Making Posts

Though I do understand the topic of this post is fairly vague, I did this purposefully because I didn’t want to make several separate posts for the several vaguely connected minor issues that I’ve discovered on the limited time I have spent on this forum.

The first issue is that I have discovered that new users cannot post external links for one week. I can somewhat understand why this rule exists, but in that same breath, I cannot reasonably see this as a positive thing. My argument against it would be that it limits discussions in a certain way; for example, earlier, when I created a post in the section where I could receive help in certain decks, I quickly discovered that I was unable to post an external link to Imgur as to give an image as to what my deck was.

The issue in and of itself wasn’t difficult to overcome, as embedding the image as a link into the post was a simple matter. However, to others who may have the same problem, this rule would limit their ability to facilitate (and in some cases, continue) a conversation for a week, which could possibly cause some individuals to become disillusioned with the community.

Though abuse of this rule (or rather, lack of a rule should my suggestion be considered seriously) is certainly possible, the quality of the community is kept through the careful practices of the moderators, which could then in turn dissuade newer members from using links in a less than proper way. More intensive vetting of newer members is also an option, though that brings a variety of issues in and of itself. That being said, I digress. Allowing users to freely post links regardless of how new their account facilitates having a more fluid and free conversation. While not particularly urgent or important, I feel as though in a community for a card game, the usage of external links could be vaguely important to start or continue discussions, particularly for newer users that wish to receive assistance, criticism, or something of the sort.

The second issue I want to discuss is the fact that topics locked to moderators only exist. To this, I must simply ask: Why? It creates a discussion that “normal” members in this community cannot participate in, and yet can look in on as if looking in on the conversation from a window. This is not to say that moderators cannot have their private conversations among one another and even in groups, but I must question the decision of having it be made public.

The point being made here is not so much that moderators cannot have conversations with each other so much as it is that I do not see the point of moderator only discussions that, if they do not pertain particularly relevant information to the rest of the community, are public. Though this is likely a concern that only I have given my tendency to see the worst case scenario come about, would this not cause a certain elitism or a sense of elitism? Communities are at their best when individuals of all “classes” are able to communicate freely. If a conversation must be had and features information that is important, then I can understand the necessity of a public moderator only conversation, but having topics such as “What do you think of this forum?” locked to only administrators seems a tad unnecessary. This is a minor issue by all accounts, but one I would like to see discussed as I frequently come across admin abuse facilitated by an unnecessary separation of staff and the general community.

A third issue that I have concerns over is post spam. While the rules clearly do state that it is not allowed, there are individuals who would undoubtedly not only break this rule, but do so intentionally. While I am unaware if there is a post limit of any sort, whether that be daily, weekly, or monthly, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to put this kind of post limit into effect. That being said, certain measures must be taken to make sure that the post limit is not too restrictive, as that would limit conversations as a whole rather than dissuade post spam.

Instead, the direction I envision this taking is that it causes individuals to think slightly more about what they are posting and their posts’ contents, given that they only have a limited amount of posts they can make within a specific amount of time. I understand why this may be an unfavorable suggestion and is likely the least likely to be taken seriously, but I feel as though a post limit may be a legitimate concern of some sort.

These are but small suggestions I have for the future of this forum. I hope they are at least considered.

Noted and fully appreciate the ideas. The url thing is mostly to avoid spam but we will try to fix that. 

As for staff locked topics, its just staff topics which are mostly discussions locked to staff

Yes, we certainly appreciate the advice! The locked forums thing was a small oversight on our part and now all the forums that should be open to users are now open to all users.

We are looking into removing the external link limit and how to fix it, as it was not an intentional restriction.

EDIT: Fixed.

Thank you for the feedback!

Maretu wrote:The first issue is that I have discovered that new users cannot post external links for one week. I can somewhat understand why this rule exists, but in that same breath, I cannot reasonably see this as a positive thing. My argument against it would be that it limits discussions in a certain way; for example, earlier, when I created a post in the section where I could receive help in certain decks, I quickly discovered that I was unable to post an external link to Imgur as to give an image as to what my deck was.

This is something I didn't have any knowledge of and will be attempting to locate and impliment a fix for this. I 100% agree with your statement here.

Maretu wrote:
The second issue I want to discuss is the fact that topics locked to moderators only exist. To this, I must simply ask: Why? It creates a discussion that “normal” members in this community cannot participate in, and yet can look in on as if looking in on the conversation from a window. This is not to say that moderators cannot have their private conversations among one another and even in groups, but I must question the decision of having it be made public.

In most cases, locked topics are topics that are 'announcement' types of topics. Meaning that they aren't mean for discussion. Stuff like rules for a certain forum or pointers are going to be auto-locked upon posting them.

Maretu wrote:
A third issue that I have concerns over is post spam. While the rules clearly do state that it is not allowed, there are individuals who would undoubtedly not only break this rule, but do so intentionally. While I am unaware if there is a post limit of any sort, whether that be daily, weekly, or monthly, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to put this kind of post limit into effect. That being said, certain measures must be taken to make sure that the post limit is not too restrictive, as that would limit conversations as a whole rather than dissuade post spam.

I implimented a feature to count the words/characters in posts. However, I still have to refine the code in it. As it stands right now it's sort of beta. But I always hate the fact that on other forums people post spam messages rather than stuff of importance. So this is definitely a feature I'm looking into refining.

We also added in the warning system to help with that as well.

Thanks for the suggestions!