Make Memes & Games Great Again

Greetings! Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to explain this as thoroughly as I can as it is important to me.

Memes & Games has historically speaking been by far my favorite sub-board. I have spent years posting there, got to know most of the frequent posters, and generally spent a lot of time getting to know the community there. Lately though, the section has been slowly but surely falling into disarray. I believe a solid community still exists there, however that community is being stifled. It is frustrating and disappointing to watch a previously active community filled with vibrant culture slowly but surely fade into a shadow of its former glory. So in this post, I wanted to discuss two major points: Why I think M&G is rotting, and what I think can be done about it.

So why do I think M&G is rotting? After all, as of this writing there 5 posts from M&G on the boards front page. If the only goal is raw quantity of posts getting upvoted, then M&G would appear to be strong. And for some people, that is all they really want from the section: Quantity. I respect that opinion, but I strongly disagree with it. I think a section cannot be judged purely by the raw number of posts, but rather the quality of posts and the sense of community it exhibits. Personally I would prefer 5 quality posts that gets people commenting and having fun together over 10 low-tier posts that barely get enough upvotes to reach the hot page.

Yet take a look at the memes and games section now. The majority of posts aren’t even posted in the right section, it is filled with straight up spam, and most of the time it is just people complaining about game balance. Then take a look at the comments section of these posts. The comments sections have become almost indistinguishable from something you would find in gameplay, and is filled with people discussing game balance or sometimes even politics. This isn’t surprising, as posts that belong in gameplay will generate comments that belong in gameplay. When every post is negative, the comments will be negative as well.

And I think this lack of order, and rise of negativity, is having a deeper effect on the culture there. Anyone who has been on the boards for awhile likely remembers how active the M&G section used to be. Posts received well over 3 times as many upvotes as they do now, there were posters who would regularly post and make names for themselves, groups would learn to recognize individual posters and become friends with them, and there was a push to make fresher memes to stand out from the pack. But now, these people have mostly left. Memes are not silly anymore, but just sarcastically mocking Riot and calling it a meme. Other then a very small number of people (such as Heretic Lunari) there isn’t really anyone posting quality content often enough to stand out.

When people go to the M&G section, and it is filled with negativity and spam, it doesn’t drive people to make new content. When people make posts, and the post gets buried beneath a flood of complaints about balance, it is discouraging. The boards ultimately just has one major advantage over Reddit: It has a stronger community. Reddit has more people so will always win in quantity, Reddit is more censored so it is always going to be easier for Riot to post there, Reddit has more features so it will always be more convenient. But Reddit is cold, Reddit is bloated. The boards actually survives not due to quantity or number or features or even Riot support. No, the boards is important because of its community, and this sense of community makes posts actually matter. For this reason, I think focusing entirely on quantity of M&G posts is a tactic doomed to fail, as never will M&G ever compete with Reddit in that department. Instead, I thinking focusing on supporting the core audience, supporting the posters, supporting the community, and supporting the culture there is important and will breed far greater success.

So, what can be done? Sure I have listed a bunch of problems I see, but that doesn’t really help much now does it? I have a few suggestions for things I think can change, but this is something that would require a ton of communication and discussion to fine tune. Here are some of the ideas I had for what I think would likely help:

• Increased reliability and consistency of moderation: Memes & Games needs to be cleaned up. Most of the posts there violate the preexisting rules yet stay up for often over a day if they even get deleted at all. This means when people check the section out, they don’t see memes but rather see gameplay posts and spam. This actively discourages people from checking the section out. Furthermore it makes it where is a quality post doesn’t take off immediately, it gets buried in a mountain of spam. This leads to less quality posts taking off, and further discourages new posters. Finally it will inevitably lead to frustration when rules are enforced, as anyone who has their post deleted can look out and see 10+ posts actively violating rules as well staying up.

• Increased Leadership: Right now, M&G has some of the least moderator presence of any section. There are no moderators who actively spend time there. Melledoneus tries, and while when he does post is usually good, the reality is he simply isn’t very active. He has 3 M&G posts in the past month, and often goes weeks between posts. Removing spam posts doesn’t help if that is all there was. But removing spam combined with increased posting? Now THAT makes a difference. People need to see someone actively representing the community there, someone who gets them, and someone who they can know to turn to for advice.

• Increased support of new posters: There is no denying, the boards is not a particularly welcome place for new people looking to post memes. And a big part of that is people often struggle with the boards weird image posting. Some websites work and others don’t, seemingly at random to the point you only know if you have been here awhile. For example, an image from S-media-cache will never work, even though the image worked everywhere else and seems fine. There is simply no way for a new poster to know that kind of thing though. Thankfully, it is possible for moderators to repair this rather easily. Simply upload the images to imgur, and edit the post. Then leave a comment explaining what you did and how the user can do it themselves. This has a two-fold effect: One, it educates people, so they make less mistakes in the future, and is done in a non-frustrating way that proves you care about them. And two: It massively reduces spam, as it ensures all images work instead of a bunch of random links. This makes the sub-reddit look cleaner, more active, and healthier.

• Cracking down on gameplay posts: Right now, one of the biggest problems in M&G is the flood of gameplay complaints. Back in the older days of M&G, posts were judged by their core purpose. Posts that were solely to discuss gameplay belonged in gameplay, even if the person was being very sarcastic. Not only was this the old rule, but it actually remains in the rules right now. This rule just isn’t one that is ever enforced. I think this is a mistake, as it is a very important rule that keeps M&G its own entity. Posts that serve only to discuss gameplay, to discuss politics, to discuss Riot as a business, etc., would be better posted in other sections such as gameplay or GD.

Now, I understand these changes might sound like a lot. But ultimately, if enforced I think would result in a healthier sub-board with far fewer violations, less spam, and a more active community. I appreciate the work that the mod team has put into the boards, and there are a lot of great changes happening elsewhere. It isn’t that mods are inactive, not at all. But rather, during all this activity M&G is being forgotten. I know not everyone feels as strongly about M&G, but I personally truly loved that place. It was a great community, almost every friend I have I met through M&G, and I don’t want it to be forgotten. It can be saved, it just needs a little help.

#TL;DR

• Memes & Games is filled with spam
• Memes & Games has too many gameplay posts
• I think this spam and lack of moderation is driving people away
• Reddit will always win in quantity, so M&G must focus on quality and on community or else it is redundant and useless
• I think M&G needs more active moderation and more leadership
• I think M&G needs more consistent enforcement of the existing rules
• Make Memes & Games great again.