Topic: Welcome/Introduction Thread

@LtSarge Good to have you back.

It seems like the break you took from here did you good.

And for the record, I think it's smart avoiding the article comment sections of these sites, considering how much drive-by trolling, childish anger, etc. you'll see on any given day.

@Ralizah Thanks, I appreciate hearing that. Yeah, it's starting to become the same over at Pure Xbox as well. I just dislike seeing so much negativity for no real reason. People take gaming too seriously sometimes, I just want everyone to play video games and have fun. I mean, that's the reason we play video games to begin with, you know?

@LtSarge I only visited Pure Xbox briefly when the current gen consoles came out just to see what was happening over at Team Green. I quickly got fed up of seeing the same few people continuously slagging off Sony, even when the article had nothing do them. I get that is gonna happen to some degree on a fan site focused solely on one console, but that seemed a bit overkill to me, and doesn't seem to that bad over here. Or maybe it does, and I'm just not seeing it as I'm not looking at every comments section.

Anyways, sorry for the rant! 😂

@JohnnyShoulder Yeah I know exactly who you're talking about and it's actually escalated quite a bit since last year. Like at first I could understand people's frustration since Xbox has been on a losing streak ever since 2013 with that whole "always online, DRM etc." fiasco and now it's looking up for the platform. But I think they're taking it a bit too far and I'm staying as far away as I can from those discussions now.

The forums are still nice though! @ralphdibny is managing that site's Game Club and he's done a great job of running it. We've played through a lot of great games this year and we're currently playing through A Plague Tale there, with Psychonauts 2 being the next game we'll be checking out.

@JohnnyShoulder You're gonna notice that more on Pure Xbox since it's a smaller community, and a few of the regulars are... unpleasant, IMO. I decided to stop posting there after a particularly ugly conversation about Nintendo fans in the comment section of one of the articles received almost no pushback from anyone there.

But I'm not gonna do this "[insert sister site] is toxic and isn't as nice and wholesome as [insert preferred sister site] is!" thing that people do on literally all three sites (Nintendo Life, Push Square, and Pure Xbox). The truth is, both NL and PS have some amazing posters and conversations in their respective forums that make them worth engaging in, and I'm sure PX probably has the same if you actually dig into the forum there, which I didn't really do.

@JohnnyShoulder I think I know the person (or possibly bot?) Could be the same person I was talking to @LtSarge about the other day. Not sure. I just avoid the threads they post in. I'm quite happy to do so to be honest.

I will say this though, and it's also to @Ralizah too. I don't find it worth giving pushback to those sorts of users. They have their opinion and if it's so maniacally obsessive and shill-like then they are probably not the sort of user that I would want to interact with anyway. They are entitled to hold their own opinions and act in that way and I'm entitled to ignore them completely.

I will say there is a cut off point though. These are fan sites and I will absolutely give time to people that are fans of a particular console over another. I think it's the context that counts. You can sort of tell the bots/trolls from the legitimate users based on how well formed their argument is for preferring one platform over another. It can still be as simple as one sentence such as "I prefer the games on such and such" but it's a far cry from "Xbox comes with a party hat and canapés so nerrrr Sony, stick that in your all digital system and smoke it!"

I won't engage with the former example on that particular topic as it just doesn't interest me (well at least, nothing more than a "fair enough" because it is fair enough!) but I would still absolutely love to talk to them about other stuff. Whereas the second example is a major red flag (obviously my example is a bit of an outrageous and possibly amusing take on what they can be like) and is probably not the sort of person I could find anything in common with.

The game club is chill though. I would probably say something if one of the members started posting stuff like that but absolutely nobody has done so in the time since I created the thread.

From a console agnostic perspective, I do see it happen on all 3 sites as well.

Edit: sorry I'm a bit tired, I didn't really explain why I thought it wasn't worth engaging those users. It's because you won't convince them, so why bother. You might as well try getting a brick to ride a bicycle. Also, who cares what they think? I couldn't see it making a difference to my life if a stranger truly believes that either Phil Spencer or Jim Ryan actually has their best interests at heart. They are business people who run a company that provides a service and/or product that we pay for. That's the end of the transaction. If the product is sub par then we stop paying. If it's above average then we may compliment. That's pretty much as far as it goes for me.

@Ralizah Yeah I noticed there was hardly any moderation. Maybe they don't feel the need to due to the community size? That would be a pretty poor excuse though.

@LtSarge @ralphdibny Good to know it is not just me! I'm sure it goes on across all forums, just seemed a bit more prevalent on PX when I was checking it out. There would be absolutely no point in trying to have civilised discussion as you'll end going round in circles. Glad the forums are a good place to post!

@ralphdibny Sure. And I see it happen on all three sites as well, particularly in the article comment sections. People are going to pick and choose their battles: for example, NL is pretty bad about attracting bigoted comments (usually from people who aren't forum regulars) any time they host an article talking about "diversity" or "LGBTQ+" topics, and I don't even bother arguing with people in those comment sections anymore. The same group of bigots is always going to crop up any time those articles are posted, and, since I have no reasonable expectation that I'm going to be able to change anyone's mind, I just choose not to engage with them.

With that said, if there's little to no pushback at all from regulars in a community toward toxic and/or fanboyish rhetoric, you risk allowing the people perpetuating that rhetoric to set the tone for any future discussion in that community, as the unfriendly atmosphere will make it where reasonable people leave and more unpleasant types gravitate toward it (to be clear, I'm speaking generally here). It can also lead to otherwise reasonable people internalizing toxic attitudes when they're constantly hearing it from people they otherwise agree with. It's a very, very easy thing to become a part of a tribe without even realizing it, which usually means sharing both common values and common enemies. It's one reason why I try to branch out a bit from more than just one type of community.

