My suggestion will be short and sweet. When dealing with hacking complaints, give out a forum warning point to the first person who posts unnecessarily. Not some sissy "warning" that no one will follow. Then the flaming on those threads will stop. Also, no saying names. We all know who does it. No flaming. Just debate the affects of the suggestion and its uses.
To do away with warnings would be too harsh in my opinion. Also, the definition of unnecessary isn't always easy to determine. I personally think that the way comments are dealt with currently is acceptable. They aren't exactly something which negatively affect your experience of ECC. Whenever posts turn into an argument, or things get heated, staff already jump on that very quickly.
I know this may not be the most politically correct thing to say. And I am far from anyone to advise staff how to do their job. But... I have to kind of agree with the OP. I read the Ban Appeals/Complaints section regularly, and I find that no one takes the mods seriously when they say "Stop posting unnecessary comments. The next person who posts will get a warning." Usually this does absolutely nothing. The posters continue their verbal "opinions" on why they are right and the other person is wrong. Then another mod says "So and So said no further comments. The next person who posts anything will receive a forum warning. Now stop and wait patiently while we review the evidence." Then either one party is tired of posting and stops or things continue. I personally don't get why the staff allows this to continue. It seems to be escalating as of late. At first it was only a few people and a few comments and they would stop after the first warning. But lately it seems to be more and more people with less and less actual warnings being issued. I am not staff, so I can't say this is how you want it or not. But from someone outside staff, I almost EXPECT a flame war to break out on any hacking video thread, staff saying "stop posting", and for it to continue. It is the norm. And it looks (to an outsider) like the kids are running the show. This is just my opinion, and I am just sharing it. I am not trying to tell anyone how to do their job as I don't know what goes on behing the scenes. But I do know that appearances do count for something, and I am sharing that side of it.
I think that most of the server isn't afraid of forum warnings. From what I can see, the people who are issued these forum warning continue to post and post, with no real consequence. I say a 1 day forum ban for violating this rule. I myself sometimes break it, but it's against the rules, and forum warnings clearly aren't deterring people from posting. I also think that the staff should delete the comments that are posted unnecessarily.
Forum warnings quickly turn into forum bans. This will prevent people from doing it again because of the severe consequences.
@Emau put into words what I couldn't . Lately, staff I feel are becoming less powerful over the users. There are multiple people who break the rules regularly because they know nothing will happen to them. Obviously, I'm not a staff member nor ever have been, but this is becoming too much. I'm a normal, rule abiding citizen, and watching all hell break loose isn't the kind of thing that makes me feel happy. This goes for in-game as well. This really can't be implemented though, as one, andrew doesn't take administrative suggestions and two, everything is at staff's discretion. Personally, this is a wake-up call to staff in my opinion. Now us users are calling for help and we need an answer. SOS staff, SOS.
3 forum warnings = 3 day tempban. If people post after being warned then the posts can simply be deleted without warning. (it doesn't appear to be very common practice though...)
I would say that when tagging unknowrider in the complaint, the mod also warns people in advance for posting. If someone breaks this rule they get a forum warning. People are taking advantage of this and you see the same people posting over and over in complaints, never with relevant info. +1
Well, they should know not to post, your example persons post provides no insight, just an opinion with no facts.
If anyone is watching the ban appeals/complaints forum right now, it should be fairly apparent that something needs to change. Nothing a mod says has any impact. What a mod does, however, will change behavior.
I will say the same as i did in the other thread: I think staff should be stricter with un needed posts. Just my opinion.
@Emau says it best - and staff does seem to be extremely tolerant on this issue which is their right. however, I would like to add that as a member of ECC, this is extremely frustrating to see over and over again and now there are more and more instances since there is no consequences at this time. That said, I appreciate every staff member and the job they do!
When mods start acting and temp banning people for even a day, i bet people will stop posting uneeded comments. +1 for this I see lots of people posting uneeded comments. I see that sometimes a straight away ban tempban will make people not want to come forward with evidence afraid of being tempbanned lol. Its a catch 22
+1 The mods arent taken very seriouly on these complains and also players are already fueled with passion about these complaint topics. A harsher punishment is needed. Or they can just enforce the laws in place and stop being so easy on commenters.
I have determined that the staff team will be issuing LESS verbal warnings and MORE forum warnings for pointless posts in the Ban Appeals and Complaints section. I hope all players take note of this. I am done with reading 4 page long complaints of nonsense. Ps: 3 Forum Warning points in a short period of time = a forum ban. Please consider that when you have the random urge to comment on something you are not involved in and have no reason to be posting on in Ban appeals/complaints. Locked and Partially Approved
