Moderators or Spam Police Out Of Control?

[Royce]

So I'm playing a game called Crazy Quest. A bunch of players joined TA as new members to post in the game thread and support it. They are not shills, I've met them in game chat. Many of these players have now been banned from TA and their posts removed. Is this how the forum welcomes new members? If so its a screwed up policy.

[Echoseven]

Wasn't me... I have a cautious trigger finger.

[crex]

Wasn't me either. I'm not afraid to say that it was probably one of the newer mods. Ever since they were appointed as mods, these forums have been a lot stricter.

[CrazyQuest]

I'm pretty hurt by this honestly. CStrong is my #1 (literally highest ranked by far) player and I believe he was banned. Saintlee is a fairly new player. I encouraged them to come to the forums to support the game and spread the word.

When I first came to TA I posted 3 threads in 3 days and was banned for 2 days - I was oblivious to the forum mentality having not participated in any for some years. Been motivating my user base to support the game through support of TA ever since. A couple of players recently erroneously created new threads instead of posting in the existing one. It was a mistake on their part and I even worried about it after my first "scrape with the law".

I work really hard. Really, really hard. And this hurts.

[Xexist]

Deleting legit members is going a little beyond strict, it is just wrong IMO. I mean I know when a new game gets posted and you see a 1 or two post person posting about what an awesome game this is I think 'okay here we go'. I mean, I get it.

But this Dev has acted with nothing but the best of intentions. He is active on the site asking for feedback from his game, he is active within the games chat and helping out the players. He also has refered many of his new players to T.A. for what he thought was mutual benefit. His games gets a little more exposure and T.A. gets a new member that may have never heard of this site before.

I can promise in the days that I have been playing I have never seen him ask people to come start new threads, nor has he tried to bribe anyone to needlessly bump his thread (he does sometimes ask people to post their questions there, I can only assume so he doesnt have to repeat himself 100 times as new players join and ask the same things).

Sure this game isnt the next big thing, and its not trying to be, but I think the Dev got a little bit of a raw deal on this one.

I also want to make clear, I have no issue with the mods or spam police, in fact I can see where they are coming from, but I do think the wrong call was made this time.

[Royce]

Originally Posted by Xexist

I also want to make clear, I have no issue with the mods or spam police, in fact I can see where they are coming from, but I do think the wrong call was made this time.

I do too, but when I heard new members were being banned it really pissed me off. I came to TA because of a particular game, and wound up being a daily visitor for over a year now. This is no way to treat new members. I know spam and shilling has been a growing issue, but there needs to be a better system.

[arn]

Originally Posted by Xexist

Deleting legit members is going a little beyond strict, it is just wrong IMO. I mean I know when a new game gets posted and you see a 1 or two post person posting about what an awesome game this is I think 'okay here we go'. I mean, I get it.

[preface by saying, I wasn't involved in the banning at all, and in general my day-to-day moderation involvement on the site is minimal]

It's a stretch to say these were "legit members" though.

2 newly registered members within 10 minutes of each other, posting in a 1 month old thread (it wasn't even the right thread). Their first posts are:

"You have got to try this game I'm hooked out many hours into it already,it's so good to find a rpg that is designed how you want it"

"This is the best game I've found.It has addictive content,an active admin,a friendly (and hilarious) community,and it's free.Why not try it out?"

edit: actually the first person also posted "Quality Game" separately in two other CrazyQuest threads -- one over 6 weeks old.

It looks, acts and pretty much is shill spam. They may be actual customers, but they aren't part of the TA community and were sent here specifically to talk up CrazyQuest per his request.

Now I get it. They aren't employees of CrazyQuest. And there is a rather vague line somewhere, but it seems this was on the wrong side of it.

arn

[Xexist]

Originally Posted by arn

...

I assume you have the benefit of being able to read the deleted posts that I didnt have.

Agreed, those definitely sounds super - shilly. If they were posted at the Dev's request I cant say, but I can say he hasnt approached me to post anything like that nor have I witnessed him ask anyone else.


*edit*
I also aknowledge your point about them not being members of the T.A. community.

[arn]

Originally Posted by Xexist

I assume you have the benefit of being able to read the deleted posts that I didnt have.

yes, I do.

Agreed, those definitely sounds super - shilly. If they were posted at the Dev's request I cant say, but I can say he hasnt approached me to post anything like that nor have I witnessed him ask anyone else.

A few posts above, the dev said he asked them to come post

"I encouraged them to come to the forums to support the game and spread the word."

[Royce]

If they're actual people who play and enjoy the game, it's not shilling. Period. A shill is someone who talks something up dishonestly, either by covering up the fact they are a dev or friend/family of the dev, or by exaggerating the qualities of the product because they are gaining something from its success. None of that is the case here. These were new members who joined the site to post about a game they enjoy playing. To ban them for that is reprehensible. As for the multiple posts, new members make mistakes. Delete all but 1 post and give them a warning/temp ban. Don't turn away new members before they even have a chance to become a part of the community.