GameFAQs message boards

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The GameFAQs Message Boards are a set of message boards or forums hosted by GameFAQs, a popular video game website. Though the original purpose of the board system was to facilitate game discussion, a number of other board categories have been added since the boards first came online in November 1999.

General information

The GameFAQs message boards are home to over 3 million unique registered users, and moderated by a staff of mostly volunteers. Membership is open to anyone who is at least 13 years of age and has a valid email address. Registering users must also agree to the GameFAQs Terms of Service [1].

Administrative staff

The administrative staff consists of both moderators and administrators that work hard to keep GameFAQs smoothly running and keep the board discussion civil.

Moderators

A moderator's job is to sort through the marked message and contest queues and decide if a topic or post should be deleted, and if so, how severe the punishment should be. They are unpaid volunteers and get a lot of abuse from unruly users. New moderators (50) can only work in a selected area, while Level 51-53 moderators can work everywhere.

Administrators

Administrators control all aspects of the boards. Their most visible duties are determining whether suspended users should be banned and reviewing contested moderations. They also in some exceedingly rare circumstances will reverse a ban. Administrators are also responsible for choosing new moderators, during the rare occassions when applications are being accepted, and are the only ones that can take actions such as de-linking or deleting a board, usermap axes, and applying "Kill on Sight." They are also the only people who can view a user's entire moderation history. The current administrators are CJayC, his wife Shadotak, GameSpot community manager BethanyM, Sailor Bacon, and jsd. Shadotak and BethanyM are believed to no long actively participate as administrators. The data administrator, CNet lead programmer SBritton, does not have actual administrative duties and instead is responsible for coding and debugging.

Game boards and system boards

Every game in the GameFAQs database has a message board for game discussion. With the exception of a few older systems, topicality on these boards is strictly enforced. Popular games may have additional boards for social (non-topical), game strategy-related, or other miscellaneous discussion for that game.

In addition to games, each system on GameFAQs has a board for discussing the hardware, upcoming games, and other topics not specific to one particular game. Most of these are dead except for the relatively recent consoles.

Site boards

These are boards created to allow users to discuss matters relating to GameFAQs and its message boards.

  • Message Board Announcements[2] is where administrators post general notices and warnings for the entire community. It was originally an open board (only admins can start topics but anyone may reply), but it was mostly filled with first posts and other silliness. In early 2005, CJayC made it off-limits to posters completely.
  • Message Board Help (MBH)[3] is commonly seen as a complaint forum of the boards.
  • Poll of the Day (PotD)[4] is another social board. Women and love are commonly discussed topics.
  • Review Contributors[5] is the board for all the review writers to talk about common interests. This board has been split to better categorize the discussions on it. It is now composed out of three boards: General, Help and Critiques, and Social.
  • Site Suggestions[6] is the official petitioning board, though very few ever pass. Successful petitions are usually for new special interest or social boards; rarely, a new feature may be added to the site itself.
  • Summer Contest[7] is a board for the annual Summer Character Contest, a huge event at GameFAQs, where the Poll of the Day is replaced by a video game character tournament. This board has evolved separately from the others, since it opened in 2002. During the contest, it becomes host to every complaint and criticism about the contest. When there is no contest, the board acts as a social board and is known for constant flame wars. Occasionally, the board's name is changed to reflect a different contest, such as during 2004's the Spring "Best Game Ever" contest; because of this potential for name-changing, many GameFAQs users refer to the board by its ID number (Board 8). Gordon Freeman, due to his annual failures in the Summer Contests, is widely accepted as the board's favourite target for ridicule and has led to the saying "GFNW", which stands for "Gordon Freeman Never Wins".
  • The Daily Grind[8] is a board that Sailor Bacon (a board administrator) was meant to blog about his time at E3 2005. However, Salior Bacon never posted there. On November 7, 2005, CJayC said that he would use this board as a blog, posting small updates and the like. Like with MBA, only administrators can create topics and post replies.

