We all know about the HotS reddit “circlej**k” meme, and how it is an echochamber. About how hard it is to bring to light some criticisms and complaints.
Just today, the HotS subreddit mods have made it PROHIBITED to post about unjust silences and suspensions!
If you post about what you feel was an unjust silence or suspension, or have a question about a suspension, your thread will get automatically deleted because it’s “against Rule #5”!
Of course, unless it happens to a celebrity, in which case it’s ok to post about it maybe.
You think this is a joke but it’s not! This is absolutely 100% real.
Can you believe this? And sometimes we complain about the official forums… at least the thought police aren’t judging the permissibility of your each and every post!
Just search for " Update to Rule 5 - No personal Silence/Suspension posts " , the name of the thread, to find the post. Since (lul) you can’t post links on this forum.
Blizzard is actually far more active on the Reddit site. It is curated for being positive to HOTS.
While this forum… well… the same issues have been listed for 3 years and the community is increasingly hostile toward the non-response to these issues.
Actually, it would be much better if those that were silenced/banned in the game are also prohibited from posting on the forum. They simply direct their anger away from the ingame chat to the forum. Which absolutely solve nothing.
They remove stuff all the time on here. Wouldnt be suprised if this very thread was removed as well.
Any valid criticism seems to be removed quickly.
I made a post about bring paired with non english speaking players in NA. listed 3 reasons. Cant communicate, latency issues, and seemingly regional skill gap. checked on it an hour later, Removed by moderator.
Pretty sad that valid complaints about how the automated silence system is broken and people wanting a review dont get it. Whats next? Any threada about a hero being OP or bad or oppressive going to be removed as well? There is a ton of actually garbage troll posts on there that are fine, contribute nothing to the game or discussion about anything related to Hots but mention a real problem within the game and - Removed by Moderator
The typical response once outrage reaches sufficient levels is to fabricate reasons for some cessation of any communication. E.g. If this forum got bad enough, we might see “extended maintenance” or some other reason to shut it down. With most NPC fanboys living in reddit, it probly won’t happen. Reddit is what would be known as a “safe space”.
I can confirm that blizz deletes criticism on the official forum and silences/bans people for criticism they post on the forum as well even though it isn’t against any of their posted rules. And they do it covertly so nobody else knows that the censorship is happening.
The filtering/censorship on part of blizz and their pr/community managers is ruthless.
Good post. I got a 24 hour ban simply for making a thread which got reported, even though a bunch of people posted in it with no fighting or anything. The thread simply vanished.
Thankfully we know from history how the cycle works. You start small, gain money/power, over time lose touch with your base at the individual level, when discontent grows you suppress critical speech, mass exodus ensues and either you massively overhaul or fail in the long term.
Its not against the rules to talk about the silence system, its just against the rules to complain that you personally got silenced/banned.
Honestly its not a bad rule. It is perfectly ok to say the silence system is busted, automated banning should never be a thing, and all other topics of that type. The ones that are against the new rule are the every other thread on these forms that start with “I was banned and all I did was break the rules in protest of somebody making me angry.”
If you have something to add to a discussion good, if your just complaining about your specific circumstance looking for validation you were in the right, nobody cares and its just useless spam on the forum.
Also they aren’t even completely banned, you can still use personal experience as part of a discussion just not to start a complaint thread.
If you say you can confirm it, then can you provide some specific examples? I’m sure everyone would be interested to hear your evidence of Blizzard banning and silencing people who haven’t broken any rules.
For example, do you have any screenshots of the deleted threads? Or any record of what was said in them?
I like the new rule on reddit. It would benefit this forum too to delete useless spam. Maybe we can add “i am on a losing streak and its blizzards fault” to that rule.
Also add “forced 50/50” and “im leaving this game lol cya” and “reeee the forum moderators are oppressing me i can’t take this authoritan dictatorship” to that list.
It was never my intention to get anyone banned. But the only way that everyone can be sure that this sort of censorship is really taking place is if there is concrete proof. Without evidence, it’s simply an allegation that cannot be proven or disproven.
He’s already said he can confirm it, so why doesn’t he provide concrete examples? Isn’t exposing that kind of thing worth risking a ban if it actually results in something? Otherwise, why say anything at all?