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General discussionConcerning moderation privileges....(43 posts) (43 posts) 
(43 posts) 
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This is my favourite topic
Posted October 17, 2022
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Clownski_: Same as you can participate in discourses out on the street, according to the law. That's all there is to it, really.
Just to point out the obvious, but most counties that value freedom of speech don't have laws governing what people can and can't discuss 'out in the street'.

I get your point: that the GOG forum isn't a public street and conversation is allowed within the bounds of the forum CoC, but you chose a rather poor analogy there.
Post edited October 17, 2022 by Time4Tea
Posted October 17, 2022
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BreOl72: Sure Vainamoinen, but life isn't a wishing concert.
Oh, sometimes it's even a pony farm. But you're right, these pony farm instances are far and few between. Better to celebrate them when they happen.
Posted October 17, 2022
Hard to know what the bounds really are, when mods are free to make up pretty much whatever they want on the spot if they dislike something. Even harder when they don’t enforce said arbitrary rules equally.
Posted October 17, 2022
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Longcat: Hard to know what the bounds really are, when mods are free to make up pretty much whatever they want on the spot if they dislike something. Even harder when they don’t enforce said arbitrary rules equally.
Ermessensspielraum. One of those incredible German compound nouns. It means "scope of discretion". It's the law's wiggle room. And the rule usually is, the more wiggle room, the better for the culprits, because the judges are human.
Posted October 17, 2022
I chose french over german in school.

Liberté, égalité, fraternité.
Post edited October 17, 2022 by Longcat
Posted October 17, 2022
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Longcat: Liberté, égalité, fraternité.
What the French did under the header of those words was a little worse than closing some threads on an internet forum.
Posted October 17, 2022
Hey. I've seen you around the web. I'm not interested in your attempt at constructing an ot situation here. but thanks for the offer.
Post edited October 17, 2022 by Longcat
Posted October 18, 2022
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WhatIsTheTruth: if there is no way to dispute moderator decisions,
So you're basically saying... this? :P
Posted October 18, 2022
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WhatIsTheTruth: I recently had the pleasure of finding out that according to the forum regulations:
"All decisions with regards to thread/post moderation are final and not up for discussion.".

So I wondered,

if there is no way to dispute moderator decisions,
no obligation to offer transparency on how decisions are made,
no prodecure of evaluating relevant qualifications known to be followed,
and no hashed reporting system, to avoid moderator/user conflict/allingment of interests,
as well as no known supervising authority on how moderators go on with their tasks

how could the users be allowed to participate in free discourse according to a private company's "Forum Code of Conduct"
without being underhandedly hinded to the manner and object they should orate, within the boundaries of logical reasoning and debate, by indiscriminate punitive action?

The queastion is there to purely encourage you to express an opinion, without expecting an answer.
I am already aware of the answer, which I have preemptively censored, in order to comply with the Forum Code of Conduct as mentioned below,
"Taking any other actions that are deemed inappropriate by GOG at our sole discretion."
&
"Abusive and/or aggressive attitude towards GOG Staff may constitute grounds for further penalties."
At the end of the day, the GOG forum and indeed website, may not be run like a democracy, and that is the choice of management. How we the customers react to that, is of course another thing.

There are bodies outside of GOG who in theory you can appeal to etc, but best of luck with that.

With that said, I have had private discussions with GOG mods on a few occasions, and in every instance they were fairly decent to discuss things with, certainly better than many other sites out there, where many mods are on a power kick.

You need to realize that mods are mostly doing upper management's will. They enforce the laws as they have been told to ... or as they interpret them until told otherwise. A few mods have also mentioned they are volunteers.

All things considered, the GOG forums are the most tolerant ones I have come across, and upper management etc deserve kudos for that. Discussions here can be quite robust much of the time. There are some game sites that don't even offer a forum, let alone let discussions be robust when they do.
Posted October 18, 2022
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Timboli: There are bodies outside of GOG who in theory you can appeal to etc, but best of luck with that.
Out of genuine curiosity: what "bodies outside of GOG" would that be?

Amnesty International? The Hague?

Dude, this is a private led forum of an online shop, that offers you the possibility to exchange thoughts with others (best related to video games), not some life necessity, which, if withheld, will threaten your very existence.

Comments like this are why nobody takes us ("gamers") serious.
Posted October 18, 2022
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Timboli: With that said, I have had private discussions with GOG mods on a few occasions, and in every instance they were fairly decent to discuss things with, certainly better than many other sites out there, where many mods are on a power kick.

