Moderating in News and Rumours

[OutlawSixActual]

Why are the mods coming down so hard on threads in the news/rumors section? Like i'm expecting this thread to be closed today, there was a major update on the GW closure that was only opened for one post and then locked again - are we really expected to go to other forums to discuss news/rumors, and this is just for posting announcements and third party advertisers?

[Scribe]

Why are the mods coming down so hard on threads in the news/rumors section? Like i'm expecting this thread to be closed today, there was a major update on the GW closure that was only opened for one post and then locked again - are we really expected to go to other forums to discuss news/rumors, and this is just for posting announcements and third party advertisers?

 

Big agree here as well. While we are at it, lets move all the 'not-GW' stuff to some other forum? I'm here for GW, this is a Games Workshop forum.

 

3rd party stuff has its place, but spamming up the news and rumours with stuff that is not GW, while locking down discussion and over moderating actual on topic posts is...mind boggling.

[War Angel]

 

Why are the mods coming down so hard on threads in the news/rumors section? Like i'm expecting this thread to be closed today, there was a major update on the GW closure that was only opened for one post and then locked again - are we really expected to go to other forums to discuss news/rumors, and this is just for posting announcements and third party advertisers?

 

 

Big agree here as well. While we are at it, lets move all the 'not-GW' stuff to some other forum? I'm here for GW, this is a Games Workshop forum.

 

3rd party stuff has its place, but spamming up the news and rumours with stuff that is not GW, while locking down discussion and over moderating actual on topic posts is...mind boggling.

Damn I agree so much with this

[alfred_the_great]

I imagine some moderation for talking about moderation is coming.

[Brother Casman]

I've split this discussion from the News and Rumours topic, since it covers a question that I think the admins are best suited to answer.

[Ioldanach]

To be honest, I think that forum is under-moderated. I'd prefer to go in there and see the actual news, rumor, or announcement instead of the opinions, rants, and speculation that dominate in there. I'd prefer to see all of the latter stuff moved to other forums (e.g., if you want to give your opinion about the new Ragnar model, take it up in the Space Wolves forum).

 

I don't personally care much about third party stuff, but I don't see any value in creating a separate forum for it. Whether it's about official GW stuff or some third party stuff, if it's news, a rumor, or an announcement that's relevant to the WH40K hobby, having it in one spot seems appropriate to me.

[Panzer]

To be honest, if you just care about official GW news ... there's an official website for that called Warhammer Community.

[tychobi]

I assume fear of GW lawyers have something to do with the mod attitudes. Percieved negativity towards gw or speculation seems to get the mods attention. Makes me feel sad.

[Panzer]

I assume fear of GW lawyers have something to do with the mod attitudes. Percieved negativity towards gw or speculation seems to get the mods attention. Makes me feel sad.

 

I doubt that a lot.

[Lucerne]

Half the reason I browse this forum is for the rumours...

[Tyriks]

It does make it very disjointed to be in the middle of legitimate discussion and have to move to another thread.  Not anything catastrophic but it can disrupt thought flow if you're genuinely interested.

[OutlawSixActual]

To be honest, I think that forum is under-moderated. I'd prefer to go in there and see the actual news, rumor, or announcement instead of the opinions, rants, and speculation that dominate in there. I'd prefer to see all of the latter stuff moved to other forums (e.g., if you want to give your opinion about the new Ragnar model, take it up in the Space Wolves forum).

 

I don't personally care much about third party stuff, but I don't see any value in creating a separate forum for it. Whether it's about official GW stuff or some third party stuff, if it's news, a rumor, or an announcement that's relevant to the WH40K hobby, having it in one spot seems appropriate to me.

 

I think the problem with this attitude is that this is a forum, where the point is the discussion of news and rumors. If it's just supposed to be a place to post a rumor and that's it, then it's just like a wikipedia page or a PR office or something.

 

And having it centralized works - over the last few months I've read discussions about everything coming out for every army, and found it awesome to learn more about things as I read about news in one place. But since the Beast Arises discussion got locked down and split to the Space Wolves and Ork forums, I basically just stopped reading about it on this site and went to other sites where I can read about what's coming new in "40k world" instead of having to go to a bunch of different smaller realms.

