Riot, please stop the moderator rampage on the old General Discussion

mi ramfan·12/6/2013, 3:03:47 AM·14 votes·1,118 views

I don't know if the old forum mods will check here, but if they do then oh well I guess.

Tonight, (12/5/2013) the mods crossed the line, starting to rapidly close a lot of threads, most of which did not contain questionable or offensive material. Then, when people made threads to protest the mods closing the threads, those threads were closed. When threads were made asking a moderator to post their rationale for closing threads, they did not post and promptly closed the threads.

At this point, I'm not sure if you're trying to drive everyone out of GD or crack down of threads not strictly on League of Legends topics or what. But as of right now, the moderators are invisible, have no accountability, and we on the forums have literally no recourse against them. Moderators are meant to moderate discussion, not randomly close threads for their own enjoyment.

There are some simple reforms you could easily implement that would at least make us feel like you understand the problem. Asking your moderators to post in threads explaining the reason for the thread being closed before closing them would really help. Having a more clear forum rules page would also be great (as of right now, there is NO forum rules post), as it would allow posters to ensure beforehand that their post does not violate the rules instead of being forced to post it and hope that their post isn't locked.

Sure, a little more moderator presence then the old days of GD is alright, and a little bit of moderation is definitely a good thing. But this is just ridiculous.

15 Comments

VexingRaven12/6/2013, 3:43:59 AM7 votes

This has always been a problem. The solution is simple: Any self-respecting forum admin requires moderators to post to a thread when they lock it, saying that it's locked and why.

RiotKrylhos12/6/2013, 11:22:46 PM6 votes

I am for transparency within moderation, and that will become apparent as this community experience evolves.

I'm not sure about those thread deletions in GD, but I can tell you it's not to drive people out.

Zielmann12/6/2013, 4:38:45 AM2 votes

I wish people would stop whining about this. Newsflash: it's their forum on their website, and they can handle it however they see fit.

And frankly, I haven't really seen any threads getting removed that don't deserve it. Just because it's not full of completely offensive or inappropriate things doesn't mean it should be allowed to stay...

Ozbirta12/10/2013, 8:39:33 PM2 votes

I'm actually in the community forums right now because I got permabanned after 10,000+ posts on the main forums for saying "good work" in an anti-mod thread.

After receiving the permaban, I got on my only alternate account, and made a thread asking whether to appeal the ban, and whether it was something that should have happened, that thread was deleted, and that account was permabanned as well. I got a generic "when we permaban, it's for good reason" copy-paste reply to the ticket I opened, so... yeah, here I am. Very dissatisfied to say the least.

FilthySaint12/7/2013, 4:30:24 AM2 votes

They might just not care. Especially if they plan to implement their "better moderation" in the new forums, thereby making them "better" than the old.
That could be the game plan all along........

hunnyflash12/7/2013, 1:05:07 AM1 votes

Well look, this forum is still fairly basic. We don't have clear outlines of rules for the moderators OR members. We don't have a proper search function. We don't have updates, or a messaging system.

It seems to me like Riot did the bare minimum with the old forums, and is now analyzing it's effectiveness, while still also experimenting with this new Community Beta.

Most forums on the internet give moderators the right to close down threads without an explanation. If you are really adamant about having the thread around, maybe start a new one.

Urdnot Entar12/10/2013, 7:55:03 PM1 votes

They also move threads to other forums incorrectly (not just delete). I had a thread that asked Riot generally to be more active about addressing bugs, which I put in General Discussion. The thread eventually got moved to Bug Reports, which is wrong because it doesn't report bugs, and kind of crappy since the Bug Report forum goes largely unaddressed by Riot.

I would link the thread in question, but the forums are down right now.