find out why.

With this type of attitude there's no way this forum will improve.

"This Field Intentionally Left Blank" might have used a few harsh words here and there, but the abusive words were not targeted at Ackter and Kriss. The sarcasm was, but not the harsh words. I find it quite biased that he was singled out when others have used words of similar nature and this thread contains numerous example of abuse towards "newbies". This gives an impression of SI will defend their "friends" and target those willing to speak up against them.

With an attitude like that, I don't see how you can expect people to respect the rules around here and be pro-active in maintaining a healthy atmosphere. It's the same reason why a unjust/corrupted legal system does not work - it lacks equality.

With regards to your comment on the gaming industry, if that is SI's official view on the gaming industry and how it wants to operate, it is very sad news. Clearly SI has accepted that their products will have defect and have paid absolutely no consideration to those customers that do not have the internet. Last time I checked, having the internet is not a requirement for FM 2008. What can they do with a defective product? According to your comments, clearly SI doesn't care.

As for Looking Glass, the reason why they went bust had nothing to do with the fact their game was of a high quality. Their games didn't sell well but I doubt that was because their game was patch-free. Poor marketing, poor design maybe, but definitely not caused by poor implementation. Saying that the collapse of Looking Glass is in some way a justification of releasing defective products is definitely an eye-opener.

I sincerely hope your view is not the view of SI, and that other moderators will take a more balanced approach to things.

I totally agree with tougher rules and stricter moderations, but only if it is done equally amongst "supporters" and "demonstrators".

[chopper99]

Originally posted by shrekiejai:

I sincerely hope your view is not the view of SI, and that other moderators will take a more balanced approach to things.

I totally agree with tougher rules and stricter moderations, but only if it is done equally amongst "supporters" and "demonstrators".

The problem is nothing to do with 'supporters' and 'demonstrators'. It's all down to constructive criticism/praise, both of which are welcomed and very useful, and destructive criticism/praise which is not welcome as it adds nothing to the forum or the game.

Criticism of the game is vital to help improve it but there is a way to critise the game without just having a rant and not offering anything towards improvement. As it is the more senior members of the forums happen to make up the majority of people who put their criticisms acroos constructively so something can actually be done about them. That's why one person's argument seems to get more 'favouritism' than someone elses on here, there's no place on these boards in my opinion for pointless destructive criticism, or praise for that matter.

And as for This Field Intentionally Left Blank he says:

Its must be a real burden for Ackter and Kriss to defend SI and their products from all the morons in the world. Yes, lets close GQ down; lets show these morons they have no right to complain. Fukc 'em; they're only paying customers after all

To me this is offensive. Apart from the fact swearing is not allowed on this forum these are personal insults aimed directly at two individuals. And the whole point of this thread is to cut out this exact behaviour.

[chopper99]

Where are the moderators. This is the second thread that this guy's been both racist and homophobic in and what punishment has he recieved? None.

The big problem with these forums is the lack of punishments dished out. People like this should be simply banned for life.

[Ched]

Originally posted by chopper99:

Where are the moderators. This is the second thread that this guy's been both racist and homophobic in and what punishment has he recieved? None.

The big problem with these forums is the lack of punishments dished out. People like this should be simply banned for life.

i think they need more mods before they can effectively punnish some people, although a recent troll case springs to mind in which harsher punnishment would have dealt with him immediately; as it was he started a handful of other pointless threads before glyn got round to banning him.

i'm hoping that there will be an increase in mods soon, i'm sure many people would be willing and able to mod effectively (myself included ) and yet i have not seen much in the way of increased mod numbers. appologies if there have been more mods added and i just haven't noticed.

[something less annoying]

The majority of people calling for more mods all seem to be putting themselves forward. Makes you wonder why they're making the point in the first place.

[Ackter]

What makes me wonder is that surely you have better things to do than just seek out threads where you can post "boo Si" in?

[Ched]

Originally posted by something less annoying:

The majority of people calling for more mods all seem to be putting themselves forward. Makes you wonder why they're making the point in the first place.

maybe because many of us are sick and tired of the state of these forums, or is that not a good enough reason for you???

