crystal ash: [I wrote this in response to a thread in "All things Multiplayer", however thought that the point may warrent some specific feedback, and would be better placed here.]
By the nature of its definition, a Community is made by the people in it, and so while we can take pride in its successes, we also have to take responsibility for its shortcomings; rather than blame the mods and developers: Forum Administrators are there to provide and maintain the infrastructure that allows our voice to be heard - and they should not be critasized for the quality of the content.
There are, perhaps, some practical things that they can do to help the Community develop. Personally, I think the general forum areas could be improved to give clearer areas for specific discussion. This is particularly apparent when you compare the amount of traffic in "All things multiplayer" compared to the other areas. Better monitoring to ensure threads are appropriate would also help. It might also be nice to have a bit more interaction from the development team, as often frustration arrises out of a lack of information - however we all must appreciate that they have the all more important job to do of actually creating the content in the first place.
I think FJs point about other Communities being better is slightly unfair, as it is important to remember that the reason for this is that they are more established. In the grand scheme of things, this is a relatively new and growing Community that will take time to establish itself and reach its prime. It is also a simple fact that one of the directives of this game was to introduce the RTS genre to a new type of player - and as such, it must be expected that there will be a large amount of discussion surrounding the more basic fundamentals to the game that you might not find as apparent in more 'hardcore' RTS communities. It is an aspect to the forum that should be embraced as an opportunity to share the knowledge and passion that all of us have for the game with new people, and help them develop their undertstanding so they too can enjoy the game to its full ptoential.
Finally, its up to all of us to continue to look at what other games, and what other communities do - take what they do well, change what is done badly - to ensure that the Community is as good as it can be. There are many aspects of both the game and this forum that I was surprised had not learnt from what has gone before - but that does not mean we cannot continue the effort to create a positive and fun environment that enhances our enjoyment of a great game.
You spelled " Potential" wrong at the ending of your third paragraph.
I have to disagree with you where you state in your first paragraph about not blaming the moderators or forum administrators. They are responsible for whatever happens on this site and they should be able to take critercism aswell as hearing nice things about the game. They are the one's that created this site and thus allowed us to put our opinion's forward for the game.And we should allowed to blame them for the lack of updates we were getting on the game before it got released because Aloysius never really answered any questions that were asked in the ' Ask a Mod" thread, which i consider to be extremely ignorant for someone who is supposed to be there to answer questions and to keep the forums up to date.
You also need to further elaborate which threads you are talking about that " Lack in information" . Normally the first post of a new thread should fill you in with all the information that is required for entering that specifc thread. Then again half the threads don't even make sense on here because they are simply just spam or off topic subjects.
I partly agree with you in your last paragraph but we don't necessarily have to look at how other communities are run. Before MS took over this site, the community was fine but now it's all gone to piece's since the removal of signatures and the lack of questions answered by the new moderators.
I stand proud and dominant in the heat of a battle.