I've written a couple of these before, and I'm sure everyone else has written some of these before too. Since this is going to be one of those types of blogs, feel free to skip it as "more of the same" if you wish, this is just mainly for those who actually know what I'm speaking of or have experienced similar things.
This site really is broken to all hell. The bubble system is completely pathetic. I know what you're saying "he only has two bubbles so of course he'd complain" right? Wrong. I'd be saying the same thing if I was a mod with 10 bubbles because it's not only about what has happened to my bubbles, but about those others I've seen. Obvious trolls with 7 or more bubbles making blatantly flame filled posts and not getting a "Trolling" or "Immature" vote with a bubble taken. Others saying even the most vague things that someone doesn't like and labels as a personal attack instantly taking bubbles away.
If the goal of the bubble system is to control commenting content, it's outdated and doesn't work. For one thing it's far too easy to take someone's bubbles. Especially when there are people with multiple accounts giving one person a down vote or when the fanboys get together and decide someone they are calling a fanboy needs to be shut up and then give them a down vote. The mods seem to be quite inconsistent or arbitrary in their moderations of comments, but do a decent job most of the time when it comes to story submissions. I guess they spend too much time in the forum and decide to "wing it" with the main page.
The bubble system either needs to be abolished, or completely overhauled and streamlined. A suggestion is that absolutely EVERYONE (excluding mods and admin of course) get 4 bubbles and only 4 bubbles. They can't have any bubbles taken, and they can't have any added. Otherwise you'll have people who feel they can say whatever the hell they want that is an obvious troll statement or piece of FUD or whatever; going around de-bubbling anyone who calls them out for it and completely getting away with it thanks to how completely bat-sh*t broken this site is.
Another thing that's stupid is the Report option. It contains only "Offensive" or "Spam. In conjunction with the bubble system, it makes the entirety of reporting/de-bubbling redundant. Trolling is inherently immature, spamming is inherently off-topic, personal attacks are inherently offensive. However, these aren't always de-bubble offenses and again contributes to the inconsistency and arbitrary nature of the ridiculous commenting system that exists on this site.
Then there's the submission approval/disapproval system. Why is it that one individual can approve a submission more than once? You see blog submissions that are allegedly against contributor rules passing through thanks to one guy and his 4 buddies approving it 1 to 3 times each. You should only get 1 vote no matter who the hell you are. You either approve or disapprove ONCE. Isn't anyone listening to the hundreds of "how is this getting approved" comments in obvious flamebait trash articles with sensationalist titles and 10 pages to show 10 pictures? The answer is the broken approval system.
And what's with allowing someone to disapprove a submission by saying "Lame" and leaving it at that? Do 10 "Lame" votes speak for the entire community here? Of course not. A group of people (let's not forget those with multiple accounts) come in and disapprove an article they don't like with "Lame" and that's it, the article is buried regardless of if maybe another group of people did like it. If you're going to disapprove of an article, you should be obligated to give a legitimate reason or else your vote won't count. You have the "professional" submitters here in complete control of the contributions, not all members get to have a vote on submissions because they haven't been able to get 3 articles approved, and Lame is enough to have your submission disapproved.
So to summarize. The bubble system before was apparently a problem because, and this is according to an official source, it was apparently too easy to get a bubble. To fix that, they went to the other extreme and made it too easy to lose one and damn near impossible to gain one without "friends" to boost you. The reporting system is redundant, the agree/disagree system (which I didn't touch on) is completely pointless and irritating, and the approval/disapproval of submissions is broken as hell.
I expect a mod or admin to come and say "you should post this in the suggestions forum" pretty soon. To that I say that N4G's main traffic is a result of the main page filled with the articles. It should garner the most attention from site mods and admin and that's why this blog is here. If nothing I've said here will even be considered because it's not in the forum topic for suggestions, then you can add that problem to the list of problems this site has.
/rant
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It's not the system, it's the users. The internet is spiteful succubus.
