As I said (and as others have reinforced), the "Idiots" subforum seemed to be used exclusively for breeding negativity. Even the name itself encouraged "ranting". If you don't believe we are acting with the intention of the IRE directives, please contact IRE and I will immediately reinstate those subforums if we are in the wrong. Trust me, though, I feel I am doing the minimal of what was asked.

So, we can make a post about a specific problem and why we want to fix it, just not an overall "rant" post?

I never said that! Re-read what I wrote. We'll judge things on a case-by-case basis.

I'm still not certain whether I agree with the decision or not, I did like the Lack of Rants thread on its own because it meant just blowing off some quick steam but I do agree there was a lot of negativity stemming from certain people who are considered forum griefers.

At the same time, those small rants sometimes got people to think about how things could be adjusted or help form new ideas that could help with the problem, they didn't always just spawn negativity but instead also inspiration.

Something to think on maybe, I know it's an IRE Directive, not necessarily your own.

This confuses me. "So, we can make a post about a specific problem and why we want to fix it" seems like the definition of a constructive complaint...

No more ranting here...

So I made these forums for the people who want to rant.

Toxic Atmosphere

Enjoy.

While I don't plan on signing up for those forums, I have to admit that that is basically the best name for a Lusternia rants forum ever.

... so I'm not even allowed to talk about posts being deleted, apparently?

THANKS EVENTRU

it Shamarah. I have a 5 minute limit on my PMs too. Be patient!1111

Wasn't there a post by Dakkhan in this thread? I came here to read it but now it's gone

Think of how long it takes the other games to fix things or handle envoy reports or implement ships, compared to Lusternia, then translate across to the forums.

Maybe I'm having this brief moment of clarity having had far too much sleep in the past few days, but I have to say, you guys get way too attached to this game and forum. More often than not, it's the latter more so than the former. Waaagh, they oppress my free speech! I have no rights! I can discuss nothing! Like hell. This is fairly good, sits up there next to 'delete all OOC clans'.

Noola: Something said earlier by Estarra was
"As has been stated, "rants" are now not to be considered a legitimate type of forum expression. Rather, we want to encourage those with grievances or complaints to try and be nominally constructive. If a thread aims to list constructive criticisms, then that is fine. If a thread aims to be a storehouse for "rants" (i.e., a place to "vent" nothing but negative comments), then it will probably be removed."

If I remember correctly, Idiots was designed to be a forum the admin could either read or ignore, and not the place for complaints to the admin to be formed.

Quite honestly, if you feel the need to rant just to "blow off steam", maybe you'd be better off cooling off and walking away from the computer, or at least not posting it in public. If you just wanted to vent, you can always scream in the privacy of your own home. Ranting publically means you aren't just venting, you either want an audience or wish to co-miserate with others who agree with you, or even want to let the person who offended you hear you. I'm not sure this is psychologically constructive. The people who riot after sports games (when their team wins?!!) are "blowing off steam", but I think we can all agree that is not a good way--people should exercise a little more control rather that release everything instantly.

Bingo! Whether people realize it or not, they're opening themselves and others up to delicious, delicious trolling and various other negativity-festering ways as soon as they try and draw a crowd.

I still don't see how "So, we can make a post about a specific problem and why we want to fix it" doesn't fit that criteria.

Seriously, I'm not trying to be a pest, but I want to be completely clear on whether any sort of complaining is allowed at all (because I don't want to get in trouble for posting a thread that's not ok when I thought it was ok) and so far, it seems a little contradictory to me.

This is one of the major reasons why I decided to make a forum account, I really liked how things like those mentioned above are dealt with in a reasonable amount of time here.

I like the forums to stay as there are things that are related to the game that I learn here and I get to see people outside their characters here,too. I think the deletion of the Idiots sub-forum is the admin merely asking us to be mature when it comes to our grievances (as they have been pointing out).

Also, I'd like to ask Estarra - which sub-forum should we place the things like constructive criticisms?

What most people see as 'why we want to fix it' is 'Oh my god, XYZ is so so so so so overpowered, yada yada, rant rant.' It's rarely constructive. In the past you rarely see posts in the format of 'I think X is overpowered, because of reasons A, B and C'. In the event you do see it, it's usually followed up by a gigantic, sarcastic flamefest (Nerf Wolf totem!) that probably didn't do us much good.

It would probably be better to say you can make a post about a specific problem and why you want to fix it so long as you're polite about it and either ask for constructive criticism or offer some of your own.

Example:

Ethereal defenses are terribly overpowered. I don't see why the admin cannot understand this, maybe they're just dumb, but surely everyone else here agrees with me. Let us rant!

vs.

Ethereal defenses, in my opinion, are very overpowered. Liveforest has always been stronger than ripple (I don't see how you can't compare passive entangle to passive 2-second stun. One breaks up groups, one doesn't) and Surge has always been that second limb of support that cities do not have. Is there a way we can equalize this?

Maybe it's my bad for assuming that once it's known that constructive criticisms are what's required to post complaints, that's obviously what people mean when they say they want to post a complaint and the reasons they're complaining about said complaint.

Anyway... is it allowed?

Either you're not posting your whole train of thought or you have some weird idea of what constructive criticism is. Constructive criticism means that instead of just complaining about it, you suggest some way of improving things as well. If you do that, addressing concerns is legit. If you don't, it's a rant. That used to be considered legit within certain boundaries around here, but is not anymore.

Ok. Let's use this for an example:



That's what I consider a constructive complaint. It says what I don't like. Says why I don't like it and even makes a suggestion. (obviously, I realize that briar walls make everyone writhe so they're not completely unfair to invaiders, but it was an example)

Or this one:



This is also a constructive complaint. It says what I don't like. Says why I don't like it and though I don't have a suggestion to fix it, calls upon others to do so. (I actually really would like to know why pants can't be worn under greatrobes. It can't be that hard to code something, can it? )

Would these types of things be allowed?