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General update thread

Bill O'Rights

Bill O'Rights

Seldom posts. Always delivers.
Staff Member
We thought it might be a good time to consolidate all the brief mentions of improvements and features that we've been working on and are in the 'short term' delivery timeframe. We don't want to make a commitment to a weekly or monthly update as they lose their effectiveness. We prefer to just give notice of relevant things when and as necessary.


1. Site redesign: When we had to expedite the migration across forum technologies, we took across the themes that had been custom developed, but the long term goal was always to move away from a JAX style (Just Another Xenforo), and have some more distinguishing branding. We've been able to deliver this sooner than anticipated and the site is in the final stages of beta. We will keep you posted when we're ready to go from functional acceptance testing into production.


2. Communities: This is dependent on the work in (1.) being completed; or certainly some of the redesign will need to be structured around this. The old communities were a function of their time, and served their purpose well given the forum software and options available. However, moving forward the internet has changed and so have attitudes. Communities will become a focal point for the genuine users of the site. There will be a separate update regarding this when we look to go live but the headline points are going to be a slight restructure of the forum, communities will be owned by community leads from the users and moderated by them (overseen by the admin/mod team for the site). This way someone who is solely posting in the xbox community for provocation/trolling can be reply banned from participation (subject to review). The main aim is to foster those relationships within communities and you can have a reasonable assurance that the people in the thread are actually posting from an honest and genuine point of view. We will need to decide which communities to reboot and migrate etc. If you think you'd like to own a community or set one up, please do reach out in the meantime so we can touch base. Please do feel free to leave thoughts below on this.


3. Moderator actions: Went live this morning. There are discussions between the senior members of the team over which information is relevant without infringing too much on privacy (both user and moderator). This is to formalise the moderation process and also build trust up that nothing is being hidden or any agenda's are being pursued. We are working towards including an independent review/appeal function against any actions in the near future.


4. Moderation FAQ: We appreciate that a fairly standard set of principles will need to be typed up in between our real jobs and lives. Again it builds on the premises of (3.), and will give a fairly generic but not exhaustive list of general conduct and expectations of moderator sanctions, when they will apply, how long for and their impact to your participation or lack of.


5. Additional emoji's: We have now implemented messenger style emoji's for use. These complement the already existing ones. Lollipop, Nougat and Messenger are now included and I believe Avasarala Avasarala is working on adding more
 
Michele

Michele

you.
Can't wait for the progression.

IMO, if I wanted to own a community, I'd prefer that of Nintendo community, as that is the one I'm more familiar with.
But, I don't have leadership or moderation skill, so I can't really help you this much - it's just my personal opinion.
 
JimmyRustler

JimmyRustler

Gold Member
Damn, this forum sure has turned around big time in the past months... Keep up the good work guys.
 
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Redneckerz

Redneckerz

Those long posts don't cover that red neck boy
Yes the parole system is considered, awesome. So happy that this is on the cards. This should definitely provide a beacon of hope for those permed users who want to return over time.
 
D

Deleted member 752119

Unconfirmed Member
All sound like nice improvements, especially the communities. Hopefully that will help increase activity and lead to more fun and productive conversations without all the hostility and negativity that plagues forums these days.
 
Phoenix RISING

Phoenix RISING

Banned
I have been contemplating relaunching an otherwise dead community for a few weeks now.

How much activity or traffic would warrant a dedicated community?
 
D

Deleted member 752119

Unconfirmed Member
Any chance one of these new communities will be a News/Politics Community? :D
 
D

Deleted member 752119

Unconfirmed Member
JORMBO said:
Who wants to get stuck being the community lead for that :messenger_dizzy:
Click to expand...
NickFire said:
That would be like 7 full time jobs.:p
Click to expand...

That's the rub, for sure. That said, maybe staff would have to handle that one. I'm sure that's already their biggest burden--moderating the 50% or more of threads in Off Topic that are news/politics related. Point being that moderation work is already here regardless and someone has to do it, so having a subarea/community for it all shouldn't increase the workload. If anything it may go down a bit as it will be more focused on dedicated members seeking those topics out vs. random people hopping and and out from seeing thread titles when they're browsing for movie threads or whatever in Off Topic and getting triggered and going on rants. :D

I'm just more of a fan of forums with specific areas than a couple of big catch all forums, so I'm hoping the community feature will shift Gaf some in that direction as I haven't found a good gaming forum with subareas for a few years now. Cheapassgamer.com was the last one, but it's activity slowly died off outside the deals forum. All the others are either similarly slow, or poorly moderated and full of console warrior nonsense, trolls, spammers, and crappy people in general.
 
