Purpose of Forum

I've checked the Bigpoint Term & Conditions, the Netiquette guide, and the Chat Guidelines too, but haven't read exactly why the forum is here. There are plenty of rules and regulations in those places, but not so many goals. But the basic goals determines the acceptable roles of contributors and monitors.
Forums have been used to get information to the Game Managers, without bottle necks in other departments.
Some forums are designed to let players talk among themselves about key issues, on an ongoing basis, not 1 shot posts on an issue.
The basic concept is for an electronic message board.

Dictionary.com has it as:
1. the marketplace or public square of an ancient Roman city, the center of judicial and business affairs and a place of assembly for the people.
2. a court or tribunal:
the forum of public opinion.
3. an assembly, meeting place, television program, etc., for the discussion of questions of public interest.
4. Also called online forum, Internet forum, Web forum. message board.

With all the international input, and the collection of international laws that are addressed, is the DSO forum for the benefit of the players, or an information source for BigPoint? And, is it supposed to be an ongoing process, with new additions by new players, or are old posts carved in granite, for forever?
A little clarification please.

 

This forum serves several interconnected purposes.
1) It provides a means for Big Point (the company that owns and develops DSO) to communicate game-related information with the player base.
2) It provides a mechanism for the player base to give constructive ideas/suggestions and feedback (both positive and negative) about the game to Big Point. This helps to guide future DSO development.
3) It is a place for DSO players to share their game-related experience and knowledge and assist other players in a positive manner
4) It provides a platform for players to communicate their technical game-related issues and have them addressed by knowledgeable players/mods where possible and redirected to appropriate help where they cannot be assisted in the forum

What this forum is not for:
1) General and non-specific moan-athons
2) Targeting/harassing/bullying other posters
3) Attempting to defame other players/posters or moderators or Big Point
4) Spamming the same redundant message across multiple threads
5) Complaining about moderators enforcing clearly stated forum rules

 

Dar I greatly respect and appreciate that you asked this question. I read your post last night and was hoping Allo and/or one of the team would give input, so thank you Allo.

My only real heartburn with the forum is the persistent mean spirited negativity. It has become the norm for exchange and people that read the forum think this is the expected level and model of interaction. So we attract more people that enjoy that type of behavior and/or want to do it themselves. We as a community have chased away bright intelligent people with good ideas because they get attacked by rude, know-it-all members when they suggest things. This is not a way to encourage participation. We don't all have to agree with their ideas, but belittling them means the only ones left to post will be those rude know-it-alls. If the community didn't tolerate that kind of post and interaction, the norm would change and new people would accept and behave as expected by the community. This is a great place for information and help, brand new people come in with a friendly tone in their posts and open eyes and ears. Then they quickly either give up, or adapt to the norm and become belligerent themselves. We could change the norm by ignoring those mean spirited adolescents until they get the message.

Option 2: status quo and we all keep chugging along and it remains what it is.