Censorship on MMO-Champion and Forum Guidelines

[chrisisvacant]

The OP is still correct in that its pretty subjective what "constructive" means. It implies the use of judgment as opposed to understanding. If you want to be more clear and ban less people (especially behind that mysterious Spam Bot supermod account - lil creepy to hide behind that), then state the rules so that mods only really need to use "personal judgment" sparingly as opposed to simply locking posts or banning users THEY FEEL are not constructive.

[Fuzzzie]

In my experience, 99.5% of users here understand what constructive means and post within the guidelines every day.

It's also the job of moderators to use their personal judgment and do what they feel will be best to facilitate a positive community. Also, the guidelines are pretty clear and extensive. If you have any questions about a rule or if you want to know if something is appropriate, just PM a mod or come find us on IRC. There is always someone around 24/7/365.

[Elysia]

The OP is still correct in that its pretty subjective what "constructive" means. It implies the use of judgment as opposed to understanding. If you want to be more clear and ban less people (especially behind that mysterious Spam Bot supermod account - lil creepy to hide behind that), then state the rules so that mods only really need to use "personal judgment" sparingly as opposed to simply locking posts or banning users THEY FEEL are not constructive.

Going to quote from Endus on the second page:

Point the second; the mod staff does not engage in arbitrary application of the forum guidelines. Many of those guidelines deliberately have a great deal of vagueness to them, yes, but that is precisely to prevent any users from trying to play lawyer games with us over their infraction, trying to claim a loophole that justified their trolling because they were infracted for breaching clause 41.2a (c) when in fact it should have been 41.2a (e). Rather than set out a 386 page rule document that clearly defines each and every possible infraction, we have a very simple, yet vague, set of rules that covers the same kind of range.

The rules are kept vague on purpose. Laying out a very strict set of guidelines would only give people leeway when they break the rules, and we'd get lots of, "but I didn't do thaaaat" type responses.

Also, the ban appeal system is there to keep the whole "personal judgement" thing in check. Every single person that gets banned has the option to appeal. At that point, all of the other mods take a look at the infractions to see if they were justified or not. The mod who did the infracting isn't allowed to vote on their own. So if somebody's "personal judgement" was wrong, it gets pointed out and corrected.

Lastly, Scrapbot is there for our protection more than anything. There have been lots of, "X Moderator is a dumbass" (or even worse) type threads before, and a few of the moderators have gotten extremely nasty PMs. There's really no positive reason as to why a user should know the name of who infracted them.

Edit: Damn you, Fuzz.

[Sunshine]

Adding to the IRC point, there are free hugs and cookies on IRC. See the link in my sig and ping me.

Beyond that, if you feel there are issues with one particular mod or policy, you're also welcome to PM me. Please provide links to specific examples for clarity.

[Fuzzzie]

To further add to the IRC goodness, you don't need a complicated client for a few simple messages. You can simply follow this link: http://webchat.quakenet.org/?channels=mmo-champion# and get in touch with us.

Then all you need to do is type: /msg Fuzzzie Hello There!
to get my (or whoever you want) attention. It's fast, easy and 100 times better than posting something you are unsure of.

[ClavellBC]

About 10 years ago or so I had the (very definitely thankless) task of moderating some AOL (eeeewwwwww) message boards. *I* would have nuked that "Blizzard=Soviet Russia" thread in about 10 seconds flat, just to stop the potential flamewar before it started.... without reading the actual post. As has been stated, use a different title on the post, one that didn't *invite* instant flames, and it might have gone without a mod locking it down. Good content with flamebait title=thread lock. Good title with flamebait content=thread lock. Flamebait title with flamebait content=thread lock and possible forum vacation. Put at least *some* reasonable thought into your posts, title included, before posting, and the mods will probably let it slide.

[Elementium]

Adding to the IRC point, there are free hugs and cookies on IRC. See the link in my sig and ping me.

Beyond that, if you feel there are issues with one particular mod or policy, you're also welcome to PM me. Please provide links to specific examples for clarity.

