A Friendly Reminder From The Mods Regarding Newcomers and Threads in OT

crachel · May 31, 2013

Hello Everybody,

We would like to remind everyone in this forum that even though this is the off topic section and we like to have fun and joke around, that the forum rules still apply here. As of late there has been a lot of "trolling" of new members, or newcomers to OT, and especially new threads posted here in the off topic section. This is something that needs to stop. Here at XDA we are an open forum and any member is more than welcome to post where they choose to (assuming of course that they aren't spamming up a dev thread with questions etc etc). As with any forum if you see a thread that needs to be closed use the report button. Also, as with any other forum unless you have something to contribute to the topic of the thread in a friendly way please do not post in that thread. As cliche as this sounds it remains true. "If you have nothing nice to say it is wise to say nothing at all."

What may seem as a harmless joke to you may come off as rude or offensive to a member that doesn't know you or understand the fact that you mean what you say as joke and nothing more. If you want to "troll" stick to joking around with your friends that way no one mis-interprets your posts as an attack on them personally. Members of XDA deserve to have peace of mind when posting in OT and at the moment they do not have that luxury. Violators of this rule will be considered spamming and your posts will be deleted without any prior notice. Repeat offenders will be dealt with according to XDA rules.

To give you some recent examples of why were are saying this please look at the threads linked below

[Q] Chair Type
The Longest Sentence
How Do You Shave Your Legs
iOS7 Discussion
Girls on Xda
The last one was by far the worst!

I know this seems like we may be picking on you but please understand this is not the case. This is the type of behavior we expect from each and every member on XDA no matter the forum. To all members who do choose to violate this rule, if we have to, the moderation team will hand down official warnings and infractions or even bans if necessary. Remember this is the last thing we want to do. We only want anyone and everyone that wants to join in on the fun of the Off Topic section to get their chance to do so without feeling like they are not welcomed in the section. Here at XDA we are all one big family so lets act like it.:angel:

So lets sum this up for everyone. These are not suggestions but these are the rules here on XDA!!!

No more "IBTL" posts.... instead please use the report button. That is what it is for

No more "GTFO NOOB" posts... if you ignore them they will leave you in peace.

This is a public forum and therefore all threads are public too. You may not decide who can post in a given thread, if you want a private members club start a social group.

No more spamming/trolling new threads! Only post if you have something to contribute to the topic. Anyone who wants a chance at having a thread in OT deserves a chance to have one of their own and its not up to you all to decide what stays and what goes :highfive:

Cheers Mates :victory:

The Moderation Team

@crachel
@Neo
@vanessaem
@snickler
@Perseus
@jackeagle
@Heisenberg
@OfficerJimLahey
@Droidriven

_Variable · Jun 12, 2013

Thanks, the trolls in the bad threads are worse than the thread itself, imo

ak700 · Jun 12, 2013

Ahh Alright... BTW why isn't this thread locked ?

EDIT While you guys are here, could you basically define Off Topic? I mean, we have something completely off topic and that's in no way related to XDA and there is some "off topic" that somewhat related, like tech stuff. Currently there is a bit of confusion over this that brings a lot "spam" over here.

conantroutman · Jun 12, 2013

ak700 said:
Ahh Alright... BTW why isn't this thread locked ?

Because there are undoubtedly going to be some questions about this and a little discussion (serious discussion mind you) goes a long way.

nuuits · Jun 12, 2013

This is all really silly.
I actually saw the iOS7 thread from your link and wow, I would've loved to just discuss the operating system without anyone saying "Apple sucks Android 5ever hahahaha if you think iOS is worth talking about you're wrong omg!"

Because while I like to be silly (and poke fun at apple) at the appropriate times, I also like to have deep and meaningful conversations about electronics and whatnot without having a fanboy come up and start a pointless argument.

and some people (no one in specific) need to cut their... stuff they're doing with the "Inb4 lock" and whatnot. It doesn't add to the conversation, it doesn't help the OP if the OP is asking a question, and it basically does nothing productive. If you think a thread should be locked/is spam, report it and move on.

_Variable · Jun 12, 2013

estabien said:
This is all really silly.
I actually saw the iOS7 thread from your link and wow, I would've loved to just discuss the operating system without anyone saying "Apple sucks Android 5ever hahahaha if you think iOS is worth talking about you're wrong omg!"

Because while I like to be silly (and poke fun at apple) at the appropriate times, I also like to have deep and meaningful conversations about electronics and whatnot without having a fanboy come up and start a pointless argument.

and some people (no one in specific) need to cut their... stuff they're doing with the "Inb4 lock" and whatnot. It doesn't add to the conversation, it doesn't help the OP if the OP is asking a question, and it basically does nothing productive. If you think a thread should be locked/is spam, report it and move on.

THIS. Summed up my though process whenever I see a thread "trolled'

conantroutman · Jun 12, 2013

ak700 said:
EDIT While you guys are here, could you basically define Off Topic? I mean, we have something completely off topic and that's in no way related to XDA and there is some "off topic" that somewhat related, like tech stuff. Currently there is a bit of confusion over this that brings a lot "spam" over here.

