From my experience of the forum mods, it's not that heavy a yoke to carry.  For the most part (not counting topic related comments), they pretty much stay out of things until there is a reason to intervene, such as flaming, bullying and flagrant disregard of site rules, etc.

In fact the co-existence between mods and forum users on Stardock is quite a happy and productive one, and I do not say this purely from my own observations.  Quite a few people have commented on how much more user friendly the Stardock based forums are, as compared to others they have visited.  So Mumbles, apart from the Stardock logo beneath their names and responding to technical inquiries, etc, it's probable that you and other Galciv forum goers will hardly notice their presence after a while.

Thanks starkers.

We mods try to stay out of the way as much as we think is responsible.  We try to help folks that have difficulties more than we "shut down toublemakers".  If we can nudge in a forum post or a PM we try  to.  Post are rarely if ever locked or edited.

With the introduction of Impulse there seems to be more bleeding over from site to site but that's a good thing even if it takes some adjustment from us all.

No one here wants to limit anyones speech or opinion or what-have-you.  We do, however, want to make everyone's visit to the stardock family of sites plaeasant.  You, the communities, help is always needed and appreciated and welcomed.

We really are a better palce with all of us involved.

Thanks are not necessary, Zubs/mods... I spoke the truth as I see/know it and felt it important to inform those who have had less experience/contact with moderators... that forum life will not noticeably change because of a more noticeable mod presence.

Here, here!  Of course it's a good thing....

 

Here's another slant on it!  I live in Australia and therefore am mostly interested in Australian issues and current affairs, etc... so my FF home page is set to Yahoo 7, which is our local version.  However, while it is primarily local, we get quite a bit of news on US politics and current affairs as well, which is a good thing because it helps me (we Aussies) to look outside of ourselves to see how others in the World live and think, etc.  Now I may not necessarily agree with US some politics or differeing social values to our own, but in being better informed of what, why and when, I am better able to understand the thinking/reasoning hehind it, whether I still disagree or not.  In essence, I am educating myself...expanding my view of the World.

The same applies here with the cross-threading since the introduction of Impulse.  While I am not an avid gamer and possess little knowledge of gaming structures and strategies, etc, I am now better able to acquire that knowledge and understanding from real users, rather than advertising/manufacturers hype, so that when the wife and I eventually purchase Galciv and other games, we will have a bit of a head start.

The same would be true in reverse, where a gamer who wanted to begin customising their desktop need only click on the appropriate forums and links in Impulse to get the all information they require... it's greater convenience with just a few mouse clicks.  Now what's wrong with that??

Furthermore, and I'll use the US as an example here, rather than get them through the eyes of Hollywood or media sources that tell you only what they want you to know, I can get ground level views and opinions from real people here - whether they be gamers, customisers or average joe users - and that, to me, is grass roots level information that's more informative and reliable when it comes to real people. The same applies to the UK and other members countries, it's real people connecting and communicating on their own terms, rather than through uncontrollable media or political sources that so rarely reflect the will, thoughts and ideas of the common people.

Well that's my take  cross-threading... it's something to embrace, not reject.

Even if in need of a dictionary?

The only reason I shop at local chain-store is that the people (And employees) have fun there and give their opinions. If they don't like a game, they'll tell you.

Eh... I still want an option that would help when searching the forums.

 

Yet there still is an apparent increase of heavy handedness from my perspective and with all due respect.

I mean I think I have as good a handle on the pulse of the GalCiv2 site as anyone could have, but in the end I'm just one guy and can only tell you my own personal opinion. I'll be frank and honest while at the same time being as respectful as possible when mentioning what is obviously a delicate matter. I'll then drop it from further discussion.

Anyway here goes. Basically Kryo is both beloved and respected by pretty much everyone without exception on the GalCiv2 site. However if I were to similarly characterize how I feel about Jafo, Island Dog and Zoomba I would have to say that my predominate feelings would be fear and respect. I doubt that's what anyone intends. And perhaps fear is an overly strong word, maybe trepidation is a better one but still that's not a feeling one can legislate away.

