They are. From a certain point of view...

I'll bite. Mind PM'ing me with which rules are broken, and (if you're really feeling generous/bored) links to example posts?

Edit: In general, I don't bother opening that particular thread, so I'm unfamiliar with the actual content.

I'm getting thinly veiled threats for shitposting in the InfoWars thread. Enchanté!

Well, I see Fable's new rules haven't made a blind bit of fucking difference. Bans doled out elsewhere for the most trivial and technical of violations but very little action done in keeping with the spirit behind the new rules. Downrepping abuse and personal attacks abound here and in various other threads.

Even the most innocuous threads are being hijacked for political purposes - this forum has gone so far to hell that a rational discussion is impossible. Far-right trolls downvoting everything that is remotely critical of them pretty much shows what this place has become. I'm sick of this forum being flooded with extremist politics and conspiracy theories, and yet being the stupid twat I am, I keep coming back.

That's ... not quite true, in my opinion. The new rules were only just a second baby step after trying to enforce the old ones for some time. It was a good step, it was an important step, and I think there have been some good results already! But evidently more steps will have to follow, especially if some people are blatantly bouncing against the borders of the COC or nauseatingly dancing on the fine lines to transgression just to test the limits, just to see what it takes to get themselves banned, just to provoke an official response. That's what you're seeing right now. I agree, it is an ugly situation, I think it was inevitable and foreseeable, but I also agree that only the level of scrutiny and enforcement right now will show what the COC is worth.

That concerns reputation as well. It's not that I'm particularly happy or indifferent towards hitting zero again probably around Monday. Thank god it can be shown in some completely innocuous threads how this is targeted harassment and unconnected to forum conduct.

It is a sad fact, that while the situation improved in some areas, there are still people blatantly breaking the rules and apparently a blind eye is being turned to that.

Rules are like locks, they only keep the most honest of people in line. The people who were really going to break them will no matter what tactics are used.

*inb4 DRM argument*

And on the other side we have a bunch of insufferably self-aggrandizing, sanctimonious users who very openly flaunt the idea that they think this forum should cater to THEIR whims and that THEY should be the ones to decide which topics to discuss and how to discuss them and are testing the waters how loud they have to cry until moderation caves in to their demands.

Seriously, get off your high horse, bruv!

Except for the perps, who get gnawed on, digested and shat out by unregulated/illegal big data businesses for bullshit offences. Nope nope nope.

The very easy solution (which doesn't even require any additional effort on part of the website team) is 4chan's "USER WAS BANNED FOR THIS POST". Since users can edit their own posts, the implementation here would be Fables simply quoting the offending post in full (or, if it's bad for SEO, printscreening) and adding her comment. This way, mod response happens where the original offense happens, the people involved in the thread see it and discussions elsewhere can proceed without any extra drama.

Not really no. You really see a spike of that sort ? What I see is the regular cruise speed, rightly indifferent to the CoC, nothing worse. I don't see anything that wasn't already standard before these rules.

Done. Pretty explicitely and transparently. GOG's CoC is worth very exactly Infowars'. I'm not sure what more you expect. The boundaries have been exemplified, whatever "jurispridence" you wait for is there already. Take it or leave it.

you'll shoot your eye out kid

it's a gaming forum.

I like to think that the amendment starts with "Roll a dice..."

Yes, absolutely, I see those spikes. I mean, if you tell me the infowars thread is at its regular cruise speed, you would be quite right, though of course the thread has been sleeping for MONTHS and its recent resurgence could still be interpreted as "testing the limits", just as the recent ultra-necroing resurgence of another thread was "testing the limits" pretty darn definitely after a literally identical thread was closed some weeks ago. This is all a test drive of the rusty old bucket in the new waters, so to speak.

And what I'm getting from tired old fronzelneekburm is of course all the known territory of frenzied ostracism attempts, personal attacks and the silly panic that the community manager would enforce the COC more when people demanded it with the same kind of vehemence other people vainly threatened to leave the forum should the COC be enforced at all.

But, as has been demonstrated e.g. yesterday, attempts to overtly influence these decisions by way of breaching the peace will have the contrary effect. Make no mistake, I think the infowars thread should be closed this minute. But to demand closure with open hostility means that this goal was tainted, and I would even understand if right now closing it is in fact impossible. :|

It's frustrating, I understand that to an immeasurable degree, to contact a moderator on any forum with what you see as a clear-cut violation of the rules and nothing at all happens. But I've been on that other side too, which was a pretty intense time, and because of that I understand what 'sole discretion' means and why mods can and will make decisions that people won't like, on their own.