Metal Reviews

Do we really have to police you guys, jumping in each time someone makes a comment and keeping control like playground teachers? Isn't it easier just to lock pointless threads rather than let them turn into ridiculous flamewars? Helheim was never supposed to be the armpit of the MR forum, but a place for offtopic stuff - I never lock threads in Helheim for going offtopic, but I do in cases like the Lady Gaga thread where clearly keeping it open is just ridiculous.

No one's talking about policing. It's just that usually forums for discussion have some standards about ad hominem attacks and personal insults. We are, after all, a community.

Right. When a thread looks like it will descend into pointless arguments and insults, thus strides the threadlocker.

How do you judge when that happens? It would be more correct to just move the derail/nonsense posts into a trash section (I assume this site has one- failing that, just delete them) and continue with the original topic.

We don't have a trash section. And you seriously want to open the doors to start deleting posts? That's something I've always avoided doing - at least there's a clear trail towards locking a thread, but posts mysteriously vanishing will be more of a police state-sorta thing than just locking threads.

Then issue warnings and reminders for personal offending posts. A site should have clear guidelines as to what constitutes an ad hominem and what the appropriate retaliation should be. What criteria do you use for judging when to lock a thread? Is it just? Can you coherently apply it to any situation?

I don't really see any reason to start locking threads in Helheim. While we may have our occasional "silly discussions" and heated debates (particularly in the "Politics" thread), I've seen very little that would warrant direct censorship.

However, I do think the mods should take action if these situations pop up:

1. An abundance of pointless and/or stupid threads that accomplish little (if anything) and waste cyberspace.

2. A flood of threads pertaining to hot-button topics like politics and religion. These are very sensitive subjects, and while occasional threads about them are fine, too many would probably just result in nasty flame wars and message board chaos. Which we don't want here.

3. Threads dealing with highly inappropriate subjects/topics (ie. "unsafe for work" threads). This probably goes without saying, but pornographic images and overly lewd/vulgar posts IMO should not be allowed here (Stefan, even though you may no longer post here, I'm looking at you).

Fortunately, I haven't really seen any of this sort of thing here so far. But I do think the mods should take heed and have a course of action if such issues do occur.

Mountains out of one teeny tiny molehill. As far as possible I take a hands-off approach to moderating, yet I lock a thread that was on the verge of a very childish flamewar and all of a sudden it's OMG SHOULD MODERATORS LOCK THREADS?!

Obviously I'm going to nuke any pornographic/NSFW threads or posts (reread the rules!) and as far as personal insults go, it's up to the discretion of the moderator. What, you're all so desperate for the Lady Gaga thread to be reopened so that AngelRipper16 can continue to enthrall us as to what 'normal fags' get up to? Grow the fuck up, all of you.

Hey, you opened the thread, and I've been wanting to raise some of these issues for a while. Basically the only problem I see is how to you decide what criteria to use for moderator intervention. If a sequence of insults or off topic posts merits intervention, why not one or two?

Goat is an internet nazi.

There are no criteria, it depends on who's posting, who he's posting at, the thread itself... obviously if someone gets all 'YOU F****** C***' then a 'steady on there, old boy' or the like will be posted. But if it looks like, as Lady Gaga did, that the thread will descend ever lower into the depths of shittyness then why not lock it?

As I said earlier, grow up! This is the first thread I've locked in months, the moderators here generally are extremely lenient.

Please don't troll, Lucifer's Son.

Well, the least you could have done was answering my first post on this thread. You chose not to therefore I'll "troll" (since you call it that) as much as I want.

Woops, sorry, for some reason I was under the impression that you opened the thread.

Anyway, I think it's healthy to have a discussion about forum structures every once in a while.

What am I supposed to answer to this? Back in the day there were 50-page flamewars about how Burzum wasn't reviewed as well. There's a reason Helheim was closed for non-registered users. And it was ALWAYS moderated, by the way, Helheim was never full of octopus porn, much as y'all wish it would be.

And grow up, ffs. I didn't answer your post in which no question was asked, and now you're going to act like an infant?

Moderating porn and words are two different things but then, you weren't there back then, how can you know?

Oh wow, I missed out on the first few months of this forum, I am so untrue compared to you and all the intricate and worthy posts you make.

I think its both hilarious and a bit sad that this has erupted over the lockage of that thread. I, for one, am still in mourning. I mean, how can I go on living knowing that I can't read about Walnut wanting to bone pre-op trannies and having downs anymore?

Anyway, Goat: For example, Eternal Idol's post to me in the post count +1 thread about Brokencyde was waaay over the top, very vicious, and would have gotten him suspended on most forums. He could have criticized my statement without resorting to insults, and I think the forum staff should have some role in ensuring a more mature level of debate and argument when it comes to these things.

Fuckin hell Fridge, stop crying, Zad didn't give birth to you.

Lucky in regards to what?