I am not here to argue because that would imply that am doing anything less than stating facts. And I just wrote this all before and it all god deleted because I backed up the web page and AG is the only poorly enough coded site that it doesn't auto keep my text on so I am keeping this way shorter than the last.
The problem with mods these days is that they are poorly picked, because we have a shortage of mods and instead of waiting for the right people to show up the wrong people get picked. This doesn't work. You should have a quota of mods, that makes no sense on a site that has to wait for mod-worthy people to come, you can't do that. If at one point you have 5 qualified mods, then that sucks for them, lots of more work, but if there is 15 why then not take them all instead of saying sorry we full.
But the latter isn't the issue, it is the former. An issue is that the distinction between a great user and a moderator doesn't exist. It actually does, me. I am a quality user that is not a mod, but many other mods just like me who fit in same category shouldn't be there, and I won't mention names, but everyone knows who I am talking about clearly, even the mod themselves, because even they realize they shouldn't be mods. Yes you, you all know who you are. These people are great users with great content and you've turned them into mods which has not only made them worse, but you ruining the community as well.
Anyone who is awesome you've swept from the AG community and turned into a moderator who shouldn't be there because they are power tripping and think anyone who criticizes them should be banned, and instead of letting kids deal with their problems just instantly ban half the populous. Most of the best community from the past, all the old users, have left. When I talk to them on MSN about why they left, almost every single one left because of the poorly manages mods, who were either nonexistent when needed or took action where they should have stopped nosing around.
These mods, who instead of spending their time posting fun threads and letting users do what they want, they ruin users fun because it's not constructive to the site. Take a step back, who are these rules meant to be helping? Oh right the majority of users. What happens when the same majority of users want to do something like make a spam thread or do something fun? They get banned. That doesn't make sense, this isn't US congress, laws aren't irreversible or inflexible. But instead of being normal people and letting small things slide, they act uptight(even though they were the exact opposite when normal members) and power trip and ban all the good users. Almost no one from the past is here on AG anymore and for a good reason.
The mods are suppose to be here to facilitate fun and help the community progress and all they do nowadays is deter that. You seem to forget that just like police you are here to serve and protect us, not harp over us and ruin your own community.
Also, once a mod is chosen I have never seen a single one be fired(except maybe 1). You guys are way to passive. There is no way on earth that every single one of the mods ever chosen have all been perfect. The same thing in a company, people hire others, realize it was a mistake and fire them. Not let them go AFK and sit there being useless or being a bad mod ruining the community and wait until they resign. You need to grow a pair, grow up, and take lead and fire other mods, stop being so passive towards each other you are just ruining armorgames.
Now I know this thread will just be ignored or locked by the mods. Because the one thing I always realize with you guys, is that you have lots of criticism for everyone else, but when ever so clear problems with you guys come up, you ignore it or delete and/or ban users who were completely in their right. I have tried for countless years to have anything done and nothing ever does because everyone is too scared to speak out and stop being useless.
The mods list right now is in terrible shape, stop ignoring me, stop telling me I am wrong with no reason and just banning me. Instead, try doing something, stop being little whimps and actually do something for a change, maybe you will finally make a right decision and stop ruining the community you are suppose to be supporting. This forum is so tiny compared to others I am on, it is insanely surprising to me how you have so much trouble dealing with such a small group of mods. But then again, I am not so surprised because it is a circle. Hiring terrible staff who wont admit when wrong and rectify errors leads to the best community-lead users hating the staff, making them leave,and these good players who make the community thrive leave, the community dies more,less good mods to chose from, and staff has then to pick from more shitty people to become mods, then we have more shitty mods.
Someone needs to break the cycle or else this site will keep getting worse. And if you don't like how brash I am being then I suggest someone finally either brings me to somewhere I can deal with this myself with someone who can actually do something or do it yourself. Because I don't say this for nothing, I say it because I know better.
The absolutely disgusting thing I've seen going on is the "This thread is currently about..." thread. I despise that thread not only because it breaks the rules on several occasions but the mods let it be and even participate in it. That thread is PURE spam, one thing we are trying to get rid of. That thread is just free AP for anyone who can write five words about their favorite who knows what. That almost pisses me off as much as getting points from comments.
Alright, let's see here, don't you think this is funny, whoever posts there can maintain a proper conversation of the topic, Strop picks them? Well, yes a couple of the posts spam. But a couple of others are not. I'm sure the mods are able to maintain that thread. Though if it gets way out of hand. They'll lock it.
* AP sucks and should be taken away
Though the merit system should stay. It can encourage users to make quality game comments for non-spam or merit-worthiness comment. But everything else should be taken off...
So I'm gonna go get a taco, andy one want one?
Ooooo me! Give me anything...
On topic, A minimum wordcount might help solve some of the game page spam issues.
Can you explain a bit more? I didn't really get it...
Can you explain a bit more? I didn't really get it...
Well, a minimum wordcount, is the smallest (minimum) amount (count) of words (word) that you can have. See how the name itself almost tells you what it means? I always found that pretty crazy.
Why must certain people use a thread as a 'chatroom', gain ap for posting in it, when other members are using a chatroom and not getting ap for it.
