Why all the Moderating

Please explain why this forum is moderating so much.

I understand if threats are being made on individuals, or if there is extreme cursing there is a need to remove the posts and take action. I understand if I am reported on a regular basis I should be examined and possibly moderated. But why if a group of people are talking about a topic and it starts to take a negative direction all the sudden it disappears? I made my first post ever in this forum and it was immediately deemed off topic even though my comments were adding to the OP question about the status of stretch goals.

1) I am allowed to be unhappy with the progress of the game and state that fact on this forum.
2) I am allowed to agree with others who are frustrated.
3) I don't know of any forum that completely stays on topic inside of a thread. That is natural conversation and usually it will eventually be put back on topic. Again that is natural conversation
4) If I wanted to be censored all the time I would move to China and use their internet.

Since I have been deemed off topic and moderated. I figured I would start a topic about moderation so that anyone wanting to vent frustration about being moderated will be on topic if they would like to vent their frustrations about being censored.

 

I've been wondering the same thing.

 

How about people wanting to support the moderation and even think that, in some cases, they're far too lenient?

I have seen forums that are moderated far less than here, and they are generally extremely unpleasant cesspools, and no fun to visit unless you're the type that likes free-for-all forum pvp.

On the other hand, while not a supporter of SOE as a rule, I have to say their forums are the most pleasant to visit of any I can think of off hand. They have zero tolerance policy. Off topic...deleted. Bashing anything or anyone in a less-than-polite way......deleted. Short one-word post.....deleted. Criticizing, or even mentioning moderation......deleted. Mentioning bans, forum or in-game,.....deleted. Mentioning forum moderators by name, or in-game gms in a negative way.......deleted. Use of the words "troll" or "********'......deleted. And these deletions happen so fast it will make your head spin. They have a fairly large staff able to police it diligently. (very diligently, to be blunt). These are just a few I can think of off the top of my head and I've probably missed a few. I'd have to go look at the rules to pull them all. And their mods maintain a very strict adherence to those rules.

SotA moderation is somewhere in between those two extremes, so I can't agree with you. They could decide to go the route of SOE, then you might have something to complain about. But then it would not be allowed. lol.

 

On the surface they'll say its to keep things nice, but my own posts have been edited or deleted when I said something against the game. Either moderators are not being just in their application or they are essentially under orders to crush dissent.

Not at all surprised.

 

Interesting first post.

 

You are welcome -- encouraged! -- to be as happy or as unhappy with the progress of the game as suits your mood. You will not be moderated for this.

You will be moderated if, to pick one recent example*, your unhappiness crosses the line into accusing Portalarium of dishonest business practices.

You are welcome -- encouraged! -- to be as agree or disagree with other individuals on these forums. You will not be moderated for this.

You will be moderated if, to pick one recent example*, this agreement takes the form of insinuations of a class-action lawsuit, or if the disagreement takes the form of personal insults or the utterance of threats.

True, and we do allow some deviation from topic. But there is a difference between a brief tangential departure from a topic and the deliberate derailment of a thread. The former is permitted, the latter will be moderated.

I can't personally recommend moving to China.

* Note: in selecting these examples, I am simply going by my memory of recent events, and am in no way implying that you were involved with, or engaged in, any of the activities outlined.

 

There are plenty of threads and posts that fall within the dissenting opinions category. They are not edited or removed, why, because they do not break the Forum Rules.

 

I think the moderators are doing a bang up job! I've been fairly active off and on for a while now. I've agreed with the game direction and vehemently disagreed with it at different times. I've gotten upset, had arguments, etc.

Ya know what? I've never had a post deleted, unless it quoted a deleted post. I only ever had one warning for my posts and it was rescinded.

These anti-moderator threads are getting a tad tiresome. There are much worse forums on the internet. In fact, I've never had more pleasant forum experience than here.

Thanks mods, for doing a thankless job. It is appreciated.

 

It seems that people feel they are posting on topic or are following the rules, and the post is removed without explanation. Being new to the forums I have been reading a lot lately and noticed posts missing the next day, when I am reading back through looking for references. I know when people are donating money to help be apart of development and then their opinion is deleted without clarification, they feel like they are not getting their opinion heard (that they paid to get heard).

Thanks for some clarification/examples UltimaCodex

 

When the Objective's Needs Outweigh the Desires of the Member...
If I were to describe what our forms site is, I would have to describe it as a "Constructivist Web Community" who's intent is to construct a game. The sites membership are it's testers and not it's creators, but add our suggestions for the creator's consideration.

