Suspended for Otter Nonsense

[CorbinDallas]

What we really need is transparency going forward. No more guess work as to what the mods are thinking. It seems like the mods assumed everyone who was banned knew what they were doing, but given the posts here I'd say most of us are just grasping at straws trying to put the whole picture together. That's not effective modding. All that does is make people leery of posting at all when the ban is lifted and just as likely to re-offend because they didn't get the full picture they were owed either before the ban was brought down as a warning, or after. Which is why a warning is usually pretty essential in modding, especially when it's on this kind of scale.

This is my major beef with the moderation procedures (if you can call them that), they aren't transparent enough and even worse, inconsistent. I partially blame the community itself for this, I believe that if we weren't so coddled all the time and people didn't cry foul at the slightest of jabs and act like they would call the police for name calling, then mods wouldn't be so heavy with the banhammer.

There's a reason why a lot of people I know prefer to discuss the game on alternative platforms, it's because the community here is so averse to anything that doesn't include them and cries foul at every possible opportunity that they aren't the centre of attention. Discussion about Savage or raiding? It gets spun into talk of "elitists" and such. It goes both ways too and isn't exclusive to just one topic. Add to that how it feels like you can't even breathe anymore without being reported and banned around here, then it's no wonder people go to Reddit/Discord/insert unofficial space.

Another issue is how people who are permanently banned from the forums, no matter how petty (for lack of a better word) the reason, are forever silenced from giving feedback to an official source. You could have been banned from the forums 6 years ago, still be playing at the top skill level possible, know everything about the game, but be forever unable to share your opinions and suggestions to the developers because you called someone a doofus.

[Joven]

Oh, I apologize I wasn't saying other people should just sit back and accept what happened. Just stating that's how I'm personally taking it in regards to what happened with me. Apologies it's late and I'm a little loopy from lack of sleep, so that was my bad that that intention did not come across. My bad. D:

The whole thing was definitely confusing though, and that's one of the reasons I feel a mod post on the matter would have helped stem the sudden ban wave. While you can interpret a mass cull of otter memes to mean that the mods aren't happy with them, as is what happened at one point, if someone doesn't notice that and there's no official word on what's happening you're just left floundering in the dark with no way of knowing what to expect. The mods on this forum almost never pop in to big kerfuffles like that to actually tell people what they're doing wrong, and while often that might be okay, in this case it seems to have lead to a good chunk of the people who posted in that thread receiving temporary bans. Bans for actions that were perfectly acceptable in other threads at that. Which leads me to wonder if a report threshold was hit or some other invisible trip for automated flagging.

What we really need is transparency going forward. No more guess work as to what the mods are thinking. It seems like the mods assumed everyone who was banned knew what they were doing, but given the posts here I'd say most of us are just grasping at straws trying to put the whole picture together. That's not effective modding. All that does is make people leery of posting at all when the ban is lifted and just as likely to re-offend because they didn't get the full picture they were owed either before the ban was brought down as a warning, or after. Which is why a warning is usually pretty essential in modding, especially when it's on this kind of scale.

I dunno I respect the work the mods have to do as I'm a moderator myself in other places. Yet I really have to question a lot of their methods when we have incidences like this were a good handful or more people were banned and all only have small clues as to why.

No need to appologize, I was agreeing with you. Text is a fickle thing to interpret meaning.

I did see the mass deletion and by that time I was already pretty well done with posting and just wanted to see what others were doing. Even then I didn't see a ban wave coming, maybe a lockout at most.

I was actually contemplating abandoning the forums after this since I'm already a sporadic poster to begin with and recieving a questionable ban was about to keep me away for good.

[DumdogsWorld]

At risk of looking like I've "lost my marbles" I will say that the otter pics randomly all over the forum were getting annoying.

I wasn't really talking about simple annoyance. Sometimes a thread will be started with the intention of calling somebody out or ranting about a non-issue. The threads quickly devolve into absolute toxicity, and then otters show up. Of course, then people who are professionally upset take offense to the derailing of their holy crusade.

[JunkhogMakison]

Truthfully moderation does need an overhaul. On the one hand it is nice that they allow for people like me to Express their controversial opinions.

On the other hand some commenters get away with saying some of the nastiest stuff to the point you question the existence of the forums.

