Greetings, everyone.
I've been following GoNintendo for many years now. I really enjoy and appreciate the work RMC does to provide an amazing platform for distributing Nintendo-themed content. That said, I have observed that there are those who regularly post negative comments in response to news shared on the GoNintendo website. By regularly, I mean there seem to be individuals who post comments multiple times a week (or multiple times and day) and 90% or more of those comments are negative.
Discussion Topic 1: Why are these people a part of a Nintendo-fan community?
Seems odd that people who offer consistently negative commentary about Nintendo would want to be a part of a Nintendo-fan community. But I can think of a few possible explanations:
1) They want attention.
Visiting a fan site and posting negative comments will get you attention. (Same reason why a story about Sony saying "Nintendo sucks" will generate more commentary than a story about Sony saying "Nintendo is great.") A negative comment will often result in multiple replies and replies to replies and so on. It's even possible that a person could post a negative comment that goes against his or her own personal beliefs just to get attention.
2) They are being paid to do it.
I don't know how likely this is, but it seems plausible. A company that wants Nintendo to fail could hire people or have their own employees regularly post negative comments on Nintendo-fan websites.
3) They are overly critical because they desperately want Nintendo to succeed.
I have heard people in the media offer this explanation as to why they are exceptionally harsh towards Nintendo. Often these people are fans of at least one of Nintendo's competitors.
Discussion Topic 2: How should the GoNintendo community respond to these people?
People providing consistently negative commentary has been a regular occurrence on GoNintendo for probably 10 years or more. If the community is fine with that, then nothing needs to be done. But if the community wants that to change, what can be done? I can think of 3 possible solutions.
1) Challenge them.
Many people seem to have chosen this option. Reply to these people and point out that they are excessively negative. Or reply in an effort to refute what they wrote.
For those who have chosen this solution, do you think this approach has been effective?
2) Ignore/block them.
Many people seem to have chose this option as well. Seems like a sound solution for an individual. Should the community as a whole be encouraged to do this? If so, should this suggestion be disseminated to everyone? If so, how?
3) Request the implementation of a ban policy that targets these people specifically.
This type of response would require some additional work on the part of the site admins. They would have to agree that a) those who frequently post negative commentary are harmful to the community, and b) those people should be removed from the community. The policy would ideally be specific. For example, a ratio of 5:1 negative comments (as reported by GoNintendo users) to positive comments, or more, in a week results in a ban. Multiple infractions result in longer and longer bans. The implementation of such a ban would be to weed out consistently negative individuals who are deemed to be a detriment to the community.
Please feel free to add your own thoughts and ideas to this topic. If there is a strong desire by the community to change things for the better, then let's all work together to come up with a solution.