Alright, I said i would elaborate on why I locked down the Bomb Squad topic as many of you requested a more detailed explanation. I realize not all of you will have been online at the time when it got locked, so here is the reason:
Spam. Far too much of it was going on in the Bomb Squad topics and if you have been in the IRC channel for the past few days and been following the v2.0 and v3.0 Bomb Squad topics, you'll have noticed that I hinted and even openly said that if the topics continue to be filled with spam we will lock them for good. I warned you all and gave you a chance by suggesting an idea to enhance and create more productive conversation and discussion in the Bomb Squad topics, but you all said Bomb Squad was meant to be essentially a chatroom. Wrong.
Bomb Squad was created because so many people called out for a Roll Call thread and at the time, the site was new, people were getting to know one another and it seemed like a good idea. We gave in and created it for you in the hopes it wouldn't turn into a mindless spam topic, We added some rules and people ignored them completely. In the end, we felt Bomb Squad was turning into nothing but a chatroom and spam topic and now with trolls coming into the topic and people commenting, replying and quoting them. We just felt it was time to call an end to the spam and to the Bomb Squad topic. Trolling and pointless discussion where it seemed all people were doing is increasing their post count forced our hand even after we gave you all the chance.
With that I would also like to mention that the WAYLT topic has been locked as well. Again, it has just fallen into the mindless spam category which seems to be a trend in the Off Topic board. And that is NOT what Off Topic is for, its a board designed to talk and discuss about subjects not related to gaming. We have been very lenient with the types of topics that appear in OT so far, but many of them are nothing more than spam topics. Since we are working on a new and revised FAQ for the forums we are taking the first steps to begin cracking down on the amount of spam that occurs in OT.
I understand a number of you will be pissed off and that's fair enough, but all I have to say is you were given plenty of warnings and opportunities and nothing changed. If you want to socialize with other users then use wall comments on profiles, PM's and the IRC chatroom. Also, game specific forums can be a good place to socialize with other users as long as you're actually staying on-topic.
Programs such as Chatzilla for FireFox and the mIRC Client can be used to access the IRC channel on a PC. For Mac users i believe Colloquy can be used, haven't tested it myself.Giant Bomb IRC
Server: irc.gamesurge.net
Port: 6667
Channel: #giantbomb
BoG said:
We aren't punishing all of you who posted in the BS for what skul or ic9 did, do not interpret it that way. We are trying to make Giant Bomb better, and this is something we felt would help.
Don't think that we moderators have it out for all of you, that is not the case. So many times over my e-life, I've seen people bash mods for having a vendetta against fun. I had never personally witnessed it, but with all the complaining, I thought it had to be the truth. Now, as a moderator my self, I think I see where the accusations are rooted.
Some of you may be familiar with the fundamental attribution error, which states that many people erroneously attribute negative actions to the nature of a person when the situation they are in is a much stronger factor. I feel people commit this error concerning moderators all over the place. We don't want to end fun, we just want a greater number of people to enjoy themselves. Only a small number of people actually enjoy mindless forum chatter, most feel it belongs in a chat room (and it does). We aren't born mean people, we are simply put into situations that require us to get mean at times. When our goal is only to improve things, people think we are destroying their fun. For me, my only goal has been to promote discussion of one of my passions in life, gaming. Unfortunately, I've seen to many good users leave because good gaming discussion is ignored while "rate the user above you" and topics like BS have hundreds, even thousands of posts.
You must understand the situation we are all in. We've hit a point where we must go one way or another as a forum, down the road of anarchy, ending up as the final resting place for those banned from every other forum, or a place where people can go and discuss gaming with others, and enjoy an experience free of "QFT" or "lulz yer rong" posts. Why do so many people complain about a place like gamespot having no good users left? Because the trolls in system wars were rampant, and the off topic attracted those who openly hated on video games, they just wanted a place to chat. It is a tough situation, and out of love for the place we have been since the beginning, we only want to see love for giant bomb.
In the end, topics like BS only attract users like Skulsoldier or Italycanadian9. I'd be surprised if you could find one instance of them actually discussing video games (aside from a favorite game or something). I, as does the rest of the mod team, want Giant bomb to be a great place. I hope you guys can understand this, and do the best to help us out. Thanks for reading my rant."
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