Anything not related to the devices or development for them. This however is not the appropriate time for a "what is OT?" discussion or "My (insert device here) off topic thread relates to the device and should be moved back to that forum" discussion.

This is about making sure that the off topic forum is accessible to all without being needlessly trolled or made to feel in any way unwelcome.

Seraz007 · Jun 12, 2013

Hmm okay Points noted

:good::good: (No sarcasm)

That means no more Lulz?

mark manning · Jun 12, 2013

Seraz007 said:
Hmm okay Points noted :good::good: (No sarcasm)

That means no more Lulz?

Not true at all. No one wants to take the fun away. We just ask that you respect the rules and don't have your fun at the expense of others or their threads

Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium

Seraz007 · Jun 12, 2013

mark manning said:
Not true at all. No one wants to take the fun away. We just ask that you respect the rules and don't have your fun at the expense of others or their threads

Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium

umm okay then...:good:

freakboy13 · Jun 12, 2013

Ironically ibtl posts were always a no no afair. Thanks for reclarifying this issue.
This is a good thread. I can see some thinking this sucks but when mods post threads like this it actually shows they care about their site. I could mention a few other forums where they don't.
Nice write up.
:thumbup:
:beer:

sent from my T.A.R.T.I.S
(Time And Relative Tarts In Space)

ShadowLea · Jun 12, 2013

Certainly excellent points. It's gotten a little out of hand lately. Admittedly the amount of new users who can't bloody read has also gotten out of hand. (Which makes me wonder, isn't it possible to simply disable the posting permissions for <10 posts users in OT (and General)? That way they can still read, just not post. Would save us all a lot of time, irritation and trouble, not to mention the mods a lot of work of both deleting the posts and keeping everyone else from trolling.)

The problem is that most people seem to be somewhat confused as to the difference between 'fun' and 'trolling'. And there's also a difference between clever/funny trolling (which even the mods do from time to time), and outright offensive trolling so obvious even my sociopathic brain finds it pathetic...

You can be clever without being a total arse. (Yes, I know, being nice isn't my speciality either.) Nobody said we can't have fun. But bullying the new kids is exactly the behavior we all hated to have directed towards us in school.

But the Girls on XDA thread wasn't that bad before it was moved to off topic. After the move there were more deleted posts than remaining posts xD

Archer · Jun 12, 2013

ShadowLea said:
Certainly excellent points. It's gotten a little out of hand lately. Admittedly the amount of new users who can't bloody read has also gotten out of hand. (Which makes me wonder, isn't it possible to simply disable the posting permissions for <10 posts users in OT (and General)? That way they can still read, just not post. Would save us all a lot of time, irritation and trouble, not to mention the mods a lot of work of both deleting the posts and keeping everyone else from trolling.)

The problem is that most people seem to be somewhat confused as to the difference between 'fun' and 'trolling'. And there's also a difference between clever/funny trolling (which even the mods do from time to time), and outright offensive trolling so obvious even my sociopathic brain finds it pathetic...

You can be clever without being a total arse. (Yes, I know, being nice isn't my speciality either.) Nobody said we can't have fun. But bullying the new kids is exactly the behavior we all hated to have directed towards us in school.

But the Girls on XDA thread wasn't that bad before it was moved to off topic. After the move there were more deleted posts than remaining posts xD

With regards to the 10 post rule, I'd like to make this clear as it seems that it really isn't. There is no rule stating that you can't get your first 10 posts in the Off-topic forum. There's obviously a rule about spamming, and that applies here as well. So, someone posting "Hi" 10 times in the "Say Hi" thread is spamming, but someone posting in there to say hello and then engaging in conversation in other threads is not. I really don't know why there's such a beef about new people posting in OT, other than people misunderstanding the request made a while back to not spam.

</rant>

Now that's out in public I shall rest

And with regards to the girls' thread, it's that exact type of thread that we're trying to help here, hence it being mentioned in the first post. Sometimes trolling is funny, yeah, but sometimes it's just disrespectful, and that's what I personally dislike seeing.

K.A. · Jun 12, 2013

**** just got real, Offtopic just got more serious. This is like moving from the Attitude era to the PG13 era :silly:

jugg1es · Jun 12, 2013

Just want to throw my tuppence in this here hat.
I agree with most of what has been said in the op and other comments. @ShadowLea comment about people not reading is true enough, as moderators how many times have you locked a thread someone has opened to post a video, or a picture etc? Only for them to open yet another thread to say 'WTF'? Ok so a lot of us plow in and spam the thread, this is done because most of the time an existing thread that has been going for a long time is only a couple of lines away. It's our way of reminding people that just because this is ot doesn't mean the search button was left at the door.
People with less than ten posts do get a raw deal in ot i admit, since I've been registered with xda the the ten posts issue has always been present as an understanding that users try to make 10 useful posts. People that make their all of their first ten posts inside of ot cannot be deemed to have made 10 useful posts. Ten posts isn't hard, even if it's in the form of a question. The answers to a simple question can be useful for someone with the same issue, using search.
A lot of the more respected and older OT regulars come here to chat with like minded people away from the constant barrage of pm's and questions from new users in their device threads, i actually have a lot of respect for quite a few people in here for maintaining as much calm as they do. Recently I've noticed that there has been a lot of posts that even by my "low"

standards has gone way over what is acceptable, this really does have to stop. Users here are getting younger and younger, we tend to forget this because all we see is the avatar and words on a screen.

