Old forum members should be nice to new forum members.

Okay, so when a user registers, they are taken straight to the forum. There's no nag screen to tell the user forum rules, or to remind them that the search feature exists.

There is the forum upgrade notice, that Lennard put up;

But that's five months old, and has no relevance to new forum users.


I think this encourages a post-first-think-later mentality.

How hard would it be to throw up a polite message somewhere in between registering and clicking the New Thread button?

Something that contains all the information in this video, but none of the condescension.

As someone who recently joined, i'm very happy to see this strong top down reminder to be nice. The community is great, but there is a way too strong tendency to snap and nag at new people especially about searching. There also seems to be an increasing tendency for naval gazing about possible game mechanics to deride into snapping about how we should not discuss anything because everything is up in the air, or just plain flame wars over which imaginary game mechanic is better than another. People seem to act like if we navel gaze about this or that far fetched thing the Devs will suddenly careen off course in development. They've got this, forums are for discussion and that is what everyone is doing - if you don't like an idea there isn't any need to get all defensive about it.

I think these forums would be a lot more welcoming and fun if everyone just chilled a bit - especially as we near release and there are huge influxes of new people. The vibe here isn't all warm and fuzzy and i'm glad to see the admins reminding us to soften it up a bit.

Well... thetropysystem isn't actually an admin.

He's an old hand. Like Brian.

That's it. Just a poster. Just a forum user. He doesn't have moderation powers or anything. that's not what the Vanguard is.

Just an FYI

I agree with your post. Especially the flame wars over imaginary game mechanics.

I think the vibe here is pretty warm and fuzzy compared to other forums.

I meant the Devs, not the OP. They've just today made a point in this and several other threads to make it clear what the policy going forward should be. I figured 'vanguard' was just a forum title not mod. Things are OK but it's a bit annoying to read post after post of 'go search' or 'the game isn't done yet'. The vibe could be better and I think that's where they are trying to push us.

Oh good. I have seen people calling me a dev. Just thought I should clarify that as a just in case to avoid confusion.

This is true.

I think one of the main problems with telling people to use the search is that quite frankly the search is pretty crappy. Maybe it is partly a matter of learning to use the search, but I have found that forum searchbars in general are usually pretty primitive and it can be hard to find a post on the subject you are looking for.

I made a thread on here once and was told (not aggressively) that I should have searched, when I had in fact searched and been unable to find the relevant thread.

Woo! I love all of you!


Does that count?

Yeah, forum search tools are never that great.

I'd recommend a Google search like this, but it can't see into the backers fora.

I have seen a few intimidating posts towards new members on these forums from members with over 1000 posts...It is like they think they have authority.

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Be nice to the noobs. By the way, I'm actually a PA noob myself. I haven't played matches of any kind yet, but will do when I get the time.

Typically I never post, the only time that I actually do post is when I feel that I might actually have something to contribute to the conversation (a logical process that I run all my thoughts through). I state this to emphasize that if I didn't have this mentality, I would have made about 12-14 of the ridiculous threads myself, simply because I typically ignore the top bar of ANY website that I'm on (where this search is). I am sure this is true for people other than myself and some of these "redundant" threads have actually helped me learn about some of the happenings on the forums because of the people who give links to other threads.

So that is one reason that I appreciate new people posting similar threads, because it helps some others know what is actually going on. Not only that but sometimes it could bring new light to the forums that older posts might not completely cover. It also does NOT clutter up the forums, it actually allows people to look at the threads that might interest them (instead of scrolling through the 20+ pages in a similar thread just to be caught up to the latest pointless argument/discussion between two people). Also, if it is just a repeat post then just go back to the forum and ignore it, because posting crap in that thread only causes the thread to stay on the first page longer (which sounds like the complete opposite of what you wanted in the first place...ironic isn't it).

Newbie here, and I disagree.
I'm sorry, but this is just wrong. You know where roads made from good intentions sometimes lead?

Thing is, it's within the bad side of "human nature" to use and abuse every opportunity. The whole tradition of going to old forums and asking old question or creating clones of the old topics is the result of that bad nature. And as long as those opportunities aren't being cut down, this "meet the junk yard" invasions will continue across the net. MAYBE, just maybe, the forum members themselves should play the "good cop" part in this, but then the moderators have to privately show people that this behaviour is not to be tolerated with methods harsher than simply telling them do "go run a search".

