Incredibly tired of the flame wars and personal attacks?

[defender]

I am rather fed up with this. Every topic eventually turns into a flame war and someone seemingly has to decide to start a political debate about it.

NO MATTER WHAT THE TOPIC!!!!

This is really starting to get on my nerves and personally...I aint gonna get involved in the personal attacks anymore and I will be alerting the mods of such activity as well.

I spoke with CheapyD about it today and he realizes that lately there has been some rather bad posting here. It's understandable that as a forums grow that people get clicky and flame wars ensue. This forums is really lightly moderated and the rules are few. IMHO this has to change.

I am really really just tired of the trolls that wait on this forums just waiting to get some punchline in. Ground rules are in order.

A personal wish for rule #1.
======================
NO PERSONAL ATTACKS OR FLAMING

and if you dont have anything of value to add to a post then DONT FUCKING POST! those one liner "lols" are just a waste of CHeapyDs server resources

[rfoster9]

abortion is murder

[ZForce915]

abortion is murder

edited to protect my cheapass.

[defender]

abortion is murder

I am really really just tired of the trolls that wait on this forums just waiting to get some punchline in. Ground rules are in order.

I guess didnt read what I posted or you just chose to ignore it. Its posts like yours that I am rather tired of reading...

hahaha...you are so damn funny...hahaha <---incredible sarcasm

[SneakyPenguin]

i agree, though some of the non-sensical posting is funny. its just the flames and personal attacks shouldstop, but a little off topic weirdness never hurt anyone. ill admit i do it all the time, its just a fun thing to do. but it can get out of hand (cloudspekk thread anyone?), and those are occasions when mods need to step in.

[SS4Brolly]

I generally dont have the time to read every single topic on this boards, much less skim the topic titles. I do lock threads occasionally when I see that they're getting real nasty.

Is there any way to get some sort of marking system like GameFAQ's so people can point out the posts to mods? I just changed my sig, so that may help some.

Ill go along with whatever Cheapy wants for the forums. His place; his rules.

[CaseyRyback]

was sick of it weeks ago. Its pointless. People are not going to stop being idiots and posting topics they know will become flame bait. I can not even see how a topic about a trip to Gamestop turned into a racial thing.

I love this site, and there are many cool people here, but its the few ruining it for the whole syndrome is running rampant

[JSweeney]

One of the few problems I see with this is that most people see any display of negativity as a personal attack. While I try hard not to make personal attacks when being negative about a dubious or even illegal "deal", most people interpret that as a personal attack right away. Of course, since it is CheapyD's site and forum, it will be his rules that decide it all.

Not that I'm complaining, CheapyD... this is your barbeque, and it is good.
(Yep, blatantly ripping off Con Air).

[thatstoobad]

i know that i've only been on these boards for a few months, but it seems that there has been way more of this lately, like the past month. it doesn't seem like a big deal when it's in the off topic forums, or even the game deal discussion forums (since, you know, it could be considered a "discussion"), but it happens too much on the three that i find most important:

1-post your own gaming deals
2-non-gaming deals
3-trading

there's nothing wrong with people saying something funny, but keep it within reason. these forums are important to me and many others, and it's too bad that things are getting as bad as they are. you wouldn't want someone coming to your house and defecating in your living room, that's what the bathroom is for. so don't post crap in the deals sections, go to the off topic areas.

i have a bad feeling that once summer hits and the kids get out of school it's just going to get worse.

[JSweeney]

i know that i've only been on these boards for a few months, but it seems that there has been way more of this lately, like the past month. it doesn't seem like a big deal when it's in the off topic forums, or even the game deal discussion forums (since, you know, it could be considered a "discussion"), but it happens too much on the three that i find most important:

1-post your own gaming deals
2-non-gaming deals
3-trading

there's nothing wrong with people saying something funny, but keep it within reason. these forums are important to me and many others, and it's too bad that things are getting as bad as they are. you wouldn't want someone coming to your house and defecating in your living room, that's what the bathroom is for. so don't post crap in the deals sections, go to the off topic areas.

i have a bad feeling that once summer hits and the kids get out of school it's just going to get worse.