All things considered, the GOG forums are the most tolerant ones I have come across, and upper management etc deserve kudos for that. Discussions here can be quite robust much of the time. There are some game sites that don't even offer a forum, let alone let discussions be robust when they do.
My experience with mods here has been largely positive. I've had pretty bad experiences on other sites. For example...on the Reddit Pokemon page two of my posts were removed for being "off topic". One was asking about the camera in Pokemon Yellow, and the other was a post asking if there were any treasures worth holding on to in Pokemon Sword. How these are off topic is a little baffling to me.

On Facebook I had two posts removed for spam on some videos I made jokes on. One was a tire joke on a video recommended to me about tires, and another was a Navy Seals joke on a video about seals (the animal). And the cherry on top...I've reported multiple cases of someone making threats to, or harassing another user. Every time I did this Facebook sent me a PFO letter. Should I even bother reporting future cases?

Sorry for the lengthy reply. I was kind of frustrated and wanted to vent a little.
Posted October 19, 2022
Warm thanks to all who offered their honest opinions.

My opinion inclines towards simply not having conversations of substance on public forums.
Too easy to tread on them, too open for anyone without a legitimate case to interject and ofcourse monitored by conflicting interests.
Traditional face to face conversations are the stapple of human social evolution and no forum I have seen or participated so far has enough flexibility and credibility of rules and balanced application of them to provide an alternative long run and healthy platform of communication.

I have to say if it's not for the best to shut it down, than certainly it's not worth tolerating it by admitting into it.

Cheers.
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Vainamoinen: The alternative is to shut down the forum.
Well if it was not for the flags, than certainly being a moderator turned this to a TL:DR dislike button smash.
Kidding!
Thank you for posting your personal experience, it's certainly valuable to have an all around perspective and for us to hear about it.
I am sure I have done wrong things, as all of us, I would like to believe, if we are being honest, just not because anyone's rulebook with ulterior motives says so.
Post edited October 19, 2022 by WhatIsTheTruth
Posted October 19, 2022
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pds41: Assuming this is a legitimate thread:
If you are so reserved about expressing your opinion why even bother rehearsing what the rules are?
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BreOl72: I get, that you fear to be at a disadvantage in a private conversation, because the mod has powers that you don't have,...but what I don't get is: what exactly are you trying to accomplish with this thread?
You are wrong, they fear a public discussion because they have the disadvantage if locked into one, negated by their rules of conduct.
There is nothing I hope to accomplish for myself py creating this thread.
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LootHunter: That's the whole point. You aren't allowed to participate in the free discourse. Moderators always can shut you down, if they don't like what you say. That's exactly why CoC is written the way it's written.
Ahh, I can see the logic behind it now.
Thank you.
Post edited October 19, 2022 by WhatIsTheTruth
Posted October 19, 2022
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Clownski_: While the OP technically borders on breaching the CoC, I'm gonna leave the thread as is. I appreciate how reasonable (and even informative) some of the replies were.
And why wouldn't you appreciate how reasonable the original post is, equally?
I believe you also contradicted yourself, since it seems that by posting what I posted, I am bordering my allowance of free speech, like in any other supposed situation.

Societal laws are human constructs as much as any forum's CoC. Their main goal is to be manipulated by the party with the most force in a situation, in order to provide for what they aim and justify their claim, contrary to popular belief.
An illusion, to the untrained mind, to manifest a status quo that otherwise would have balanecd out by itself.
There is much less included in them than what is fundamentaly needed, in order to operate a harmonic flow of social interactions, while much more to dictate inherent imbalaces, as a means to save people form making continuous effort to refine free discourse and conscious critical thinking.

Please don't do me any favors.
I am not accustomed to it.
Post edited October 19, 2022 by WhatIsTheTruth
Posted October 19, 2022
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Clownski_: Same as you can participate in discourses out on the street, according to the law. That's all there is to it, really.
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Time4Tea: Just to point out the obvious, but most counties that value freedom of speech don't have laws governing what people can and can't discuss 'out in the street'.
They do. Threats, breaches of NDAs, disrespect of some "public servants", incitement of crime, etc etc. You can find many limits to "freedom of speech" even in private or "street" conversations, in democracies that do generally respect freedom of speech.

Not a nitpick : A reminder that the "freedom of speech", which is so often referred to like some over-simplified, sacrosanct, clear-cut pure absolute, actually always has boundaries, and regimes only differ in where they define these.

Never take seriously a person (especially an internet person) that uses "freedom of speech" as some self-evident democratic principle justifying every possible statement. The matter is as complicated as the boundaries to "freedom" which are required for any peaceful community to function, and each democracy's laws (and trials and convictions) reflect this. So private spheres such as commercial internet forums aren't such exceptions.
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionConcerning moderation privileges....(43 posts) (43 posts) 
(43 posts)