Terribly Moderated Forums / Your Worst Forum Experiences

[R-F]

What is the most poorly moderated forums you've came across? What's the worst experience you've had of forum moderation?

I think this'll be a useful way of warning people away from "issue" forums.

The thing that's sparked this thread off is a run in with the MMORPG.com forum moderators. For those of you that don't know, MMORPG.com is the biggest MMO review / forum site on the 'net, essentially. It is, quite literally, massively online. :p I ended up starting up the Steam group etc, before getting tired of being the lone moderator of the group and so handed it off to someone else and left.

MMORPG.com's forum moderators are unpaid volunteers, usually promoted from forum members with good post counts and records. They're usually placed in charge of the forum they most posted on (meaning fans of games get to moderate those same forums), leading to some heavy bias towards certain viewpoints / users.

Just yesterday, I posted an effective summary of the current EA controversy. Within a few moments, people were there posting the usual EA / Bioware fanboy bullstuff that you see on these forums. I was able to effectively ignore it until someone basically said that I and RPS were liars. This user regularly posts stuff that would get anyone else permanently banned from the forums, and only his veterancy and (I assume) friendship with moderators keeps him from getting banned.

I told him to read the articles instead of posting his ignorant opinion. This post was deleted and I got an instant warning for "trolling" (which isn't at all true, since it'd be flaming, but whatever). On the next page he posted, essentially, exactly the same thing, except now he was being pedantic and saying that you couldn't get banned from the BioWare forums for saying e-peen. He'd obviously gave the articles a cursory glance and then chose to post his usual bullshit.

I replied along the lines of, "Wow, well done on completely ignoring the point and still posting. I'm genuinely impressed with you" and got instantly banned.

The thing with the MMORPG.com forums isn't that they've got terrible moderation that I'd expect of a teeny tiny forum with hair trigger bans over moderator's opinions. It's the fact they've got that terrible moderation and applied it to a massive forum. This site where thousands of people post per day has some of the worst moderation I've ever seen, and it never fails to amaze me the site is still alive despite this.

What about you all? Do you have stories of nepotism and naughtiness? Moderators banning you for being grammatically incorrect? Did you use a ~ and someone instantly called you a weeaboo and got banned for it? Come on, I know you ALL have these stories.

[QuantaCat]

First of all, I replied already but the forums spazzed and it was deleted.

Secondly, this doesnt belong here, should be in offtopic or rps forum discussion thing.

Thirdly, I take things like this with a grain of salt, especially coming from you, R-F, as you were tempbanned only a couple of months ago for good reason. You cant let go of something, and generally reply in a headstrong and silly manner in case someone doesnt want to see your point of view.

Fourthly, my "warning" experience was at REDuser.net, a digital cinema camera brand user site, where I sparked a flame war because in my post to offer my services as a Digital Imaging Technician (look it up), I asked if anyone had bad experiences like one I heard of. Apparently it wasnt long enough ago, and the people that were "accused" of the things that the story said (wasnt really accusatory) started flaming against some company, which then the supporters of replied, anyhow it was ugly, I had it deleted because I dont care for flame wars against anyone.

[R-F]

Secondly, this doesnt belong here, should be in offtopic or rps forum discussion thing.

There's far more tenuous things here.

Thirdly, I take things like this with a grain of salt, especially coming from you, R-F, as you were tempbanned only a couple of months ago for good reason. You cant let go of something, and generally reply in a headstrong and silly manner in case someone doesnt want to see your point of view.

The thread's still there, if you want to read it. Read it and wonder what I'd have to say to get legitimately banned.

[Drake Sigar]

Some of those commenters have apparently never heard of consumer laws because they flat out say "if you sign a virtual contract, you must abide by it." Utter rubbish of course. But more frightening is the general acceptance that there are Syndicate style gaming companies amongst us who have the power of a government.

I've been pretty lucky on forums. There's been the odd ban for repeating 'gay' (we were having a discussion on sexuality) and the moderator decided the word itself was taboo rather than the context it was used in.

[R-F]

Some of those commenters have apparently never heard of consumer laws because they flat out say "if you sign a virtual contract, you must abide by it." Utter rubbish of course. But more frightening is the general acceptance that there are Syndicate style gaming companies amongst us who have the power of a government.

Yeah, it fucking terrifies me completely. I'm just a bit glad most of them seem to be American.

[Rii]

All of the forums that I've been banned from are terribly and overzealously moderated. It's the impulse to power, I guess.

[QuantaCat]

Yeah, it fucking terrifies me completely. I'm just a bit glad most of them seem to be American.

