Thursday, June 2, 2011

Your Opinion: DakkaDakka Vs. Warseer

I would estimate that 95% of my online experience with 40k until recently has been on DakkaDakka. My tactical articles, battle reports, questions, threads, discussions - everything.

Since I don't have the ability to GET into Dakka...and using my wife's account would probably get hers banned for circumventing moderation punishment, I created an account on Warseer. I need to be able to upload pictures for battle reports, and a blog isn't always the best place to ask questions or to solicit input from folks.

So...three days after creating an account on Warseer (I'm writing this on Monday, Memorial Day), I find myself quite disappointed with the website. My e-mail to Warseer administration below:

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Greetings.

I'm new to Warseer; I'm not new to 40k. I thought I would try bringing some of my battle reports and Tactical articles to Warseer to reach a new audience, and have run into some annoying problems.

1. The Gallery. There seems to be no ability to create sub-folders in a member gallery. I've been writing battle reports for two years on Dakka; I've got like 2,000 pictures uploaded that go with them. The last series of Necron battle reports that I did had 95 pictures in the first game. If there's no ability to section off pictures in the gallery, then it isn't feasible to use as an asset to create battle reports.

2. More on the Gallery: I can't even upload pictures to the gallery. Five at a time, I gave it a shot - I wanted to write one of my battle reports here instead of linking them from my blog - and got an error message that it had timed out. Second attempt failed as well.

3. Inability to post: Every time I make a post or create a thread, it's awaiting moderator approval. When does this end? It's impossible to actively participate in a conversation or in a thread when your words don't go live when you write them.

4. Character limit in posts: Combining some of these issues - I tried writing a tactical guide for my Necron Wraith Wing for your 40k tactical forums. Its a five part segment of how the army works. Its undefeated on the tournament scene - I travel around the country to play in GTs, and am not a local schmuck - I write some intricately detailed stuff to try helping people replicate what I do. 20,000 characters. I had to cut three parts out of my guide to get it under the character count.

And since my thread is awaiting moderator approval, I have no idea when it will go live. My initial plan was to post it, and immediately reply to my own OP with two more posts to put the rest of the guide in...but I can't even do that now because my posts need moderator approval before they can go public.

I have zero interest in posting 1/3 of a tactical guide, and a day later getting another 1/3 of it posted after a page of comments, and then a day later the last 1/3 getting posted as well - it makes it disjointed and unfriendly for users to read.

5. Inability to change the name of a topic. I posted a Battle report in 40k tactics. The post was a link to the battle report on my blog, since I hadn't yet figured out the gallery here...which is a good thing because its 95 pictures and far more than 20,000 characters. I later responded to the OP I made with a link to the second battle report - and that night created a new thread with the second battle report because the rely I had made with the link hadn't been approved from moderation yet, and I had forgotten that I made it.

So my second thread with the second battle report in it (only 65 pictures this time) got locked. Alright - so you guys want me it to one post. I can do that - except that I can't edit my original thread's title from "Dashofpepper's Necrons at Little Wars: Round One" to something else like "Jumbled Necron batrep links" or something.

I don't mean to sound irritated, but I am. The administrative functions on Warseer make it extremely difficult for a user (me) to bring useful content to the website because of its poor organizational options and control - everything that I've just listed.

I registered here so that I could bring tactical guides, battle reports, things that people would want to read, and find myself unable to create or post them. I don't know if the name "Dashofpepper" means anything to you guys. I want to help, I want to expand and enlighten the minds of 40k players...and am meeting roadblock after roadblock in trying to do so.

-Dash
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No, this isn't a rant about the small-mindedness or even greater propensity for trolls on Warseer that I usually hear. On the contrary, I haven't had the opportunity to experience the folks at Warseer....because of administrative roadblocks.

I guess I took it for granted that threads on Dakka didn't sit for 24 hours waiting for moderator approval. Imagine a YMDC thread that you create in the middle of a game of 40k not even getting POSTED until a day later? Being able to create folders in your gallery to sort pictures, threads not being capped by character length....basic administrative functionality.

Dakka has its own downsides of course - the biggest being an entire STABLE of trolls that bounce around causing trouble. Hell, Hulksmash is posting my battle reports for me and even WITHOUT my presence, they're getting multiple pages full of drama being perpetrated by ****tards.
Maybe I'm a little bitter. =p

Anyway! Dakka vs. Warseer. Pro vs. Con. Lets hear it from you!

Comments (18)

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The pros of those forums: being able to see cool pictures.
The cons: the people there. Both have a bunch of idiots running around who don't know jack shit about the game but force their opinions on others. Visit the Eldar tactica thread on Warseer. Drop some good tactics (i.e. Mechdar) and be prepared for a flame war which involves the words 'you're not using them right', 'it's about using them together', 'they work for me', etc.

Do it :P. I want to see if we can close that thread for moderation again.
3 replies · active 721 weeks ago
�Well, for better or worse Hulksmash has veto powers over what I write, so the part where I called out a couple of particularly useless fucktards got deleted before publication.� *rabble rabble*
Anonannoyed's avatar

Anonannoyed · 721 weeks ago

The cons: people who threadcrap just because they don't understand it's a free forum for open conversation. Assburgers can't ignore bad advice and have to start flame wars.
The Daemon tactica on Warseer was so useful it got moved to a place that no one could find it. Now the good Daemon players don't venture into the rest of the forums much and stick to our one thread, in hiding from the poor dolts who refuse to listen to the advice they specifically asked for.
Brother Erekose's avatar

Brother Erekose · 721 weeks ago

After reposne-posting a few times (5 or 10 as I recall) on Warseer (like on Dakka), then you can start your own threads.

