Playing to the Godmodders: We're Making it Worse!

[Tearless]

I'm sorry in advance for the text wall.

So, I don't even have to go into the problem that is illiterate godmodders in FeralHeart. There have been probably around half a dozen threads about that. What I feel the need to mention is the most common piece of advice given for how to deal with them, which is "godmod right back!" Also in this vein are the people who respond to illiterates with sarcasm and relentlessly correcting their grammar (ie. sparklewulf1: u cnat beet me im to powerfl!!! OtherGuy: *you *can't *beat *I'm *too *powerful).

I'm not sure why this is so widely considered a good idea. To my mind, it's one of the WORST possible ways to handle it. Godmodding at a godmodder will not resolve the problem, and it certainly won't show them how annoying they are. it will escalate it and pointlessly antagonize people. Unless you were looking for a fight for some reason, nothing gets accomplished there. Being patronizing and correcting grammar (no matter how satisfying it is) might be even worse, as being talked down to is one of the most agravating things in the world, and almost certain to turn a minor spat into a full-on caps-firing swearing hate war. It's also not a whole lot more mature than the person who started it.

While I'm not really qualified to give advice about anything (except catching peacocks. That I can help you with), I'd strongly recommend trying a not-often used approach and politely ask that they leave you alone. I have had several moments where, after saying 'please stop harrassing me,' they did. If that doesn't work, block them (even if you don't like blocking, you can always unblock a few minutes later). If they're doing anything against the rules, screenshot and report them; the mods are very responsive about things like that.

Oh, and please, please, please stop addressing people you find annoying as 'honey/dear/sweetheart/etc.' It's... yeah, just... please.

[kiarasBFF98]

I agree with everything you say. And yes, please don't patronize people. When I was a newbie, and I hadn't brushed up on my grammar that much, and just typing to others would end up with me being called "Hun", or "Dear." It bothered the heck out of me. Also, correcting others for their spelling is just rude. Most people like to roleplay realisticly, yes. But not everyone has to do that. If people want to roleplay with powers, and drag you into it, just say "no thank you." If they continue to bug you, and won't leave you alone, just block them. You don't have to keep them blocked forever.

[PrettyReckless]

I must say, that I've made these mistakes myself, but I've also learned from it.
Correcting 'illiterates' and godmodders will only turn it into an argument.
It's easier to just, ignore their posts 'n move on. I don't see why people need to stop and argue with them. o.e

[SteampunkWolfdog]

Grrr...I get so annoyed when someone calls me "hun" or "honey", I find it so patronising.
As for godmodders...I don't have much to say about them, except if I'm a victim of godmodding, I just walk away, or if they follow me, I block them (then unblock a while after. Chances are I may not bump into them again for a long time). It's probably best not to interfere with them. If they want to learn how to roleplay properly, then they will go about doing that themselves. I wouldn't force them onto it.

[Lady_Alizarin]

Very good points here, Tearless.

I have to agree that calling someone "hun/honey/dear/sweatheart" can be offensive to some people, especially to some of the adult members of this community. It's especially rude because you don't know who you're saying it to. Imagine a 12 year old little girl correcting someone's typo by saying "It's spelled this way ___. Learn better grammar, hun" and the person she corrected was alot older than she is, like 20-24 years old. Is it me, or would you find that VERY disrespectful? 

As for the persistant godmodders, often times I just completly ignore them. If they come at me with their illiterate roleplaying messages, I don't bother correcting their spelling, I ignore them! They go away eventually if you give them the silent treatment or the cold shoulder. It works for me, but if not I use the block button.

[SoaringAway]

Off-topic (very OFF): Please do not induce that people only give these names when they're annoyed by someone. Some users try to have a friendly interface when trying to correct the godmodders and those not well with syntax. I can understand it is a pet peeve but some of these "arguments" are usually just a samaritan just correcting someone and nothing further happens.

Just stating it out there but I have seen this in action but not everyone does it.


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 The understanding of actually correcting an "illiterate" (which isn't the case seeing as how they can write out the basic phonemes (first step of language acquisition)) is done because we've been taught as such because of different situations like a teacher correcting us when writing an essay, poem, or a report. Just because someone fixes the grammar does not mean it will end up as ferocious as the flames in Dante's Inferno.  Sometimes, these illiterates learn because I was illiterate back when I was very young in elementary and used the internet as any common child but actual nice people *did* help me with the problem. I did suffer from some minor trauma to my frontal lobe but hell, the correcting helps (but then again it depends on how the person is well with advice.)

 I haven't seen any thread in Game Discussion ever recommended "go godmod back" has been seen by myself as the illiterate/godmod experiences thread shows most users ran away or ignored. There might be arguments but I'll go more into detail below.  What happens in the situation is entirely varied by the two variables: both personalities of the 'godmodder' and 'fixer.' This is entirely the case for everything as some godmodders are opened to learning and have a carefree personality as the fixer might be arrogant as some of these posts been revealing..

