Hinckley

Can anyone point this new member out to a more recent thread devoted to track ballast? Joepublic, be sure to stop by the "Hello, my name is..." forum and introduce yourself. Welcome to Eurobricks.

This does not require a new topic. Please update all of your chrome experiments in this topic. Thank you.

Reviews can be posted in their own threads. No need to revive a news topic for a review. Despite pertaining to the same set, they are not the same subject and should be kept separate.

Did you not read where I said "use spoiler tags"? You even quoted it. Just be respectful of other members. That is all we are asking. Why is that so hard for some?

You similarly had the option to privately message Stash instead of turning to insulting him. I don't allow members to talk to staff or other members this way, unfortunately. Freedom of Speech does not extend to a private website. Moderating happens publicly, often so that all parties have oversight. Your disrespect is concerning. Now we can have a private conversation...with staff oversight.

Public Service Announcement from Hinckley: If you're discussing something new and exciting, say for example Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens, and you want to talk about something that would spoil a good part of the movie for people who haven't seen it, use spoiler tags. Thank you. Example: [spoiler] I'm a movie–spoiling jerk[/spoiler]

I'm receiving a lot of reports about this topic, so two things, please: 1. Remain respectful towards other members, apparently specifically in regards to the pricing discussion. Some reports have called it "childish" and "off–topic" 2. No spoilers, for Megablucks sake, use spoiler tags. Don't be a jerk. Thank you.

Use common sense, people. If it's a plot point from a new movie, use spoiler tags! Don't be a jerk. Thank you.

What on Earth is that subject title? Also, hi.

By and large the Train Tech forum is our most mature and community–minded members. Correction, second to Technic. Themes that require technical know–how and sometimes engineering skills have a tendency to attract more serious discussion, more focused members and less "OMG, wut? A purple lightsaber????!!" responses.

And now locked for obvious reasons. Apologies to those who can respect others and keep discussion civil.

Good to know. I switched to Opera which finally let me order. I didn't check the "view all" issue. Hard to shop for products when you can't browse.

Website doesn't work right now either. You click "checkout" and it takes you back to the main page. Aggravating. And that appears to only be a Firefox problem...

I love creations by AlienCat!

Welcome to the site, fellow Chicagoan. I live in Wrigleyville by the Belmont Red Line stop. Come to Brickworld this year?

Too true. I intended to be a dick. Just kidding.

Thank you! Talking about these things and giving us the opportunity to respond and be open with the community is great for our entire site and our members. I don't think you're whining at all. I do think that we can all sometimes be sensitive and that doesn't have to be a bad word. Again, we all have our own experiences and that makes everyone have different sensitivities. It's a reflection of your (royal your) experience and that's who you are and you should embrace that. It's OK to be you! Wow, I'm starting to get a little hippy–dippy here. But, honestly, I'm glad we have this thread and I hope people benefit from frank discussion about these matters. I knew there was another point that slipped my mind or perhaps I tried and was too subtle. If we do correct a member in private, we do our best not to make them feel singled out in public. So, look for little clues like ZCerberus's list and points 6, 7 and 8. They were addressed to everyone. But that's our diplomatic way of saying the behavior isn't tolerated without specifically shaming that person, no matter what the original behavior was or how rude it came off. We have banned people for being overly rude to other members. Free speech is a thing, but this is a private site and we do reserve the right to ban people who are dicks. And, in my opinion–fully understanding that you had a different perspective that is totally valid, Z was engaging you in conversation about site moderation, like this topic, in a respectful way. Z is a real–life friend so I know he meant no offense to you. That doesn't detract from your experience or mean you didn't feel that way. I know that. 1,000 times this. It is hard to volunteer for a site this big and oftentimes complex. It's a anxious feeling to come "check in" because you have a couple of minutes free and be the first to spot an issue that takes four hours to address. And sometimes we respond in ways we wouldn't if we had more time to process it all. I was really busy the other day when someone was talking about glue and I responded like a total dick to a post about acetone. I tried to go back and soften it a bit but what was done was done. And that's not even moderating, that's just me being a dick in normal conversation. But, we're not perfect but we try to do our best. And sometimes we have to be a little harsh or more blunt than usual to get our points across. If everybody could take a step back at times like that and just breath and put things into perspective, it will help out the whole community and that goes for members and staff alike.