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D

Deleted member 752119

Unconfirmed Member
Cauliflower of Love said:
I hope so, there's a lot of minor news stories I would like to post but don't feel like spamming up the main OT.
Click to expand...

I'd say in the meantime (or if there doesn't end up being a news/politics community or subarea) would be to make a thread for "Daily News Stories that Don't Deserve Their Own Thread" (I suck at thread names) to post those things in there.
 
M

michaelius

Banned
Communities sounds like they will be something similar to subreddits ?

Cauliflower of Love said:
I hope so, there's a lot of minor news stories I would like to post but don't feel like spamming up the main OT.
Click to expand...

Considering we still have a fraction of movement we had year ago I'd say go ahead and post them anyway as threads :)

JORMBO said:
Who wants to get stuck being the community lead for that :messenger_dizzy:
Click to expand...

It could be like Neogaf version of Eastern front - if you post stupid things you get sent to political community for cleaning it :D
 
Phoenix RISING

Phoenix RISING

Banned
dmaul1114 said:
Any chance one of these new communities will be a News/Politics Community? :D
Click to expand...

The existence of PoliGaf did not stop politically-charged Topix from invading OT.

In fact, it might have been better for you to bring the conversation to OT rather than PoliGaf since so many of them were degreed in law, political science, criminal justice, public policy, or some other analogous esoteric field.
 
Dr. Claus

Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
Hm, I am weary about the communities change. While I like the idea of the "community" having control to lessen the stress on Mods, I can easily see the power abused to form echo chambers and those members removing/banning for "wrong think".

Otherwise, I am quite pleased to see the changes. Excited for when they go live.
 
Humdinger

Humdinger

Member
Sounds good. Looking forward to it. Thanks for all the hard work. It's appreciated. It sounds like you're building something solid and worthwhile.
 
D

Deleted member 752119

Unconfirmed Member
Phoenix RISING said:
The existence of PoliGaf did not stop politically-charged Topix from invading OT.

In fact, it might have been better for you to bring the conversation to OT rather than PoliGaf since so many of them were degreed in law, political science, criminal justice, public policy, or some other analogous esoteric field.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it remains to be seen what these communities will be. If it's just single threads like community OTs, then you're right and it will be meh. If they're more like subforums/sub-reddits and areas where people in the community can post multiple threads, that could be a whole different story. I'm hoping more for that, but who knows. *shrugs*

And yeah, I have a Ph D in one of those fields and I stayed the hell away from PoliGaf/PoliEra. :D
 
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PonyStation4

PonyStation4

Member
Claus Grimhildyr said:
Hm, I am weary about the communities change. While I like the idea of the "community" having control to lessen the stress on Mods, I can easily see the power abused to form echo chambers and those members removing/banning for "wrong think".

Otherwise, I am quite pleased to see the changes. Excited for when they go live.
Click to expand...

This will definitely be happening. Everyone will attack a thread poster for saying that the upcoming months are barren for games or saying the console is weak because X port runs poorly. Valid concerns like that get treated as trolling in an echo chamber, just check out Gamefaqs individual system boards. I hope we can redefine "trolling" to not include bringing up bad aspects of what a community likes, so we can continue to get varying opinions that most may not like (just ignore if it bothers you too much!), because that's how we learn.
 
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I'm new be nice

I'm new be nice

Member
I wouldn't mind taking another stab at an LGBT+ community, if nobody objects, once these updates are in place.

I got a lot of (rightful) flack for my approach last time, and even though it was a painful experience, I would like to think I grew from it. The first thing I think I learned is that the community comes before your own desires, and that first and foremost you have to communicate with as many people as you can before you act.

It was a polarizing time, and I felt really displeased with the whole "shut up and only take our word for it" culture that had been prevalent around Gaf, and my attempt was a passionate reaction against that, but I must admit it was ultimately the wrong approach. Sometimes the conservative option is the right one, as juxtaposed as that may be when discussing LGBT+ lol.

Anyways, i'm oddly passionate about this community, more-so than ever, and I would love to do my part moving forward if I can. So i'll be curious to see what tools are available, and i'd love to do what I can to create a warm and inviting community for those who may wish to join me.

Edit: Also, I never said it at the time, but i'm incredibly grateful for the few users who did show their support for my attempt, especially towards Rocket Number 22 Rocket Number 22
 
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M

michaelius

Banned
Hmm a little question. How visible those communities will be? Because even in old Gaf moving to community was death sentence for more niche ot threads. Will posting news in hypothetical fightning game sub community be visible to someone beyond few dozens of dedicated users?
 
