I think the moderation here is good overall. I have had some issues in the past where I thought some decisions were off; specifically, Administrator Vometia made at least one permanent ban of someone who claimed the romance system was "masturbatory." That permanent ban was out of line, in my opinion.
I also tend to think that moderation is too heavy handed in regards to feedback about the extent of lgbtq content inclusion in the game. It's nearly impossible to have a conversation about these subjects and offer impressions without the thread getting shut down. The same is true when there's an attempt at discussing the way modern politics has a way of infiltrating the story.
There are good discussions to be had revolving around these topics, but they inevitably get shut down. I believe it happens due to bias.
But that's just my opinion, and I've been known to be wrong. I also recognize that moderation is difficult and often unrewarding. It's certainly hard to make continual judgement calls about who's a troll--as opposed to simply having a different opinion--and who's being overly sensitive.
All of that said, I haven't seen any critical posts being deleted, and I acknowledge that quite a bit of leeway is often given.
I would like to explain
why moderation cracks down on those posts even when it (rarely) starts out as a fair discussion. After a few weeks of being a moderator, my impression of those threads is that they:
1. Almost always end up in a very bad and/or dark place.
2. Are magnets for bad actors who are not mainstays of this community.
3. Veer into off-topic territory when the discussion is about the problem of certain modern politics in general, rather than how one experiences a video game.
If these discussions were solely made up of long-term posters who are known to be good faith actors with level heads and respect for all, I think we would be less inclined to shut them down. The problem is that it attracts people who are not that way, and the subject matter, combined with the hostility of bad actors, tends to alienate a significant part of the community which feels either dehumanized or "problematized" by the subject and its rhetoric. As a result, there is a slight imperative to be better safe than sorry and engage in the occasional preemptive strike.
