If there are complaints about any forum content, it's GOG that takes the heat - not you, not me, not the OP of the other thread.

Freedom without responsibility.

It's also possible that it's simply something they don't do, generally.

I know the world has bigger problems. Since when is that an excuse to ignore the smaller ones?

Actually, why are you even here, complaining about me complaining about the censorship? The world has bigger issues!

Those bigger issues are being dealt with by bigger things that I support however I can. This issue is being dealt with by a single discussion (spanning two topics), on a single forum. Seems pretty proportioned to me..

I don't see anyone griping at anyone else but me for making this thread :P

And despite that, I'd still use this topic as an example of why I am proud to be part of this community and to support GOG. The staff might disagree with me, but will engage me in an open discussion about it. They could be silent or say "tough cookies, our forum" or.. as hedwards mentioned, make me STFU or even worse, GTFO.

And there is responsibility with that freedom. As I've said, I think that people that abuse the freedom to "swear" in topic titles by doing it a lot and when it is clearly inappropriate and unnecessary should be removed from the forum. GOG would have asked you to keep it to a minimum and you did not.. simple as that. I really don't see the need to be so absolute about it.

It is kind of like the responsibility of having the freedom to buy a knife (as an adult). You're free to buy it, but you are expected to be responsible with it and not stab anyone (by accident or purpose)!

I think people might be taking me as being deadly serious about this. But as I've mentioned, I'm not doing anywhere near the things I would be doing if I was really throwing a hissy fit (threatening to leave and such).

I find censorship offensive.
So please don't offend me by censoring.

Except it's not; when no guidelines are in place you can't expect anything and you can't take anything for granted. Rules and guidelines are there to make it clear for moderators first (and users second) when they need to act and on what and what do to.

Except I'm not :) I live(d) in the UK but I'm Romanian, so let me tell you that I know what swearing is xD

Except it's not; see how the old GameRager things were handled (or better said, weren't) because moderators were lacking and clear guidelines were not available, and even before that there were countless inflammatory threads that weren't acted on.

Also, see how further threads after the GameRager temp-ban were left going while others were closed, seemingly at random as the content and tone in them was nearly identical. That is the reason guidelines should be in place.

That means that:
a) their moderators are total trash (and they are)
and/or
b) their rules are not clear enough.

As a counter-point look at the ArsTechnica boards to see rules done right and moderation done even better.

That's not even remotely true. Specificity has nothing to do with how well-thought or not the rules are. Yet again, go at the Ars boards and read the sub-forum rules (especially the Battlefront and Lounge) to see what I mean.

Agreed.

I thought jamyskis meant the more specific the rules you have, the more likely they will be enforced inappropriately. Word censors are good examples. Scunthorpe, Uranus etc.

EDIT: And perhaps as a sub-issue, the more specific a rule is, the harder it is to argue that it is wrong because it's not uncommon for people to associate specificity with correctness.

EDIT #2: Not that I would object to some clearer guidelines. As far as I am aware, the only ones are "You can't do illegal stuff" and "gog aren't responsible if you find something offensive" from the ToU.

It's a reason not to be self-righteous about it and look silly.

Emphasis (partly) mine.

The snark is lost on me. The know was capitalized simply to emphasize I'm a cursing advocate and still think your thread and conviction is silly.

Anyway, have it if you like. Personally if I ran a forum I wouldn't want cussing in topic titles either, if for no other reason than it's tacky. And GOG are a business, which gives them a multitude of reasons I wouldn't have. And I celebrate the FREEDOM which allows them to decide what the fuck gets said and written on their own fucking privately operated website.

Emphasis mine.

That's because there wasn't any. I put "partly" so it was clear I didn't put all the emphasis on the quote.

No, I get what you did and your point, but it's lost on me because I don't agree with the snarky point you were trying to make. We can go on about self-righteousness about self-righteousness if you like, but the point of the emphasis was again to make it clear I cuss like a sailor and still think you're being stupid.

When people cry about censorship it generally has to do with a lack of freedom to say things. On a private forum however, the crucial and important freedom is for the person who owns said forum to decide what the fuck it can be used for. THAT is the important freedom I would be fighting for if I were you.

If you came into my house and started calling my wife a whore I would not say "well that's free speech" I would kick you the fuck out of my house.

I don't think swearing shows either a lack of intelligence or a special wit or ability. It just is, they're words, used to effect to get across points or feelings the same as any others.

My point was, I can show where you are being self-righteous and made no claim that it made you wrong or weakened your argument. I want you to show me where I have effectively said "I think GOG are wrong, therefore they must be", preferably that doesn't conflict with anything else I've said or result in anyone who ever argues for anything as being self-righteous.

I would be fighting for that freedom if it was the issue. I have mentioned multiple times that I would side with GOG's freedom to ban people from the forums who would abuse the freedom to put potentially offensive things in the topic title. I even did support GOG banning someone from the forum when that person explicitly stated that they intended to cause as much trouble as possible! They didn't and I think we are better off for it!

EDIT: Except for all the people who left because of it. That sucked :\

I wouldn't blame you. But I would see a problem if I was the only person out of 10 who got kicked out and you continued to let the other people do it.
We're agreed on all points here!

Ding ding ding!

If this is such an egregious abuse of power as owners of the business and the forum, then I suppose some folks have a decision to make.