It's no secret that since the game's release the forums have been filled with more hostility, both towards Stardock/Ironclad and fellow posters, than probably any of us would like. Some of this is to be expected from the nature of internet forums, but it doesn't have to be the case - especially if everyone actually wants to be heard.

I've been around these forums for a long time. I've posted a lot, read a lot, and learned a lot - so I figured I could post what I've learned in hopes (though likely naive :P) that the forums can get more civil and cleaned up without the need for heavy moderation.

Firstly,

Etiquette/Complaints:

This applies mostly to posts/threads addressing "officials" from the two companies involved with the game. What many folks may not realize is that, really, these are not faceless companies that pay PR reps to filter the forums so they hear only what they want. These are companies whose "higher ups" and developers personally visit the forums and read/talk with the community.

But if the community wants to be treated with respect, and get answers to questions or comments, we should likewise treat Stardock/Ironclad with the same respect. Snide remarks, sarcasm, outright hostility towards the developers and forum moderators won't get us anything other than their unwillingness to participate in community discussions any longer.

We have to realize that not that many people have been directly involved in the game's creation. Just take a look at the credits - Ironclad is a very small independent company, and only a part of Stardock was involved in the game's design. There are no PR reps, we're talking directly with the people who've sunk years into making this game. They don't *have* to visit the forums and talk to us, but they want to and it's something we should be able to feel good about because it just doesn't happen with most other companies. But if all they see is "whining" about the same thing over and over, if they see hostility towards them or people deliberatly posting lies or demands, can we really expect them to continue to interact with us?

Of course, as customers we all want to be heard, especially when we have complaints. But questioning Ironclad's honesty, hard work, or posting things like "This sucks" or "This is broken" hurts much more than it helps and instead of being heard it ends up being ignored. Remember that these are just normal people like all of us, and I doubt that if you worked on a product for years you'd get much enjoyment from reading a swarm of "This sucks" threads every day - most of them about the same thing.

So then, how do we make ourselves heard and voice our complaints such that the powers that be aren't instantly turned off? This leads into the next topic:

Suggestions:

Usually, when folks have a complaint because they don't like how something works, and if it's a valid complaint, they should also have some idea of how they'd like it work, right?

Let's take everyone's favorite topic of AI, for example. We get to read posts which can be simply summarized as "1.03 AI sucks more than 1.02", without containing any other real substance. But how does this help anyone? All it is is just trashing, it doesn't accomplish anything productive.

Instead of posting "This sucks", why not instead post your idea of how you'd like it to be? We did this all the time in beta, and I still do it, especially when it comes to AI. "AI is a coward and runs too much" doesn't tell Ironclad much to work it as far as improvements. But on the other hand, if you post a replay, and describe it as "Well, at this time you can clearly see that the AI fleet is more superior to mine, and should be able to defeat me but instead it runs away. I think the AI should account for external variables less when it has numeric superiority so it stays and finishes the job more often" is infinitely more useful because now Ironclad has something to work with. They can look at the replay, and understand why you're suggesting what you are.

The same goes for everything else - the market, siege frigates, long range frigates, whatever. Take your pick. If instead of posting simply that they're "broken" or the patch sucks, or the numerous other uninformative posts that we've all seen, everyone instead posted ideas and rationalle for how to improve them, it would not only help Ironclad understand the community, but make them happier to work with us and help them tailor future updates based on our feedback.

In conclusion, again, try to understand that these forums allow for something that most do not - the direct interaction with developers. All of us have inner nerds that cry out in joy when we see a dev post in our threads and address our comments, ideas, or concerns. But in order for them to do that, all we need to do is cut out the hostility, sarcasm, and insults and focus on unbiased suggestions. Bashing a game mechanic or change doesn't create anything productive and adds no value to a post. But posting a rational suggestion to modify the mechanic will do wonders for everyone.