That's the last I'll say about that. Hopefully this is something that simply corrects itself with time.

Hmmm...as someone who is both a gamer and a WB user i have GC2.com bookmarked and wincustoimize.com bookmarked. When i want GC2 topics, i click there, if i want WC i click my WC bookmark. Why would i navigate from one site through the SD web to find WC when i can just click on the seperate bookmark, treating them as seperate sites as i still and will always do.

I'm not rehashing any arguments, it seems we are back to maturely discussing cross posting.

You also say, "A gamer need only click on the appropriate forums and links in Impulse". Why is that? I use Impulse only to update my SD products. As a gamer and SD customer i would always be at GC2.com or SOASE, not impulse. Others may i don't know. Again if i was in impulse and wanted something from WC i would go to wincustomize.com with my browser.

I would expect and suspect that anyone that is nothing more than the casual user of SD products would navigate between sites in the manner i layed out, as one would think they are seperate products and have seperate sites so they will use what is layed out for them. To someone on the outside looking in, WC and GC2 have nothing in common but the parent company.  I would think that a very casual user would not assume a link between the sites exists and sift through the links and forums to go from GC2 for eg to WC or Ju. Why would you not just open that bookmarked page? Which of course does not require the connected sites and the cross posting.

You use Yahoo7 (which i do as well for my Aussie news, another Australian here ), would i be right in assuming that you expect to find current affairs topics from all round Australia and the world there...How would it be if Yahoo7 started a deal with eBay to advertise auctions on the front page, pushing the days news further down the list of topics. Yes it is a small inconvience to have to sift through the eBay crap you have now been inundated with but since you have little to no interest in seeing those auctions, especially when they have little to do with the intent you went toYahoo7 in the first place for, would you not start to get frutrated and annoyed?

It all boils down to personal taste. those that enjoy chatting on multiple forums within Stardockia may indeed find the cross posting to be the best thing since sliced bread, as is the case with Frogboy. Those whose interests are only focused on one little corner of SD will find their corner very crowded with the topics from the more populated sites flowing in and making the content of interest to that person, very hard to find.

I understand alot of you folks enjoy the sites this way, but since i only go to the GC2 forums i have no need for the rest of forums within SD. I use WB and Object Desktop Ultimate, i just have no interest in chatting about them, only GC2, which these days is a very hard thing to do. Nothing is going to change but i am happy continuing to point out that on this side of the fence, things are not so rosey.

Hey, Mumbles!  Please define "heavyhandedness"... from your perspective.  I am not questioning your feelings on the matter, but as I have not experienced this from Jafo, ID or Zoomba, I would like some clarification so as to better understand where you're coming from.  Further, an explanation may go towards helping/improving communications/relations between mods and users, etc.

There's the old saying that you can please some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time... then there are those who fear/are resistant to change, so it's understandable that some will have doubts, reservations and dislikes regarding the changes across the Stardock family of sites, and obviously there are going to be some teething problems, but once the bugs are ironed out and we all become accustomed to these changes, we're going to think back and wonder what all the fuss was about.

Neilo, hi!  I do see your point of view and you've made some valid points.  For some Galciv/SOASE forum users, much of what you argue may be true, but it is not necessarily the case for all.  If you have your Stardock experience so well organised that you do not need to make use of forums and features other than those you currently use, then that is fine... they're obviously not for you, or others of similar thinking.  However, there may be others who are enjoying the diversity of cross-threaded forums and find the community features and one-stop shopping/downloading of Impulse invaluable, and that is the point of amalgamating the various areas of Stardock into the one place, for the convenience/ease of use of customers.

That's the point, you see, there are always more than one side to every argument, and while you have made some valid points for keeping the Galciv forums/area independent of the others, there are as many, if not more valid reasons for why Galciv/SOASE should come under the same umbrella.   OK, so it's not what you're accustomed to and there are some early inconveniences, but life is full of change and inconvenience and we adapt, and so will we here.  It may take a while, but it'll all work out for the best.