Where we have some objections to the way in which the creators are performing their mission, those comments are not always helpful for the community's mission. The community's mission is to test the progress and lend comment. But when objection becomes obstruction, this is not useful for the better interests of our game.

I have been censored many times here, because of the web site's mission, which is to construct a game. Yet I do not feel bad about this, because those censored comments of mine were cluttering the aims of the project.

I do know what you mean by your comparison of the web forms with others, yet the intent of this site is to take a game from it's "Alpha" (1st tests) and help our game get developed. So, in a way, when the boss doesn't think some of our comments are useful, they will delete the posts to make way for more helpful ones for the game's purposes.

Or, that's my understanding of all this, because I'm just another posting member like everyone.
I do apologize if this is not the answer you seek.
~Time Lord~

 

It is policy to notify users if a post is moderated. Though there has been some inconsistency in the past due to the difficulty moderating on mobile devices (we discovered that was the culprit.. thank you for letting us know!), we are working to ensure that every post moderated receives notification.

And yes TimeLord, the purpose of these forums is very much that of a more traditional Alpha/Beta testing forum. In most of those, there is not even a General section, not to mention "for fun" places like FireLotus Tavern. Our purpose here is to communicate with our Community about the development of the game and get your feedback on how we are doing. The thing is, most "Beta Boards" which are STRICTLY moderated, are also private, small communities.

Our forums are public, open to everyone (even non-backers), and so we try and balance keeping posts constructive and on topic with the inevitable "chaos" that often comes with an open forum. We do our best to keep threads on track so that the Devs can have an easier time finding what they are looking for, and to encourage everyone to contribute without being too heavy handed. Like I said in my other post, it makes our job that much harder, but we as a Team feel that it's important.

 

@Invidia This was not my first post. My first post was moderated.

I obviously do not have a history of being off topic you can see that from my post count.

Talking about being unhappy with the progress of the game is being moderated. Keep in mind you don't get to see the moderated post once it has been removed so you may have the illusion that they are not being moderated because a few still exist but the reality is there are threads that get off topic and start talking about how people are unhappy with the progress of the game. These are getting moderated because they are off topic. According to the rules this is OK. I am fine with this. That is why I started this thread so we could be on topic about peoples feeling about the moderating.

I may be in a minority on this subject and I am fine with that. I still stand by that I don't think it should be done and I think threads should be able to go off topic some as long as its still talking about SoTA in general.

 

When enough people click that report button the post is hidden until it is reviewed. That's not the moderators that's the fellow posters.

 

thats not always the case though. I posted and the mod must have been monitoring the thread. My post disappeared before anyone could get a chance to complain. The mod later told me it was taken down because it MIGHT upset someone. There were no personal attacks, no vulgar or inappropriate remarks., no trolling.

 

Moderation explanation

 

Please forward me this conversation and the post in question, as this is not our policy and if it is true, it needs to be investigated.

 

Not everyone is aware of what I was saying. I was not saying there were no other possibility.

 

How does one forward?

 

My one experience with being moderated had me disagree with that moderation. But I didn't take it to the forums, I responded to the moderator (who did tell me their thought process). After some discussion the moderator took it to FireLotus and their discussion resulted in my post re-appearing and some rules were clarified.

Did I like being moderated? No. I felt targeted, disagreed with the reason for the moderation and offended that the moderation happened without my consent.

BUT by responding and asking questions of the moderator, they evaluated what had happened and discussed it pleasantly and it was reversed and I was happy with the result.

And really - moderation teaches people to post 'within the rules' and the forums would be better for it. In general the moderators are not moderating for content but for presentation. You can disagree with features/areas/artwork/content/rewards/etc while still being supportive and constructive, and I think the moderators help get us there.

It's a tough 'job' but a necessary one - Love your moderators!

Likely your post was part of several posts that were derailing a topic and the moderators cleaned up and your post was taken with it. On the (off?) topic of how to not be "moderated" and to be constructive you could have called this thread "a discussion about moderation" and in your post started a discussion about moderation (productive) instead of inviting people to "vent their frustrations about being censored" (not productive).

Edit - I do understand that feeling of having a post altered/removed, especially if you did not get a message about it (as I did), is not a pleasant one. I totally get where you are coming from.