Hello Sporum! Lately things have been getting more than a little out of hand around here, so I thought we'd do what a couple of my favorite blogs do when that happens there: Have a little chat about the Sporum rules and the state of the Sporum.

Unfortunately, it seems that there has been a breakdown in communication between the moderation and regular users. The biggest problem is people ranting in a thread when a moderator posts instead of doing what the moderator says. When moderators post in a thread, we are posting because there is something wrong and it needs to stop (unless we are joining the discussion). What we are not doing is posting so that you can then state your opinion about the moderator's decision and why you are going to ignore it. If you have a problem with a moderator's decision, that is what the PM box is for. A few people seem to think that when we receive PMs, we delete them; this is not true. I respond to every PM (and even email) unless it is a thread lock request or one of 10 PMs about a recent spammer. So let's go over what you should and shouldn't do with some examples:

What you shouldn't do when a moderator posts in a thread

AnAnnoyedUser wrote:Slyth, I think you're wrong and your decision and is stupid. I'm going to keep doing X, Y, Z because it is not right for you to make me stop and everyone else should keep doing it too. The moderation here is SPORE.

What will happen if you do something like this? You'll get banned. You'll also get even more annoyed than AnAnnoyedUser is in the original post because not only do you have to do what the moderator says, but now you are also barred from posting on the forum for 24 hours to an entire week, during which your anger will either burn out or fester and you will finally join Darth Sidious and rule the galactic empire.

What you should do when a moderator posts in a thread

AnAnnoyedButUnderstandingUser wrote:OK, back to the original topic of discussion everyone. Let's not ruin this thread for the OP.

And then he sends a PM. And then we have a discussion instead of a rant-at-moderator-destroy-thread-get-banned situation. Now sending a PM is not a guarantee that the moderator will change his mind or do what you want; it is, however, a much better alternative to being suspended and using someone else's thread as toilet paper (and really, folks, this is what you do when you make someone's thread your soapbox).

The other problem we seem to be having stems more from a lack of understanding on your part of how the suspension system is supposed to work. Unfortunately, this is in part, the moderation's fault. So let's clarify a few things.

How suspensions are supposed to work

A few of you may remember, long ago in a distant land when, I, Aku, shape-shifting master of--I mean when it was the year 2009. Around this time, the Sporum was still in its infancy and we had a regular administrative presence on the forum. It was also around this time that moderators were given the ability to suspend users following the very first "spam attacks." As a result, what I'll call the "steps of suspension" were laid out:

1st suspension: 24 hours
2nd suspension: 24 hours to 1 week (depending on infraction)
3rd suspension: 1 week to 1 month (depending on infraction)
4th suspension: 1 month to permanent ban (depending on infraction)
5th suspension: PERMANENT BAN (this means you don't come back! even on a really cool alt that spams a lot!)

Now there was some room to alter this slightly; for example, if someone had not done anything for a couple months, the cycle might sort of reset itself. Or maybe someone sent an apology email; that can help too and a few users have done this and gotten back on the forum in a much shorter period of time. There was even one case where a user sent a very sincere apology after a permanent ban and remained on the forum on an alternate account posting happily along with everyone else until he did something stupid and was never seen again.

So no doubt some of you are sitting here reading this twiddling your thumbs and thinking "Gee, Billy, I'm pretty sure I have 5 suspensions. What's going on?" What's going on is something called "lenience" and also an inability for moderators to suspend users permanently (or even for a month). We can only apply 24 hour and 7 day bans. The administration does not often visit us these days and when they do, it is only to permanently ban a list of users we keep in a dark cellar. But wait, there's more!

What's going on? Why does JimBob have 30 suspensions?

Some people on the forum may think that moderation is very harsh. Bizarrely, many of these people were the ones around when the 5th suspension meant you weren't coming back. Today, even the 10th suspension means you might be coming back, however, I would like to change this because it is the result of lax moderation (though also the lack of administrative personnel). Here's what's going to happen (and in some cases, though often beyond the suspension limit outline below, often does):

When you reach your 5th suspension, you may (I would like to stress this as a possibility and not an absolute) find yourself in a permanent suspension limbo. What I mean by this is that your account may continue to receive a 7-day suspension each time the old suspension ends with the reason listed as "Rotating ban" or "Rotating suspension" (or if you are just a really bad spam account, simply "Troll"). So once you're there, how do you get out?

