2017, Forum Moderation

[NineLine]

So here we are, well on our way into a new year and I thought I should start 2017 off with a little update on where the forums are, where they have come from and where I hope to see them go. Just as a disclaimer, if you are reading through this hoping for some cool info on your favorite module, I will let you down easy now.

 

When I first joined the moderation team, it was mostly to compliment my testing duties, I wanted to be able to help manage some of the requests for help and submit bugs for people having issues with different things. Some of the things I noticed as I went along, learning the ropes was that it was a lot of personal opinion on handing out warnings and suspensions, there was no real guidelines, I mean there was basic unwritten ones, but for the most part, you were shooting from the hip.

 

Then the DCS WWII/RRG thing happened, and it was eye opening to see how hard it was to manage expectations on a forum like this, trying to keep the discussion going, trying to keep it from getting toxic, but letting people vent some as they did have a right to be frustrated and such because of what had happened. People got warnings, people got suspended, and it was quite the rough few days.

 

After all that dust settled, or mostly settled I personally saw that we were lacking a real structure to moderation, which is not anything against any previous mods, or ED themselves. I think it was that the forums just grew beyond what was in place at the time. I approached Wags about putting guidelines in place, and worked with him and the mod team to have a more structured way to apply warnings and suspensions.

 

So about a year and a half ago, we instituted these guidelines, reviewed previous warnings and suspensions, including welcoming back some people that had previously had their posting rights revoked. Now it wasn’t always easy, the new guidelines required us to give people warning points that in the past might not have gotten points before, and some people even received short suspensions because the guidelines aimed at less permanent penalties and more minor suspensions.

 

So where are we today? I feel like we have created a more open, mature and healthy community. People are allowed, and encouraged to post about issues and problems, take part in bug reporting and even venting when done in a mature, constructive manner. We still have our moments of course, after all this is a world wide forum, and everyone handles anticipation of new products, news and updates differently. People use translators to view these forums, or view other languages that are not their first language, which can cause issues as well. I think though that for the most part we really have a great group here now, I see more willingness to help new people, I see most discussions using tolerance and understanding than planting your feet in the sand and fighting over nothing.

 

I think for myself and the reason I am writing this is that I want us to keep working towards a great community. That takes looking at ourselves and how we conduct ourselves here and with each others. My personal goals is to try and reach out to those that don’t have a great experience here and try and help them work through those issues, whether its something to do with administration or with other users. I know over the past year, we have lost some simmers, we have had some simmers go through some big events in life, be it health or family. Its important for us all to look at the bigger picture, especially when we are fighting over some little detail, that at the end of the day, or the flight, we are all people and we all have lives, family and a great hobby.

 

So for 2017, I want to connect even more than I have. I am only scary when I need to be, most of the time I am just another one of you guys, excited to see what ED will bring us next. I don’t do this moderator thing for some sort of power trip, honestly what kind of power does a internet forum give anyone anyways? I do this because I love this hobby, and I want it to be fun and relaxing for all. So lets all try and work together and continue to make this forum a fun place to come, share and converse with people that understand what we see and want in this hobby.

 

So, if you didn’t know before, know now that my door is always open. If you have an issue here with anyone or anything, drop me a PM. I am not as scary as you might think.

[Camembert]

I am not as scary as you might think.

 

With an avatar like that? Who you trying to fool? :lol:

[Sabre-TLA]

Good post Sith. I don't envy your position. :(

 

Constructive criticism can help make any product better - the other behaviors - let's just just hope we see less of them this year. ;)

 

Respect that we all come from different backgrounds, cultures, and experiences and focus more on what DCS brings to this hobby to make it such a great time for flight simming.

 

Onward and upward for 2017! :thumbup:

[Aginor]

Hey that Zabrak wasn't always that evil either! :D

 

OK seriously: I think we all can improve, and it is nice to hear you see that the same way, Sithspawn. Most of the time we are doing OK here I think. Even though I am not always happy here I very well remember times when it was much worse.

