I cannot get over how well behaved this internet forum is.

I may be the worst poster on the site!

What are you and Ron doing right, Clinton? I mean, I understand that you have policies, etc. but I would still expect the occasional gatecrasher or troll to come by. Instead all we seem to get is polite and urbane posters.

How are you accomplishing this? Have you had to delete any posts that snuck in? I doubt it as I think I would have seen at least some.

To use the Toon phraseology: I'm boggled!

Mike

Honestly, Mike, I dunno. I have to delete my own posts a lot - I wrote one to Ron and one to you yesterday that would have started flame wars, probably.

Outside of that, I think that it's probably a combination of people's respect for Ron (because god knows they don't have respect for me) and precedent - all the posts here already are non-inflammatory, so people know it's not approved of.

Clinton R Nixon wrote: Honestly, Mike, I dunno. I have to delete my own posts a lot - I wrote one to Ron and one to you yesterday that would have started flame wars, probably.

Actually, Mike, you were a bit of a trial yesterday ...

More importantly.

No deleting seems to be happening. Have you ever noticed that bullies avoid people that they can't push around, and that they are very, very good at assessing potential victims? I think that happens at the Forge - a trollish person checks it out, and then kind of does an about-face, whoops, no, guess I won't join in. Of course, they provide all sorts of excuses ("What a bunch of elitists") or badmouthing elsewhere, but the key point is that they saw that they wouldn't get away with their Li'l Troll Tricks.

You might be missing some of the preventative measures simply because they work so early. The recent post about two-weapon mechanics could easily have become flame-bait, if people got all bizarre about "realistically" this or that, or if people started pulling all sorts of rank about which system "sucked" or not. Instead, you and Chris brought in reasonable points - even using the "realistic" issue with sense and focus - and continue to ask questions about the goals of the game.

Same goes for Ace's somewhat muddled post about magic, in which he seems both to want it and not to want it in his game. All sorts of messed-up accusations and insults could have begun, but for such things to happen, they have to start - and I think 90% of the task is simply not starting them.

Best,
Ron

Makes sense.

Still, in this random universe of ours, I eventually expect to see someone post in the Site Forum that we are all a bunch of ninnies and GNS is crap, etc. I guess what I'm saying is that the lack of this exception to the rule makes me nervous. Like there's a tarrible karmic backlash building up. I was kinda hoping that you'd say that there had been such, but that you handled it with the efficiency of the MIB.

Hey, just because I'm paraniod doesn't mean they're not out to get me.

Mike

Hey, I'm sure I could find a way to piss people off if you need to vent some bad karma for the site... ;)

(giggling)

I'm not sure we need to actually create our own trouble. I'm not that big a believer. But if we do decide we do need trouble, then I'd vote for Jared as the goto guy.

Actually, we're having a little problem with a poster (Andrew Martin) in our playtesting forum. He's not totally unreasonable, but he's starting to wear. Do you think that Ralph and I have become reactive? I fear that as he wears us down that the quality of our responses is dropping. Here's the thread:
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=17794#17794

In essence I actually told him to get lost. Politely, but still...

Mike