I'm on this site for two reasons: Valuable information and comedy.
Honestly, M2Dave's threads crack me up. They are, for the most part, "harmless trolling." Everything he says is so tongue-in-cheek anyway and I really think his shtick is hilarious. Also, "whitest/blackest guy in the community" threads or "which 4 players would you pick for a zombie apocalypse" threads are comedy gold. As difficult as it is, there should be a balance between moderating harmful/annoying trolling and allowing funny trolling. I'm not sure that a rigid "no trolling" policy is the way to go. I understand that the line often gets blurry though. What puzzles me however, is the way some misinterpret certain threads and it goes downhill from there. For instance, many expressed displeasure/frustration at 16 Bit's "stock assessment" thread, when it was obviously an attempt at having a little fun. I see why some would see that calling a player "washed-up" is disrespectful, but it really shouldn't be viewed as such when it's obvious joking (ie calling Detroit washed-up).
Some trolling on the other hand, should not be allowed. Not to single anyone out, and I gave this example before, but REO harping on allowing Kabal's invincibility glitch was really unfortunate. It was at a time where TYM had just come back from its hiatus, activity on the forums was down, the future of the game was in doubt as MLG had yet to announce it for Dallas, and a rather embarrassing glitch surfaces. Now, in no way am I saying that the glitch shouldn't have been exposed, far from it. But vociferously asking for it to be allowed -- albeit jokingly -- should not be something a top player would do. As someone who's arguably the best player in the game, he should have been far more responsible in his approach (the same applies for REO participating on someone's behalf in an online tournament, or throwing tantrums because PL wouldn't play him in a money match). This is not an attempt to blow REO up, but merely trying to highlight a point. In that regard, I feel top players should be a bit more careful, because their attitude reflects on the game/community.
As far as valuable information goes, this is where top players' contributions become essential. Yeah, I know we don't "NEED" top players to post here in order to level up, but no one can deny that they have immensely helped many of us improve. REO himself has made so many videos for a huge number of characters, as did Tom for Sub-Zero. Foxy, Pig, J360 and others have also had huge contributions. Just watch Pig's stream and see how much new stuff you can learn. It's true that some valuable tech has been brought to light by players who don't get the chance to participate in tournaments, but when it comes to match-up discussions, I completely see why many of the tournament players feel slighted when their opinion is played down. Yes, "it's just a game," but when you spend so much money on traveling, participating in tournaments, etc.. it's understandable that you'd take the game seriously, and get a bit of a sense of entitlement. Disagreements are fine, but I believe players who have proven their worth should at least have their opinions respected accordingly. Let's keep in mind that false information can be harmful, and some random online player dropping "knowledge" can be counter-productive (I remember someone saying you can always twice uppercut Kung Lao's ex teleport without getting full combo punished. Yes, twice. It took a top player to settle the "debate," thankfully).
Let's keep in mind, EVO is coming up later this year. Typically, it's when top players are in full hardcore training mode that new tech is discovered, and different ways of playing match-ups surface. So yes, we need top players to contribute because they put more time in the game, practice it against top level competition, and play it competitively. It's a real shame there hasn't been much knowledge sharing lately. Just look at how quiet some of the character forums are (not all, mind you. The Cyrax and Skarlet communities are generally active, for example).
Hell, if I had one wish for this site, it's for a "match analysis" section to get created, where tournament videos are posted and the players who took part in the match go into detail about it, and explain what they were going for, how they approached it, their thought process, the mistakes they've made, etc...
