Question: Thunder Dome!

[Kura]

Hey guys!

So yeah, I don't know if this falls under a question.. but I did some searching because I was curious about what happened to the T-Dome way back when.. and discovered it was closed because people could not conduct themselves properly and it became a flame war.
(Yep, I did my homework.)

I know back then there was a different restriction on it, but I was wondering if I could give a suggestion about bringing it back perhaps for 18+ or even 19+
Or even adding screening some member posts or something or having a sort of.. post-prerequisite to joining. (Member has had to have at least 200 posts) or something like that.

Anyways, I wanted to post a blog earlier about a mature subject (Obesity, and about something I read called the Fat Acceptance Movement where which some people have turned into a cult that endorses feeding females into extreme obesity.) But I decided not to because I felt that the general PC community is too young.

I was just wondering if it would be ok to suggest bringing back the T-Dome for a place that people can discuss world events like this, only this time bringing it back with a better age restriction and better rules enforced in the area. (Like allowing certain subjects not allowed to be posted.)
Or maybe if anyone has other suggestions on how to make it work, give out some comments.

What would you allow? And what does the staff think about this?

 

[SalemGreen]

I'm new here, what exactly is the thunderdome? Also: 100 posts is A LOT for those of us who do not spam. Can we get that lowered maybe? It'll probably take me MONTHS to get 100 posts.

 

[SalemGreen]

Ahh, in that case I'm 100% in support of it existing, but making it 18+ and ACTUALLY HAVING 18+ DISCUSSIONS without punishment. I'm not saying porn and whatnot (There is millions of porn websites) but textual and even visual 18+ content.

However, the post count thing I'm kinda against. An example is that there is a forum that I've been a member of for over six years and I have around 1,000 posts. See how long it'd take me to get 100? If people are making accounts just to post there, let them. I don't see it being much of an issue because of the fact that they could just go get their smut or mature conversation elsewhere if it's really that important to them.

DO have a post count limit, but make it more like 25, not 100.

 

[Arcanine]

Yea... lets bring back one of the worst things to be on PC... But this time with better rules, and more "mature" people on it.
Here are the old T-Dome rules....

• All basic and general rules and guidelines of Pokemon Community are to be followed
• All members' opinions and beliefs are to be respected at all times, regardless of how absurd it might be to another member.
• There is absolutely no tolerance for flames, and the mockery of another member within the T-Dome
• Within debates, a member cannot try to refute another member's opinion without support and evidence
• All advices given must be practical and helpful for the member asking for help
• In accordance to the T-Dome, the forum shall not be held responsible for its contents and as a result entering the T-Dome is a decision made solely by the individual and all members entering the T-Dome do so at their own risk.

Respect their opinions and beliefs, no flaming, back up something with evidence, and so on. You would think that all them lovely rules, and all of the Staff looking after the forum that it'd be just fine. Well... guess what... it wasn't. The forum was a mess, and was closed down in the end.

Yea we can only let people with 100 posts in. Yea we can have more stronger rules. Yea we can only let people above such age in. Yea we can have all of this and still the forum will turn into yet another hell hole. I'd love a debate forum, but this is what you have on PC...
"Person 1: I'm right, and here's why.
Person 2: Nope, I'm right and here's why.
Person 1: Your points are stupid, I know I'm right."

Oh, it's not only a debate forum you say... it's a forum for "mature" members to talk about things. Yea... sort of like how the members are mature enough to handle rep.... yea we brought that back and look how well that went over. And don't say "Well, rep has nothing to do with this". The members weren't mature enough to handle rep, so they're not mature enough to take something like the T-Dome. I'll go as far as to say the members back then were more mature then the members we have now.
And on top of that, being 18 doesn't make you mature. You can't be 17, horse around, throw jokes, cut up, and so on. And then when you turn 18 some force of nature makes you "mature". I've seen 13 year olds more mature then people above the age of 18 (right here on PC). So the whole "Well, it'll be different now... people only 18 and above will be let in" doesn't fly with me. And people can change their age in their profile, no different then back in the days of the first T-Dome. So we're going to have them fill out a paper to show that they're mature? I'm pretty sure we did that in the old T-Dome as well (at least at first). Bottom line is... PC won't be having another T-Dome type forum (or any "mature" type forum... just to make it clear), I was Staff back then, I (and many many others) looked after the forum, I supported the idea when it first came up, and now I see it as one part of PC's dark history. If you can't talk about it in OC (because OC is the off topic forum) then you have no place talking about it on PC.