I'd agree with that, with the exception of the fact that there seems to have been a influx of dubious deals or downright scams recently. Back in December it was basically just a few people bragging about the Walmart Scam, but as of late it seems like there has been a more frequent and more varied assortment of these "deals" hitting the boards. Seeing as how a few minor things cost CheapyD his affliate status with Best Buy, I'd hate to see these scams lose him even more support.
Of course, as I said before, this entire place runs on CheapyD's rules, and if he wants me to just let these "deals" and scams pass by without attacking them, I'd honor his wishes.

[metroidkiller9]

i agree with all of the above. there should be several people designated to making mods aware of flame wars or potential flame wars or scam deals. there are couple of people who are here constantly who would be good for the job. im not volunteering anybody or trying to make them feel obligated but i think good candidates would be caseyryback, sneakypenguin, punqsux, jsweeney, or even myself. but if this were to be started there should be rules set on what is considered a flame war and when to contact a mod, or what mod to contact.
also i think there should definately be reprecussions for those who post illegal scams. they know its illegal and they dont care. a banning or at least a suspension is in order.

[Scrubking]

If the stupid "lol" remarks were few and far between I wouldn't mind cause even I do it on occasion, but a stupid remark in every thread almost every other post is OVERKILL and should be stopped.

And it does seem like people are just lurking waiting for the opportunity to interject there stupid remarks.

Regardless, all of the above is not going to stop without the proper policing, but don't expect that to happen with the current attitude and mod count. I like the fact that this is an open forum, but there are no-brainer threads that should be quickly closed or moved yet get ignored for weeks.

[Dead of Knight]

After reading Ackbar's GS topic all the way through, I wholeheartedly agree with defender. Whoever refuses to stop the insults needs to be severely punished.

[jlarlee]

How about a board for people to flame? i've seen this on other boards if a topic loses its way it can be just transferred there

[b3b0p]

I know of one thread in particular that probably caused quite an increase in traffic within the month.

I had a lot of outsiders contact about that incident saying they had read the whole thing.

Sorry :(


Chris

[JSweeney]

Don't worry bebop. I doubt anyone really holds you acountable for those terrible turns that that thread took. In fact, it was most of the other people with absolutely nothing to do with the situation that made the thread what it was.

[SneakyPenguin]

thanks for the nomination MK9, but i wouldnt be good for it. ill let almost anything pass, as long as its funny/in good humor. i laugh at most flame threads, and would probably let them continue.

i have to agree though that people who are posting illegal things shoud definately be punished. i, personally would do a simple math equation of belt sander + skin = fun, but thats just me. suspensioons and bannings could work too.

EDIT: yea sorry bebop for screwing up your thread. ill admit i was one of the dumb posters there. im trying to restrain my stupidness to the off-topic thread from now on.

[Gothic Walrus]

I know of one thread in particular that probably caused quite an increase in traffic within the month.

I had a lot of outsiders contact about that incident saying they had read the whole thing.

Sorry :(


Chris

As JSweeney said, it wasn't at all your fault. And this may just be my opinion, but that thread was one of the only ones where the flaming was acceptable, if not needed. After a certain point it got ridiculous, and we all (including myself) should have just dropped it. Still, what's done is done.

The problem with a marking system is that there's nothing to punish us with. What are we going to do - drop the post count? On GameFAQs, losing karma means something to a fair amount of the site's users. Here, it seems like it'd just

On top of that, the site's TOS is very loose...the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks for that, but there's nothing telling us what we SHOULDN'T be doing (unless I'm being stupid and ignorant again). The sticky threads are nice, but they're far too easy to ignore.

To punish people, we need to let them know what they'll be punished FOR, and what the consequences will be.

I'm not saying it's a bad idea, but it seems like telling people "You've been bad" and giving them a slap on the wrist won't be nearly enough.