"Made it too easy to lose one and damn near impossible to gain one without "friends" to boost you."
"the approval/disapproval of submissions is broken as hell."
YES! these are my biggest problems with this site. Losing a bubble can be as easy as pie, but then wanting to get back said lost bubble is definitely near impossible.
Also having 5+bubble blatant trolls not get marked for trolling, but then someone who says something less worse gets the bubble taken away sucks too :/ This current bubble system doesn't seem to encourage conversation alot between users in a comment section considering we can run out a chances to talk. Needs a revision.
As for the approval/disapproval system for articles is broke too. Each contributor should only get ONE vote. thats how some crap articles make it to the front page because the submitter has "friends" that can approve up 2 or more times. Unfair for the rest of the community to me.
Agree with the mods kinda deciding to 'wing it' with the front page too. I've been on this site for a while and hardly know any of the mods. They could at least interact a bit with the front pagers a bit more. ( considering some of us aren't forum guys) also agree with the better moderation of comments..
Anyway, nicely written blog and great you pointed some pretty big flaws in N4G. Hopefully your blog gets listened to and some of these suggestions are considered.
Hope it doesn't turn out like those other "site problem" blogs where it's told to be posted in the forums and even then it still goes ignored by site management.
I like how everyone says that there are 7+ bubble trolls running around flaming everyone and never get marked for trolling, yet I can only think of 2 users that have 6 or more bubbles who are not staff members.
As a poster who had 6 bubbles and then 5 a day or so later, I don't think "broken" would be the right word to use; perhaps "strict" would be a better one. I personally like that because it's demanding posters be more consistant in their criticisms/comments/etc. I'd rather have a system where it an extra bubble feels like a badge itself, rather than a system where an obvious troll can make more comments just because he/she decided to make an intelligent post.
I personally think the "friend conspiracy" is BS as well. I'm not saying that action doesn't happen, but that it's innocuous to said poster's total bubble amount at the end of the day.
***For one thing it's far too easy to take someone's bubbles.***
It's just as easy to give them.
Over the last month, you have made a total of 9 bubble votes, DragonKnight. 6 of them negative, 3 of them positive. All of the positive ones are for 'Funny'. So, you have voted negatively twice as much as positive and your bubble votes in general are very low for an 'active' user. Yet, you can vote people up just as many ways as you can down, but you have chosen instead to focus on the negative.
If I go out two months, you voted 18 negative and 5 positive.
***Especially when there are people with multiple accounts giving one person a down vote or when the fanboys get together and decide someone they are calling a fanboy needs to be shut up and then give them a down vote.***
Complete speculation based on biased perspective. If you believe people have multiple accounts and do this, report them. 99% of the time, the people who say this are incorrect, though.
***The mods seem to be quite inconsistent or arbitrary in their moderations of comments, but do a decent job most of the time when it comes to story submissions.***
Perception is key here. As in all things managed by human hands, nothing is perfect, but our moderation is not arbitrary. We miss things out of the thousands of comments each day. We also have to decide who steps over a line and who doesn't, when there's really not definitive line drawn. And, honestly, there's no way to draw a definitive line.
***I guess they spend too much time in the forum and decide to "wing it" with the main page.***
I guess so. Now, let's wait for the forum peeps to show up and complain about our moderation and how we concentrate too much on the front pages.
***Another thing that's stupid is the Report option. It contains only "Offensive" or "Spam. In conjunction with the bubble system, it makes the entirety of reporting/de-bubbling redundant.***
Think of the report option as an escalation of how you perceive a comment. These are for the comments that contain racial slurs, massive spoilers, or are just spam. The items we all want to go away ASAP. Reporting these appropriately on our end helps us to catch and moderate these sort of things much faster than general comment moderation.
So, your perception is that it's redundant, but I can tell you that it is a tool that aids in preventing the worst types of offenses from going unanswered for too long.