This is a genuine, 100% serious post. I am not seeking to start drama and urge people to do the same, if you can't handle a simple discussion of something that's clearly causing a lot of problems for people then just don't bother engaging in this thread.


I doubt this thread will last very long but this whole "you can't have an opinion" thing is getting a bit out of hand, okay yeah I can see where people are coming from but at the same time I really do not understand it and almost side with the community team and other forum staff regarding this issue. I am very much on the fence with this situation.

My main reason for this is because a handful of the time this argument comes up is because someone has blatantly just broken TOU by saying something intentionally to cause problems, and then saying this exact phrase -- presumably to get more of a rise out of someone. Which only ends up blowing up in their face and leading to more drama and disputes.

I understand I am no saint myself when it comes to being a player within the community, but there was a point in time I would say I was pretty well respected and I suppose still am, just for different reasons which I wouldn't even like to claim praise for.

But when I was staff and I noticed drama starting to occur I wouldn't just immediately lock a thread. I would try my very best as a moderator to at least calm the situation and start warning people, that if they don't start behaving like civil people then their "discussion" would start to be moderated more heavily (i.e - bans for those really not wanting to stop), or locked if the amount of people arguing was too much. I never had any issues with this method raised to me when doing this.

There seems to be more of a trend now of the moment a topic gets one reply against the TOU posted up on it, it will either get launched into the drama hole or locked and that being that. Which is fair enough but then raises more of a problem with the argument spreading to new topics or just spreading into the community through the servers.

This is where I think is where the problem of "my opinion" or "my freedom of speech" is starting to occur, especially when some of the people who are being banned are just being banned for "TOU", but not being told which part of the TOU they broke. I believe that was covered in this suggestion although never fully read it, I will admit.

Effectively what I am trying to say is that, there needs to be a bit more lenience when a post seems to start getting heated. And that rather than just immediately shutting it down there should be some more moderation in terms of dealing with the ones causing the issue. The most recent example of this could be found on the Community Team meeting outcome (13/09/2020).

Heated discussions don't always lead to outright insults and problems and can actually bring good change, providing they are done properly. But I just don't feel shutting them down is really the right way to do it. Of course if you really think your opinion is being taken away from you that badly and you genuinely believe you haven't said or done anything wrong. Just go to someone in the community team directly.

[b]This is a genuine, 100% serious post. I am not seeking to start drama and urge people to do the same, if you can't handle a simple discussion of something that's clearly causing a lot of problems for people then just don't bother engaging in this thread. [/b] I doubt this thread will last very long but this whole "you can't have an opinion" thing is getting a bit out of hand, okay yeah I can see where people are coming from but at the same time I really do not understand it and almost side with the community team and other forum staff regarding this issue. I am very much on the fence with this situation. My main reason for this is because a handful of the time this argument comes up is because someone has blatantly just broken TOU by saying something intentionally to cause problems, and then saying this exact phrase -- presumably to get more of a rise out of someone. Which only ends up blowing up in their face and leading to more drama and disputes. I understand I am no saint myself when it comes to being a player within the community, but there was a point in time I would say I was pretty well respected and I suppose still am, just for different reasons which I wouldn't even like to claim praise for. But when I was staff and I noticed drama starting to occur I wouldn't just immediately lock a thread. I would try my very best as a moderator to at least calm the situation and start warning people, that if they don't start behaving like civil people then their "discussion" would start to be moderated more heavily (i.e - bans for those really not wanting to stop), or locked if the amount of people arguing was too much. I never had any issues with this method raised to me when doing this. There seems to be more of a trend now of the moment a topic gets one reply against the TOU posted up on it, it will either get launched into the drama hole or locked and that being that. Which is fair enough but then raises more of a problem with the argument spreading to new topics or just spreading into the community through the servers. This is where I think is where the problem of "my opinion" or "my freedom of speech" is starting to occur, especially when some of the people who are being banned are just being banned for "TOU", but not being told which part of the TOU they broke. I believe that was covered in [url=https://zarpgaming.com/index.php/forum/server-issues/152967-forum-suggestion-warnings-viewing-removed-posts?start=20#1271779]this suggestion[/url] although never fully read it, I will admit. Effectively what I am trying to say is that, there needs to be a bit more lenience when a post seems to start getting heated. And that rather than just immediately shutting it down there should be some more moderation in terms of dealing with the ones causing the issue. The most recent example of this could be found on the Community Team meeting outcome (13/09/2020). Heated discussions don't always lead to outright insults and problems and can actually bring good change, providing they are done properly. But I just don't feel shutting them down is really the right way to do it. Of course if you really think your opinion is being taken away from you that badly and you genuinely believe you haven't said or done anything wrong. Just go to someone in the community team directly.