All I got was a title for saying Wombats are better than Hedgehogs

Anyway, Call em rules or guidelines or whatever but the point is if your well behaved, respectful and constructive you won't get in trouble. As far as whine threads getting locked? how many of them do we allow to have to justify getting rid of a few?

[Helander]

I wouldn't call it censorship, however I do feel that moderation is a tad too strict here.

However; as has been said before....this is a private forum, its their rules and if we dont live by them they can do with us anything they please.

[Pendulous]

I've seen mods close threads or give infractions for negative comments toward ANYTHING, not just Blizzard, so I think the point is moot about censorship here. Just don't go all "omg that game sux" on a thread and you'll be ok. Constructive criticism is fine, but it has to be just that - constructive.

[Lotharion]

I don't necessarily agree with censorship claims, but I'm sick of receiving dumb infractions.

[Deleted]

So many mod posts, OP should be proud.

Allow me to point out another difference between us and EJ. For them, the forum is basically the entire site, their front page is largely unimportant and unvisited. For us, the front page is pretty much the entire site, the forum is just a nice addition for those of us who enjoy yelling at each other, and those of us who enjoy locking threads. The decision to lock one thread isn't going to make or break the site, and you should be thankful that the moderators here do their best to keep the forum clean so you don't have to look at waves of tears drowning the sun.

Thaats not true, I mean the news is great but the forums show the real news in wow before it even happens, eg world firsts and cock ups like the recent honor "scandal"

[Deleted]

So we're supposed to use the search function, yet bumping and necroing threads is prohibited? Sounds a little contradictory to me.

And let's face it. Not many people use the search function to begin with.

The thing with searching before posting is that we could avoid having 200 new posts about "OMG METHOD KILLED BAELROCK WORLD FIRST!", You can also find an anwser by searching so you don't need to make a new thread, and if what's on your mind isn't in a topic that's all that new, make a new post.

It's very clear that you shouldn't necro old threads, but searching before posting might be a good idea.

[rboa]

I had to laugh when I saw that the rules are against:
* Creating threads for the sole purpose of causing unrest on the forums
* Causing disturbances in forum threads, such as picking fights, making off topic posts that ruin the thread, insulting other posters

given the posts in the off topics forum (aka "the sewer").

[Krullthor]

TL-DR
can this topic get a lock?

[Deleted]

I don't necessarily agree with censorship claims, but I'm sick of receiving dumb infractions.

I agree with this, on the other note i now know who all the mods are. Anybody missing from this party?

[Zka]

Oh great, finally MMOC moderators close topics that are just plain retarded? Like "FL too easy" and "wow is dying" threads? This can only mean one thing: the forums will be a better place.

[Lysah]

It's not about not liking those PMs, I don't think any of us would cry ourselves to sleep because of a hateful PM or two. It's just that it might not be one or two, it's easier to just hide the name than have mods receiving 20 hateful PMs a day spamming their inbox.

[Badpaladin]

I love hateful PM's. Nothing puts me in a better mood than reading a giant "FUCK YOU!!!!!" from a high schooler.

However, on the subject of receiving infractions, it's really different from moderator to moderator. Some of us are more open to PMing you with a warning or other "outside the box methods" if a particular user is generally a good poster, but some of us follow the guidelines more strictly and simply infract what's infractable with no bias one way or another. Neither is really more right or wrong, but that's at the discretion of the moderator.

Either way, the best thing to do is simply not to troll/flame to avoid it altogether.

[Arlee]

I like the moderation here... it makes me feel warm and fuzzy. Also... I REALLY like being able to hit the report button or toss a PM to a Mod (but only for the really bad ahmg it's got to go now threads) if something is out of wack. It makes the forums seem more... idk real... I don't think that is the right word... but anywho, it's not over moderated at all imo. I credit the Mods with a good bit of why these forums are such a nice place to be

[Aggiecore]

And trust me, some of us are really grateful and appreciate the work you do.
Disclaimer: this is sarcasm.

Thought I really liked lurking in here, guess not..........c ya.