You were right with the Sauer / Red Eclipse thread. In that example, one guy comes in, gets into an argument with you and leaves. Don't you think if he would want to come back with more useless things, he could just choose any other thread to get back at whoever? Instead, a big and interesting thread with many participants is closed. Some people may try Red Eclipse in a few months and would like to add their opinion and finds the appropiate thread closed.

I won't get into an argument with you about certain threads you or whoever closed. All I'm saying is: Take a step back from time to time, do you really have to win each and every argument? A stupid comment without a reply will be regarded as a stupid comment by everyone, it does not have to be pointed out every time. If a thread is closed by another admin not involved in the argument, fine. If it is just closed with a note "Everything is said, thread closed", not fine, but ok. If it is like in the Sauerbraten / Red Eclipse thread, it just looks childish. You can easily look over this place without having the final word. Just think about whether a little more moderate reactions might do the trick, too.

And no, this is not Zama.

Don't get me wrong, but I try to take a step back every month actually (at least after the "alithia-incident"). And I'm pretty sure other admins (as there currently doesn't seems to be much more active moderators then me. Actually only Razgriz, SkiingPenguins and Windecker are currently the only active admins) are also holding back and keep it coming. But sometimes there have to be putted a line, just like on the Why do people still prefer Sauerbraten to Red Eclipse? thread. Every month or two someone popped in and tried to bring the thread back to life and often on a fairly chance-less way.

Closing a thread is not about having the final word. It's about the consequences of when it would be kept open.
A very good example of that is the square_mushrooms content, which had no future at all except even more flaming. I once closed it with that reason, but somehow SkiingPenguins wasn't getting that reason and opened it again. But look at the situation now; it's closed 2 days after I closed it. What was the win of having it 2 more days open? Nothing, except an administrator which made a moderator pissed off and some more flamewar. So it doesn't matter if someone is involved in the "fight" or not as the moderator/admin (almost) always handles with sense.

It's probably because you aren't around here for that long, but back in the good ol' days we still had the "notification labels", which were telling a thread had a screenshot with incorrect dimensions or that the content is being packaged incorrectly. Trust me, it was a pain to have such label on your content and sometimes felt as offensive. 1 Advantage of it was that flamewars about it were wiped out, as admins/moderators often wouldn't response on it.

By the way, keep in mind people won't become moderator just because they are popular and being liked. You also need to show you've putted effort in your contents, but also being a benefit for the community (like posting usefull skyboxes, scripts, textures, guis, tutorials, etc but also just commenting contents). An exception on that often is a source-based mod, which sometimes is being rewarded also (as there aren't many people around which have the knowledge to do so) with a promotion.

About me being overzealous, please make a thread called like "What do you actually think about Suicizer?" with an introduction and such.

Thread closed. Muahahah!
Nah, just joking ;)

Often when someone is posting something, he's being told to search first and post in the appropiate thread, and now you have to draw a line so that nobody can bring back to life an "old" thread? A thread that is not even a few years old, a thread that is off-topic from the start, no content discussed there, just opinions being shared?

If closing a thread isn't about having the final word, then prevent it from looking like it. For example, you could just close this thread right after this response here. I'm not kidding, I'm not expecting anything useful coming from this from now on, I do hope though that it was useful to point out what I've written above and that quadropolis can come back to a more relaxed atmosphere.

Btw. I'm here for about 5 years. And being a valuable content creator doesn't automatically make you a decent moderator, just like being a good player doesn't make you a good mapper :) But I agree that there is no better way to distribute the power on a site like this.

being a valuable content creator doesn't automatically make you a decent moderator, just like being a good player doesn't make you a good mapper

Some people would debate that. There's a wild conception that somebody who plays a game a lot magically knows how layout work and thus anyone else's opinion is invalid :P

In case you didn't get my little sarcasm: The conception that good players are good mappers and the conception that good content creators are good moderators are equally wild, or not wild, for that matter. DOn't question one without questioning the other :)

DOn't question one without questioning the other :)
Which brings us back to the discussion of closing threads. Another off-topic reply-tail has been avoided; Victory is ours...

+1

After some questions on IRC to our beloved SkiingPenguins, I'll try to speed up the process of slowing down and "knowing it all".
The last part will be pretty tough for me to still explain people (especially newcomers) why points on a content actually could be better, but I'll give it a shot.
It actually is hard to get just the right balance of commenting and explaining for everyone (I'm a guy who loves to manufacture something from metal (especially stainless steel) not a politician or something similar to that), so don't expect the next comment on another content will be perfect (but I'll try. Rome hasn't been build in a day either). Besides, not everyone seems to dare commenting also.

Nevertheless, an inactive moderator is no moderator.