I don't think it's just one or two isolated cases. I only gave two as recent examples, but over the past couple of months i've been seeing many of these posts. I'm not making any demands here (as you implied I was), I'm making a suggestion which I believe has quite a bit of merit to it. I don't think moderation hurts community -- I think it does the opposite! There is a lot more usefull discussion when people are civil to each other.

--TheGoop

This hasnt really been an ongoing problem.

A lot of the issues that were originally can be raised by simply not reading threads initiated by the people you dont want to deal with. (Help Me!, Show me This!, whatever, as stated).

Those threads in themselves are important as GameDev wants to help all levels of developer learn and share more about game development, which includes people who are just starting out.

If it ever does get to be an increased problem, we can turn certain boards to registered posters only, and we can restrict IPs from abusers even if they are anonymous, and if it gets horrible (which it seems far from it now), we can require registration, which really isnt such a big deal.

-Geoff

I've noticed that lately there have been many unregistered people posting flame bait on the boards. I think it's obvious that some people are using the anonimity of the internet to simply upset people. For example, take a look at the two locked posts in the "General and Game Programming Discussion" forum to see what I mean.

Therefore, I think that we should stop unregistered people from posting. Just about all the flames on this board are coming from unregistered users who disapear just as quickly as they appeared.

A valid argument might be that people will simply register, then post flame bait. That probably will happen, but then you have the option to revoke his/her account and not allow that person to register again (based on their IP adress or email adress). Some will still find ways around this, such as posting from a different computer, but I think this will discourage a lot of people from posting flame bait.

Personally I'm sick of these people. They don't contribute, they simply clog up the boards.

Anyway, I think that we should take action to cut down on the amount of people who are obviousely just trying to start a flame war.

--TheGoop

Also most people don't have static IP's. Therefore you only could get rid of them by banning a whole subnet or a whole isp which apparently doesn't make much sense.
I'd rather see people just be friendly on this board, (registered users or not). Furthermore board moderating doesn't have to do with censorship. You can tell people what you think in two different ways. One is to be rude and insult others due to their different point of view, the other is to accept their position and state your arguments to explain that your opinion is reasonable, too (and only *that* is useful on a messageboard).

my 2 cents

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Markus 'RaVeN' Hastreiter
www.ravenaudio.de