"Understand the Past, Gain the Future": Dustloop Revamp General

[VermilionBird]

So since we're criticizing staff (which I'm on board with to be brutally honest) would it be okay to name names or...?

 

 

That's a sure-fire way to create a shitstorm...

[Hotashi]

So since we're criticizing staff (which I'm on board with to be brutally honest) would it be okay to name names or...?

why would you ask this?? are you really asking for us to throw tomatoes at someones name for who's gratification?? there's no reason for this.

this has been a general issue for a long time. we don't need to dig up bullshit and fight about it, and target specific people and pitchfork them. the moderation -period- has made forum members just run away, but the damage has been done. it just has to change now that we're cleaning it all up. 

if you can't understand the objective of the thread, please just sit and watch as we discuss resolutions to these different issues, don't turn this thread into a laughing stock

[TD]

Pktazn, hotashi, you guys mirror my thoughts almost entirely.

This is sad. I'm starting to get the feeling the people here have simply been oppressed and that this outcome could have been prevented entirely...

PLEASE do not name names. A flame war will no doubt come of it. That should be done privately. I could understand the reasoning but the aftermath is too epic to support naming people publicly. Even if they deserve it, it is the equivalent of shaming them. Do understand that some mods no matter how infuriating, probably just tried to do what they thought was best. Though in the future this can be tested against with the right questions and behavioral monitoring.

[Poultrygeist]

Right, I only wanted to ask before I started shooting from the hip.  I thought at first that it might be wise because it cuts the bullshit and gets straight to the root of the problem, but it may also just create even worse ones.  Keep going.

 

 

Honestly, this probably wasn't solely the reason why people left but I noticed that when we tried to be strictly gameplay oriented no one wanted to contribute and activity dropped because let's face it, not many people feel comfortable contributing when they're not considered a "top player" or "well-known" lest they be mocked and ridiculed. More than anything though, they may have felt that they didn't have the chance to let their opinion be heard which was not the intention but it made us far more unwelcoming than it should have. I feel it became a catalyst to how Dustloop became what it is today and why so many people are now far more active on Twitter and other social media sites. Like it or not those "casuals" are part of our community too!
 

 

I said literally exactly this earlier, so I do agree.  

[Hotashi]

Right, I only wanted to ask before I started shooting from the hip. 

^^^^this is exactly the sort of atmosphere that has to stop if we want forum members to stay^^^^

why do you need to ~ask~ before you entirely derail a productive, lenient and amiable open forum on how to fix the forum??

"I have nothing useful to offer in this discussion, but I want to talk mean and dogpile someone!!! you wanna??" 

please read the thread and read the discussions going on and see if anyone is "shooting from the hip" or trying to start some sort of schadenfreude drama bonanza

i beset you, please stop posting unless you have some sort of feedback to offer on improving the website

that means it isn't in the direction of shaming and attacking people, even if you might not like how they handled situations in the past

[TD]

Alright alright, I think he gets the point lol. Though you are right in what you are saying. Hopefully this can continue being productive.

[Anne]

I mean, you can go ahead and name me. I know I had problems with people not liking how I was doing things. I don't work here anymore, it's whatevs.

 

Some of the "oppressed" people in all honesty needed to be oppressed if we were doing the whole "accurate" info thing. Groups of users kind of formed around the netplay general threads and whatever that all were sharing misinformation based on stagnating at whatever skill level they were. Those groups would see a new player, invite them in, and teach them based on misconceptions of their own skill level. That sucks. It also sucks trying to correct it because nobody likes to be the party pooper, but I mean Idk what else to do. You shut that discussion down and try to veer it back on topic, and that group of users bunches up and tries to push back. It's a lose-lose if you're the moderator.

 

It's really weird. If the site was so open to, um, off topic and poor teaching before and it had the boot slammed into it, that explains why people push back. At the same time if you let that rock, the site becomes really toxic and poor and spreads horrid things. That's the comparison to GFaqs, GFaqs has that problem unmoderated and yeah. That's what it'd look like here with no intervention.

