Dear User,
We are currently noticing an increasingly harsh tone in the forum and file comments. Although we can understand that some discussions can become emotional, we appeal to you to remain friendly. Two points in particular have been occurring more frequently lately.
On the one hand, this is the reaction to supposed "beginner questions". Again and again there are questions that longtime community members can answer without effort (e.g. "What is a logfile?") or questions that have already been answered (e.g. "Is there feature XYZ?"). Unfortunately, we have noticed that the answer to such questions is often not (only) the question is answered, but the questioner is met with an almost arrogant unfriendliness. We do not support this! Please note: Every one of us has started with OMSI. Even today there are still people who buy OMSI and join our platform. The OMSI universe of freeware and payware has grown a lot over time and so has the WebDisk. New Users who don't know their way around can't immediately get an overview of this entire world. With the WebDisk we would like to contribute by a friendly and constructive climate straight to the fact that beginners can enter well into OMSI and find fast assistance. Help constructively instead of complaining about the beginner questions!
Often a short reference to our FAQ (if it's about the WebDisk) or to the Wiki (if it's about OMSI) helps. Sentences like "the question has already been asked a hundred times" are understandable, but they do not help the questioner. On the contrary, such answers rather lead to the community being perceived as unhelpful and arrogant (some would almost speak of "toxic"). Basically, we (especially the administrators and experts) also spend a lot of work on making WebDisk more beginner-friendly, e.g. with the FAQ, the Wiki and with the (meanwhile very clear) help/support area. In addition, we introduced the folder structure requirement about two years ago, which greatly helps new Users.
As a second point, we have noticed an increasing number of (verbal) reactions directed against users who, from your point of view, have behaved incorrectly and, for example, violated our forum rules. In such cases use the report function! It is not allowed to publicly discredit the corresponding user, nor do we think it makes sense to discuss individual cases for pages on end. Unfortunately, we have also often observed that "posturing" takes place (example: an user gives a (possibly controversial) opinion on a matter, in the following the discussion only revolves around himself; instead of additional arguments, only further incited and a small discussion is thus built up). Partially this already takes the features of Mobbing, which we can support as a team in no way! Especially with rule violations (from copyright violations to wrong areas) is the enforcement here the moderators, not individual users. It is really enough to use the report function and then treat the topic as checked off. Auxiliary moderation or other subliminal comments (example: "I have now reported your post" or "you are blocked by me") do not help anyone. According to the rules, private problems between users are also clarified privately, not publicly displayed.
We hope that with this article we can improve the climate in the community in the long term. We moderators and administrators always want to intervene as little as possible to allow more controversial discussions, as long as they are filled with factual arguments and a friendly tone.
But for this we need your help: everyone can contribute something to improve the climate.
Best regards
James
on behalf of the WebDisk Team.
