- Muno
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- Exalted Mythic Member
KOTOR | The WarriorsI'll chain you to the truth for the truth shall set you free
I'll turn the screws of vengeance and bury you with honesty
I'll make all your dreams come to life, then slay them as quickly as they came
Posted by: Recon Number 54
Posted by: Ghandi 2
[hr] was removed because people were abusing it.
I would like to see more advanced options because then it's easier for people to make their posts reader-friendly.
I would like more controls as well, but as you pointed out, abuse is almost certain.
For example, there was color.... some people were idiots, and we all lost it.
Then there was italics.... some people abused it and got blacklisted.
Members had sigs for saying something clever, in some cases they were abused and turned into annoying billboards, now they are controlled.
We're even to the point of locking threads because of all caps subject lines.
To me, the root cause of all of this is apparent. Any tool that is made and intended to help make posts easier to read or follow can also be abused. The abuse comes from the understandable human desire to be noticed. In the case of the color, caps, italics abuses it was almost always a matter of A) a member who wanted to stand out from the crowd, or B) someone is making a topic that they know has either been discussed to death or isn't that interesting and they want to attract attention to it.
Much like anything, advanced formatting is a constructive tool in the right hands, but an annoyance or danger when in the hands of an irresponsible or immature individual. So what can we do? Well, in the past, we've followed the "now you've ruined it for everyone" course of action. Which can work in some situations, but it is just a form of negative enforcement. It doesn't encourage positive behavior and it doesn't demonstrate the benefits of being helpful.
I think that this (like many other ideas that are improvements but carry the risk of abuse) should be considered as a potential "Elite Reward" for the system that Achronos is evaluating/tweaking. By making the rewards (such as advanced formatting) linked to positive behavior/actions and the loss of them linked to negative actions, it would offer both the carrot AND the stick.
A big question would be if the Latest Hawtness allows the enabling/disabling of such features at an account level. I don't know the answer to that.
If all else fails, then your idea would be very nice. I just don't see why the enforcement of abusing these tags shouldn't go up, like a month ban for anyone abusing the tags in any way.