Jalapeno Bootyhole Posted:

A joke submission is fine once in a while.

I really wonder if you get that it is that thought that makes your players insanely frustrated and annoyed from time to time. When something is ok to do sometimes it creates a feeling of complete persecution when it is suddenly punished. When player “a” can get away with this, but player “b” is punished it creates a pool of angst and hostility where those who are not in favor see no reason to continue, or if they do they see no reason not to lash out since they are expecting to be treated unfairly anyway.

There is also evidence of vote collusion.

Maybe there was stuff I didn’t see, but honestly, I think people were just bandwagoning and upvoting/downvoting whatever the hell they felt like voting. I was in idc and in the irc chats for Brainfreeze and GGM and no one was asking for votes, people were just going wacky with the creation and telling others to submit. Last week or maybe it was the week before there was a contest held asking people to submit everything as forum ideas. I saw a ton of rehashed old ideas. Hell, half the time I see old ideas from an inactive player I knew from back in Sisters of the Quivering Rose being entered as new ideas – we’re talking things from a year ago. It’s been brought up, no one cares. How is that different beyond the fact that logo was easier to spot?

I’m surprised I should have to explain this to a former mod.

Sure I was a mod, but honestly the only thing I picked up there was a good idea of what qualified as shock and what would slide through. The lines of what is ok and what is not were blurry at best even for the mods. Most days there were IMs, e-mails or forums posts from all of us wondering about some offense or near offense. That is beside the point, I’m not a mod, I’m a player and have been a player longer. I didn’t submit anything during the logo-a-thon, but as a player I don’t like the idea that there is a possibility of being banned for something I had no idea wasn’t legal. I might know it’s stupid or not intended, but much like the thing where spam tubmailing wasn’t said to be illegal and was suddenly punishable without warning, it is upsetting.

I get the dupe thing, although it’s weird when it is duping your own. (Damn wacky kids.) But, how could someone know that it is ok to submit a joke logo/forum/style/whatever sometimes, but if they submit over a certain number it is a problem?

It’s like leaving out a bowl of cookies in a room full of toddlers and expecting to come back and find that everyone only took one. I don’t want to be argumentative for the sake of being argumentative, I never think there is a point to that, but I do think that it is a silly thing to expect gamers to police themselves and not try to game the system if the system allows for it. It is the nature of the beast. If there is a loophole it will be found and abused. It goes on weekly in Forumbuildr, legally in a very “I’m only using the mechanics as designed” sort of way. The same mechanics that allowed today’s logo fest allow forum spamming every single week. It is not as noticeable since a wall of text just takes more to deal with than a picture. I don’t have a suggestion to help fix it, but I can’t help but feel that it is a damn shame since being able to get involved in creating part of the game is so unique and it would be really cool if it wasn’t so open to abuse.