I mean just take a glance at my topics, they all eventually get flooded with hate and anger even when the question got answered lol

[Enla]

-snip-

Gotcha! And yeah, it's especially hard when my eyes are criss crossing due to lack of sleep. lol I think I'll go to bed after this post.

-snip-

That's kinda why I'm wondering if the moderation process is partially automated? So many people got bans, and I definitely remember a few people here not stirring the pot in any way. Which begs the question. Did they get banned because they did something wrong, because the entire group was deemed guilty, or did they get a ban because a group of people was going through and reporting each post? I'm not trying to indulge in conspiracy theories or anything like that but I've seen similar systems on other forums and it /never/ ends well if that is truly the case.

Regardless the fact we even have to speculate at all is a bad sign. I have a few friends as well that also refuse to come to these forums because of the moderation practices. One even laughed without a hint of surprise when I was in chat with them and noticed the ban because this place has such a bad reputation for erroneous moderation. The fact that as you said, you have no chance to come back in some cases making it even worse. Some people do deserve instant potentially year-long bans, mind. But... Well, in my experience they rarely actually are the ones getting them.

I do hope that the mods here look at this thread and don't take it as an attack. I don't hate the moderators here, but I do think that like was stated before this is an issue that needs to be dealt with now. Rather than just slapping another bandaid on the gaping wound and pretending these forums are perfect.

[Imuka]

I know of a number of people who got banned for #ottergate, if you ask me the moderation of these forums are a complete joke.

Instead of just locking a volatile, cancerous (lol) thread, they ban people who arguably were less toxic than the OP.

Edit: In all seriousness, moderation of these forums needs to be talked about in a frank yet civil manner. Something needs to change, but the only way we can send this message is without memeing or flaming.

This reminds me of one of the male Viera threads. There was a player who posted nothing but insults, racism, homophobia and transphobia, told people to kill themself if they are so unhappy that they did not get male Vieras and the mods did not delete the posts for several days.
But mine and the post of other users telling him/her that we have no place for such hate against other people in our community were deleted for "spreading negativity" by a mod.

[Joven]

I think one thing that would go a long way towards transparency is if the moderators delete a post they should have to list a reason like we do when we delete one of our own posts. It won't stop them from giving vague reports like 'post removed due to violation', but at the least it would help to show what is being watched and flagged.

[JunkhogMakison]

This reminds me of one of the male Viera threads. There was a player who posted nothing but insults, racism, homophobia and transphobia, told people to kill themself if they are so unhappy that they did not get male Vieras and the mods did not delete the posts for several days.
But mine and the post of other users telling him/her that we have no place for such hate against other people in our community were deleted for "spreading negativity" by a mod.

Doesnt suprise me. Free speech is one thing but actively spreading hate and vitriol is another.

On my FC name inspiration threat there was a top comment that was essentially a guy making very homophobic comments towards me. It got deleted in a heartbeat, however other hateful comments still linger.

Like it wouldn't suprise me at all if it IS automated

[Halivel]

This reminds me of one of the male Viera threads. There was a player who posted nothing but insults, racism, homophobia and transphobia, told people to kill themself if they are so unhappy that they did not get male Vieras and the mods did not delete the posts for several days.
But mine and the post of other users telling him/her that we have no place for such hate against other people in our community were deleted for "spreading negativity" by a mod.

I mean... I was banned for 10 days for one <kupo!> word when tried to actually defend myself against non-reasonable toxicity just after few hours. My bad that I used word that considered bad in English (not native, sometimes do not see the line) of course and I don't deny it, happens, will be more careful next time, but seriously? Instantly ban people for one swear word, but ignore open abuse and bullying for days? Good job.

[JunkhogMakison]

I mean... I was banned for 10 days for one <kupo!> word when tried to actually defend myself against non-reasonable toxicity just after few hours. My bad that I used word that considered bad in English (not native, sometimes do not see the line) of course and I don't deny it, happens, will be more careful next time, but seriously? Instanly ban people for one swear word, but ignore open abuse and bullying for days? Good job.

It seems like bullying and hate is considered constructive criticism so long as it doesnt utilize a naughty word...

Even though my Lakshmi threat is littered with swear words and very naughty slangs left right and sideways.