I can explain. The Licensed forum is somewhat bloated due to LEGO producing more and more and more products based on Licenses. We received a lot of complaints about many of the rumors discussions in that forum going so off–topic that they were unreadable save for the handful of people involved in the de–railed topic itself. Sometimes we have to be a little more blunt to get our points across and there are all sorts of people out there used to many different things and one of those differences is sensitivity to being corrected. So, there are always different degrees of response to moderation. For example, when the dealer catalog leaked and a lot of member were posting pictures because they were excited and having fun and that conversation moved very quickly and I chose to post in 42pt red letters to get people's attention. We see it a lot where we try to moderate and people miss it because some people just post when they want to respond before reading the rest of the thread and sometimes don't go back to fill in those gaps. Less obvious was where I came back and explained why we had to pull the pics and calmly empathized with excited LEGO fans. But I don't regret the choice, it got the point across. I am sorry if my method hurt anyone's feelings but my intention was not to belittle our members. My intention was to throw a flag on the play. But, a lot of people were annoyed with what we did in those Licensed threads but we did get just about as many PMs for thanking us for stepping in. And the moderators paying attention to that forum have had a lot easier time since our expectations were made clear. At the risk of sounding like an old man, it's not all guns and fame. Wait, I think I got that wrong...

Personally, I think you are over–reacting. I don't think you were ever in trouble and I don't think ZCerberus's response was inappropriate. I don't think he defended the member in question. As a matter of fact, when he tries to get the thread back on track he specifically says this: which I took as addressing your concerns and publicly correcting the member you had the specific problem with. We all see the World through the filter of our own experience but I'm sharing my perspective with you so will hopefully see what I see. I don't want you to feel persecuted and I hope you know that if I did think you had been, I would take steps to correct it. The entire staff here would. Please feel free to discuss it further in private or another staff member in the future so the feelings aren't harbored. We don't tolerate cyber–bullies here and want you to feel safe. I think you handled the situation just fine and I don't see you getting into trouble at any point. I don't think you're abusing the thread or silly and I appreciate you bringing the concern to light.

An easier way to correct the problem is by clicking the lightswitch in the upper left corner of the posting menu. When you toggle into the BBCode editing mode, it wraps at the end of the whitespace.

As in the example brought up by Khaled, many members use the report button. The situation in the LOTR thread was reported by many members. ZCerberus is the moderator of that forum and of course would've seen it anyway but he and the rest of the staff were able to discuss the argument through the report center so yes, please use the Report button for that purpose. The only reason I continue to look over that particular incident, by the way, is not to single out Khaled and make him feel even less safe, but the opposite, help him see what it looks like to me and hopefully, in retrospect, have less reason to be afraid in such matters. Sorry but we just have to do our best to make those topics manageable and readable for new users. This is one of the hardest things about moderating the site because of course conversations about the sets will lead to discussion about the source material but it is often the case that a small group will take the discussion in the direction of the show or movie and it becomes inaccessible for new readers and people miss the set news or the discussion about the sets. This is probably the one thing we can't tone it down on. Conundrum. But we do have the Community and LEGO Media forum to take those conversations to if that helps at all. It's one reason we recently opened the new LEGO Media sub–forum.

Just out of curiosity, was it this? Perhaps accidentally mixed in your memory with this post? If it is, I don't think you were ever directly told you might be put in the "Taking a Break" group. And it does appear that all behavior was addressed. I do like having this thread and want people to feel comfortable posting their opinions here but your original post seems to conflict a bit with the activity in that thread.

Or I'll change the name to Candyland, now carry on.

We often use the term "chambering". That is referring to putting a member into the sub–forum named "The Chamber". Castles had chambers, courtrooms have chambers, Hogwarts had a Chamber of Secrets, you meet in a judge's chambers when you need to discuss a private matter, we all have better things to do with our time than over–think this word. The name of the sub–forum is "The Chamber". It's not changing. Carry on.

The name of the chamber isn't up for debate as we'll never please everyone. We are not oppressors. The use of our sub–forum is to have an open conversation. Additionally, there's also chamber music, a bullet in a chamber, 4 chambers in the heart...