So maybe you were involved in the little Farscape discussion. Maybe you weren't. But I think everyone should read this log where we explain to Gerudo what flamebaiting and trolling are, and where he went wrong in the farscape discussion.
I would repeat everything we said there in this topic in a concise, clear form, but to be quite honest, I'm too tired to do so, and I would also like higher up opinions before I make an 'official pointer' or anything like that. Plus, who knows, we might even introduce anti-troll and anti-flamebait rules. For now, just take this as friendly advice when you start having trouble with 'the usual suspects'.
For now though, I think that something can be learned from what happened in that thread. Download the attached file and reply in this thread if you think anything is unclear.
I don't think this is worthy of a sticky, as I usually consider sticky stuff to be more 'official' and 'set in stone' than this.
EDIT: Right Click and Save As... and open in Notepad instead of left clicking. IE doesn't seem to handle the formatting of this .txt file right, for some reason...
um, im all for an example of show what the stuff means, but im sure there are parts of that you couldve omitted...
and dont make this out to be a 'geru learns a lesson' type deal either, even though this was a public chat or whatever, i wasnt asked nor did i agree to this being posted...
as far as 'official anti-flamebait' rules, stand by what i said that there is flamebaiting in almost every thread...
edit: actually, re-reading that, i dont think it proves any points.. i fail to find reason for it being posted at all, because you try explain why i act the way i do, and try to get me to stop, but other than that... wtf...
alex, just paint it in black and white for me, please...
My apologies. I thought that Starkist and I was enough. I was using you as an example, but not in a bad way. I thought that because you had managed to see our points, that perhaps anyone else who was unclear on the subject could read the logs and figure it out too.
And I can't really say anything that is set in stone, as I need other staff member's input on it. However, in the meantime, I'll provide you with my interpertation of flamebait. Flamebait is a comment, negative in nature, that doesn't provide any explination behind its negativity.
From the logs (out of order)...
( %Starkist ) There is a new thread about baseball in GD
( %Starkist ) If someone went in and posted "baseball sucks! and people who like baseball are dorks! and i like cheese!!"
( %Starkist ) That's trolling... posting in order to get a reaction, a bad reaction
However, lets say that in response to the farscape thread, I had pretended that I had not liked Farscape and said this...
( +AlexMax ) What if I had posted something similar to "I just dont see what the fuss about farscape is about <goes off into five or six paragraphs as to why it didnt appeal to me>. Still, I realize that you must be sad about your favorite show being off the air. It would be like if they took Adult Swim off of Cartoon network."
( +AlexMax ) Starkist: Wouldnt you agree that would be more appropriate
( %Starkist ) Sure Alex
See the difference? One was just a jab in the ribs, the other was more constructive to the conversation. The jab in the ribs is the flamebait, as it is just begging for a backlash.
Now don't take this as my definitive guide. This still doesnt break it down into a few sentances, something that would probably be more useful. I'm asking for staff input on this as we speak. If you want, I'll remove the logs Gerudo. But I was going to post the log as a service to those who didn't understnad why people kept getting pissed off at them. It wasn't intended to pick on you.
i see what you mean now...
for pure example purposes, go ahead and keep it there 😉