When I think of criticism, three things come to mind: flaming, spam, and constructive criticism.
Flaming is exemplified by the vast majority of your first paragraph. Comments such as "omg you so newb rofl your ideas sucks" are clearly not helpful but neither do they discourage me from continuing to form my ideas. I simply report the user to a moderator, slap them on my ignore list, and respond only to the replies that I can still see.
Spam, by my personal definition as applied to forum criticism, is when a user seems to be completely oblivious of other presented arguments with merit and continues down a non-productive trail of logic.
Ex
Again, this doesn't discourage me from continuing my ideas as it is clear this person doesn't understand how the flow of a discussion progresses and would rather participate in a monologue of sorts. If the person eventually does say something constructive, then they regain my attention.
Constructive criticism is invaluable to a forum community. It's fine if your idea had flaws or was even entirely wrong. As long as some thought was placed into the idea beforehand, constructive criticism can help get you back on track or even allow new ideas to spawn. I welcome this sort of discussion as it can turn an average idea of mine into a great one. If 20 forum posters attack an idea from every angle, changes are made, and the idea is constantly reformed, then the chances of the idea being flawed are considerably lower than when it was just floating around in my head. I think at least one piece of your first paragraph could be considered constructive criticism:
Granted that should be reworded in a more civil tone to further distinguish it from flaming.
During my short stay on Southperry, I've noticed very little flaming compared to other forums. There is quite a bit of spam, but an extraordinary amount of constructive criticism. Many posters here do not seem to be afraid to stand in the face of any sort of criticism and counter with their own. Overall ideas seem to flow into the forums and develop much more efficiently than other forums. There is one minor exception to be noted which involves posters who provide a decent argument defending some business practice of Nexon. These are frequently shot down with nothing better than spam, but then again, Nexon hasn't been too kind to this forum either.
Flaming is exemplified by the vast majority of your first paragraph. Comments such as "omg you so newb rofl your ideas sucks" are clearly not helpful but neither do they discourage me from continuing to form my ideas. I simply report the user to a moderator, slap them on my ignore list, and respond only to the replies that I can still see.
Spam, by my personal definition as applied to forum criticism, is when a user seems to be completely oblivious of other presented arguments with merit and continues down a non-productive trail of logic.
Ex
Spoiler
Again, this doesn't discourage me from continuing my ideas as it is clear this person doesn't understand how the flow of a discussion progresses and would rather participate in a monologue of sorts. If the person eventually does say something constructive, then they regain my attention.
Constructive criticism is invaluable to a forum community. It's fine if your idea had flaws or was even entirely wrong. As long as some thought was placed into the idea beforehand, constructive criticism can help get you back on track or even allow new ideas to spawn. I welcome this sort of discussion as it can turn an average idea of mine into a great one. If 20 forum posters attack an idea from every angle, changes are made, and the idea is constantly reformed, then the chances of the idea being flawed are considerably lower than when it was just floating around in my head. I think at least one piece of your first paragraph could be considered constructive criticism:
Quote:Why couldn't you be a literate, rational person and actually use logic instead of just posting idiotic spam?
Granted that should be reworded in a more civil tone to further distinguish it from flaming.
During my short stay on Southperry, I've noticed very little flaming compared to other forums. There is quite a bit of spam, but an extraordinary amount of constructive criticism. Many posters here do not seem to be afraid to stand in the face of any sort of criticism and counter with their own. Overall ideas seem to flow into the forums and develop much more efficiently than other forums. There is one minor exception to be noted which involves posters who provide a decent argument defending some business practice of Nexon. These are frequently shot down with nothing better than spam, but then again, Nexon hasn't been too kind to this forum either.