Rule And Moderation Proposals For The Gp2x Forums


Epicenter

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I've been using this forum for quite a while now, and it seems like there needs to be a few new rules, or some more strict moderation to enforce the quality of posting and the quality of members coming into this forum. Things have been steadily getting worse since this forum opened to discussion of the gp2x (I was not around for the GP32 side of things)-- but a few particular threads in the past few days have prompted me to want to write this and make my opinions known.

First of all, most threads are inexcusably poorly written. Let's take for example this one, I won't put a name on it, and I don't mean to single out the individual who wrote it ...

i was curious, was the gp2x a success or it of been better. Also wut will be there next version of this console and wut should it have. SHould it have a online network were u can play these games online tru like gps or something or should it have a network to download music or wut sohuld it have. Wutever u think the next console should have post it here, and if they were to release a new console when would we expect it?

First of all, there is barely a single word in this post that is spelled correctly. Second, no capitalization in the correct places, incorrect punctuation or a total lack thereof in some areas. Looking deeper, it's full of technical inaccuracies such as suggesting wireless game play over "GPS". We should be able to play games wirelessly over 30-year-old global positioning system satellites? I know not everyone knows the correct terminology as to 802.11b, Bluetooth, GPRS (probably what he meant?) et cetera, but if you are not knowledgeable about the topic, you probably shouldn't be making a thread about it. The author even goes as far as to think the GP2x came out long ago and it's 'over and done with', and that we need to start discussing the gp3x already. The rest of the post's problems could easily have been fixed if the author had just looked over it, proofread it for just a moment, before submitting it.

Then, we have the problem of repeat threads. Users who make no attempt to search if their question has already been answered. We have people asking about GBA emulation or PSP Emulation or things even MORE ridiculous like XBox 360 or Dreamcast emulation on the system. These are questions that anyone with even the vaguest bit of hardware or software knowledge should already know the answer to-- logic and common sense should dictate that if a SNES game does not run at full speed on a console, you should not be expecting a system released 8+ years later than the SNES to run on it, either. These issues could be taken care of with a simple search, but no one seems to take the effort to do that. Or at the very least, not ENOUGH do.

Now, I realize that the GP2x was marketed primarily as an ideal platform for portable emulation, and let's face it, the emulation scene is ridden with people who don't give a thought to the way they present their ideas, type, or even relate to people most of the time, and are more concerned with how they can more quickly and effectively get their games running, with nary a concern as to how much they piss off a whole community doing it. By appealing to emulation fans, we're going to get very low-quality members mixed in with some very productive, helpful and well-behaved ones.

This is why effective moderation to stem the flow of bad threads is vital. At the present point in time, we have loads of new information pouring in all the time. New updates to software, discoveries, hardware accomplishments and firmware announcements are made HOURLY, and the speed of the forums is very, very fast. I was away for 9 weeks and as many of you likely saw, I had to make a "Catch Up" thread to try to get some concept of what was going on in the torrent of threads that were popping up as I tried to get through things months old!

But with things moving so quickly, many quality threads containing essential knowledge are being lost and buried tens of pages back by worthless threads that don't help anyone.

So, I'd like to propose the following rules be cemented in place and properly enforced-- it can't be afforded to just look the other way when these threads are created and these offenses committed, some action has to be taken or it will NOT stop happening.

- THREADS MUST CONTAIN DECENT SPELLING, PUNCTUATION, CAPITALIZATION AND READABLE GRAMMAR if the author is a NATIVE English speaker. - There's no reason we should have 10 threads on the first page that contain things like 'n e 1 who nose wh at over cluck i ned 2 gats gb advaen c emu run 1 hunderd %% so I ken palay caestalvenia' because the poster could not be bothered to take 15 seconds of his time to look over what he wrote, wasting the time of everyone else who has to read it.

- THREADS ASKING QUESTIONS THAT HAVE BEEN ANSWERED TIME AND TIME AGAIN THAT CAN EASILY BE FOUND WITH A SEARCH ARE FORBIDDEN -
If the question has been answered before, the thread should be removed. Simple as that. When people learn their questions won't be answered this way, they should stop making them.

- POSTERS SHOULD MAKE SOME ATTEMPT TO UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY ARE POSTING ABOUT. - There should not be threads with questions like 'Can I run Doom 3 on my GP2x'. Asking if emulation of the SNES or the NES are reasonable, logical questions and had they not been answered thousands of times before (see the above rule..) they would be perfectly logical and reasonable questions. But even a cursory glance at the system requirements that Doom 3, for example, has for a modern gaming PC, should reveal that the question is fundamentally absurd and the thread should not be created.

