I was just reading this thread when it struck me on the third page that some of Fletcher's contributions had been deleted. I found this quite irritating as large parts of the third page of the thread, and indeed entire replies, no longer made sense as they were in response to arguments which were no longer there.

I understand the necessity of posts being deleted, but for the Streets, could we have a 'hide post' feature for the admins to employ? Any content flagged by the game staff would be hidden by default, so the only way people can access content that is OOC and/or offensive would be to personally choose to show the content.

Post deletion would, naturally, remain for posts which are grossly offensive.

I couldn't agree more mate. The particular thread you referenced was very hard to read in places due to the absent material and made little to no sense. I believe the posts were probably deleted more for being grossly ooc rather than offensive but I could be wrong. Of course the game would have to deduct any exp garnered for any posts that were hidden in this way, as I assume happens if the admin delete a post.

I was going to make this exact thread, suggesting posts could be minimized and redacted.

Excellent idea.

Also noticed this and tripped balls at first, as they were deleted within a minute of me leaving then returning to the thread.

Someone like youtube has where you have to click 'show' to actually see the post.

It'll also keep that post and the user behind it there for all to see, maybe with a comment edited in from admin regarding it being OOC so they can learn from it and other users can as well. This way it wont just disappear with us questioning the reason and it'll have a teaching/learning application too.

Whilst on the one hand I can see the usefulness in the situations you've described, I can't help but feel this will actually lead to more people posting OOC as they would know that even if it's "hidden" people will still be able to read it which is why I have to disagree.

I think the best thing people can do is to completely ignore the OOC posts, because you know they'll get deleted anyway.

Aye good point.

DeadlySin The typical abusers of "OOCitis" in the Streets tend to be new players, angry players, and distracted players. I've seen very few instances where someone will deliberately and knowingly respond to something OOC when prompted to respond in-character. The reason I say this is because they show a lack of awareness for the game's mechanics (to respond in-character) when they do this. Therefore, I'd say that instituting a feature like this would only improve things for those responding to the OOC instigator, and would have minimal impact on those actually posting OOC.

I just think OOC mistakes tend to be rooted in not being aware, whereas the scenario you're describing seems to depict them as so aware of the game that they know their words will be hidden and therefore don't make an effort to stay in character.

I support this idea, and would go even further to recommend some "Report for OOC" option; that once a post has accrued a certain number of votes for being OOC it is immediately hidden (but not removed). That way we needn't rely on admins to hide OOC posts (as sometimes the conversation drifts past the OOC posts before admins get in there to remove it), but there'd still be a mechanic for removing offensive posts by the admins.

Yes Denam, that is indeed the case right now.

What I am saying is that if this suggestion is put in, people will happily post OOC when they don't want to put the effort in because they know it will stay viewable. If they know their post is completely removed (the current system) it forces them to think their words over carefully, and yes sometimes mistakes are made but people learn quickly.

I think we also generally heavily discourage OOC in the Streets. Persistent violations of RP are generally frowned upon by both whoever's engaged in the conversation and the leader of the individual. This just seems like a very simple quality of life improvement for people responding to those drifting in and out of character.

Plus, I think it would be good to leave them behind as hidden to show as an example. If we leave the OOC posts behind, people can go through and see where they crossed into OOC. It keeps the structure of the conversation intact, shows the reason why it's hidden, and provides examples of violating RP in the Streets, all while having the effect of showing the author of the post that their post is unacceptable for RP standards. I like it.

I think adding a warning/strikes system with this would be best and edited in the post by an admin (believe this use to happen at some stage, maybe I'm mistaken and it was another site). 3 strikes and an admin jail for 48hours. This way, the deterrent is still there. The example for newcomers is still there. And we don't lose full traction of the post itself.

Some posts that stick around IMO seem OOC, and Fletcher's posts didn't seem all that OOC than some others, so it was a surprise to see them gone. This way we get the lesson, the example, and the wholeness of the thread. If the post has a warning on it and gets hidden, we can then naturally know which posts are considered OOC and ignore them. Otherwise, it's hard to tell sometimes.