ps. i think we should thank ard choille for taking such swift action following the creation of this thread =D>

ah, yes, thats what i was forgetting to do! (stupid chores interupting my train of thought)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

hooray for Ard and (if i remember correctly, but feel free to correct me) her swift action on this subject! :thumbsup: \ =D>

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Told ya I'd bring the heavies. :D

Told ya I'd bring the heavies. :D

 

 

 

Heavies???

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Are you calling me HEAVY????

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

it doesnt seem like its the fresh of the boat newbies that are writing these rants.

 

 

 

the only way that i could see such a thing failing would be if a new user were to sign up, see the warning and simply go away for a few days and wait for the warning to go away before mindlessly posting spam.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

True on both counts. I tend to think that the ones who are persistant enough to just bugger off for three days to start the spam would just as soon lay down some one-liners here and there to get post count or "karma" though. Clearly none of these suggestions can be fool proof, but if they'd catch a significant amount of garbage before it happened, I'd sure be willing to give it a shot. The only reason I'd opt for time over post count or "familiarity" is that it's easy to start giving these things more weight and importance than necessary when they start to dictate what you do and do not have access to.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i think the rewording of the forum tagline is the first positive step made. perhaps putting "discussion/debate" in front of "venting" would stop the pointless rants.

A positive step it certainly is. Now that that's in place (I notice Ard Choille got a word in right about the time I hit "submit"), however, I don't think that reversing the wording would stop pointless garbage altogether. It just tweaks the stress and mood of the sticky. In all formality, I think that's the way to go, but the realistic benefits that remain after Ard Choille's latest update strike me as being minor at best, and trivial/insignificant at worst. Mind you, I suppose that's why I posed the question in the first place; to see other people's thoughts on the subject. I suppose I can withdraw that question now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Station's bang on, too.

hooray for Ard and her swift action on this subject!

+1.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heavies, he says. hahahaha....

 

Told ya I'd bring the heavies. :D

 

 

 

Heavies???

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Are you calling me HEAVY????

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

im almost entirely sure he meant heavy as in "heavy-hiter" or, more appropriately, higher-up. he was basically saying that he told us hed get someone who had the power to change things, and he was right, because it attracted you to the thread. :D

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(i think i really have to stop visiting this thread at 1:30 in the morning... im way too tired to spell check at this time of night...)

i'm almost entirely sure he meant heavy as in "heavy-hiter" or, more appropriately, higher-up. he was basically saying that he told us hed get someone who had the power to change things, and he was right, because it attracted you to the thread. :D

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(i think i really have to stop visiting this thread at 1:30 in the morning... im way too tired to spell check at this time of night...)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You are right, it must be late if you didn't know I was poking fun at swampjedi.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think you'll find that I don't get offended often, even when I should be.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming already in progress...

The rants forum in my eyes, is the debating club of the tipit community. Someone signals a problem and posts it in the form of a blowing-off-steam-thesis.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Others read it and depending on their (dis)agreement they support the thesis or provide an anti-thesis. It could lead to an agreement, a compromise after seeing the others point of view.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Call it the debating club and maybe the one-post count complainers will stop posting here ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

P.S. Yes people, you are part of the debating club ;)

The rants forum in my eyes, is the debating club of the tipit community. Someone signals a problem and posts it in the form of a blowing-off-steam-thesis.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Others read it and depending on their (dis)agreement they support the thesis or provide an anti-thesis. It could lead to an agreement, a compromise after seeing the others point of view.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Call it the debating club and maybe the one-post count complainers will stop posting here ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

P.S. Yes people, you are part of the debating club ;)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

remove the rants forum completely...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*ponders*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

yeh, it could work. youre right about it removing the one-post count complainers using the "well, im ranting" excuse. or how about runescape rants & debates (following the lines of the runescape bugs & suggestions forum)?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

rereading the previous ideas, i dont think any amount of "karma," post count or time limitations will help. idiots will still be idiots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

edit: whats this station business stihl?