 

I don't want to go very far down this path for fear of getting into arguments about whether or not my subjective opinions are reasonable to have or not or to delve into he said/she said type arguments because none of that is productive. But certianly in the interests of clearing the air I'll try and be a bit more specific.

One example is this very thread and the fuss that occured over what in my mind are basically innocuous comments regarding skinning. I'm not going back over the thread and re-read it to prove anything or even refresh my rememberance of it but I don't recall anything getting to the level of cursing or of what I would consider any expressions of hate, ridicule, belittlement, etc. Certainly a few sarcastic comments went in both directions however to have to walk up the chain of command from Jafo to Island Dog then to Zoomba each reading the riot act seemed to me to be a perfect example of heavy handedness. I'm not totally familiar with the chain of command but my understanding is that to go any higher than Zoomba would require Brad himself to make an apperance.

It seemed to me that aspect of the thread was dying down anyway and it was only the repeated warnings that kept it going as long as it did. It was certainly not of any real importance to me, what was more important are the issues that are apparently the result of "when worlds collide" between GalCiv2 and WC, which is mostly what we're talking about now.

Absolutely. Also no doubt unfamiliarity on both sides of the fence is at play as well. They say familiarity breeds contempt but in this case it's really the opposite. A lot of it is perhaps my unfamiliarity with certin folks as much as their unfamiliarity with me. Again time could easily lead to more mutual trust and understanding.

Seems to be a misconception here that's at issue, then. This isn't a "chain of command" thing so much as that the concerns expressed here were brought up internally, and some of us decided to weigh in on our own.

I don't see three site Admins voicing similar opinions about how things 'should' ideally go, or mentioning the inevitability of cross-forum interaction can be seen as much more than a 'perfect example' of universal awareness of the stated/perceived issue mentioned in the thread.

To me, 'heavy handedness' would be an off-hand/abrupt closure/deletion of the thread and a summary population deforestation, neither of which was/is the case....

No doubt there are many misconceptions but that's not the underlying issue. If moderators are going to weigh in on a topic "on their own" then they should specify that otherwise the normal assumption is that they are acting in their official capacity. But even then care should be taken because you can't just make a comment like *zoomba removes  his moderator hat * and then tear into folks on the assumption that removes the authority and weight that must be accorded his pronouncements regadless of whether they are professional or just personal.

I had this discussion earlier with Jafo and his assertion was that there was no difference between his status on the forums and mine and that we could argue on an equal footing. He's welcomed to his opinion in this matter but I must disagree since he can ban me but I cannot ban him. That's a significant difference and one that I need to constantly be aware of.

Regardless whether the source is misconception or whatever, whether rightly or wrongly, I fear Jafo, Island Dog and Zoomba in pretty much linearly increasing order and I doubt very much that is their desire and I can certainly say that it is not my desire either but that *is* the current state of affairs.

That might be technically true, but you've little to fear in that regard. Any such action would generally need to go through me and Zoomba since you're a well-known GC2 user, and he's not responsible for GC2. But in any case, the banning policy is the same elsewhere as it is here; spambots, pirates, or flagrant and repeated rules violations will do it. Disagreeing with a moderator won't; you're always welcome to voice your opinion.

Again perhaps it's just familiarity because I have to disagree and although I don't fear to disagree with you, that doesn't stop me from feeling that I need to walk on eggshells when in the presence of the WC moderation team.

Speaking of rules, there was a post awhile back that appeared to me to be spam but others thought it might not be. That's really neither here nor there except for the fact that it caused me to look around for the "forum rules" which I was unable to find. Is there anything prominently posted (or even not prominent) defining user behavior and moderation policy? Other than the explicitly defined Forum/Site Issues forums policies that is.

Wincustomize has: https://www.wincustomize.com/terms.aspx

Joe user has: https://www.joeuser.com/terms

I don't see one for GalCiv though.