User Agreement & Code of Conduct

[Saiyajinzoningen]

Hello everyone. Earlier today i was issued a warning for discussing something that is not illegal, immoral, or unethical.

It is also not listed in the User Agreement & Code of Conduct for the forums.

I apologize and it will not happen again; however, to protect others can we please add the topic and all other unlisted topics that we are not allowed to discuss to the User Agreement & Code of Conduct 

 

I would prefer not to receive warning or bans for unknown topics.

 

Thanks.

 

(i wont be posting for awhile as i am afraid to post, farewell)

Edited May 10, 2023 by Saiyajinzoningen

[GM Crumpet]

I gave you one point and asked you politely not to discuss other servers or their features again. You are not in any danger of a ban or restriction for discussing what you were discussing, but in the code of conduct it asks you to comply with GM requests. We do not allow anything other than general acknowledgment of the existence of other servers. Good or bad it's not fair on them to discuss what they are doing (even if it's something you like) as they have no way of commenting or addressing points raised. We truly have nothing against them, they often do some interesting things that get people excited and it's good there are other flavours of the game for people who might be looking for something different.

 

We prefer a more general catch-all rather than try to have a very long list of things we would prefer people not to talk about as we will always miss something then get "but it's not in the CoC".

[GM Crumpet]

But to be fair to you, I have removed both the warning and the point.

[Excraft]

With due respect, I have an honest question about this. 

 

There's a whole subforum devoted to discussing video games here where forum members can discuss and critique all manner of other games.   None of those other game makers can comment or address points raised about their games either.  What's the difference here?  Is it because the other CoH servers are direct competition to you?  Is it because those other servers are accomplishing just as much, if not more in many instances than HC is with little to no financial backing from player donations? 

 

Something seems really weird about handing out warning points and such to members who just want to talk about what some of the other CoH servers are doing, especially if the discussion is being done in a respectful way.

[Captain Fabulous]

3 hours ago, Excraft said:

With due respect, I have an honest question about this. 

 

There's a whole subforum devoted to discussing video games here where forum members can discuss and critique all manner of other games.   None of those other game makers can comment or address points raised about their games either.  What's the difference here?  Is it because the other CoH servers are direct competition to you?  Is it because those other servers are accomplishing just as much, if not more in many instances than HC is with little to no financial backing from player donations? 

 

Something seems really weird about handing out warning points and such to members who just want to talk about what some of the other CoH servers are doing, especially if the discussion is being done in a respectful way.

Because they want to avoid comments exactly like this.

[biostem]

6 hours ago, Excraft said:

With due respect, I have an honest question about this. 

 

There's a whole subforum devoted to discussing video games here where forum members can discuss and critique all manner of other games.   None of those other game makers can comment or address points raised about their games either.  What's the difference here?  Is it because the other CoH servers are direct competition to you?  Is it because those other servers are accomplishing just as much, if not more in many instances than HC is with little to no financial backing from player donations? 

 

Something seems really weird about handing out warning points and such to members who just want to talk about what some of the other CoH servers are doing, especially if the discussion is being done in a respectful way.

If I had to guess, it's probably because of the dubious legality of running private CoH servers and how HC is an LLC or Not for Profit.  Either way, you'd probably be better off PM-ing a moderator directly...

[Excraft]

7 hours ago, Captain Fabulous said:

Because they want to avoid comments exactly like this.

 

"Comments like this" are easily avoided by allowing respectful discussions of other servers to take place.  Restricting the topic is inviting people to comment.  Making rules to squash healthy, constructive discussion isn't a good look in this case.  Seems very strange to hand out warning points over something so trivial and so arbitrary. 

[Captain Fabulous]

1 hour ago, Excraft said:

"Comments like this" are easily avoided by allowing respectful discussions of other servers to take place.  Restricting the topic is inviting people to comment.  Making rules to squash healthy, constructive discussion isn't a good look in this case.  Seems very strange to hand out warning points over something so trivial and so arbitrary. 

 

 

13 hours ago, Excraft said:

Is it because the other CoH servers are direct competition to you?  Is it because those other servers are accomplishing just as much, if not more in many instances than HC is with little to no financial backing from player donations?

This is not constructive nor respectful discussion. Banning discussion of other servers prevents people from making these kinds of inappropriate comments. They don't want people bashing other servers. Or this one in comparison to others. Or getting into long drawn out arguments of "well so-n-so server does this, why can't Homecoming?" The mods here already have enough work, let's not make more for them.