The short answer, Station, is it's a throwback to an old rant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The long answer is, once upon a time, Bia Bf wrote a rant called "I have a name, you know". If memory serves, that was the rant where many users related their qualms with being called by either a number or something other than their name.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You were among them, relating frustration at calls of "mod guy", "noob mod" and what have you. You also mentionned at one point being referred to (mistakenly) as "Station", and a little voice in my mind went, that. is. awesome. :thumbsup:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That would be the same rant where Swampjedi eventually said, "You may call me Ishmael", hence that reference on his latest rant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, I have to admit I'm a little put off by your perspective. Obviously idiots will be idiots, but then if that was the be-all and end-all, we wouldn't be here in the first place. :-k. If what you're getting at is that the amount of garbage this line of ideas would stop is small potatoes, now that I can understand. I disagree, but I understand.

holy crap, you remember that? i dont even remember that much. much respect to you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

unfortunately, i dont get what you disagree with.

Okay, fair enough. Let's see if I can clarify.

 

 

 

what i believe, and feel free to correct me if im wrong, is that a few people are posting these complaintive threads, and before they leave the front page, people see them and think its ok to post other such complaintive threads.

 

 

 

In other words, there are two kinds of people writing these garbage rants.

 

 

 

1) Idiots.

 

 

 

2) Normal people who have gone astray. In this case, because they see what the idiots just posted, and figure it's totally acceptable, common practice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, what this line of ideas (the karma/time limit/post count restrictions) are targeting is this second group of individuals, as they are obviously not fool-proof enough to affect the first. Having both first-hand and second-hand experience in group 2, as well as some measure of faith in humanity, I feel that there is a very significant amount of garbage that could potentially be countered through this line of ideas. The feeling I'm getting from you is that you believe that there are simply too few members of group 2 for this line of ideas to be worthwhile. That would be the disagreement as I see it, though I can understand holding such an opinion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't quickly submit to "idiots will be idiots" simply because that kind of thinking negates all effort. The alterations by Ard Choille, which you applaud, the pleas you make for Retefael to read the rants guide...if "idiots will be idiots" is as far as we can go, all of this is for naught.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...Is that clearer?

oh. i didnt mean for it to come out like that. i take back anything which might have seemed to follow that train of thought. i wholeheartedly agree that through the ideas raised in this thread we can finally clean up the rants forum. anything else i said was said by my alter ego.

neo (and those in agreement) -

 

 

 

• You are exactly correct in that many users don't read guides before posting. If we could structure the site to force users to the guides before posting, we'd have far fewer nonsense posts.

 
 
 
Just a suggestion here: Would it be possible to make the board force you to a rants guide when posting? What I mean is that whenever you hit the "New Topic" or "Post reply" buttons, you are currently directed to the post screen. Instead, you would be directed to a rants guide, the bottom of which would have the option to continue. Only then could you actually reply or post.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
True, this will not stop the hard core idiot who posts whatever the rules say, but it should cut down on posts by those who were not aware of the rules. To be effective, this rants guide must be a shortened version. Like it or not, we have become a society with a generally low attention span.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Gidion (and those in agreement) -

 

 

 

• As for the concept of creating an assortment of stickies for common rant targets...there are a few challenges. Many of the topics listed as "what not to post" are there because they become flame/spam fodder.

 

 

 

This is a sad admission and reflects poorly on all who come here. Simply because a topic is unpopular to certain vocal/obnoxious people does not mean it does not warrant debate.

 

 

 

What is worse in my opinion is that the rants guide itself has become a source reference for a lot of flaming. Far too many people seem to believe it is their right/obligation to burn a post that they see as being on a subject that goes against the guide.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A recent post here was poorly worded. On the surface, it was just another rant regarding getting killed in the wilderness. The post was locked as being on a subject not allowed for discussion on this board. I actually wrote to the mod involved and in response, he removed the lock. Why did I do that? Because the rant actually called for discussion on a specific aspect ok pk'ing - that of 'tagging' and that is not against the guide. (In respect of NeoGeos excellent post - please do not reply on the subject of tagging here - I will relectantly make a post regarding this topic where you can attack at will. This rant is too good to go up in flames.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Withing 6 minutes the replies came in. Debate on tagging? No - simply endless attacks on how this was unsuitable for posting. Of 10 replies, 2 were from the poster, 2 were by mods, and the other 6 were flames. To my mind, that is simply not good enough.