Phoenix RISING

Phoenix RISING

Banned
dmaul1114 said:
Yeah, it remains to be seen what these communities will be. If it's just single threads like community OTs, then you're right and it will be meh. If they're more like subforums/sub-reddits and areas where people in the community can post multiple threads, that could be a whole different story. I'm hoping more for that, but who knows. *shrugs*

And yeah, I have a Ph D in one of those fields and I stayed the hell away from PoliGaf/PoliEra. :D
Click to expand...

At least you had a vocational community if you ever decided that you want to participate in it!
 
Dr. Claus

Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
I'm new be nice said:
I wouldn't mind taking another stab at an LGBT+ community, if nobody objects, once these updates are in place.

I got a lot of (rightful) flack for my approach last time, and even though it was a painful experience, I would like to think I grew from it. The first thing I think I learned is that the community comes before your own desires, and that first and foremost you have to communicate with as many people as you can before you act.

It was a polarizing time, and I felt really displeased with the whole "shut up and only take our word for it" culture that had been prevalent around Gaf, and my attempt was a passionate reaction against that, but I must admit it was ultimately the wrong approach. Sometimes the conservative option is the right one, as juxtaposed as that may be when discussing LGBT+ lol.

Anyways, i'm oddly passionate about this community, more-so than ever, and I would love to do my part moving forward if I can. So i'll be curious to see what tools are available, and i'd love to do what I can to create a warm and inviting community for those who may wish to join me.

Edit: Also, I never said it at the time, but i'm incredibly grateful for the few users who did show their support for my attempt, especially towards Rocket Number 22 Rocket Number 22
Click to expand...

I would love to see a new LGBT+ community take hold. The little time I spent reading the old ones, back when I was a lurker - they just felt depressing. Everything was evil, nothing was good. Everything has this sour note to it.
 
Dr. Claus

Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
michaelius said:
Hmm a little question. How visible those communities will be? Because even in old Gaf moving to community was death sentence for more niche ot threads. Will posting news in hypothetical fightning game sub community be visible to someone beyond few dozens of dedicated users?
Click to expand...

If it is large FGC news, you could just create a normal thread for it outside of the community. Just a couple trailers for SC6 and Smash have shown a pretty good discussion/conversation.
 
D

Deleted member 752119

Unconfirmed Member
PonyStation4 said:
This will definitely be happening. Everyone will attack a thread poster for saying that the upcoming months are barren for games or saying the console is weak because X port runs poorly. Valid concerns like that get treated as trolling in an echo chamber, just check out Gamefaqs individual system boards. I hope we can redefine "trolling" to not include bringing up bad aspects of what a community likes, so we can continue to get varying opinions that most may not like (just ignore if it bothers you too much!), because that's how we learn.
Click to expand...

I don’t want to see that level of echo chambers. That said, I’m super sick of all the cynicism and negativity in gaming forums. The stuff you mention is valid conversations but nothing is really added in saying a console is weak because X game runs poorly. Everyone already knows that console is weak relative to the others, so the point is to just discuss that the specific game doesn’t run well and people may want to skip it/buy it elsewhere. Upcoming months are barren? Everyone knows the release schedule and it’s subjective as to whether it’s barren for one person to the next as there are always a ton of games coming out monthly now and true droughts of little to nothing coming out like the Wii U had.

So while I don’t want echo chambers per se, I’d like to see conversations change in tone to be more positive and less jaded and negative and to see the console warring nonsense go away. Games are supposed to be about having fun, discussing them should be as well. There’s certainly a need for criticism, but negativity shouldn’t be the dominant tone in most posts. When there are true issues with a game or platform, Twitter campaigns at the companies and what not are what can lead to changes. Not arguing with fanboys on forums.
 
Dr. Claus

Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
michaelius said:
Well but then we would have duplicate threads in community and in general discussion.
Click to expand...

Ah, I may be misunderstanding how communities are going to work. I assumed they were the same thing as we have now, but in a more dedicated area with some mod powers for that particular thread. My B.
 
Skyn3t

Skyn3t

Banned
Sounds like we're getting a crossover between a forum and Reddit-esq platform, which sounds great. Eagerly awaiting the redesign and new features.
 
Bill O'Rights

Bill O'Rights

Seldom posts. Always delivers.
Staff Member
Dr. Claus Dr. Claus has a good grasp of how they will work in principle. The further comms when ready will explain a lot but essentially we had to ask a few questions, and decide how to differentiate what we're building here.


The first question was 'are communities still relevant', given the advent of twitter, discord etc. It was deliberated over for a while and the final answer was 'ultimately, Yes'. Communities are not necessarily about real time communication or reaction. They're about fostering a place where people can exchange ideas politely, ask for help and chew over improvements, critical thinking or just take a view from a broader perspective.