[Barnzy]

Originally posted by chopper99:

Where are the moderators. This is the second thread that this guy's been both racist and homophobic in and what punishment has he recieved? None.

The big problem with these forums is the lack of punishments dished out. People like this should be simply banned for life.

Use the report button then, all your doing is drawing attention to an idiot by linking here. If people use the report button as it should then we are helping the get rid of the trouble causers and helping the mods out. There really is no need for more mods.

[dafuge]

Originally posted by something less annoying:

The majority of people calling for more mods all seem to be putting themselves forward. Makes you wonder why they're making the point in the first place.

I think everyone including SI is in agreement that this particular forum could benefit from a few more moderators.

[Jimbokav1971]

Who on Earth would want to be a Mod in GQ?

[Kain]

I'm sure there would be loads of volunteers. Maybe. Though iirc, SI ask specific people rather than ask for volunteers and pick the best out of them, don't they?

[dafuge]

Originally posted by Kain:

I'm sure there would be loads of volunteers. Maybe. Though iirc, SI ask specific people rather than ask for volunteers and pick the best out of them, don't they?

This is the appointment procedure.

[shrekiejai]

Originally posted by chopper99:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> Its must be a real burden for Ackter and Kriss to defend SI and their products from all the morons in the world. Yes, lets close GQ down; lets show these morons they have no right to complain. Fukc 'em; they're only paying customers after all

To me this is offensive. Apart from the fact swearing is not allowed on this forum these are personal insults aimed directly at two individuals. And the whole point of this thread is to cut out this exact behaviour. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I struggle to see which part of them is a personal insult to both Ackter and Kriss. It is definitely a ridicule, perhaps offensive due to the swearing, but I don't see any personal insult. Maybe it's just me.

Anyhow, I'm not here to defend TFILB and I do sincerely hope this forum becomes a better place with less insults, less one line comments and more intellectual discussions.

Fact is, while it is annoying to have 50 new threads pop up saying there are bugs here and there, alot of those threads are actually justified. SI just needs to grin and bear it for releasing a defective game. Once the patch arrives to fix the majority of these problems, I believe the forum will quiet down dramatically. These kinds of threads are follows a cyclical pattern, ramping up after initial release and dying down after the final patch. It happens every year.

I am still waiting to see anyone from SI comments on their view of the gaming industry. I'm quite intrigued to know the culture inside SI, especially the dev team.

[shrekiejai]

Gah, I should've proof-read my post before posting. Apologies for the insane grammar and spelling in my previous post!

My kingdom for an "edit post"!

[birdy123]

Originally posted by dafuge:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by something less annoying:

The majority of people calling for more mods all seem to be putting themselves forward. Makes you wonder why they're making the point in the first place.

I think everyone including SI is in agreement that this particular forum could benefit from a few more moderators. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Not just this forum tbf. The challenges/sign-ups/holiday games forum could do with a couple of moderators, as could most sub-forums here actually.

[Paroubek]

On these forums can´t be a criticism? I don´t understand, why are my critical posts deleted? I don´t use vulgarism, I write fairly and a true!

[dafuge]

Originally posted by Paroubek:

On these forums can´t be a criticism? I don´t understand, why are my critical posts deleted? I don´t use vulgarism, I write fairly and a true!

Constructive criticism is very welcome, especially when the threads are well written giving examples that back up the claims.

Rants of no substance that turn into arguments tend to get closed.

[SmurfDude]

I'm at the point now where I don't bother to reply to most of these threads criticizing FM. It's more hassle than it's worth.

Whichever way you align yourself someone from either one of the "love SI" or "hate SI" camps feel they have the authority to shut you up with their opinions, which for some reason they believe are facts. It quickly gets boring.

Anyway, someone should point that ArseneFM guy to the rules. He seems to think it's acceptable to flame. Quite amusing though, the irony in his "you have no intelligence" comments.

[paulsgruff]

Originally posted by SmurfDude:

I'm at the point now where I don't bother to reply to most of these threads criticizing FM. It's more hassle than it's worth.

Whichever way you align yourself someone from either one of the "love SI" or "hate SI" camps feel they have the authority to shut you up with their opinions, which for some reason they believe are facts. It quickly gets boring.

Agreed, it's getting a bit annoying.

