Question: Thunder Dome!

[Team Rocket's Raichu]

I wasn't around in the time of the ThunderDome. I was probably eight and didn't yet have the internet. But I like the idea, though some people aren't very mature about touchy subjects (no pun intended). Like whenever a LGBT thread is made, it turns into a flame fest with "your wrongs" being shoved back and forth from both sides. Though some people are mature at age 13 (ex. me) and some are immature when they reach the age 18. To keep it from turning into a flame forum, the mods+ can let anyone enter yet if they are judged to be immature they will be kicked out for a while, similar to booted out for a while just with a forum though not the whole community.

 

[Netto Azure]

I would definitely support doing this with an 18 age requirement and post requirement of, say, 100 or so (to prevent people from registering new accounts with false ages just to be able to access it.)

If enough members show interest and the other staffers who reply aren't against the idea I'll throw it up for vote in one of the staff forums.

Fully supporting this.

People have brought this up time and time again but alas the argument against the creation of such a forum is much to strong.

I've been attacked, ridiculed, made fun of, etc. for even supporting this before because "Other Chat is more than enough" to conduct such discussions.

 

[Yusshin]

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.

The Hitler thread took a bad turn, too. Same with the Day of Silence thread and, at one point, the Raise the Age for the Right to Marriage thread.

I still don't support this on a forum meant for an E-rated game. Maybe if the main goal of the forum wasn't around an E-rated subject, but in this case, it is, and it's out-of-place and inhabited by minors for the most part, and of those who are legal adults, most of them are immature.

I never saw the T-Dome, but I can imagine what it would become.

 

[Buoysel]

From the sounds of it, the staff has already decided.

I think it is a topic to sore to be brought up. :(

 

[I HEART MEGA HITT]

I have to agree with what Andy is saying. No matter how many times you try to make it better, there are always going to be people who will bend the rules. Besides, this IS a pokemon forum and it wouldn't seem right for us to have a place where we discuss things that are 18+. D: Do you realize what that would bring to members... even PARENTS who allow their children to come here? Whether it was hidden to just older people or not...

There a lot of serious debaters out there who get to into these things. Even the smaller debates in OC are closed because it starts becoming a huge flame war when people can't accept one's opinions. The thunder dome isn't going to be any better and it will only have the same outcome, if not worse.

I was there when they had it but... at the time, I wasn't actually IN it... I just know it was closed pretty much because of what Andy and Kura had just mentioned. D:

 

[Shiny]

Alot of people discuss those topics already, they do it just being discrete.

 

[Melody]

Well, Take it from me, a veteran who was around to see the T-Dome founded, and disabled not too long afterwards...The T-Dome was no better than the smelliest armpit of the internet known as /b/.

The trolling, flaming, and general disrespect was rampant and having a mature discussion/debate was impossible thanks to the little kiddies who'd just post a wall of insults to anyone opposing their viewpoints. Needless to say, the censor was often pissed on so many times, it's a wonder that the T-Dome lasted as long as it did. It was, admittedly, part of PC's shameful past, just like the first and second reputation fiasco was.

With all that being said, I would support the comeback of the T-Dome if it weren't for the fact that this forum is simply far too immature. There are far too many kids who would likely register a new account under a proxy, sockpuppet their way to the required number of posts and gain access to the T-Dome just to piss and **** all over anyone who disagrees with them, because they lack the maturity and paitence to conduct a calm, intelligent, and mature debate.

Now, theoretically, one might argue that a veterans only requirement (People who've been here for 3+ years) could probably seal out that danger, but keep in mind that even us veterans aren't always mature, and the section would either repeat it's own history and burn down, or it'd just collect dust and rot away from the lack of people to post in it.

Either way, the entire idea is hosed, simply because it's not possible to enforce the level of moderation necessary in there without forcing all threads/posts to be moderated. We'd need like 10 or 15 moderators for that section, to ensure timely post/thread approval in order to keep discussion moving at a timely pace. Not to mention, that selecting that many moderators at a time could take an insane amount of time, since moderation of this section would require maturity greatly above and beyond what is typically found in members nowadays. Additionally, all the veteran staff members are burned on the idea. Getting their vote of approval on this would be more difficult than getting blood from a turnip. X3

 

[Raibutai]

Unfortunately, there is no way to filter out all immaturity from an online community; what could we do? Over-the-internet Skype interviews? I don't think so. Even if we did something like that, the mods and admins would have absolutely no break time.

Maturity is an individual thing: you can't group an age group and declare them "mature" and decide another is "immature." It doesn't work.