In regards to the thread in question, why does it matter? And are the people who post in there regularly spamming? No. But if it really gets your panties in a bunch here's a solution. Move it to the forum games section. No AP gained. Since that is your problem with the thread as you say.
Why must certain people use a thread as a 'chatroom', gain ap for posting in it, when other members are using a chatroom and not getting ap for it.
Alright, let's start from scratch here. The history of that thread, started about the Most Active People Who are in the Forums. But suddenly everybody started to change the topic to whatever it was they changed it to. So, Strop changed the topic's name. It seemed that almost everyone was able to maintain a proper conversation in that thread. You many not like that thread. But it looks like others like it.
Move it to the forum games section. No AP gained.
That's the only way to do it as I can see.
But anyway, I can safely say that the whole thread isn't full of spam. Well there is a bit of spam in there.
It causes problems but it also keeps users here longer than on most other sites. If it were to be taken away, a lot of people would take themselves away with it. It's probably one of the only reasons people even bother to create an account here instead of just playing the game and leaving.
It causes problems but it also keeps users here longer than on most other sites. If it were to be taken away, a lot of people would take themselves away with it. It's probably one of the only reasons people even bother to create an account here instead of just playing the game and leaving.
If they leave, who the .... would care? I mean it's their problem if AG does really take away AP? It's because they don't learn that AP isn't important. They just spam for the points, and they try to be the best. I know certain people who DON'T really really really don't care about AP. But I'm not going to name names. there are plenty of people around who would stay. But still, the forums would die down a bit though
And by the way, do you know what proves that people do or do not care about AP?
It's about their comments and/or posts. If they have quality or not. Ones comment/post has quality or merit-worthy, means they put a lot of thought into the post and it also means they don't care about AP. Because they actually spend time to make a decent post.
Now, about the people who do care about AP. It's just the opposite actually.
If I remember correctly, even ask my friend Owen, when I first joined AG I would write what would seem a long enough and determined enough post to be accepted as a merit. If you are able to go back to ALL the popular games from 2009, look through carefully enough, you will see those comments. I guarantee it. The thing is, instead of prowling the comment sections for merit worthy comments, they were being given out to people who could write a poem with a certain amount of syllables in each flipping line. Seriously? I remember putting hardwork into that stuff expecting to be awarded only to see people writing haikus about ice cream being rewarded. It doesn't make sense to me and probably never will unless AG hires a merit team to inspect all the games.
This^ O wait I'm already in it...w/e
But seriously, it is a valid point to be made. The amount of time being put into "merit worthy" things these days is quite little compared to what it used to be. I hardly ever see merits being awarded to constructive game reviews anymore, and instead, they are being given to short poems. Don't get me wrong, things like the previously ASC had some amazing art and artists, which fully deserved a merit. But other things such as the haiku contest really does not. I could probably spend a whopping 3 minutes on one of those, and come close to, if not, win.
But like stated before, everyone has totally forgotten about Game critiques/reviews. I remember last year when I would try and write a review for every game, and each would take me probably half an hour+ (keep in mind that I did this for quite a few games). But then as time went on, fewer and fewer merits were being awarded. This happened around the same time that these stupid contest started appearing. My opinion? Everyone is acting like the contest has become the new standard in merits, and the game reviews are being left in the dust to rot next to my dead friend Timmy the watermelon.
I understand that due to the increased number of users, and decreased number of mods, there's really not a lot of time to check for game merits. And yet, mods will spend the time to write walls of text, such as seen in this thread, instead of doing something, in my mind, rewarding to the users. Merit giving is a part of their jobs, and it appears that they have completely forgotten about it.
I think we should leave AP out of this discussion. Although it can create serious issues at certain points, it really isn't that big of a deal to have them. Most users like having them, and the ones who abuse this feature will be warned and/or eventually banned.
I know what it's like to have an addiction to AP. We all know I've been there; however, if AP were to just be removed entirely, I would have quit long ago and moved on to a different site. This is how most users in the top 100 feel. Not the small minority of them that post here on this thread, but the ones with low post counts and high comment amounts. Is it really that big a deal that they comment more often than you do, so they therefore have more AP? As long as they avoid spamming, I see nothing wrong with it.
If you want to prevent those users who do spam with comments, removing AP would just be the "easy" way out of not hiring more mods; not to mention that it would take a hell of a lot more coding and optimization, and it would make the site unbearably laggy and that would also drive some regular users away. The more mods we have, the more comment spam gets taken care of, and the less we need to worry about AP addiction.
At this point, I have no desire for AP, but I will continue to stay on this site just as long as there is a forum that calls for my opinion.
I understand that due to the increased number of users, and decreased number of mods, there's really not a lot of time to check for game merits. And yet, mods will spend the time to write walls of text, such as seen in this thread, instead of doing something, in my mind, rewarding to the users. Merit giving is a part of their jobs, and it appears that they have completely forgotten about it.
Appears is a key word.
We volunteer for this - if AG was actually paying us for our time, maybe the mind numbing effect of going through endless piles of spam in the game comments wouldn't feel as totally useless.
Oh, and taking care of what goes on in the forum is, in my opinion, more important than fighting the stale battle against endless forces of delete-worthy comments. It's not like anyone notice when a game has actually been cleared of spam and had merits rewarded.
