Hi Dark, Being able to go back and review prior posts is definitely an advantage of forums, and is one reason we archive messages for the mailing list. Anyone who wants to go back and see how a certain topic got started can. Although the method of checking the list archives isn't as straight forward as a forum and that is where a forum does have a slight advantage.
However, I have seen a few mods of forums who are absolute dictators, as you describe, and they go too far with moderation. I realize the desire to keep everything organized and orderly, which is something I readily agree with, but when the mod in question flips out and crucifies a new member for posting a topic in the wrong room he or she has a serious control problem. :D To steer things back to the original topic at hand though since a person can not just easily pull up an entire topic and read it through it is a good idea if emails are properly identified with a subject line that reflects the topic being discussed so later readers can find information on what they are hunting for. :D Cheers! On 3/20/13, dark <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Tom. > > Well I agree keeping topics in correct rooms is a moderator's responsability > > and one job I do on audiogames.net, however there is another side to things. > > I have seen forums where any post that a certain mod considders to not match > > the subject gets utterly crucified, or gets their posts deleted, which just > > makes for an unfriendly atmosphere. To take one example, in a brouser game I > > played recently, I couldn't find any in game help at all, so i posted a > general introduction on the forum, said who I was etc, and asked if anyone > could please tell me where the in game help was which, for an intro message > > I didn't see as unreasonable at all. however I instantly get three members, > > including the admin jumping down my throat for daning to ask a game help > question in the intro forum, ---- needless to say that is not a forum i > visit anymore :D. > > People can be real nazis about those sorts of things I find. > > The rule I use with audiogames.net, is that so long as there is a continuous > > discussion thread from one message to the next in a topic, it's fine, even > if this means discussion changes slightly. So for instance, we might be > discussing swamp, which leads on a general discussion about fps games and > discussions of the relative merrits of shades of doom. This is fine, even if > > the topi subject were still about swamp, since afterall everyone can read > the continuous discussion and understand why! we're suddenly talking about > shades of doom. if however someone jumped into the thread and asked about > something entirely different, like how to run Jim kitchin's games for > instance, then! it would be off topic posting and I'd likely post a mod > warning. of course, if it did! spark another thought that was completely > unrelated, say someone got to thinking about comparing ideas for in game > monsters, they'd likely post another topic and refer back to the old one as > > you describe rather than derailing the thread completely with a tangent. > > that system seems to work very well for audiogames.net, and is imho the > right balance betwene order and free discussion. Then again, something like > > that would of course not! work on a mailing list, since obviously past > messages are not visible thus the flow of discussion is less obvious to > anyone joining the thread later. This is however once again another reason > why forums and mailing lists both have their good and bad points. > > Beware the Grue! > > Dark. > --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [email protected].
