- Duck duck DEATH
- |
- Exalted Mythic Member
When I grow up I want to be bitter and spiteful.
"i liked the reality where everything was on fire better"
-legato on remedial chaos theory
Because the "ideal" Bungie.net is subjective, I tend to disagree on several of your ideas. Most of your suggestions I either support or am impartial to, however I believe the below listed would prove detrimental to the overall Bungie.net experience:
Posted by: dazarobbo
- Ability for a user to hide a topic from their view
In a most sincere of interpretations, what the hell is wrong with you? When a user comes for information, it should not be biased to their views. Each and every one of our views is limited, and the opportunities for new, enriching, and even disagreeing information only serves to broaden our views. To hide a topic would be to cut of an entirety of views and relevant information. Certain topics in these forums may violate specific rules, but does that make their views untrue? In my opinion, views should be tested by all manner of criticism and alternative. I see this feature, along with the ignore user feature, the most likely to be abused. To provide users a means of biased ignorance would be truly limiting their experience.
- Enable threads to be rated
Subjectivity aside, the rating system an incredibly stupid idea. The like/dislike, or thumbs up/down system allows a user to simply click an opinion rather than developing and openly sharing it.
To me, this brings about two major apparent faults. First, users no longer have to substantiate their opinions. People will be able to openly criticize users posts without any basis themselves. Because they don't have to explain why they like or dislike the post, it takes away both from the discussion and the argument. A criticism without reason is a childish attack. Having a debate where a point can be voted down en mass without any actual counter point is outright idiotic. It promotes a group mindset, putting down valuable concepts such as individualism and even the basic demand of backing one's opinion. Such a brainless process only serves to take away fact from discussion, turning it to pure outside bias and emotion.
The second I fault I see with this system is the anonymity it permits. With a rating system, you can be a complete coward and criticize a post. Better yet, a collection of people, none on which receives and responsibility, can put down a posters opinion and reputation. Such a separation from responsibility can only lead to corruption of the system, as we have seen clearly with the dark nature prevalent in the internet.
To anyone wishing to have a discussion, the idea of a like/dislike system should be horrific. With a like/dislike system, a completely valid point can be put down purely by opinion, without any counterpoints or debate opponents to offer alternatives. It literally takes the intelligence out of an argument.
- Ignore user option which extends to the forumsSee my argument for hiding threads. The purpose of such a feature would be to limit the experience of the user in that it would allow them to literally become ignorant of all the content of another user. There is no reason specified for this feature, so it goes without saying that it will assuredly be abused for users that simply dislike each other. It would limited valid points and alternative criticism.
Say I were to decide to ignore elmicker, because he's arrogant and unkind and the lot. I would thus be cut off from his input, his opinions, and in many cases correct and relevant information just because of my hypothetical dislike of him. Users need information that they don't like, because it can reaffirm or adjust their views, allowing them greater understanding and thus the 'ideal' Bungie.net experience.
- Profiles blogsIn my personal opinion, these would be nothing more than a waste of space. I don't want to build a considerable argument against it, because I don't see any benefit other than unregulated personal expression subject to abuse.
- Give users privileges; the more well-behaved they are, the more privileges they receive, and vice-versa I would be fine with the idea of giving users more privileges, but the Bungie.net forums history of meritocracy is one of fault. It is largely based around account age and posting habits, and often violations can either go unnoticed or in many cases ignored due to subjectivity. In turn, while these factors may in certain cases be strong indicators of trust, they are not and thus should not be determinants. Unless the system of merit is revised, I am heavily against this idea.