Why does that make you glad? because theyre not near you or what? (just to clarify we're not going for nationalism here :D)

Also, I didnt check out the thread because your question was if we had experiences like the one you described, not if they are really stupid or not. I just wanted to point out my feeling towards the topic as I thought it was relevant.

[R-F]

Why does that make you glad? because theyre not near you or what? (just to clarify we're not going for nationalism here :D)

Also, I didnt check out the thread because your question was if we had experiences like the one you described, not if they are really stupid or not. I just wanted to point out my feeling towards the topic as I thought it was relevant.

Because if they were English then it'd be much more likely that my rights are going to be lost. I couldn't care less about America.

[jp0249107]

...*sniff*...and I could care less about GB! *runs off crying*

[Fumarole]

The Steam forums are an absolute nightmare. I also find RPGCodex to be so, to a slightly lesser degree.

Edit - I suppose I should clarify. The Steam forums shit status should be obvious to any who has visited, RPGCodex's not least because of moderators openly bragging about pirating games that they then slag off. Classy, that.

[Wizardry]

I also find RPGCodex to be so, to a slightly lesser degree.

Why?

10char

[Unaco]

I haven't seen anything really positive, or productive ever from the RPGCodex. It just seems to be a place for people to insult and denigrate others. I haven't had much experience with it though... the prolific use of f*g and other childish insults doesn't really induce in-depth reading.

[Wizardry]

I haven't had much experience with it though...

I can tell.

[Fumarole]

Why?

10char

See above.

Although, now that I think about it more, I believe it was a writer for the site in the specific case I am thinking of, as it was in an RSS feed that I read about the brazen piracy, not a forum moderator as I said. Although my experiences in the forums were largely as described by Unaco. "As above, so below" as the saying goes.

[Unaco]

Just had a little more of a scan around on RPGCodex... chose 15 or so forum thread pages at random. On average 3 uses of the word f*g on each, some anti-semitism, someone posts an opinion that doesn't seem to toe the line ("Skyrim isn't an RPG, but isn't as bad as I expected") and they're immediately accused of Trolling or Sockpuppetry. They also seem to be really hung up on graphics, which seems really odd for a community dedicated to RPG's (where graphics aren't that important)... seem to be awfully intent on Skyrim's shadows not being the best.

[Wizardry]

Just had a little more of a scan around on RPGCodex... chose 15 or so forum thread pages at random. On average 3 uses of the word f*g on each, some anti-semitism, someone posts an opinion that doesn't seem to toe the line ("Skyrim isn't an RPG, but isn't as bad as I expected") and they're immediately accused of Trolling or Sockpuppetry. They also seem to be really hung up on graphics, which seems really odd for a community dedicated to RPG's (where graphics aren't that important)... seem to be awfully intent on Skyrim's shadows not being the best.

I think that's because they know that next-gen games are all about graphics at the expense of gameplay. They then feel entitled to moan about how bad the graphics are in places. I see nothing wrong with that.

Also, about the accusations of trolling, chances are it is actually is a troll. A lot of the shitty members create alts every day to cause mischief. Without understanding their posting styles it's difficult for you to judge who is and isn't a troll.

[Unaco]

I think that's because they know that next-gen games are all about graphics at the expense of gameplay.

But they aren't.

[BobsLawnService]

I've only ever been given grief by moderators when I've deserved it. I've given up on a few forums after they've become toxic though. Most forums get to the point where people with desenting opinions are hounded out and things become a negative feedback loop. RPG Codex is one of them, I also think this is why Wizardry xhooses to come here an annoy people, there is nobody else to discuss different things with at RPG Codex because everyone there is completely closed minded and anti-social. After a while when you have the same core group of people on a forum slapping each other on the back and telling each other how their forum is the best and everyone else sucks you may as well close it down.

No forums are immune and I guess that eventually the RPS forums will turn into that as well. Until then I'll stick around.

Re-reading this I'm surprised at how sociopathic it sounds.

For now I'll just enjoy RPS.

Edit: Wizardry's comment about "shit posters" pretty much sums it up nicely. Anyone who disagrees with the opinion of the majority on the forum instantly becomes a troll and shit poster and they get drowned out by the likes of Wizardry. That shit is toxic.

[Wizardry]

But they aren't.

That's the popular opinion on the Codex, and most likely the opinion of those people bitching about the graphics. Your thoughts on the matter are completely irrelevant to the topic.

[Okami]

Why?

10char

The amount of casual racism, sexism, homophobia and antisemitism found in an average RPG Codex thread is, quite frankly, terrifying. They seem to hate everything and have to loudly proclaim so, mostly by using insults that involve the things stated above. Anyone trying to make money is a jew, everyone who's not as harcore as they percieve themselves to be is a fag or gay, etc.. And the moderators never do anything about it, in fact they're usually the most vocal in using these terms.