[rrohde]

Nice words for the masses. Thanks for being here and doing what you have to. Also, I always appreciate your insights when it comes to the things we want so badly but don't have access to just yet. So, a big thank you from me for you being around. :thumbup:

[BIGNEWY]

Nice post SiThSpAwN,

 

and thanks for the guidance since I became a moderator :)

 

Just to echo what has been said above, I am always happy to help with any forum queries or testing issues.

 

Looking forward to 2017 it is going to be a good year!

[Donut]

Thank you for the post and thank you to all who make this a great community. This is the only forum that I have ever joined and participated in. It is a welcoming, helpful, informative, and fun place to spend time when not flying.

[Andrei]

Thank you for your hard work, gents. Your efforts are certainly not in vain, as this is indeed great and helpful community. Having seen it developing for almost 15 years, it's been a great journey and I'm confident it will be even better.

[Scooternutz]

I have been suspended by you once. :) Still love ya!

[Silver_Dragon]

Thanks SiThSpAwN by all great work. And expected see interesting news that year...

[MegOhm_SD]

We all appreciate your efforts, insider perspective, help and humor.

 

Great job...keep up the good work!

 

Also, a big thanks to Skatezilla and BigNewy!

 

<S>

Edited January 8, 2017 by MegOhm_SD

[piXel496]

We need you to be scary thats part of your power and we see thrue it. You are the best of the best and we will fear you in 2017.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

:beer:

[cichlidfan]

Sith,

 

I have only one thing to say, aside from thanks for putting up with me.

 

:thumbup:

[David OC]

Big thanks to all the mods here for looking after the community, I don’t envy your job here guy’s. Very hard to manage all the expectations of many different ages and cultures around the world, then add in all the bleeding edge flight sim technology that ED and third parties do all the time.

 

DCSW still blows me away with the systems and flight models, more than any other simulator out there. Yes, things need polishing and the big merge and this will all happen, I’m happy ED is still around and able to push the bleeding edge in combat flight simming forward into the future for us all to enjoy.

Edited January 8, 2017 by David OC

[Nero.ger]

little know secret, but several years ago sith was know as "cuddlykitten" and instead of a picture of a certain ...well sith, he hat a picture of a fat cat eating a cheeseburger...which is totaly not scary (unless you are a fitnesstrainer).

Naturaly no one took him seriously so he totaly overhault his character and was reborn as a SCARY dude with mod powers :-D

 

hopefully i will keep my posting rights after this.....

 

anyway happy new year :)

[cichlidfan]

little know secret, ...

 

Sith & cuddly, do not compute (though his wife might disagree). :D

[NineLine]

little know secret, but several years ago sith was know as "cuddlykitten" and instead of a picture of a certain ...well sith, he hat a picture of a fat cat eating a cheeseburger...which is totaly not scary (unless you are a fitnesstrainer).

Naturaly no one took him seriously so he totaly overhault his character and was reborn as a SCARY dude with mod powers :-D

 

hopefully i will keep my posting rights after this.....

 

anyway happy new year :)

 

As a dog lover I totally thought cats were scary, but I was wrong ;)

[cichlidfan]

As a dog lover I totally thought cats were scary, but I was wrong ;)

 

They are scary but you need a bigger one for the proper effect. ;)

 

A bit less than 40 years ago, I had the opportunity for a an 'up close and personal' encounter with a full grown Bengal Tiger (in excess of 450lbs). Having good friends at the zoo is handy sometimes.

 

I was able to pet him but it still stands as one of scariest experiences in my life.

 

EDIT: This is in comparison to handling tarantulas and scorpions bare handed, probably a hundred snake bites and being bitten in the face by a 3 foot long iguana (had to go to the doctor for that one). There was also this evil Tokay Gecko that tried to eat my thumb.

 

He was actually a sweetheart but the fact that his paws were as big as my head was quite intimidating.

