The Bootlegger’s game forum… a place that was once a hive of activity. People were posting their questions. People were replying with sarcastic answers. People were complaining. People were pointing out when something new happened on the game. Most of all, people were having fun. However, in recent times, there has been a disturbing trend happening on the Game Forum.
As we all can see, the game has been shedding players since the start of the round, to where there has only been 670 players online in the past 24 hours. With a lack of activity, there has seen a lack of posts on the game forum. This is fair enough.. With a lack of players, there is bound to be less posts. However, since the lack of posts, the game forum seems to now be over moderated by help desk operators and moderators alike, and it’s killing the game forum. Let me give you a few examples of how the game forum is being over moderated:
1) Everyone loves a game forum fight! This topic in the game forum was between Aqorz and Quit4Real. Quit asked the topic on the game forum “How do I submit a complaint about an EG member” so that only BSF would see it. Completely on topic. Aqorz and Quit4real had a good discussion about an incident that happened, and were discussing a game feature and an event that occurred. Still on topic. So 1 unrelated player comes in and starts talking about the game “risk”, a few others follow and suddenly the topic that was Quit’s and Aqorz disappeared to the off topic forum!! Tell me how this is ok? This topic was Quit’s, who made it on the game forum, talking about a game feature, which is on topic, and did nothing wrong. Why have HIS topic moved to the OTF when it’s originally a game feature discussion.
2) I woke up one morning, to a message from a crew mate, asking me to “Check out the awesome bust party we did on the game forum”. I checked the game forum. Nope, couldn’t see any topic. Checked the Off Topic Forum, in case it got moved. Nope, nothing. Checked the crew forum, in case it was a crew thing. Nope, nothing again. I proceeded to tell this member “I don’t see the topic”, they then proceeded to tell me that a HDO deleted the topic and everything associated with it because of a few dance pictures. So the topic, that was a hive of fun and activity, that was brightening up the game forum with fun and laughter, is gone.. deleted forever.
3) This third example, is when Nordy2, posted in a topic about “half timers” that user Uncivilization “likes turtles” by editing a previous post that Uncivilization wrote. Help Desk Operator “Sulphur” jumps in and chimes “I fixed your post for you but (you) should really stay on topic.” It kills the flow of the topic, and quite frankly, makes the Help Desk Operator look a bit arrogant for participating in the event that is actually “Off topic” (editing a previous post in a new post).
I believe that Help Desk Operators and Moderators, are just following the rules that are in place. However, it is a mess, and I believe the system needs an overhaul. Some topics are moved to the OTF, some are deleted, and some people receive a mute from the forums. Which is it? There is no consistency and it leads to player confusion, and a lack of faith in our moderators and help desk operators.
So what can we do about this? I encourage you to leave your thoughts in the box below.
One idea may be that if a topic is considered on topic in the first place, then it can’t be moved or considered off topic at all. If the topic descends off topic, then it’s the fault of the users who make the off topic posts. It’s actually hard to turn an on topic conversation off topic, considering most users follow the original subject. Let’s not over policy our game forum, let’s have some fun!
