Upgrade Today..

[Andy]

Sorry i had to turn the forums off for about half an hour this morning, But i hope you guys find it was worth it.

Ive made a few changes to HpotD over the last couple of days and i have a few more planned. Here is a list of changes so far and ill add more as i implement them.

Rules and FaQ

Changes to the rules

Ive added a new section to the board rules, which makes our position on flame baiting abit clearer. The new section can be seen in the Rules and it reads:


Further to the flaming section, we feel it is nescessary to make our position on baiting clear.

Baiting, or more specifically flame-baiting, is defined on Dictionary.com as :- A Usenet posting or other message intended to trigger a flame war, or one that invites flames in reply..

With this defination in mind, we do not allow baiting on our forums and treat it as a form of flaming. In case of a flame war, our moderators will immediately close the topic in question and take appropriate action against all members involved. it is not our policy to decide who is right and who is wrong or look for who started it, it is our policy to end flaming and take action against those who contributed.

Changes to the FaQ

Ive tidied up the General FaQ section and removed several redundant articles. I will continue to add to the FaQ were appropriate, if you have any suggestions id be pleased to hear them.

Todays update

The core forum software has been upgraded to a newer version today, while it provides few new features for members it does greatly improve security, and we should see a reduction in the number of spambots/pornbots getting through for a while.

Aswell as the main software, ive upgraded a couple of regular features.

Firstly - The top 5 stats on the main page, the box which shows you the 5 newest members, highest post counts and latest replies, has been updated to the newest version. Aswell as being more stable and faster loading, it has a slightly new look and now allows you to refresh the top 5 latest replies without refreshing the whole page and allows you to select other bits of information you wish to view instead of the standard boxes.
Secondly - The Arcade has been updated, Again to make it faster and more secure. As far as im aware there are no new features for members but it does allow new games which i hope to install over the next couple of weeks.


Finally, a new feature has been added which i have been asked for a couple of times, you can now set your mood at the top of of the page, near were your private messages. Simply choose a mood from the drop down list and it will appear on your profile and by your posts, letting other members know what your thinking.

Thankyou, thats all at the moment. This thread will remain open for comments, suggestions or questions.

[SymphonicX]

With regards to the "baiting" rules you've just announced...

It's not clear enough...basically are you saying you'll issue warnings/bans to anyone who gets into a heated discussion? Where are you drawing the line here? It seems you can use this legislation in any context...For instance I've had a couple of unintentional run-ins recently which are either being resolved or have been resolved over PM - if a situation occurs whereby two members have a simple disagreement, what are you enforcing? The ceasing of arguments or the ceasing of heated discussion?

Aside from that, this idea of "baiting" is weird to me - sometimes a simple post such as "I really dislike patriotism" could result in a barrage of replies either challenging that or dismissing it completely - or in some cases end up with name calling. If someone simply expresses their dislike for something and it's interpretted as bait when it was really just an expression of opinion - how do you react? The original poster gets punished for having an unpopular opinion?

I guess we'll just have to wait and see eh.

[Andy]

Well alot of our rules are open to the interepation of our members and our moderators, i know you've had a couple of run-in's with members lately but you have not received any warnings or infractions as we do not consider it clear baiting.

Warnings/Infractions will only be applied where we think the post has the clear and sole intention of attracting flaming, this is what we consider a bait.

For example, in your recent "heated debate" with other members we do not beleive that your post is intending to get people to flame you, so it is not classed as baiting.

An example of baiting would be the recently banned member, TerminalGT.


Hello this is my first time on this forum, I haven't done much n00b-bashing for a long while, this shall be fun.

We beleive this is a bait as its clearly asking people to flame him.

Hope this has cleared it up for you.

[SymphonicX]

Well alot of our rules are open to the interepation of our members and our moderators, i know you've had a couple of run-in's with members lately but you have not received any warnings or infractions as we do not consider it clear baiting.

Warnings/Infractions will only be applied where we think the post has the clear and sole intention of attracting flaming, this is what we consider a bait.

For example, in your recent "heated debate" with other members we do not beleive that your post is intending to get people to flame you, so it is not classed as baiting.

An example of baiting would be the recently banned member, TerminalGT.



We beleive this is a bait as its clearly asking people to flame him.

Hope this has cleared it up for you.


maybe I was just being a bit paranoid there - you're obviously not taking it lightly and are pretty smart at separating intent from miscommunication/debate...

Although I thought that original comment by TerminalGT was quite in jest really, sort of like "let's get first-year beats out of the way" (first year beats being what the year 8s did to the new class of the year)...but I see your point.

Thanks for the info.

[Andy]

maybe I was just being a bit paranoid there - you're obviously not taking it lightly and are pretty smart at separating intent from miscommunication/debate...

Although I thought that original comment by TerminalGT was quite in jest really, sort of like "let's get first-year beats out of the way" (first year beats being what the year 8s did to the new class of the year)...but I see your point.

Thanks for the info.

All of our rules are carefully thought through before we implement them to make them as fair as possible and we dont take them lightly at all. Of course if you think a rule or decision made is unfair you can always contact myself or neil and we will look into it for you.

[Danny]

Well alot of our rules are open to the interepation of our members and our moderators, i know you've had a couple of run-in's with members lately but you have not received any warnings or infractions as we do not consider it clear baiting.

Warnings/Infractions will only be applied where we think the post has the clear and sole intention of attracting flaming, this is what we consider a bait.

For example, in your recent "heated debate" with other members we do not beleive that your post is intending to get people to flame you, so it is not classed as baiting.

An example of baiting would be the recently banned member, TerminalGT.



We beleive this is a bait as its clearly asking people to flame him.

Hope this has cleared it up for you.

i have a guess who this terminaGT was anyone else got a guess?:lol:

[capncnut]

All good, Andy. :)

Anyone played the Resident Evil game in the arcade?


i have a guess who this terminaGT was anyone else got a guess?:lol:
I think most of us have an idea of who that was, Daniel-san. ;)

[slickwilly13]

Has no idea who that guy was.

[Craig]

Didn't even know that sort of feature existed, let alone that people demanded it :lol: Might as well make the most of it.