 

 

 

For the sake of all who read this rant board please consider this:

 

 

 

You are not a moderator. It is not your right or priveledge to trumpet your beliefs on whether a post is valid or not. Please leave this to the actual mods. They do a good job.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Creating rant-based stickies will most likely require a great deal of moderator attention. That's not to say that they are completely out of the question, but careful consideration has to be taken before we post up a melting-pot sticky.

 

 

 

As you mention, this could cause a lot of moderator attention being wasted. Stihls comments were very valid though -

 

 

 

Case in point, I seem to recall you recently saying something to the effect of, "the noobtopic has been noobeaten to noobdeath", and for the seasoned members of tip.it, that was certainly true. However, for the inevitable stream of newcomers, this was, and is, simply not the case.

 

 

 

Perhaps as an alternative you could set up locked stickys that deal with these issues? In them, the mods place various rants that have been good on the subject as a guide for others. The rant guide could refer to them saying that if your post is already covered in here, don't post. As Stihl points out; newcomers,(and I include myself in this group), simply don't know a subject is covered to death. A truly different perspective on some topics could be worthwhile, though how anyone could come up with a different and wothwhile variation on being called a noob is beyond me :lol:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Keep discussing people, you have my attention. If we can create a better Rant Forum without creating a moderating nightmare, I'm all for it.

 

 

 

Many thanks for the consideration :thumbsup:

Just a suggestion here: Would it be possible to make the board force you to a rants guide when posting? What I mean is that whenever you hit the "New Topic" or "Post reply" buttons, you are currently directed to the post screen. Instead, you would be directed to a rants guide, the bottom of which would have the option to continue. Only then could you actually reply or post.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

True, this will not stop the hard core idiot who posts whatever the rules say, but it should cut down on posts by those who were not aware of the rules. To be effective, this rants guide must be a shortened version. Like it or not, we have become a society with a generally low attention span.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

this is actually a very sensible idea. perhaps just a list of what not to post before allowing the creation of a new thread?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gidion (and those in agreement) -

 

 

 

As for the concept of creating an assortment of stickies for common rant targets...there are a few challenges. Many of the topics listed as "what not to post" are there because they become flame/spam fodder.

 

 

 

This is a sad admission and reflects poorly on all who come here. Simply because a topic is unpopular to certain vocal/obnoxious people does not mean it does not warrant debate.

 

 

 

What is worse in my opinion is that the rants guide itself has become a source reference for a lot of flaming. Far too many people seem to believe it is their right/obligation to burn a post that they see as being on a subject that goes against the guide.

 

 

 

the thing is, posts like that have been around so many times that there is nothing new that can come from them. take a f2p vs p2p thread. if people were allowed to post threads like that, you dont need me to tell you that a flame war is all but guaranteed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

there is also the consideration that by placing said topics on the rants guide no write list, it makes the jobs of the moderators significantly easier. there are enough dodgy rants out there as it is, and we dont need to unban these topics and increase the workload of the mods even more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i believe that the only time that all topics can be posted is when the rants forum becomes a place where mature debates can prosper. as it is now, there is no way that those topics would go flame free.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Withing 6 minutes the replies came in. Debate on tagging? No - simply endless attacks on how this was unsuitable for posting. Of 10 replies, 2 were from the poster, 2 were by mods, and the other 6 were flames. To my mind, that is simply not good enough.

 

 

 

For the sake of all who read this rant board please consider this:

 

 

 

You are not a moderator. It is not your right or priveledge to trumpet your beliefs on whether a post is valid or not. Please leave this to the actual mods. They do a good job.

 

 

 

im pretty sure ive been guilty of this at one point or another. however, after a while people do get annoyed at the lack of thought people put into what they call a "rant" and they really do need to understand that it isnt acceptable to waste forum space like that. either that, or if they reported the post and let the mods deal with it, things would run much more smoothly (so long as the post does not come with a flurry of bumps). but honestly, what reply other than "this isnt a rant" can you give to "p0mg m0r3 phr33 st00fs $ f2p!!!1"?

