New Gamers' Hangout Policy

[gigapixels Veteran]

Much discussion has been made amongst the staff lately on the topic of the Gamers' Hangout. Frankly, there is far too much childish bickering and flaming and not enough intelligent discussion. It seems as though regular warnings do not help, and therefore we have decided to implement a new zero-tolerance policy.

The fact of the matter is that we want Neowin to be a friendly, fun place for all of you to discuss what you'd like and speak your mind. However, the anonymity you are presented with while being on the internet does not excuse you of being polite and using basic etiquette when participating in these discussions, at least not on Neowin.

At the end of last year, the staff used a swift and effective method of restricting various users who were seen to be causing the most problems. It was very effective for quite a while, and still has some lasting effect, but there has yet to be an end in sight to these issues. This time around, we are giving you fair warning. We are hoping that being open with any forthcoming moderation will help to prevent more issues. We are also going to be more strict on what is "warnable" behavior.

So, from now on, please follow these guidelines:

• Do not flame any member directly or indirectly, no matter how right or wrong you believe that member to be.
  
• If somebody does flame you, report it. Do not reply to it in any way. Feeding the flames does not help, and can result in disciplinary actions taken toward you as well as the member that flamed you.
  
• Trolling will be moderated just as heavily as flaming. Trolling on a certain company or console will not be tolerated at all. Jumping in a thread just to say, "Microsoft sucks!" or, "Sony sucks!" etc., will result in disciplinary actions taken against you. Trolling simply creates a more hostile atmosphere and will almost always result in flaming and arguments.
  
• Do not respond to trolling. You should simply report any post you believe to be trolling. Responding to any trolling posts also can result in disciplinary actions taken toward you as well as the member who was trolling to begin with.
  
• Do not call out another member by name in a negative fashion. Even if you just want to say, "I told you so" to somebody specifically, do not do it. This sort of behavior can and will cause a snowball effect of flaming and simply cannot be tolerated.
  
• Do not respond to somebody that has called you out by name. Report the post and be done with it. Responding to such a post can result in disciplinary action against you as well as the member you reported.
  
• If a thread has simply degraded into a full-blown argument rather than a debate (read: unsubstantiated attacks against other members rather than a calm discussion between members with different viewpoints), do not participate. Even if you want to tell those participating in the argument to stop, do not do it. Responding in any way to argumentative posts will only make it worse, and, once again, may result in disciplinary actions taken toward you as well. Leave the argument alone and simply report it.
  
• If you're trying to debate with somebody that seems to have an opinion based on skewed or even completely incorrect information, just let it go. You don't always need to be found correct, and you won't always be agreed with by everybody. Frankly, that will never happen, especially in such a large community like we have here at Neowin. People have different viewpoints on all matters, no matter what the facts really are.
  

If you are caught infringing upon these guidelines, disciplinary actions will be taken, resulting in a warning and, in many cases, a restriction from Gamers' Hangout for a certain period as determined by the staff at that time. Repeat offenders will eventually be restricted from Gamers' Hangout indefinitely.

I, as well as the rest of the staff, will be monitoring and moderating Gamers' Hangout as much as possible, keeping this new policy in mind. Do not misunderstand us -- we do not want to be too strict, but we cannot have the behavior we have been seeing if we want to have an open, friendly, and fun community.

I've said it before: we're gamers, so we know how to have fun. Try to keep that fun-loving attitude when posting on Neowin.

Edited August 6, 2008 by gigapixels

[:: Lyon ::]

Cheers. I'm with you!

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

Sounds good, I look forward to seeing the changes and hopefully the attitude in the GH turns around (Y)

[Tech Star]

I liked the bickering, but this is all for the better. :)

[dragon-x]

great stuff!

[Hell-In-A-Handbasket]

i thought this policy was already in effect a long time ago

[IceDogg]

i thought this policy was already in effect a long time ago

So did I! :)

[goji]

I leave for two months and this is what I come home to? :unsure: What have you guys been up to these days.......

[+Mystic MVC]

I think after the last swift round of action a while back it was great for a while. Naturally though, it degraded over time so I welcome this new round of action. I hope this encourages more people to report posts. As I have found out (even more so lately), mods are more than willing to help, you just have to start the ball rolling.

[Matrix XII]

Aww it wasn't that baaad, good for a laugh at least haha ;)

Hopefully the trollers will ease up a little bit for you guys.

[Guest]

Good luck (Y)

[Coldgunner]

I like the regulars, no matter what side they're on. But there are a select few who do just wanna **** on everyones bonfire.

Totally agree with the changes

[OtRaS]

Nice move.

[Vortex566]

Very happy with this move!

[Richard Hammond]

Bit pointless seen as you cant even see through what certain members say constantly posting negative comments and arguments.

[spenser.d]

Eh? There isn't much of the trolling and blatant flame-baiting, IMO. People just need to learn to shut up sometimes (i.e. take heed to the last point gigapixels put up there). That goes for pretty much everyone. I know I had to teach myself that lesson after last December.

-Spenser

[Pajter]

Well done gigapixels. :)

I really hope you can keep it up. God knows there's a lot of scum out there. :laugh:

[qdave]

it seems like something that isnt happening in Windows gaming subforum :) consoles do bring the best in people :p

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

100% aligned with this. Too often a thread goes off the rails and then becomes just flaming. While that in itself is bad enough - it means neowin has 1001 threads all arguing the same thing.

[Richard Hammond]

What is a shame is that its certain people that instigate the arguments.

[Smigit]

it seems like something that isnt happening in Windows gaming subforum :) consoles do bring the best in people :p

I think it's obvious Windows gaming is just pretending "to be dead" in order to allow the consoles to all kill eachother in a bitter flame fest of who has the best console only for PC's to emerge once the dust settles more powerful than ever.

Anyway good to see the action taken. Fortunately it's not as bad as it was late last year but certainly I think theres some topics that get a bit out of hand.

[Green_Eye]

Im for this (Y)

[mattmatik]

Maybe I will be more active in the gaming section now. Not that I don't read it daily but I never get to the point where I want to post a reply, I just get fed up with the arguments. By the time I'm posting a reply, the original topic is looooong gone and nobody gives a damn what I have to say at that point.

[Kushan]

I'm all for cleaning things up a bit and stopping stupid flame wars, but I have a problem -

My main concern is with people that post articles from OTHER sites that are blatantly one-sided. Say someone posts a thread with a quoted article that effectively says "OMG SONY'S PSN FAILS!", but because it's just a piece of quoted text, it's not necessarily the poster's opinion and they can use this to get around half of these rules.

Then this member just goes on to post several of these threads, lifting articles from other sites that are just going to cause an argument - how do we get around this? Technically, they're not breaking any rules, but if we reply to these threads pointing out the errors in the text, we ARE breaking the rules.

And if we prevent people from posting articles like that, we'll stop people from posting articles at all for fear of getting warned/banned.

[Coldgunner]

I'm all for cleaning things up a bit and stopping stupid flame wars, but I have a problem -

My main concern is with people that post articles from OTHER sites that are blatantly one-sided. Say someone posts a thread with a quoted article that effectively says "OMG SONY'S PSN FAILS!", but because it's just a piece of quoted text, it's not necessarily the poster's opinion and they can use this to get around half of these rules.

Then this member just goes on to post several of these threads, lifting articles from other sites that are just going to cause an argument - how do we get around this? Technically, they're not breaking any rules, but if we reply to these threads pointing out the errors in the text, we ARE breaking the rules.

And if we prevent people from posting articles like that, we'll stop people from posting articles at all for fear of getting warned/banned.

I see your point, but I thought that should come under flamebaiting?