Discussion On "Opinion Threads"

[Dragonfly]

I'm aware I'm probably going to get slapped around for this, especially with the format of the image below, but...

 

 

It seems Doomworld in recent years has become a place to recycle the same few, dried up, dead, boring, <insert bad adjectives> doom-related opinion discussions, most of which usually end up with the thread getting locked, people getting timed out / banned, and everyone hating the world just that little bit more than they already did. Is there a way we can improve the situation?

 

From our (the user's) perspectives, it's sometimes difficult to deal with it. What if we missed that discussion when it came around last time? Or perhaps someone comes in with an opinion that you yourself find so foul that you can't help but speak up about it? Or equally, notice someone spreading misinformation or stating their opinion as fact and feel the need to correct them? Or how about all those replies that look like this showing how many times the topic has historically taken place? I know I'm very guilty of some of these things and many others are too. What can we do to combat this situation? Sometimes staying silent is the best option, yes, but sometimes that is difficult.

 

From the administration's perspectives, perhaps something could be done to help lessen the prevalence of this thread type? Something to promote searching before posting when on the Create New Thread page?

 

Just throwing this thread out there, despite the irony of it essentially being an opinion thread of it's own, to see if I'm alone in feeling this way (I'm not, based on discord discussion, but that's a small group of voices vs doomworld itself), or to see if people have some fantastic ideas on how to lessen this issue or perhaps teach me how to stop giving a shit?

 

Below was sent to me on discord not too long ago, for example.

 

Edited March 16, 2021 by Dragonfly

[ReaperAA]

Ah dang it. I was just thinking about making a thread named "What is your opinion on the opinion threads?"

[Loud Silence]

Just now, ReaperAA said:

Ah dang it. I was just thinking about making a thread named "What is your opinion on the opinion threads?"

I wonder how many more people are thinking about this. Get ready for the thread storm. :D

[KeaganDunn]

I have been wondering what's been going on with DW. It's embarrassing and upsetting - some recent newcomers have already had a tough time, being harassed for presenting a topic that was brought up before; some said they won't make another post ever again. Generally, there's been some heat around here and I am not liking it.

[NuMetalManiak]

The "Your opinion of" threads are a new evolution of the "What if Doom was..." threads we used to have several years ago on these forums. At least those offered SOME form of discussion in that they allowed for more critical thinking. The opinion on (insert certain doom thing here) threads just make you want to ask if the new users have searched their answer or not.

[Horus]

- There could be some kind of 'rules & guidelines' page presented on new user registration that covers this point

- Major Arlene's 'new doomer's etiquette guide' could be generalised to cover this point too

- Moderation team could lock duplicate threads (might be more effort than it's worth unless DW gets more moderators)

 

Ultimately, I think some good ideas can come to reduce the number of these threads, but I do think 'giving less of a shit' is part of the solution too, because they will still come regardless.

[Dragonfly]

1 minute ago, Horus said:

Ultimately, I think some good ideas can come to reduce the number of these threads, but I do think 'giving less of a shit' is part of the solution too, because they will still come regardless.

 

Absolutely. I do agree entirely, a bit of push and pull both sides. It would be good to encourage new users in a somewhat official way not to make threads that we've seen time and time again; and it'd be good for us regulars to learn to care less. From my own perspective though, it's becoming harder and harder to ignore said threads because of the rapidly increasing quantity of them.

[1Destro3456]

I don't know what to say personally about how to make them appear less, but I can say what I feel about them, and that is, they're weird, like the one about Wraith Corp Megawads is ok to ask it because they are barely talked about and I didn't even know about them, but sometimes they are done to ask something that seems to be about like "Do you consider freelook a cheat?" or "Do you think that I should play with walking over/below monsters is a cheat?" look as though they're trying to know how to be like everybody else, to feel accepted by the community, what about the Brutal Doom one in the photo, in less than 24 hours it had 5 pages of replies, right now as I'm writing this someone posted about "Why is everybody so negative about park invaders" (his own map). I think a lot of new players see some purists/elitist (not saying all purist are elitist) and are  trying to see if that's the community as a whole.

[Not Jabba]

6 minutes ago, Horus said:

- Major Arlene's 'new doomer's etiquette guide' could be generalised to cover this point too

 

She's working on a second one. Doing anything on an administrative/web development level is a bit more complicated, but I have been granted permission to expand the forum moderation team, which will happen in the near future.

 

I know people are annoyed with the opinion threads, but the main problem currently is that each and every one of them quickly devolves into pointless argument, which is both a natural product of those types of threads and a result of the fact that everyone, including long-time members, chooses to engage rather than let it go. This thread right here is basically a call to have an argument about the nature of arguments, which isn't helping anything.