If you have anything positive to say, or a suggestion on how to potentially sort out/reduce someone's extreme annoyances with the game - you just seem to get labelled a 'fanboy' and have the comments ridiculed or totally ignored. To be fair though, there are only a minority of people that do this, and it doesn't always happen, but it seems to be becoming more frequent lately.

If you have a criticism, constructive or not it seems, then you tend to attract the 'haters' who harp on about how the game isn't worth the money and how disappointing SI are, which naturally attracts people who want to stand up for the game and can often lead to premature thread closure because half of the content is drivel.

I'm not talking from personal experience at the moment, but it is quite easy to find examples of this just glancing through GQ and if it's annoying to just read it when not having contributed to the thread, then it must be pretty off putting for the person that actually made the post in the first place, especially if they are a new member and are just trying to help, get some help for themselves or have an idea they would like to get other peoples opinions on.

Agreed that the forums could benefit from a few extra moderators to pick up on some of these incidents before they start ruining constructive threads with good intentions, rather than having to come on and close them at a later stage as they had already got out of hand. As Jimbo said though, I imagine it wouldn't be the most pleasant job to moderate GQ at this point in time.

[Kain]

Its not just him tbf, there seems to be quite a few users who seem to think its ok to flame people as long as they're defending the game.

Interesting to note its less than a week short of 2 months since this thread was started and nothing's actually changed at all. I'm starting to wonder if there's actually any point in this thread.

[Reider84]

Miles,

I was a member of a forum where we had similiar problems, what we did was clamp down on abusive posts by being stricter on bans and warnings etc, obviously making people aware of this first.

Then to help counter this a 'No Holds Barred' forum was created where anything goes and you enter at your own risk, if people want to be nasty in there then that was the place to do it, it worked suprisingly well.

Just an idea.

[Starr_Man5]

Originally posted by Reider84:

Miles,

I was a member of a forum where we had similiar problems, what we did was clamp down on abusive posts by being stricter on bans and warnings etc, obviously making people aware of this first.

Then to help counter this a 'No Holds Barred' forum was created where anything goes and you enter at your own risk, if people want to be nasty in there then that was the place to do it, it worked suprisingly well.

Just an idea.

I can only imagine the goings on within...

[Michael F]

Originally posted by Reider84:

Then to help counter this a 'No Holds Barred' forum was created where anything goes and you enter at your own risk, if people want to be nasty in there then that was the place to do it, it worked suprisingly well.

Just an idea.

You not visited OTF then? Its pretty much no holds barred there, the mods do nothing in there.

[Michael F]

more active mods in editors forum too btw. Just been a guy trolling in the genie thread & although kris dealt with it quickly that could of easily got worse by the time a mod seen it.

They dont even have to be mods, just people who could edit abusive posts & lock threads.

[FrazT]

Originally posted by Michael Foster:

more active mods in editors forum too btw. Just been a guy trolling in the genie thread & although kris dealt with it quickly that could of easily got worse by the time a mod seen it.

They dont even have to be mods, just people who could edit abusive posts & lock threads.

Michael- agree entirely- many of the Mods will visit the GQ forum but I wonder how many actually check the other ones? Not a complaint but just a question.

[Michael F]

Originally posted by FrazT:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Michael Foster:

more active mods in editors forum too btw. Just been a guy trolling in the genie thread & although kris dealt with it quickly that could of easily got worse by the time a mod seen it.

They dont even have to be mods, just people who could edit abusive posts & lock threads.

Michael- agree entirely- many of the Mods will visit the GQ forum but I wonder how many actually check the other ones? Not a complaint but just a question. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yeah i bet its not many, the mods for the editors hideaway are EdL, Boah, Michael Nygreen & Graeme Kelly, tbh i hardly ever see EdL or Boah, havnt seen Graeme for a while either although i did see Michael Nygreen in there the other day.

[Barnzy]

Think they are spreading themselves to thin, GK has been spending alot of time with FMLive so doubt he can be as active as he once was, maybe reviewing the Mods workload/availability to Moderate would be a good idea - may be just a case of spliting the forums up between them again.

