as vagabond said
"Sincere discussion about the pros and cons of a game should be encouraged. If the members begin to get the impression that this site is nothing more than an extension of the marketing arm of Microsoft or Digital Anvil, then credibility in the information presented by the site's staff may lose credibility."
in some cases this does seem to be stifled, but it has to be said this is the least flamed board i've ever seen, probably due to the sevre modding, whilst it may limit proper discussion, it does serve to stop stuppid flamming very effectivly as trolls like me rapidly get bored and leave

Well, the moderators definitely seem very cool.

I have come across fansites where anything you say that can conceivably be construed as negative is removed from the board and the user banned, whether or not it was presented maturely and without intent to offend.

As a side note, I think anyone that hates a game then gets online and goes to a fansite of the game just to flame needs to get a life. I'm here because I think the game will be excellent as a whole with a few flaws. But it's a game so it's going to have them, and from what I've seen so far the pluses greatly outnumber the minuses.

I can state categorically that not all forums that allow wide-ranging discussion, degenerate into flamewars. The reason I can say this is that I am one of the lead moderators at www.lucasforums.com, and we let people discuss anything they want, with a small bullet-list of guidelines:

1. The topic must be in the appropriate forum (or it gets moved).

2. No attacking or insulting of other forum members (or the post gets deleted/edited; repeated offenses result in banning).

3. No offensive, hurtful, or meaningless topics (such as how how the Nazis were right, rape is cool, or let's see how many exclamation points we can post; these threads get locked).

Debate - heated debate - is encouraged, especially where it involves any aspect to one of our covered games. We make every attempt to leave threads unlocked, and simply delete junk posts. There are, unfortunately, some threads that need to be locked or even removed, because they simply have no redeeming value whatsoever, but that is very rare. We are continually commended on the way our forums are run, the information people find there, and above all, about the friendly community that we have. People know they can talk straight and get honest information (while conforming to the guildelines mentioned above).

Having said all that, it seems that the moderators here are doing a good job, for the most part, in my opinion - for what that's worth. The only suggestion I would make, again, is to make every attempt to be tolerant of less-than-glowing comments about the game. Once people know they can trust the content in the forums, they'll keep coming back.

Not that anyone offered me a penny for my thoughts, but there's my two cents anyway...keep the change.

Edited by - Vagabond on 26-02-2003 02:27:05

Excellent post Boscoe, your wisdom is really showing your age though.

With all that has been said in this thread, especially betwen the posts of Boscoe and Vagabond, I guess we all agree then

So as to not drag this discussion to death, I'll lock it...

Best Regards
Christian "Bargib" Koerner
Editor in Chief, The Lancers Reactor