There are far more reasons for these threads being locked or people getting replies like "use the frickin forum search" than the fact that some longtime members or the moderators are getting annoyed by threads they have witnessed about 100 times before. I´m such a longtime member and yes, I´m sometimes a little bit too fast with the "use the forum search" reply. But I always do it respectfully and friendly.
The thing is, FL has been released since March and the time after the release has caused an enormous stress on the TLR server, because these forums got flooded as never seen before on this site. We had threads about "Why does this goddamn game have no frickin joystick support !!!!!!!!" and "DA consists of a bunch of screw ups !!!" and "Die Microsoft DIE !!!!" about a million times. TLR´s owner (Bargib) had to appoint a lot more moderators to deal with all the insults, spam, incredible disrespectful threads towards TLR staff, Freelancer and DA/MS etc. Don´t get me wrong, no one will oppose to healthy criticism about a game, but the way most of these threads were announced and went on, was highly inadmissible.
After a month or two the Joystick and FL bashing thing was mostly over, but other threads like "Is Trent gay or not ? Discuss here !" and "Let´s discuss Juni´s butt !" were again seen a million times. Also threads about which ship is better have been posted here beyond belief. You have to understand that this is a Freelancer Fan Site and that Bargib and the mods want this to be just that. Repeatedly bashing FL was not something they wanted on a FL Fan Site. Also the other threads which I mentioned clearly had no contribution to the FL community.
There´s nothing wrong with "which ship is better" threads, but after it has been discussed a million times, than clearly everything must have been covered. Besides, more than 90% of these threads had no real discussion going on, but merely consisted of spam and insults. You can say that we are all fans and if you want to discuss it, than you should have the oportunity to do so and we should not whine about seeing it for the 100th time, but see it like this. Freelancer has been released quite a while and there has been plenty enough time to discuss the things which were bothering you or you had questions about. Of course I (we) understand that some of you just recently received a copy of Freelancer and of course new members are extremely welcome, but you have to understand that there are a lot of members who have been here a long time and you simply can´t go posting like crazy without adapting to your surroundings a bit and beeing a little considerate of members who have been here longer than you.
Now some subjects have been covered over and over again and the members who have been here a long time have indeed seen this more than enough times. It´s not just because we don´t want you to discuss whatever you please, but every single one who joines TLR after you wants to do the same. Don´t you think there comes a point where we all have to say " enough is enough " ? Besides, most of these repetitious threads have become spam fests and places where people insult one another. The longtime members and the moderators have seen it happen way to many times, so that´s why some of these members give you the "use the forum search" replies and are some threads locked. The TLR staff wants to make all of us TLR fans happy, so they will give the newcomers a little latitude, but not to much, as they want to keep the longtime members happy too. Does this make any sense to you ?
Hope is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of our greatest strength and our greatest weakness.
Edited by - Eraser on 09-09-2003 17:01:35