[moorey]

I for one was verbally abusied today and called an idiot in these forums, i came on to express a view, which HAD been descussed before, but because i was nt aware of it i was called an idiot, just becuase i was arguing the case as why si gaems had released a game which was not ready to the paying public. That was my view i as a paying customer had a right to say this in these forums, i do not take to kindly to being called an idiot and i take this opertunity to make this my complaint to the moderators of these forums

[Ched]

Originally posted by moorey:

I for one was verbally abusied today and called an idiot in these forums, i came on to express a view, which HAD been descussed before, but because i was nt aware of it i was called an idiot, just becuase i was arguing the case as why si gaems had released a game which was not ready to the paying public. That was my view i as a paying customer had a right to say this in these forums, i do not take to kindly to being called an idiot and i take this opertunity to make this my complaint to the moderators of these forums

not sure theres much point posting on this thread, as i haven't seen a mod or anyone from SI here in ages.

it stinks how some people are treated on these forums just for posting their opinions on the game.

[FrazT]

Originally posted by moorey:

I for one was verbally abusied today and called an idiot in these forums, i came on to express a view, which HAD been descussed before, but because i was nt aware of it i was called an idiot, just becuase i was arguing the case as why si gaems had released a game which was not ready to the paying public. That was my view i as a paying customer had a right to say this in these forums, i do not take to kindly to being called an idiot and i take this opertunity to make this my complaint to the moderators of these forums

If you have a problem with another user on the forum then use the "report" option which is the yellow triangle to the right of the date at the top of the post. This way at least the Mods will see what you are upset about- they may not action it, but will at least log the complaint.

[gavnoble]

Originally posted by Kain:

Interesting to note its less than a week short of 2 months since this thread was started and nothing's actually changed at all. I'm starting to wonder if there's actually any point in this thread.

I'm sure there is but I would imagine SI have had plenty of other things with more of an immediate priority. Might have been worth SI starting the thread a couple of months earlier than they did, then there might have been a chance of a solution being in place before FM came out. Would have made sense to me as release time is always the crziest time on the GQ Forum.

[Kris]

Be assured that we are monitoring this thread (and forum ).

[Ter]

I'm sure the forum stuff will be dealt with in due course. We've got a lot of more important things going on at the moment

[Rab1879]

dude please help me with this i payed money for a game that wnt work on the other pc and runs slow on this laptop i mean come on can you not let me kno what to do

[chopper99]

Originally posted by moorey:

I for one was verbally abusied today and called an idiot in these forums, i came on to express a view, which HAD been descussed before, but because i was nt aware of it i was called an idiot, just becuase i was arguing the case as why si gaems had released a game which was not ready to the paying public. That was my view i as a paying customer had a right to say this in these forums, i do not take to kindly to being called an idiot and i take this opertunity to make this my complaint to the moderators of these forums

Try having a read back through the thread you started and I think it's quite clear why you were open to some abuse. You started a thread that was clearly just there to wind people up, knowing full well it had been discussed many, many times before. You then went on to admit it was supposed to be a wind up.

I think you got of lightly being called an idiot and in my opinion it's people like you who are adding to the downturn in quality on these forums, and it's people like you who should be getting warnings from moderators.

[urbanjunkie]

The fundamental problem with this forum is that there are far too many users

Basically, people post the same question as a thread without ever looking for the thread thats already there with the question in it. So you get a lot of original and decent threads that disappear off the first page because of unnecessary traffic.

The other (major) issue is, the forum is almost like a complaints message board rather than a place to talk and banter generally about the game. This is the problem - there is no focus and it turns to chaos because of the relentless blind posting. Not saying people can't post about their issues, but FM gamers are a passionate lot and theres far too much screaming and shouting which turns the place into quite a lively and dizzyning place.

The other forums have focus, so by their very nature people don't tend to deviate away from the main topic (i.e. tactics).

Its pretty much a free-for-all in this one. Don't get me wrong, there's some decent threads that came along but maybe you need to change it to 'FM Development' or something. That way you get people discussing the game, match engine, features in (hopefully) a more constructive nature.

The most extreme thing is to have an uber-army of cybotic moderators that do not need sleep or food who are online all of the time who can basically police each thread that has to be approved before appearing online. Obviously - this wont work due to the lack of cybotic mods. Even if you did have some protoypes, I'm sure you'd have to work on a AI patch before going live thus running the risk of bugs.

