I don't think it's necessary. First, people don't generally trust hearsay from unknown sources. Those sources have to prove themselves first before they're taken as genuine. That goes for anything, not just game development.

If Person A writes that Capcom will be announcing Onimusha U in 2014, few people are just going to take their word for it. If it turns out to be untrue, forum users will just police the forum themselves. If Person A returns to say that Valkyria Chronicles 4 will be a Microsoft exclusive, we'll all just say, "hey, what about Onimusha U?"

This stuff builds up. Liars won't be taken seriously and their lies will be remembered.

Now, if a person keeps making up rumors that prove over and over to be untrue, then I think that should count as trolling. That's in obvious cases, though, and after they've been warned.

No... dev cycles and reveals are so volatile that anything can happen. You might have some inside info, but 24 hors later that info can become obsolete.

I don't see the problem.

If some user claims to tell insider knowledge, and it turns out to be complete bullshit, his reputation is lost anyway. The next time he posts something similar, there'll be dozens of users pointing out that he was wrong the last time as well, so the other users will take the information with a huge grain of salt anyway.

Simply banning anything one doesn't like usually doesn't solve the real problem.

naming and shaming is also a bannable offense

Yes. I stated in the op that it can't be as simple as checking when somone is right and wrong.

From my perspective as a dev though it's the hardware claims that bug me the most. I certainly don't know everything but some claims are just wrong.

I think false predictions are what this forum is made of and what makes it so much fun.
Claiming to be an insider is just bonus points for the good laugh afterwards.

True, but dont forget that every hardware manufacturere makes last minute decisions (Sony, MS and Nintendo made the same this gen).

So even tough there are probably plenty of liars, who claim that they have inside info, it would be unfair towards the few that actually have, but the company changes its plans before the revelation :(

I searched and searched but couldn't find those threads :(

do you know what im talking about? i think he said Sony snabbed a once ms exclusive

found it

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=155705