The State of the Flash Flash Revolution Address

[QreepyBORIS]

As a website, we have a problem.

Spammers have control over the chat, postwhores are unrelentingly attacking the forums, and there is no sign of either of these aspects improving. The site is rotting from the inside out.

I have been at this site for quite a long time (probably longer than you, the reader have), and I have seen its ups, its downs, and everything in between. I have seen every single change to the site that has happened in the past ~20 months. And this regression is the biggest and worst so far.

I love this site, and I do not want it to deteriorate such as it is doing now. I do not want to leave this site, but the scene is slowly getting uglier as time wears on. I am certain that I am not the only one who shares this opinion.

I do not want to link this unfortunate decline to any particular event. I do not believe that I could do that honestly, as it would probably be a coincidence. It is just a general decline in the quality of the community. Yes, all the people that we may hate on the site are still members of the community, just as the rest of us are, too. And we have to live with them, their bad habits, and everything about them.

Why, though?

There has been a lack of large-scale action by the staff to stop and prevent spamming in the chat and forums. Though I hate to slander the moderators and administration, they are not doing this part of their job (for the moderators, that is ALL their job entails). Yes, they lock threads sometimes, yes they delete posts (see: emccky), but that is just the surface of the problem. We need to remove the problem at its roots, which is not going to be an easy task.

First, the rules need to be enforced with a much, much stricter hand. The site is altogether too lenient when it comes to postwhoring, site spamming, useless questions, and general disregard for the rules. The administrators who are NOT Synthlight should also be able to hand out bans at their discretion. I realize that this is a difficult thing to simply let a staff member do, and power abuse can result if no care is taken (see: Arch0wl). But that is the only way our community will be clean from bad posters and chat-hackers.

I understand that Synthlight has no affinity for banning people (though I also understand that ~300 people are IP banned per month), as the number of people that play FFR would therefore decrease. It is my opinion, though, that the number of people banned would have little to no effect on the enormous amount of people who would still play the game, and direct their friends and family to play as well. So the point that some people need to be removed from the site stands. The gains far outweigh the consequences.
Now, that idea might bother some. I am certain that there are people who would view that as elitist. Eliminating members who break the rules of the forums, chat, or game is not elitist. Tell me, why is it that every developed country has a highly organized police force? It is so the people who detract from society are put to justice. It is that simple; the mods simply need to act stricter.

How many warnings does a member of FFR get before they are banned? I would put it somewhere around five. That seems awfully lenient to me; do you think that someone's posting habits would suddenly improve if you needed to give them that many warnings in the first place? I would venture a guess: no. The warning system needs to be a little less kind to people who break the rules.

Not to mention, how many people out of the people who break the rules even get warnings? Seems to me like only a few have ever. That needs to be improved upon, as well.
I concede, though, the amount of people that frequent this site would make that a rather unwieldy chore for the current mod team. The moderator team ought to be expanded. I can name, right now, several people (though Synth might be dubious about the idea of them being moderators or administrators) who would be right for the job. Kilga could. Moogy could (I am not kidding). Toph (most of you don't know him, though) could. Etcetera.

These things need to improve, and I think things are looking up for the possibility of their improvement. We would just have to act on all of the things, and in all likelihood even more, that I mentioned above. It could be an extremely time-consuming or difficult task, but the necessity for improvement is there, and we must act on it.

I would love to hear any suggestions that you, all of the other users, have on this issue. I feel it is paramount to the quality of FFR's community.