[SneakyPenguin]

I'm not saying it's a bad idea, but it seems like telling people "You've been bad" and giving them a slap on the wrist won't be nearly enough.

we could send jimmimac and his "friends" over there, or my growing grammar gestapo.

^^see this isnt really all that big of a problem, just a harless omment, but GW is right, for this to work, the mods would have to be very harsh.

[Dead of Knight]

How about a warning via PM for two violations, then the third time, a banning for a day, then another warning, then banned for three days, another warning, banned for a week, a final warning, and then banned?

[karmapolice]

I too have been sick of this "flaming" that has been going on...I especially didnt like the one agianst thedeadzone...I mean...Come on, sometimes things just go to far. I do support the apology thread that someone started to say he was sorry, but that soon turned into a half flame half arguement...I admit I am to blame for 1 of the "no no" topics and I am sorry (GBA ROMS anyone?!)lol...I have since learned my lesson and gave myself a good beating for it and havent done it since...Most of the scams (key word is MOST) are made by n00bs, so in fact they dont know and they prolly wont do it again...I would love to see some sort of moderater that takes care of threads, or some sort of alert you could put on the topic signalling a flame war...Best of luck of figuring it out and I hope you do soon!

[Valkryst]

Yeah the flames/attacks need to stop.

Its one thing if the two parties are habing a civil discussion, but its uncalled for when flames or spam takes over.

[Mr_hockey66]

I think we are all at fault for this. I have done it. he's done and shes done it. We all tend to throw our two censt in. I will try to stop posting random stuff and if we all try it will cut down a lot. ( its just so darn hard to hold your tounge on some of this stuff). But yes if my smartass comments are going to cause the site to shut down or I had the chance off getting suspended I wouldn't make those remarks and neither would many others. I personaly NEED this site. Its like my crack rock. I got have a hit every few hours.

[snotknocker]

Defender great idea. However I think we all need to take a look at ourselves as the primary contributors to the problem.

Many people are here for no other reason than to create some kind of shock value from their idiotic responses and posts. I believe there are many members who have no redeeming social skills or values. They are lonely and unaccepted in society. They crave acceptance of any kind so they put on some kind of personality facade to get some kind of response even if it is negative. The fact that nobody knows who they are outside these threads enables them to be whatever they want within these threads.

The bottom line is we are enablers. We let this happen by feeding into them with responses to their lunacy. Members whom seek reform must learn to be silent. Silence is the element in which great things fashion themselves together; that at length they may emerge, full-formed and majestic, into the daylight of Life, which they are thenceforth to rule. IMO The solution really is not so much a group effort as it is an individual one.

Edit: I know that on occasion my behavior has not been stellar. However I realize more than ever lately that the flaming and negativity is something that I care not to associate myself with any longer.

[jmcc]

I don't know where to start being annoyed by this thread.

1. Of the people who think this is a good idea how many have never participated in a flame war? I'm not talking about just hurling insults, either. If you keep a flame thread going by bumping it up, no matter how civilly, you're as responsible as anyone else in the thread.

2. Of USEFUL threads how many generally get sucked into flames? Off-topic posts are usually the only place I see these pissing contests really take hold (and frankly, it's the only place it's annoying, because a flamewar on a deal post would just publicize the deal better by keeping it bumped up.)

3. Wasting Cheapy's resources? If it's really a matter of scrimping and saving all the bandwidth possible wouldn't eliminating avatars be a better start?

[greendj27]

I honestly don't think that there is a lot that the site could do to prevent someone from flaming. One of the problems in forums on the internet is that people have anonymity. People think that they don't have to obey the normal rules of society becuase there really isn't much in the form of repercussions. Would banning someone from the boards for a day really stop an asshole from being an asshole? I doubt it. I agree that things have gotten a little out of hand lately, but that is a problem with the internet as a whole, not just this site.

