Cylosis
Legendary Skial King
I really don't feel this issue needs much elaboration, because we've all witnessed threads in the support section being derailed or otherwise defiled.
It only takes a few members posting unnecessarily in a thread or being deliberately counterproductive or offensive to leave a sour taste in a newcomer's mouth when they come to the forums for assistance or to apply for an admin position. Generally when a player comes straight to the support forum, they're already frustrated or distressed, and a select few members turn them away before someone capable of assisting them notices the thread. They then of course go tell their friends or post in other communities about how awful we are, which is a very difficult reputation to get rid of.
Due to the fact that there are more poorly composed members sulking about the forum than moderators that can enforce the rules, I believe this has become more than a small issue. The one section where we can't afford to look bad is the one that gets vandalized the most.
The severity of the punishment and the point where it is enforced is open for discussion. I personally think infractions on the forum should carry over to the servers, as well.
tl;dr - Keep the support section clean, because that's where people go when they have problems on our servers.
It only takes a few members posting unnecessarily in a thread or being deliberately counterproductive or offensive to leave a sour taste in a newcomer's mouth when they come to the forums for assistance or to apply for an admin position. Generally when a player comes straight to the support forum, they're already frustrated or distressed, and a select few members turn them away before someone capable of assisting them notices the thread. They then of course go tell their friends or post in other communities about how awful we are, which is a very difficult reputation to get rid of.
Due to the fact that there are more poorly composed members sulking about the forum than moderators that can enforce the rules, I believe this has become more than a small issue. The one section where we can't afford to look bad is the one that gets vandalized the most.
The severity of the punishment and the point where it is enforced is open for discussion. I personally think infractions on the forum should carry over to the servers, as well.
tl;dr - Keep the support section clean, because that's where people go when they have problems on our servers.