 

[ShinjisLover]

↑ That. Down to a tee. I don't think even older members can go into the Thunder Dome without starting a flame war. Age has next to nothing to do with maturity really. =/​

 

[Spinor]

I don't think I was here long enough to see the Thunder Dome (sort of glad I wasn't here that long, though) But by what I hear, I know it'd probably be a pretty big risk to bring back.

However there is one thing that is for sure. Demographics have changed since so many 6 or 5 years ago. Parents are probably more aware of where younger children go on the internet. Yes, we are still having people who are about 10 years old join. But age is just a number in reality. As Arcanine said, some people in their younger teens tend to be more mature than some "adults".

Although, the recent failure of the reputation system does prove the immature demographics in PC at the moment. So because of this, and age possibly being fake (Like in my case :P) I propose that not an age filter, but a manual filter be imposed if the T-Dome can be brought up again. As in, invite only, or some other way.

Yeah, it may be a hassle, but I wouldn't think it'd be harder than managing the ROM Hacking/Gaming/Roleplay.

 

[Yusshin]

I don't think it should be added back; this is a Pokemon forum, after all, and I don't think we should be encouraging that kind of material, filter or not. It might just push younger kids to lie about their age in their profile / on sign-up / whatever.

It'd be a hassle anyway. I'm 18 this year and everyone my age that I know personally act as mature as 13-year-olds. The entire issue should just be avoided.

 

[Buoysel]

I don't think I was here long enough to see the Thunder Dome (sort of glad I wasn't here that long, though) But by what I hear, I know it'd probably be a pretty big risk to bring back.

However there is one thing that is for sure. Demographics have changed since so many 6 or 5 years ago. Parents are probably more aware of where younger children go on the internet. Yes, we are still having people who are about 10 years old join. But age is just a number in reality. As Arcanine said, some people in their younger teens tend to be more mature than some "adults".

Although, the recent failure of the reputation system does prove the immature demographics in PC at the moment. So because of this, and age possibly being fake (Like in my case :P) I propose that not an age filter, but a manual filter be imposed if the T-Dome can be brought up again. As in, invite only, or some other way.

Yeah, it may be a hassle, but I wouldn't think it'd be harder than managing the ROM Hacking/Gaming/Roleplay.

Taking what Advanced said (invite only), Why don't you just make a private group?

If it goes crazy a group would be easer to remove than a whole sub forum me thinks. And since most noobz don't even know about groups it would just be all that much easier to manage.

 

[SalemGreen]

Invite only would work but you'd need a lot of really active admins who can consistently add people to the list. And there would have to be a message somewhere saying it exists.

 

[aRedMoon]

I'd almost say that it would better unmoderated. You have the age limit and the post limit, so you know you won't have some 13 year old going "Wahhh Imma tell my mommy you said ****!" and just let it go. Discussions will get hot, discussions will get angry... but let it go.

IMO, the problem with the old one was that there was too much moderating. Before anything could get intense, it was killed. Kinda killed the point :\

inb4 the upper staff attack me

 

[SalemGreen]

I'd almost say that it would better unmoderated. You have the age limit and the post limit, so you know you won't have some 13 year old going "Wahhh Imma tell my mommy you said ****!" and just let it go. Discussions will get hot, discussions will get angry... but let it go.

IMO, the problem with the old one was that there was too much moderating. Before anything could get intense, it was killed. Kinda killed the point :\

inb4 the upper staff attack me

This was more along the lines of what I was thinking. Unmoderated. Why would something that is 18+ be moderated? Just have age limit, invite, etc. Ask to see people's personal IDs or drivers license.

 

[Buoysel]

Unmoderated would be a huge issue.

If someone started breaking rules, then who would punish them, and how long would it take?

No, It needs to be moderated, but the moderation could be a little more relaxed.

 

[Percy Thrillington]

Hi there. Don't think we'll see the T-Dome cone back anytime soon, but let mr reiterate something before making my main point. Age doesn't prove maturity. Post count certainly doesn't either. Invite only wouldn't necessarily work because there would be a huge amount of biased views on who should get in. Not saying the people in charge are bias, just that looking into the past and seeing all the other things where someone had to call the shots on someone else... it just doesn't seem to work.

I propose a diplomatic solution. There is an appeal thread in Questions and Feedback where people can ask to be let into the T-Dome. The staff call votes on each person privately and it's done discreetly. Seems like it'd cause the least amount of conflict anyway.

I don't see it coming back anyway. PC's general population has proved time and time again that it's too immature to deal with things like that, what with the reputation disaster and god knows what else.

 

[Honest]

Age has next to nothing to do with maturity really. =/​

I was just about to say that. xD


Well, I do like the idea, but I just don't like the age restriction thing. Some people are mature enough when there age 12, and other's aren't mature enough when there age 21. If you can make a better rule about the age thing, I'm all for it, but either way, I think it's a good idea. xD

 

[I Laugh at your Misfortune!]

