Confused about possible censorship

[Solarwynds-earthen-ring (Solarwynds)]

I am aware of it.

[Ohgodmyeyez-hyjal]

Learn about the publisher vs platform argument going on right now for Facebook, twitter, etc. It could very easily affect message boards as well.

Message boards are rather unlikely to be affected, since most exist for a singular self-selecting purpose, in this case WoW.

Facebook is a social media platform – these forums are not.

[Brahmina-khadgar (Brahmina)]

I don’t know for sure (and probably no one outside of Blizz does, either) but it does seem like moderation is more on full-auto now than it used to be. Like, it’s relying on flags and no (or very few) actual human moderators making judgements.

Just my supposition.

[Fallanaa-area-52 (Fallanaa)]

Both say the same thing, and yet the word choice in the latter is offensive somehow?

Yes. /10char

[Cairnage-greymane (Cairnage)]

That is awesome! I love when people actually dig into information beyond basic soundbytes!

[Brax-blades-edge (Brax)]

Not only do I not believe there is an ongoing campaign of censorship to try to hide secret news about spell batching, I don’t believe there’s been any change to the spell batching system in BfA or even Legion.

I do hear there’s been some censorship of the Snipe invasion in Westfall they don’t want anyone to know about.

[Snowfox-nazjatar (Snowfox)]

That’s what seems to be going on to me too.

Thoughtless moderation, fixed only by desperate appeals.

That’s the current state of things.

[Hamstar-draktharon (Hamstar)]

Calling someone a carebear has never been anything except derogatory or an insult.

I’m really having a hard time discerning what the people in this forum want. It seems very polarized between people who want to be able to say whatever fool thing they want to people with no filter and people who want anything that might cause offense to be stamped out.

Where’s the middle ground?

What is there to be confused about? Don’t use derogatory insults or deal with the consequences. Also who exactly is saying “Say what ever you want”? It seems like the complaints are from people who are getting punished and think they should be able to say what ever they want.

[Solarwynds-earthen-ring (Solarwynds)]

Okay, so let me see if I can understand what’s being driven at here.

How are the two following statements different?

• You really don’t have any business discussing this topic, as you have no experience in Arena/RBG above 1200 rating.

• You really don’t have any business discussing this topic, as you only do carebear content.

Both say the same thing, and yet the word choice in the latter is offensive somehow?

One difference is in your example carebear is being used as an adjective to describe an activity while the usage we have been talking about up until now is carebear as a noun used to describe a person.

[Brahmina-khadgar (Brahmina)]

What’s stopping someone from getting friends and guildies to swoop in and mass flag everything they don’t like? At the moment, nothing.

Well, in my world, friends and guildies would lol if I tried to organize them into some kind of mass flagging brigade. However, the forums are currently treating every character as an individual, so a player with multiple characters can probably alt-flag posts if they want. Not sure if that would trigger moderation or not (or if the player using their alts in such a manner would get actioned).

[Cairnage-greymane (Cairnage)]

Funny thing is, I havent had an issue since the new forums came online. The closest thing I saw was a thread where we are “discussing” whether Sylvanas was actually a good fighter, general and trying to show information to support our beliefs. The thread got locked…

I just pulled information from the WoW wiki…

[Solarwynds-earthen-ring (Solarwynds)]

Love them sunglasses Brahmina!

[Brahmina-khadgar (Brahmina)]

Too bad they’re going away in a day.

[Snowfox-nazjatar (Snowfox)]

I know… it’s sad…

[Solarwynds-earthen-ring (Solarwynds)]

I do hear there’s been some censorship of the Snipe invasion in Westfall they don’t want anyone to know about.

Well now see they did a much better job of not letting that info leak out. This is the first I’ve heard of it! If we don’t see you posting on the forums tomorrow we’ll know why.

[Mourningg-terokkar (Mourningg)]

That’s what seems to be going on to me too.

Thoughtless moderation, fixed only by desperate appeals.

That’s the current state of things.

And I can tell you that isn’t how it is going right now. I can’t get into specifics or “prove” anything, but I will say that the moderation right now is working how Blizzard wants it to and they are not overwhelmed or depending on automation. They actually like the new tools that they have and it is allowing the to moderate the forums better then they were able to before.

Like I said I can’t divulge where the information is from, so you can call me a liar or take it with however many grains of salt you would like.

[Snowfox-nazjatar (Snowfox)]

Well, you can claim that’s not what’s going on.

… but when people see what IS going on, it doesn’t mean much to claim it isn’t.

Maybe you’re right in that they want things to be this way.
No way no how is it actually better in reality though.

Moderation has problems. I can accept people claiming “it’s more or less okay”, but no I can’t accept the claim that there’s NO problems.

[Mourningg-terokkar (Mourningg)]

Moderation will always have problems, people will always think it is either too much or not enough. I can tell you that the way the moderation was done on the old forums was mainly because they didn’t have the tools to do the job they wanted. I think that right now people are seeing more moderation then they used to and it is a bit of a shock. I have a feeling it will even out once people get used to it.

[Primalmatter-stormrage (Primalmatter)]

I feel kind of like a canary in a coal mine for these kind of things just due to my… let’s call it demeanor.

A new blizzard is on the block one that is highly concerned with pr and chasing after the current moral fads.

Tread carefully, while I wouldn’t quite call you a friend you are rather fun to bounce ideas off of.

[Solarwynds-earthen-ring (Solarwynds)]

Here’s what does make the moderation confusing then. I mostly believe you are telling the truth. What I am stuck on is the various flags that are being overturned. I cannot see the benefit for Blizzard.

I respect that you cannot say more but I wanted to share what is confusing to me.