In that respect, we had to analyse why communities had issues. Some of which have been raised in this thread. The insular nature of them over time (cliques), the derials that can happen from posters trolling or causing discord within threads. Often this then causes the issue of dogpiling which we want to avoid. But it is purposely provoked in instances. Communities were also on a whim at a moderator's discretion. Often certain moderator's would handle communities that aligned loosely with their outlook or expertise/knowledge. To us, this was unsustainable going forward, and again, to underpin the more transparent and open environment we feel that the communities should be self guiding. We want to eventualy build bridges and relationships and create these communities where if the content creator or a developer wanted to drop by they can do so in an environment where the passion is there but also the respect as this is not often the case in the free-for-all pits that exist now.


This does not mean that these threads and communities will become the equivalent of Zapatista territory where moderator's fear to tread, nor will the community mods have carte blanche to enforce draconian reply bans from dissenting voices. They will foster places where people people can pop in for help, take refuge from the exhausting reactionary and current affair topics and unwind in an atmosphere where even though you may disagree, it is with people who are emotionally stable, respectful and who do not need to resort to personal/direct attacks to make a point.


The other forums will be the places that aggregate all the other news, pop culture and current affair drama where people like to engage and they will host the high energy, quick burnout topics. We've realised we need to provide both and the existence of subreddits and even communities in general show that dedicated area's have their uses. We believe we're building a community that's slightly different, mostly more mature (from the trends except outliers) and we feel the project is as much a demonstration of the best ideals in gaming as a challenge worth undertaking.


It will be a journey, no doubt. But right now we feel we have a chance gifted to us to have a strategic approach to the longevity of a shared hub for everyone. Where the dedicated communities can thrive, but it still scratches the itch for fast paced news items.
 
Cauliflower of Love

Cauliflower of Love

Banned
I nominate myself to be a mod.

If that doesn't work I'll settle for admin.


If not then make me wholly responsible for the tech, drunk, and politics community.
 
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ipukespiders

ipukespiders

Member
Redneckerz said:
Yes the parole system is considered, awesome. So happy that this is on the cards. This should definitely provide a beacon of hope for those permed users who want to return over time.
Click to expand...

8vBppxd.gif
 
Redneckerz

Redneckerz

Those long posts don't cover that red neck boy
Cauliflower of Love said:
I nominate myself to be a mod.

If that doesn't work I'll settle for admin.


If not then make me wholly responsible for the tech, drunk, and politics community.
Click to expand...
You are on The Bore.
Can't trust anything and anyone that has a residence permit from a site taking a pun at the admin's name. ;)
 
B

BaitZaDust

Banned
How will communties function on a site that has sub 200 members online at any given time? Why spread out the tiny amount of members left?
 
B

BaitZaDust

Banned
Redneckerz said:
Very coincidental. :)

As more users come back, i reckon only then the idea of communities will make more sense.
Click to expand...
People gave been waiting on that for months. Maybe one day neogaf wont be the place you go because your mad you got banned from resetera. Face it, current gaf off topic is basically the bore or voat, but you aren't allowed to say nigger.
 
Redneckerz

Redneckerz

Those long posts don't cover that red neck boy
BaitZaDust said:
People gave been waiting on that for months.
Click to expand...
Its literally a recent development, so no, i don't think you are aware of what this means.

BaitZaDust said:
Maybe one day neogaf wont be the place you go because your mad you got banned from resetera.
Click to expand...
I was briefly disappointed, yes. Then i realized that users like you will remind me of this from time to time, so in return i can be disappointed at people such as yourself.

Also, its fairly obvious why more and more people turn to user requested self-bans there, so its not like i am the only being mad. Being in denial is far worse in this regard.

BaitZaDust said:
Face it, current gaf off topic is basically the bore or voat, but you aren't allowed to say nigger.
Click to expand...
Depends. The off-site thread? Well, yeah, it shares some parallels, and they are parallels i dont absolutely stand behind had.

The site as a whole? Nah. But perhaps you should have tried to interact with the crowd instead of trying to raise concern when you don't actually care about it.

BILLY BIG BALLS said:
how long until I'm not a neo member? my proof reading is terrible and I'd like to be able to have more than a very short time to edit stuff :messenger_fearful:
Click to expand...
Ask a mod if they want to promote you, or EviLore EviLore . Just be nice :)
 
S

SLoWMoTIoN

Unconfirmed Member
BaitZaDust said:
People gave been waiting on that for months. Maybe one day neogaf wont be the place you go because your mad you got banned from resetera. Face it, current gaf off topic is basically the bore or voat, but you aren't allowed to say nigger.
Click to expand...
RIP JoJo :(
 
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