I have been logging on these forum for a while now and I am seeing that topics that criticise Fallout 4 are getting locked far too quickly.........

This topic may also get closed quickly I believe, but I just like to throw it out there, because i believe in freedom of speech........because people who bought the game they have the right to criticise it, there isn't a consumer law in the world that takes this right away from them, because after all people spent their hard earned money to buy the product.....

I just like to say that this does not leave a good impression about Bethesda's consumer feedback policy....

I have a list of topics that got locked prematurely because someone who didn't like OPs opinion started posting offensively and moderators made that an excuse to close the thread prematurely. Kind of makes me wonder if those offensive responses are made intentionally to create an excuse to close critical topics immediately because I have not experienced this behaviour from forum moderators on any forum.......

Thanks

Freedom of speech is an illusion.

And, it has never, nor will ever, exist in a privately owned forum...which this is.

Your first amendment right to free speech does not extend to comments made on a private forum.

People seem to think the First Amendment provides the right to say what ever you want, when ever you want. That is actually not the case.

I dont see many issues, this seems like a well-moderated board.

Also, to speak from a constitutional viewpoint (bethesda is an American company), nothing limits a private company from moderating its private board how it wishes.

The first amendment, like everything else in the constitution, was intended to limit only the federal government of the USA. With the addition of the fourteenth, you can add states to the mix, but private forums can still do as they please and moderate as they please and say as they please.

These forums are not covered by Freedom of Speech, it's a privately run site with the rules set by Bethesda.

I've always found the moderation here to be pretty even-handed. But threads do get derailled or some get started that are inevitably going to become a trainwreck and force the moderators to step in.

I find most criticism threads stay open so long as they aren't flame bait or derail into personal attacks

There are a lot of threads that constructively criticize the game. I myself have even partaken in them from time to time. Those threads usually get locked due to disagreement that digresses into people attacking eachother.

This thread might get locked. If I had to guess why it would be because it's talking about locked topics. Because theoretically, nothing can really be done about a locked topic unless you directly talk to an admin or moderator. So you may as well do that.

EDIT: This thread just got moved to community discussion. That's basically like the secret service escorting the president to a safe location.

You do have a right to free speech, so long as it doesn't violate any of the posted and widely available forum rules.

You break the rules, the thread gets locked. It's that simple - the Internet isn't a democracy. Internet Message Boards tend to be various flavors of totalitarianism. Those that aren't tend to descend into absolute anarchy in short order (For us old timers, the old Sitepowerup.com boards of the late 90s).

I believe in constructive criticism which is quite different that just plain complaining.

Should an author present a problem/issue in a well mannered way and suggest a remedy for it or ask for an opinion I believe with all my heart that the thread would not be locked.

You're absolutely free to start up your own forum and restart those locked threads there.

Hey, if you can't enjoy the freedom of whatever, maybe you can enjoy closing down threads as you described, because at least you will be enjoying yourself. ...

Bingo.

We have many threads with criticism of the game that last until the 200 post limit. We do have a problem of people who dislike certain aspects of the game and people who love the game getting into disagreements that become filled with personal attacks and namecalling quickly in which case if the moderator has time to "babysit" the thread to keep those flames and flamebait cleared out and to warn the offenders we still leave it open. When the forum is busy we don't always have time for that and thus the topic is closed. When members report such things promptly it helps keep the thread open. When it doesn't get reported and we stumble across it, often it's far more work to clean it up than the thread might warrant. That is especially true of topics which are "hotbeds of flaming". At that point the threads are closed.

Secondly, we are a private forum and have rules everyone must agree to when joining. Freedom of speech in that regard does not apply to private clubs, forums or any private place.

And third, this thread is about forum moderation rather than Fallout:4 and thus is being moved to the appropriate section of the forum.

Its not the fact that its criticism, its the fact that the discussions usually descend into chaos and flaming. Plus, its a private game forum, there is no freedom of speech especially when it comes to bashing the game makers. If you read the rules of the forum you'd find out.

I believe that did actually happen here too once, at least in the community discussion board. From what I gather not too long before I joined these forums (which was 2003, ignore my join date, I lost access to my original forum account due to email issue) there were some problems until a team of moderators was put in place to tidy things up and keep it that way.

I'm sure someone around here will remember more.

So many people do not understand this.
Members cannot express anything they desire on a private forum. You follow Bethesda's rules, or your posts get removed. Simple.
It has nothing to do with "freedom of speech."
It's the same as being at school, or any place in public... If you disrupt people, you will be asked to leave or get arrested.


