Thread: DP account

I like Will's ideas of keeping the rules to a minimum as they are not baby sitters and people know what is right from wrong and what is ethical.

How can people think they have a right to sell a online account? You don't own it and you never will. When you signed up to access the forum they dont give you a transferable license. I do understand its done all the time but its not right to do so.

Originally Posted by Mr.Bill

I like Will's ideas of keeping the rules to a minimum as they are not baby sitters and people know what is right from wrong and what is ethical.

How would you even think you have a right to sell a online account? You dont own it and you never will. When you signed up to access the forum did they give you a transferable license. I do understand its done all the time but its not right to do so.

I like the loosey goosey approach to rules as well. The problem with rules at DP is that many of the mods seem to adhere to what they have learned from the government, which is - make new laws to cover existing laws, or in their case "rules". Which is redundant.

Take for instance, that infamous Mattern Sticky rule that supercedes and negates all the intelligent and existing rules that actually worked previously in BST.

Mattern's sticky rule is not only ineffective, its gone from inconsistently enforced, to completely unenforced. Its useless.

So in other words, the attempt to clean up BST by creating another level of rules that make no sense and contradict the previous existing and rather successfully intelligent rule set, has now resulted in more of a mess.

This shows a few problems on the part of the administration of DP. It shows a lack of experience in both moderators, and moderation of moderators.

BST, which was previously a little choppy at best, is now almost completely shady and unmanageable. This is almost entirely the fault of one person sticking their nose where it did not belong. Too many cooks in that particular kitchen IMO.

I digress.

Originally Posted by Mia

The problem with selling a forum account is you are selling respect, reputation and trust that was earned.

Originally Posted by Mia

They are looking to buy the respect, reputation and trust of the previous user. They are buying an identiy. Its disingenuine.

I agree with Mia. That being said, if someone wants to sell their reputation to someone else, they should be allowed to. It doesn't make it right, but it is their choice.

I can provide you one if you wait 14 days LOL! Well friend dp is down for about 18 hrs now ...!

The thing is that people can find such accounts even without posting on forums (just like the OP) so there is no point making a rule about it because you can't just stop it (That's my opinion). Though you can try to some extent but that's not always sufficient.

I'm not saying it should be allowed here but what I'm trying to say is that you can't do anything about it.

Administration of other forums can always find such people, so basically the person who is buying account is risking his money for something he is not even sure about whether it'd work or not.

Originally Posted by Mia

I like the loosey goosey approach to rules as well. The problem with rules at DP is that many of the mods seem to adhere to what they have learned from the government, which is - make new laws to cover existing laws, or in their case "rules". Which is redundant.

DP got into a bad dynamic where:

• The moderators made a few rules.
• A few people broke the rules, either unintentionally or purposefully.
• The moderators started not liking the members.
• The moderators made more rules.
• The members couldn't keep up with all the new rules, so even more rules got broke.
• The moderators became more angry at the members.
• The moderators made more rules.
• There became some many rules that the rules conflicted with each other.
• There became so many rules that the rules were unenforceable.
• Rules enforcement became completely arbitrary and random, which caused the members to become angry at the moderators.
• Members expressed their anger at the moderators. The moderators responded defensively and became even more angry.
• (Endless more cycles of rules and anger, bans and infractions, wasted time and hurt feelings...)

DP became some sort of weird online version of the Stanford Prison Experiment.

I'm hoping to learn from DP's mistakes. I'm hoping to prevent a recurrence of that disaster here with:

• Transparent moderation. Most moderation decisions should be made publicly.
• Community based rule making. The rules exist for the benefit of the community. So why should the mods alone make the rules? The entire community should be involved in developing the rules.
• Fewer rules. As Montesquieu wrote in 1748, "Useless laws weaken the necessary laws."
• As much automated rules enforcement as is technically possible. If the system enforces the rules automatically, then arbitrary enforcement of the rules is almost impossible.

Of course, I have to adjust for my personal bias. I'm almost an anarchist myself. The community may feel it needs more rules than I would personally choose. Also, some rules may be legally necessary to prevent men with guns and badges taking our server away. That would be bad for the whole community.

Lots to think about.

Haha, just curious, how much would my account go for
Digital Point Forums - View Profile: Blogmaster

And whatever you think about this thread, I do agree that what we need to do is uphold the law, but other than that, let the market decide.