On another note, am I the only one that gets sick and tired of seeing flamebait threads on here that the mods do nothing about? I report them, but nothing happens, most of the time. Pisses me the fuck off. To the mods credit, they did lock an anti-Xbox bait thread I reported the other day, but I've seen flamebait threads aimed at all three of the big fanbases, and I rarely ever see them locked. I always see mods saying stuff like "If you don't like it, you don't have to comment, just report it instead" but I report it and nothing happens. Then I look at the thread (I don't comment because I don't want to bump shit like that) and the thread is 95% made up of either "this is a stupid/pointless/flamebait thread" type comments, or "better grab some popcorn" type comments, with the rest just being people responding to the flamebait, thus getting into an argument with the thread author in ways that make you surprised they don't both get banned. So fucking sick of this shit! Do something mods! Even if you don't moderate the user, at least lock garbage threads like that! You're driving away good users by letting shit like this through!

Also, in regards to the current conversation about joke moderations, joke moderations aren't funny to onlookers 99% of the time, and look to me like they'd just be frustrating to the guy who gets banned. The only time I've seen joke moderations be funny was when mods ban themselves or each other.

Hmmmm.... I care enough to disagree with hynad. That is all. You mods just chose to jump in on my simple statement to try to get more. And I already gave cone my greatly watered downed truth.

Flamebait threads are indeed highly frustrating and we do try our best to lock themm and even moderate the user if it's particularly bad. The issue is on occasion these threads promote active discussion so it can be a fine line between acceptable and moddable. Hence a lot of the time these reports and threads go to the mod chat so we can discuss the best action as a group.

Naw *blushes*

This is a bit tricky.

Theoretically if we're going to lock a thread we should provide a reason and often moderate the OP (and other users when the thread has gone to shit).

This takes time. I try to do a few minutes of modding during the day at work. But if there is a lot of it I am faced with the choice or:

1. Lock the thread without properly dealing with the reasoning/errant posters.

2. Let it go and try to get to it after work if no other mod has had a chance.

Neither of the options are ideal, but I do believe on the whole we're getting better at this!

I would agree with most of this. What is important to say is that there's an awful lot more to moderating than "yes/no", context and content is key and that's something that isn't always made evident in the moderation.  

Needless to say, for me at least, nothing is done without great consideration beforehand.

Yes. 

It's not that hard to avoid logging into the site if you want to stop using it. This isn't heroine. 

Put up some actual evidence for your point bolded as this is all conjecture. And I have no idea what being allowed to push pass the Vita thread means? lol. 

That thread was locked as stated here: http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=6554810 
I do not see how that complicated; it's all right there. 

Italicized: I'm guessing this is more lashing out on the Xbox thread? The polls that are in the Xbox thread are about video game discussion, I see nothing wrong with that. And trust me, no one really cares about points there... Honestly this site would be better off without the point system. Twitter posts are posted as news updates... again, all relevant to Xbox news. This whole posts just seems like a way to attack the Xbox thread with not much to back it up. 

Honestly I'm getting sick of all the needless attacks on the Xbox thread with no tangible evidence to claim. 

Edit: You seem upset to me that the Xbox thread is the most commented thread on VGC..... Not sure why that would bother you, like at all. 

Are you going to continue to attack the Xbox Nation, Spurge? 

A good portion of the "spam" comments has been moved out and almost all discussion now is on the Xbox. As it should be. Unless you have a valid reason and evidence that it's spam and hurting the community at large (which it must be if it's the "biggest problem") then continued unsubstantiated claims will continue to fall on deaf ears. 

Having said that, I would agree that the "welcome" thing is needless, but it only happens rarely and it's no different from the "Introduce Yourself" threads on the site in my eyes. And Ryuu's news findings; whilst occasionally are small things which I would struggle to call "news", is still much appreciated by myself and everyone else who posts in the thread, no doubt. He enjoys doing it, it's appreciated, where's the problems?

Now I understand why the Xbox Nation thread and threads of its ilk are prone to attacks. That's fine, and we have changed things in the thread in order for it to be more avaliable to other users to try and minimalize spam (something which Slade and I are both a part of). However, I'm afraid I can't help you when you're simply looking for a reason to complain (the reason why the thread was locked should be obvious in the locking post, but if not it's because the thread was admitted to being a joke thread on a sensitive subject, and as the thread wasn't going anywhere it had run its course as I said earliier in the thread) about things that have either been changed or are non-issues to me, so if you've anything else to say on the matter, now would be the time.