 

So I mean, I dunno. If people didn't like me I'm sorry, but I was told this was a place to teach and learn, make sure people can use it well. I didn't want the site to be filled with low-mid level players spreading horrifying things. I remember coming here when I was starting and learning things, then I ran into high level players and it turned out everything here was horrid and I had to unlearn a lot of it. I, uh, I don't want that to happen. You approached it in a friendly manner, and it was like "lol, that's fine, I think you're wrong and listen to me though" so then the boot came down to say "no, seriously, stop." I'm pretty sure due to interactions like that the rules became so hostile.

 

Maybe if users were more open to moderation and moderators were nicer it'd help? It wasn't a 2 way street when I was here, and it was really on certain power users who decided they should be heard more while the actual mods just didn't do shit.

 

Anyway you cut it, it's lose-lose unless the entire direction of the site changes. Mods need to be more active and helpful, but users need to be open to moderation and, well, being told their wrong sometimes and accepting it.

 

I fell like it's less "mods vs users" and more "mods vs /power/ users" and that made everybody look bad. The average user I would say "hey stop that" and they'd stop it before I had to get rude. It also didn't help when I'd say "hey, don't use language like that" and I'd get a "well back in my day we called all women ****s so fuck you" in response.

[Psycho]

Its been mentioned before but the forums are a bit cluttered. I think the layout that fits best would be something like:

News

Welcoming

>find scene

>intros

Tourny Stuff

>Upcoming

>results (with seeding points idea i had before)

Games

>General (some gameplay, story disc, censored art -_-)

>Competitive (general tech discussion, loktests)

>characters (combos, char specifics, video analyzing, )

Mod boards

>COMMUNICATION BETWEEN MODS TO SHARE IDEAS AND IMPROVE THEIR OWN BOARDS

Chill off topic boards

>>Be weebs

This isvery broad but i think it we almost have it. Like i mentioned, i definitely think mods should have a place to discuss amongst each other things like how to deal with certain situations, which thread to stcky, etc...

Also inactive mods need to be removed. There are many more people willing to take on responsibility

[BlackYakuzu94]

I mean, you can go ahead and name me. I know I had problems with people not liking how I was doing things. I don't work here anymore, it's whatevs.

 

Some of the "oppressed" people in all honesty needed to be oppressed if we were doing the whole "accurate" info thing. Groups of users kind of formed around the netplay general threads and whatever that all were sharing misinformation based on stagnating at whatever skill level they were. Those groups would see a new player, invite them in, and teach them based on misconceptions of their own skill level. That sucks. It also sucks trying to correct it because nobody likes to be the party pooper, but I mean Idk what else to do. You shut that discussion down and try to veer it back on topic, and that group of users bunches up and tries to push back. It's a lose-lose if you're the moderator.

 

It's really weird. If the site was so open to, um, off topic and poor teaching before and it had the boot slammed into it, that explains why people push back. At the same time if you let that rock, the site becomes really toxic and poor and spreads horrid things. That's the comparison to GFaqs, GFaqs has that problem unmoderated and yeah. That's what it'd look like here with no intervention.

 

So I mean, I dunno. If people didn't like me I'm sorry, but I was told this was a place to teach and learn, make sure people can use it well. I didn't want the site to be filled with low-mid level players spreading horrifying things. I remember coming here when I was starting and learning things, then I ran into high level players and it turned out everything here was horrid and I had to unlearn a lot of it. I, uh, I don't want that to happen. You approached it in a friendly manner, and it was like "lol, that's fine, I think you're wrong and listen to me though" so then the boot came down to say "no, seriously, stop." I'm pretty sure due to interactions like that the rules became so hostile.

 

Maybe if users were more open to moderation and moderators were nicer it'd help? It wasn't a 2 way street when I was here, and it was really on certain power users who decided they should be heard more while the actual mods just didn't do shit.

 

Anyway you cut it, it's lose-lose unless the entire direction of the site changes. Mods need to be more active and helpful, but users need to be open to moderation and, well, being told their wrong sometimes and accepting it.

