[sarcasm]So what we need now is a moderator for the moderators to be sure their responces are moderate towards noobs.[/sarcasm]
Kind words are a good way for a person, personally, to avoid becomming bitter and angry at everything, regardless of what happens. Like Steven Covey says, between action and reaction there is a space granted than man can choose his responce. The time it takes to type a responce is that space in the forums. And it is a good idea for each one of us individually to practice tact and courtesy. It will make us better people in the forums and in life.
I was a noob once. We all were. I've even been noob bashed out of a forum or two, and was grateful. If that forum is not the sort of place for me, I'm glad I'm not there. But if the forum has some sort of draw to me that nowhere else offers, like I feel this forum does, then I find a reason to work through the crass remarks and stay.
I can't comment on how things used to be, all I know is there's a special corner of Abandonia dedicated to those who got tired of how things are (dissidents), so you'll have a hard time convincing me that the examples of rudeness you site are a new development. I'll agree that some noobs deserve more respect than they get, but
some get more than they deserve. In my opinion, whether human courtesy is extended or not has very little to do with the potential long term staying power of that person. Anyone who comes to this site, drops an inappropate post without even glancing at the myriad of "Read this first..." sticky topics, and asks for something we can't give them in the first place is a noob that deserves to have daggers thrown at them. A kind word, while preferable on the human level, isn't going to affect their longivity because the answer, in the end, is "Sorry, we can't help you." Not alot of incentive to stick around.
Maybe we need to have a pre-canned responce so that whever a moderator is temped to light a fire under a noob he can just copy and paste in a more tactfully written responce. I suggest the following. For inappropiate (ESA or other) games:
Quote:
We'd like to help you, but what you're asking for is not something we can provide either because the ESA keeps it protected or it is still sold somewhere. In the future, Abandonware maintains a searchable list of software titles that you can check ESA status on many game, and google will often lead you to retailers who will happily and legally allow you to aquire what you're looking for.
We hope you like the site and look forward to getting to know you better![/b]
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If they are asking for DOSBox related questions
Quote:
Owing to changes in the XP core, many old PC games no longer run on newer machines. This can be solved by using and aquainting yourself better with a great program called DOSBox. It is designed to run most of the games that can be found on Abandonia. And while I know it may be hard to find, Abandonia acutally maintains a guide to get started on DOSBox here. The DOSBox website also maintains an FAQ here
We hope you like the site and look forward to getting to know you better![/b]
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And if they ask anything else
Quote:
Shut up you stupid noob! Why don't you crawl back into the hole that spawned you!
We hope you like the site and look forward to getting to know you better![/b]
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Hmmm, somewhere there at the end I forgot to turn the sarcasm block back on.