- IMPORTANT THREADS AND ONGOING EVENTS SHOULD BE STICKIED and DISCUSSION SHOULD NOT STRAY FROM THEM. - There are MANY incidences of new threads about the GP2x programming competition and projects for the deadline branching off from the main discussion of the event-- this doesn't make sense and it clutters the forum. Discussion of individual projects in their own threads makes perfect sense. But more and more threads about "I can't wait for Feb. 20th!" et cetera benefit no one. Ensuring all threads with ongoing discussion for an extended foreseeable period of time are stickied to the top of their relevant forums should help stem the tide of these space-wasting and time-wasting threads.

Furthermore, I'd like to propose a greater degree of subdivision of the GP2x subforums. In particular, Emulation discussion (partaining to the possibility of emulating X system or game, technical support with the use of emulators, and general emulation theory discussion), Technical discussion (about the GP2x's hardware, alteration, repair, modification, etc.), Software discussion (Discussion of homebrew applications and ports), leaving News for announcements, General Discussion for discussion of GPH-related questions, firmware issues, and things affecting all users of the machine or its development. This would supplement, of course, the existing Developer forums for more specific questions on how to use, say, C/C++/SDL/ASM more effectively in programming the machine.

Now, I'm sure my choices for how I'd lay out the forums won't agree with everyone else's idea of organization, but it's what seems the most effective to me to attempt to 'slow' an overly fast-moving forum so it will be easier for newcomers and forum veterans to find what they are looking for. This will also be instrumental in keeping posts like "Is N64 emulation possible, part #8174" out of the mix with threads about critical firmware issues, etc.

Thanks for your time you spent reading this, and I hope it hasn't been a bother for you. I look forward to hearing your response to my proposals, agreeing or not. At any rate, I hope we can work together to make this an effective community, to give this console the best opportunity to fulfill its potential in the hands of a community that will recieve it well. :)
 
something you could add to that list is people posting topics in the wrong sections, which you are doing yourself right now (should go in the suggestions section)

but i agree with most of the stuff, except for the grammar nazism, you can't expect everyone to capitalize their words :) but sure, i hate "u" "r", "lolz" etc as much as the next guy.
 
Best thread ever.
Goes back to read. And yes I completely agree so far.

Edit: I don't think you should be so anti slightly stupid people though - and no offence to them. People make mistakes and you can't expect everybody to have good technical know how.
However I think that people should have their threads deleted if they are not of suitable readability, as it pretty much ends up in a flamewar.

Edit: What actually really annoys me is that people join post ridiculous questions. Get flamed. Flame everybody back.
Break their GP2X. Create a new thread to ask for help. Can't fix it.
Post a new thread to say how worthless the GP2X is. Get flamed - for starting a pointless opinionated thread which others do not agree with.
And then they finally complain about the community being absolutely rubbish.
 
I think the problem is noobs cannot search for things like "GBA" "PSX" "PSP" etc, since there's the three-letter limit. Would it be possible to let people search specific three-letter words?
 
JaqMs posted on Feb 12 2006 at 04:01 AM said:
I think the problem is noobs cannot search for things like "GBA" "PSX" "PSP" etc, since there's the three-letter limit. Would it be possible to let people search specific three-letter words?
Like so on google:
Code:
GBA GP2X emulator site:www.gp32x.de
This should really be pinned somewhere.
 
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JaqMs posted on Feb 11 2006 at 10:01 PM said:
I think the problem is noobs cannot search for things like "GBA" "PSX" "PSP" etc, since there's the three-letter limit. Would it be possible to let people search specific three-letter words?

That's to avoid producing GIGANTIC sets of results and lagging the server, which is sometimes rather slow. But it should be adjustable by the administrator.
 
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Epicenter posted on Feb 12 2006 at 04:18 AM said:
JaqMs posted on Feb 11 2006 at 10:01 PM said:
I think the problem is noobs cannot search for things like "GBA" "PSX" "PSP" etc, since there's the three-letter limit. Would it be possible to let people search specific three-letter words?

That's to avoid producing GIGANTIC sets of results and lagging the server, which is sometimes rather slow. But it should be adjustable by the administrator.
Or read my post?
 
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I don't see how searching "GBA" is any worse than searching "GP2X". But yeah, that google thing is pretty useful.
 
