Does the NI Forum Community Culture need a change?

MyStudioOne · 2023-12-20T15:35:46+00:00

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There is no such thing as a perfect recipe for how to moderate online forums. It is not good to allow the "inmates to run the asylum" as they say. But nor is it good to over police and steer the narrative unfairly. And freedom of expression only works when others can/will say things you don't agree with and even don't like. It is a slippery slope. But I really do think that moderators on any forum have a responsibility to work towards maintaining a healthy middle ground and I am not sure we have that at the moment.

What I can say for sure is that I have witnessed an increasing amount of very abusive behavior and it often left me feeling like leaving and never returning and I am sure I am not alone. No doubt many have left. And I am also not sure that anything is being done about it and so I think there should be some kind of ongoing communication from the moderation team about this. But we are also adults here, and we certainly have the ability to moderate ourselves.

We just saw a thread closed because it was "getting out of hand". Maybe that was the right thing to do, maybe not. But it shone a much needed light on why it is so hard to moderate forums.

That said, it was closed just as a discussion was starting about forum behavior and I, for one, think it is a discussion worth having/continuing!

I don't have all the answers, but I know one thing. I would like to see more of a culture of "serving others" and fewer people serving themselves. And I am also wondering if monetizing forum participation might have been a mistake? It encourages over posting for the sake of monetary gain and I think it may have made the problem worse?

Lastly, I want to raise my hand and say that I too, allowed myself to get sucked into confrontation on the aforementioned closed thread and I now regret that. But we can all get "triggered" at times by aggressive behavior and things just unravel (get out of hand) from there.

But I am still here and I want to be here. I hope I am one of many.

It is also my hope that this post isn't interpreted as a rant but rather as an act of leading by example.

Tony

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tetsuneko

As a filthy casual internet rando, I have to express my displeasure seeing those downvote buttons. I don't know what they do, but if they work like they do in Reddit, all truly insightful posts will get buried by the hivemind and the lowest common denominator content will rise to the top. Say goodbye to deep intel, and hello to hot edgy takes and witty comedy posts

I dont mind unmoderated boards as long as international laws remain enforced (doxxing and abusive behaviour that crosses the line of being legal are crossing the line IMO). Just ignore users that only contribute hate or noise and you'll be OK. Too strict moderation results in nonexistent "discussion" and debate, which results in boredom and stagnant silo think where everyone either agrees or "THIS COMMENT HAS BEEN FLAGGED BY THE COMMUNITY" and never read

Matt_NI

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/123588#Comment_123588

It doesn't work like Reddit, there is no "sorting" by upvote/downvote. You will always see the content in chronological order if that's what you meant. However, a comment can be "collapsed" if it gets tons of downvotes (see my comment above).

Milos

Oh...it was a glitch...nevermind...

I can see the accepted answers now...

Sorry, sir...

lord-carlos

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/123588#Comment_123588

I doubt that. Currently you need 10 downvotes for your post to be collapsed.

This forum does not have that many active users and I would guess you would have to say some serious ..negative stuff to get that amount of downvotes.

Looking at smaller reddit forums I also don't see many "insightful" posts get buried. I mean funny post get more upvotes, but that does not mean other posts get downvoted.

Stevan

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/123586#Comment_123586

I don't care about points/rewards but I noticed that the rewards system in not fair for Traktor users since it is a lot smaller community. People who answer only Traktor questions and have their posts voted up should have double points since the community is smaller (less posts = less oportunities for rewards)

Hope that makes sense 🙃

Matt_NI

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/123596#Comment_123596

That's exactly what I was looking at when checking the data. It seems like the program does help with getting people "accepted answers" but it was very dominant in specific areas vs others. With that said the Traktor category is not the smallest sub-category. It often has the most questions and it's consistently in the top 3 if you look at posting.

lord-carlos

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/123596#Comment_123596

I somehow made it into the top 3 or 4 by just answering Traktor questions.

I think making some categories more valuable will just make the system too complicated.

Stevan

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/123599#Comment_123599

I was second once and it was during one of the bigger traktor update, otherwise there is no chance.

If you look at the Leaderboard, people who get to top 3 90% of all times are not commenters on Traktor forum.

Sorry. Not going to bring this again.

D-One

It's a valid argument... But if the sub-forum is that much smaller then you would need to answer a lot less things to get to the top which wouldn't be fair to people who answer a ton of things in the bigger sub-forums. So, it all depends on perspective.

wayfinder

that's all assuming that the purpose of the forum is to get points ;)

Kymeia

I don't like the down vote, especially if it results in taking away points from people which I think could be misused vindictively

Shed Maa

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/118357#Comment_118357

I think peer to peer abuse stems from people not respecting what people don't know. There is no way of stopping bad actors from saying what they say. I do think since this is corporate own community more time from NI staff on this forum will help. More timely replies from NI might head off abuse from judgement customers who like shame people vs help people

Kymeia

If you click on someone's funny button too many times do they collapse in a heap and need a rest?

Stevan

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/123738#Comment_123738

A golden mean should be found.

MyStudioOne

I feel quite certain that the changes/tweaks being implemented right now are not meant to be necessarily taken as the final format. Sure they are tweaking the UI in response to the feedback received. But if more tweaking is needed, I am sure they will do that.

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