As this stuff seems to be copy/pasted from EA guidelines, I'm guessing it's just a general EA standard policy:
Petition. Petitions do not contribute to a useful and productive forum.
This is under the "don'ts."
Is this now an official stance on petitions for the Sims Forums or just inadvertently included from standardizing things? I've never really used petitions myself, but I've seen them a lot and I could see a number of people getting a wrist slap for making a petition because they're so accustomed to them being allowed.
So I wanted to get clarification on whether this is truly a stance you're changing on and if so, perhaps an explanation as to why; whether it's just to standardize or if there is some other reason that might satisfy those that are accustomed to making and using petitions.
I'll admit I don't have the prior rules memorized, so it's possible petitions were always there in the don'ts of the rules somewhere, but I'm pretty sure I don't remember seeing them as a part of it before?
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I did some re-reading of Drake's posts about the forum changes and there is this line: So I'm pretty confident what they did is just copy/paste existing "official" EA forum rules.
But I don't know if that's a good idea in the case of things like petitions and how they've been allowed in the past.
I hope she will explain to some of us why this is now seen as an uneccessary, unproductive activity...because the object we wanted in TS3 (the ability to run our own restaurants) was a direct result of a petition which Ryan said had over 1,000 signatures, and they made a big deal about it and gave credit to @Cinderellimouse for creating that petition then. Sigh, .....I don't understand why this is no longer acceptable/here on TS4.
1 was about pets and had nearly 100 signatures
1 was about weather/seasons and had about 140 signatures
and 1 was about a music themed pack and had about 20 signatures.
All of them abide by the forum rules.
I updated 1 of them yesterday as it had new posts, the other 2 hadn't been updated since 5th July and 21st July and I was about to give them a bump just now when I discovered that all 3 have completely disappeared.
I put a lot of work into cataloging what had signed my petitions, does anyone know what's happened to them?
These are indeed general EA Forum Rules and Guidelines with some Sims specific additions or clarifications.
When it comes to petitions, I will agree they have in some cases been useful (specifically petitions related to in-game changes), but that is VERY small minority. In most cases, petitions are disruptive and do not contribute much to the forum environment. They generate a lot of feelings, positive and negative, that can cause the members of the forums to become quite hostile towards each other. While this might not happen with every petition created, we would rather avoid the situation in the first place.
Forum rules can often seem too restrictive and generic, but they are meant to maintain the peace between the forum members and assist said members in choosing the way discussions are held. We want the forums to be safe and peaceful environment where everyone feels welcomed.
We of course encourage everyone to post their feedback! Well worded, constructive feedback from players will trump any petition.
As for a wrist slap on breaking the rules - there is an adjustment period all around. First step with any rules is education of said rules.
Thanks,
EA_Mage
I also believe I have observed that in some cases, petitions can generate positive feelings and result in an overall more constructive environment, as they can give community members a way to feel a sense of solidarity and of being understood, when it comes to something they are very passionate about. In other words, it gives them something to do with their passion that shows their support for a particular idea or feature.
Most people, in my experience, don't know enough about game design, or about what they want, to write detailed, constructive feedback, so a petition can be one way for them to express their desires without needing to be skillfully articulate in written word and/or need to spend the time expressing their desires in such a manner.
I don't think petitions themselves are the only way to get this benefit, but I do think they are one way. An alternative example is the thread: https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/801025/ea-silence-on-family-play-and-family-play-fans/p1
Which became a friendly haven for people who are very passionate about family play to enjoy each others' companies without disrupting the regular flow of the forums.
Perhaps if you are set against petitions, it might benefit the forum as an alternative to consider allowing/encouraging people to make a centralized thread that has the general spirit of a petition thread, without the actual signing itself; like the family play thread, a thread where people who are very passionate about a particular kind of play can enjoy each others' company in a kind of isolation from regular discussion. Pre-existing petition threads could be grandfathered in, with them being turned into more of a "hangout" thread for people who are passionate about the feature idea, where argument/debate about it is discouraged or disallowed to ensure a friendly environment of solidarity for people who are passionate about the particular feature/idea/style-of-play.