 

Just a suggestion here: Would it be possible to make the board force you to a rants guide when posting? What I mean is that whenever you hit the "New Topic" or "Post reply" buttons, you are currently directed to the post screen. Instead, you would be directed to a rants guide, the bottom of which would have the option to continue. Only then could you actually reply or post.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

True, this will not stop the hard core idiot who posts whatever the rules say, but it should cut down on posts by those who were not aware of the rules. To be effective, this rants guide must be a shortened version. Like it or not, we have become a society with a generally low attention span.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

this is actually a very sensible idea. perhaps just a list of what not to post before allowing the creation of a new thread?

 

 

 

It's my understanding that this sort of dynamic function is outside the scope of the forum package.

 

Told ya I'd bring the heavies. :D

 

 

 

Heavies???

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Are you calling me HEAVY????

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think he meant me. I'm heavy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Perhaps as an alternative you could set up locked stickys that deal with these issues? In them, the mods place various rants that have been good on the subject as a guide for others. The rant guide could refer to them saying that if your post is already covered in here, don't post. As Stihl points out; newcomers,(and I include myself in this group), simply don't know a subject is covered to death.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our biggest challenge is to catch the attention of casual users who stroll in and post right away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mullein wrote a guide a while back that had some points I wanted to preserve. I often included a condensed excerpt in a reply to a post that I was locking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ard has worked very long and hard to make a guide that is easy to read very quickly-- but we can elaborate a little more, perhaps in another existing sticky.

Personally, if there was some nasty popup of rant rules when posting, I'd probably never post here again. That's too annoying.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You are not a moderator. It is not your right or priveledge to trumpet your beliefs on whether a post is valid or not. Please leave this to the actual mods. They do a good job.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You don't actually mean this, Jak. It's our job to report threads that aren't kosher. So not only is it our right to "trumpet", it's our responsibility.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, the mods do a great job. You're not going to tell me that they comb every post for evilness, though. They're not superhuman. They rely on our reports, our judgment, on what needs fixing.

 

 

 

Our biggest challenge is to catch the attention of casual users who stroll in and post right away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Perhaps, but this may not be where the actual problem lies. Just did a quick check of the first page. There are 13 locked posts there,(perhaps Neo's post is working already - down from 23 :lol: )

 

 

 

Of those locked, only three are from what could be termed casual users. Only two others have been here less than 3 months, five have been here over 6 months and 3 have been members for a year or more. Over half are people who have 50+ posts to their,(dubious) credit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These can hardly be classed as 'casual' users.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stallion4589 wrote

 

Trojan_Zebra wrote:

 

 

 

Withing 6 minutes the replies came in. Debate on tagging? No - simply endless attacks on how this was unsuitable for posting. Of 10 replies, 2 were from the poster, 2 were by mods, and the other 6 were flames. To my mind, that is simply not good enough.

 

 

 

For the sake of all who read this rant board please consider this:

 

 

 

You are not a moderator. It is not your right or priveledge to trumpet your beliefs on whether a post is valid or not. Please leave this to the actual mods. They do a good job.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

im pretty sure ive been guilty of this at one point or another. however, after a while people do get annoyed at the lack of thought people put into what they call a "rant" and they really do need to understand that it isnt acceptable to waste forum space like that. either that, or if they reported the post and let the mods deal with it, things would run much more smoothly (so long as the post does not come with a flurry of bumps). but honestly, what reply other than "this isnt a rant" can you give to "p0mg m0r3 phr33 st00fs $ f2p!!!1"?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wasn't singling anyone out on this. There are too many to list. Whilst I understand that for those who read the rants regularly, poor or innapropriate posts can be tiresome, I do not believe that putting such posts to the torch is something that they have a right to do or is in any way constructive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

but honestly, what reply other than "this isnt a rant" can you give to "p0mg m0r3 phr33 st00fs $ f2p!!!1"?

 

 

 

Quite simply - none. Don't post anything. As I said, the mods are better equipped to deal with this, and they do a pretty good job. By posting a flame all you have acomplished is to keep that thread active on the front page for a little bit longer, contributed to the non constructive clutter and wasted a little more of the forum space you mentioned.

 

 

 

To my way of thinking, flaming a post because it does not seem to fit in the guidelines is a form of vigilanteism and should stop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As it so happens, yours was one of the posts in the example I mentioned. Ironically, you provided a link to this post in it. You stated in you reply: "write a rant worthy of being posted here." Whilst I have read many of your contributions on this board; and agreed with several of them, I do not think you,(or anyone else not a mod) have a right to determine what constitutes a post worthy of submission to this board.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Granted, the post was not not the best in terms of its wording or style, but I thought it had the potential for some good debate. Sadly, it never got the chance.