 

I fell like it's less "mods vs users" and more "mods vs /power/ users" and that made everybody look bad. The average user I would say "hey stop that" and they'd stop it before I had to get rude. It also didn't help when I'd say "hey, don't use language like that" and I'd get a "well back in my day we called all women ****s so fuck you" in response.

 

This is kind of what I was referring to in the other thread, you can't really win with this; I'm sure Dustloop was a lot more lax and community based a few years back and that did help make it more open and welcoming to people, but when people socialize, they start circlejerking and creating their own cliques where they talk amongst themselves and reach some pretty bad conclusions. And then, when you try to correct them in any certain way, people get defensive because they feel like they're being personally attacked for just "having fun" and "playing the game".

 

So then the mods came down on things like that and then suddenly Dustloop gets the reputation of being "Elitist". I had a friend told me this site wasn't fun because she was told to stop posting fanfiction tier shit in the Zepp Museum. 

[TD]

@anne, I'm seriously inclined to disagree with a lot of what you've said. In particular, I am not sure what other experiences You've been through that were so harrowing, but seeing Mac chaos who conviently took your place in the threads I posted in, being nice yet stern and having a ton of control over threads so far, with virtually no feedback, on top of my own experience with you (that is neither here nor there), makes me believe that maybe people were pushing back for a reason.

You can see for yourself. Go into one of his threads and see him enforcing a rule. See how many people push back.

It's not rocket science. You have to talk to people a certain way, no matter how rude they are. Your job is (well, was) not to get mad back. Frustrated? Understandable. But again, sometimes, you were right on the other side of the fence you were trying to keep up.

And I say this completely without bias. Again, whatever issue we had is water under the bridge, at least to me anyway, and I am speaking from a detached, critical point of view. People observe who is leading them. Those people are emulated. The people you lead are extensions of yourself, or will be if they stick around. Granted there were some issues with misinformation. That will NEVER go away, though, no matter how Hardass anyone tries. It doesn't mean give up. It means, these people are giving you a job. Any successes or failings on your end are entirely on you, not anyone else. Again, take a step back. See how your successor does things. There IS a difference.

[pktazn]

@Anne: I have no issues with the mods personally, I know people were doing what they did because they thought it was best for the site and it is/was our job to make sure things were on topic.

My post's intention was not to "mod shame" (though looking at it, I can see how it came off like that) but to really call attention to the fact that we've blocked off feedback from others for a long time and how we react to it affects the situation.

I agree that there has to be a two way street for mods and users though. There was a time when people listened to moderators but it somehow exacerbated to what it is now which is an issue. For mods there will always be that one person(s) but a mutual feeling somehow spread to the entire forum.

------------

This also brings up a question that I've never felt was clearly answered: What do we want Dustloop be? We want to change but what exactly are we changing it into? Everyone seems to have a different idea which is why this thread is so important.

Do we want it to be a complete information hub or a place to talk in addition to it? If we want to do both, concessions are going have to be made and not everyone is going to be happy. If we want this to be a place where people can talk and learn but we don't want their advice unless they're a top player where can it begin?

As an information hub, how do we keep it up to date and who will do a buttload of the work? People SAY they're willing to work on it then a couple of months in they'll disappear. How do we keep them dedicated and encouraged to essentially do work that is thankless and free?

These don't have easy answers and I'm not expecting them but they have to be considered if we ever want the site to grow. Some will be okay with it and some won't but there needs to be some kind of direction with better communication on how it'll be implemented.

[TD]

Great question pk. The elephant in the room.

Consistency.

Hkwever who knows what is going to happen a few months from now. People have lives, many players are students alone. it's completely understandable for things to go from plenty of spare time to not even being able to breathe without being late for something else.

There is no reason we cannot have the best of every world. Non general attracts people and keeps them, possibly only keeping them for the sake of conversation. Info dumps immensely help the site but require a lot of work. There is always the issue of who is going to volunteer to do it. Without an incentive even the most dedicated can simply up and away with no care if they wanted. We just have to trust. I'm thinking backups definitely need to be in place in case people/mods start going AWOL.

