No more anonymous forum trolls?

[Lansiron]

My recommendation: Wait. Post on those forums (if you must) only before this thing goes live, and wait to see what happens, if this happens, before making any major decisions based on it.

This is good intentions spiraling down a decidedly unambiguous road to hell. Those forums, if you'll pardon my flowery evocation, are a seething, wretched cesspit of futility. Yes, good things have, now and then, crawled out of there, and bless them for it, but as a "community", it's utterly excreble. It's moderated, but only to the extent that they'll take action if someone is blatantly posting vulgarity or harassment; no attention is paid to maintaining the quality of posts, which it seems every other internet forum out there has some kind of nod in the direction of. As it stands, it's the very last place I'd ever check if I want some kind of discussion over something WoW-related, and I'm far from the only one.

So. I do not necessarily blame them for wanting to do this, as bad an idea as it is--and make no mistake, it's a bad idea--because the place is in such wretched shape right now. But, already there's backlash, and the sheer size of the thread on it on the General board speaks volumes. Something would have to go pretty wrong at this point for them to not critically reconsider this course of action.

The easy medium here would be to allow everyone a single forum alias attached to a Bnet account, which hopefully someone responsible for that place has considered, but...we'll see. Just keep an eye on what develops, throw out the tinfoil hats, and wait.

[Chrystenise]

Posted my disapproval in the major thread.

[Gryphonheart]

The thread continues to grow at nearly a new page every minute. Quite a feat. Sadly, it's filled with both the reasons why Blizzard shouldn't go through with the change, and why they feel they should (i.e. forum trolls).

I'll probably add my thoughts to the thread and webform once I can put them together coherently.

[Fells]

This new system has nothing to do with curbing trolling.

[Lansiron]

Well yeah, they're trying to make it part of a bigger community, as well (Bnet).

Also JENI WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THIS THREAD AGAIN GO WATCH AVATARS NOW

[Gryphonheart]

This new system has nothing to do with curbing trolling.

...however, the forums have also earned a reputation as a place where flame wars, trolling, and other unpleasantness run wild. Removing the veil of anonymity typical to online dialogue will contribute to a more positive forum environment...

I interpret "contribute to a more positive forum environment" as a direct opposite of the "unpleasentness" of "flame wars, trolling", etc. (I.E. to curb trolling).

Or perhaps I'm misunderstanding your statement, and you actually mean that while the stated intention is partially to curb trolling, that's not actually the goal and it's just an excuse used to validate the implementation of the system?

[Fells]

Here is a video of a turtle shaking his badonkadonk.

[Shaila]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC3hRVz36Yc

Kitty riding a turtle.

[Lansiron]

Carefully consider this.

(alternatively: a frog sings of eating a fairy)

[Illithias]

I bet you all wouldn't be so quick to derail this thread with YouTube links if you were posting under your real names.