There are other neutral places to take such discussions, like Reddit or Discord.

[Excraft]

2 hours ago, Captain Fabulous said:

This is not constructive nor respectful discussion.  Banning discussion of other servers prevents people from making these kinds of inappropriate comments.

 

That's your opinion which you're more than welcome to.  It certainly wasn't my intent.  I notice you selectively edited out the part of my post where I began with "with due respect." 

 

2 hours ago, Captain Fabulous said:

They don't want people bashing other servers. Or this one in comparison to others. Or getting into long drawn out arguments of "well so-n-so server does this, why can't Homecoming?" The mods here already have enough work, let's not make more for them.

There are other neutral places to take such discussions, like Reddit or Discord.

 

Reading the OP and follow up from the GM, it sounds like the post made wasn't bashing any server.  As far as bashing other games, there's a thread in the Video Games subforum right now discussing the worst games ever.  I'm sure some people can get very visceral and disrespectful of other games they didn't like and those game makers can't come here to respond.  Allowing threads like that isn't making more work but somehow discussing other CoH servers does?  Not trying to be disrespectful, what you're saying here doesn't quite add up for me.

 

As far as mods needing to respond to posts where newer players may ask why HC can't do what other servers have done, the mods here have already addressed that, a few times as I recall.  Players can help by linking to those responses in threads to answer the question. 

 

I understand this is their house and their rules and they can do whatever they want.  I've no objection to whatever rules the folks here decide to put into place. 

[Captain Fabulous]

7 hours ago, Excraft said:

 

That's your opinion which you're more than welcome to.  It certainly wasn't my intent.  I notice you selectively edited out the part of my post where I began with "with due respect." 

 

 

Reading the OP and follow up from the GM, it sounds like the post made wasn't bashing any server.  As far as bashing other games, there's a thread in the Video Games subforum right now discussing the worst games ever.  I'm sure some people can get very visceral and disrespectful of other games they didn't like and those game makers can't come here to respond.  Allowing threads like that isn't making more work but somehow discussing other CoH servers does?  Not trying to be disrespectful, what you're saying here doesn't quite add up for me.

 

As far as mods needing to respond to posts where newer players may ask why HC can't do what other servers have done, the mods here have already addressed that, a few times as I recall.  Players can help by linking to those responses in threads to answer the question. 

 

I understand this is their house and their rules and they can do whatever they want.  I've no objection to whatever rules the folks here decide to put into place. 

If people didn't harbor resentment, contention, and animosity between the servers then I would likely agree with you. But knowing those exist it's wise to just avoid discussion of other servers altogether. Even in places like Reddit such discussions get messy very quickly. Discretion is very often the better part of valor.

[lemming]

The discussion is probably restricted because someone would have to monitor said discussion to make sure it doesn't go off the rails.

It's the same reason they don't want other topics discussed in the chats because there are people who debate in bad faith and it's a headache to monitor.

[Excraft]

On 6/1/2023 at 10:25 AM, Captain Fabulous said:

If people didn't harbor resentment, contention, and animosity between the servers then I would likely agree with you. But knowing those exist it's wise to just avoid discussion of other servers altogether. Even in places like Reddit such discussions get messy very quickly. Discretion is very often the better part of valor.

 

I don't disagree that some people can get very passionate about the subject, but the same can be said for any topic.  If moderating is such a big concern, just add this to the CoC and ban any and all discussion of other servers and be done with it.  Seems weird to single other servers out but allow discussion of other games IMO.

 

21 hours ago, lemming said:

The discussion is probably restricted because someone would have to monitor said discussion to make sure it doesn't go off the rails.

It's the same reason they don't want other topics discussed in the chats because there are people who debate in bad faith and it's a headache to monitor.

 

Having to monitor and moderate forums and chat rooms and such comes with the territory though and if you want to host those things, you have to deal with the consequences of your decision.  Pretty sure the mods here have to keep an eye on all kinds of topics.  Like I said above, if they don't want people talking about what other servers are doing, add it to the CoC and just outright ban discussion of the topic.

[lemming]

30 minutes ago, Excraft said:

Having to monitor and moderate forums and chat rooms and such comes with the territory though and if you want to host those things, you have to deal with the consequences of your decision.  Pretty sure the mods here have to keep an eye on all kinds of topics.  Like I said above, if they don't want people talking about what other servers are doing, add it to the CoC and just outright ban discussion of the topic.

Speaking from experience, being able to just go "Hey, let's not talk about that" is a lot easier and bias free.