General threads are ok even though they can get crazy, I think. It still boils down to being a more patient, forgiving yet stern team to be effective, people who are emotionally detached and can handle the business consistently and effectively. Without mutual understanding and respect, whatever is being done will trickle down to those more sensible and then we have a bunch of surly members again. It starts at the top, we can't expect everyone to be as sane, we have to accept, even expect that they won't be, and adopt an adaptive approach.

[BlackYakuzu94]

Well, since we're a community, how much can we trust each other to have each other's back when a mod can't take up their duties?

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[Tari]

Pktazn pretty much said everything that I can think of saying, honestly. A lot of the negative attitude towards Dustloop feels like it began after the sweeping removal of general discussion. As pointed out, the fact that off-topic discussion of characters is allowed these days, and is pretty much the same as what many general discussion threads were before, seems to imply that the original decision to nix all the general discussion threads was ill-conceived and not clearly thought out.

 

The decision to make the site more gameplay oriented was reasonable, yes, but that the community had literally no say in the matter was infinitely less so. (ninja edit: from an internal point of view, by the by, if i recall correctly the decision was discussed fairly reasonably, even if the end result was not unanimously decided. The real problem stemmed from the external side, when the decision was actually applied to the community)

 

 

Also, I do find that treating people with respect generally gets you a fair amount of respect back. Though there are cases when this doesn't hold true, I'd like to think of those as edge cases and not the norm.

 

 

edit: there are a lot of posts that popped up after I wrote this that I haven't read yet... pretty much everything after Anne's post. D:

 

edit 2: also, there is in fact an area that mods discuss things, if that wasn't obvious. :P

[Anne]

Look, mac does his job, but he also wanted to let it rock in a different direction. I had 90% of people telling me everyday that there were groups of users  posting misinformation in the threads. I used to go in and try to correct them or say "hey, get back on topic" and then a page later it'd be worse, or I'd say "hey this is wrong" and 20 people would tell me I was wrong until there was a discussion and some lord and savior top player came in and corrected everything lol

 

I peep the threads every now and then and the BB general stuff is still pretty bad a lot of the time, mac just lets it rock to let the few remaining people here be happy. What the few people who are still here want is really unhealthy for the forum though, as evidenced by the conversation we're having now. There are a lot more things to go off that, but seriously, I can just be blunt. One of the "elitist" problems came from users who felt they were above mods and decided to get in fights with mods when anything happened. Some people took it far too, because I was so active I was receiving death threats over Dustloop stuff in my PSN and social media inboxes.

 

Like I said, the whole social dichotomy here is a mess and it's one of the reasons I'm in favor of scrapping shit. It's really hard to undo once it's set. There's no pleasing users who think they know better than mods, there's no making mods look good while trying to stop that from happening.

 

I think it's smart for mac to just let it rock because there's really no saving threads from the power users that are going to overwhelm it and shit on mod intervention. There's no point to because those are the only people left on the site for the most part. It's one of the reasons I'm interested in scaling back mod power and presence anyways, to see what will happen when it's up to users to moderate each other.

 

Edit: and FYI I'm in favor of heavy moderation I see in other forums. It has its drawbacks, but it stops users who threaten to disrupt the goal of the forum from spreading around. The goal of Dustloop for some time was to have a site with accurate information somebody could use to learn and play and get better. Over the years the users moved in and more or less directly opposed that. So what's gonna give, the sites goal or the really loud users? Just say fuck it and reach a compromise and restructure shit, or go somewhere else.

[TD]

First of all users moderating users.. Please don't. I have 101 reasons why this would just be a turrble idea. People NEED a leader, even a superficial one sometimes works. Anarchy is just asking for the dumps. I guess that would suit you, since you want to reset time and shit.

