Architecture and Products - read-only: temporary or permanent?

[trinibwoy]

Proposal:
Can we rename the boards to "Architecture only" and "Graphics Products and Semidconductor Industry" respectively? And then - maybe after a grace period - vigorously just deleting off-topic postings in the "Architecture only"-forum that derail threads into pricing debates, console stuff and/or marketing stunts? Combined with a 3-day (or so) temp-ban and three strikes ( = perma ban) no questions asked? Maybe people will learn? I don't know.

Or could the moderation maybe share some of their ideas that are being considered in order to improve things? The cross-post from the announcement implied, you had some brighter ideas of your own? If there's anything I can help with, i'd be willing to listen.

I think that some heavy handed moderation is unfortunately required. While it would be ideal if everyone self moderated this isn’t realistic. Posters do evolve and mature over time myself included but not everyone is blessed with the extreme maturity required to never step out of line. B3D is already an oasis compared to the shitshows in most forums but going that last mile will need some tough love from the moderation team.

The underlying issue though is that people just take shit way too personally and that personal animosity infects every conversation. If someone bleeds green instead of blue or red or vice versa you can challenge their data or opinions but it shouldn’t get to the point where your blood boils at the sight of their user name.

We’re all here because it’s fun to talk about the tech and games that we enjoy but at the end of the day it really doesn’t matter what some rando on the internet thinks. It’s definitely not worth giving yourself an aneurysm.

 

[mrcorbo]

Another rule of thumb: Don't post angry. If something someone posts here has you seething, step away from the keyboard, go do something in real life and then come back when you can respond instead of react.

 

[mrcorbo]

One complication of heavier moderation, though, could be the perception (if not a reality) of bias on the part of the moderators. What constitutes an acceptable or unacceptable post can be subjective at times. Either you give a very small group of people a more outsize influence over the content and character of the posts on the board or you expand the pool of moderators and make having a consistent set of standards nearly impossible without having every decision end up in committee. Moderator actions themselves can bring with them their own derailments of discussion.

It would be nice if the community were continued to be allowed and expected to police themselves in the great majority of cases.

 

[^M^]

Can we:
- split architecture and product forums
- ban repeat offenders from those sections

Some people will never behave but it's not a reason to punish everyone.

 

[BRiT]

Can we:
- split architecture and product forums

What benefits are there to separate forums? Those discussions are already split by topic.

 

[Pete]

Things like that shouldnt happen, no matter what platform you love.

The reaction or the provocation?

We’re in this situation because people can be stubborn. The “quick fix” is banning the more stubborn. That may lead to further entrenchment (“I was wronged!“ “Why are the mods picking on them!”). There’s no easy answer. I participate in some threads, which makes me hesitant to moderate them as I have to question my own bias.

Obviously, I’m always right, but I don’t want the heat. So I let Batman Brit dole out the punishment. Then he gets tired of punching walls / closing spigots and tells people to cool off, and as a result we get two threads bemoaning the state of things.

I’m willing to try a heavier hand at clamping down on the argumentative bullshit at the risk of stifling debate if it lessens Brit, Shifty, and the other mods’ burdens.

 

[PSman1700]

The reaction or the provocation?

Both

 

[CarstenS]

What benefits are there to separate forums? Those discussions are already split by topic.

In my optimistic imagination it makes it easier to stay on topic when the whole subforum is strictly architecture and not productization (which automatically makes discussions about price, positioning and console influences off-topic).

As is, many threads in the discussed board are called something like „Nvidia GeForce RTX 40x0 rumors and speculation“, „AMD RDNA3 Specifications Discussion Thread“ or „Nvidia's 3000 Series RTX GPU [3090s with different memory capacity]“.
That, IMO, leaves the door wide open to digression from architecture, and – speaking for myself – I think that is one of the more compelling aspects of B3D that there used to be a whole lot of people with deep knowledge about this stuff. Some of which have already wandered off.

edit: typos, interpunctation

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I think that some heavy handed moderation is unfortunately required. While it would be ideal if everyone self moderated this isn’t realistic.

I agree. We've discussed pruning before. Presently though we don't all have full moderation powers so can't share the workload.

Ideally, those that can self modeate will. That'll make it clear those who can't who we can remove.

 

[pharma]

The reaction or the provocation?

I think if both are tempered with a mix of fact finding and personal intuition without "getting nasty" then neither. But if one is getting nasty without corresponding fact finding and no sight in end then the answer is obvious.

 

[^M^]

What benefits are there to separate forums? Those discussions are already split by topic.

You can ban someone from one of the section without banning him from the other.

 

[Pete]

I think if both are tempered with a mix of fact finding and personal intuition without "getting nasty" then neither. But if one is getting nasty without corresponding fact finding and no sight in end then the answer is obvious.

It’s easy to delete emotionally charged outbursts. It’s harder (and takes longer, at least if you’re trying to minimize moderation) when a post is a mix of fact and fury. That’s the crux of the issue.

Maybe forced (moderator-imposed) ignore between certain posters could help. That way we can allow some bullshit (provocation) without the resultant escalation (reaction).*

* Please substitute “opinion” for all the charged words.

 

[neckthrough]

be forced (moderator-imposed) ignore between certain posters could help. That way we can allow some bullshit (provocation) without the resultant escalation (reaction).*

Now *that's* a neat idea. Snip the synapse instead of the neurons.

 

[homerdog]

In my optimistic imagination it makes it easier to stay on topic when the whole subforum is strictly architecture and not productization (which automatically makes discussions about price, positioning and console influences off-topic).

As is, many threads in the discussed board are called something like „Nvidia GeForce RTX 40x0 rumors and speculation“, „AMD RDNA3 Specifications Discussion Thread“ or „Nvidia's 3000 Series RTX GPU [3090s with different memory capacity]“.
That, IMO, leaves the door wide open to digression from architecture, and – speaking for myself – I think that is one of the more compelling aspects of B3D that there used to be a whole lot of people with deep knowledge about this stuff. Some of which have already wandered off.

edit: typos, interpunctation

This is what I was trying to get at earlier. It isn't clear based on the thread titles where the serious architecture discussion belongs vs where I can flame express my disapproval of the RTX3060 8GB .

 

[PSman1700]

Maybe forced (moderator-imposed) ignore between certain posters could help. That way we can allow some bullshit (provocation) without the resultant escalation (reaction).*

Why wasnt this idea brought up before? Seems solid.

 

[Malo]

For laughs set the Nvidia propaganda team to ignore each other.

 

[PSman1700]

For laughs set the Nvidia propaganda team to ignore each other.

And then do the same for the Sony propaganda team.

 

[Pete]

Sigh.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Today I was reading a thread about the Xbox Series X and the reason why there were no revisions of its hardware, possibly because of the blade servers. The posts led off into an enquiry about why Sony has lots of revisions and MS doesn't. This was obviously a new branch of discussion so I separated it out from the Xbox Series thread and gave it its own Console Revisions thread.

This is what moderation should be. It shouldn't be spending an hour reading 6 pages of emotionally charged posts mixed with technical discussion trying to edit out the noise (half of which is always finger-pointing at who's responsbile for derailing the thread) to recover a sensible discussion.

 

[pharma]

Sigh.

Some people switch ignore on/off after they respond just to have the last remark. Does ignore really work as intended since in this situation it may create more frustration?