Cosmic Reset | 12 Oct 2014 6:44 a.m. PST |
Bill, could we have an "Ultramodern News Stories" board? |
Redroom | 12 Oct 2014 7:41 a.m. PST |
I like seeing more news stories than I can typically get with CNN or BBC, esp the ones that Tango shows with maps (I love maps). |
John the OFM | 12 Oct 2014 7:54 a.m. PST |
Why can't you just got to Google News or Yahoo News or you can go to your own choice of biased political news. Nobody likes to read crap they disagree with, so I always go to National Review On Line to reinforce my bias. All it does on TMP is lead to mass roundups of those who can't play well with others. Seeing them get hauled off for disagreeing with the Editor seems a bit harsh, even when I agree with him. |
fantasque | 12 Oct 2014 7:56 a.m. PST |
Please god NOOOOOOO The UM board is already more than enough space for this stuff |
John the OFM | 12 Oct 2014 8:05 a.m. PST |
I had enough of the guys back in the CA days who strutted around bragging about how manly they were because they could say anything they wanted there. What a joke that was. As long as they agreed with Management, they were fine. When they didn't, not so fine. CA was a small pond, and so is TMP. If you want no holds barred political discussion, I am sure there are real ones out there. Geez, just look at the poisonous YouTube Comments sections. You don't have to go far. |
Joes Shop | 12 Oct 2014 8:48 a.m. PST |
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Cosmic Reset | 12 Oct 2014 10:19 a.m. PST |
Well, my point was that most of the "Ultramodern" stuff isn't gaming discussion, but news stories and supplementary arguing and name calling. I was hoping that if "behaving badly" had its own board, that maybe modern (including current period) gaming enthusiasts would have a place to go to talk about things related to modern gaming (like equipment, camouflage, organization, tactics, hypotheticals, etc.), without all of the absurd behavior. |
whoa Mohamed | 12 Oct 2014 10:39 a.m. PST |
I have a suggestion Get Rid of the Ultramodern board. I am an ultramodern gamer but this board has been ruined and I blame the owner as much as the "the people behaving badly" It should have been and could have been for just the things Irishserb describes. I know we all hoped it would be. its ruined now…I don't see a way back from that..Mikey |
Cosmic Reset | 12 Oct 2014 10:53 a.m. PST |
whoa Mohamed, you're probably right. I guess my suggestion was just me working through my denial of what you say above. |
The Gray Ghost | 12 Oct 2014 12:59 p.m. PST |
just make a behaving badly board |
venezia sta affondando | 12 Oct 2014 1:44 p.m. PST |
just make a behaving badly board … …with Boobies! Not only would it be hilarious but also relatively popular. I did imagine that mine was a lone voice about the Ultramodern lack-of-wargaming discussion but now obviously not. It was the lack of will on The Editor's side that was disconcerting. |
B6GOBOS | 12 Oct 2014 11:19 p.m. PST |
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Rod I Robertson | 13 Oct 2014 7:08 p.m. PST |
To all the wise Magi of TMP: Not everybody who posts on the Ultra-modern board behaves badly and I have detected lots of naughtiness on other boards (I will not name these boards because I do not want to antagonize people). It seems to me that if you go to the UM board you should have a reasonable expectation of what you're going to see there. If you don't like what goes on there, don't look at it. If bad blood from the UM board spills over to other boards, well, that's the fault of the posters and not the board. I have a growing interest in Ultra-modern conflicts (an interest triggered by reading that board) and I am just getting into this genre now. I do not want this useful source of information, opinion and inspiration to be amputated from TMP just because some people feel upset about posters "behaving badly". I have two suggestions to try to solve this problem in a way that might make everybody a little less unhappy about the Ultra-modern board in particular and posters "behaving badly" in general. 1) The first suggestion is a thread (on the Ultra-modern board and TMP Talk) where posters can make a pledge to be better and gentler citizens of TMP. This is to some extent a public forum and so some social niceties may be required, even if you're sitting in front of you computer in your underwear, drinking a beer and smoking a stogie! This pledge would be a public demonstration of the intent to be more polite and generous towards our fellow members. I am Canadian and we Canadians generally put great stock in getting along with our neighbours. I'm not saying that everyone should start saying "I'm sorry" or "eh" all the time, but I am asking that everyone be a little more generous and polite in their discourse – especially with those who have vexed you. Such a pledge would not be binding but would use moral suasion to improve the tone and decorum on the page. 2) The second suggestion is for all on TMP to develop a higher tolerance for annoyance. We are all different and we all do things which annoy others either intentionally or unintentionally. The intentional annoyance could be reduced by doing suggestion # 1 above, but the unintentional annoyance cannot be stopped. So everyone needs to grow a slightly thicker skin and let some of the annoyances just bounce of their toughened dermis. Wargames are competitive games and thus by extension wargamers are competitive people. That spirit of competition can "jack us up" and make us rude and insensitive to each other when in more serene circumstances we would not be. The purpose of a wargame is to win. The purpose of a wargame discussion board is to discuss and share. Too many people (including myself at times) lose sight of that simple idea and get carried away with winning arguments and proving themselves "top dog". We need to be mindful of that and suppress our inner Napoleons while at the same time fostering a more gentle public persona. The alternative is that TMP could degenerate into a vortex of rudeness and hatefulness like another well known forum about gaming where the laws of the jungle, verbal mob-violence and virtual lynch-mobs prevail. Is it too much to ask that we all make a modest effort to take a higher road and as posters, lend a little more class to the hobby which we all love and cherish? Rod Robertson. |