You see a lax mod as someone who can't handle dustloop, that is not fair and I think your past experiences are clouding your judgement, Anne. Understandably so! Death threats? Damn. (People, it's just a forum! Lol)

There is no reason people cannot change. Maybe you really have to stick around and see. The impression I'm getting is that Mac simply doesn't see certain things as entirely shitty and OCD-like. Maybe he is taking it in a different direction, turns out it's the direction everyone wanted in the first place. He has been here about as long as I have? 6 years maybe? I think. And while it wasn't easy before either, we seem to really want to start changing for the community now, a direction I haven't seen in quite some time.

Still x100 think you should sit back an evaluate how you could have handled things. There is nothing wrong with making mistakes and accepting them and correcting them. Yes I'm sure there were shitty days BUT shitty days don't usually turn a forum into shit by itself.

I guess its unimportant now, but you say you're working at another site which I can only assume is yet another moderating position. It would be wise to take the good things you learned here with you. Because even during the info era this site was still at least a little tolerable.

[Anne]

I'm sorry dude, but handling users like yourself and a lot of the grouped up people in the BB forum is actually a moderation nightmare and there's no clear answer to it. My approach worked for a lot of other users and was a direct reaction to seeing "oh no BB general thread LOL" on my twitter feed. I think the direction you want and the direction those around you want are in conflict with what the site was intended to do. So what do you do? We can let the users have the site they want at the price of losing out on the site's usefulness, or we can can drop the boot and be stern when it comes time to tell people they need to stop.

 

It's not gonna change unless there's a change in direction because those are the only really two ideas left and they are in direct conflict with each other. I'd rather not see the forum become the next SRK or god forbid TYM, but if that's what the users want then Idk what to say. My goal wasn't to make the small group of users here happy, it was to make the forum not be a joke to learn with. A lot of people worked hard after me to attempt to make things work and all those people ran into the same problem, and a lot of them gave up. They were too frustrated with the groups here wanting to focus on the social aspect (while the rest of the community was busy moving towards twitter) and make this their turf really.

 

I know we're on a "be respectful to others" kick and I don't want to be the one to end that, but you were directly responsible for things like "Decent at Best" and have contributed a fair share of headaches to the moderation team. I don't handle a lot of things very well, but having been around a few different sides of the FGC forums/sites/communities I at least see how things are working out. I left DL as a result of these conflicts and look, nothing got better and some things got even worse. Other people who were really helpful to the site found themselves in the same boat and quit or stopped working too.

 

PS there A LOT of people who don't post often, but use/read the forum and don't post because of the groups of people doing this. I listened to a lot of that and hey they started working with the forum and doing good things when some of that was squashed in the butt. Trade off is I pissed a bunch of you off in the process. I'd take that trade off again tbh.

[TD]

I can't say I understand you, but I think this debate has gone on long enough. Obviously two stubborn mules that won't budge. Either way, I'm still here, and I'm willing to give ideas out.

I haven't really heard others besides a very select few call me out on much. Granted I was a wild little Nino back in the day but I was just that, a child. Those days are far behind me now. During your reign I think I was very mature with many things. You'd be inclined to disagree, and I guess maybe I'm not influential enough to stop your thinking but I don't think it's of value to do so anyway, so I'm done with that. Agree to disagree I guess.

With that being said, I do believe there should be general threads again. Officially. Also, who exactly is going to decide what gets implemented?

[Nobus3r1]

TL;DR We're not as welcoming or as friendly as we like to think we are. Asking a community to help and be more active won't be as effective when they feel like they won't be heard, shunned away or punished simply for talking.

 

If you had asked my impression of this site when I first registered in *checks profile* 2009 I think that my edited version of your post would have more or less summed up my thoughts and it's definitely a large reason of why, among forums that I've actually bothered to register on, that this one is perhaps, relative to time registered, the one I've been least active on.  I would also say that in the six years since that that first impression hasn't really changed much.  Hell, the only reason I'm poking around these days is because there's a new version of Xrd being discussed.