I propose a diplomatic solution. There is an appeal thread in Questions and Feedback where people can ask to be let into the T-Dome. The staff call votes on each person privately and it's done discreetly. Seems like it'd cause the least amount of conflict anyway.

The problem with this would be the sheer amount of paperwork involved, so to speak. You'd get A LOT of people appealing. Immediately, the staff forum is flooded with voting and the admins are too busy changing user groups all the time to actually do any administrating.

 

[Percy Thrillington]

The problem with this would be the sheer amount of paperwork involved, so to speak. You'd get A LOT of people appealing. Immediately, the staff forum is flooded with voting and the admins are too busy changing user groups all the time to actually do any administrating.

Fair point. To lessen the load I can think of two procedures. The first is people having to write a long application form stating why they want to access the T-Dome, and why they should be allowed access it. Secondly, although the 'paper work', as you put it, would be immense; the voting would be ongoing all the time if the T-Dome was re-opened. But what if the usergroups (or forum permissions) changing was on a set day, like the name changes were? Application forms and that sort of management would probably make it less tedious than it would be without.

Sounds rational to me, at least.

 

[Timbjerr]

As someone who was an S-mod at the time the old T-dome was around, I'd pity the current staff if it ever came back. >_<

The problem with the T-dome was that people weren't so much debating in the debate threads as there was flaming eachother's opinions, and given the liberal lean PC has on most issues, those in the conservative minority were the biggest offenders. The 18+ age limit is no different in the end than the 13+ age limit the old one had. This site has a just as many mature 12-13 year olds as there are immature 18-19 year olds. things get out of hand too quickly and you get a whole forum at war over some silly debate. XD

Besides, there were very few good debate threads in there anyways...most of the old T-dome threads could be summarized by saying, "lol, sex jokes are funneh!!!11"...real mature forum eh?

 

[.Gamer]

Sounds like a bad version of FireBot lol. People on PC clearly aren't mature enough for this if you just look at the LGBT/Straight thread controversy.

 

[Arcanine]

I'd almost say that it would better unmoderated. You have the age limit and the post limit, so you know you won't have some 13 year old going "Wahhh Imma tell my mommy you said ****!" and just let it go. Discussions will get hot, discussions will get angry... but let it go.

IMO, the problem with the old one was that there was too much moderating. Before anything could get intense, it was killed. Kinda killed the point

Your post is a prime example of why we don't need another T-Dome.

I'm looking at it right now... we had the forum up 4 or 5 months, there were 188 threads (not counting the rules) in that forum, that's 9 and a half pages. Only 18 of them 188 threads were locked. More then likely some of them 18 were duplicate threads, only 6 of them 18 had 20 posts or more, only 3 of them 6 had 100 posts or more (and yes there's many other threads in there that has over 100 posts). So it's not like we shut the talks down right away. I'm sure Staff were there saying "Cool it guys", but over all the members got to talk about what they wanted to talk about. And then it got out of hand, no one would listen to the Staff when we said to respect others, no bashing and flaming and so on. So what did we do? We took the forum away from the members, it's that simple.

But what you're saying is... no Moderation at all. Give the members free reign to flame everyone, cuss out the other members, bash their points of view, and so on. Just another forum to break the rules right? I'm sure we all need that on PC, I mean we all have to vent right? Lets do it on PC by randomly yelling at other members for no reason at all. And don't say "Well they can't spam, they have to stay on topic" you just said "Discussions will get hot, discussions will get angry... but let it go." so we're ok with flaming, blashing, cussing out the other people, so why not get rid of the "off topic" rule for the forum as well? Yea it's what everyone wants, a forum with no Mod oversight.



I will say this again... the members are not mature enough for a "mature" forum. Yea, I was one of the posters in the T-Dome, yea I was in the debate threads, yea I still love to debate. But that doesn't mean I'd vote for another. In fact I bet I can speak for most of the Higher Staff when I say... if you didn't get to see the T-Dome then sorry, there won't be another.

 

[Esper]

I don't like the idea of a restricted section. I think that whenever the staff have to deny someone access to a part of PC there has to be a very good reason for it, like how staff have their own area for discussing things that relate to running PC and regular members don't need to be a part of that so it's not available to us. Having a forum where you have to pass a maturity test to get in is too subjective and in my mind defeats the purpose of this being a 'community'. (Besides, people can be more mature in some instances and less in others, like how loud and talkative people can quiet down when they go to a library.)

I'd like to have something like the Thunder Dome, but I see why it wouldn't work.