Hi everyone, I wanted to make a thread to address a couple of current issues in the community.

First off, I'd like to start by talking about the positive. The site re-design is coming soon and we're going to see Vgchartz transform in the next year as many more great people enter the community and the Wii U kicks off the next generation of home consoles in 2012. I have greatly enjoyed seeing the many quality, creative threads that the community has come up with and the effort put forth to foster good discussion and intelligent discourse.

However, there have also been several issues which have become prevalent in the community and I'd like to address publicly.

A community is only as good as the quality of its discussion and the maturity of its members. Over the past couple of months, I have witnessed many threads with perfectly legitimate discussion topics be destroyed through a combination of baseless trolling and ignorant comments. This is unacceptable. If you do not like something and will respond negatively (in a disruptive way) towards it, just don't post in the thread. If you don't like rap music, for example, don't immediately enter a rap-related thread and say it sucks. If you create a post which is critical of it, try to do so in a way that is conducive to discussion. We've had several instances of Nintendo fans trolling Vita-related threads. And while I normally wouldn't name specific examples, I think it's important to demonstrate an example of this type of behavior which is fairly prevalent on the forums.

Since getting back, I've tried my best to create good discussion and create a friendly environment for people in the community to talk about topics that interest them. However, the kind of obstructive posting which is becoming increasingly prevalent on the site accomplishes the opposite of this. It drives off those who are passionate about the subject, hinders productive discussion, and creates fights which later result in warnings/bannings. I'd be much happier if I didn't have to log on to the site only to see half a dozen reports about disruptive behavior on the forums.

However, appropriate posting isn't just limited to abstention from trolling and flaming. There has also been an ever-increasing number of spam/low quality posts and threads which are a negative force in the community. Not every thread will be a gem, but when you have quote trees which go on for 15+ posts with little to nothing being discussed and every other thread devolving to pointless discourse, it detracts from the overall quality of discussion.

Quality discussion is integral to the excellence and overall health of any community. It is what represents us to the thousands of visitors who come to this site and it is what truly distinguishes us from every other site on the internet. Let's be mature and courteous. Let's be intelligent and thoughtful. Let's be exceptional.

Thank you.

I'll try to be more exceptional! I'm sure everyone else will be too, GO GO vgcharterz!

Montana; you should have a blue banner to match your green one!

I have to say that I agree though. (What a surprise!) People can be very, very childish (including me so don't think I'm being ignorant here) on this site. What is saddening though is that these people are over the age of 20, act your age. Don't show up and starting ranting on random and trolling subjects, it breaks a smooth interface and, by human instinct, we would want to backlash because we feel that that person (who is trolling) is intruding on our beliefs and opinions. All of that put together turns out to be a catastrophe, it ruins a thread in a split second. Now, I'm not saying that we will slip up and let our inner trolls/fan take over but we need to try our hardest to follow the guidelines, however ridiculous they may be in your opinion. This site can be the best there is, we need to make it that way.

What Ryan said. Great message, but imo the trolling problem will always exist thanks to particular users. Sometimes I don't even bother posting in derailed threads all because one or a few users decide to stroke their ego or feel insecure about their favorite console/company/game.

Totally agree, I can see why so many people like Montana now.

It's also nice to see that I'm not the only one who thought the Vita had received a nice batch of trolling recently.

I've never seen you act childish, and you are literally the only user on this site who has an excuse.

As long as we Vita owners can still troll the Vita, I totally agree with this.

I agree, with your points.

Unfortunately, those problems plague every forum in the world, and while Vgchartz was always known for keeping those to the minimum, the more the community grows, the bigger those issues become.

Also, I'm not sure if you were lurking back when you weren't posting, but the problems were a lot worse, it was hard to enter a thread and not see fighting or trolling (For any of the 3 companies).
What this site needs, and I've been insisting this for a while now, is a more strict moderation system that prevents even slight bait or intention trolling.

And I noticed that when you came back, you started to be more strict and started to calm people that were otherwise causing way too much trouble, but we need to dig that even further.

About spamming, that is something that should be taken care of as soon as possible, with iron fist.

well monty, i've been a fan since you've come back, and i think the op demonstrates why. in short, i couldn't have said it better myself.

then again, if i had said it, it wouldn't be as peaceful as this thread will be.

i totally agree.