Civility

[administrator]

It's been a growing concern of mine, the moderators, and quite a few members that civility on the board has greatly declined in the past few months. Posters are attacking each other at a rate at which we're having difficulty moderating on a post-by-post basis, so we see no other option than beginning to remove people who show a repeated inability to debate civilly.

This warning went out in the "Oshie suspended" thread, and is now being repeated here for everyone--

Everyone -- stop attacking other posters. Discussion on Oshie's suspension, the circumstances of the incident, and his role as a public figure are quite on topic, and can be disagreed on without resorting to attacking the other posters with whom you disagree.

Suspensions have already been issued to people who chose to ignore this warning in that thread.

Each member of this board can choose whether to participate in discussions without attacking other posters or to lose the right to post here.

[SIOUXELEVENS]

Thank you its been along time coming.

[dagies]

I agree. In discussing the Oshie incident a close friend of mine (a reader, not a poster) said he had read the discussions on this board related to the topic and found 90% trash and 10% reasonable discussion and decided he might be done with the board for good. That is after noticing an overall increase in trash talk over time.

Thanks, moderators!

[nodak hockey fanatic]

i agree with all of this. i like to come on this board and discuss sioux hockey among other things, and it seems that if you disagree with someone, prepare to get a personal attack. i think you guys to a great job with this board, and hopefully this warning will help make all the discussions a little more discussion and a little less trash talk.

[Sal Atticum]

This has sadly been my impression since I first started reading the board. It's disappointing that you need such a thick skin to be able to post and deal with people lashing out at you.

It might be possible to identify certain areas of the forum as places where the rules are slightly different. I see two options:

--Identify specific boards as "flame-free," that is, attacking other people is an immediate warning. This drives the threads with high potential for incivility to other boards.

--Identify specific boards as free from flaming rules--that is, where people can be as idiotic and inflammatory as they want. This again would tend to focus spirited argumentation.

I've seen this work in the past, most notably at Wordforge.net. Posters in the Red Room can post whatever they want (within reason, according to the dictates of the community), but those same posters are perfectly civil in the Green Room.

Some people like to argue, and some like to cause trouble. Finding the difference between those two (especially in the middle of a high-paced thread where posts may not be read carefully) is the difficult part.

[jimdahl]

This has sadly been my impression since I first started reading the board. It's disappointing that you need such a thick skin to be able to post and deal with people lashing out at you.

It might be possible to identify certain areas of the forum as places where the rules are slightly different.

We've done that a little -- part of your impression certainly comes from your having hung out primarily in the forums specifically created to contain controversies.

The nickname forum was specifically formed when it was becoming a problem in the sports forums. Understanding that it's a very emotional issue for the people who post there and that most are interested in a, let's say vigorous, debate, we're definitely a bit more laissez faire (though do still try to keep people talking about the topic instead of each other). The D-I forum was similarly created to siphon off the UND/NDSU transition smack that was interfering with the football forums.

There have been discussions in the past about the possibility of a smack forum. I've never loved the idea, but if it were overwhelmingly supported might oblige, because the whole point is that I wouldn't have to visit it anyway. That said, since we last discussed it I've seen it tried many times, and it's made every board at which it's tried worse in my opinion (though I have no familiarity the forum you cited above).

Some people like to argue, and some like to cause trouble. Finding the difference between those two (especially in the middle of a high-paced thread where posts may not be read carefully) is the difficult part.

No doubt -- that is the difficult part. There were no civility problems when it was 100 people making a couple dozen posts a day.

[Sal Atticum]

We've done that a little -- part of your impression certainly comes from your having hung out primarily in the forums specifically created to contain controversies.

Haha, you've got me there. Those are the most interesting forums to me. The difficult part is letting people know that their voice can be heard, and that whoever yells the loudest doesn't always win. Such boards tend to attract those who want to be loud, and the people who have the most sense or the best ideas are usually scared off by the loud ones or get fed up with the whole thing.

Best of luck. I'm doing my part by trying not to shoot my mouth off without evidence to back it up.

[Stromer]

I think the report button is a great idea. This site is growing and I am sure it is not always easy to read all posts. If reasonable posters see people attacking others and polluting the form, they can report the posts and give the mods a list of problem posts. As long as people use common sense, I think this button should cut down on the attacks. Now if we could just get the one and only PCM to return....

[Cratter]

To kiss butt a little: I think the moderators have done a perfect job on this board. They make the ultimate decisions but also take into accounts what the users want. They are willing to try new things to see if they work while always updating this site to make it better. Jim and others continue to let people know their positions so the "informal rules" (noise to content ratio) seem to be clear to most, or at least those who are regular users (the ones who are the most important to keeping happy).

Kudos.