I was wondering about this myself as I have seen one or 2 forum members making petitions that really had nothing to do with the game itself as they were only trying to stop people from making threads about adding toddlers to the game as they were getting sick and tired of seeing the numerous toddlers threads. One of those members that had made a petition about removing toddler threads had even went into another thread to let the OP and everyone else know that we're not allowed to make petitions since their petition thread about removing toddlers threads was closed and deleted. Of course this all took place pre-toddler years.
So thank you for clearing this up...
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I appreciate you answering however, I'm still at a total loss of how a simple petition thread that says something as innocent as vote for rain, or snow, can be harmful and unfriendly. A simple yes and no usually can suffice. That's just a silly example but I'm sure you get the point. Thanks.
it's not my mess to clean up though, so whatever
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TS3 forums had a button to create your own petition threads and people could vote on stuff. I have no idea why it's different here. Nor did I even know this is an EA rule, funny (as in odd) we never got in trouble in five years on the old site. (There was always a petition over there somewhere, even to vote the best looking Sim someone created etc.
Honestly, there are collisions even on non petition threads. For example, people passionately argue for/against the addition of pre-teens/middle ages and from what I've seen... it gets intense. It's inevitable since we're all going to have our opinions and aren't always going to see eye to eye. I don't think restricting a form of suggestion/ideas to TS4 is going to solve the issue of peace in the forums. People already are on edge when it comes to TS4 due to the mistakes/overdue bugs/issues (i.e. toddlers being added 2 years later, bugs, slower releases due to TS4 being made from scratch, etc). Even though I love TS4 and it being my favorite iteration, it has its faults and people are valid in their feelings towards it. I just think that a lot of the members already feel their voices aren't heard enough, so taking away a form of them trying to bring change to a franchise they love will only cause more a stir, thus, fuel the unrest.
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We know the transition to a new moderation team and introducing a new set of rules and guidelines is going to take a bit of time to get used to. I wanted to take a moment to hop in this thread to add some clarity to this particular aspect of contention.
I understand there is some confusion regarding "petitions". We are not asking for "petitions" to no longer be a thing. We welcome and appreciate your feedback as your voice is important to the development of the game.
Rather than labeling your posts as "petitions" we want to focus on "feedback" as the word "petition" can have a negative connotation to it rather than a constructive one.
Now this is a question: Would you feel better if we allowed for the inclusion of "polls", specifically within the feedback and ideas sections? This could help you keep track of those interested in what you're proposing while also giving those a voice who aren't.
I love the idea of polls. This way, we wouldn't have people interrupting the petition by complaining about someone else's vote. Hopefully.
However, feedback can easily turn into a petition of sorts, for example, an idea thread that becomes a "Who's interested in X feature?" thread. Just keep in mind that petitions will never completely go away, they will just be forced off site to websites that specialize in petitions, where no questions about the petition as it is stated can be voiced. Alternatively, they may show up as social media groups.
That said, polls would probably be a constructive alternative and clear up the above point of confusion for me if they are an option.
We should have a poll about the question if we should have polls.
Edit: I think this should be addressed even more now-since there will be some more um "help" to moderate the forums.
@EA_Mage
Could you check/confirm what's happening with this? @SimGuruDrake @EA_Mage I'm finding it a little hard to believe you'd outright delete such threads without warning, so I want make sure we're clear on what's going down with that. I hope this doesn't fall under "discussing moderation actions," cause frankly, I'm not even sure if this is an actual moderation action or not, or if there's something else going on.
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There is something undeniably unique about this community compared to a lot of other game communities. And it's possible that the way rules are constructed and enforced on the forums is one facet of that. So I'll admit I have a bit of wariness about anything that seeks uniformity/standardization, as it would be sad to me if this community lost its unique charm over time. Call me paranoid, but my mind tends to think in terms of where things are headed in the distant future when on a particular path/trajectory. My concerns in this case aren't so much "today," but more a year from now or three years from now.