Special interest boards

Special Interest Boards are boards similar to game boards, but about any one of various topics that GameFAQs users have petitioned the administration to create. These are not social boards; all topics have to match the boards description or risk moderation.

A list of all Special Interest boards can be found here: [9]

Special boards

  • The beta boards were created when the message boards of GameFAQs and GameSpot were merged and GameFAQs was switched to PHP from ASP. They include three boards: GameFAQs Forums Beta Discussion, GameFAQs Forums Beta Bug Reports, and GS-GFQs Sharing Test Board. Although they are no longer needed, they have not been removed and some people still post on them.
  • Regional boards are boards where gamers can chat with people in their own region as well as the world. All the regional boards are created on March 2002. As of September 2005, The top three most active boards (based on the number of posts and topics) are the UK, the Australia/New Zealand (ANZ) board, and the Brazil boards. The UK and ANZ board have become so active that they have expanded off-site mailing lists, tournaments, role-playing, and IRC servers. A list of all Regional boards can be found here [10].
  • 810–819 boards were created a few days after April Fool's Day <what year?>. Originally, CJayC posted on the Icon board making private boards for the first few icons <what is an icon?> that signed up. Many thought it was an April Fool's joke until the boards were actually created. The few people that received these boards were also allowed to name them. So far, the ones that have been named are: 810 (Mostly Harmless), 811 (SEW), 813 (Unnatural Selection), 814 (The Upper Room), 815 (House of Lies), 816 (#showarr), 818 (KGB) and 819 (CE Reloaded) They are also known as the Private Boards, and users must be invited to gain access to the boards. A list of all private boards can be found here [11].
  • Board 820 (Hacked) is a private board. It has the same status as the 810-819 boards, but is unique because Steve (the owner) received it because he found a major bug in the message boards, not through an application. Among users, it is generally the most coveted board to receive an invite from.
  • Board 821 is also a private board. It is unknown when it was created, but it was first discovered on December 12th, 2005. It's owner and how he/she recieved it is currently unknown.
  • Dead boards are game boards where off-topic posting is allowed. This is generally because the systems the games belong to are so antiquated and obsolete that very little genuine discussion would otherwise take place on them. Many GameFAQs users have adopted some of these boards for their own use. The accepted capital of the dead boards is Zamzara[12], which also houses the weekly Top 50 Secret Boards list. The largest dead boards at this time include Bushido, Moon Cradle, and Captain Goodnight.

/* Special boards */

Secret boards

Secret Boards are a series of thirteen known message boards that are hard to find because users must manually type the board number in the address bar; they are not linked to by anywhere on the site. A fourteenth secret board named "Zen" was rumored following April Fool's 2004. It has not been leaked nor has been officially confirmed by CJayC, and many users call the supposed Zen a hoax. It is worth nothing that the Toaster Oven board was rumored to exist before finally being created on April Fool's 2004, and that Zen could perhaps be created in the future.

Recently, Galford (a moderator) in an "Interview with a Moderator" was asked if Zen or any other secret boards existed. He responded with a simple "Yup" [13], fueling even more speculation to the whereabouts of Zen.

  1. Brilliant (-1)
  2. Nine (9)
  3. Board 250 (250)
  4. Eggbeater (486)
  5. Spork (542)
  6. Spatula (622)
  7. Semprini (709)
  8. Angela (8535937)
  9. Jenny (8675309)
  10. Lame (20040401)
  11. Rnd() (123456789)
  12. Pie (314159265)
  13. Toaster Oven (909090909)
  14. War on Terrorism/WOT (408) – see note below

War on Terrorism has been considered to be a secret board; however, unlike the thirteen other boards, War on Terrorism was public at first, but made secret (de-linked) on August 28, 2005 and renamed to simply WOT. WOT was previously designated as a special interest board, but later became a social. However, many new moderators were deleting posts for being off-topic. CJayC consequently made the board secret and removed the direct reference to the War on Terrorism from the title to remove any doubt that topicality was not enforced on the board.

