More freedom of speech, please

I would like politely to propose change of Forum rules.
It says:

Above all we are a comunity. And we are customers.
And because of this article, it is forbiden to disscuss publicly conventions, what could be done or said in this forum.
Based on this: If you propose a change, it is also taken as a discussing mods and it is baned.

Imagine parralell in a real life: Laws says: Judge decide. Judge also imediatelly enforce the sentence himself. You are can not criticise him. You cannot make a illection to change this custom, because it is critisizing.

What i propose:

  1. Customs and mods decisions could be discussed politely.
  2. Moderators should get paid for all the work they are doing.
  3. Closing threads should be used very seldomly.
  4. Merging of threads to closed or hidden threads should be not used.
  5. There might be something like ā€œcourt of apealā€ - if you do not agree with what judge / moderator did, you can ask kind of ombudsman to have a look again at the decission.

(I hope this thread is not against forum rules. I do not want anybody provoke to act against rules. Or I do not want to debate here moderatorā€™s work. Please respect it.)

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Wow brother, let it go

I mean, some of the stuff that is happening at the moment is annoying right? But they own the game and forum and write their own rules. Just let that sink in for a second

To address each of your points:

  1. Discuss the matters at hand, you donā€™t own the game, play by the rules set
  2. Highly unlikely, although possibly deserved
  3. Why? We would be covered in dupe threads at a time like this, and there would be no clean air for something other than complaints
  4. Possibly, but that is used to reduce toxicity, which there is enough of around
  5. Mate it is a game, not a job or something super critical. Why not just let this stuff wash over you instead of being unnecessarily legalistic?

I am not an SG fan boy at the moment, if you read my recent posts, but I talk about the stuff I can influence. They set the rules, and we just operate within them. This isnā€™t a healthy thing to keep flogging this particular dead horse

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Infinite, thank you for nice answer. Here are my thought:

Yeah, Betagate was shocking for example. I decided that matter of open communication should be addressed.

I believe that threads should be closed less often. I have heard about quite a few cases of self-censorship because of fear. This is not good. I am saying: letā€™s close the threads less often. Free discussion is vital in every community.

I politelly dissagree with you. A lot of people are spending 3 hours or more a day on Empires. A lot of people are spending hundreds of dollars per month. = For lot of people it might be very frustrating not to be able to express about it.

I might spend that much time, rarely that much money. My point is that spending is a choice, and does not entitle any of us to change the rules of the game or forum.

If people genuinely feel aggrieved, and I am sure they do from some of the recent forum vitriol, I would encourage them to reconsider their gaming choices. This should not be such an obsession - it is fun (or should be), not a job.

I think a lot of this is also magnified by the current situation of everyone being cooped up at home, and wanting something in their life that seems under control in that environment. The current issues are symptomatic of that in my view

I know you are being respectful with all your arguments and comments, but I donā€™t think that matters, and I disagree with the premise of what youā€™re trying to do

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I think you care too much.

If you want to post something controversial that keeps getting shut down in the forums, try reddit or some facebook groups or your own alliances. If it gets closed here, means maybe itā€™s not something they feel comfortable discussing. In the end, this is not a public space but their own field, they can do what they wany here. Frankly, the level of sometimes rough criticism they allow here is surprising. People openly calling the names to the game developers and itā€™s just there, for the freedom of opinions.

And frankly, merging or shutting down dupe topics shows a lot of care and work from mods team and I can only appreciate that. I was moderator on several forums in the past and I have to admit, I never did that job this thorough.

Sure, I did lose a post or two in the past due to mod decision I couldnā€™t question even though I disagreed maybe, but whatever. I am not running for president here, if they want to shut down something, shut it down. No harm to me. In the end we are here for the game discussions, and these in nature should be rather innocent.

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Bunny, thanks for nice reply.

Yup, I always care about freedom. It is not so difficult to change the forum rules to allow disscussion. We all can find it handy, when important topic comes.

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This.

I love to say anything I want as much as the next guy - and I pretty much do - but Freedom of Speech (at least in the U.S.) is a protection of your voice against the government. Not against a dude named Petriā€™s private site in Finland.

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they will never let customers discuss staff and mod decisions, because of how inconsistent they are and how they dont always follow their own rules in doling out the punishment.

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Hi @Papca

I really appreciate your effort in approaching this topic constructively.

If itā€™s ok, Iā€™ll suggest some areas where your ideas might cause problems.

Unfortunately people who are flagged for being abusive on the forum are less likely to discuss problems politely, which would cause more work. Whenever possible, we contact people privately to discuss more complicated issues but again, this depends on us having the time and emotional energy.

Closing and merging threads is done to keep the forum tidy and, importantly, searchable. If someone needs advice, having one or two threads on a topic is much more helpful than trawling through dozens.

As Iā€™ve said previously, about 200 people have suggested players be allowed to trade. What would be the benefit of having 200 identical threads?

If you mean the current team, thatā€™s very kind but it is unlikely it would be compatible with our current jobs.
If you mean have a new team of pro mods, yes that could be possible but they would toe the company line a lot closer than us.

That happens incredibly rarely. I know it happened to you, but again, as I already said, that thread was on a temporary closure and opened again automatically.

You can flag ā€˜otherā€™ and ask staff to have a look. This is a private site run by SG so I think itā€™s unrealistic to have some kind of independent service unless it applies to the whole internet. You can discuss E&P on any other website if you want to do it without SG making the rules.

Thanks again for making several civil points :+1:

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Jonah, thank you. I really appreciate that you (Moderator and Bard of the Forum) commented it and in such a nice way.

I belive that this topic is now more important than before. People were impacted by what some call Betagate and also by upcomming nerf and fair compensations.

Especially in this time it is neccessary to build the trust among players that SGG is dealing issues fairly and that Moderators help this happening.

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source (1)

I understand this. This must be really exhausting. Thank you for effort that your are putting in it.

Nevertheless, I would like to ask you, if it is possible to try this:

  1. Tell and Vela nerf is going to happen in some extent. We all know this. Would it be possible, that moderators help the Compensation issue? We all need to discuss it. We all know that SGG is not returning gems. But there might be some other things like talents, food, iron, AMs. (I know it needs extra patience from mods side).
  2. Provide some space to discuss openly, what happened Betagate? We all need to get trust back. (I have heard from quite a few players that felt cheated: ā€œThis is now clear, why I could never be TOP1 in events, if Beta testers could see the boards.ā€

Thank you Papca

I believe thereā€™s still at least one thread open about this. The mods advocate for the players on a daily basis and while we may comment on some of the threads, we wonā€™t publicise details of those conversations.

Again, I think there is still a thread open. Unfortunately this episode has been discussed with a considerable amount of false information and speculation which means the thread has had to be paused on occasions.

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Iā€™d say the Tell thread has been discussed ad nauseam

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