D&D 4E 4E conversations

[Belen]

They are annoying, but such is life. I would rather people feel free to post the threads that interest them. I am just glad those foundation threads are gone. They are a nightmare on the WOTC boards and I never wanted to see that trend here.

 

[Knight Otu]

And let us not forget the irony, that the site was born from the rumors of and speculative discussion of an edition that did not yet exist...

Eric Noah's D&D 3rd Edition Unofficial News site was born as a gathering site for rumors of a Third Edition that had been announced previously. 4th Edition is not announced, and propably won't be announced very soon. I consider that one important distinction between the situations.

I have nothing against the speculation, and it certainly is not a "ban-worthy offense" (I took Steve's comment to that effect as a joke) - but these threads do sometimes threaten to overwhelm everything else. If something does overwhelm everything else, steps are taken against that. The most prominent examples are off-topic polls, which were banned for a long time. When the Hivemind threads threatened to overwhelm Meta, a three-thread-rule was established against that. Some, me included, fear that 4th Edition threads do become the new off-topic polls. Also, as said, they effectively send the message "One way or the other, we are ready for 4th Edition."

 

[Umbran]

I consider that one important distinction between the situations.

I don't. Speculation is speculation.

If something does overwhelm everything else, steps are taken against that. The most prominent examples are off-topic polls, which were banned for a long time. When the Hivemind threads threatened to overwhelm Meta, a three-thread-rule was established against that.

When have the 4e discussion threads ever become anywhere near as numerous as either of those two examples? I've never seen it. 4e speculation is frequent, but it generally limited to a thread or two at a time. They may annoy due totheir content, but I don't see that they've ever become a physical impediment to use of the messageboards, which both your examples did.

 

[Knight Otu]

When have the 4e discussion threads ever become anywhere near as numerous as either of those two examples?

There have been a few times when the posters became overeager with threads like "4th is coming!" "What do you want in 4th?" and the like. Without clear numbers I can only speculate, but I suspect that 4th edition threads are about as common as hivemind threads were at the time, but less common than off-topic polls were.
General Discussion is a fast-moving forum, making the 4th edition threads much more spread out, and any potential cluttering is less obvious if it does occur.
Meta, at the time, was slow-moving, making the hivemind threads clearly dominant, cluttering up the forum.

In the end, it is, and always was, a matter of opinion when a repeated topic becomes an annoyance. For some, that point has been reached. Only the moderators and administrators can decide to take action, but they have a hard time to do so without knowing that something is considered annoying by some.

 

[stevelabny]

calling people stupid and bad thinkers is not viewed as good form here. please refrain from doing that.

nuh uh. calling people that youre talking to stupid is bad form.

calling specific forum people stupid people is bad form.

calling generic other people stupid is a-ok.

but see, the same way i just got scolded by the town pariah for the remotest possibility of me being considered rude...thats how i was asking the 4e threads to be treated.
Because whether or not I actually am rude, I don't do any damage to the actual business of D&D.
(Also any poster who really dislikes me can ignore me, whereas theres no "ignore 4e threads" option, but thats neither here nor there, its easier to just not read then blanket-ignore)

the full ban was a joke. the scolding and temp-ban was serious , for the reasons stated. but it wasn't a demand (although temp ban was never meant to be LONG)

It was a suggestion, put in the suggestion box. if the powers that be are against it, then i will shrug my shoulders and roll my eyes at the threads. not really a big deal.

 

[the Jester]

nuh uh. calling people that youre talking to stupid is bad form.

calling specific forum people stupid people is bad form.

calling generic other people stupid is a-ok.

!

True dat.

Watch out for calling generic people stupid if it is actually a veiled reference to other posters, though; when I notice someone doing this, I usually see people call 'em on it.

 

[babomb]

I read the topic as 4e conversions. "Isn't that a little premature?"

 

[glass]

I read the topic as 4e conversions. "Isn't that a little premature?"

That was my first thought too.


glass.

 

[William Ronald]

nuh uh. calling people that youre talking to stupid is bad form.

calling specific forum people stupid people is bad form.

calling generic other people stupid is a-ok.

but see, the same way i just got scolded by the town pariah for the remotest possibility of me being considered rude...thats how i was asking the 4e threads to be treated.
Because whether or not I actually am rude, I don't do any damage to the actual business of D&D.
(Also any poster who really dislikes me can ignore me, whereas theres no "ignore 4e threads" option, but thats neither here nor there, its easier to just not read then blanket-ignore)

the full ban was a joke. the scolding and temp-ban was serious , for the reasons stated. but it wasn't a demand (although temp ban was never meant to be LONG)

It was a suggestion, put in the suggestion box. if the powers that be are against it, then i will shrug my shoulders and roll my eyes at the threads. not really a big deal.

I doubt that a few threads at EN World will have much of an impact on the business of D&D, as I imagine there are likely a few threads on this at WotC's own site. However, I think it is possible to use such threads to dispel rumors, as well as to address issues. For example, there is a current thread which I replied to in an effort to not just dispel rumors but to stress something that I thought made 3rd edition a success: feedback from gamers. I like to think that one thing that separates WotC from the last years of TSR is that WotC seems interested in listening to their customers and understanding the market. So, it is possible to have some good come out of such threads --- as well as some very bad jokes. However, we might gain some insight into what some of our fellow posters are thinking. For example, I learned why one person has not adopted 3.5 and hopes for a 4th edition.

I think even a temp ban would be a bit heavy handed, as the moderators are already busy trying to keep this a friendly community. Also, if we ban speculation on 4E, then perhaps we should ban speculation on all products. After all, we could end up causing harm to a company's business. The end result would be to trim the number of threads, and make this community far less interesting.



Stevelabny, I respect your opinion but I politely disagree with it.