Updated Forum Rules

Hi everyone,

Blender Artists has grown a lot over the last couple years. It’s one of the key Blender community hubs and definitely one of the most (if not the most) active sites within the community.

For the most part this is a great forum with a lot of positive energy, but over the last few months (and in particular, the last two weeks), things have turned a bit. In a few instances things have become downright “poisonous”.

I’m referring primarily to many of the threads surrounding the Gooseberry Project.

We moderators and admins have been discussing some updated rules for a few months now and feel it’s time to implement (and enforce) them. It should be noted, though, that all of these changes been in discussion for some time and have just been reinvigorated by the recent discussions.

Updated Forum Forum Rules - General Conduct

  • No beating a dead horse - Constantly repeating a point, complaint, or otherwise bringing up an issue over and over does not improve the quality of discussion. There are better ways to bring issues to attention.
  • No “versus” threads - Rhetorical comparisons of one software over another are not allowed. These bring needless debate that too often becomes contentious. If you wish to empirically compare render engines, modeling features, or something else of the sorts, this can be fine. Just keep it focused on the data.
  • No quote battles - Line-by-line arguments, particularly those on semantics of individual sentences do no one any good. These take away from the quality of the thread and discussion. If an issue cannot be resolved in a post or two then it should be taken to private messages, or dropped.

Let’s keep the forums a fun, productive, and positive place for everyone.

As a reminder, it’s our practice to first privately warn users of any violations. If the user continues to push their bounds then we’ll either follow with a second warning or temporary ban.

If you ever feel you’ve been unfairly targeted, or that a moderator/admin is abusing their power you can email via [email protected]

Hahaha, no.

You can’t moderate “quality” into your community and the discourse.

This seems as a good an opportunity as any to finally terminate my account. It’ll be an overall improvement in regards to your new rules, I’m sure.

I support the mods, and the users,

Mods job is not an easy one.

I have had posts deleted, and whole threads because I was trying to promote this ot that… however brush tools and UI changes can be beaten to death.

I have only ever wanted to.donate money to something I love, blender and the bge.

Sure you can. Get rid of all the dumbasses and you’ll have an instantly more pleasant community.

To me, that sounds like something a dumbass would say.

About rule #2…If I wanted to get help because I was undecided about choosing a software or hardware part, how would I go about this without breaking that rule? I would not be making the thread in an attempt to say one is better than the other. for example, I just got a new video card that I’m very happy with as a result of comparison posts around the net including this site. Naturally some would disagree with others on quality but the debate can reveal some useful points to consider…as long as there’s no name calling.

Replying by quotes, LOL, please excuse me, I can’t resist.

  • No beating a dead horse - Constantly repeating a point, complaint, or otherwise bringing up an issue over and over does not improve the quality of discussion. There are better ways to bring issues to attention.

Does this include multires modifier? (sorry just kidding now, but I had my time,… ha ha. I’ll try for not mentioning it all the time).
I won’t call it a dead horse but… whatever.

No “versus” threads - Direct comparisons of one software over another are not allowed. These bring needless debate that too often becomes contentious.

I agree. By any aspect.

No quote battles - Line-by-line arguments, particularly those on semantics of individual sentences do no one any good. These take away from the quality of the thread and discussion. If an issue cannot be resolved in a post or two then it should be taken to private messages, or dropped.

Trying to avoid it.
It goes to Zalamnder and SaintHaven mostly. LOL
Sorry,
I could not resist.
Please don’t get me wrong.
This community is really democratic, whatever happens, it really helps blender development.
This is what we are. “We” the blender community. Right?

I agree, JonathanW. Well said!

Im with Zalamander on this. Having moderated a forum before, rules like this don’t work. You’re in essence ruling that members must agree, shut up, or leave. They won’t do so simply because of a rule. You’re just going to frustrate people and/or become the bad guys yourselves for trying/failing to enforce the new rules.

Unlike Zalamander though, I think I’ll stick around a while longer to see this new utopia.

