Lately, I’ve seen some strange and unpleasant things here. There seems to be some new edict, or perhaps the mods have taken this on themselves, to sanitize the board. There’s always been some but now it’s quite aggressive and, frankly, embarrassing. Lately, I’ve seen burying “why I’m quitting” threads, actual editing of other people’s posts to change the meaning/content, and locked threads that clearly don’t address the issues.
What’s going on? Is this the new forum? It is D3’s and they can do as they wish, but things feel gross now.
I was going to post a sarcastic comment slightly related to your post, but then I figured that would just make the thread look derailed, and get it locked.
It’s classic over-moderation, seen it a hundred times on a hundred forums. They will eventually get bored with the full time job of playing net nanny and things will go back to normal.
I personally think the 20 Iso thread was locked prematurely, didn’t need to be locked at all. The edited title could be better, perhaps “What are the odds for getting 20 Iso?”
The addition of “20 Iso answered!” gives the false impression that there was resolution to the 20 Iso problem… when there isn’t. That’s probably why when I read that brief thread, I came out of it with lots more questions but couldn’t ask because it was locked. Nothing was resolved.
I wanted to ask when that 50/50 was instituted, because when I started to play last year, the explanation was that there were 5 rewards… the 4 listed and the ever present 20 Iso option and that every reward earned was replaced with another 20 Iso… so the more you won of the 4 rewards, the worse your odds of getting the remaining.
As IceIX explained it, a 50/50 shot is a huge improvement over what it used to be. Perhaps I’m remembering it wrong, but I would have liked to figure that out in an active thread about the topic of 20 Iso odds that had a dev commenting in it… that wasn’t locked.
To the OP… I see your example of censorship, but I don’t understand your reference to Propaganda.
Not the one where IceIX gave the math. The one IceIX responded to, was locked and stickied in an attempt to keep it clean for future use in the FAQ, me linking it in the other big 20 iso thread (one of about 50 i think) is what instigated this thread.
We have mods locking player topics, devs locking mod topics, next up the CEO will be down here locking dev topics for having the audacity to explain things!
Mods need to remember that they are just as much part of the gamer side of the community, as they are mod’s.
Mod’s shouldn’t hold back their own frustrations, nor hide those of their fellow gamers. They should really focus on keeping spam down and removing any racist/hateful/vulgar filled comments. Outside of that, they should just let the community run themselves.
They don’t get paid, so no reason to act like they do.
Just a thought. There are different sections of the forum. (This will show how long one been here, but) originally, threads and posts were quickly moved to the correct section. Then there was a period of no one tending to the forums. There was also a period of nonce modding the forum single handedly before he got a raw deal (imo). Things got better afterwards, bUT things never fully got back to the way things were originally til now.
In other words, general discussion is not Facebook where people can just write whatever topic they want and/or be rude to each other. If someone writes a “quit” thread about what they feel is wrong with the game, the best category for that is usually the Suggestions section; after all the author is telling mpq what areas of the game need improvement. The real problem in that (and many) situation(s) is that forumites tend to post threads where they think they’ll be seen by more people instead of which section is the most appropriate.
That all makes sense in theory, TOS, but in reality … moving them is essentially burying them, esp to Suggestions. Also, by its very title general discussion covers a lot of ground.
Looking at the front page of right now, if we apply strict rules, most of them should be moved, but they’re not. That’s about half that are in the “wrong” place.
Censorship & Propaganda on the Forums - Suggestions
4* DDQ: Your Thing is on FI-YAAHHHH! - Events
What does True Healing mean anymore? - Characters
Totally Awesome Hulk Makes His Game Debut In MPQ! - Characters, but it’s an official announcement so it’s here
I call BS on the randomness of pulls, please prove me wrong - Suggestions
Stop giving 20 ISO rewards first, discussion and musings - Suggestions
Only one 4* in the Gauntlet… - Events
A Giant Crotch Appears - Events
More Probability Whining (Legendary Token Pulls) - Suggestions
I know that being a mod is difficult. And I’m glad many of those threads have not been moved. I’m just concerned by what I perceive as a coming trend.
