Yesterday, a hard decision was reached, one which I had personally fought against for months. However, I have found that as I tried to ignore a rule that was present on Unity, one that stated that off-topic chatter should be kept to the proper areas, I found that it became harder to give people distinguished lines on what was acceptable and what was not. Trolls were flooding the topics, both friendly and fun and non-friendly. The lines were just blurring and the modding appeared to be inconsistent.

Anyway, I’m about to rant a lot, so I’m going to put a more here.

Some spoke out on the influx of trolling activities and off-topic chatter, and their complaints were not unheard. Thus, the topic was brought up to the other mods for discussion, and in the end, I had to agree that there was not a point in a MH Tri board if no one was speaking about MH Tri.

Still, it should be noted that for months, I had been attempting to accommodate the wishes of the community and provide an area for MH members to go off-topic outside of a single topic. I personally feel that one topic is just too cluttered and not a proper way to permit others to speak openly and have off-topic conversations. It’s like stuffing everyone inside of a crowded small lunch room and telling them that they must stay there forever and hold conversations over everyone else.

I personally wanted for an off-topic sub-section for Monster Hunter. However, this was never meant to be.

As proof of my attempts throughout the months:

From: Seferia

Subject: Question about MH board

Sent: Jul 29, 10:02AM

I’ve been thinking, a lot of other game boards and sites have at least an OT topic for people to just come in and get to know each other without pulling the other topics off course. Would it be reasonable to start one in the Tri Forum?

The reason this came to mind is because I’ve regularly seen topics stray aside, and have done such myself, to adress a side-topic or another person. Hence, I think an official OT topic would be smart. However, I’m not brave enough to start it…

Thanks for your time, Snow.

From: Snow
Received: Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 12:41pm
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We have an entire group forum called “General Off Topic” just for such things.

Best,

Shawn (Snow)

Even Snow was adamant that the General Off-Topic was sufficient for all Off-Topic conversation. All other attempts to bring up this sort of issue came with the same responses. Meanwhile, those from the community voiced that the General Off-Topic section was “blegh”, “scary”, and other such things. I personally sympathize with their opinions. Being forced to go off-topic with people that you don’t know and are uncomfortable with is indeed “scary”. Especially when you wanted to talk to the community that you know and love.

Anwyay, I’m done speaking of how much I failed in my attempts to permit for an off-topic area for my beloved Monster Hunters. I’d probably ramble on forever if I didn’t stop myself.

All I know is that the enforcement that has been decided on will make people unhappy. However, the moderation members have to be consistent in our moderating. Thus, we can’t pick and choose the rules we like and dislike any more.

Hate it if you wish, I am evil and thus can easily accept the role of the bad-guy.