Demeanor of Posts and Other Bad Intentions

Oops! Posted on my boyfriends account.. BRB to repost on my own! (hannah)

Well said John. There are so many forum members that no longer bother to come here anymore, and their loss weakens our community as a whole. So what can we do?

I am hoping that the feedback list gets utilized much more often, and strengthened from it, but that’s just one piece of the puzzle. What else can we as a part of this community do to squelch the bad behavior and raise up the good? I believe that some are willing to call people to task for it but is that breaking the rules?

I love this community but I’ve been more and more scare over the years precisely for the reasons you started this thread. So I ask sincerely, what can we do? I want Windstone to be as (relatively) drama free as when I first started posting here 5 years ago, and I’m more than willing to do my part.

Edit: I agree with meowmix. It does seem like a lot of drama gets dragged across platforms and it truly shouldn’t. This is more a matter of policing the forums though, as it seems clear some people will skirt the rules. What can we as a community do beyond reporting behavior? Is there anything?

I know compared to some, my five years on the forum isn’t much. However, it has been my experience that, though perhaps not as prevalent as we are experiencing it now, occasionally there is some negative gossip or grumping going on that gets locked down by a mod. And the theft and scams, also, are not new. That negative feedback list didn’t spawn over night; scamming has been an ongoing issue.

Perhaps there was this golden age of the forum where everyone wore a halo, but I guess it was well before my time. Dealing with the public is always messy, and overall, this is a very friendly and tame community. Look at all the fun and FAN-tastic posts and threads that are humming with activity. Weigh that against the bad.

And perhaps on a brighter note, I think we are a lot larger today? It feels to me like we have many new and newer people, a lot of posting and fun conversations, and also just a ton more content on the forum. And so, yes there are problems, but we might be looking at it disproportionately. Maybe the negative experiences and comments appear common or more prominent because we’ve grown into such a mighty hoard with so many people interacting? Someone more mathematically inclined than I should statistically analyze the dates and frequencies of locked threads.

That being said, it would be totally sweet if we could kick repeat offenders, either scammers or repeat (and previously warned) content violators, off the forum for good. 0:)

I have been very ill this weekend so I’m a bit behind, but I caught up with the other thread. It’s my honest opinion that if one takes issue with what someone is saying on a totally different site (especially a social media site, be it facebook, twitter, etc) then they should address it how they see fit… on that other site. Pulling it here, to the forum, even if naming no names, just spreads the drama around, and can actually backfire by putting even more attention onto the issue, bease it is naural for those not involved to get curious and seek it out. Personal grieviences are usually best dealt with in private.

It is awful to feel wronged, and okay to seek support from friends, but intentional or not, it’s too easy to cross that line and drag everything into negativity.

I agree with John.

I would be very sad to see the Forum taken down, however, the reasons behind it, and seeing plenty of what goes on in and behind the scenes, I completely understand the justification for it. We, as a Community, need to act together to improve upon these problems, if not make them disintegrate, altogether. I really like the Strikes idea. The “Windstone Hoard” seems to have become much too large to be able to manage itself without some kind of system. And, like a previous Poster said, there are a lot of new people. We need to utilize the Feedback Lists. For the health, sanity, and overall well-being of everyone who participates on this Forum.

I tend to agree with LupusLunae. I don’t think the issues are anything new, I think they have just been more “public” recently with folks airing issues publicly rather than in PMs. But, really, I can’t fault them for doing so because it seems like the only way to get resolution to the issues is to air them out publicly.

I truly think the “devious activity and inconsiderate behavior” referenced in this thread is the exception rather than the norm. I have been a member of this community for over two years now and I have never had a bad experience trading/ buying/ selling with anyone yet that hasn’t been resolved (knock on wood!). Maybe I have just been lucky, but I don’t think so. I think the vast majority of the folks on this forum are good, honest, forthright people who do what they say they will do.

The feedback lists are awesome, and thank you very much to dragonmedly for hosting them, but maybe we need a separate list or forum specifically for feedback, where we can list our own comments and see comments listed by others right away. As it is, we have no way of knowing when anything on the lists has been updated. Another hobby I am involved in has a Yahoo Group specifically for transaction feedback. You can set it up to have a “daily digest” sent directly to your email, so you don’t have to go to a website to see updates. Also you can go to the group directly and run searches for people’s names and any feedback (both good and bad) will pop up. It could be a way to air grievances without bringing it here to the forum. It’s just a thought!

I still think this forum is one of the friendliest and most welcoming places on Earth! 🙂

Anyone ever think of hosting a Feedback Group on Facebook?? I think the majority of us use it, and it’s somewhere people can discuss dealings. The only problem is, I don’t think there’s a way to make a list there like dragonmedley has done, so diligently. The alphabetical order would be difficult, since feedback would end up scattered over time. It’s something that really needs to be seriously considered. If a rating system can’t be applied in the Forum, itself, maybe separate the Forum from the Windstone site, entirely? I understand that it’s an issue right now, because it’s the actual company that runs the Store and the Forum on one site. If they were run separately, by another Host, wouldn’t that take away the liability? Just brainstorming here…

I also agree with the others, that it’s because the Forum has grown so immensely just in the past couple of years, that the problems have become much more apparent. Drama will always happen wherever people gather. It’s just a matter of time. People, are people. There’s nothing that can be done to change that fact. We can only try to remain as friendly with each other, as possible. If only to keep this Forum the generally pleasant place that it is. And, not to knock on dragonmedley’s efforts, but I do think it is in desperate need of a Feedback system that can be kept up-to-date on a regular basis, and not just a User-run Feedback list. However, like I said in my previous post, it does need to be utilized until a better program can take its place.