Quote Originally Posted by StormChase View Post
I'll admit, I haven't been here that long, but why are the forums so... miserable? I get that people come here to give feedback, but it feels like some people see it as permission to be as toxic as possible. To be clear, I'm not talking about just any criticism. I mean people demanding staff members be fired over mild grievances, claiming there's some kind of conspiracy to ruin the game, portraying anyone who isn't as negative as them as idiotic, that type of thing. I guess what I'm trying to say is at some point, there's a line between criticism and entitlement. Have the forums always been this way? Even before I set up my forum profile I heard they have a reputation.
My guess is it's because of a lack of moderation. In a well-moderated forum, behavior that serves to undermine constructive dialogue gets moderated away — things like players insulting each other and/or the devs, troll posts that are just meant to create conflict, etc. Without these toxic elements, players can still be openly critical of the game, etc, but this criticism occurs in a way that's more productive and less likely to devolve into a playground fight. It's a win for everyone, though it does cost more for the SE because that kind of moderation requires more work and is thus more expensive.

Whether you do or don't remove toxic elements like these goes a long way to shaping discourse in the forums. If you allow toxicity to exist unchecked, then many of the people who don't want toxicity won't enjoy their time in the forums and will leave. And that creates a cycle where toxic are more likely to stay and non-toxic people are more likely to leave. But if you moderate away that toxicity, the opposite cycle happens.

This is absolutely not a 1-to-1 comparison, but it is very similar to the so-called "Nazi Bar Problem"; just replace "nazi" with "belligerent net dweller":
https://www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromYo..._they_walk_in/