Topic: State of the community address 2015

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Hello fellow Pushsquarers,

It's that time of the year, summer is here, kids are off from school, and in the gaming world E3 is upon us. I thought this would be a great time for me to address the community here, welcome new members, let you know how the community is going as well as to address some concerns and answer any questions you might have about the community, rules etc.

First of let me introduce myself to those who don't know me. I am Tasuki, the moderator here for Push Square. I was a member of Push Square's sister site Nintendolife since 2010, usually hanging out in the forums. When Push Square was announced, I came over here since I enjoyed Nitendolife and figured that Sammy and the gang would do for Playstation like the crew did over at Nintendolife for Nintendo news, reviews etc. A little less then a year ago I was given the great opportunity of helping Sammy and the crew out by taking up the gold shield of moderator. Which I have been pleased to help keep this place a friendly place where gamers of all types can discuss and be a part of a great community.

With that said, I would like to address a few things that have been happening around here lately.

1) Banning - I want to address this one right away since I have seen some people state some concern for this. Let me just say I do not go around looking for people to ban nor do I enjoy it. I don't do it to throw my power around nor do I do it because I don't like you. There are several reasons someone may get banned

A) Spam account - This one should be obvious. These are usually bots that make accounts, to post advertisements for something. They flood our boards with the same posts over and over again. As I said it should be clear as to why we ban them.

B) Troll - They are kinda along the same line as a spam bot but it's an actual person and the are just posting to troll. It can be some Microsoft fan bored and looking for the lulz, it can be someone who is mad at an article we posted or it can just be a nutcase. They are here just to disrupt things and again like spammer it should be obvious why they are banned.

C) Repeat violation of the community rules. Now I try to be fair but rules are there for a reason, if they weren't they wouldn't be there right? One of the ways we can keep this a friendly respectful place is by placing and enforcing rules, which most of them are more common sense and etiquette so everyone shouldn't have a problem with them. The most we ask is to be repeat and polite to others as you would expect other to be towards you. That includs, insulting one another, flaming other users and the language. Sometimes no matter how many times we ask, some users refuse to acknowledge this and as a result disrupt the community which after awhile we have no choice but to step in. Do we like to, to really but as I said we have no choice. Also keep in mind we cannot discuss why members got banned and sometimes you the community don't see what happened. If it's particularly nasty like a fight going back and forth in the comment sections of an article or a thread, or a string of racists remarks we may delete it and as a result may not look clear as why we banned someone. We will NEVER outright ban a legit member unless you have been warned about something and continue to do it, you have nothing to fear.

I hope that clears somethings up if you have questions post them below and I will be happy to answer them.

2) Necro posting - OK if you don't know what this is I will explain. Necro posting is when you post in a thread that has not been posted in for awhile, some people might do it for the lulz others might come from Google and found the thread when googling something, others who knows why. IF A THREAD IS MORE THEN SIX MONTHS OLD DON'T REVIVE IT. Chances are the question that is asked has already been answered, the discussion has ended and the person has moved on. If you want to discuss something and the last post was six months ago in said thread make a new one. With that said, before making a new thread especially for a popular game use the search to see if a similar thread has been made already and if it's not six months old feel free to add to that conversation. Most popular games will have an OT (open thred) to discuss a game, ask questions, and a group making thread to trade info, set up matches, etc if the game includes that. As we get close to launch days the staff will try and set these up but if we don't and you do a search and there isn't one feel free to make one then.

3) Arguing/insulting users. - As with any community we are not going to see eye to eye which is normal if we all thought the same the world would be boring. It's ok not to see eye to eye, what's not ok is insulting, name calling, calling a person out arguing etc if you don't agree with someone. I will not aceppt well he started it either if you fire back at someone in a negative way you will be punished just like the one that starts it. I don't care how long you've been here or that they started it. If someone does start it don't responed.

4) Language - This one is a big one and its been going on for awhile. Keep in mind that we do have a user base from around the world, what you may think is not a bad word or insult might be in other parts of the world. Please be respectful of other users, if I or another member of the staff say something about your language then take it to heart. Just because you don't see it as an insult or bad doesn't mean others do. Just remember to be respect.

Ok I think that covers the not so good stuff so now for the good.

We have grown alot in the last year both in content and community. As always we will see an influx of new people due to E3. Some will stay, others wont. Improvements are being made as we speak to the site to deliver you the best Playstation news on the net, as well as the best Playstation community. Everything we do is for you guys and we are proud that you have joined. Let's keep this the best Playstation site for news and community. We all are happy you have decided to join us and I am pleased on how we have grown in the community. I am not sure how big our Facebook and Twitter following is but I an sure Sammy does.

As always thanks for reading this and as please if you have any questions/concerns please ask/post below.

Tasuki