What happened to my posts?

Really.

Over the past few days there have been a few temporary user bans due to a general increase in trolling. These will be lifted automatically at seven days after the time of ban.

Why was this done? A large number of complaints about the amount of garbage posted here have been raised, and we are currently working on some rules and guidelines for this forum to make it a accessible for all forum users. These guidelines will be posted in the next few days.

As for your posts, there is a general clean up going on. Please bear with us. The deletions are NOT personal, the lounge mods are just cleaning up a few off-topic posts and troll threads.

Also - remember that multiple user accounts are NOT permitted. They will be banned on sight.

--Simon

Would this be a bad time to mention ITADopes?

Hmm, I have a few disputes with this, even before the official release is released, so to speak.

1.) Temporary banning long-time users for "trolling" without specific examples of posts (i.e., use of the new warning system) leads to discrepencies in mods' opinions.
2.) The "general cleanup" is also not being done correctly, in my opinion. Deleting threads and posts out of the blue is very harsh censorship. It takes away from the community. While some threads (milestone for example) do derve to be locked, many others don't.
3.) I feel a lot of hypocrisy around this issue. Some mods, such as Sep and M.H seem to be the biggest anti-troll advocates, yet are often the biggest trolls themselves. (Same goes for multiple user accounts rule.)

I'm just suprised DevShedTroll wasn't taken. Hmm.

@Simon: Thanks for communicating when other mods refuse to. I like how you're handling it, but overall, I feel it is not being handled well. The community seems to be getting worse as it tries to be made better.

Get used to it. From Internet forums to local community gatherings, when things get shifted, often-times, things get worse first -- temporarily....

I say just give it a week till the admins issue their statement. Things may be a tad awkward till then, but it'll be worth it. Then, once we see the new standards, everybody who is happy (dedicated members) stays, and everyone who is unhappy (non-committed trolls) leaves. (Assuming the new rules are reasonable, of course. If the third clause of the new rule book requires us to have to offer sacrifices to Simon 3 times a day, well..... )

Granted this initial transition looks to prove awkward, but give it a week. We've been here for months/years, what's a week of slightly vague "inconsistancy"? That is, if it even takes a full week. JC might issue a release by tomorrow, making it a mere 3-day run....

Plus, such an action like this often proves to be a sort of cleansing fire. The hot-tempered, non-loyal people are more likely to just leave, but the dedicated, long-time members are less-likely to be driven off.....

Give it a couple days, in the mean time, there's no reason that we can't continue to enjoy the Lounge

Well, there are a few. Getting random bans, threads deleted, etc.

But I'm definately going to wait it out.

If I don't like what I see, there's always netbits.

In addition to what Simon has already said, please be aware that all mods, not just Lounge mods, are discussing this issue, and that JC is monitoring everything too.

Threads/posts that are being deleted prior to the guideline release are being deleted b/c it's already been decided by enough mods that it should happen, and b/c this task will take the longest.

The Lounge specific guidelines haven't been released b/c we're still finalizing them, and we don't want to release something until the majority of mods have had a chance to make recommendations.

So what do you suggest we do? Explain every delete we make? That would take a lifetime! But seriously, we are totally open to seuggestion, like you said, this is a community and we (mods/admins) are here to keep the community healthy. Please post your suggestions.

Are you just killing every post in sight or is there a method?

I've just watched a thread that stayed on topic be killed and I can't seem to see the logic to the selection method.

If you could clarify that please, I'd be grateful.

just keep at it and do your job. Everything should be explained by the Admins in due time....

Threads that talk about fungus growing in weird places on people's bodies or starting up another political debate are examples of threads that have nothing to do with the interests of developers, rather little kids who have nothing to do with their time. Threads like these get hacked. Not trying to be harsh, but that's just how it is.