I suddenly see a lot of treads being deleted on the forum. Is this a hint to the SOPA, or is Fizzer acting communistic? I don't see any reason to delete treads that haven't been there for 6 months, even if the message is silly.

SOPA didn't pass, btw. But I'm having this problem too. I posted the same thing three times today and it was deleted every time. This is inacceptable.

Deleting threads is communistic? Interesting....

I do believe in free speech, however at the same time, I don't really want the forums to be flooded by tons of posts that don't add any value to the site. If that happened, the forum would essentially become useless and descend into madness. Paul Graham [says it best](http://www.paulgraham.com/trolls.html):

|> *trolls are willing to use a forum with a lot of thoughtful people in it, but thoughtful people aren't willing to use a forum with a lot of trolls in it.*

If the site had a rating system, like the big community sites (Reddit/Slashdot/etc) it wouldn't be an issue, since the interesting posts would surface to the top. For now though, it is necessary to delete some posts that are basically garbage. This happens very rarely - maybe only a dozen times in the last year not counting reposts.

The post deleted today was someone reporting a player who broke the rules. The forum is not the appropriate place to report someone. Instead, they should use the Report button since using the forum creates a lot more work for me. Further, the player in question was dealt with long before the forum post anyway, because someone else used the report button.

Why were my ban requests deleted?

It is NOT possible to use the report button if you're not playing the game in question or with the player in question.

If the player in question was dealt with, why didn't you tell me in a reply to my first post. Deleting legitimate posts like that is definitely bad practice. Especially after I had asked you to leave a reply when I tried it the third time.

@Richard

Not allowing free speech is.

@Fizzer

I agree with your point, but because of the large number of players here and the constant adding of new treads leads to similar results as the rating system you described. When a topic is interesting, people will post at it more often, and it goes to the top of the page constantly. When one isn't, it'll sink down below other new ones that were created, or old ones where was just posted at.

Not allowing free speech has nothing to do with communism, sorry. It may have been a practice of communist countries but that was because they twisted the concepts to meet their needs.

Actually any form of fascism (red, brown, black, you-name-it) tries to fight free speach. An authoriarian regime doesn't function by definition, if people say what they think.

Oh dear God I'd totally kill like 20 of these dumb threads that appear on here all the time

*(okay, not really)*

I've been able to see some of what disappears (thanks to my RSS), and I respectfully thank you, Fizzer, for purging it.

Communism is an economical system. Its "opposite" is capitalism / free-market economy.

A dictatorship is a political system, its opposite being a democracy.

It would be entirely possible to have a dictator run a capitalist country, or a democracy to run a communist country (a majority rule for political decisions does not necessarily rule out communism, even though I have to admit I can't think of an example).

None of the above have, strictly speaking, anything to do with free speech. Of course, in general dictators aren't exactly popular, so they'd be very likely to favour censorship.
Does anyone know if / how much freedom of speech there was in Yugoslavia? By the best of my knowledge, Tito was loved both back then and still today, but he was still a dictator... By the way, he's also the best example I know (outside of open source software projects of course) of a "benevolent dictator"; in other words "not all dictators are bad".

Just because the Soviet Union was communist, does not mean each and every single decision it made was inspired by communism! For instance, communism *itself* doesn't oppress people. Sure, if communism doesn't seem to work, oppression is a "great" way of keeping a country communist anyway, but communism isn't to blame for that. I've also heard the SU described as using "Stalinism-Leninism": based on communism, but with a lot of things added (and a few things changed, directly conflicting with "real communism").

Also, deleting a message after it has been posted is, strictly speaking, not censorship. Not allowing it to be posted (for instance, if Fizzer would need to approve each post before it's shown to normal users) would be censorship. Deleting something after it's been posted is policing.
To make things even more complex, in practice people use two completely different words for censorship, depending on whether they agree with it. If they think the censored piece should've been allowed, they say "censorship"; if they think the censored piece should indeed not have been published, they say "good taste".
Example: US television bleeping out spoken words (rather often four letters long ;) ), or placing a black bar on top of images deemed "inappropriate". You know what's also censorship? Self-censorship: writers of television shows which don't even use those words in the first place (to prevent getting those annoying "bleeps" in their show)!

If you have a problem with something, please use the correct name for it; that makes things a lot easier to discuss and talk about.

Yes, I have a problem with something. It's not that three posts of mine were deleted, it's that they were deleted without any notice why. This is just bad governance. I like Warlight and I appreciate the work which is being put into it. I am also aware that moderating the forum is just one more task out of all the many unforeseen tasks which come out of such an undertaking. BUT. All this does not justify bad communication practice. I looked for an FAQ entry on how to report abuse. I looked for a wiki entry on how to report abuse. I tried reporting the person through another way than the forum but there isn't. So if I make the report here, please have at least the curtesy to answer and inform me about the right way of doing what I was trying to do.

thread lightly

Eddard.....please just stop the QQ and play the game. If you're upset with the way Fizzer runs the forums, stop using them. If you have a problem you'd like to address directly to him, just email him (if you read the help you have his email). Otherwise just play the game and have fun, it's just a game.

I don't think Fizzer runs the forums like that. I think he was just annoyed by my post and deleted it and didn't think I'd come back and talk about it. I can understand that such posts are annoying, but the menu says 'community'. I would like to be a part of a community which includes to be treated with respect. Deleting posts in a place where you're supposed to be heard, just doesn't promote the idea of community. I would have accepted an answer like. "I'm going to delete this post asap, the player in question has been noticed. Thank you for trying to help making Warlight a better place, this is not the right way of reporting abuse though, next time, do it like this... or that etc." This can be a canned response, it's not much more work but also doesn't create a feeling of being ignored and disrespected. If there was a clear way to do it, I'd say, all right, my bad, I should have read the FAQ. But there isn't. Once you create a community, the community starts having demands. You open up a new public domain which you can't completely control anymore and for which you have to assume a certain responsibility. With more authority comes more responsibility.

I'm aware that I'm getting things out of proportion but I'm making a general point. It really didn't feel good and it really shouldn't happen in a community which cares for its reputation/success/growth/you name it.

Suck it up buttercup. Your whinging over this is gaining you zero fans.

Oh, and you should have learned by now in life that respect is earned, not given.

+1 to RvW, Richard, Eagle, X, Matma, and Fizzer.


Also, I don't see anyone whos been around for a long time complaining about this. It's MOSTLY (not always) Newer (joined in past 6 months) players.

My 2 cents. Spend it wisely

eddard, if Fizzer had a problem with you asking how to do something, this thread would of been deleted long since..
the problem was, you were using a public forum to report a private problem.
If he *rewarded* you for having done things in the wrong manner "*IE, taken care of the manner, and letting you know he had, as you requested*" All it would tell you, the average forum poster, that there is no need to go through proper channels, because going through the forums would work. That would cause needless additional work for Fizzer, when he could instead just delete your post and wait for you to ask why.. Afaik, the main post in a thread when deleted will delete the rest of the thread, and until he can possibly get a global PM system in place *"if he plans on it"8 then there would be no adequate way for him to communicate with you, save to send you an Email to what is likely a dummy account anyways..

What are the proper channels?
Where is the proper way described?

(No, my email is not a dummy account.)

beware acta worse than sopa pipa and affects 39 countries
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/01/23/if-you-thought-sopa-was-bad-just-wait-until-you-meet-acta/
http://warlight.net/Forum/Thread.aspx?ThreadID=2840