Free speech and forum rules - balance

[Rocco]

There obviously needs to be a balance between rules and free speech, but does this forum seem to lean too much towards rule enforcement? For example, the reasons for latest thread to be closed:

1) Naming of specific people (is there such a rule?) : accusing someone of cheating on a public forum is in bad taste, but the community is smart enough to determine whether the accusations have merit, so does it actually require forum rule enforcement? Not sure about this one, could depend on the situation.

2) Posting an exploit: obviously, if someone posted instructions on how to exploit the game, it should not only be closed, but deleted. However, if someone is just presuming there is an exploit and posting an accusation, it seems almost beneficial to leave the thread open. The rest of the community can present their perspective on the situation that can quickly disprove those accusations. A lot of new / less experience players may perceive many things as exploits because to them, they can't understand how something is possible. By reading posts from other players here, they can get that understanding. Closing the thread actually seems to give validity to the existence of an exploit.

Please understand that this post is just an open discussion and not meant to be a complaint. It is not meant to target anyone, so please do not be offended.

[mattp169]

Hate to say it. There is no need to balance anything. This is a privately owned forum not a one owned by the US government or one of its state governments. SO the constitution doe snot apply here.

Same way if ou set up your own forum. You have the right to remove edit ban or whatever base don your own personal feelings and opinions.

I think for the most part free speech is allowed but there are rules in place and there for a reason. YOu break the rules things happen

[Rocco]

Hate to say it. There is no need to balance anything. This is a privately owned forum not a one owned by the US government or one of its state governments. SO the constitution doe snot apply here.

Same way if ou set up your own forum. You have the right to remove edit ban or whatever base don your own personal feelings and opinions.

I think for the most part free speech is allowed but there are rules in place and there for a reason. YOu break the rules things happen

When did I say anything about the Constitution or rights? I didn't say we have a right to free speech here, but every forum DOES have a balance that needs to be maintained. Obviously, this balance is totally up to the owner of the forum. I am not demanding anything. I didn't state that explicitly in my original post, but I will now: this is not a demand for any rights. Just discussing and giving an example of how the previous thread might be better off left opened. And to be clear, that's just my opinion and maybe I'm wrong about it.

[lugnut_fxi_6829524]

Hate to say it. There is no need to balance anything. This is a privately owned forum not a one owned by the US government or one of its state governments. SO the constitution doe snot apply here.

Same way if ou set up your own forum. You have the right to remove edit ban or whatever base don your own personal feelings and opinions.

I think for the most part free speech is allowed but there are rules in place and there for a reason. YOu break the rules things happen

I would hat to say it but you are slightly wrong there. More and more state and fedral laws are popping up allowing prosecution of members to privately owned forums/social media sites. Mostly to deal with cyber bulling. In fact a women had been brought up on invalintary manslaughter charges because a young women she was cyber bulling and personly harassing on a social media site committed suicide. In another case a social media site is being sued for not addressing the report of cyber bulling by a member. Complaints were made but no action taken

[Morgan le Fay]

There obviously needs to be a balance between rules and free speech, but does this forum seem to lean too much towards rule enforcement? For example, the reasons for latest thread to be closed:

1) Naming of specific people (is there such a rule?) : accusing someone of cheating on a public forum is in bad taste, but the community is smart enough to determine whether the accusations have merit, so does it actually require forum rule enforcement? Not sure about this one, could depend on the situation.

Would you like to named and shamed, especially if you were innocent? No I don't think anyone would. There has to be a certain amount of privacy given to everyone and it's up to CS to decide whether that player or players need to be dealt with, not us. This forum shouldn't be used as a kangaroo court.

Quoted from the Forum rules, full version can be found here on the forums or please feel free to use the link in my sig.

Code of Conduct

No flaming, personal attacks or harassment
We won't tolerate posters who attempt to make life difficult or miserable for other players. Disagreement is fine, but personal attacks and harassment are not. This includes:

Flames and personal attacks
Any post which gratuitously insults or slanders another player, group, alliance, moderator or Tynon employee is not allowed. Trash/smack talk is allowed, but keep it within reason.
Any post which accuses another player of 'cheating', 'hacking', 'botting', 'exploiting', etc. is not allowed.
Any post or pattern of behavior by a player of group which consistently insults, baits or stalks a player is not allowed.

2) Posting an exploit: obviously, if someone posted instructions on how to exploit the game, it should not only be closed, but deleted. However, if someone is just presuming there is an exploit and posting an accusation, it seems almost beneficial to leave the thread open. The rest of the community can present their perspective on the situation that can quickly disprove those accusations. A lot of new / less experience players may perceive many things as exploits because to them, they can't understand how something is possible. By reading posts from other players here, they can get that understanding. Closing the thread actually seems to give validity to the existence of an exploit.

Please understand that this post is just an open discussion and not meant to be a complaint. It is not meant to target anyone, so please do not be offended.

Presuming or not, it would be unethical of me to let this kind of thing go unchecked. So what if it gives validity to an unproven or non existent exploit. If people are daft enough to go looking for it then more fool them. Exploits used intentionally are against the ToS and that means no one should attempt to find or use one anyway.

I'm certainly not offended and I can see why you have asked the question. The rules are there for a reason as things do get easily out of hand. Regardless whether any of us mods close threads with alleged exploits or not, once it's there people will automatically assume it exists-our job is to try and nip things in the bud before the conspiracies start.

[Cuddles_1461020]

before the conspiracies start.

Speaking of conspiracies, my favorite is the
"yeah XYZ powerful player is actually a Tynon employee sent to the server to encourage us all to coin more!!"

[lugnut_fxi_6829524]

Speaking of conspiracies, my favorite is the
"yeah XYZ powerful player is actually a Tynon employee sent to the server to encourage us all to coin more!!"

haha I hear that. hmmm I wonder if I can get tynon to make me one of them :P

[Rocco]

So what if it gives validity to an unproven or non existent exploit. If people are daft enough to go looking for it then more fool them.

There is no such exploit, so of course, the concern is not about them looking for it. I never said I was concerned about people looking for the exploit.

[mattp169]

OK
1. sorry i misread the OP. And I get what your saying. ANd someone agree, but not totally. It would be nice to have more free speech and for morgan and andy to decide what is ok and whats not based on rules is sometimes a judgement call for them. ANd you can often reason with them in private messages if you really disagree. I have seen threads reopened in the past. I find disagreements with morgan andy and jupitor ( wait has anyone disagreed with him) best handled in PMs.

2. to lugnut. You make a valid point but those sites are slightly different then this one. It is a membership type forum so the examples you provide may be interpreted differently. They may not. But in either case what you refer to is when people on the forums are actually committing illegal activities such as cyber bullying - or at least activities judges are going to start consider being illegal because I am not positive that cyber bullying is actually a crime yet or if it falls under the heading under another type of assault already on the books

[lugnut_fxi_6829524]

Sorry Harasment and bulling is a very very personal subject to me so at times I may see more that what is ment to be said. there was a movie about it if I rember right it was called "cyber bully" it really opened my eyes on the subject.