Blocking them is just a neutral option and that leaves the other user out and that isn't something a friendly community would do. Asking politely to stop (as you've stated before) is the proper method to do but it isn't "rare," people have been doing if we take evidence from the accounts in the illiterate/godmod thread I was referencing to earlier.

[Nemena]

I agree with everything, but this part especially...

Oh, and please, please, please stop addressing people you find annoying as 'honey/dear/sweetheart/etc.' It's... yeah, just... please

Fhfhthhf. I've luckily never been addressed as such myself, but it never fails to make me grimace until my face resembles a ball of knitting when it's used in a negative manner.

I'm one of the silly people who occasionally roleplays normally with godmodders, sometimes with polite, non-patronising, advice in whispers if it's a grievous injury- most didn't really know any better and generally do listen (I've been lucky, in that regard)! I just let it slide if it's something very minor- like a claw, bump or nudge. If all else fails and they persist, a quick exit and the block tool's a better option than an incessant argument!

Though the correction part reminds me of a person we politely declined for being extremely arrogant in whispers. They were a decent roleplayer, but whispering with something along the lines of "I'm probably better than your entire group combined, but I'll join 'cos I'm bored" earnt them an unceremonious 'no'. They then sat and watched our roleplay for about an hour until I finally fat-fingered a key and produced a typo- and was consequently called an illiterate roleplayer.  

[SoulRevenge]

Oh Boy! Another wall of text. Yaaaaaaay



I agree with almost everything you say, but the title, I just-

"PLAYING with god-modders".

I have a sort of issue with that, along with the second paragraph and the first paragraph and how it was worded.

I'm not saying that just blocking or ignoring them is a bad idea, it's probaly one of the best ways to handle it, but. .

I tend to treat 'illiterates and godmodders' like 'literates'. Because alot of the ways in which the 'literates' deal with the 'illiterates', well, it makes it seem as if illiterates are an entirely different, inferior species.

As said before, I'm not saying that your advice is BAD, just I don't like the manner in which most people view the 'illiterates' and all, because as mentioned before, it's almost as if they're inferior species or something ridiculous of the sort.

Blocking them, ignoring them, or politely asking them to leave are good things to do, in most cases.

Those three things are what I tend to do, but I also try not to make the other user feel stupid.
I've seen SOME of users that do either one of these things act this way.

 And when they do it this way, well it makes the "politely asking" thing abit more. . "not-so-politely asking"



Regarding the grammar thing-

It basicly depends on the person, I actually learned from other people that corrected it all. It never really hurt, it made me feel abit stupid, but honestly I'm glad for it- because, without those people, I wouldn't be capable of even USING the forum or roleplaying as I can now.

But, as stated above- it depends on the person behind that keyboard.

[Tearless]

Thank you for the input, guys!

@SoaringAway: You make some good points; I should probably clarify that I'm only referring to when these pet names are used in a derogatory manner. However, from what I've observed, people are more likely to interpret them as patronizing whether they were meant to be or not. I certainly don't think they're inherently evil, just that they should be used with caution in situations like these.

As for the blocking, I agree that, ideally, we should never have to do that, but every once in a while there are situations where it's more or less necessary for the sanity of all involved. I've more than once encountered people with a tendency for following me around and buttswinging/spamming some random phrase or other, who absolutely do not respond to any attempt to ask them to stop, and even them I warn them a few times before I block, and don't usually keep anyone blocked for long.

@VriskaSerketa: Okay, the title is actually "Playing to Godmodders" which has a very different meaning. I don't mean to imply that we're toying with people, I'm referring to the expression "Playing into their hands" in that we're rising to bait and inflaming the situation.

I have NO wish to imply that people with less gramatical knowledge are less human, of course not. I'm only referring to 'illiterates' and 'godmodders' in an attempt to use clear terms everyone is familiar with; dancing around political correctness is only confusing after a point. To me, it's far more dehumanizing to snarkily nitpick someone's flawed post or instigate argument with someone who godmods to make oneself feel clever. I absolutely respect the people behind the keyboards and have no wish to look down on anyone, that's why I made this post.

[SoulRevenge]

@Tearless
Ohmai-- xDD. Simply noticing the word "TO" right now made my entire point seemingly meaningless, not to mention made me seem as if I like to rant a bit xDD.

I apologise that I got those two words mixed up a bit, for as you stated, "TO" and "WITH" hold two entirely different meanings.

And I was never accusing YOU of seeing that "People with less grammatical knowledge are less human", however I was trying to point out that some users- take note of the word some, and not most or all- tend to speak them in a way which makes them appear to think of the other user as "less human".

Again, I apologise for my rather. . poor choice of words, if you will, along with my rather incorrect observations, as I failed to notice a few words, or make my post /not/ make "All literates seem evil" ono