The de-linking was initially met with considerable indignation by users, as the only major board to be de-linked before was LUE. However, War on Terrorism already had a large enough userbase to be self-sufficient and the de-linking no longer drew many new annoying users. As a result, the de-linking had minimal effect on the board itself and the controversy quickly died down.

LUE

LUE, which stands "Life, the Universe, and Everything", is one the most controversial boards in GameFAQs history. Its name is a reference to Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, and its original board number (42) continued the reference. Due to the number of board invasions and the number of moderations (four times the number on other boards) the board users committed, CJayC took several drastic steps to curb the self-described "LUEsers."

After LUE users initiated a forum invasion of another GameFAQs board, CJayC took drastic action. He raised the board level requirement from 30 (75 karma) to 31 (150 karma) (known on LUE as "RevoLUEtion"). He also created the board Another Place (Board 411) as a haven for those shut out by the User Level change. This was an attempt to quiet LUE down; however, this action only delayed users and did not sufficiently deter them.

  1. On October 12, 2003, LUE was removed from the Board Manager ("SecLUEsion"). This event made LUE the first public board (and one of only two in GameFAQs history) to become "secret"; that is, no direct public links available.
  2. On November 15, 2003, following a major invasion of a dead girl's LiveJournal, CJayC closed LUE to new members ("SteriLUEzation"). This event closed access to everybody above user ID 888113, which was at the time was the highest ID number. [14]
  3. Although no major infractions had occurred, CJayC announced plans to privatize LUE ("ExcLUEsion") on January 14, 2004. [15] [16] Users who wished to remain at LUE were required to sign up during the two-week signup period.

LUE is the first and to-date only board in GameFAQs history to receive such curtailed access. Currently, the only way for new users to gain access to LUE is to become a moderator (who inherently have access to all GameFAQs boards). While the decision to privatize LUE remains controversial to this day, CJayC on several occassions has reiterated that he will never open new signups for LUE access.

On April 29, 2005, CJayC said, in The Great GameFAQs Q&A, that "22,584 accounts originally signed up for LUE. Of those, 17,193 remain, the rest being lost to bans and purges."

Jargon

It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into [[::List of Internet slang|List of Internet slang]]. (Discuss)

This is a short list of Internet slang used largely on GameFAQs message boards.

