Let's say you joined the Forge today. Is it possible and/or desireable for the moderators to suspend your ability to post for about 24 hours? That way, you at least might take the time to read some stickies and old threads before opening yer yap. I don't mean to pick on this guy; he's just a "target of opportunity."

Hi Dave,

you wrote: Is it possible and/or desireable for the moderators to suspend your ability to post for about 24 hours?

Not desirable.

It's sometimes hard for people to get how moderation works - or why it exists - at the Forge. Detractors, and people who just don't quite get it yet, think it's to make all conversation the same, or weed out thoughts Ron and I don't like. It's not that at all, though. If I had to lay it out very simple, it'd be:

- Hi. We're the Forge, and we have good, solid, on-topic discussion. We've got some vocabulary, and some structures for how we communicate, but those'll come in time.
- Anyone is allowed to communicate whatever ideas they want. Make sure they're on-topic for the forum you're posting in, and if they're not on-topic for any forum, then this isn't the place for them. We talk only about playing, designing, promoting, and publishing games here.
- If you mess up, we'll let you know. Discourse is a learning process.

Dave - I know you weren't trying to pick on that guy, but that was a good example of a good first post. (Someone's scratching their head right now.) He said, "Hey, I'm working on this game," and gave little information, and kinda-maybe-described a pastiche of a lot of pop culture that's going on right now.

But, there's a lot of room to learn there. That guy, with a little help from the posters here, could learn how we do business at the Forge and become a real asset one day. Or he could learn how we do business and decide not to be a part of it, which would be just as valid.

Hello,

I'm big on the "no blood, no foul" concept myself. I don't always succeed in applying it properly, per the person and per the moment, but it's what I'm trying to go by.

Running a search on that phrase will turn up some good threads to review.

Best,
Ron

I don't think it would be particularly helpful. After all, one can read the threads without registering anyway; if someone registers to post, it's unlikely that they'll start reading threads if they hadn't been intending to already simply because of a delay period. I haven't posted much myself since I signed up--I never feel quite up to the level of discourse on these forums--but it would have seemed a little strange to actually register and then still not be able to post for a certain amount of time.

Good point Heather.

The people who post problematically haven't read things first, and, if given another 24 hours, probably still won't. It seems to suffice to let people post, and let them know what the score is. If they read around first, there's every possibility that they'll get how it should be done. New posters come on all the time with appropriate posts (in fact I think that many seem to be overcautious in posting, because they're testing the waters).

Mike

There is also the consideration that some of us are quite familiar with both the gaming industry and message forums from several other places on the Internet. I can't really think of an example off the top of my head, but I'm sure one will come to me shortly.

Hypothetically, of course, some of these first-time posters may have actually read the etiquette thread prior to their first post. In fact, some may even be so familiar with this type of of message forum that they already have a signature.

By the way...

...Hello!

This is my first post and I just joined today.