[defender]

Avatars add positively to the forums here. Flame Wars and Useless Posts do not. Its also not a bandwidth isse here at CAG as much as the DB side getting rather large. Avatars are not in the DB at all while every single post is.

And yes its mostly off-topic that is the real flame problem but I see it bleed into the others too...

I know I have not only been involved in some flame wars but I may have started one or two. But now I feel really self aware about it and dont want to continue the practice. Maybe if more of the regular users became aware of their own posts that the flaming will chill out a bit.

[greendj27]

I get the feeling that a lot of this is coming from a certain person's personal attacks on your family in another topic, defender. I understand why you are upset, I would be upset too if I were you. I just don't know what a temporary ban will really accomplish. Some people just seem to get off trying to make others feel bad, but I really doubt a short ban would change the person. Of course, I am not a veteran of internet message boards. I have never really participated in any other forums, so maybe it would change things?

[Gothic Walrus]

Of the people who think this is a good idea how many have never participated in a flame war? I'm not talking about just hurling insults, either. If you keep a flame thread going by bumping it up, no matter how civilly, you're as responsible as anyone else in the thread.

Doesn't the fact that we recognize how stupid our behavior is count for something? How about the fact that we're agreeing to changes to eliminate these problems?

[MorganWebbLover]

deleted by cheapyd

[Jrunt20x]

While I agree with you for the most part, there are some cases were flaming is necesary. One such example was when a member of these forums made an attack against my religion. While I not the most religious guy in the world people who are racists and make biggoted comments deserved to be flamed. So while I feel you are right, somtimes if flaming people means standing up for yourself then in my opinion you should damn well do it.

[Dead of Knight]

deleted by cheapyd

QUOTED'D before he can edit it again.

[SneakyPenguin]

deleted by cheapyd

QUOTED'D before he can edit it again.

he should be instantly banned for that. i dont care what your feelings were previous, but this should be the final nail in the coffin for that fuc|<tard

[CheapyD]

I guess he just wanted to be banned after all.
He got his wish.

[roland13x]

Hey snotknocker...

Why the hypocrisy? This is from a similar thread I started a few weeks ago....

"Who the hell are you to pass your judgement?
Bottom line is there are a lot of immature CAG's. On occasion I'll delve into this category. Sad but true. The vulgarity, hostile posts, name calling etc. by these posters is fueled by response to our remarks. We will never go away! To promote your own civil communications you must learn to ignore the garbage posted by us. It's your CHOICE to be here. If you don't like it be gone and never return. (you know you'll be back cause the good outweighs the bad) There are many things I don't agree with , many things I have opinions on that I won't post on because I know the kind of response I'll get. After a while you get a feel for the CAG's your dealing with. You learn when to jump on and when to jump off. sometimes I'm serious ...... Sometimes not and that's my choice. It's really all about choice the #1 freedom we all have. So think a little bit about your roll in things before you go posting your little piss ant complaints. I think the majority of people here have enough common sense to have figured this out for themselves. You come off like your some kind of saint..... it's really pathetic. Please take control of yourself."

/edited to remove many, many excessive spaces...

[CaseyRyback]

Wow a major leech has finally been let go. I am not one to usually say anything as I do think MWL was antagonized a lot, but he did get what he deserved.

[Dead of Knight]

Wow a major leech has finally been let go. I am not one to usually say anything as I do think MWL was antagonized a lot, but he did get what he deserved.

Yes, CheapyD is a merciful one, he is. Probably one of the better and fairer admins I've seen on a message board.

[jmcc]

deleted by cheapyd

QUOTED'D before he can edit it again.

he should be instantly banned for that. i dont care what your feelings were previous, but this should be the final nail in the coffin for that fuc|<tard

Then do we instantly ban you also? You're as much at fault as he is for not just ignoring what was OBVIOUSLY flame bait and instead drawing attention to it and starting a combative dialog, right?

[SneakyPenguin]

Wow a major leech has finally been let go. I am not one to usually say anything as I do think MWL was antagonized a lot, but he did get what he deserved.

imo he wont get what he deserves until hes dragged through the streets. tyhe things he said about defender and his family was downright wrong. even i don go that far. i cant say he will be missed.