I caught myself wanting to post a roster thread in general for that reason alone. I thought better of it and posted in the roster subthread. and I was right to initially want it in general since I’ve had 2 guys weigh in on the question. would have been read much more here, but no telling if that would have led to more responses or not.
conversely I posted something about 3 weeks ago back in general and it got no responses until it got moved to roster, so who knows.
Maybe if the devs/forum admins/comm managers spent more time giving feedback in the subforums, people might use them.
Sure ice posts in characters, does he regularly post in suggestions to give people feedback on their suggestions? Or are you more likely to get feedback when u post in general discussion.
Ps I am not referring to the bugs forum which is suppossed to be monitored
First let me thank those who are doing the moderating for taking on a thankless job.
I have to admit for my taste the moderating has been a little heavy handed and inconsistent.
The very rapid merging of threads sometimes make them unreadable because the merged threads keep repeating the same point and it often seems nonsensical until i notice the slight change to post names. I am wondering if it is possible to make a subforum for hot topics? Like currently 20iso awards could be one.
The effort to keep things clean overall ends up cluttering up the thread left behind.
The inconsistency comes with moving quit threads over to off topic but keeping things like “ooh look at the crotch” or my “favorite comics and memes” in General. The quit threads at least have something to do with the game. Crotch shots, comics, and memes do not.
I am the first to say since I am not doing it I will abide by the decisions of those who are doing it. This is just another voice to let you know a little lighter hand might be appropriate.
I wish you hadn’t locked that thread. We had got “word of God” on the 20 Iso problem, so while Ice was around he could have answered questions regarding a workaround for it. Much less important that a definitive explanation is the fact that a majority of the player base (seriously, I think 300 upvotes in that other thread is the highest ever) feels that it is infuriating and unfair.
My favorite recent example was a guy that posted about how he was sad that he needed to sell surfer to keep playing the game. His post was a combination of seeking advice and pointing out a glaring issue with the game that needed attention. It was determined that his thread was “going nowhere”, despite a lot of feedback about his predicament. So, it was locked and he was told to go post in the vent thread.
At this point, if you post anything that reflects poorly on the game or points out an issue, you run a high risk of your topic being locked.
I feel like that’s what General Discussion is… If you slice it right, almost any thread could technically be moved to another sub-forum.
I completely agree.
Allow me a moment to be “that guy” and pull out the old dictionary:
forum
noun fo·rum \ˈfȯr-əm\
: a place or opportunity for discussing a subject
: a public meeting place for open discussion
: a medium (as a newspaper or online service) of open discussion or expression of ideas
How does locking threads facilitate open discussion and the exchange of ideas?
I think it’s a case of moderators letting their personal preferences dictate what posts they think should be moved, locked etc. Certain moderators have expressed their distaste for “negative” or “whining” topics and these topics are often hit hard by the modhammer. It may be why comics and memes are in General because they are “positive” and quitting threads are moved to wherever they are.
I’m going to throw a little conspiracy theory into the ‘Censorship & Propaganda’ mix.
In the “Are Node Rewards Equal?[20 ISO answered!]” thread, the OP was answered by IceIX in less than 20 minutes. A few people then raised the usual 20 ISO issue/complaints/questions but (yet again) they weren’t responded to. 10 hours later (plenty of time for IceIX to read/reply) the thread was locked.
The 20 ISO uproar has been unavoidable on the forums and the devs have been steadfast in their refusal to openly address it.
Could it be that Malcrof was asked by IceIX or another dev to lock the thread?
I would imagine a thread about 20 ISO that a dev had actually commented on would soon see an influx of users posting their questions and complaints. IceIX would then either have to finally address the issue or again ignore it, but to answer the OP question and ignore the rest would only serve to further anger and upset the player base.
Would it be better for them to deflect that anger to the issue of heavy handed, lock-happy mods?