 

 

 

You are not a moderator. It is not your right or priveledge to trumpet your beliefs on whether a post is valid or not. Please leave this to the actual mods. They do a good job.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You don't actually mean this, Jak. It's our job to report threads that aren't kosher. So not only is it our right to "trumpet", it's our responsibility.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, the mods do a great job. You're not going to tell me that they comb every post for evilness, though. They're not superhuman. They rely on our reports, our judgment, on what needs fixing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Actually Swampjedi, that was from my post. And I stand by it, though you seem to have misinterpreted the intent. I was referring to the practise of people flaming posts over what they perceive to be infringements of the guidelines. Certainly, you have a right - and even perhaps - a responsibility to report threads you feel should not be there. Those reports would be via email, and I support that fully.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scroll one message down for more on this - it is 1am and I simply need sleep more than a rewrite. Hope it clears up any misconceptions.

 

 

 

Cheers

A recent post here was poorly worded. On the surface, it was just another rant regarding getting killed in the wilderness. The post was locked as being on a subject not allowed for discussion on this board. I actually wrote to the mod involved and in response, he removed the lock. Why did I do that? Because the rant actually called for discussion on a specific aspect ok pk'ing - that of 'tagging' and that is not against the guide. (In respect of NeoGeos excellent post - please do not reply on the subject of tagging here - I will relectantly make a post regarding this topic where you can attack at will. This rant is too good to go up in flames.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Withing 6 minutes the replies came in. Debate on tagging? No - simply endless attacks on how this was unsuitable for posting. Of 10 replies, 2 were from the poster, 2 were by mods, and the other 6 were flames. To my mind, that is simply not good enough.

 

 

 

I know the post you are talking about. I personally disagreed with the first lock. We have done some good rants about other aspects of pking before, and tagging is one I don't remember discussing too deeply.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I thought after it was unlocked, people would see that the mods thought it was a good enough rant, and the mindless flaming would come to an end. Sadly, it just got worse until it had to be relocked.

My apologies. I can't read.

 

 

 

 

Our biggest challenge is to catch the attention of casual users who stroll in and post right away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Perhaps, but this may not be where the actual problem lies. Just did a quick check of the first page. There are 13 locked posts there,(perhaps Neo's post is working already - down from 23 :lol: )

 

 

 

Of those locked, only three are from what could be termed casual users. Only two others have been here less than 3 months, five have been here over 6 months and 3 have been members for a year or more. Over half are people who have 50+ posts to their,(dubious) credit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These can hardly be classed as 'casual' users.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then it's mere laziness, unfortunately. Either way, the goal is to send the message that says something like, "look at this Rant Guide right here! You know you want to, and it'll help you."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The only thing I can think of is to quickly steer such posts to more thoughtful discussion, if possible. If it could be a great topic, then posters might ask for or suggest more clarification on the problem, and potential solutions.

Station - Understood. I'll chalk it up to misinterpretation on my part.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of those locked, only three are from what could be termed casual users. Only two others have been here less than 3 months, five have been here over 6 months and 3 have been members for a year or more. Over half are people who have 50+ posts to their,(dubious) credit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

:-k

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That may be so, but upon examining the profiles of these individuals, I submit this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For six of those thirteen, the locked rant was their first contribution to the rants forum. Five of the remaining seven had literally made two or less posts on the rants forum previous to authoring their own rant, and for at least one (though I think two...I wasn't watching close enough #-o), that was during the same day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even the two (!?) remaining ranters aren't necessarily exempt. It's possible to read the rant guide and write a stellar rant on your first day, with a post count of 1, and it's possible to frequent the rants board for weeks before ever reading the rant guide. This is an interesting observation, and I'd be a fool to deny that it holds some measure of weight, but it's not wholly reliable; Neogeo0823 himself is a good example of this.

