These are just toughts and not an attack towards mods so please don`t take it wrong, I don`t mean this as an offence.

It`s just that so many threads get locked and deleted on this forum that I don`t think I`ve ever seen anything like this happening anywhere. That`s definitely not a good thing. I can already feel somebody writing "don`t use this forum if you don`t like it", but I`d rather make an initiative here.
Limiting topics, discussion and free speech makes me think about the Chinese goverment, not a video game forum. During the last 2 weeks I`ve witnessed an enormous amount of topics getting locked for very light reasons.

How about establishing a sub-forum for 100% free discussion?

I think that constructive critizism is always appropriate and that`s why I`m saying that in my opinion the moderating team could atleast think about interventing less with the discussion, because at it`s current state the level of interventation is affecting the comfortability of using this forum.

I actually think they do a pretty good job. They don't get involved in petty squabbles with users and they don't lock threads that aren't already snowballing out of control or on topics outside of the forum's rules/theme.

Besides, your anology with the Chinese government - fail. free speech doesn't really exist anywhere because people are ultimately accountable for what they say; the only reason you get more of it on the internet is because you have a degree of anonymity.

Please don`t get stuck with the chinese goverment comparison because it was just what limiting discussion makes me think of, I didn`t say this forum is moderated by China.

The mods only lock threads which are spiraling into all-out flame wars with insults being thrown left and right. Which happens a lot on these forums.

I've never seen a thread get locked for any other reason than that.

Moderator feedback is proabably best sent in a PM to a senior mod.

I think more threads need to be locked. and more spoilers need to put in the spoiler forum. Before the internet I was against censorship though.

Actually I think they need to be even more strict. How many responses such as "cool story bro" have you seen since Skyrim launched ? I have seen a lot yet it was non-existent before. It really reminds me of the World of Warcraft forums which I feel are vastly inferior to these forums in terms of atmosphere.

A zero tolerance rule in place of a three strike rule is what I would enforce, but that's why I'm not a moderator don't worry about it really, they know what they are doing and I don't really think they need advice from me or anyone else on how to moderate these forums.

The mods don't make the rules, they enforce them. Bethesda doesn't want certain topics discussed on their forums, and thus make rules against them. There are other forums you could use to discuss topics that may be against the rules here.

It was just my opinion and I really think that locking/removing a thread requires a major outrageous racist/sick posts.

But hey it`s just my opinion and everybody has the right to have theirs.

Still the moderators do great job, they have managed to keep this forum almost tolerable after Skyrim's launch :lmao:

The rules may be strict, but it keeps this forum much more pleasant than most others. During my time here i've seen only few topics that were IMO "unfairly" closed. Well, not unfairly, they were about topics very close to unallowed discussion, but still IMO could have been left to run their course, after all, all topics are locked after 200 posts here.

Topics locked for post limit should really have a successor thread started by the mod with a pointer at end of last one and start of new one to link them imo.

The right of free speech doesn't apply on game forums. Bethesda has servers running to make these forums happen, so they get to decide the rules. And I think the rules and enforcement is fine at the moment. Haven't seen a single locked topic that was actually worth continuing.

Besides that, tight moderation makes this a more civil place. If you want to see what forums without good moderation descend into go ahead and look at the mess.

It is an annoying constant that people feel like they have to be controlled and herded by superiors, without which anarchy would ensue, but that sentiment exists everywhere these days.. The mods decision to lock threads when they get to a certain size is a different issue, has its good points and bad, i, having just had my thread locked would have liked an opportunity to answer some people who posted last night while i was asleep, but now can't.. on the other hand threads with dozens of pages of posts generally tend to repeat themselves as people are willing to add but not read through the thread in its entirety.. so mixed bag.

my biggest complaint would be censoring certain words, i think this is a quaint Victorian notion that we should have left behind by now, but even if you subscribe to this, having a language censor in a forum that discuses what is effectively an advlt game seem superfluous at the very least.

the rude and the boring need to be punished!

The first rule about forum moderation is that we don't talk about forum moderation.

Yes there are more forums, I`m using them too and they are not enforcing moderation as strict as it′s here. This is just the biggest Skyrim forum around and that`s why I wanted to say something about it. But in my opinion the moderation-free sub-forum would be a good idea.

It's not about needing to be controlled, it's about making sure these forums don't become a total mess. Police officers stopping you from taking a dump on the street are also not trying to control you, they're trying to keep the street clean. And seeing how this is bethesda's street, they should have the right to keep it clean so we can all use it without stepping into poop every other step.

I can find a lot worse forums than this one like UBI, And the worse would have to be CA where users got banned for criticizing ETW. It seems some companies can handle negative feedback where others cant. And ETW was a real bad game when it came out and i don't know if it got any better but CA did deserve the negative feedback.

Oh come on.. you have a right to talk about anything you want to unless it`s offensive.

Yeah that limit comes across as a deliberate attempt to stifle debate. It almost reduces the forum to chat room.

No, you don't. You have the right to discuss what you agreed to when you signed up to the forum.

This "freedom of speech" thing allows you to make your own page where you can rant and rave all you like. Companies have the right to do what they like with the data on their servers, and that's what you and your posts are. Bytes in a database.

No you don't. You agreed to abide by the forum rules when you registered on the forums, breaking those rules gets moderator attention.

Discussing moderator actions on the forum is not permitted - you obviously have not read those rules, you can find them pinned at the top of this forum.