Escaping suspension limbo and saving the princess

Unfortunately, the princess is in another castle, so you won't be saving her. However, you might still escape suspension limbo. How do you do this? It's easy: Send me an email. If you are part of the Sporum Steam group, you might also catch me or Slyth on Steam (my current name there is "B is for BEHTLE BROTHERS" and Slyth's is "Lithium") though this will be much less reliable and you should not immediately expect either of us to drop our gaming experience to talk about suspensions; we are not paid for this and we are not on any clock.

Sometimes, due to the high volume of alternate spam and rant accounts currently in suspension limbo, users in this situation may also find that their account is temporarily unsuspended because we have either forgotten to re-suspend it or because it has been buried under a page or two of existing suspensions. This does not mean that you can once again frolic in the fields of the Sporum if you are receiving suspensions with the reason listed as "Rotating ban" or "Rotating suspension." It does, however, offer you a chance to communicate with the moderation through PMs if you are not comfortable using email or do not catch one of us elsewhere. Alternatively, you may use an alternate account expressly for the purpose of contacting myself, Slyth or DOGC through PMs.

And lastly, there is one more thing I would like to discuss with everyone.

DoomsdayProphet wrote:AND YOU KILLED IT YOU HORRIBLE MODERATORS!

Now folks, the Sporum has been around for about 4 years now. Unless the game is an international sensation like Starcraft or a soul-sucking time-hole like World of Warcraft, forum communities naturally diminish. The moderation here is actually a lot less harsh than it used to be. No one killed the forum community; it's just doing what all forum communities eventually do: getting smaller. We are all lucky that the forum has even lasted this long and that is partially owing to perhaps the best aspect of SPORE, the creators. Quite a few forums for excellent games that came out after SPORE and are still kicking receive far fewer posts and activity than here; for example, I just visited the Dawn of War 2 forums a few days ago to see what was happening with part of the game called "Last Stand." What did I find? Barring one thread, the last post was a few weeks ago. Now this game still has quite a few people playing. You can log in and see a few thousand players going at it most of times of day and it just had a free Steam weekend. Everyone here should be very happy to have the Sporum as active as it still is.

I'm going to leave this up for about a week and hopefully (barring flaming/spamming/ranting) unlocked and available for users to post in.

tl;dr



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Edit: I want to apologize for this senseless spam post. My younger cousin, Darwiples10M55555 was using my computer and I accidentally left the Sporum open. He has been reprimanded severely and this will not happen again. I, for one, think this is a very well written post, even if what's in it should go without saying.

Except that Birdie has admitted to being Hitler and is bias, so he should not be fully trusted.

Wow...
Big page, I read it twice. But yes, I don't see anything wrong with the moderation on the Spore forums. And I have gotten Banned once before but for good resend. You continue to impress me BlackBird.

Didzo has received his first suspension today after 4 years of successful foruming.

Moderation is not an easy job. It takes a lot of patience and a certain level of strictness. There are also times when a moderator's work isn't really appreciated but that's one of the things that comes with the job.
Sometimes users seem to forget that moderators are people too and being perfect 24/7 is not an option for anyone, as it is impossible. But - if someone was granted a Moderating role in the official forum of a quite famous game for a considerable amount of time then they clearly must have at least a hint of something appropriate to perform the role. Challenging them in front of everyone else, with the intent of hammering them down, is not only rude but also often a waste of everyone's time and space.

It's important to show respect, even if you don't agree with a certain decision, and take action in the right places at the right time. Moderators aren't being "evil" nor did they kill Spore. They're merely doing their (volunteer) job, which is keeping the forum in check and rid of all types of trolls/spammers/etc. You can always bring up a question with them by sending them a private message and exposing your issue.

I've just returned to Spore and the Sporum after a break that lasted several months. I did notice that the community has gotten "weaker" - by weaker I mean smaller, less stuff going on, less hype than in the past, and so on. You can see this just by difference in the Recents Topics compared to a year ago, perhaps even less. The developers have also turned their attention elsewhere, which is understandable from an economic perspective but kind of a bummer for all of us here. But that's how things are.
What's keeping things "together" at this stage is the crowd who still plays the game and those who show a certain interest in keeping the community thriving.

sporemasterblackbird wrote:Didzo has received his first suspension today after 4 years of successful foruming.

