than this:

http://forum.rpg.net/forumdisplay.php?138-Infraction-Forum

I knew about the evils of moderation, but seeing it laid out like this...

I came across the site via a search on Google. I've never seen an 'infraction forum' like this, and I suppose there's something positive to say about their openness in regards to their practices, but... Damn. The censorship is so heavy and so arbitrary as to be almost comical. Almost.

I hope that RPG.net is an extreme case, but I've seen enough cases elsewhere that I suspect it to be the norm wherever there is much moderation.

All those banned users must be from RPG Codex I reckon.

So that's how RPGCodex would look in the mirror world.

Oh damn. Seems like the mods don't know the true meaning of personal attack. Is it a personal attack if you get criticized for your (subjectively) sloppy work? No. I always thought that a personal attack is something that concerns someone's private life.

Also taking sigs seriously signals to me a really butthurt moderator.

There's nothing worse to forum communities than a mod/mods on a power trip. I can see the other side of the coin as well but here at least we seem to do pretty fine with the hands off approach.

Well,from the look of it, this looks more like censorship ( and a fairly totalitarian, orwellian approach to censorship that is ) than moderation.

I don't see what is so surprising about this. I'm sure if other boards showed you what got moderated you'd be seeing something similar.

I don't have an issue with moderation most of the time. I've seen how bad an unruly forum can get. I.E. 4chan

A particularly bad example of moderation I'd use is The Escapist. A lot of times their moderation makes no logical sense.

Not at all. I said that geologists like rolling rocks down hills. Any meaning beyond that is placed there by the reader. You sure do go out of your way to read posts in as negative a light as possible. What's the deal? If you don't get your daily dose of righteous indignation, you feel the need to manufacture it - one way or the other?

Three month ban for...trolling? What the hell is going on over there?

Heavily moderated places are never fun to be involved in. If you're a real arsehole, everyone learns your name pretty quickly and things take care of themselves without moderators.

Oh, that place...

I heard that recently they had a big shitstorm because someone took offense to Numenera (Monte Cook's new RPG) having some kind of Succubus female creature in the rulebook, and they thought it was sexist, and many ppl who disagreed got banned

Unless you're a troll. Then you revel in the fact that people don't like you. And persist, and annoy..

All forums need a bit of "trolling", some loud arguments, some lulz and drama, or they just become completely boring and sycophantic cesspools where every thread is just the same posters all saying the same things and agreeing with each other all the time, and any hints of an argument and a mod will lock a thread for getting "heated".

You might not like trolling, but nothing is worse than seeing a community you like slowly die from nazi moderation stifling all discussion.

Trolling and arguing are nowhere near the same thing. And ''heated'' only happens when it devolves into something like ad hominems. And in that case. The discussion truly is over.

I did not say I disliked trolling. But when I want to go to a place to have honest discussions. I am not going that place with all the trolls.


Yes a heavily moderated forum can be a buzz kill. But it is so easy to behave. A heavily moderated forum has only ever hindered me when I wanted to troll.

And in that case working as intended

I totally agree. You're so wonderful and your ideas are always so insightful.

Come on everybody, 3 cheers for Crosmando! Hip, hip, hooray! Hip, hip, hooray! Hip, hip, hooray!

*group hug*

You funny guy