Forums are strange communities. A few things tend to be constant about them, one of which is that moderators are supposed to handle anything immediately and perfectly. Which is enough to dumbfound anybody. Here's one from yesterday.
Removed the forum name because the intent here isn't to call anybody out. It's an opening post that could be closed immediately--wouldn't be difficult to justify action within the rules, but coming down too hard with the tools tends to cause longer term problems. We're talking about a game; it's supposed to be fun. Once in a while anyone could feel frustrated in a long term strategy game when they're having a hard time competing. This is someone who has probably played at least a year.
So what to do? Fortunately someone had found this shark in a business suit a few hours earlier. I have no idea who created the image (and kudos to that artist). It just seemed like the right thread to use it.
Forum humor is a tricky thing. Nobody likes to be the butt of a joke in a public setting, especially not when the person cracking the joke is in a position of power. Moderator ops really aren't much power, but up close it can seem to people like a much bigger deal than it is. So the humor has to be gentle. Tried to add something more thoughtful afterward.
The community is not necessarily gentle. That's the advantage of not having extra buttons; you can pretty much be candid as long as it doesn't get too vulgar. The community was not kind to the player who started this thread. Some of the feedback was constructive, others just disagreed. Kept an eye on it to make sure it didn't descend into abuse. Another moderator closed discussion a few hours later.
The fine line here is letting discussion take place so that people don't react against things getting shut down too early. There are threads that do need closure at the first post. This one seemed to go better by giving people the chance to respond.
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