The Final Solution to the MMOwned Problem

[Verye]

As many people know, newcomers to MMOwned are generally discontent with the nature of responses to threads they make. Often, these threads are constructive; however, they may be reposts or considered common sense to some members. Below is an explanation of the problem and how it can be solved.

Forgive me for writing such a lengthy, psychoanalytical opinion, but I feel it's necessary to fully convey my point.

This problem involves 4 things:

A. Stupidity.
B. Bandwaggoning, both in the form of following other members and memes.
C. Anger at something that happened to them in the past. Psychologically, this is known as "displacement."
D. Humor. Specifically, the attempt to make something humorous, create humor, or otherwise make yourself seem funny. Basically, posting things for laughs. This is less in regards to "repost" posts, and more in regards to image macro and "fail" posts.

Many people on this forum are stupid. This is not to say that MMOwned is a bad site; just, it is impossible for the biggest and most famous (or should I say infamous) WoW hacking, exploiting, botting, scamming, private server, model editing, etc. site on the world to not attract a lot of idiots.

Stupid people (and sometimes people who aren't stupid but just lazy) often make threads, usually to try and get rep. However, these people often do not search the forums, and thus, their thread is either a repost, or just very, very stupid and illogical.

Then, a number of things will probably happen:

1. A contributor or elite member will post in the thread saying "repost." This is not always just to be smug; people often consider elites and contributors to be the "traffic cops" of the forum. The mods are the lieutenants, the super mods are the captains, and the admins are the chiefs of police. Also note that their reply may contain an image macro (a "fail" pic, a lolcat, a demotivational poster, or anything similar). In fact, I'm not entirely innocent myself; sometimes I can't resist. I'd like to say I'm not as bad as others, but there are times when I simply can't help but to post a facepalm image in certain threads.

2. Other stupid and/or lazy people will respond to the thread saying "repost," since they have probably made at least one thread before to try and get rep and were told it was a repost. They are angry that people responded this way, and even more angry that they did not get rep, so they will now go around and tell other people "this post is stupid it's a repost you're an idiot." This is, as I said earlier, displacement. Also, if you are reading this carefully, you realize that this creates an infinite cycle. Stupid person makes post, stupid person says it's a repost. Now, stupid person A becomes a "repost repost repost" spammer, and people he affect may become one, too. Their reply may also contain an image macro.

3. People who like to jump on the elite and contributor bandwagon. They'll follow them around agreeing with their posts, often copying them with a similar image macro. This is sometimes because they want to emulate the elites; they want to act and feel as if they have more rep and perhaps more power. However, sometimes they simply think it's funny to see 16 (you may think this is an exaggeration but I've seen it happen quite often) "lolfail" posts, especially ones by high-standing members, and they'll join in for laughs.


All of this can generally be lumped under the general category of "shitposting." And, it has become so abundant, that many parts of MMOwned have turned into a "shitpost cascade," if you will.

Kurios is not dumb. He has recognized the problem and actually done a great deal to stop it: he's made rules that state infractions and bans will be given for such things. He has put a complete ban on lolcats, and recently, banned most image macros altogether.

However, the problem cannot fully be put to rest. My advice, to try to curb this problem?

Don't jump on these bandwagons to try and fit in the crowd, don't post image macros for laughs, and, maybe most important of all...search very thoroughly before you make a thread. The thread responders aren't entirely to be blamed. The thread maker is responsible for making sure they have not reposted, or even worse, stolen parts of other people's work. If you're making a thread, search to make sure it has not been posted before. If you want to make a thread that is based somewhat around someone else's thread but presents new or different ideas, then you can use their ideas, but credit them fully for everything they did. Same if you copy and paste something from another website (Wikipedia, some MMO site, etc.). If your entire post is just a copy and paste, you probably don't want to post it unless it contains something extremely significant and useful, but whether the whole thing is copypasta or you just copied a few sentences, always credit your sources.

The shitpost (and repost) cascade will never fully end. However, hopefully some time soon, it may become less prominent, if Kurios's rules and statutes are enforced.

[Obama]

Yet another sticky for Verye.

[ace_012]

I think this is a cool thread. I'm pretty new to this site in particular, and rep systems on forums. I have yet to make a thread to carefully avoid a repost Seems exciting, new ideas are hard to come by for new members around here without it being a repost, or without significant knowledge of WoW in general, to make a thread.

Is it really bad to have the rank "leecher"? Just because I'm still a leecher, doesn't make me a nub. If anything it just means I'm trying to make a thread that isn't a repost.

Nice thread though, I really enjoyed reading it.

[Dragon[Sky]]

Many people on this forum are stupid.

meh, only thing that needed to be said.