Right....
Thats nice, and good for him. Lets be carful one what youtube vids we Post hmmm?
Yes lets.
People are always going to hate the Mod's because well thats just people but with out someone too do the things like BlackBird or Slyth dose then there would be chaos. I have to say Moderatores are people they must have been respected, and weather they like too or not when someone does something bad they have to ban them. I know one time a friend of mine kept messing up my RP and doing things wrong it was more he just needed to learn but I still had to ban him for a few days from the Roleplay. I didn't want to but it didn't matter Rules are rules no one liek them but without them there would be chaos.
I have to agree thought the spore forums has gotten a little off track recently.

Still trying to convince us you're any better than Hitler? Won't happen

Holocaust< MinionJoe's ban

For the OP, not the posts below it:

What you wrote was very informative, and it states a real fact. I don't see anything wrong with how the moderating goes. I maybe new-ish to the forums but I've been playing Spore since 2008 and I still enjoy it! I've see Spore shrivel down before my very eyes as it's updates keep getting less and less. Because I'm still looming around on Spore, me, and many others who have had Spore for so long, are, I guess, considered Spore Elders.

Ah yes... The good old days of Spore back in '08. Back when moderators were still being chosen and before the mass downrating begun. I was there, indeed I was there, and I saw how Spore slowly begun to become what it is today; a community supported by the fans and the fans only.

I feel like Spore, and this still lively forum, is being held high by the users only. I feel like Maxis/EA only runs the servers, we do the rest.

Now granite, new moderators are not being chosen since only a Maxis/EA member can choose but for the very few that remain, they are doing a very good job at supporting us, the few thousand users, who still play Spore.

But not all moderators last forever right? I'm not saying that these servers will last another year or so but if they do, will the same moderators still be willing to do their job? I feel that if we want to help make the forum better, we must get more moderators.

I'm NOT asking for a moderator rank or something like that, I'm just stating that I feel as if we need more moderators.

I also think moderators should be able to add an off-topic section... BECAUSE WE NEED ONE!

Only problem is that before the moderators come, the Maxis/EA people must come. I don't think we're going to get a hold of them anytime soon, but we might be able to just reach out far enough to let them hear us!

We would have to have like a thread, creating by a moderator, and stickyed, that calls out to Maxis/EA! Let everyone post there! Let it reach 10,000 answers all asking for the same thing!

This is just an idea but it could bring us somewhere.

Anyway, Blackbrid is right about everything he/she said, so I say stick with what is written and follow the rules.

What is wrong with my Internet today...

Thanks for laying this out, I actually took the time to read it.

Blackbird, aren't spamming and derailing threads both against the rules?

Because I see numerous users (not naming names) doing it very often without even getting called out for it, and considering that they post it it nearly every thread, it sort of ruins my foruming experience.

BenKane wrote:Blackbird, aren't spamming and derailing threads both against the rules?

Yes.

sporemasterblackbird wrote:

BenKane wrote:Blackbird, aren't spamming and derailing threads both against the rules?

Yes.

Because I see numerous users (not naming names) doing it very often without even getting called out for it, and considering that they post it it nearly every thread, it sort of ruins my foruming experience.

If you would like to PM me the names of these users, I will go through their post history when I have some free time.

Not to be rude here, but the only reason an Off-Topic section would be in order is that we want people to stay around a SPORE-centered forum. However, the forum will no longer be SPORE-centered if it's covered in Off-Topic posts.

One might argue it could lend an air of order, as there are already many Off-Topic threads and posts floating about the forum, but all I've ever seen it do (On the GAC for example) is shift the focus towards off topic activities, completely off from SPORE, which was supposedly the main activity. Drawing attention away from SPORE will lead to less relevance and therefore less reason for EA to keep the Sporum updated - Though it sure doesn't seem like they pay much attention to it anyway - but more importantly, shifting away from SPORE can lead to the shut-down of this forum.

Also, bjpiers, word of caution - don't jump in too quickly. You said it's not an easy job and I would argue it's not a fun one either, necessarily.

sporemasterblackbird wrote:If you would like to PM me the names of these users, I will go through their post history when I have some free time.

I think this is why we need more moderators.... If only Maxis would select more people to me moderators...