I like to think that PC is a generally mature community; I mean, look at all of the biiiig words we're using!

And as for the Thunder Dome itself, it's been tried and tested, and was taken down once. Do you think that new rules and more admins will make a truly mature forum? Nah. It's impossible to weed out everything.

 

[Kura]

Well then that's sad to see, Andy. I see your points, and obviously I know that there are lots of mature people who are younger than 18, but I do see a LOT of immaturity in high school kids (and younger) who claim that they ARE mature.

Anyways, yeah I get all your points, and heck.. I just think it's super sad to see that basically NONE of you can't see the community acting maturely about anything. No one really trusts anyone else with actually.. conducting themselves in a good manner. Like.. what kind of community is this, then? :/ I guess a place filled with children who don't have respect for each other or something?

It's sad, yeah.. because there can be so much to talk about if only people on here respected each other more.
But that being said, I respect your points, too, Andy, and I guess perhaps it's just best to go someplace else.

Somewhere where we can talk about real world issues, life issues, work issues, health issues, and basically anything that doesn't involve weeaboo paraphernalia or games geared for people under the age of 12.
Don't get me wrong, I love Pokemon, and this community is great, I just wish sometimes that everyone would grow up a bit.
You know? Instead of talking about how Lady Gaga ROXXORS MY SOCKS OFF. We could talk about her career, her fashion, and how her view is on the world.


But if it's meant to be, it's meant to be. If you guys don't like it, no big deal. I'll find another place to talk about that sorta stuff. It's just too bad that the rest of the community will be missing out.

 

[Raibutai]

It's not that we don't want to; it's just that it would never work. We come here to talk about Pokemon, mainly. You don't just come here to talk about Lady Gaga, do you?...

 

[Nick]

I'm sorry, but I have to disagree with what so many people are saying. My opinion doesn't matter in a vote, seeing as how I'm not part of that, but I don't see anything wrong with the threads I'm looking at in the TDome backup forum right now. None of these seem to be what I expected from some of these replies and I've only spotted a few of them that I can understand for some of these opinions that are being stated. Most of the threads that ended up being closed were religion based threads, from what I've seen, and I'm looking at the threads started from the beginning.

It'd be nice to give it a try. Reputation doesn't seem grounds enough for shooting it down. Reputation is basically like power for some people; they have the ability to basically make or break someone. Most people don't know what to do with power they're granted and abuse it immediately. I don't think how members acted with reputation should really influence a mature discussions forum, especially if it's put under some kind of exclusiveness like required amount of posts.

The forum itself just seems like another OC + sexual and real life discussions. Maybe I'm missing something?

 

[Ho-Oh]

Guys, uh, didn't want to discuss this directly in the thread, but I kinda have an idea regarding this situation.

https://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?p=5748314#post5748314 <-- only for staff/supporters to see btw, but it could be helpful-ish?

 

[Shadow]

It'd be nice to give it a try. Reputation doesn't seem grounds enough for shooting it down. Reputation is basically like power for some people; they have the ability to basically make or break someone. Most people don't know what to do with power they're granted and abuse it immediately. I don't think how members acted with reputation should really influence a mature discussions forum, especially if it's put under some kind of exclusiveness like required amount of posts.

Reputation of the past T-Dome isn't the only grounds to say it'll never come back.

Reputation of 7 years of PC members is the grounds to say it will never come back.

We can't do age limits. Some of the worst members we've had (as far as flaming, trolling, etc.) were over 18 and even into the later 20's.

We can't do post limits. People will just spam. for it.

We can't do a VIP status. Younger kids will pester their parents non-stop to get mommy to pay for them to get into the "big kid" area, which will either end up with someone really immature who got in there or a parent after Steve. Also, supporter benefits are to be benefits; not the reason people donate.

PC members cannot do it. We are a community based around Pokémon. A game meant for kids of all ages. A mature forum does not work here. The userbase is not at a level they can handle it. There are plenty of mature members here, and honestly, when they want to discuss something mature, they take it to PMs, MSN, or what have you.

Hell, even some of the staff couldn't handle a T-Dome.

 

[Ivysaur]

The forum itself just seems like another OC + sexual and real life discussions. Maybe I'm missing something?

And that's why I don't really support bringing it back: because the chances are a) OC finally dies from inactivity, since most of the threads currently there are the ones that flooded the old TD or b) we end up with a board just for sexual-related topics... which is something I don't think I'd support.

The main problem is, this forum is mostly full of people between 10 and 16, so I don't think that board is really appropiate for it. I'm a member of another forum full of people over 18, most of them in their late 20's, and these topics get ugly quite often, so I'm really iffy about trying it here.

