How should the mods handle post-release character/romance discussions?

Oh gods, I remember that thread. The OP was claiming that it was "disrespectful" to Andraste because her religious icon was topless. Even though you, me and others pointed out that several RL religions have nudity and/or toplessness in their art. What's funny is that the staff is about mid-tier too. You were going by Badonkadonk at the time, if memory serves.

Thanks for the compliments. You guys have been pretty cool to hang out with most of the time.

The mods only really care about making sure that the conversations stay civil and that posters are enjoying themselves. We don't believe in locking a thread as the first course of action most of the time, and we like some of the conversations. We won't be changing our mod style any time soon.

One of the things that does separate us from the old BSN is being proactive. If we see a thread that could be a controversial topic, we make it a point to keep an eye on it. We also never do any moderation in a vacuum. We read the reports and tend to talk about it as a group.

I like to think that people also are on a better behavior here because we feel that we owe that to the admin and the mods, because, you know, they are doing it in their free time to provide a nice place for us to hang out and aren't paid by some company for it. In turn, we can trust that they are doing a great job and won't instantly bust our asses or entire threads just because someone brought up an uncomfortable topic or let their passion get the better of them.

Natashina mentioned the Rule of the Dude somewhere, and that works pretty darn fine for me.

Lock downs, if they are cool-down locks that are clearly identified, with a duration stated, well, I like those. I've seen them being effective, as well as moving the thread away from the public eyes to sanitize it.

This is a more appropriate response:

I really like how this site is managed. Fingers crossed game won't promote major rifts (a pipe dream prob), and many thanks in advance for keeping it running well.

Just throwing this out there...

Some people visit particular character threads to enjoy a particular character.
others more to be critical of a character.

Neither of those things are specifically against the rules.

Having watched the Cora thread get a bit grumpy over recent pages,
without particularly breaking any rules, as I've said:

I wonder if there is another way we could have folks enjoy what they want, without annoying each other?
There may not be, but thought I had best ask the question...

To be honest with you I don't think there will ever be a way to truly weed out everything that devolves threads. The best thing to do is to observe threads, notice what topics are circulating and causing heated discussions that nobody benefits from and warn people not to bring it up in that particular thread anymore. It may sound a little forceful, but people need to know they can't just create an account and ruin discussions with senseless posts.
 
And I said this in another thread but I think it's true for most threads, what makes a good thread is this imo: It's mostly I think when everyone tries to respect each other's opinions, tries to avoid senseless subjects/debates that are nonconstructive, and present their opinions in a way that isn't overly rude or disrespectful towards people.

If someone is clearly posting to just get a reaction out of people over something that is purely subjective, derail threads, and start senseless heated debates then that should be where the line should be drawn. I'm not sure how many adults are in this forum, but some of the arguments in some threads can get out of control to the point they can regarded as childish. Warning these types of posters or restricting them from that thread is the solution to moderating them imo.

Whether a post negative or positively criticizes something is not the issue, it's how the post is being presented and what exactly is being presented.

Take politics for example, there are obviously people who can have constructive non-heated discussions on a political matter despite having differing opinions, but you are going to also have people that'll say certain things which will touch a nerve in people and start making the discussion heated and even personal attacks may ensue. Knowing this, politics is usually seen as a subject that you don't bring up in certain cases or a subject that you think about before discussing it. 

Restricting certain topics that you notice are causing tension and devolving the thread is what I think, the best solution for keeping a discussion civil on a forum.
But going back to these points, It's not criticism that's mucking up the Cora thread. It's how the criticism is being presented and the subject of criticism (woman is mannish) being a not so productive topic that causes heated debates.

 I remember this... Only complaint I had was it was totally out of character, because it was Melcom Hawke's staff. Other than that, yeah, the screaming sexist thing was soo eyerolling.

All threads evolve.
I remember first pages of Peebee's thread were about she was ugly, her design is awful, she is Shrek etc.
However, the more information was released about her, the more things about Peebee were discussed.

The way I see it, the problem with Cora's Thread is, rather than evolve, the discussion is circular:

1) During a couple of pages/posts , Cora's hair and facial features (including jawbones and else) are highly discussed as "they are wrong". Other people defend Cora's design.
2) A couple of pages/posts about her character (if she is or she is not related to someone, her powers, possibly her role in the game, her romance, fanart).
3) Then someone says something about the hair and all again goes to point 1)

There is no problem per se. It's good all of us we have different opinions about design and character features. The debate is good and we have to feel free to talk about it as we wish.
But.
If there is no evolution in what we speak about the character, it becomes very annoying to read.

IMO, re-open "the Women are ugly" thread could be a way to Cora's hair and facial features haters could vent.
And I freaking hate that thread to death, but now it could be useful.
We could call it "the people are ugly" so that way it would be less openly misogynist and gender-targeted

Wait... I got it! Hey, EUROGAMER NEWS, we got some people you can make a new article about give poor Andromedan a breather.

Ook, I'm done... I'll go back to my thread where people love me

I think there is a need to follow dalinne 's advice and re-open the 'ugly thread'.

• I've seen more separate 'ugly discussions' pop up here and on the general forum, and frankly, we only have so much space on the page.
• It's a legitimate view, so long as the conversation doesn't turn 'ugly' (moderation still applies!)
• It's a useful place to refer posters who want to have the 'ugly' debate, rather than inside specific character threads.

(moving some threads)

bsn.boards.net/thread/2473