Come on, give the mods SOME credit

**DISCLAIMER: THIS THREAD WAS NOT MADE TO SUCK UP TO THE MODS, JUST TO SPREAD SOME RATIONALITY**

Seriously, everyone is blaming the mods for every downside of these changes going on in the Lounge, and it doesn't seem like we're giving them any credit at all. I mean, they are trying to help the community by doing this. So what if there are a few unneccesary deleted threads, if this will all work out for the better in the end? I'm just saying that things can be a little crazy when major changes have to be made. Everything will be fixed soon. Until then, calm down. Have a banana. Maybe I'm just naive because I'm new, but it seems like we're making a mountain out of a molehill.

Actually, while most mods are trying to make the community a better place, a couple, IMO are trying to just get rid of everything that makes the lounge what it is.

Just an opinion, I'm waiting to see how things turn out, thanks very much to simon for communicating with the community as events progress..

You don't see me dumping on them. Until I have evidence that they're going against the admin's wishes, I'll support 'em

Good point. I have a feeling I know exactly which two you are talking about

And that would be... a place for 14-year-olds to post about how their boogers smell weird? I don't think so. Some people's conception of what the Lounge is is quite incorrect.

Then define what the lounge is meant to be?

If we know what the lounge is and isn't, then its a lot easier to post correctly.

That's what the admins are working on drawing up for us.... we'll just have to wing it till they do....

plus, it's not *that* hard to post topics un-worthy of deletion for a couple days

To echo others, the mods are working on some guidelines that will aid in keeping the trolling that has gotten out of hand to a minimum.

I respect what y'all are doing - each and every one of you mods, but I believe there has been a bit of censorship.

This, also is completely fine with me. Hell, it made me shelve my next "Britney Got Fat" thread (that's real ultimate power!). But any type of censorship opens a can of worms. For example, in censoring the 14 year old's booger thread, any threads and/or signatures containing Religious statements ought to be censored, too. Not to single you out, but rather - to directly address what's in front of me.

The argument to keep either would be the same:
Devshedder 1: "Well you don't have to read the thread about boogers if you don't like it."
OR
"Well you don't have to read my signature with religious messaging if you don't like it."

You see my point? If not, that's ok. It doesn't really matter. What's happening will happen; regardless of protest or whatever else may come.

An Aside: JCaputo might have to send each lounge troll a copy of "Who Moved My Cheese" after the changes take effect.

You have to understand that this is in no way "censorship." This is cleaning up posts that have nothing to do with the interests of developers that take-up valuable database space and make searches slower. Does a developer care about someone who may have gotten their girlfriend pregnant? No.

Oh and about the sig thing, it's an expression of who the person who's posting is, not a random post, they are quite different.

Yep. The difference is that a signature doesn't spawn a 1000+ post thread that went off-topic at post #3 (well, not usually anyway), and while I don't have to read a thread, I do have to constantly see it in the list of new posts; a signature doesn't have that effect.

The biggest issue here, IMO at least, isn't the topic of conversation, it's that the "trolls" are consistently taking the converstion off-topic.

I think you got the point very well, although I can't see any judgement in your statements. Let me explain my point of view, which seemingly is shared by my fellow mods and the admins:

"Devshedder1" has got the wrong attitude and is not welcome to these forums here. He can go troll elsewhere, but not on the dev shed forums.
Forgive my hard words, but certain people here don't seem to get it if we don't express very clearly what and why is happening. (This is not directed at you!)

Re: Censorship.
Sorry, but these forums have grown to a level where it does not work without censoring and strict rules anymore. Things were getting out of hand recently, we are about to clean up and we are trying to bring the forums to a usable state again. Usable for those who regularly contribute outside the lounge, for whom the lounge used to be "a place to relax, talk, and even have some friendly debate.". Check out some pre-2004 threads and compare them to today.

I appreciate that you did not post your "Britney got fat" thread. This is most likely a subject nobody but the kids are interested in. What's the matter with some pop-star getting fat? I could name a few hundred more.
Britney, Tato, or Paris Hilton, to name some other media whores, is the kind of gossip you can talk about in your local pub. Not yet allowed to go to a pub? Chose a virtual one, somebody suggested forums.kids.com (it doesn't really exist though )

I am really not a person to advocate censorship. But it's a last resort and we're at a point where the previous self-regulation has failed badly.

Censorship is a necessity when dealing with a big group of people with different points of view. Certain content can not be tolerated.
This is true for the obvious spam, harrasment, sexual content and such. But also certain other bad behaviour we are currently working out.

It is censorship. But sorry, it doesn't work without it anymore here. As long as I am a moderator here, Dev Shed not going to become an anarcho-forum.

We will try to make this as painless as possible for all of us here. There will be official rules soon, and we will delete and ban according to these. Fair for all sides. No arbitrariness.

Please also keep in mind that we are only humans too, doing this here in our free time, with no payment but a lot of commitment. I think you can imagine that it hurts to see these forums get wrecked if you have helped to build them up for nearly five years now.

Thank you for your understanding.

M.

Im strongly tempted to agree with that, you make it sound reasonable, and I can see where you're coming from.

The only issue I have is as to whether the new rules will go too far and thereby wreck the lounge experience.

You'll get rep when I've spread the love.

We are trying to work out fair and clear rules. Thus we are taking the time and will not publish anything before we think they are good and rather complete. We don't want to change them every other day either.

Re: Rep
Thanks, but that's not what I am here for. Do or don't, if there was a way for individual users to be excluded from the rep system, I'd be the first.

M.

Good reply, H (need to spread the love as well)


I don't think they'll wreck the Lounge. They will undoubtably restore some order and cut back on the trolling, but I don't think its anybody's intentions to render the Lounge completely troll-less. I mean, think about it, where would poor computer sleep at night?