Is there a double standard here?

[Bofus Teefus]

Anyways, I'm sorry if this is in the wrong forum, but this is just how I feel about the competition right now. I'm almost scared to post in those forums lest I get suspended or banned... not a healthy atmosphere IMO.

As long as you're not flaming or being openly disrespectful (in addition to the usual grammar/spelling/search button/etc/etc/etc), you don't have anything to worry about. Worst this would get is locked, which doesn't constitute mod wrath, and it's promoting good discussion, so you probably shouldn't even worry about that.

I've seen perfectly reasonable threads locked for no conciveable reason. What would improve our moderator standards is if they would post a reason for a thread lock, or edit some ones post, with a little note saying what the perp has done wrong.

The majority of the time, the reason for the lock is in the last post of the locked thread. Sometimes 2nd to last if the mod gets ninja'd between comment and lock. Look at those comments to get a feel for what gets locked.

I think it is entirely fair to be upset with the influx of voters from Turbine's community (let's not pretend we don't know who we are talking about here) if you feel it affects the integrity of The Escapist. However, there were no ground rules set for voting. No minimum number of posts, no requirements for participation, no regulation of new voters. THAT is what is upsetting people, the lack of regulation, which is a great irony since the general lack of regulation is what makes The Escapist appeal to so many members.

Fact is, they made no rules about the voting system, no prerequisites for voters, and Turbine opted to capitalize on it and flood the voting to win. They didn't break any rules, they didn't do anything dishonest or immoral unless you feel they are violating the unwritten integrity of The Escapist. Some people do, they are entitled to their opinion, as long as they can express it without disgust or venom.

What Turbine did as far as rallying votes was encouraged by The Escapist, seemingly to get you guys (meaning non-Escapist fans of certain developers) to check out the site and have a few of you stay when it's over- the more, the merrier. Turbine seems to have done this better than the others, so hats off to the winner (if that's the case in the last round...) The flamewar made you guys look like assholish invaders and us look like xenophobic (xenophobic in the most gamerly sense) pricks, but it's a minority on both sides. In short, I more or less agree with what you said (including the parts I cut), and keep in mind that Turbine did what the staff here seems to have intended.

So what is March Mayhem? Fun. Plain simple fun, concocted by the wonderful Escapist crew, to change up the daily routine. And what did they receive? Grief. Flamewars and spam and whining beyond belief. Call it the inevitable side effect of the internet, but the best intentions always end up slapping you in the face. The E-Team tried to pull a fun event, and half the forum went full-retard on each other, because when you combine fanboys, the Internet, and any form of competition, the dick-waving begins.

Seriously, I almost want to mail Spinwhiz some cookies or something. All of them really. Did it get that bad last year, or was this a freak incident?

 

[Twilight_guy]

If your not afraid of being banned then you'll be tempted to post something stupid. Also, If I have to worry about putting extra though into my posts it's a small price to pay in exchange for avoiding "LOL, HALO 3 IS WIN! RIGHT?" threads.

Also, MM has caused a large number of flame wars, if the moderators are on edge it's probably because they've been up all night putting out fires. If anyone doesn't like the turbine influx then you should remember that this competition is to draw traffic and new members not for old members to stroke their egos and have a contest to prove that they all like Valve.

 

[cuddly_tomato]

It's just because of March Mayhem. There's been a lot of flaming lately, and they're clamping down harder than they normally would. It'll be back to normal before too long.

They have no actual rules as such and so the moderation is severely inconsistent, and can range from excellent to extremely poor depending on who notices what.

Yes they do. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.84119]

Those are not rules, those are 'guidelines'. Read the suggestions thread, the Escapist doesn't have a set of rules. This means that without a decent set of rules to work by, the Escapists moderation is all over the place.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/9.103861.1626232

Reported by a few people. No action taken.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.100492

Dunno if it was reported. But nobody complained about that thread and it can't possibly have been deemed offensive or anything. But the op was banned for 7 days.

To make things worse, moderation is not handled by dedicated moderators. Although some of it is, it is often dealt with by staff members. While many of them are up to the task, one or two can get a little heavy handed and moody.

 

[MercFox1]

We aren't overlords; the staff and mods post, read, discuss, and even link a lot of these forum threads to each other in our internal emails. But if a fight breaks out, we'll stop the fight.

I'm glad someone came out and said it; I know it should be implied, but it's always nice to hear it from the higher ups.

I'm just waiting for things to go back to normal at this point.

 

[tustin2121]

No, I say that video games won't be the cause (unless they're found at his apartment). People only go for the violent video games thing if the shooter is young, like that 11 year old convicted of murdering his father's girlfriend.

... Wrong thread methinks ;P

whao?
huh?
I am in the wrong thread. Sh*t...
How do you delete posts?!