- spawn031
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@spawn031
"So much of what we do is ephemeral and quickly forgotten, even by ourselves, so it's gratifying to have something you have done linger in people's memories." John Williams
UPDATE: The original idea was to implement changes to the current community forum: The discussion has resulted to adding an additional forum instead. This way newer members still have a place to attend when discussing the community itself. Rather than completely shutting them off when they join for the first time.
Obviously, there are pros/cons to consider on each side, and I personally am not sure on what the right answer is. Should a waiting period to post be added? If by adding a new forum, what should the restrictions be? Should anything be changed at all? The goal is to add a forum that users have incentive for positive behavior.
Hey Community Forum,
It's been a while. Yes, a while since we have had a full blown discussion going around. I don't know about you, but ever since Bungie has been dark, we've been forced to talk about things on a broken record. Please note that there really isn't a right answer for this. The thread was designed to find what that goal is, so bear with me on this as we approach a new topic for discussion:
What if the community forum.....
....was restricted?
What would the community forum be like if it was restricted access?
The main idea:
!. ANYONE could VIEW the forum.
2. Only members that meet the admittance requirements, would be able to POST in the forum.
Example restrictions:
1. Must have linked gamertag
2. Must be a member of Bungie.net for at least 1 year
3. Must have a current title/prefix of any kind - so "honorable member", "forum ninja", or "Bungie Employee" could post there.
The examples of restrictions I just gave you were just ....examples. What if the only restriction was having a linked gamertag? What if the time was a 3 month wait? A one week wait?
The purpose?
Have you ever wanted a forum that was based on intense discussion? With adding restrictions to the forums, users would have to meet the criteria if they would like to participate. This would eliminate the common alt accounts, trolls, spam, and other unwanted posts. The forum would keep the same discussion value, being about community related topics, the website itself and other Bungie related material.
The idea is that this forum would set the examples and hopefully "bleed" into other forum attitudes on bungie.net. If you're consistently active, chances are that you've followed the forum rules for a long time. The incentive is that newer members would follow the rules and meet the qualifications and be able to post in this new forum.
I would compare it something to NeoGAF, where account creation is very limited, but once you have an account, you automatically have lots of value into it (since it took so long). Bungie.net is much easier to create accounts with and there is no way that account creation should be limited like GAF. Knowing that, users on bungie.net tend to make tons of accounts and use them negatively on the forums. (it happens)
With a timed membership restriction, is it honestly worth it to create an account and work it's way up to some title only to have one infraction and in a sense "troll" the forum for 10 minutes or less, only to be removed from it? I don't see a reason to spend all that time for that one moment. By all means, if someone WANTS to do that, let them. It would take less than 10 minutes to resolve anyway, compared to constant months of activity
Obviously there would need to be kinks that have to work out. As of right now, this idea doesn't seem plausible due to low activity.[/u] But once Bungie shows off their new baby, activity will kick back up just like development for any of their prior games. Think of it like the Optimatch forum. It would have restrictions, but anyone can view it.
A few years ago, there was another reference to this idea that I remember clearly. I have linked the full thread in the bottom of this OP.
Some common questions for this idea:
Why not just make a private group instead?
In the thread I linked, there are a bunch of great ideas, this one being the most common. Private groups wouldn't serve the same purpose because of:
1. They're invisible to the public eye.
2. The quality of groups generally are run poorly. I'm talking the average group here. Some groups are run better than others.
3. Groups are subject to the user's discretion and moderated by their own members. This forum would be run by the public moderators and Bungie Webteam - just like any other public forum.
4. Not to mention the following reason:
A public forum with regulated access to actually posting in it would allow Bungie employees to interact with users who have proven their trustworthiness and dedication to the site. The interaction could be much more as it was years ago, when the forums were much more readable, the topics were more well-thought out, the users were more self-regulating, and every post by a Bungie employee did not result in a tidal wave of people either sucking up or proving their "rebelliousness" by disagreeing solely on principle that the post was created by an employee.*
*Note: This post by x Foman123 x is 3.5 years old, and he may have different working on the subject. I have already made contact with about using the context of his posts.
_______________________________________________
Conclusion:
All in all the goal is simply this: Enabling these features/restrictions on a new forum would emphasize positive behavior on Bungie.net for active users. I'm not talking about user that log into Bungie.net 1 or 2 times a week for 10 minute sessions. I'm talking about the users like you and me that log in daily, participate in groups, interact with the Bungie Community Staff, take part in contests and weekly write-ups that try to improve the community.
The point of this forum is for US to have a place to discuss what the community is about. This isn't a "safe haven" from all the bad users on this website. This is just a quieter place (an extended forum) where the members that are "regulars" around here can sit down and ask questions and pose new ideas with uses that are consistently active.
Recommended Reading:
Super Secret Forum?
[Edited on 05.17.2012 4:24 PM PDT]