Much discussion has been made amongst the staff lately on the topic of the Gamers' Hangout. Frankly, there is far too much childish bickering and flaming and not enough intelligent discussion. It seems as though regular warnings do not help, and therefore we have decided to implement a new zero-tolerance policy.
The fact of the matter is that we want Neowin to be a friendly, fun place for all of you to discuss what you'd like and speak your mind. However, the anonymity you are presented with while being on the internet does not excuse you of being polite and using basic etiquette when participating in these discussions, at least not on Neowin.
At the end of last year, the staff used a swift and effective method of restricting various users who were seen to be causing the most problems. It was very effective for quite a while, and still has some lasting effect, but there has yet to be an end in sight to these issues. This time around, we are giving you fair warning. We are hoping that being open with any forthcoming moderation will help to prevent more issues. We are also going to be more strict on what is "warnable" behavior.
So, from now on, please follow these guidelines:
- Do not flame any member directly or indirectly, no matter how right or wrong you believe that member to be.
- If somebody does flame you, report it. Do not reply to it in any way. Feeding the flames does not help, and can result in disciplinary actions taken toward you as well as the member that flamed you.
- Trolling will be moderated just as heavily as flaming. Trolling on a certain company or console will not be tolerated at all. Jumping in a thread just to say, "Microsoft sucks!" or, "Sony sucks!" etc., will result in disciplinary actions taken against you. Trolling simply creates a more hostile atmosphere and will almost always result in flaming and arguments.
- Do not respond to trolling. You should simply report any post you believe to be trolling. Responding to any trolling posts also can result in disciplinary actions taken toward you as well as the member who was trolling to begin with.
- Do not call out another member by name in a negative fashion. Even if you just want to say, "I told you so" to somebody specifically, do not do it. This sort of behavior can and will cause a snowball effect of flaming and simply cannot be tolerated.
- Do not respond to somebody that has called you out by name. Report the post and be done with it. Responding to such a post can result in disciplinary action against you as well as the member you reported.
- If a thread has simply degraded into a full-blown argument rather than a debate (read: unsubstantiated attacks against other members rather than a calm discussion between members with different viewpoints), do not participate. Even if you want to tell those participating in the argument to stop, do not do it. Responding in any way to argumentative posts will only make it worse, and, once again, may result in disciplinary actions taken toward you as well. Leave the argument alone and simply report it.
- If you're trying to debate with somebody that seems to have an opinion based on skewed or even completely incorrect information, just let it go. You don't always need to be found correct, and you won't always be agreed with by everybody. Frankly, that will never happen, especially in such a large community like we have here at Neowin. People have different viewpoints on all matters, no matter what the facts really are.
If you are caught infringing upon these guidelines, disciplinary actions will be taken, resulting in a warning and, in many cases, a restriction from Gamers' Hangout for a certain period as determined by the staff at that time. Repeat offenders will eventually be restricted from Gamers' Hangout indefinitely.
I, as well as the rest of the staff, will be monitoring and moderating Gamers' Hangout as much as possible, keeping this new policy in mind. Do not misunderstand us -- we do not want to be too strict, but we cannot have the behavior we have been seeing if we want to have an open, friendly, and fun community.
I've said it before: we're gamers, so we know how to have fun. Try to keep that fun-loving attitude when posting on Neowin.
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