I left Warseer for lack of traffic. Simply not enough going on, not enough people; took too long to get responses for tactica etc. Too slow.
When I came back to 40k, I was using both forums. Over the past year, Dakka simply had better topics and more traffic on them. I haven't check warseer in 3 months. I just couldn't find anything to keep my interest.

Now I have a routine of checking Bols, Dakka, then off to blogs I follow, mostly here, Jawaballs, brent's Strickly Average, the Back 40k, and a few others. The best articles and convesations are on blogs IMO.

I have found myself watching Blue Table Paintings you-tube shows lately also.
Once you have a minimum post count you can post stuff on Warseer without waiting for mods. I use both forums for different things. I post battle reports and read news/battle reports on Dakka. I have a few topics (like the Mantic section) that I follow on Warseer. I have mostly given up forums in favour of blogs.
Agreed with the better conversations taking part on blogs.
I really hate Warshite. I used to go on there all the time infact it was the only 40k site I did go on. Then I found Dakka. Dakka is a better site but does have trolls and it's bad points, which is mostly trolls lol. Warshite is just full of idiots. Only thing Warshite is useful for is trading stuff and now that has gone down hill.

Btw why you not on Spakka for?
2 replies · active 721 weeks ago
Oh....I've got a nice vacation. Someone trolled me. I said roughly, "You make the world a worse place for your existence in it."
Fucks me off Spakka. You get annoying trolls who come on with a attitude which breaks Spakkas rule about been polite but yet they don't get any consequences.

From: notifications@intensedebatemail.com
To: dudelovehavemercy@hotmail.com
Subject: Dashofpepper replied to your comment on Your Opinion: DakkaDakka Vs. Warseer
GreySeerZ's avatar

GreySeerZ · 721 weeks ago

Hey Dash. In my experience both sites are 100% identical. There are flame wars in both, both have deuche responders, etc. But usually past the first 3/4 pages of posts only people genuinely interested in the tactics/report start to comment, and that, imo, is where warseer shines. A lot of this is due to the admins ACTUALLY removing offensive or pointless posts. There are countless threads in both Dakka's tactics and battlereports forums where Admins just let the ranting and bigotry continue unabated. Which is why I was so pissed that you got suspended, considering about 50 other people were slinging shit before you responded once...which I still don't understand. Anyway, a good example of how Warseer admins could be found in the DE tactica thread, where dyslexia was brought up, and people were bashing other people for using it as an excuse to write poorly, and I went on to remind them that not everyone has the same opportunities to overcome it as they did, bla bla bla. Anyway, within 1 day an admin had removed both their and my posts, which I was absolutely fine with, as it was off topic.

As for the blocks, they go away after 10/15 posts, which in my opinion, is awesome, keeps trollers from creating temp accounts just to flame someone. I'm surprised Dakka doesn't do the same, though maybe it was so long ago you just don't remember :P.

Either way I think both sites has its pluses and minuses. I just think the admins on Warseer have a firmer grip on what is posted and rather than suspending people off the bat, focus more on removing inappropriate posts. Plus I think there is a lot of tactical genius here, just like every forum, you have to sift through it (I know I do on Dakka as well). As for "Warshite"'s usefulness, I think its a great site, but then again, I visit Dakka, Warseer, Librarium-Online, Heresy Online, and Bolter and Chainsword. All of them have their pluses and minuses, but so far I like Warseer the best. It also has a very large Fantasy following, much more helpful than the other sites imo, and I play both, not saying that you'd have time for all that fantasy crap :D.
3 replies · active 721 weeks ago
Just a note on traffic, as of right now there are 338 members on Warseer, 578 on Dakka, 278 Librarium and 52 on BoLS. Honestly I know people who only frequent BoLS, which in my opinion is a dead forum. Dakka is obviously the leader, but if you subtract the 25% extra trolls it probably evens out. I do think blogs are good, but there is no reason not to post reports on the blog linking to any forum of your choice. Then obviously you get good forum exposure while also getting it to your loyal blog fans.
Interesting - this comment required moderation for it to be posted.� Everyone else just shows up and leaves a comment and it gets posted.� I wonder why this one got flagged for moderation?� And why there is a flag for moderation flag?
That shouldn't happen. I've got it set for no moderation required. I just gave access to delete but no automatic moderation.
What about librarium online then?

I'm very sad about dakka dakka now that gwar and dash are out of it....
I like the Painting and Modeling forum and the Showcase forum to see other people's work and get inspiration for my own. That's pretty much it. The many excellent blogs out there serve all my other needs now.
Dakka will always have an issue or two. But you CAN have a discussion there.

Warseer just sucks. It was barely useful when it was portent, then became warseer and just went to hell. its only good on occassion for some rumors. Beyond that not that great for discussion. Especially given its recent attacks that folks have gotten virus from them.

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