[Bodis]

I don't think the current problems/issues faced in the GQ forum can be solved by one single action. A series of steps will need to be taken in order to bring some civility and control back to this once healthy community.

The idea of more moderators seems to be one of the more "popular" requests, and I for one (without knowing the full extent of how this increase should take place or who it will involve) am all for it.

As an addition to more moderators I feel that a slight restructure of the GQ forum could be beneficial. Once "release fever" has slowed down somewhat and less sticky threads are active in the forum I feel that a comprehensive FAQ thread could be of great use. The FAQ thread could be controlled by the moderators/SI and be updated as and when necessary, either by a classic Q & A style thread, or by using it to post links to previous threads which answer the questions but can no longer be replied to (this would however entail closing down said threads to avoid them popping back up the boards).

I feel it would be important that such a FAQ thread consist of all the questions which are posted repeatedly in GQ, not just the ones that have "positive" answers (I.e. answers to questions regarding unlicensed teams of grey players etc need to be included). If answers to these types of questions aren't included the thread would quickly lose its value.

I'm certain that if some time and thought is spent on how to move forwards with this forum the right kind of plan can be put together and implemented. Whatever actions are taken, I'm glad to see SI addressing the issues at hand.

[Ackter]

The problem with FAQ threads is that the people who read them are mostly made up of people who knew the info anyway.

[fluffy_sheep2]

I've not read through the whole thread so I'm not sure if it has already been suggested or brought up but I think Karma should be scrapped. I don't really see a benefit to people having a Karma level, and I think having the system just encourages people to spam. Threads that are started with moaning about the patch, for example, just encourages a lot of people to post for the +1, and just say "read the sticky", and then end up getting into a slanging match until a mod closes the thread.

It probably wouldn't stop people posting in the "pointless" threads, but it might help minimise the amount of pointless posts that are put into them, which just bumps them all the time, leading to the most recent interesting and informative threads being kept on the first page.

[fluffy_sheep2]

Originally posted by fluffy_sheep2:

I've not read through the whole thread so I'm not sure if it has already been suggested or brought up but I think Karma should be scrapped. I don't really see a benefit to people having a Karma level, and I think having the system just encourages people to spam. Threads that are started with moaning about the patch, for example, just encourages a lot of people to post for the +1, and just say "read the sticky", and then end up getting into a slanging match until a mod closes the thread.

It probably wouldn't stop people posting in the "pointless" threads, but it might help minimise the amount of pointless posts that are put into them, which just bumps them all the time. This would then lead to the most recent interesting and informative threads being kept on the first page.

Fixed.

[Ched]

Originally posted by fluffy_sheep2:

I've not read through the whole thread so I'm not sure if it has already been suggested or brought up but I think Karma should be scrapped. I don't really see a benefit to people having a Karma level, and I think having the system just encourages people to spam. Threads that are started with moaning about the patch, for example, just encourages a lot of people to post for the +1, and just say "read the sticky", and then end up getting into a slanging match until a mod closes the thread.

It probably wouldn't stop people posting in the "pointless" threads, but it might help minimise the amount of pointless posts that are put into them, which just bumps them all the time, leading to the most recent interesting and informative threads being kept on the first page.

i've seen a fair few cases of people ignoring others opinions based on their "squad status" and many comments based on how many posts others have made, i don't see karma as a bad thing, just that some users will use anything to put other people down.

[Bodis]

Originally posted by fluffy_sheep2:

I've not read through the whole thread so I'm not sure if it has already been suggested or brought up but I think Karma should be scrapped. I don't really see a benefit to people having a Karma level, and I think having the system just encourages people to spam. Threads that are started with moaning about the patch, for example, just encourages a lot of people to post for the +1, and just say "read the sticky", and then end up getting into a slanging match until a mod closes the thread.

It probably wouldn't stop people posting in the "pointless" threads, but it might help minimise the amount of pointless posts that are put into them, which just bumps them all the time, leading to the most recent interesting and informative threads being kept on the first page.

Mods can suspend/delete karma points for indivisula users, so spamming and too many +1 posts wont necessarily help your karma level.

