A humble request for the staff to rethink how they handled the situation

jadebullet

might be back?
Hello,
I am coming on here to voice my concern about how N3V conducted itself over a forum squabble this past weekend. From what I have gathered, there was a minor altercation on the forums involving a very very small percentage of the population of this forum, which caused N3V to do something that is, in my opinion, bad moderation, and close the forum to put everyone in time out. This, no offense intended, is poor moderation for a fan forum, let alone an official forum for the company. Doing something like this not only angers, and alienates your customer base, but also the virtual sim railroading community as a whole. I have seen several people talking about how they might as well move to Railworks or whatever they are currently calling it, due to this.

The proper response to some users causing trouble, particularly one which appears to be at fault from what I have read, is to probate those users. Give them, and only them, a time out. Why the hell did I get banned for 24 hours over something that someone else did. That is, with no offense meant, very poor moderation, and reflects badly on the company as a whole.

Quite frankly, the new CoC, in the way it is worded, concerns me. It seems very gestapo-esq in the way it is worded. Quite frankly, the way it is worded is, and I use this term with respect, absolute bullsh*t. The way it is set up right now, noone can have a differing opinion, or debate any opinions with anyone else. This includes the current release of trainz, which, without debate, how will it get any better. So what the new CoC says is that if someone were to come on complaining about how TANE is horrible and stuff like that, I am unable to give my opinion that it isn't horrible, just a typical trainz release, nothing too ground breaking, but it works about as good as Trainz normally does when it is newly released, and that the bugs may or may not be fixed? That hardly seems productive. I stick by my, now undebatable, opinion that that is a pretty amateur way to run a forum.

And quite frankly, I like the moderators on this forum and don't blame them. The responsibility for this fiasco rests solely on the shoulders of someone who decided that it was amateur hour and that it was time to make N3V and Trainz the laughing stock of the simulator community rather than deal with the situation properly. We will call this person mountain man, since we are not allowed to criticize decisions of anyone anymore, so I am playing it safe by criticizing a fictional person.

Anyway, as a disclaimer, I in no way, shape, or form intend to antagonize anyone or incite any forums drama or anything like that. I mean no offense to anyone and I agree with everyone's opinion ever stated on this forum. The purpose of this post is not to attack or bully anyone, but to make my opinion known that what was done was unacceptable in my opinion and did harm to the community as a whole, and that certain people need to rethink whether they are a CEO running a company, or a 14 year old running his first forum without actually knowing how to deal with it properly.

In my opinion, I am fully in compliance with the current, poorly written, easily abused CoC. I know that that doesn't really matter though, so whatever.

(USER WAS BANNED FOR THIS POST)
 
You guys gotta be kidding, mass punishment is the only answer, just look at us, muted, silenced. THEY instilled the fear of G_d Almighty into us. The purpose of that little exercise was to command and control, to govern free men, and it was very successful.
 
You guys gotta be kidding, mass punishment is the only answer, just look at us, muted, silenced. THEY instilled the fear of G_d Almighty into us. The purpose of that little exercise was to command and control, to govern free men, and it was very successful.
Your post was "tongue in cheek" right? :D
Why would anyone be afraid?
It's just a forum.

They need us more than we need them.

And we can't criticize individuals anymore?
Well, I'm gonna have to make an exception, because that Smileyman really gets on my nerves.
Always has an answer for everything, always trying to be reasonable, always trying to inject some humour into a tense situation, always going on about Arsenal!
Really gets my goat!
There, I've said it.!

Brian.
 
