Geez just lock this darn topic then if you don't want to hear people disagreeing with you. Stop opening it up for discussion and just pass the fucking rule like the dictator you want to be.

What are you, thick in the head? We don't give a shit if you disagree with us. Voice your complaints and disagreements, please. It's why it was changed from an announcement to a topic to begin with. But, as people have said time and time again, you idiots are completely missing what we're trying to say with this topic, and focusing on bullshit like I AGREE HUNDLEY SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO POST LIKE THIS or WE DONT WANT GW TO BECOME LIKE NAZI GERMANY IT'S JUST THE INTERNET OK??? or FLAMERS SHOULD NOT BE TOLERATED So here, let me try to paraphrase our general issue and why this topic was created in the first place so you can stop accusing mods of being dictators simply because they're annoyed with dense people like you coming into the topic, completely missing the fucking point, and arguing about shit that is, honestly completely irrelevant to what they're trying to talk about here.As several people have said multiple times in this topic, it's the growing facelessness and lack of identity among most every active member that they're trying to prevent. People like leafo, Corel, BJB, et al are all just merging into one shapeless blob of a person. Maybe this isn't a problem for you, because apparently you think living in a society or visiting a community where everyone is trying to be the exact fucking same is pretty ACCEPTABLE, but for some people who were glad to leave that shit behind in the 8th grade, it's something they'd rather not have GW become, especially when even a year or so ago, active members were noticeably more individualistic.So what's wrong with it? How about it makes the forums look like absolute shit. It's not hurting anyone? Go into that Christmas topic and tell me topics like THOSE popping up everywhere aren't hurting the community in general. You have run of the mill, completely normal topics that should generate fairly intelligent replies (note, this doesn't mean they have to be SERIOUS. you can make a short post, or a joke post, and still have it be clever or intelligent or witty or just FUNNY. The problem is when tons of unfunny douches start making joke posts that have no content to them. Completely unfunny. Spam.) are now flooded with inane "jokes" and unnecessary double posts by people flooding to become GW's next funnyguy by imitating what I'm guessing they think is the hot thing to do. You've got a ton of people thinking they can DOUBLEPOST THEIR WAY TO SUCCESS by acting like people they clearly aren't, but they can't. Their posts lack the humor and style that made those same type of posts okay and entertaining when other people do it, because that's not who they are. You guys need to uh, FIND YOUR OWN THING I guess I would say.But yeah, this could be blamed on key members in the community, although I'd use the word ATTRIBUTED before I'd say blame. But honestly, I don't think anyone would've thought that random people would come along and start trying to post like other people in an effort to get in close with the COOL INTERNET GANG. It's a ridiculous notion.So yeah, disagree if you want, that's not the problem. The problem is you people are getting sidetracked hardcore and apparently missing what we're trying to tell you, which means that when we say "STOP IT," you won't understand what we're telling you to stop. But GW used to have a strong identity of its own. It was better than other random generic Internet communities, and most of its members were beyond adopting that fucking terrible Internet subculture as their own. It used to be filled with people who were clearly very different people. It had a pretty VARIED POPULACE I would say. And now what is it? A bunch of people trying desperately to get in with the IN CROWD. As Rowain said earlier, I think, it's turning into the WoW forums, and that's fucking intolerable. Think what you want, but FLAMING isn't our problem.

I know Rowain has already locked this but I just want to clear something to omigoddess.

Poor noobs who just joined will probably have such a hard time figuring out what's "acceptable" now. They just have so many rules piled upon them with no guidance in such a big big gaming world.

You don't have to worry about this rule affecting new members. The problem is that it's becoming a fad among the members who have been here for some time now. It's something they do because others do it too. It's not something a new member does. And as long as members will follow our guideline, new members shouldn't pick up this habit at all. And that will improve things around here.

I know when I first joined for the sole purpose of "adding my opinions," I got stepped on. How is a new person supposed "show her personality" when nobody even knew who she was at that point? Also, in order for me not to be "stepped on" or "get noticed" was to try and post amusing one-liners, as it was popular.

I don't know if you got stepped on or not but if that really happened, let's hope that we can stop that and stop making people follow some silly fad just to be popular or accepted. Let's all work so we can make things better instead of complaining how we shouldn't try to make things better. Sounds good to you?

Honestly, I think this whole movement against "bad posting habits" is targeting the wrong things. Trends and popularity happens, but now you mods are trying to stop what you in part help started? Do you see this stuff in our society today? (society as in the real world, not gw) If so, do you agree with what they're doing? It's like trying to stop people from buying ipods. It's kinda too late. And it'll only alienate the users.

If littering or criminality increases in society, will you try to decrease it? We are well aware that moderators have also been doing this, and we have told them to stop as well. This is not something forwarded only to normal members but to everyone. Let's not forget that we are all humans and humans make mistakes.

What you really should be targeting are flamers. People who make harmless one-liners aren't hurting anyone. So what if the post count is higher? Does post count earn you money or something? No. I think the people who make one-liners for the sole intent of spamming up a decent topic or cruel flaming should be targeted. By that I mean people who, for example, give people crap for starting a harmless, serious thread. Those posts hurt people, not one-liners that say "I agree" and didn't show the poster's beautiful personality.

Flamers get warned for breaking rules. Unless you know what's happening in the moderator forum, what all the moderators are doing and who all are getting warned, I'd like to ask you to be quiet about things you don't know about. That sounds pretty reasonable to me.I hope that helped you.