Re: Vast Horizon (new game)
It was an extremely poor decision on the moderation team's part to pass a judgement based on a rule in progress. Typically, you draft a regulation and place it into circulation, allow people to read it, and then you enforce it. How do you justify cracking down on what is (as of now) a nonexistent rule? Sure, you'll be thinking about it and writing it into existence soon, but you haven't yet. This is basically saying we're prohibiting you from drinking pepsy at our store, even though there's nothing on the door saying you can't drink pepsy here. We'll have the sign made in a few weeks, but even not seeing the sign, you should've known the rule anyway, even though up until now, pepsy was a perfectly allowed beverage option.
I'm going to say that, in this case, the moderation team has failed the community, and should probably be subject to the community failure clause. This is a guilty until proven innocent situation. This is a blatant disregard for your user base, by attempting to force on them a rule which they knew nothing of, had no choice to accept or refuse.
You came out swinging in what I believe was an impassioned decision that resulted in a very poor execution. I've generally always supported the moderation team before, but I also have always tried to fight for the under represented, and in this case, your entire user base is the under represented.
It is the severest form of draconian rule to pass a mandate without allowing the members' consent. Would it have harmed anything to let the rule sit for a while as you considered it, drafted it, then put it into play? Would it have hurt anything to let the user base know such a rule existed?
It definitely would've caused a stir, but it would have anyway. If this is how moderation is going to be run on this site, then perhaps audiogames has run its course and the user base has a whole needs to wave goodbye and find new grounds. Heck, I left for a while and only returned because of Say The Spire, and what do I return to? Draconian dictatorship without any degree of consideration for the users of the forum.
It's this same kind of thing that saw previous moderation staff members be dismissed. Do we perhaps need a new moderation team if the current one is perfectly ok trying to enforce a rule that does not exist?
If you were going to enforce this rule, why to this one particular developer? Why not someone else who was much more established? Because this new developer was smaller, has a smaller following, and so you probably figured you'd receive less backlash than if you were to spring it on something like Crazy Party, Alter Aeon, or, yes, Cosmic Rage.
I think the moderation team owe the folks who make this game a huge apology, as well as one to the entire user base. You need to reconsider your positions. You are not our parents or our gods, nor our potentates. You are at the end of the day still users of the forum who also have the ability to moderate things when they get out of hand, that's it. Please don't pull the high horse and think you know what's better, which is exactly what you're doing when you try to pass a rule without anyone else's knowledge, consent, or ability to refuse.
This is why companies send out terms of service updates, and until such time, cannot enforce such rules. If PayPal wanted to disallow the use of Visa, they would have to first inform their users, then provide a grace period, then put the new decision into play.
I hope you're proud of yourselves for having gone this route. If you intend to stick to your guns, I'll probably have to leave this site, but not before I send yet another strongly worded communication to the site owners. It got things changed once when the Steam situation came up, and even if it does nothing now, my voice on the behalf of the user base will have been heard by the site owners.
Moderation staff, you are not a totalitarian rule.
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