People that think that making new stricter laws will change something. The laws were in place before, but nobody enforced them, and therefore the world became out of control. They think that by making things more strict people are going to care. Well, apparently some people just don't have a brain. They need somebody with one to enlighten them on several things:
A: This is a virtual world. You can do whatever you want with no recourse. I can create as many accounts and aliases and be as many people as I want too. Not a thing you can do about it.
B: People are always going to do something disrespectful. Have you ever seen a perfect human? I say not.
C: Debate is always constructive. Why did I do it? To bounce ideas whether accepted by people or not. I'm sure the Presidential Debates are very destructive.
D: Trolls have existed since the beginning of time, and as long as there are humans, will always exist.
E: This is a Discussion forum. Discussions are always going to get heated, and that's what makes discussion exciting. I guess some particular people think discussion is always somebody agreeing with somebody else. I find that when I have a discussion with somebody, I disagree roughly 95% of time. I guess that doesn't apply for certain people.
F: Certain people just can't handle the truth, and now they have to dictate things so they no longer have to hear the truth. That's okay, because people like me always exists somewhere!
G: Man has always had an opinion. I have one right now, and you're seeing it. See, I paid my money, and now I have the right to truly criticize.
H: If you're not one happy, then you don't deserve to have anything good at all.... Well I paid my money, and didn't get what I wanted, and I am mad, but after all, you did say it was going to be everything that I wanted.
I: Certain people think that a certain program can exist without happy people and happy creators, well I'm quite interested in seeing how long that lasts.
That's all that is needed said.
 
And we can't criticize individuals anymore?

We shouldn't be doing that to begin with. You can disagree with someone, their ideas and opinions, be critical and spark debate without resorting to personal attacks and insults, be it N3V, one of it's employees or a fellow forum member.* I don't agree with the group bitch slap, but the events that brought it on were gradually adding up.

*Mature and reasonable people can at least.
 
Hey Smiley, you're the man, 'course that was "tongue in cheek", think I'm conna say I was serious and get my donkey (see what I did there) banned. This is a "Brave New World" (see what I did there).
 
Interesting that the community is being punished for N3V's lack of response to a looming problem.

The COC used to work so what had changed.

Maybe it is the lack of moderation?
 
Maybe it is the lack of moderation?

Perhaps, but the moderators job is very much a thankless task.

Honestly who would want to be one? You get no pay, no thanks and lots of flak from everyone with a personal axe to grind when you do your thankless job. Add to that would, I suspect, be issues caused by the increasing popularity of these forums - compared to when I first joined. And that means even more of your valuable time is wasted trawling through an ever growing number pointless and often boring posts (this one included).

Add to that is the time zone issue. A major flame war (insults, threats of "rail spikes" at 10 paces, etc) may erupt on the other side of the globe while you are tucked away in bed counting flat cars. A moderator cannot be 24/7.

Perhaps more moderators are needed? Who wants to volunteer? Only the anonymous need apply.
 
The COC used to work so what had changed.

Simple - the release of T:ANE.

Ever since the release of T:ANE (and in some cases, before), the forum has been divided into 2 main groups - those who think T:ANE is great and those who don't. Obviously, each group further divides into subgroups, but this forum is now the platform of a civil war, if you will.

Threads about T:ANE explode because someone disagrees about whether T:ANE is awful or not, basically. And mind you, it isn't just one side like I see people trying to say it is - both sides are causing massive arguments on so many threads... it gets ridiculous.

N3V couldn't handle any more criticism and has now made it impossible to criticize, well, anything.

Things are only downhill from here, I think.

I guess I'll be banned for having an opinion now right

Cheers,
SM
 
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Must not have been down long...didn't notice it happened. Simply said...their house, their rules. People tend to predict gloom and doom when they don't like how the furniture is arranged. The only choice we really have is to accept it if we want to stay....or leave.
 
Yeah, but it is pretty poor forum, and website management, and damages the product image, which is pretty important in such a niche market. My house, my rules doesn't really work when you anger people with your rules and thus lose customer support.
 
User was banned for that post? Tony, you might as well ban me too if that's how you feel this place should be run. I want no part of it.
 
But there is no way to know how much customer support is lost....there will always be a certain percentage of people who leave when changes happen, but that is just the reality of human nature. For all the rhetoric, it still boils down to the fact that they set the rules....the only choice we need to make is follow them...or not.
 
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