[greendj27]

Regardless of what I said in above posts, I'm glad to see he got banned. The kind of personal attacks he made were completely out of line.

[CheapyD]

Wow a major leech has finally been let go. I am not one to usually say anything as I do think MWL was antagonized a lot, but he did get what he deserved.

Yes, CheapyD is a merciful one, he is. Probably one of the better and fairer admins I've seen on a message board.

It basically comes to this...
If you make too much work for me and contribute more bad than good to the site, I have little choice but to ban you.
If I have to worry about you making racial slurs and just generally causing trouble and pissing CAGs off (read: more work for me), it takes time away from more important things I can be doing, like banging my head against the wall. ](*,)

[greendj27]

Wow a major leech has finally been let go. I am not one to usually say anything as I do think MWL was antagonized a lot, but he did get what he deserved.

Yes, CheapyD is a merciful one, he is. Probably one of the better and fairer admins I've seen on a message board.

It basically comes to this...
If you make too much work for me and contribute more bad than good to the site, I have little choice but to ban you.
If I have to worry about you making racial slurs and just generally causing trouble and pissing CAGs off (read: more work for me), it takes time away from more important things I can be doing, like banging my head against the wall. ](*,)

Hey, you have a wedding to help plan. You don't have time for banging your head against a wall. Bachelor party anyone?

[metroidkiller9]

i missed what MWL said but im sure it mustve been ridiculously offensive for cheapy to do an insta-ban. i welcome it.

[Gothic Walrus]

i missed what MWL said but im sure it mustve been ridiculously offensive for cheapy to do an insta-ban. i welcome it.

Same here...too late to the party, I guess. Still, I can't help but wonder what it was that he posted...

[XboxMaster]

This is kinda upsetting me. A user that has already posted on this thread acts like his posts are not meant as personal attacks, when I think he knows good and well they are. Don't you think making fun of someone's age and openly admitting that he purposely "picks" on ppl should be considered as a violation of this "new policy"? I'm trying to not to use names (I'm sure most ppl know who I'm talking about anyway) or be too negative since this is a thread opposing what could start by posting this.

More on the subject of things. I think flaming should be allowed on the off-topic forum. Of course, very personal attacks that could easily hurt ppls' feeling should be stopped, but that rarely ever happens. I understand not having flame wars in other threads besides the off-topic one. But what about console wars? Actually, scratch that, a fanboy (me) never sees differently?

[SneakyPenguin]

well people have been pming me asking about the banning post, seeing as how i was one of the few to actually see it. i will answer any and all, unless cheapy or defender dont want me too. dont read it if youre easily angered, it was a really horrible thing he said.

and jmcc, did you actually SEE what he wrote? i have a right to get pissed atthat comment. it was apparently enough to get banned over, so it doesnt seem minor to me.

[JSweeney]

Yep, I'm a bad, bad evil person.
You can tell everyone it's me you're talking about XboxMaster.
It's not like it really makes that much of a difference... I'm not crude, vulgar or libelious.
Of course, if you really hate me that much, have at it.

[defender]

He just posted a short one line off-topic sentence with the N word in it. It was rather obvious and blantant that he just wanted to be banned. He didnt even make mention of another user...he just posted a rather offensive few words without real meaning.

I dont like to see people banned because it means that the forums is out of hand. I wont miss MWL but I do believe he made the choice for CHeapyD.

CheapyD was the executioner but it was MWL that pulled the trigger.

Oh well..this has to happen every now and then to get people back to normal.

The CloudSpekk forums seems to rile a lot of people up and then the political heat came...now a long time user gets banned. I hope this is the end of a lot of the silliness that has been happening. At least for a while.

[JSweeney]

Yeah, I think beyond the CloudSpekk thread, the only other major thread where contention was going on was the little scuffle between deadzone and JimmieMac, where accusations of people ingesting body fluids were made.