 

Which is a shame because while I don't post that much, I REALLY enjoy seeing all of the B&C frater's perspectives and learning about armies and perspectives i don't normally see, in an easy to consume way, and it's sad when I see that the forum designed for that (News and Rumors) is being put into lockdown mode.

Edited March 27, 2020 by coldfyre

[Scribe]

To be honest, if you just care about official GW news ... there's an official website for that called Warhammer Community.

 

Is this a discussion forum or...?

[Axineton]

I really hate the third party spam. I wish there was a separate sub forum for that. Yeah I get people find value in it and it’s useful but I’m not a fan. 

[Brother Tyler]

The important thing with an issue like this is to develop an understanding of how the community as a whole feels. As with any contentious issue, there are going to be those with extreme opinions, and those tend to be the loudest/first to speak. Common sense tells us that those that are most active in the forum have a certain viewpoint. More importantly, there are others that are less active; and of those, there are some that read, but don't participate as much for a variety of reasons. What I'd like to see is input from the larger membership in order to develop a more well-rounded understanding.

 

Naturally, a part of that discussion will be the site's current structure for content management*.

 

So for now, please continue with the discussion. The method here isn't necessarily to refute any arguments that are not aligned with your own, but to identify various views, perceived problems, possible solutions to problems, and the consequences of those possible solutions.

 

We'll then assess the various issues and solutions identified by the community to determine what changes, if any, will best serve the community's needs.

 

 

 

 

* An explanation of our content management methodology is actually something that I've been slowly working on in order to provide everyone with a better understanding of where we are coming from on things. I've been too slow to get this launched, though, as I've been distracted with other things like cleaning up the database, developing the Liber Showcase, my own efforts in the hobby, having to deal with two kids home from school for the foreseeable future, and all of the other vagaries of real life. This may be the impetus I need to shift the content management explanation up in the priorities, though.

[Panzer]

 

To be honest, if you just care about official GW news ... there's an official website for that called Warhammer Community.

 

Is this a discussion forum or...?

 

 

I was responding to the people who said they want it only for official GW news and especially to the ones who said they don't want to read all the discussions about the news.

[Scribe]

So for now, please continue with the discussion. The method here isn't necessarily to refute any arguments that are not aligned with your own, but to identify various views, perceived problems, possible solutions to problems, and the consequences of those possible solutions.

 

We'll then assess the various issues and solutions identified by the community to determine what changes, if any, will best serve the community's needs.

 

 

For what it's worth. I would take official news, and rumors, and release updates, but only for GW official items. 

 

I would also expect to see news about the Forum itself (fundraising, contests, events, and so on.)

 

I would then want to allow for discussion on all of these items, and only lock/close them once the news item is no longer relevant.

 

Right now, on the first page for me.

 

GW - 11

3rd Party - 5

Site - 3

World News - 1 (Polish Post)

 

Several of these are past events, and are locked. That is fine, however 3rd party items, or custom rules/content that is not specifically a 'forum event' imo should not be in the main news area, its not news/rumor to me, and should be in a different place as 'Custom Content' or something.

[Lucerne]

Er, no?

 

Third party stuff is valid news, interesting, and frankly more useful for the long periods between GW announcements.

[OutlawSixActual]

I dont have a problem with third party stuff either (when its directly applicable to 40k of course) - the problem is that when every GW thread is prematurely locked and discussion sent elsewhere, the only things consistently at the top are the same third party threads so the variety gets lopsided.

 

I think that the way we had it a month or so ago was great - keep the thread open until release day.

 

Then, everyone can see the discussions about new releases and the rules previews, etc (and maybe build an interest). But once the release hits THEN it can transition to the dedicated forums.

 

I think forcing discussion to the other forums too early changes the dynamic. The news/rumors section is a meeting ground for everyone - if i have to go to the EC forum, for example, to read fabius bile news, then i know it's 90% EC fans and 10% (or less) general players so the biases and tinted glasses and perspectives get skewed.

