Ok I’m a n00b to HWS, who am I to suggest new rules? Well, I’m not new to gaming communities. As well as getting involved with lots of different communities, I helped run a fairly large one for a number of years. The reason I bring it up is to give context for my opinion: the atmosphere in this forum, and to a lesser degree in-game (probably discord too but I don’t spend much time there), is being spoilt by a very small minority of toxic trolls who trample over and bully and rile up everyone they can.
This morning I tried to make some of these people realise how aggravating it is when these tactics, which they so often use, are employed against them. They certainly got riled up, but sadly the irony appears to have been lost on them.
The thing that I’m most upset about is that these people bring very little to the discussion (discourse [the software used for this forum], in particular, is designed for discussions) and instead belittle and undermine any point of view that disagrees with their own. As RexXxuS has just posted about, this toxic minority is so relentless that they’re even affecting the admins to the point that they get disheartened with running the server for the rest of us. It’s really quite bad here and I think something needs to be done.
Let’s say we did introduce some rules, I think the community should come up with what they should be. I’ll start with my suggestion:
Respect. Respect for your fellow players and the admins. I’m not sure of the right way to word such a rule, but this is something sorely missing here. I’m so tired of seeing people being told to ‘STFU’.
I know, I know. ‘Respect’ is already in the rules. So I guess that’s the other part of my suggestion: swift punishment for people that break the rules. Presently it seems like people only really get punished if there’s quite blatant breaking of the rules and then the punishment might be severe. The problem with that approach is that people feel emboldened by the seeming lack of supervision and then push these boundaries to their limits, ruining things for everyone in the process.
Instead, I suggest frequent punishments for even coming close to breaking the rules. The punishments should start small and exponentially get worse. Something like a ban (from all aspects of the community where such bans can be implemented) that doubles in length with each transgression starting at 1h, then 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64… and if someone still isn’t getting the message by the time they get to a 128 hour ban (just over 5 days) then I’m pretty sure they probably deserve the following 256h (10.5d) and 512h (21d) bans.
I don’t know how overworked the admins are feeling but I’m sure there are members of the community who could be trusted to act as moderators, being impartial and trusted enough to pull the trigger on such bans. There’s plenty of ways such people could be prevented from abusing said power.
I know I’m going to be called a care bear by these toxic people for even suggesting such an idea. That’s why I started with the conservative idea of respect, which happens to already be in the rules. So please, keep your toxicity out of this thread. If you disagree with my point of view there are many ways to make that obvious while still being respectful. The polite ones are often the quiet ones but If you agree, please speak up. Your community needs you 
Try to last longer than 15 minutes next time around, trashing the play field can be disrespectful. I am a helpful, friendly player… I will always rightfully defend myself… Just as well as any other player does. Stop with the post please… First it’s let’s troll and get our post closed and now it’s “no more trolls they are bad people” 
My views on this post. I’m not “trolling” or anything… It’s a forum. Just speaking my mind in a friendly manor.
I think its like general post about behaviour on forum and suddently you rushed in and its starting to be