Imma gonna stop there as even i feel that im waffling about this again (

:thumbup

take what points you want from the above, it's just my opinions nothing more.

Yours
Glenn

Never interrupt me when I'm eating a banana.
Ryan Stiles

undercover · Jun 12, 2013

jugg1es said:
Just want to throw my tuppence in this here hat.
I agree with most of what has been said in the op and other comments. @ShadowLea comment about people not reading is true enough, as moderators how many times have you locked a thread someone has opened to post a video, or a picture etc? Only for them to open yet another thread to say 'WTF'? Ok so a lot of us plow in and spam the thread, this is done because most of the time an existing thread that has been going for a long time is only a couple of lines away. It's our way of reminding people that just because this is ot doesn't mean the search button was left at the door.
People with less than ten posts do get a raw deal in ot i admit, since I've been registered with xda the the ten posts issue has always been present as an understanding that users try to make 10 useful posts. People that make their all of their first ten posts inside of ot cannot be deemed to have made 10 useful posts. Ten posts isn't hard, even if it's in the form of a question. The answers to a simple question can be useful for someone with the same issue, using search.
A lot of the more respected and older OT regulars come here to chat with like minded people away from the constant barrage of pm's and questions from new users in their device threads, i actually have a lot of respect for quite a few people in here for maintaining as much calm as they do. Recently I've noticed that there has been a lot of posts that even by my "low" standards has gone way over what is acceptable, this really does have to stop. Users here are getting younger and younger, we tend to forget this because all we see is the avatar and words on a screen.

Imma gonna stop there as even i feel that im waffling about this again ( :thumbup take what points you want from the above, it's just my opinions nothing more.

Yours
Glenn

Never interrupt me when I'm eating a banana.
Ryan Stiles

Second that to the very last full stop.
Good description of what is happening atm, but what exactly would you like to happen?

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

jugg1es · Jun 12, 2013

undercover said:
Second that to the very last full stop.
Good description of what is happening atm, but what exactly would you like to happen?

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

I haven't thought that far too be honest, i read the posts and just started waffling which generally means i have more than a passing interest in saying what I'm thinking.

Never interrupt me when I'm eating a banana.
Ryan Stiles

undercover · Jun 12, 2013

jugg1es said:
I haven't thought that far too be honest, i read the posts and just started waffling which generally means i have more than a passing interest in saying what I'm thinking.

Never interrupt me when I'm eating a banana.
Ryan Stiles

Gotcha. I'll be eagerly waiting for more. :thumbup:

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

ShadowLea · Jun 12, 2013

Archer said:
With regards to the 10 post rule, I'd like to make this clear as it seems that it really isn't. There is no rule stating that you can't get your first 10 posts in the Off-topic forum. There's obviously a rule about spamming, and that applies here as well. So, someone posting "Hi" 10 times in the "Say Hi" thread is spamming, but someone posting in there to say hello and then engaging in conversation in other threads is not. I really don't know why there's such a beef about new people posting in OT, other than people misunderstanding the request made a while back to not spam.

Some of my first 10 posts were probably in Off Topic, and they probably weren't all useful. But they never consisted of simply "Lol" or "I agree" or "Hi!" or "Hahaha". Or worse, as @jugg1es says, threads about 'see this picture' or 'look at this video'. Especially when the destined thread for it is on the bloody first page!.

Those are the issue. If someone makes a decent contribution, they're not doing anything wrong, and they don't get trolled. (much.).

It's not the best solution, and I doubt it's even good idea, but this is exactly why many forums have an age minimum. (I believe we have some seriously good developers that are under 15, though. They are the exceptions that prove the rule.)

It doesn't matter how many rules or threads about rules we have. Fact is that only about 2% of new users actually reads the rules, even if you wave it in their faces. Hell, even if you made it a "must scroll to the end to select yes" thing some EULA's have, they'd still just scroll and ignore it.

The only people who really know the rules are those of us who point them out to the people that break them.

KidCarter93 · Jun 13, 2013

I couldn't agree more with a lot of the points being raised here. Even though I haven't been a regular in this forum for a while now, the issue which this thread refers to was an issue then and probably ever since the Off-Topic forum was even created. As I haven't been around here recently, I can't really say whether this issue has gotten worse recently (although I guess it must've done to require a thread such as this to be needed) but, as we're all aware, most of the time it hasn't really been a bad thing and has simply been a bit of harmless trolling.

The point ShadowLea made above about people not reading the rules is, again, something we're all more than aware of and blindingly obvious that it's the main reason why any ideas such as this, however good they look "on paper", will only do so much. The only true solution, that I can think of, would be changes to the actual sign up process.
I haven't really got the ideas on such changes or even if they'd be made but I see it as the only way to stop such problems from manifesting like they have.

Sent from my HTC One via Tapatalk 4

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