Opeth forum will close down?

[wwallinga]

One thing I should add for folks, regardless of how it all turns out.

<------ see that icon over there under the avatar with the exclamation mark? You do realize that it takes one simple click to report trolls correct? Admins get notified instantly and we can jump on things, yet, I only see an occasional one from this forum. I'm curious to know why I see a lot of complaints about trolls, yet rarely anyone uses that button to report them?

I never knew such a thing existed. But, hey - there it is in the Forum Guidelines. Oh well...

 

[gatedropper]

Let's try this again. I have twice tried to post here my feelings on Mike's idea to shut this thing down. Both have been deleted.
I am agreeing with the boss here. Shut this thing down now!

 

[metalfrog]

I only come here once in a while and don't post often. So I don't have a clue of what's going on with trolls and "stupid posts", but shutting down a forum for that seems to be an extreme -and easy- solution.
It's like "ok we give up, the trolls win".

 

[wut wut]

Unfortunately this system hasnt been implemented to a larger extent on modern forum engines, but nevertheless, it can be the only solution to ensure quality, because quality is in the eyes of the individual.

And unfortunately, some people like Nicholas Wolfwood actually support and encourage the trolls. I think that's one of the major defects of this forum: too many people like the trolls here.

 

[Kamel]

The problem is we don't have enough well-trained Troll Hunters

 

[Prophet178]

Well, sucks to see the forum being closed down. I've come here daily for a while now, and it's been great having discussions with most of you. I've met a couple of cool people around here that live in my area, and if it wasn't for this forum I would have never met them. It sucks that a bunch of idiots always ruin it for everyone. The thing here is, those bunch of idiots could have been done away with very easily. I'm glad Samsara is man enough to admit he failed, because the lack of moderation on this forum is the only reason I see for this decision.

 

[spigot]

i'd almost forgotten about this place

 

[hexwind]

^ but how did you know it will closed down?? why everyone who doesn't come often just came now when it's about to be closed?

 

[Mr Samsara]

Rofl @ all of these takes, assessments, suggestions, etc…. Better moderation, better rules, more consistency, less patience, moderator approval of new members via application acceptance, instant deletion of trolling posts, etc… and yet no admission of any personal responsibility. Look at my previous post (quoted below for your convenience). The power to solve the “trolling” problem lies with each and every poster, yet not one person has stepped up and acknowledged this obvious fact. That is, unfortunately, very telling.

Don't you see that most of the more dedicated trolls just return with a router reboot and a new account? Getting banned is a badge of honor for those dolts. The answer has always been a balanced combination of even handed bans/moderation, with the forum membership being unresponsive to the trolling that exists. Under those circumstances, what good would trolling do? Why would they continue? Unfortunately, the lack of restraint to blatant trolling posts made this place a fertil ground for the troll.

 

[Mr Samsara]

The thing here is, those bunch of idiots could have been done away with very easily. I'm glad Samsara is man enough to admit he failed, because the lack of moderation on this forum is the only reason I see for this decision.

Ooops, I mean I'm sorry for being such a complete failure.

 

[hexwind]

Rofl @ all of these takes, assessments, suggestions, etc&#8230;. Better moderation, better rules, more consistency, less patience, moderator approval of new members via application acceptance, instant deletion of trolling posts, etc&#8230; and yet no admission of any personal responsibility. Look at my previous post (quoted below for your convenience). The power to solve the &#8220;trolling&#8221; problem lies with each and every poster, yet not one person has stepped up and acknowledged this obvious fact. That is, unfortunately, very telling.

That's correct, we shouldn't care about trolls, but what if someone comes in a thread about religious beliefs or sth and start insulting me simply for belonging to a particular group of believers, I didn't know about the report button, and i haven't notice any warning from any mod or anything, what should I do? I would definitely try to defend myself by myself while there are no "laws" to protect me. Bottom line is, we all, mods, trolls, and regular posters are responsible for anything that will happen to this board, I realize very well that you Mr Samsara can't be here 24/7 (I was once a mod and it was very tiring so.. ), and I blame everyone,myself included, for replying to trolls and give them the attention that they didn't deserve. But dude, we had no serious warning before, did we? I have been here for a year now and I haven't seen any apart from this.
I was so pissed off when some guys showed no respect for M.Jackson's death, I was just a fan of his not a friend, so i understand Mike's feelings about what happened in the Marcel Jacob's death thread.
But why should we, the fans who want to come here and talk about our favorite band's music and anything related to it, pay the price for retarded people who aren't even fans?? I actually can't fathom this.

 

[ProgresiveLanD]

Sad that this forum will be close ( just in my birthday week when i discovered Opeth ), but i understand the reasons, exist too much spam already and inmature trolls. and treat whit inmature kids is embarrasing for a well knowed band ^^. R.I.P Opeth forum.