[CaseyRyback]

lets face it, even before the cloudspekk thread MWL was a dick. I tolarated it, but for the last two weeks he has just been the ultimate jack ass

[defender]

Also my post is NOT POLICY. I am just a CAG technical advisor. I have mod powers only to test out the site and to work on it.

My post here was personal perspective as a user.

But I think CHeapyD will be making some changes and I will be given some assignments this week. Hopefully some cool things that CAGers will like.

[JSweeney]

Yeah, that other thread talking about new functionality unearthed some really nice ideas.

Onwards and upwards, I guess.

[Scrubking]

MWL had it coming for a while now starting with the blatantly large sig pic. I'm glad he's gone.

Also why do people keep trying to bring up past flame wars in an attempt to justify them now? I am sure a lot of us have been in a flame war, but does that mean that we shouldn't cut down on the stupid remarks and flames? What kind of backwards thinking is that?

[Mr. Anderson]

Jesus. This is a civil riot on the boards. Does this happen every few months? I've never seen such chaos on any message board (although I haven't been to many...)

[jmcc]

well people have been pming me asking about the banning post, seeing as how i was one of the few to actually see it. i will answer any and all, unless cheapy or defender dont want me too. dont read it if youre easily angered, it was a really horrible thing he said.

and jmcc, did you actually SEE what he wrote? i have a right to get pissed atthat comment. it was apparently enough to get banned over, so it doesnt seem minor to me.

Yes, I saw the original post, when the offensive word was filtered to "night trap" which made me wonder what the hell he was talking about until he edited it into the slur. And I never said it was minor, I said you made the problem worse by giving him exactly the response he wanted and as such, you should be banned too if there's going to be a serious, mod led crackdown on flaming.

I'm constantly amazed that people understand how trolls operate (you DO understand that they love negative attention, right?) yet they inveriably decide to handle them in the incorrect way. Would you have reacted the same way to someone saying a racial epithet in real life? Probably not. You would have likely thought "what an idiot" and ignored them. Why should that [correct] response to stupid stuff being said be any different on this board?

[snotknocker]

Hey snotknocker...

Why the hypocrisy? This is from a similar thread I started a few weeks ago....

"Who the hell are you to pass your judgement?
Bottom line is there are a lot of immature CAG's. On occasion I'll delve into this category. Sad but true. The vulgarity, hostile posts, name calling etc. by these posters is fueled by response to our remarks. We will never go away! To promote your own civil communications you must learn to ignore the garbage posted by us. It's your CHOICE to be here. If you don't like it be gone and never return. (you know you'll be back cause the good outweighs the bad) There are many things I don't agree with , many things I have opinions on that I won't post on because I know the kind of response I'll get. After a while you get a feel for the CAG's
your dealing with. You learn when to jump on and when to jump off. sometimes I'm serious ...... Sometimes not and that's my choice. It's really all about choice the #1 freedom we all have. So think a little bit about your roll in things before you go posting your little piss ant complaints. I think the majority of people here have enough common sense to have figured this out for themselves. You come off like your some kind of saint..... it's really pathetic. Please take control of yourself."

/edited to remove many, many excessive spaces...

I suffer from multiple personality disorder. JK
Seriously.... I was totally against the flaming and bashing going on here from my arrival. But it seemed so prevelent. I figured if you can't beat em join em. I thought that this would be a place that I could just be jerk and get some cheap laughs. (No pun intended). As I lurked through past threads and analyzed posts from other CAG's I realized that there seem to be some straight up decent people here ... people I can relate to ... people I could associate with. So I made amends to some of the people that I knew I p*ssed off. Obviously I missed you so I make my final apologies now to you and anybody else I may have overlooked. Sometimes if you change the way you look at things the things you look at change. I don't regret making that post to you. However I would have regretted not making it right. So thanks for dragging that into this and giving me the chance. Sorry about the spaces. I hope this will put an end to anything you may hold against me.

