So, you want the boards to not be a bullshit echo chamber

{quoted}

Useless, no. Close to it? Yes.

Riot employees do not have time to sit around all day and sift through hundreds of bullshit threads to find the one or two that may be half decent discussion. Moderators have refused to maintain the gameplay and other boards (such as behavior, help/support when it existed, etc) to the standards that would encourage Riot contribution. The moderators complain that they’re “overworked” or “don’t have enough moderators to make things feasible”, but they refuse to simply up their staffing to allow them to cover everything. The moderators say they “don’t want to silence valid opinions” but they refuse to make boards that are moderated more heavily on which valid discussion can be had (and in fact their one past try at this [gameplay plus] was removed because they were too lazy to approve posts, they got backlogged, and thus the board died off shortly after it was made).

Honestly, most of the problems could be solved by the moderators - but Riot has seen the boards be shit for so long that even if the moderators solved the problems now, I doubt many Rioters would come back.

not wanting to silence a valid opinion is a noble ideal. too easy for some people to dismiss. it has to be hard not to shut down dissenting opinion.

i imagine you are in favor of heavy censorship?

if the executives are in China, i imagine they operate under a different paradigm. the Boards probably is useless and annoying to them.

IIRC they weren't too lazy to approve posts. There just weren't enough outstanding posts to justify an elite section of gameplay.

I do agree with your points about off-topic posts and hijacking. I think the mods should be stricter on stuff like that, but it's difficult to say exactly how strict they should be.

I feel one of the problems with these boards is that many of the moderators do not remain neutral on the boards but instead express there own opinions of the game.

This is also why many toxic threads remain on the boards because some mods agree with statements made on said threads.

{quoted}The moderators complain that they’re “overworked” or “don’t have enough moderators to make things feasible”, but they refuse to simply up their staffing to allow them to cover everything.

Moderators are unpaid, limited by good applications to the moderation team, and limited by available time. We've put out requests to increase the team size repeatedly, but, ultimately, we're limited to how many people are both interested and seem qualified. I'd love to make good potential moderators grow on trees, but if we don't have the interest to have a team of 200 good candidates than we don't have the interest to have a team of 200 good candidates. If you have a solution I'd love to hear it, because it's definitely not a refusal on our part, and calling it such isn't actually helpful.

Basically, you acknowledge that Rioters don't have time to sift through every thread, but your proposal tends to suggest that we sift through every thread AND every post, despite being unpaid volunteers with other jobs and families and lives and obligations. I'd love to tell you we can do that, but unless we start getting hundreds of applications each mod recruitment with over 50% of them being good, there just isn't time in the day for the team.

The moderators say they “don’t want to silence valid opinions” but they refuse to make boards that are moderated more heavily on which valid discussion can be had (and in fact their one past try at this [gameplay plus] was removed because they were too lazy to approve posts, they got backlogged, and thus the board died off shortly after it was made).

To be frank, rujitra? I'm pretty bothered by this, 'cause GP+ was not removed because it was backlogged. I'd also suggest that the situation is significantly more complicated than the way you're painting it, because yes -- we could crack down much more heavily, but at what point are we moderating for the boards community and at what point does it become deciding what the boards community is? Opinions on that vary -- my personal opinion matches your own, but being accused of being last or getting attacked in this manner because I'm not sure it's appropriate to force my opinion on a community that predates my authority over portions of it is frustrating, especially when there is a portion of the community who doesn't break the rules as they're currently written but does heavily value the freedom to post in a manner that you (and I, frankly) personally find frustrating and problematic. They are part of the community, and I cannot justify effectively locking their preferences out of the conversation.

It's a topic that's still under discussion (and I suspect you'd probably like some of the ideas we're tossing around at the moment -- updates hopefully soon), and opinions like those of individual Rioters or community members are taken into account. Do me a favor though, and actually come to us with your thoughts in a productive manner or at least be a bit more considerate of the fact that perhaps you have one perspective that doesn't fully account for the situation, 'cause this post you made is basically just as unhelpful, inaccurate, and non-conducive to a discussion as much of the stuff you dislike.

.....My point was, the current system cannot archive its intended purpose, fullstop.

There needs to be admin level changes to even get started, adding more moderators will just send more people to dig in the river of shit while leaving the floodgates open.