This has been a problem for a while however I do think the only viable solution is to enact tougher rules on forum posts. Simply flagging posts won’t stop the user from making crappy posts, rendering it temporary and in the long-term, useless.
There’s no real punishment for crappy posts apart from some message from the system and a PM from a mod.
As well as this, there are just some plain inappropriate messages floating around (as the forum is increasingly easy to enter). These punishments usually range from a days suspension to a permanent suspension. I think a one-day suspension should be upped to three, one day isn’t enough time (imo) for the user to think about their actions and what they could do to improve themselves.
Take the following images as some food for thought:
These aren’t just uncommon posts as well, there’s plenty of users making unnecessary attacks. I wouldn’t be making this post if it was an uncommon occurrence, because it’s not.
Normally, you would flag the post for spam which aren’t relevant to the topic itself. The flags should be reviewed by any DevRel at any time. There is no need for escalation until sufficient “amount” of flags are hit.
I also think it’s a problem, but those penalties don’t sound good to me. Maybe it would be nice if devforum became something like stackoverflow with a voting system and comments on posts that can be hidden.
I got a strike for complaining about a warning, and now I know to act better around the community. I don’t think a three-day suspension is really needed for things like my case.
But I might agree a three-day suspension (and two strikes) should be used for inappropriate comments.
As far as etiquette goes, I think we should have a PSA in Updates: “A Guide to Forum Etiquette” and this would cover things that won’t really give you a strike (or possibly not even a warning) but things that people would appreciate you would do on a forum, and ways to act.
The rules are fine as of now, these things don’t happen very frequently, maybe 1 in 30 - 50 threads, and if they do happen, 99% of the time the people who live on the forums, have watching status on every post, and are online 24/7 will see the post and say, “flaggable”.
Ultimately, these issues usually get resolved pretty quickly.
I think the rules and moderation on the forum is fine as it is right now, for example, the person attacking the OP in those pictures you gave seemed to have received two strikes, so they got several days for that.
And the three strike system is efficient to me. They only get three chances (unless the strike expires) so having even just one strike can make you nervous and most likely want to correct what you did.
When these things happen, moderation is almost always on top of it and will get the situation under control fast.
You are right, the example provided just some food for thought. Some users who say something which is equivalent in value still aren’t getting an appropriate punishment.
This is derailing the thread, what I am discussing is what should happen when a user does something illegal under forum rules; not the strike system itself.
I’m not completely sure what you’re talking about. I’ve been sent/seen similar messages, flagged them, and the posts were removed in due time.
What you’re complaining about (blatant disrespect and crapposting) is already against the rules and from what I’ve seen, moderators do take action against them as necessary.
In my opinion, I don’t think tougher rules will fix it. For example, what if someone’s roblox account gets hacked and the hacker says mean or rude things? The account will get kicked or banned and reputation of that developer will just plunge and they can’t use the dev forum for a while. I half-agree with you opinion.
Flagging only works as a short-time solution. In the long term, tougher rules have to be put in place to prevent crapposting as you mentioned. At the moment, these rules are way too lenient. If this Developer Forum wants to empower professional discussion, introduce tougher punishments instead of the current ones.
I understand your point but it is the account holders problem if they get compromised. Simple things like 2FA or a password generator + manager (I believe LastPass includes a password gen) can significantly reduce the chance of your account becoming compromised. Asides, if this ‘hacker’ ends up posting x (let’s say x is a highly offensive term) it is the account holders problem for having such lackluster security.