[yellowaznboy]

jmcc is right about trolls. They are attention whores, and post whatever to get a response. We all saw it in the Cloudspekk thread. He said something stupid, and fifty people quoted him along with a slanderous comeback. This went on for how many hundreds of posts? The thread shouldn't have existed for that long...

[snotknocker]

I guess he just wanted to be banned after all.
He got his wish.

Good move CheapyD! I can't say I'll miss him. My only concern is he will register again under a different name and spew his verbal diarrea with a vengeful malicious intent.

This may be a job for punqsux net detective. (See DealmasterX thread)

[scuba]

I have seen some of this. A new person posts something in the wrong place and thse people post and start going crazy saying all these means things. I would like to post something and say

HES NEW he didn't know but I just forget it because I probably would get attacked.

[The Successful Dropout]

yeah...ive seen that too scuba....not only have i seen it...ive done it....im new here and ive posted stuff in the wrong forum by accident....and while it was never intentional...and never could've been confused as intentional...i still got screamed at...made fun of...and degraded....all for making a simple mistake because im new....ive been here about 20 days now...and love the site...but it sucks to get yelled at when you're trying to fit in....of course you're gonna make a mistake here and there when you're new...and probably when you've been around for a while also....everybody makes mistakes....maybe there should be a way that the person who posted something can change it over to the correct forum to save the apparantly inevitable scolding....or maybe when someone signs up....they cant access the entire site yet...but only a newbie section...until they've proven themselves with x amount of posts...and maybe their could be a correction system where you get x amount of aloud mistakes....and if you go over it...you gotta start all over....i dont know...maybe im just babbling...and maybe ill get yelled at again....

but i do think that flame wars can sometimes be fun to read....and both pleasant and unpleasant to participate in....i think they could possibly find a home in the off topic forum or in a "flame war " forum....just as long as it doesnt linger into the other forums purposely

[thatstoobad]

I have seen some of this. A new person posts something in the wrong place and thse people post and start going crazy saying all these means things. I would like to post something and say

HES NEW he didn't know but I just forget it because I probably would get attacked.

although it would be excessive to post something saying "hey moron, this topic belongs in a different spot and you're a (put in whatever you want here)", the truth is that it's brutally easy to be able to figure out where things belong and where they don't. all you have to do is read the rules to figure it out. i was new once and i never posted on the wrong boards, so i don't see why other people do.

another thing that i don't understand is why people get so offended. you could call me pretty much anything you want, but i'm not going to get upset because it doesn't really hold any weight. even so, most people take things a bit too far. debating on a topic is one thing, but an argument that includes the line "that's not what your momma said last night" is unnecessary.

edited the second paragraph to make more sense.

[defender]

Seriously.... I was totally against the flaming and bashing going on here from my arrival. But it seemed so prevelent. I figured if you can't beat em join em. I thought that this would be a place that I could just be jerk and get some cheap laughs. (No pun intended). As I lurked through past threads and analyzed posts from other CAG's I realized that there seem to be some straight up decent people here ... people I can relate to ... people I could associate with. So I made amends to some of the people that I knew I p*ssed off. Obviously I missed you so I make my final apologies now to you and anybody else I may have overlooked. Sometimes if you change the way you look at things the things you look at change. I don't regret making that post to you. However I would have regretted not making it right. So thanks for dragging that into this and giving me the chance. Sorry about the spaces. I hope this will put an end to anything you may hold against me.

This is my fear. That new users will come here just to join in the flaming and mature users will just leave or not even join. What would remain?

You also dont have to flame someone to point out that they posting in the wrong topic...a simple "please post in the appropriate forums" is mostly good enough

[Scrubking]

The funny thing is that saying "this topic doesn't belong here", or "Wrong board" seem to piss people off even though those are very neutral statements.

Many people have bitched at me because I tell them that their topic is on the wrong board - even though I never flamed them and just said one of the above statements.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out what board your topic belongs in. All you need is a little common sense and awareness.