I've seen that pisstake about inmates and an asylum a few times and besides it being a joke, I'd be a party pooper and still say it's wrong. The owner and the moderation are always in charge. If you have any issues with the way a forum is going it's always a reflection of them first. But that is the great divide for Resetera, half the forum thinks there aren't enough bans and there are still lots of secret evil people, the other half is constantly moaning that moderation is unreasonable and too quick to act. So who does the owner try and placate in order to keep making money?
This is true that moderation is largely what drives culture, but that doesn't mean it represents a majority or even a plurality of the userbases' feelings on the subject.
With Era, there's reason to believe the hyper progressive voices that give zero room for nuance in anything are an extreme minority, representing maybe 500-1000 posters if not a lot less. You can see it in the way specific polls go, or how many contentious topics have the same people arguing. And yet, this small fraction of the userbase at large is what the moderation caters to. That isn't how a healthy forum should evolve, which isn't to say the marginalized voices of the minority shouldn't be protected, but protected and given special treatment are two very different things. It lets bitterness among the majority set in and WILL lead to issues down the line. It already has with several industry people seeing the place for the den of aggressive lunatics that it is, including many legit influencers as well as the ones Era likes including Giant Bomb.
And sure, the "inmates running the asylum" thing is offensive, but it kind of shows us a much more sinister side of the whole thing; people with mental health issues stuck in an echo chamber. It's not a safe space to vent, it's a place to reinforce an incredibly hostile worldview that will prevent any kind of reasonable progress in the real world. I have no doubt that a lot of these people that have therapists have been outright told to get off forums, but they don't listen.
My single day of careposting is almost up, but I'll take Pogi's mantle one last time before going to sleep. This is it, the plane is hitting the landing strip and the journey is ending. This story has no happy ending, so fuck off now if you want a Hollywood conclusion.
I wouldn't personally call it hyper-progressive voices, because I see myself as progressive, so that would suggest what some posters were doing is
just because they're trying to make others
more progressive. I'm of the opinion it's simply more like my high school analogy where one group bands together and then will want to bully every other group into submission. When your group has "leaders in high places" that can skew any small group in a wider community to be dominant, so while the larger community exists, they essentially exist under the tyranny of the minority. Yeah, it’s mildly funny when a poll happens on Era and it doesn't go the way some want it to, but that's often just passed off as everyone who voted differently is a terrible person. No nuance as to how left-wing voices could say they're buying this ONE game in a THQ poll, they must just be full of hate and ready to suffocate a homeless person. Ultimately, it doesn't actually matter how progressive you are 99.9% of the time, a disagreement over a
single subject or topic where any ordinary person would concede there is room for manoeuvre or nuance becomes a battleground for
winning. The small group of powerful voices never want to feel like they've
lost, so what is supposed to just be a forum and discussions are
always battles.
Not winning in the sense of presenting a better argument (maybe some evidence instead of just assumptions!!!) or arguing in good faith and both parties leaving a debate still certain in their ways but with no hard feelings. Winning by any means necessary. Which on a forum that cultivates quick bannings means ban baiting by exerting pressure you know you can get away with or hitting the report button and possibly a mod seeing a report come in from a poster they are friends with. Getting a bit into assumption territory here as I don't know if a report on Resetera tells you who it's from, but IIRC I did hear staff could find out who is sending reports in order to make sure the report system isn't
abused. Ironically, I would say a legit case for "abuse" could be posters that immediately hit report every time they are challenged or it's a poster they don't like, but that probably just becomes part of the culture of Resetera, hence all the locking of some very normal topics due to a "high volume of reports". Any topic with a bit of activity or some posters going at it, but within reasonable limits, still ends up locked for review. It's live or die, or in Era's case, cross your fingers you don't get the "User was banned" prompt. Even at times where you might be thinking, "I'm being hard here, but reasonable ~ No swearing at someone or calling them names, just some of the debate pressure you're supposed to be equipped for, for debate class in high-school".
I mean, has there been a single hot issue topic where the mods have locked a topic and then just re-opened it saying "Everything's fine, argue your points yourselves, we aren't here to babysit you"?. Of course not, the culture that has been cultivated means mods doing that would be writing their own
death sentence. The forum already turns on the moderators over the stupidest shit, ready to basically accuse them of being horrible people themselves if they don't placate the piranhas swirling below. It's one hell of a toxic environment where mods hate their roles, the users pretend to like the mods but are just using them to get other users banned and there is basically no fun, no community spirit, just resentment and ticking time bombs for whoever slips first. I said multiple times to the Era mods in feedback topics their role was running an adult daycare centre and I knew it was hard for them at times. I stand by that. I don't envy anyone having to look after this Resetera community, but I also can't help say you don't help yourselves at times nuking reasonable people without a second of reflection and
always placating those who'd turn on you with more venom than anyone else on the forum. Moderators are no hivemind, but when they all come together to discuss the forum with the owner, you'd have to hope reasonable voices/opinions would float up.
I think in total I probably reported 8~10 posts and most of that was at the beginning due to the novelty factor of having a report button coming from GAF. As I said earlier most of the time I would just argue with people or try and find ways to be somewhat sarcastic/dismissive to stupid shit, but in a way that didn't result in a no fun allowed ban. My one week ban for a double rick-roll was still a highlight.
https://resetera.com/posts/14181171/ And that wasn't even me trying to push buttons in an argument, it was just a bit of mild trolling around one of the most anticipated games of the generation.
It's a testament to a truly failed social experiment on a forum that the silly saying of "Add all these well-known posters to your ignore list if you don't want to get banned" ends up being more than a meme. I could never do it, I like talking to everyone, and that is essentially what led heavily to me becoming a "problematic poster". If you talk to the people who throw shit at you, misrepresent you, call you things you aren't and threaten you with getting banned, all it does is presumably wind them up more leading to an increase in your chances of being catapulted into the jail cell. Discussion, eh?
As for the offensive side of "inmates running the asylum", well, the only way I can approach that is reminding Resetera when a shooting happens and someone brings up mental health, everyone is quick to say "lots of us have mental health issues and don't shoot people". I would turn that back around and also remind some of them, millions in America live with depression/anxiety disorders for large parts of their life and they aren't all complete assholes to everyone they speak to *shrug*. Bitterness most definitely fuels that burning hatred of just about everyone not part of the in-group for some on Resetera, and for whatever combination of reasons many of the forum personalities that seem to be
in control of any topic that could be exciting for debate, end up being so incredibly bitter and quick to report everything/ask for mods to ban everyone.
As much as I'd like to carry on my tradition of talking to every cunt, please stop responding to me so I don't feel bad about ignoring you and having to carepost ever again.
