Recently there have been many incidents of troll threads and accounts. This has always been an issue and always will be (remember, this is the internet we are talking about) but there are some ways we can reduce trolling on these forums. 1) Create a wait limit for mod creation threads where they can not be created until the user has reached an account age of around 30 days or gets approved by a moderator by showing pictures of progress. Another bypass of the waitcould be 25 positive ratings 2) Vetrans of the forums could create a wiki page that explains how to be a better forum member. 3) When somebody recieves a ban of any sort, ban their ip or find another way to prevent alt accounts. Please post suggestions and I will do my best to answer any questions. Please put large posts in spoilers.
I don't think it's going to happen. Every good idea to counter trolls and other examples of bad behavior that's been put on the table has been turned down. I suggested more moderators in different time zones since all of the mods are in Europe, tdev said no. @Fera suggested forum ranks and a ton of other great ideas (don't remember them all), tdev said no.
What?! Are the devs seriously going to turn down ideas like those, which would likely improve the quality of the forums ten-fold, even twenty- or thirty-fold?! Good grief....now I don't know if I should be praising the devs' work so much.....
Yeah i remember those, but maybe with the recent events that happened today they may be more open to suggestions.
That part. I don't remember it being brought up before, but that could be a good idea. It would complete the Posting Guidelines perfectly. Sure, a lot of people would just not care, but those who actually care could become more aware of things they can do to be good members. Now, to define what you call a "Veteran"...
I would call someone relatively well known like you or @Fera to be vetrans. I added that to my list of reccomendations because I could even benefit from something like that because I dont know what threads to participate in, etc.
If people fail to notice the guidelines above the place you type posts in, a wiki article will definitely not help.
Yes you are correct, but it would help those who want to improve (like people that are lurkers but want to participate more).
Here's one of tdev's posts in one of Fera's threads. Mods like Nadeox1 does a great job, but because of where they are in the world, they are unable to put a stop to trolls and troll threads far before they escalate into huge problems that users remember even a few months later. A lot of these incidents happen while it is daytime in the Western Hemisphere, which means that it is night for them. Plus, the way I see it, the reason we would be considered part of the problem is because we can't help but react to those disastrous troll threads. Of course users can report and ignore them, but the moderators won't get the reports until after they wake up, which gives the troll threads enough time to grow and receive all of the attention it needs to become a disaster, and it is almost impossible for some members to ignore trolls. Ignoring trolls is a difficult task, especially if you've got a particularly nasty one. I still firmly believe that if a few more moderators that are not from Europe were hired, things would improve.
I agree but i think they should give a few trusted members special permissions to remove or block people. When they do this then it gets reviewed by naedox1 when ever. This can prevent the spam thread of 26+ pages that happened tonight. I also saw some other point less threads like "boat" and all that was in it was a pic of a boat in beamng and a bunch of people arguing with them. Im really getting sick of junk like this. The new members are just being stupid and we need some changes to help with solving the problems. EX: This guy bumped a thread from 2012. He has also posted 4 threads in a few minutes of just junk. HE posted a thread of "Bugatti Veyron" and said I want it NOW im going to go make it like in roblox. (the thread is also in the wrong section) https://www.beamng.com/threads/worked-a-bit-on-the-cms.222/#post-655807 Threads that need to be removed: (mostly by the same guy in 1 night) https://www.beamng.com/threads/2001-ford-escape.43408/ https://www.beamng.com/threads/2017-bugatti-veyron.43404/#post-655848 https://www.beamng.com/threads/how-to-change-settings.43412/ https://www.beamng.com/threads/check-out-my-vids-on-my-yt-channel.43411/ https://www.beamng.com/threads/1998-ford-taurus.43373/page-31#post-655867 https://www.beamng.com/threads/hi.43402/#post-655839 Well im done with this [edited] tonight im going to bed.
The user that created the boat thread is a similar troll, but I don't think that giving the ability to remove or block posts/users to people is a good idea. It would be a good idea to allow your idea but it should only be temporarily making the offending post/user invisible until reviewed by a moderator. The only thing I would change though is to make it a vote system so at least three trusted members are needed to make the post invisible.
Let me explain tdevs stance on community moderators better, and why they won't happen. There were community moderators on the ROR forums. The ROR forums are very messed up, and that is a major factor. Tdev learned his lesson, so all moderators are staff members. Long story short. I, or anyone else for that matter, can't be moderators without being in the company.
Pretty much. I don't know if it was a group of trolls, or a single one using multiple accounts, but either way, I think they've proven that the current system is ineffective.
No, we aren't screwed. It's just tonight was completely messed up. Fun fact: I'm still in Europe until August 24, so I'd be completely useless as a moderator until then anyway...
Considering the current forum moderators consists of game developers who are usually tied up in game development rather than forum moderation, dedicated users for the task would be nice...
Plus some who are available when it's daytime in the Western Hemisphere, which is when a lot of this bs seems to flareup.
All the main moderators are from the BeamNG QA branch. They also test the game. It appears that they're very busy, so the only good thing that comes out of this, is that the update may be soon...