  • 313 - Name most commonly used to describe the United Kingdom Regional Message Board.
  • 313er - Someone who claims to be part of the United Kingdom Regional Message Board.
  • 4AW- Refers to the fad "four always wins", which was generally takes the form of clicking on the number 4 in a given topic title. This usually results in a a favorable outcome within the topic.
  • 4chan memes - Many memes from the imageboard 4chan are borrowed by GameFAQs posters.
  • 500 topic - A topic created for the sole purpose of reaching 500 posts (the threshold at which the board automatically locks a topic). Such topics are frowned upon by moderators and often deleted as being disruptive.
  • ANZer - Someone who claims to be part of the Australia and New Zealand Regional Message Board.
  • Autoflagged word - Words in posts that have been abused but still have legitimate means. Autoflagged words are not allowed in topic titles. A post with an autoflagged word that is marked by someone is given higher priority for moderation.
  • B& / B7 (pronounced "banned") - Another term used in the same way as Banninated. B7 is used as a joke because 7 is the key which the character "&" (ampersand) appears on when shift is held. The ampersand symbol often equates to the word "and," so "B&" is pronounced "B-and" or "banned."
  • Banninate - Term frequently posted when a user posts a message which contains a major ToS violation that normally leads to being banned from the website. The phrase is a play on of the word "burninate" which originated from Homestar Runner with the character "Trogdor the Burninator."
  • BALEETED or BAL33T3D - A joke term to signify a post that will surely be moderated (another Homestar Runner reference).
  • Board 8er - A user who regularly posts at the Summer Contest Board (Board 8).
  • Board Hunting (or Secret Board Hunting) - Going through dead systems (such as Commodore 64, Atari 2600, Amiga, etc.) and posting in threads on the game boards. More info can be found in the Secret Board Hunting FAQ, found in the External Links section.
  • Captain Planet - A popular fad is "summoning Captain Planet", the title character of Captain Planet and the Planeteers, by means of multiple members duplicating the sequence by which the superhero as summoned in the cartoon. The first post is "Earth", the second "Fire", the third "Wind", the fourth "Water", the fifth "Heart", the sixth "Go Planet!" The seventh poster says "By your powers combined, I am Captain Planet!" and sometimes posts an ASCII image of Captain Planet. Summoning Captain Planet is currently forbidden except in specially marked summoning topics, similar to large ASCII.
  • Censored Artist - A nickname, on boards where Final Fantasy is frequently discussed, for Yoshitaka Amano, due to the GameFAQs auto-censor registering "shit" in his name as a banned word. The auto-censor has since been adjusted to ignore the name Yoshitaka, and the nickname has fallen into disuse.
  • CEer - A term to describe a person who goes to CE (Current Events board) regularly, sometimes called "CEmen".
  • Evil Republicans - A popular club on the War on Terrorism board, consisting of politically conservative users. Attempts to create competing liberal and libertarian clubs have ended in failure.
  • Forbidden - A somewhat overused word to describe everything on LUE, as it was when the new moderators were chosen.
  • GANNON-BANNED - Use of the spelling "Gannon" to refer to Ganondorf's transformed form in Legend of Zelda.
  • GFNW (Gordon Freeman Never Wins) - An increasingly popular running gag on the Summer Contest Board (Board 8), referring to the character Gordon Freeman and his seemingly inevitable first-round elimination from each Contest.
  • Hacker- A member of the 'Hacked' board (Board 820).
  • ITT (Ignore This Topic) - A term originating on the War on Terrorism board, as a response to topics perceived by users as trolling. Ironically, as any post in a topic moves it to the top of the board, posting "ITT" increases the likelihood of people reading it rather than ignoring it.
  • KOS (Kill on Sight) - Although rare, this is the worst punishment one can receive on GameFAQs. It is given to those with past violations on multiple accounts. Any new accounts of those who have been KOSed are suspended on sight by moderators, without question. KOS orders peaked in the 2002-2003 period. The KOS list is not publicized, but some unofficial lists alledging to show the KOSed users are in circulation.
  • LUEicide/LUEcide - Term used for account suicide (intentionally violating as many rules as possible in order to be banned) by a LUEser. It was popularized on March 4, 2003, when the infamous "Black LUEsday" occurred. Some LUEsers have achieved lasting infamy through particularly spectacular LUEicides, but since the sealing of LUE it has declined in popularity (as anyone who LUEicides is permanently excluded from LUE). Both LUEicide and LUEcide were autoflagged for awhile in an attempt to keep people from account suiciding, with the message "Bad idea".
  • LUEsers - Describes people who go to and frequent LUE. It is pronounced "loser", an intentional pun.