We allow criticisms... We allow lots of it.
But we don't allow flaming, trolling, aggressive rude behaviour, etc. Threads also get closed for reasons that don't always get publicly shared.

Freedom of speech isn't free, it always comes with a cost.

Funny, we've been getting some complaints about the fact that the FO forums were skewing negative. Pretty standard, after the release of a big new game - the people that are having fun aren't on the forums much, whereas those that don't like it, or are having issues, are on the forums

Not sure if the OP and I are reading the same forums - there are plenty of critical topics or critical posts - we do moderate to the forum rules though, and do our best to keep legit threads open and problem free - regardless of whether they skew more positive or negative.

Heh ... after spending time on these forums, it was actually a pleasant surprise to have my co-worker tell me that she's really enjoying Fallout 4, that she could happily play it until the next Mass Effect comes out, and that she finds it thoroughly entertaining. It's like ... people out there really like the games!

These forums are more like a ... big pile of angry kittens.

Since when are Moderators, doing this in their free time, considered agents of Bethesda? I've been on a few forums and I remember back when this forum couldn't stop spam topics by bots being made. But this is genuinely one of the best I've been on and I know for a fact that I've gotten away with more than I technically should have at times.

Cheers mods for keeping this place genuinely great place to chat [censored] .

I have been on Beth's forums for a long time and I have always found it to be a well moderated place! (Excellent job y'all). The "hardcoe" Fallout fans are a pretty outspoken bunch, but they are also very knowledgeable about the lore and are avid RPers (love the RP/Fan fic section here) and well, all around good people. And yea, a new game will bring with it some issues and an influx of new players, with said issues, that's to be expected.

I've moderated my share of forums in the past and it's not always an easy job, but I always found it fun to work with the player community. There are a lot of creative people here and I truly enjoy all the discussions about Fallout 4, especially the ones centered around settlements.

Oh and I just wanted to add, I have TONS of fun with FO 4 and yet I am also on the forums on a regular basis. I guess I suffer from withdrawal during the day... at work. LOL, plus I love to interact with like-minded individuals that also enjoy the Fallout games as much as I do.

QFT

Not that I have been on the Fallout 4 forums, things have to get flamey to get locked round here usually.

"Freedom of speech' this, 'freedom of speech' that...

Freedom of speech is just an excuse for loudmouthed idiots to hide behind while they take away everyone else's freedom to not have to listen to what they say.

As others have pointed out, this is a private message board, not a government or publicly run one. That's the cool thing about private places. Whoever sets them up gets to set the rules.

"Freedom of Speech" is not what people think it is, but sure makes a great shield to hide behind.

As for locked topics, I have noticed a lot of them stem from posters being lazy. 5 topics on the first page talk about the same thing. Instead of adding to thiose already there, the poster decides they need a whole new one. started by them. As for critical posts, Bethesda seems to keep those open as long we posters behave well. They usually get locked when "we" get out of hand

So... if we're going to have this thread open, obviously the moderators are going to have some opinions about this matter.

We get people claiming we lock any and all threads that are critical about Bethesda on a fairly regular basis. My initial reaction is almost always "did you actually look at the thread titles on the top few pages of the forum?" On any given day on a newly-released game the breakdown of thread topics is generally going to be people who don't realize that we have separate sections for spoilers and bug reports, duplicate threads, and almost all the rest of General Discussion is going to be something along the lines of "here is something I hate." Drop down to something like Fallout Series Discussion and it's literally almost nothing but discussion about how Bethesda ruined everyone's favorite series and what an awful job they've every step of the way.

Basically, I think it's pretty obvious if you actually look through which threads are left open that clearly we don't lock every negative thread. Moderators are not Bethesda employees, sure, but clearly we're going to be fans of the company (I would not have been doing this something like 7 or 8 years now for a company I didn't believe in,) and of course we have a responsibility to try and comport ourselves appropriately as we are moderating under the auspices of Bethesda and the actions we take are going to reflect back upon the company. But at the end of the day these aren't my games - it doesn't affect me personally if someone doesn't like something. And beyond that we specifically know that the company's own stance is that constructive criticism is to be welcomed.

What people often get confused about is that how you present your opinion is as important as what your opinion actually is. Someone wants to make a thread about things they hate about the company or their games, that's not skin off my back. But if that opinion is expressed with a string of profanity and in a manner that insults other members or fans of the company, then yes there's going to be a problem there. And people don't get a free pass just because they're a fan - I warn people for defending Bethesda in an uncivilized manner as well.