alien BLOODY HELL surfer | 14 Oct 2014 5:23 a.m. PST |
I think asking some to change their racist, xenophobic, genocidal views is unlikely to work, it will still come out in the posts. I'm into modern gaming – well, moving into it, but i'm not going to look on there for ideas, help or so on. I am pretty tolerant, but a lot of the views on there wouldn't look out of place in late 1930's Germany. Strangely, the other forum you allude to, if it is the one I am thinking of wouldn't tolerate a lot of the opinions and ideas put out on the modern boards. |
OSchmidt | 14 Oct 2014 6:52 a.m. PST |
I'm quite happy with the Ultra-modern Board. I rarely go there, rarely post, and it seems to have siphoned off all the people who "do not play well with other children" there. It's been quite pleasant on the other boards. It seems to be a therapy group for people and if they get their frustrations out there- welcome to it. |
Winston Smith | 18 Oct 2014 5:41 a.m. PST |
We have done the "How about a board for behaving badly?" thing before and it never worked. We even had a Napoleonic History board set up to confine the loonies to Napoleonic Discussion. That worked well….. |
Weasel | 18 Oct 2014 9:51 a.m. PST |
I think people would have less heart burn if they actually knew what the rules really were. "Discussion about how we must close the border so Ebola infected sleeper agents don't come into the US" = not political. "Poke fun of CNN or Fox" – political – DH. That list goes on and on.
As it is now, it's "politics and religion are okay in some cases, but not okay in other cases, based on the roll of a D10". We have editors, why not turn one of them into a moderator and enforce the rules consistently? People will stop crying about it and it could actually be useful for something other than news dumps and conspiracy theories. |
EJNashIII | 18 Oct 2014 11:53 a.m. PST |
Weasel, your idea sounds good, but the problem being, like in the real world, the badly behaved like to play the system. I.e., how often do you hear the extremist political news stations (either side) talking heads try to decry the moderates as really being apart of the opposing extremist camp if they don't support their extremist view? The old tag line "fair and balanced" at work (To be "fair", I would assume the other side has a tag line just as ridiculous). Editor, rightly so, or not gets that allot. What would be different with a new moderator? My thought would be to make the Blue Fez a little more assessable. The old CA board provided a good outlet, but worried the advertisers. So, the Fez and a yahoo group were created to give the editor plausible denial-ability. However, they were so separated that they really are not connected at all. So, now, the nonsense crops up everywhere in all kinds of weird places, rather than have a home within TMP. I'm thinking the answer would be a more clear advertised link on the home page to the FEZ with a clear warning of enter at your own risk, the editor doesn't endorse anything within, etc. Then, have a way to just dump a whole section of discussion from any board over there if it crosses the line. That way, Editor doesn't have to punish and potentially lose money. The badly behaved can enjoy their game, the rest only need see it until the dump and can just continue along as if they didn't exist. |
EJNashIII | 18 Oct 2014 12:13 p.m. PST |
Also, I would see the "sleeper agent" part of your non-political example as being highly political. The wording itself assumes a political intent and definitely appeals to a political class that "enjoys" a good conspiracy theory that implies their political opponents are a part of the conspiracy. Likewise, the other side will see the dig as it was intended. As said before, the badly behaved love to play the system and enjoy this sort of word smithing (not saying you meant anything at all, just using the example sentence for the point) Hence, the editor's troubles in defining, exactly, what are offenses. |
EJNashIII | 18 Oct 2014 12:38 p.m. PST |
The other worry I have is the very existence of a Ultra-modern board. While, in general, most wargamers are always interested in new toys and new doctrine, the very fabric of ultra modern war is about pysch-ops. Loaded post might actually be apart of the war, not a friendly discussion as we define it. These boards have members from all over the world. For example, while ISIS might be "wonderful" people quite deserving of a horrible fate, I have definitely seen posts that might reflect someone adding propaganda that is meant to incite electorates one way or another rather than be a discussion of tactics, etc. This board is definitely big enough, reaches an interesting demographic, and shows up clearly enough on Google that real intelligence organizations or political parties would clearly notice how easy and effective it is to manipulate a forum that tries to discuss such hot issues under the banner of not being political. |