It may be hard to notice, and the effects aren't quite as strong as "we the people" would like, but an organized forum where such behaviour is being weeded out regularly looks differently, it's easier to navigate and search, which in turn reduces the number of people that decide to bypass the "searching before posting", and start posting junk. It works in the opposite direction too.

I'm not saying that "being an ***" to the newbies that are making mistakes is a good thing, but being unconditionally forgiving about it is a bad thing. If someone is "littering", pretending that they did nothing wrong is wrong, and it is wrong to do their work for them too, they shouldn't get away with the impression that it's ok to ask someone else to do their search for them and give them a link.

To sum it up, newbies with mistakes should get polite, but harsh treatment.

Oh, and small communities have a big leeway there, because their forums see less "external activity" or in other words get less "newbies", and get less "polluted". Big communities that are as lenient as small ones are digging their own "junk yard burial site".

The only thing I say to that is 'how are you going to stop them?' New people are going to post first, you can't prevent that at all, and when the question they have is answered, usually they have been perusing the forums and wont ask as many dumb questions. You seem to be correct about that mindset, however it wont work.

Now I'm not saying that they shouldn't be reprimanded by the community if they continue to post redundant threads. But by what you're saying, it sounds like you would be willing to ban somebody for asking a simple question, that is well known to the rest of the community, just because he didn't know the answer himself.

What?

Ignorance isn't against the forum rules.

In response to the two posts above StormingKiwi,

maybe this problem is just the unholy trifecta of; 1) impatient newbies, 2) bitter forum veterans, and 3) ineffective forum layout. ​

Fixed!

I can see no reason why newbies should be forced to search through old threads before participating in discussions about recent versions of the game.

Or why the fifth of November should ever be forgot.

Gradually, slowly, and painfully but only painfully for those who are trying and simply because it's not fast enough. Well, that's a global picture anyway.

Locally? Swiftly and precisely.

A simple countermeasure of "cool down" time could really help with that issue. Simply don't let the use post AT ALL until some time has passed since their registration. That'd immediately separate lazy from impatient. "Simply impatient" users would use that time to look around, and while doing that they'd get around a lot of their otherwise-soon-to-be-made mistakes. Only lazy and disrespectful users would decide that "I'm no reader , I'm a writer, I'll simply post later", and let's be honest, that kind of behaviour is asking to be punished.

Ban? nope. But definitely punish at first sight. Harsh as that may sound, there are reasons for that. You see, among the forum's first time visitors rare few are first time visitors to a forum as a concept, most of them are already continuing a bad habit that they have already displayed elsewhere, and will keep displaying on other forums afterwards. It's a world-wide behaviour, and weeding out such behaviour is a world-wide endeavour. Besides if that really is user's first time, all the more reasons not to let it slide. First impressions are important, and they shouldn't be getting impressions that internet is a total junk yard (regardless of how close to reality that impression is). The only manageable way of restoring and maintaining order is making no blind exceptions in the requirement to maintain it regardless of how much disorder there already is.

That video... Just lol. I wouldn't have minded being presented that on forum registration, although I see it offending some people I guess.

In response to the OP. I believe it is wrong for a new user to come to any forum with a list of questions and put forth no effort in doing a search themselves to shorten their list. Nearly any question they have would most likely be answered by searching google. When going to ask a question on the internet the best question to ask yourself is, "has this already been asked?". The answer is pretty much always a resounding YES. I do not feel it is wrong in anyway to be blatantly rude to these people for their laziness.

I also believe users that have been part of a forum for a long time should refrain from a short answer of, "use the search tool". Not because it doesn't directly answer the question, not because it could be considered rude, but because forum search tools are universally terrible and rarely yield results. For me suggesting someone use the forum search function is the same as suggesting to waste their time.

No matter what anyone does those who just want to ask their questions and not do a search themselves will always do that, telling them to use any form of search tool is a waste of your time. The best options are either quickly answer the question or don't respond. If mods feel that the constant answers of, "use the search function" are a detriment to the community then they need to compile an official FAQ and give constant warnings to those who answer with the previous. There really isn't much more you can do.