[fluffy_sheep2]

Originally posted by Bodis:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by fluffy_sheep2:

I've not read through the whole thread so I'm not sure if it has already been suggested or brought up but I think Karma should be scrapped. I don't really see a benefit to people having a Karma level, and I think having the system just encourages people to spam. Threads that are started with moaning about the patch, for example, just encourages a lot of people to post for the +1, and just say "read the sticky", and then end up getting into a slanging match until a mod closes the thread.

It probably wouldn't stop people posting in the "pointless" threads, but it might help minimise the amount of pointless posts that are put into them, which just bumps them all the time, leading to the most recent interesting and informative threads being kept on the first page.

Mods can suspend/delete karma points for indivisula users, so spamming and too many +1 posts wont necessarily help your karma level. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I guess so. Do the mods do it though? If Karma has to stay in place maybe it would be an idea for a mod (when closing a thread, warning somebody etc) to deduct so many Karma points, and actually post in the thread that they are doing so. That might act as a deterrent if people care about their level so much.

[Bodis]

If Karma has to stay in place maybe it would be an idea for a mod (when closing a thread, warning somebody etc) to deduct so many Karma points, and actually post in the thread that they are doing so. That might act as a deterrent if people care about their level so much.

Thing about karma is that the people who post drivel don't care about it (it is called "karma" after all ).

There may be scope to changing how the karma system works, but I feel it wont affect the worst people on here at all.

[FrazT]

One of the problems with moderating in GQ is that it can be feast or famine- during the day in UK when the SI staff are around the forums, there can be several people with Moderating responsibilities online ( although in truth few of the SI guys use this resposibility ). At other times, there can be no one around for hours on end and this can lead to problems when a thread gets out of hand.

There are also problems in the less used forums where moderation is very sparse.

[birdy123]

Originally posted by Bodis:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">If Karma has to stay in place maybe it would be an idea for a mod (when closing a thread, warning somebody etc) to deduct so many Karma points, and actually post in the thread that they are doing so. That might act as a deterrent if people care about their level so much.

Thing about karma is that the people who post drivel don't care about it (it is called "karma" after all ).

There may be scope to changing how the karma system works, but I feel it wont affect the worst people on here at all. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

The argument for it staying is that it is a way for new users to immediately identify who the more experienced users are and know that the advice they are getting is probably of a better quality than another user could give.

[fluffy_sheep2]

Originally posted by birdy123:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Bodis:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">If Karma has to stay in place maybe it would be an idea for a mod (when closing a thread, warning somebody etc) to deduct so many Karma points, and actually post in the thread that they are doing so. That might act as a deterrent if people care about their level so much.

Thing about karma is that the people who post drivel don't care about it (it is called "karma" after all ).

There may be scope to changing how the karma system works, but I feel it wont affect the worst people on here at all. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

The argument for it staying is that it is a way for new users to immediately identify who the more experienced users are and know that the advice they are getting is probably of a better quality than another user could give. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

But just because they have posted more doesn't mean they are more knowledgable. They could just be spamming like crazy in OTF. I think that after a while new users will get to know who the most helpful and knowledgable users are just by reading what they post.

I'd be for a sort of star rating system that users could achieve from posting useful and informative stuff. At least that way if one user has 3 stars, and another has 6, chances are the person with 6 stars would give better advice, based on the quality of their posts, rather than quantity.

[birdy123]

People say this all the time, but it would be bags of work for the mods giving each user a seperate star rating. The karma way is simple and works to an extent.

[dirtyscarab]

i think the Karma system is fine, even if it is a little time consuming to reach the next level.

Anyway, in terms of weeding out abusive posting, I'll echo what's been said so far and say bans should work, but make 'em heavy. If someone's first post on these forums consist of abusive behaviour, the chances are they're going to do it again.

Maybe a 'Three strikes and you're out' kinda thing would work?? I'm not sure how hard this would be to implement but it certainly seems fair...

[birdy123]

Maybe a 'Three strikes and you're out' kinda thing would work?? I'm not sure how hard this would be to implement but it certainly seems fair...

That is in place currently, or similar.

http://community.sigames.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/27619697/m/4302087491