Topic: 2019 Push Square Community Address

Happy New Year to all Push Squarers!!!

2018 was an incredible year for us we saw a tremendous growth in views and community, I don't know the exact numbers Sammy or Robert can tell you that but nevertheless we saw a huge growth. That being said I figure it was long over due for a reminder of community expections here on Push Square. I have noticed alot of stuff over the past year that quite frankly doesn't look good for the community.

Let me start off by saying this is not directed at one person or group so don't take this personally it's just I have been seeing this behavior alot the past few months. I love this community here and quite frankly think it's one of the best around. For the most part we are able to discuss topics and such without it turning into a dumpster fire. Which is awesome for a site our size.

However as we grow we are going to get some unsavory people who want to start trouble, because they feel they have to, are over compensating for something or are just mean. And that's what I want to address here.

First off is the term troll. I for one have been seeing this term thrown around way too much. I get in reports, I see it on the comment sections and honesty it's getting out of hand. Just cause someone's opinion is different then yours does not automatically make them a troll. There is a difference between someone just not agreeing and someone being an honest to goodness troll.

Examples:

Troll Post — Sony can't do anything right. Their games suck, their hardware is garbage, they won't be around much longer.

Non Troll Post-- I don't like God of War. I think Kratos is overrated and the general game play is not for me.

Again just cause someone has a different opinion doesn't mean they are a troll or trolling.

Also another thing I have noticed is yes we are a PlayStation site but a person doesn't not have to LOVE PlayStation to be a member, post or be an active member of the community and trolling works both ways. It does not mean because we are a PlayStation exclusive site it is ok to troll non PlayStation fans. An example I saw was in the Persona 5 announcement article. Yes it's a PS.exclusive for now and there are rumors of a relase on Switch especially with Joker being in Smash but that doesn't give you the right or immunity to post stuff like HaHa Nintendo we are getting it first. We want everyone to feel welcomed here regardless of what system the play on or what games they like or play. We are all gamers in the end whether we can speed run God of War and beat it in under 20 minutes or we know where every moon is in Super Mario Odyssey.

What should I do if I think I am being trolled or a troll is insulting me?

That's easy. Report it. I or another member of the staff will handle it and dish out an appropriate punishment. Just because you don't see any action being taken doesn't not mean we aren't doing anything, we can't and most of the time won't discuss moderation matters in public but rest assured we do deal with it.

The other thing you can do is ignore the particular user. There is an ignore button on every post, and comment all it takes is just one click. Do that and you wont see any of their posts. Just because someone starts it doesn't mean it's ok for you to fire back insults and in fact you are in the wrong just the same no matter who starts it and will receive a suitable punishment as well.

In the end we want to have this site as friendly and welcoming to everyone as we can. As we get bigger and bigger more people will come and we are not going to agree on games, systems, character and such it's what makes this place great the different views, if you think about if we all agreed on everything, liked the same stuff it would be pretty boring around here.

I hope everyone can keep what I said in mind through out the new year and beyond. Let's all work together to make this the best community on the internet where everyone is welcomed. Any questions, thoughts or concerns please feel free to post them below.

Thank you once again and Have a great New Year and Happy Gaming

Tasuki

WAIT, there is an Ignore button?

i never noticed that before

@FullbringIchigo Yep it's right next to report

I do feel like the ability to like and dislike comments has encouraged some of the more fanatical members to attack people who don't share the same opinion. Inevitably they see they are getting a bunch of thumbs ups and carry on.

Unfortunately I think it is an inevitable result of that functionality. I guess it encourages engagement but perhaps not the best type of engagement.

Myself, I haven't thought a great deal of most of this years bigger games, and feel like I've been on the receiving end of some stick when I voice that opinion - not that it annoys me enough to ignore anybody. I actually like to respond to people who have a go at me but HOPEFULLY I don't do it in a particularly aggressive way.

I'd say the issues are in the article comments and not the forum so much anyway.

Not liking God of War should be a bannable offence TBH

@Tasuki i never noticed it but then again i have never had a reason to use it anyway, the community is pretty good round here

@kyleforrester87 Yeah mate, don’t worry — you’ve always handled yourself perfectly civilized. And typically the troll ends up looking the fool by the end. We’ve got your back. Just don’t troll me when I say Resident Evil 2 ends up being trash.

I once had a friend say to me that the remake of return to the planet of the Apes was the best film he had ever seen.

He wasn't trolling. He was being serious.

I hit that ignore button.

It's always there people. Wherever on the comment section or metaphorically. Use it sparingly but if you must smash it.

@Tasuki I saw that comment thread which may have lead to this thread. You were completely correct and due to the nature of the like / dislike buttons were voted down, which is actually bang out of order (both from the community and the systems now in play) . I agree with @kyleforrester87 it leads to strange behaviour. Ditch the up, down tick boxes.

@themcnoisy it's true to be honest. You say you don't really like Kratos, get a bunch of down votes, someone picks up on that and decides to be a hero, see's he gets a loads of thumbs up, decides he's in the right and the other person must be a "troll" and carries on with it.

@Frigate yeah I dunno it's a tough one. It does seem to be worse since the system was introduced, is all. But it might just be me!

@Frigate @kyleforrester87 The like / dislike buttons change discussion.

It's crazy, in a world when most publications and media are trying to ditch scores in games reviews. We are encouraging comments by anonymous heads to be scored. It's bizarre.

@themcnoisy @kyleforrester87 @Frigate On the like dislike buttons, when the dislike button was introduced, a bit after I asked either Sammy or Antdickens what exactly the dislike as for since antdickens hinted at bigger reasons, and one of them said he couldn’t tell me. Not in a “staff level” way, but he just didn’t seem too sure himself what it’s purpose was really going to be.

@themcnoisy @kyleforrester87 I personally hate the like/dislike button and never wanted them in the first place. I agree they create too much negativity and a mob mentality. But because every other site out there under the sun have them we have to to.

It's just like a PM system. Everyone cries you need to have one you need to have one. Facebook has one, IGN has one, this and that site has them but honestly I feel they will create more problems. I can just imagine my inbox blowing up with reports from people cause someone said this in a PM or I am getting spammers etc. etc.

But I guess Sammy and Ant like the idea and in the end it's thier site.

@Tasuki as for the PM system I honestly personally wouldn't mind it as there are some folk on here it might be nice to talk to 1 on 1, of course I can see how it would be open to abuse and create potential problems too.

@kyleforrester87 I can understand that as well but honestly I feel the problems outweigh the positives. Besides if you want to PM someone here there's other places to do it. Facebook has a PM system, Backloggery, Twitter heck there is even Skype and other services like that.

IDK guys, this post seems like trolling to me........

@kyleforrester87 @Tasuki what about a private forum function, where the creator can invite others to the forum to talk (staff and mods have free access in order to keep an eye on it of course) and others can ask to join to which either the forum creator or one of the site mods can accept (also site mods would also have the ability to remove someone from the forum if they are causing trouble PLUS being private we could also use it to say share our youtube videos as they would not be self advertising in an open forum)

@FullbringIchigo I think that goes against the idea of a public forum. Anyone can join, or at least, that's the idea. If you can't access a bunch of threads, then what's the point? Sounds like NeoGAF/ResetEra

@Octane i guess