Bravo =D>

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I remember when there was about 4 rants all one page one, all about the new layout of runescape - There was no logic behind it, just a bunch of kids who probably wrote it while playing the game still

Even the two (!?) remaining ranters aren't necessarily exempt. It's possible to read the rant guide and write a stellar rant on your first day, with a post count of 1, and it's possible to frequent the rants board for weeks before ever reading the rant guide. This is an interesting observation, and I'd be a fool to deny that it holds some measure of weight, but it's not wholly reliable; Neogeo0823 himself is a good example of this.

may i ask how id be a good example of this? if i remember correctly, it may be that my first rant(you all know the one) was also my first official post on the forums, as far as i can remember. i cant confirm that, though, as when i searched for all my old posts, it only gave me my most recent 7 results... :-k

Dammit Neo! :x You waited until I dissapeared to post this :P

 

 

 

First let me start off by saying that it put a BIG smile on my face to see something be done about the rules of the rants board sticky :mrgreen: (personally I preferred the old one, as I couldn't count how many times I'd simply quoted "What is a rant? A rant is an argument, albeit a somewhat more emotionnal argument, but an argument nonetheless." And then the new guide came out, and countless spammers got to quote "The rants board is a place to vent blah blah blah"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On people flaming in rants that don't follow the guidelines:

 

 

 

It's not nearly as bad as it seems. If someone posts a horrid rant, and no one says anything (as it's spam) and a mod comes along and locks it, do you know what the person is going to think?

 

 

 

*Uses psychic powers to read would-be-ranter's mind*

 

 

 

"Omg what the hell did that mod lock it for?"

 

 

 

It's a lot easier to think that a mod is at fault when there's no one else telling you that you're wrong. However, if you get a barrage of insults from local pyromaniacs prior to the locking you'll either:

 

 

 

Learn not to post something that stupid ever again

 

 

 

or (if posting intelligently is beyond you)

 

 

 

Leave, and never come back

 

 

 

While I in no way encourage flaming, and believe that the people who flame are monstrously annoying, they do still serve a purpose.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway, I'd like to point out that most people learn by making mistakes. It's nice to change the rants sticky, but there is not, nor will there ever be, a way to ensure that people actually read it.

 

 

 

[confession]By the time I actually got around to reading through the whole rants sticky, I'd already had over 100 posts (at the time only one or 2 were in other boards) and I'd already become fairly well known. [/confession]

 

 

 

After reading the sticky, the way I posted did not change. Nor will the way most people post after reading it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Plus let's not forget the fact that there have been some very well written rants that have been against the board's rules (especially with things like pking) that have brought up very active discussions, as well as dozens, if not hundreds, of rants that followed the rules and still sucked. You simply can't make a guideline that will ensure only good rants being posted (assuming the guideline is followed), or one that only filters out bad ones. It's nice to have a guideline, but it's just that; a guideline. You can't stop spammers from spamming, and you can't block anything without potentially blocking good rants in the process.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Personally I think a good way to help the situation along would be to, rather then simply loking spam filled threads, to either move them (is there a way to filter locked threads to the bottom of the list, rather then only the oldest?) or delete them. The problem isn't so much the number of spam threads, but the fact that they don't get dealt with. Sure they get locked, but they still show up on the front page. The problem thread hasn't been dealt with so much as it's been highlighted. The mods here seem to be doing their job, the problem threads being adressed, but I think it would be much easier to simply use a method that actually deals with the problem as it arises, rather then attempt the impossible by stopping it at it's source (which here is human laziness and stupidity).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You're in charge of a villiage, near the ocean, being terrorized by a volcano. A warning alarm goes off when the volcano erupts. The warning doesn't stop the lava (spam) so much as it makes sure everyone knows about it.

 

 

 

People here, thus far, seem to be under the impression that the problem can be fixed by simply plugging the volcano (dealing with the rant guide). The thing is, you can plug the volcano as much as you like, but some of the lava (stupid people with stupid rants) will eventually get through.

 

 

 

A better solution would be to dig a trench, moving the lava in to the ocean. Move the lava to where it's not hurting anyone, and it's no longer a problem. It will annoy some, between the eruption and the lava hitting the water (the time it takes to lock spam threads), but a decent solution that works is much better then a perfect one that doesn't (I should sooo have that printed on a coffee mug)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's all for now. (is it my immagination or have most of my replies to rants become long ramblings about nothing? Could someone please tell me that what I just posted made sense?)