Aren’t you Mr. Sunshine. Having moderated different forums I can safely say that getting rid of the worst trolls is a pretty effective way of building a constructive community. No one will miss the sourpuss anyway.

Utopia….
Right.
Democracy, real democracy I mean, not roman democracy (I have some thoughts on this, please excuse me), it is still considered as Utopia, you know how it goes.
An utopia that turned us to individual persons. We still call utopia the most obvious miracle. Good luck to us all. Just saying because we live today. Time is now.
Civilized manners. I never trust them. Lies, most of them.
I love utopias.

This is not at all the case. Nothing about this says “shut up or leave”. What we’re saying is this:

  • Don’t try and win an argument by breaking down semantics. This will never work and it just goes on and on and on (as seen many times in the Gooseberry threads).
  • No “Blender vs. Maya” threads (or other software). Specific questions like “Can Blender do this? I need it to solve my problem” are fine.
  • Back and forth quote battles that span many pages are pointless. They’re incredibly difficult to follow, lend no real purpose, and are better suited for private messages. Replying by quotes is fine, and encouraged. What is not fine is. Use common sense here, the mods will too.

The point is just to try and turn down the volume of unconstructive criticism and personal vitriol.

Flogging a dead-horse, grammatical corrrections, or personal attacks can just bury all the great information here.

That’s why they are called ‘moderators’, right?

Unfortunately, these rules are much needed… I don’t come on much any more, but when I do I’ll try to more conscientious and steer away from arguments. I mean, why waste so much time arguing when you could be doing something constructive? If you disagree, then just move on and ignore it. If you really disagree, I guarantee you can sum it up in a sentence or two.

Where’s the retweet button? :slight_smile:

//maybe not

hahaha i think we’re being punked. :slight_smile:

It seems like people are already working to poison the well so as to make the rules backfire and lead to an about-face.

I do agree that there’s been a lot of negative energy recently and I don’t think that by any means is helping to advance Blender (both in terms of professional adoption and development). Unfortunately, it is the users who necessitate some of these rules, it’s not like Johnathon just pulls random new rules out of his hat to fluster everyone.

The fact that THIS thread can’t even remain civil is a sign of the problems that have become runaway nuisances on BA.

Not everyone has to agree, this is human nature, and forcing agreement makes for a homogeneous community where there are no new ideas.

That said, there is a marked difference between debate and argument. The complete lack of respect for differing opinions, the insistence of driving individual topics into the ground across multiple threads by certain users, the inability to keep any thread on topic for more than a page, and the predilection that some have for sowing anger, argument, and hatred across the forum without contributing anything of substance to the community necessitate that new rules be put in place. BA has generally been a friendly, helpful, and most importantly welcoming community to those willing to at least try to learn the ropes. Recently, however, it’s turned into thread after thread of name calling, hot button issues, fighting, and even threats in PMs. This is unacceptable, and we as a community are better than that. A few rotten apples can spoil the whole bunch, and that’s certainly been visible here. These people know who they are, and repeated offenses of the rules will no longer be acceptable.

I’m not sour, I sincerely believe that was a pretty stupid thing to say. I knew you didn’t mean it that way, and you have since elaborated it in different words. I simply couldn’t resist.

I don’t know what kind of forums you moderated, but you probably didn’t have any rules that are directed specifically at the conduct of a select few people.

Let me say this, I read a lot of dumbass comments on this forums and almost none of them fall into the categories of the rules mentioned above.

You essentially just changed the forum rules in reaction to a tiny fallout with a certain community member, in front of the Dear Leader. Yes, that member keeps repeating similar arguments, if you keep replying to him. You don’t have to read it, just scroll over it. There’s also an ignore function. If it wasn’t for dozens of community members getting outraged at merely slightly provocative dissent, it wouldn’t be a big deal.

Sure no worries. Wasn’t the smartest thing to say I admit, it’s just pretty obvious at times that arguing with people is not worth your time so as a moderator you’d have to get rid of people causing trouble at some point. That’s what I meant with getting rid of the dumbasses and it was meant as a lighthearted comment.