 

Edit: and FYI I'm in favor of heavy moderation I see in other forums. It has its drawbacks, but it stops users who threaten to disrupt the goal of the forum from spreading around. The goal of Dustloop for some time was to have a site with accurate information somebody could use to learn and play and get better. Over the years the users moved in and more or less directly opposed that. So what's gonna give, the sites goal or the really loud users? Just say fuck it and reach a compromise and restructure shit, or go somewhere else.

 

If you're in favor of heavy moderation then I'm genuinely curious what you think the moderation level is right now.   You know what stops "users who threaten to disrupt the goal of the forum"?  An infraction policy that actually has some teeth.  I have no idea how many users have been banned here or how many infractions get handed out.  All I know is that when I see a mod going "Don't make me infract you" it makes me think that the mod thinks that the user is ~5 years old and that the mod isn't mature enough to mod.  It does not make me think that said mod is stopping users from disrupting the goals (whatever those may be) of this forum.  In general I think that any steps that moderation here takes to make them less like The Escapist, a site that I've stopped posting on due to its insanely rigid moderation policies, the better.  If the goal is to change the perception of this community and be more welcoming towards new players then moderating with an iron fist and treating users like little children is not the way to do so.

[pktazn]

@BlackYukuzu54: I will be the first to tell everyone that I've been a shit mod for the past two? years or so. Real life took priority for me because as TD said I went from having loads of free time to having none at all and my life almost fell apart but this isn't the place for that.

It does bring up the issue that I was inactive for so long and nothing was done about it, in addition to others as well. As I said in my other post, I was baffled to still be listed as both Yukiko mod (who I've since passed duties onto papermarkis) and Tsubaki mod. I'm going to guess that the reason is because the site was so largely inactive, no one cared.

So how do we fix this? If people don't like that there are inactive mods who do they recommend and how are they chosen? As silly as it sounds, you can't just give a mod position to anybody because they're active. The biggest hurdle when I become a mod was, how do I interact with others now? Like it or not people look at you differently when you assume moderation duties. How someone acted before may not be considered "mod behavior" (which does vary from person to person) even if that's just how they've been. I've fucked up hard communicating to others as a mod and beforehand when I was a real newbie to the site. I've learned that how the mod responds will largely affect how much people will respect and listen to you.

For instance if I were to say to someone in a thread "shut the fuck up, you're being stupid" (btw I would never do that and this is an EXTREME example) people will look and react differently compared to if I were a regular member. Yes, they'll be insulted and I'll probably get in trouble either way but the fact that I'm a mod adds an extra layer. Consistency as a mod is just as important as well but the cold hard truth is no matter what you do, not everybody is going to like it.

From the last few posts a large issue I'm feeling just seems to be a general lack of communication overall which then led to no communication

Also I'm sorry to all the people suggesting things for the site and getting flooded, we need those too. This is probably why they wanted to do one thread at a time. ;w;

[BlackYakuzu94]

Being a mod is a position of authority and that always leads to different perceptions.

I know we all want to be friends and communicate and all, but we have mods for a reason and they have a job to do. People won't like you for doing your job, but it comes with the territory.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Anne]

 

If you're in favor of heavy moderation then I'm genuinely curious what you think the moderation level is right now.   You know what stops "users who threaten to disrupt the goal of the forum"?  An infraction policy that actually has some teeth.  I have no idea how many users have been banned here or how many infractions get handed out.  All I know is that when I see a mod going "Don't make me infract you" it makes me think that the mod thinks that the user is ~5 years old and that the mod isn't mature enough to mod.  It does not make me think that said mod is stopping users from disrupting the goals (whatever those may be) of this forum.  In general I think that any steps that moderation here takes to make them less like The Escapist, a site that I've stopped posting on due to its insanely rigid moderation policies, the better.  If the goal is to change the perception of this community and be more welcoming towards new players then moderating with an iron fist and treating users like little children is not the way to do so.

 

Needs more moderation. Best cases came from just using moderation tools, eating a nasty PM or two, then letting them stop posting or fix it. I'd wager 90% of the time I would do this it would work. My mistake came in just wanting to go in threads and try to steer things a bit, but I was worried if I kept just handing out infractions it would kill half the site after some users just bailed after receiving only one. Bans are really rare here outside of extreme cases. Also yeah, it sucks when people get treated like children, but some users act like children and they get treated as such. I should've dealt with that more privately, but again, the hope was the better users would see us say something and steer it back on track.

