Will we die out?

I basically got, "let's turn this place into PXE", from that Mr. Benji.


Which I don't think Rich would let happen.



Could it bring in a lot of traffic? Possibly for more adult members, but there are some people on this site who are thirteen as well. Plus, I think this kind of change would take too much time and effort to really put forth.


The staff has actually become a lot more lenient lately, a lots changed since December.

But completely getting rid of the rules and looking at the site as a place where older mature members would be the main focus wouldn't really be right, in my opinion. But we can see where your getting at this, but you've got to understand that if we allowed what you requested, the site would have a bad image.

But that's what I have to say, everyone is entitled to their own opinions. : )


« Last edited by Axionas on Mar 21st 2012 »

Protip; the average gamer is around somewhere around 26-36...

Just saiyan.

« Last edited by Pathosray on Mar 21st 2012 »

I agree with Benji on a lot of his points. Yes, we've relaxed a bit. But catering the forums more toward older, more mature people wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. Let's face it: The average poster here isn't 13 anymore. Probably closer to 16/17. Would centering the forum around that age group - the most active demographic - really be that bad?

And honestly, don't get started on the whole 'give the site a bad image' thing. Only a few percent of all the visitors to SC even come into the forums. And let's be real, those few who do aren't going to be turned off by what's discussed here - it's all discussed on every other forum on every site. And those who don't venture into the forums? They don't see what's posted here; the younger people looking for whatever on the main site aren't going to notice.

Now, we obviously have to maintain some decency. There are some words that shouldn't be said and some topics that shouldn't be discussed in a public forum. I'm not saying we should make this place a gigantic free-for-all of rape, drugs, and murder. No.

I guess the thing I'm getting at: Why do the forums necessarily have to be 'kid-friendly'? Kid-friendly how? Is there even such a thing as that anymore? Kids these days know about everything, have an opinion on everything, and want to voice that opinion.

The following is from a post I made on this matter in the Mod Squad forum:

As much as it pains me to admit it, Benji actually brought up a few good points. I've been saying for some time now that the whole family-friendly thing is a hard front to keep up, and the fact is that most gamers are over the age of 18 and have decent social adjustments. Good and well, we have rules against swearing and flaming so that this forum appears professional (and I've even advised on at least two different occasions against swearing), as well as host of other rules in place as a form of micromanagement, but at the end of the day nobody, least of all the gamer demographic, wants to be treated like children.

I'm going to transcribe this on the thread and not delete his post, just so everyone shuts up.

I actually agree with a ton of his points. I wouldn't say get rid of every single rule of course, and I have no problem with pretty much all of the staff here (though slight... dislikes, I suppose, of some of them), so I wouldn't say get rid of all of them.

But obviously targeting a different demographic is a great idea. Getting rid of the filters on many of the words. I mean... there are, of course, some words that would still be better left uncensored, just for the sake of not seeming completely... barbaric, I guess you could say... but really, there were plenty of good and valid points in that post.

I approve.

@ Axionas: That's not what I'm saying at all. Apologies if it came across that way. I can concede that we are effectively rule-less at PXE, and with a professional image to maintain, that cannot be the case around here. I'm simply saying that the rules need to be stripped down to their very most basic of forms, as I believe all the rules have been well over thought.

@ Pathosray: Well in that case, replace all '16's in my post with 26, and all my '20's with 36.

@ Steelers: I agree wholeheartedly about the decency thing. As seen above in my reply to Axionas.

@ Cross Stinger: Thank you for leaving it open, I'm glad you can agree with me on a few things.

@ Jay_Dee: Thanks. As I said myself in the original post, I didn't say to remove every rule, I just thought removing/reviewing a lot of them could be a good idea to loosen things up. Obviously with the professional image that has been mentioned, you don't want to remove every word filter, but when I was last here the words 'balls' and 'hell' were censored.

Benji said:

@ Jay_Dee: Thanks. As I said myself in the original post, I didn't say to remove every rule, I just thought removing/reviewing a lot of them could be a good idea to loosen things up. Obviously with the professional image that has been mentioned, you don't want to remove every word filter, but when I was last here the words 'balls' and 'hell' were censored.

Ah. I must have misread it, or completely skip over it. Basic rules would be nice. Both of those words, as you've probably noticed, aren't censored anymore. But words like sh*t and a*s are both still censored... and they're both such commonly used words that they could hardly be considered 'cussing' anymore. I've heard many 12 year-olds, and some even younger, use those words. Even worse, in some occasions.

hi-im-benji-and-this-joke-sucks said:

@ Axionas: That's not what I'm saying at all. Apologies if it came across that way. I can concede that we are effectively rule-less at PXE, and with a professional image to maintain, that cannot be the case around here. I'm simply saying that the rules need to be stripped down to their very most basic of forms, as I believe all the rules have been well over thought.

@ Pathosray: Well in that case, replace all '16's in my post with 26, and all my '20's with 36.

@ Steelers: I agree wholeheartedly about the decency thing. As seen above in my reply to Axionas.

@ Cross Stinger: Thank you for leaving it open, I'm glad you can agree with me on a few things.

@ Jay_Dee: Thanks. As I said myself in the original post, I didn't say to remove every rule, I just thought removing/reviewing a lot of them could be a good idea to loosen things up. Obviously with the professional image that has been mentioned, you don't want to remove every word filter, but when I was last here the words 'balls' and 'hell' were censored.

Ah, I see where your getting this at. You mean tone it down a bit more than it is right now. :> Cleared up a bit of confusion there.