Edited January 8, 2017 by cichlidfan

[NineLine]

I have been suspended by you once. :) Still love ya!

 

The great thing about the rules and the guidelines is generally everyone thinks its me that got them when generally its BIGNEWY or Skatezilla lol....

 

2017 New Years resolution, get BN to be assumed as evil as me

[BIGNEWY]

The great thing about the rules and the guidelines is generally everyone thinks its me that got them when generally its BIGNEWY or Skatezilla lol....

 

2017 New Years resolution, get BN to be assumed as evil as me

 

My cover is blown lol ;)

[Aries]

Thanks for reviewing the banned dudes... and great work!!!

 

:thumbup:

[derelor]

I am glad to be part of this great community!

 

The ED forums (and the bugtracker) are my second home where I learn new things every day. Over the years, I was lucky to interact with a lot of members mostly as part of my testing duties or from participation in virtual squadrons. A lot of friendly and very smart people from all over the world helped me to help improve the simulation. I even met some great community members in real life and made real “offline” friends.

Flight simulator communities have always been “special” to me. People take their hobby far too seriously at times, myself included. On the one hand, we want our study sim to get as close as possible to (the impossible) 100% accurateness. On the other hand, we must not forget that ED needs to keep profitable, otherwise they will get out of business and development of our simulator will cease from one day to the next. While attention to detail is very important, it should not distract from the bigger goals of making a profit and expanding the simulation.

We also have to accept that, in order to really experience 100% realism, one has to go out and fly the real aircraft. I think we should not expect a 50€ desktop simulator to perform better than a multi-million dollar simulator used to train real pilots and match all parameters of a particular aircraft perfectly.

However, I can perfectly understand the frustration when a reported issue about one’s favorite module is not fixed immediately. After becoming a tester, at first I became frustrated, too, when I invested a lot of time to research and report several (minor) issues and not seeing them fixed relatively fast. At one point during development of the F-86F, I became so fixated on the bugs instead of enjoying the sim, I almost did not want to fly the module anymore, because I focused too much on the issues and only saw the errors. In the end, almost all my reported errors got fixed eventually.

So, if you ever find yourself in the above situation, my suggestion is to support us by trying to give constructive criticism and to give it time. Take a step back, relax and try to take a look at the bigger picture. Keep in mind that even if an issue seems easy to fix, there is always the possibility that touching a specific part of the code to fix one issue introduces another, so careful testing is needed, which takes time. I know this can be hard, but try to keep a positive attitude and enjoy what you have so far. Please refrain from destructive aggressiveness, personal attacks, etc. – these do not belong here! Despite all its shortcomings, DCS in its current state certainly is an amazing product that you can have a hell of a lot of fun with – especially now with VR. And yes, even without a flyable F-18!

 

With so much good stuff on the horizon, I am sure 2017 will be a great year for DCS!

[Hawkeye60]

Constructive criticism can help make any product better - the other behaviors - let's just just hope we see less of them this year.

 

Respect that we all come from different backgrounds, cultures, and experiences and focus more on what DCS brings to this hobby to make it such a great time for flight simming.

+1000

 

I have made friends all over the world though this forum.

 

We talk in real time using team speak.

 

I have a friend and have done so to central China!

 

We all share this Obsession.:D

 

Working together towards a common goal though collaboration and cooperation can accomplish impossible things!

 

Thanks to all.

 

All the best for a great 2017!

[RyboPops]

Much better forums than umm...those other forums from another three-letter sim where the ban hammer is always in use and censorship reigns supreme.

 

I don't post much but I see many that would be deleted at the other place and I've appreciated the leniency and understanding that we're all human and that at the end of the day, we're all here because we love DCS.

[BitMaster]

2017, here we go...

 

Sith, well said !

 

It is not an easy task to be a housekeeper and stay friends with those you have to watch.

 

Being unprejudiced is another rare to find thing.

 

Well done

 

My respect

 

 

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Edited January 8, 2017 by BitMaster