Board Thread:Consensus Track/@comment-1018594-20150721025435/@comment-1251315-20150722094555

I'm just going to come out of the woodwork to post a small opinion: I'm all for anything that sorts out the mess that is the Versus Debates. I was actually going to try and sort this out before I left the wiki, but I agree with both NeedleJizo and WindStar7125. Just don't make it so that any recommendations are framed as being "requirements": by framing them as recommendations, they can be phased in and over time, become requirements naturally.

The point of databooks is something I support 100%. I have seen some truly venomous and utterly unacceptable behaviour from certain users and if I was still a forum operator, those users would already have been blocked for long periods of time for the kind of hatred and abuse they've been throwing around: some of the stuff I've seen said is so offensive, venomous and ridiculous that I swear those people are underage and have zero right to be here.

The databook should never be used in debates, end of: they add nothing new, confuse people who don't care/don't have the book in question and simply serve to cause friction. Debates should be based on stuff that is stated in the manga or other material and the existence of a databook should never be brought up in such debates. Anyone who brings up databooks is either incapable of actually giving a real argument in a debate, is simply trying to stir up trouble to get users blocked, or they have a massive ego problem where they believe that only the databook matters.

The reason that the board has gotten out of control is because there has always been a lack of moderation for that section of the site. I admit freely that I should probably have paid more attention to that section as a forum operator, although I did "try" (emphasis on "try") to keep the debates focused solely on Naruto characters. A quick glance shows this is still true, but there was a time when people were trying to debate Naruto characters against a character from another series entirely, which is a no-no.

I do think that the wiki needs far more forum moderation than it currently does (no offence meant of course) and the debates board should become more stricter than it is: maybe a notice could be added to the top of the versus debates threadlist giving a link to a thread with tips and information that should be read before users post in the thread.

A quick glance at the forums shows a general lack of any kind of moderation occurring, with most threads being closed by WindStar7125: the problem is that most threads are being closed many hours after they should be, which seems to say a lot about the moderation team. I understand some of the moderators may have real life commitments: if this is the case, then the forums are only going to go in a single direction, which is a complete meltdown with no moderation occurring and I can't see a moderation-less forum being any good for the community.

*goes back into the woodwork*