About a general debate forum, I'd happily support it as a subforum of OC if there were enough thoughtful debate threads, but there aren't. I think that's also the official stance of many staff members- Other Chat isn't at the top of its activity, so sending all the debate threads that pop up once per week or so to another board could be a bad blow for it.

 

[Klippy]

Other Chat already has topics that the t-Dome basically covered.

There's a thread about Atheism, another about euthanasia, 9/11, and the Day of Silence and those are all pretty "hardcore" topics

Looking at the t-Dome now, there's a thread about your life after PC, "Do you believe in God?", and other topics I see every day in OVP/OC, so...I don't see how making a t-Dome when we've practically already got one called Other Chat makes much sense.

If we're just talking about allowing more mature discussions in Other Chat, then it practically seems like we've got that already. Granted, like Went said, the only other discussion that really could be housed is sex topics and that doesn't necessarily need to be on a child cartoon's forum.

 

[Nick]

I disagree with the reasons for shooting it down people before Went posted. The topics aren't at all the vile discussions I thought them to be from reading some of these posts. I agree with how it's pretty pointless to add it, since after viewing the forum itself, it's just another OC forum with sex and religion, like Went and Klippy pointed out.

Reputation of the past T-Dome isn't the only grounds to say it'll never come back.

Reputation of 7 years of PC members is the grounds to say it will never come back.

That's not the reputation I was talking about, but okay.

 

[Cherrim]

Reputation of the past T-Dome isn't the only grounds to say it'll never come back.

Reputation of 7 years of PC members is the grounds to say it will never come back.

We can't do age limits. Some of the worst members we've had (as far as flaming, trolling, etc.) were over 18 and even into the later 20's.

We can't do post limits. People will just spam. for it.

We can't do a VIP status. Younger kids will pester their parents non-stop to get mommy to pay for them to get into the "big kid" area, which will either end up with someone really immature who got in there or a parent after Steve. Also, supporter benefits are to be benefits; not the reason people donate.

PC members cannot do it. We are a community based around Pokémon. A game meant for kids of all ages. A mature forum does not work here. The userbase is not at a level they can handle it. There are plenty of mature members here, and honestly, when they want to discuss something mature, they take it to PMs, MSN, or what have you.

Hell, even some of the staff couldn't handle a T-Dome.

This, pretty much.

Plus factor in that Other Chat is where most of these "mature" topics should go and I just don't see the point. This "mature" forum would be the final nail in the coffin for an already ridiculously dead Other Chat. The way I see it, if a topic is too heated or too "mature" for the general populous of PC and needs to be hidden in a special-access forum, it just doesn't belong here.

I know it's not entirely related, but consider rep. We originally abolished it from the forum because the members back in 04/05 (or around then) couldn't handle it. They were too immature to handle a mere FEEDBACK system. These are the same members who couldn't handle the T-Dome. What happened when we gave reputation another trial run? The members of today couldn't handle it. I honestly just assume the T-Dome will happen the same way. And since most "mature" discussions that do spawn in Other Chat end up in borderline flames (if not outright flamewars), I just don't see a reason to bother trying again in this case.

(And special attention to Shadow's "some of the worst members we've ever had" point... yet another reason why an age limit would not help.)

 

[Stairmaster]

An age restriction? Really? I think that would just homogenize the flame war.

A post restriction would be more reasonable, but I really think the more things PC has that encourages members to +1 the more they will.

And the donation status restriction? Really? Not only are donors just as likely to be immature as non-donors, but don't they already have a board for certain tiered donors to chill out?

I don't think this forum's return is needed since mature discussion (as in, civilized debates, not explicit) is already permitted in OC.

And lol @ sexual topics. That's unfortunate but a pretty funny realization.

 

[Chibi-chan]

Lately, there have been some very intensive conversations, some that I find very mature and really shouldn't be discussed within amongst kids of younger ages, but are still fit to be discussed in OC. The conversation is good, but sometimes they do get a bit on the dangerous side in terms of content. In all honesty, there has rarely been any large amounts of flaming like there used to in OC. Heated arguments and witty trolling, but not (much) immature conversations.

I'm actually ready to support a TDome, as long as there is that age requirement and possibly a postcount expectation. It'd also require that the discussions should be approved before the threads are made, so we won't get like, "OBAMA SUCKS: Discuss."

But yeah, PC's getting older and so are the members. I think the discussion is maturing too.

Alas....I don't know what would happen to OC if this happened. ):
There are rarely any non serious discussion there that doesn't belong in OVP or the Post Your Problems Thread, you know?