Hanz™ posted on Feb 11 2006 at 10:19 PM said:
Or read my post?

Believe it or not, there are people who your Google search string is too complicated for. Even though it's correct, lots of people just won't do it because they don't see why the Search function on the site isn't just as good. :rolleyes:
 
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JaqMs posted on Feb 12 2006 at 04:26 AM said:
I don't see how searching "GBA" is any worse than searching "GP2X". But yeah, that google thing is pretty useful.
It isn't but it stops people for searching for words like "and".
 
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I agree regarding the poor grammar. There are 2 people in particular which stick out in my mind as having the worst grammar/spelling this world has ever seen. And it irritates me to no end. Misspelling one word or whatever is fine, but dont butcher the english language. We all know basic things like "drop the e, add ING", so either do that (unless it's clear you're from another country and trying), or stay off the boards till you turn 10. End of story.

And the searching thing is becoming a problem. Fucking search for things like drmd gp2x and stop asking for obvious shit.

Finally, the occasional LOL or whatever to show how you feel is good, but kill the U and UR and entire posts consisting of 1337 speak. And there's one person who over-uses "FTW!!!!". It's annoying as fuck.

*blows steam*
 
The GP2X is an complicated piece of hardware. Most people are used to buy a fully working handheld, put a game in it and play. The GP2X requires more knowledge and skills.
Yes, some questions are stupid. But many threads could be prevented my improving the F.A.Q. section. ATM there are just 2 Threads in it. We should create some threads about possible emulators, firmware issues, hardware problems, bricking, getting some stuff to work, GPS + WLAN addons and other important stuff.
 
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SatanClaus posted on Feb 11 2006 at 10:47 PM said:
The GP2X is an complicated piece of hardware. Most people are used to buy a fully working handheld, put a game in it and play. The GP2X requires more knowledge and skills.
Yes, some questions are stupid. But many threads could be prevented my improving the F.A.Q. section. ATM there are just 2 Threads in it. We should create some threads about possible emulators, firmware issues, hardware problems, bricking, getting some stuff to work, GPS + WLAN addons and other important stuff.
doing that alone would reduce the threads on the forum to about 1/4 what they are now
 
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if you don't like a thread, no one forces you to either read it or reply to it. perhaps it's annoying to see bad spelling & grammar. it's also annoying to see people write pages and pages about things that have nothing to do with the gp2x.
 
This seems to me like one of the most pointless posts ever. This would severely limit the community aspect of this site. How would you even limit it? Would you se up some way of establishing a trusted user? After so many approved posts would some one suddenl be able to just post without approval? How much extra work would this create for the owners and volunteer moderators of this board? Not to mention the fact that it would severely limit any useful discussion. Ask rokdcasbah (sp?) how much fun it is to have his posts approved and then ask the people that have to approve his posts how much fun they have doing this.

So far it seems like you are just here to troll and upset the people that made the posts that upset you.

Just chill.
 
It's not about deleting pointless topics, it's about making them not post it in the first place. Sure, questions can still be asked, but updating several aspects like the FAQ and availability of information would drastically reduce pointless topics.
 
fomit posted on Feb 12 2006 at 05:08 AM said:
This seems to me like one of the most pointless posts ever. This would severely limit the community aspect of this site. How would you even limit it? Would you se up some way of establishing a trusted user? After so many approved posts would some one suddenl be able to just post without approval? How much extra work would this create for the owners and volunteer moderators of this board? Not to mention the fact that it would severely limit any useful discussion. Ask rokdcasbah (sp?) how much fun it is to have his posts approved and then ask the people that have to approve his posts how much fun they have doing this.

So far it seems like you are just here to troll and upset the people that made the posts that upset you.

Just chill.
I disagree.
Firstly, there is a very good reason rokdcasbah has to have his posts authorized.
Secondly I don't think that anybody mentioned anything about having to approve posts?
We are just saying that if somebody posts an unreadable or completely pointless post. The post should be deleted.
 
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I agree that the boards need more moderation which was why I sent a PM t o hando a few weeks back. Hopefully when the new moderators are chosen some of this will be cleaned up.
 
First of all, most threads are inexcusably poorly written. Let's take for example this one, I won't put a name on it, and I don't mean to single out the individual who wrote it ...

At any rate, I hope we can work together to make this an effective community, to give this console the best opportunity to fulfill its potential in the hands of a community that will recieve it well. :)
[/quote]

'I' before 'E', except after 'C'...

you're fired.
 
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