 

I love this community and either way I know the mods and admins are doing what they think is healthiest for the community - i just felt compelled to raise this since it has been really bothering me that i find myself drifting to reddit/natfka/etc to see what the scuttlebutt is, when in reality i value (but find it increasingly harder to get) the perspectives of the people here and where everyone congregates together in the news/rumors section.

 

Anyway thanks for considering, everyone!

[alfred_the_great]

The irony being this has been moderated out of where it started, into a section of the site I didn’t even knew existed...

[Noserenda]

I think the locks have been a bit too heavy and individuals let off personally, a lot of threads are constantly derailed by the same individuals either carrying over grudges about other posters or just heading off down rabbitholes. Id rather keep the threads open but have the posters causing the disruptions get muted/banned as the mods see fit tbh. Please try to leave discussions open until release day, maybe a little after so a discussion can be had.

I think its all very well saying carry on in the subforums but some of those are pretty dead and the odd rumour isnt going to restart them. 

3rd party stuff is fine, especially kept to one thread per company, i just think its the GW threads being shut down the day after they start thats making the 3rd party threads so prominent.

[Scribe]

Er, no?

 

Third party stuff is valid news, interesting, and frankly more useful for the long periods between GW announcements.

 

Certainly an opinion, admittedly just as mine is an opinion.

 

I dont click on any of the third party stuff. Its not relevant to me.

 

EDIT: Speaking of the over moderation, the cutting of threads and the termination of discussion. I have a like from last night, that is dead now, just cant even find the thread.

Edited March 28, 2020 by Scribe

[Tyriks]

Yeah, it looks like the original thread about Bile was deleted instead of just merging the new one into it.  I'm not sure if there was an issue with content of the thread or if it was just because there is a new thread, but usually they would just be locked or merged so I am unsure what's happening there.

[War Angel]

I would say that while “new models available from victoria miniatures” is indeed “news” it is also a sales add. Might as well be a big banner popping up. Now I don’t know what the forums rules on selling things are, I just don’t do it. You could say posts about the saga of the beast box are also advertising, but in that regards, GW is the backbone of this hobby. I don’t play either faction and will never buy a single model from those ranges, but knowledge that my opponents will have a new war boss with new stratigems is relevant to anyone playing the game.

 

Something I didn’t know about, but seeing as we are now in the suggestions section I would like to make a suggestion on. If someone made a thread about “saga of beast battle box” then that thread is about that box (or release as it may be) for a moderator to pull that thread and split it into ork post and wolf post and then move it to “not news section” is incorrect. Had the post been “new ork codex and new wolf codex” then it still shouldn’t be put into the “not news” section, but splitting it would make sense. Casual forum members come to the news and rumors section from time to time to see what’s new and upcoming. Sure you could just send them to the GW forums, but no one uses those, and I dont even know that it’s safe to travel alone in.

 

In summary, I’m not so sure about 3rd party advertisement threads; stop moving threads into other sections because “that’s the faction”.

 

Edit, I don’t know if that last part happened, I only saw something about it recently. But if it is happening maybe not. That’s my vote.

Edited March 29, 2020 by War Angel

[Beaky Brigade]

If I recall another (unnamed ;) ) forum that used to be more prominent, they wouldn't allow any 3rd party news unless the company paid to 'advertise' on the forum with their own thread. I don't know if that's the right or wrong approach, but it was what they did.

I guess the downside of not doing it is a 3rd party company that is prolific with new products can appear to have a very active and prominent thread, and while there are many fine 'not 40k' minis out there, they are not to everyone's taste and I'm not sure if there is a bar or entry requirement for any company that wants to engage with our community. Nowadays with a 3d printer and a bit of know-how anyone can manufacture minis.

 

In terms of the thread moderation, I haven't been terribly active this month, but in the past you'd only need to read the last dozen or so posts to see why a potentially toxic news thread had been nipped in the bud. TBH the suggestion of being a bit harder on repeat offenders rather than taking everyone's toys away might be worth a go. Unfortunately there are a few familiar avatars which seem to cause a lot of the issues.