I do think people will have different thresholds for how much they're willing to tolerate, depending on how much investment they have in a community. It doesn't surprise me that people from here and/or NL would be scared off from some comments they've read on PX, just like I can easily imagine a PX regular venturing over here, seeing the anger in most articles where GamePass is mentioned, and deciding this website is unfriendly.

@Ralizah yeah that's completely fair enough and I do understand. I definitely care about the forums of both PS and PX but they are not "mine" to moderate. I think all I would feel comfortable doing is just offering my own opinions and not engaging. You could say that's "setting an example" but I wouldn't think of myself in such terms because it's a bit lame and high and mighty to do so, on purpose at least. I'm just doing what I want, what's true to my own beliefs and personality but also staying within the community rules.

But yeah, I definitely appreciate what your saying and it's quite noble to choose to be the one to engage with these types. It just isn't for me, I don't think I have the mental capacity or fortitude to waste time convincing maniacs online that their attitudes and beliefs are "wrong". Especially as I don't necessarily consider them to be wrong, they are just different to my own. I say that with regards to gaming tribes and not the more important matters that you raised.

But there's a place for everyone in society and if a forum is considered to be in part, a microcosm of society then you are going to have threads where undesirables congregate. I'll choose to not congregate in those places. And I would say that if any unsolicited tribalism occured in a thread in which I was a part of or have created, then I would say something or report it as it's unlikely to be on topic anyway.

Something that does annoy me a bit over on PX though, is duplicate threads. I do wish people would read the community rules before posting. But like I say, the forums aren't mine to moderate. I'd happily do it though if there was a paid position open 😅

@ralphdibny You are right, it is not your responsibility to moderate the forums. But there is a report button which will flag up to the moderators, who will then decide what the best next course of action is. I think some misunderstand that reporting a post automatically deletes it, which is not the case.

@JohnnyShoulder do you reckon people think that? It would be a free for all if that were the case. The forums would be completely empty 😅

I tend to report obvious spam. Because it's dodgy and I don't want people to get viruses from dodgy links n that. Even then, I'll do my research on the user, check their other posts and if I'm not even sure after doing that, then I might Google their username and the product their peddling and see if there's any commonality on other sites. After all, I don't want to report a user who is genuinely asking for help about something. I'll normally present all my evidence in the form that comes up when you click report.

@ralphdibny I dunno, think you are doing too much there. Not our responsibility to do all that, and would leave it to the moderators to investigate. If someone is posting something which I feel is inappropriate or whatever I'm just gonna report it. If the post gets removed too quickly or something, it's not the worst thing to happen.

I once had a post deleted cos the then mod thought I was making a homophobic comment when I was saying what food I liked lol. I contacted the mods about it as I'm not that type of person and don't wanna be seen in that way. They were fine about and admitted it was just a mistake on their part.

These things are gonna happen now and again, so I wouldn't worry too much about. Entirely up to you though if you are happy doing it, and I'm not trying to force you to stop or anything.

@JohnnyShoulder That reminds me of the whole ‘slang for cigarettes’ debacle as well. I was dead confused when my comment about Dot Cotton was removed but I forget that this site has users from all across the world and not just the UK which is fair enough. Part of me feels like we should come up with some sort of other word for that specific dish you’re talking about, if only just to get around the fact it’ll be automatically picked up by just about any online system despite being in a different context. Like I dunno, English haggis or something, it’s a pretty similar process. Apparently they’re called savoury ducks in some parts of England so there’s that.

@ralphdibny I have said in the past that before allowing people to make an account on these sites they should have to read the rules and verify that they read them before creating the account.

@JohnnyShoulder 😂 yeah probably but I like to be sure. I don't like doing a knee jerk report. But yeah it's hard to know what's a cultural difference and what's something worse. I lean on the side of laughing comments off unless it becomes an encroaching problem so I'd actually feel apprehensive to report anything that could potentially be construed as an opinion. For me at least, it's easier to just stick with with spam as it's black and white as to whether it's against the rules. I'm sure others with a better idea of appropriate conversation will pick up the slack on posts I don't report anyway. It's also more likely something id notice too because I do tend to click on the more technical threads because I'm more interested in helping and for some reason a certain percentage of troubleshooting threads seem to advertise like an essay writing service or like some random computer peripheral manufacturing service. Also, off the top of my (admittedly currently inebriated) head, I can't work out what food that you and @nessisonett are talking about. Very interested to know what it is though!

@Tasuki yeah it's a good shout!. Would probably only work if there is a test or something though. The amount of pointless Ts&C's I skip through because I'm only going to use the game/service for a short time might render it moot. I only do Ts&C's if I reckon it's going to be something I am quite involved with or I am supposed to pay money for.

@RogerRoger I'm still lost 😂. I come from Italian ancestry on my mum's side and Irish on my dad's so the only other name we have for meatballs is "polpetti" which I believe is Italian lol. Someone will have to be more specific if they can brave the forum moderation but I don't blame anyone if they won't be 😅

ohhhhhh no, don't worry, I know what you are all talking about!

@RogerRoger @ralphdibny @nessisonett Mmmmmm, Brains! That might confuse things even further though! I totally get why it it happened, just a shame no common sense was used as all I was saying is how I like it with mash potatoes! 🤣

@RogerRoger I'm not even gonna ask what dark corners of the internet you visit then!

Hey everyone, just signed up, long time reader/visitor.
Just thought to say i signed to voice my opinion, ideas, wishes, etc on games of course, and cause i find this site always reasonable, down to earth, fair and helpfull.
And most posters too.

Cheers.