EB Forum Reforms

[a completely inoffensive name]

There. Is. Already.

Not everyone is in the backroom, and the frontroom consists of (and I am looking at it right now)

"The Word Game" (useless +1 posting)
"True or False..." (useless +1 posting)
"3 word story" (useless +1 posting)
"Official Post Celebration thread" (useless +1 posting)
"Beautiful Girl in Supermarket Problem" (someone asking online for advice on his personal life, oh yay)
"The Heart Attack Grill" (An actual good thread)
"What do you think of the new star trek movie?" (pointless opinion thread)
"Do you prefer subtitles..." (more other peoples opinions)
"Since everyone is seems to explain his personal drama..."(another person asking random online strangers what to do with his personal life)
"I have taken a second job." (good thread)

Just by taking a sample of the top 10 threads right now, only two are good off topic threads where some fun discussion could occur. Sign me up (sarcasm). The spam of the EB forums has been seen to be fun off topic posts that derail the serious conversation into something silly. You point us to the frontroom as the solution to the problem of posters needing silly conversation and yet every day I check the frontroom I see yet another opinion, +1 useless post, or personal advice thread. True off topic silly conversations are dying in the frontroom from what I see so far, and that is seen by the rise of so called "spam" in the EB forum.

[Hax]

From "The Guild FAQ"

• Posts containing addresses of warez sites or anything piracy-related: note that this includes "hacks" designed to enable Shogun: Total War, Medieval: Total War and Rome: Total War to run without a CD. The administration is aware of the fact that some use a "no-CD hack" for the purpose of enhancing their system performance, but we feel that the possible illegal benefits from these hacks outweigh all other considerations. Such hacks also require reverse engineering of the game, and this is in violation of the End User Licence Agreement. Anything pertaining to software piracy in general is highly discouraged.
• Posts containing information on and/or requests for the Shogun: Total War, Medieval: Total War or Rome: Total War CD key codes: if you have lost your CD key, you should contact Electronic Arts or Activision Customer Support. Anyone asking for a CD key here will be assumed to be trying to deny the developers rightful compensation for their work.
• Posts concerning, or asking about, technical specifications for multiplayer cheating. Cheating in the single-player game is a private matter for each user, but cheating in the multiplayer game detracts from everyone's enjoyment, and from the gaming community as a whole.
• Posts containing names of people suspected of cheating in the multiplayer game. This clause has been much debated; its purpose is to avoid fruitless controversy. No conclusive proof on anyone cheating in the multiplayer game can be obtained or presented. Therefore, the Staff and the majority of the patrons (approximately 70% voted in favour) feel that it is for the best to avoid making accusations; even if truthful, their inconclusiveness will probably lead to "flame wars" which are inconvenient to the forum and every member. Keeping of private "cheater blacklists" is allowed, indeed encouraged, but The Guild does not wish to be a medium for this. (Note: in the case of "name posting", the staff will often edit out the name rather than deleting the entire message.)
• Posts containing "spam", such as advertisements, chain letters, pyramid schemes, and solicitations. Recommending a game you like is not wrong, as long as you are not trying to sell it. User accounts created exclusively for the purpose of posting inconsequential advertisements will be unceremoniously banned.
• Posts containing any generally objectionable material: knowingly false and/or defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, or otherwise in violation of any law. Posting of copyrighted material, unless the copyright is owned by you or by The Guild, is discouraged. The Guild expects its patrons to remain civil even in the face of disagreements. Any kind of "flaming", slurs, or insults -- addressed to either an individual or a group -- is extremely inappropriate. Please respect etiquette at all times.

Do you now understand? This is not an independent forum. This forum is part of The Guild. The Guild has its rules.

And that's that.

[Foot]

Hello EB Forum Users,

We understand the concern some of you feel about where this forum is going and the behaviour of certain people, who act as instigators and ring-leaders (though I am certain without intent). In the past we have tolerated repeat behaviour from people on matters such as spam and offensive posting. We understand now how this has had a damaging effect on the community-within-a-community we have here. It is no longer good enough for us to just ignore this behaviour, or act on it as if each incident is separate.

We will be making an announcement about changes to our moderating policy soon. Until then we would be grateful if all posting returned to topics about EB and the Ancient World and steered clear of discussion about our future policies.

Kind Regards,