 

[pyr0rrzzz]

That's correct, we shouldn't care about trolls, but what if someone comes in a thread about religious beliefs or sth and start insulting me simply for belonging to a particular group of believers, I didn't know about the report button, and i haven't notice any warning from any mod or anything, what should I do?

Write a post but then don't submit it. No response or action returned to them but you feel a relief nonetheless.

 

[crtomir novak]

The internet is constantly changing. Nowadays, you just can't have any discussion board troll-free or just without that useless junk. I have been following this forum for a few years, although not registered.

Mike, I guess I'll see you one day and have a chance to talk to you, because you seem to be a very nice and reasonable person. Farewell to this site.

 

[Alex78]

Oh noes, it's been 7 years for me!

This forum is pretty much the only one I visit for music discussion, so I'm not happy about Mike's decision. I'm pretty surprised by it too, seeing his previous posts (before that "Marcel Jacob" thread which I missed) were actually quite friendly - well, apart from the Watershed lyrics discussion that was going on some weeks ago, where he seemed to be a little annoyed.

I guess that if this forum were part of the official Opeth website, there would be much less trolling/hate/whatever. Many people on UM don't register only to worship their favourite band (I mean there's GMD and all the other band forums). A forum on the official website would attract only the really devoted fans, I think...so that might be an option.

Goodbye,
Alex - lurking since 2002

 

[metalfrog]

(...)
But why should we, the fans who want to come here and talk about our favorite band's music and anything related to it, pay the price for retarded people who aren't even fans?? I actually can't fathom this.

100% agreed. The people who will suffer the more from this decision are the fans.
Coming up suddenly with "enough with the trolls, we're going to shut this forum down, end of the story" is pretty weird actually. Why not just starting with a big warning to all members and telling them they need to report/ignore the trolls and that the good working of the forum is also under the responsability of each and every member?

Is that sentence of death really appropriate?

 

[Space Butler]

Write a post but then don't submit it. No response or action returned to them but you feel a relief nonetheless.

Hehe

 

[Prophet178]

Rofl @ all of these takes, assessments, suggestions, etc…. Better moderation, better rules, more consistency, less patience, moderator approval of new members via application acceptance, instant deletion of trolling posts, etc… and yet no admission of any personal responsibility. Look at my previous post (quoted below for your convenience). The power to solve the “trolling” problem lies with each and every poster, yet not one person has stepped up and acknowledged this obvious fact. That is, unfortunately, very telling.

Most of the people feeding the trolls were other trolls. The point is, there wouldn't be a problem if the trolls were eradicated. Even if you want to bring your pseudo-philosophical ideals to an internet forum and just give them a warning first, fine. I admin a forum of 35,000 members, and I have moderated a forum of 39,230 members, so I know what it is like to run a forum. This forum would be a piece of cake to moderate, what do you get here, maybe 5 threads a day, less than a hundred posts a day? Rules + consequences for breaking those rules is the only way to deal with people that join your forum. I don't really understand how you were the only one moderating this forum either, obviously one person can't do it alone.

I guess back to your point. Sure they can reset their router and rejoin, but why would they continue to rejoin if they were shot down from the get-go. One rule broken? Ban. If they continue to get defeated they will eventually find a new forum to pester. I guess you wouldn't know about that though. Even if you browsed the forums once a week with one eye open, the members here have spotted a troll in nearly every thread, probably calling him out multiple times, so the members aren't the ones to blame. The trolls have feed on other trolls creating a spiral of idiocy, but again, could have all been prevented.

But whatever, I guess it's too late to argue now, the decision has been made (abruptly for that matter), but I still believe with proper moderation this forum would still be running.

 

[Kamel]

I'd like to know what happened to Metalages request on not closing down the forum

 

[Nasty-Fire]

Better moderation, better rules, more consistency, less patience, moderator approval of new members via application acceptance, instant deletion of trolling posts, etc&#8230; and yet no admission of any personal responsibility. Look at my previous post (quoted below for your convenience). The power to solve the &#8220;trolling&#8221; problem lies with each and every poster, yet not one person has stepped up and acknowledged this obvious fact. That is, unfortunately, very telling.

If the forum stays I think it would probably go better but again everyone need to be more strict with themselves as MetalAges said and as Samsara explained below; we all have our part of responsibilities if it is closed and it if doesn't happen, let's hope we'll all have our lessons.

Sorry but that "no" is a little bit too strict.

I also didn't know about the "check" button, unfortunately. And that reputation points system sounds kinda cool. Anyway, somehow I'm behind Prophet178 and I think he's mostly right.