  • LUEshi - An ASCII image of Mario riding Yoshi created by the user Patamon. LUEshi quickly became one of the largest fads on GameFAQs, and posting it outside of designated ASCII topics was considered a serious TOS violation. It epitomized disobedience and defiance and punishments went from lenient to harsh. As of now, it is considered as regular ASCII and thus moderated only when disruptive (i.e. not in ASCII topics).
  • Meta Mod - A now obsolete feature which allowed users with 40+ Karma to rate the fairness of moderations. It was abandoned due in large part to some users rating all moderations, no matter how obviously justified, as unfair.
  • MBHer - A frequent user of Message Board Help.
  • MIASU (Mark it and shut up) - Polite Message Board Help (MBH) users asked users to wait 24 hours after marking a message to complain; less polite members bluntly told them to MIASU (Mark it and Shut Up). It grew in popularity, but is now moderated for trolling (inciting flames).
  • Mod Baiting - Purposely attracting a moderator's attention, either by posting an autoflagged word (which, despite popular belief, is not automatically marked) or posting a topic implying that one is underage (i.e. Topic: I am 12 / Message: hundred years old).
  • Notification - A minor moderation that results in the loss of three karma.
  • O RLY - A meme involving an owl. See O RLY.
  • PotDer - A user who regularly posts on Poll of the Day. Nobody really knows the pronunciation (though spelling it out P-O-T-D-er or pronouncing it like "Potter" are the two most generally accepted).
  • Purgatory - A term used for the temporary suspension of users whose TOS violations are not quite severe enough to warrant banning.
  • Purge - The regular deleting of topics that have not been posted in for a time determined by the number of posts on a board. Also used to mean "purgatory" in some cases, however in this case "Purg" is the more common spelling.
  • The Queue- This traditionally refers to marked message queue, where moderators decide what to do with a post. The exact nature of it is unknown, though several older pictures of it exist.
  • RIer - Name given to users who frequent Random Insanity. Can be pronounced either "Are-Eye-er" or "Ryer". The alternative, "RItard", has been suggested at times, but is frowned upon by the moderators.
  • Roffles / Roffle my waffles - A phonetic equivalent to the term ROFL (rolling on floor laughing). The "waffles" comment is sometimes added for humor. "Leggo my Eggo," referring to the Eggo waffles slogan, may also be added for humor.
  • Seconds Game - A roulette-style game based on GameFAQs' internal clock. Each post on the message board includes a listing of the exact time it's posted. The results of a seconds game are, as the name indicates, based on the seconds in that time listing for each post within the topic. Seconds games are typically along the lines of "what character are you", "what character do you sleep with", etc.
  • Shiz - One of the more infamous banned words, because nobody really understands why it's banned. No one actually uses "shiz" as a substitute for "shit", so the main result of it being banned is that a few anime characters' names (such as Shizuka Kawai from Yu-Gi-Oh! and Shizuru Kuwabara from YuYu Hakusho) can't be posted.
  • Stealth Porn - The act of posting a ToS friendly picture with a name such as "www.yahoo.com/luepics/cute_girl_1". By changing the number after the picture, a user can link to porn for people to see and not be moderated for it.
  • Tagging - The act of posting "tag" as a reply to a topic. This is done so the user can keep track of the topic through My Posts function. Now considerably less common due to a less intrusive version included in GameFOX, an extention of web browser Firefox.
  • TOaster - A term to describe a person who has been accepted by other TOasters after passing through extensive personal tests, and questioning. The "TO" refers to the Toaster Oven board.
  • Usermap - A listing of the accounts which have been used to log into the site via a certain computer IP address, which supposedly records logins from up to 60 days before the current date. (Translation - it takes 60 days from the date of a login being recorded to the login being purged from the usermap.) Specific information about usermaps (such as the specific IP addresses and the accounts on a usermap) are restricted, and considered mod-only information. The information above is one of the only things that moderators are allowed to divulge to non-moderators, along with the warning that logging into the site from a public computer (ex. computer at school, computer at an internet cafe, etc.) means that you run the risk of losing your account if another user logs in on that computer and violates the TOS, resulting in a usermap axe.
  • Usermap Axe (or "Axed") - A severe administrative response to a problematic user wherein an account is banned, as are any account(s) of any user(s) whose IP has logged into the former account.
  • UUA (or "Underage User Alert") - Used in response to somebody who either admits to being under the age of 13 (and thus unable to have an account due to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act), or (in jest) to somebody who posts something considered so inane that only an underage user could have posted it.
  • WoTer- A frequent visitor to the War on Terrorism board. The most common pronunciation is identical to "water".

References

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