 

A lot of that came from moderation nightmares tbh. Remember the night Kokonoe was revealed? Holy shit, I thought Circ had died cleaning that mess up, he made a statement, "hey, don't let that happen again." It happened again, and again, and again. We should've just banned the people who were doing it tbh, but we didn't because, um, they were the entire forum. We eventually gave and just made the hype threads for people to bust their bullshit into, and even then people failed to use those. At that point it was almost a unanimous "fuck this, let em run into the ground" and that's what happened up until the revamp idea happened.

 

So yeah, I feel like I made missteps and should've just used mod tools and be way harder on repeat offenders, but that wasn't how things went here at the time. Should probably be way stricter on some things but lax on others instead of the weird wishy washy middle ground.

 

Edit: At the same time, again, figure out what we want now, the user idea of dustloop or the mod/admin/whatever idea of it.

 

On the topic of moderators being replaced, again, reformatting the forum so less mods are needed is the most obvious solution.

[TD]

@pk, The only solution I see is having backups. Not actually other moderators but people who the moderator of a particular forum believes could take their place, should they leave. Maybe 2 or 3 per mod. I touched on this in an earlier post. There simply needs to be backup. And plenty of it. Little leaders in a sense. Maybe they won't have any power but they would be more responsible for getting the mod's attention when something needs to happen, be it short term or long term. Team work makes the dream work, and who better to help than another qualified member who actually post quality posts in the threads that are being moderated by a particular mod.

There also should be a time frame on how long people should be inactive. There should be some communication from the higher ups who should have the mod's Twitter, Facebook etc so that there is more ways to contact should there be a stretch of inactivity. A simple "hey, everything holding up?" Or "I noticed you've been inactive for awhile, what's going on?" Should help. Ultimately, if the super mods/admins don't care... It will show.

[BlackYakuzu94]

I think another thing that'd help is less publicly calling out members who've been acting out.

I think some people feel singled out when a mod tells them to stop, I dunno just use PM's then?

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[Corpse_Slam]

-Accessibility of information

-Correctness of information (confirm sources for frame data please if you're doing this, I had to fix frame data for some characters on the wiki)

-Let the community rock in discussions. This is actually super healthy, not as toxic as people make it seem. Invention is the mother of necessity.

-Trim the fat. Why do we have so many moderators, most of whom are just keyboard monkeys? These should be pillars of the community; the best of the best. If a new player comes, they should know their information is reliable, optimal, and up to date.

 

-I think Hollysmoke is on point with this. I am an avid Sol player, and I am lucky, because I have a huge wealth of information on my character. I have friends who play other characters, and Unfortunately they lack a lot of the same resources I have. 

 

-As far as the mods go, people in the community that are active like VR-Raiden, Titanium Beast, and Final Ultima are great examples of who should be mod, and what kind of characteristics they should embody. Helpful, nice as fuck, articulate, patient. 

 

-I have been coming to dustloop for a LONG time. Since before it made the change to sidewinder.com or whatever it was (only recently started posting, though) and one of the most consistent, and biggest issues I have seen,  is people trolling newbies away. We want the GG community to grow, not to shrivel up, and disappear in the long shadow of SF. I think that it is imperative that trolling is handled with a little more severity. I don't mean instantly perma-banning someone who makes a joke, but definitely with a little more sternness.

 

-Someone mentioned having the chat implemented in the sidebar of the site as a whole. I think that would be great, as long as you are able to turn it off. 

 

-Another big thing is the updates on the front page. The last few days, logging on I have noticed that there have been a bunch of updates daily, and it has been great! That sort of consistency is what used to have me on message boards all day. News about the game, interesting articles (i.e. Zero Frame Whiplash: Throws in Guilty Gear)...that is all stuff that will have new players coming back for more.