We don't really have a big staff anymore, there's like 9 or 10 of us, and only 3 of us are super mods. Most of our administrators are admins on PXE as well. I doubt we're going to have massive problems with overzealous moderating anymore.


EDIT: Should say that I agree on the points regarding simplifying things. I personally wouldn't mind the removal of the swear filters under the condition that you don't litter every post you make with f-bombs.

I also wouldn't mind reducing the rules to their most basic form, i.e. no spamming the forums (i.e. making a bunch of "sdedsfruio" type posts as much as you can to try and attack the site), no flaming another member, no scamming / discussion of hacks and things and that's mostly it.

« Last edited by TestVirus101 on Mar 22nd 2012 »

I dunno. Benji's post seems like a bit much, considering all of these problems he stated really seem to revolve around the forums, and the forums only make up 2 percent of SC's profit. I personally wouldn't worry about my 'target audience' being a bit off if it were just by 2 percent. The main site keeps that family friendly face, and seems to be doing great.

Mark's working on merging the forums with the main site to outline the entrance to the community and hopefully draw more people in. See how that goes first, then think about changing what we do to better suit the new people. Just my thoughts, anyway.

I think it is the members that make the community (and I'm doing such a terrific job by being around and posting so much ;) ). What someone above (sorry, can't be bothered going back to see who) said is right, these same topics are discussed on other messageboards. It is up to the community members here to differentiate those topics from ours and make it enjoyable for all people involved by generally not trying to marginalise other posters with inane spam and awkwardness.

Vicar said:

I dunno. Benji's post seems like a bit much, considering all of these problems he stated really seem to revolve around the forums, and the forums only make up 2 percent of SC's profit. I personally wouldn't worry about my 'target audience' being a bit off if it were just by 2 percent. The main site keeps that family friendly face, and seems to be doing great.

Mark's working on merging the forums with the main site to outline the entrance to the community and hopefully draw more people in. See how that goes first, then think about changing what we do to better suit the new people. Just my thoughts, anyway.

His entire post was about making the FORUMS more active, Derek. No one has even mentioned the main site. In fact, this entire thread is about the forums.

I don't see how it's 'a bit much' at all. Everything he has proposed is entirely reasonable and smart. Average poster isn't 13 anymore? Makes sense to stop making 13 year olds the target audience, right? So if the new target audience is older teens to young adults, why would we need excessive word filters (of course SOME will still be needed)? Why would we need such excessive rules (and the rules still need to be dumbed down, with no extremely long words that nobody understands or will have to look at a thesaurus to figure it out) if our posters will be more mature, and if we're trying to seem more relaxed, why can't we get rid of most of the rules?

There's nothing wrong with any of his suggestions and by denying them I think you're damaging the sites potential. Either that or you want to be in control as much as possible.

Protip; most websites designed for the teenaged audiance don't even have a filter.

Case in point; Facebook.

Vicar said:

I dunno. Benji's post seems like a bit much, considering all of these problems he stated really seem to revolve around the forums, and the forums only make up 2 percent of SC's profit. I personally wouldn't worry about my 'target audience' being a bit off if it were just by 2 percent. The main site keeps that family friendly face, and seems to be doing great.

Mark's working on merging the forums with the main site to outline the entrance to the community and hopefully draw more people in. See how that goes first, then think about changing what we do to better suit the new people. Just my thoughts, anyway.

Then how would making the "2 percent" more relaxed and changing its audience to be more mature affect the image of the site? The main site may cater to the younger users, and it works because many of the people looking for help with their games are younger. I know that I personally haven't used websites to help me with games since I was younger. So of course the main site should aim toward younger users, while the forums is more community-oriented, and the community is becoming older.

Well, doesn't look like we're going to die out, we've recently got some new (and old) members on Forum Games! and here, not to mention most of the other forums, so it's looking better.

Pravinj said:

Well, doesn't look like we're going to die out, we've recently got some new (and old) members on Forum Games! and here, not to mention most of the other forums, so it's looking better.

No offense but I wouldnt want activity based on Fourm Games...
The site has dramatically decreased in actvity since I have left - then it was pretty active, but again at the time we had like 13 SMods and like 50 mods - overzealous moderating was a serious problem that probably caused this entire lack of activity as so many people left or stopped postiting, and new members were just bombared with rules in their welcome topic, since the site has come more relaxed their is a chance of an actvity uprise.

Yogi, just a random thought here after reading your posts. If the collective age of the forum members is that much greater than that of the main site users, won't there be some conflict when the main site and forums are merged? The main site youth driving away the older forum members, or the older forum members shunning the younger main site guests?

Really too much emphasis has been put on age. Do you really think that I would have spent so long posting as I have if I thought about each and every one of you in terms of you ages? The only people on this side of the site are Rich, Dennis and Mark (and even then it could be give or take a few years).

There is no need for conflict there just needs to be understanding that not everyone thinks alike, posts alike, has the same level of maturity, grammar, intelligence and the same personality. Age only comes in to it for me when someone is stamping their feet, arching their backs shouting 'I want, I want, I want.'. So I wouldnt be so concerned about it.

Gamerad said:

Pravinj said:

Well, doesn't look like we're going to die out, we've recently got some new (and old) members on Forum Games! and here, not to mention most of the other forums, so it's looking better.

No offense but I wouldnt want activity based on Fourm Games...

And that's why I said "and here" too.

Pravinj said:

Gamerad said:

Pravinj said:

Well, doesn't look like we're going to die out, we've recently got some new (and old) members on Forum Games! and here, not to mention most of the other forums, so it's looking better.

No offense but I wouldnt want activity based on Fourm Games...

And that's why I said "and here" too.

Still isn't that much.