I believe he's referring to the events that happened with Orbx last year. Orbx made a substantial number of products available for pre-order and some of the long time supporters/customers pre-purchased them. However, within a few weeks of the last product being released all of them were discounted 33% in an Orbx sale. Some of the customers who had pre-ordered and paid at the full price felt they had been duped and their loyalty/support had been taken advantage of. They made their dissent known over on the Orbx forums and Orbx took on a zero-tolerance policy when it came to criticism of Orbx - quite a few well known members who had been stalwarts of the Orbx forum were banned.

 

Shortly thereafter Avsim created an "unofficial" Orbx forum which became something of a refugee camp for those exiled from the official Orbx forum. There was an awful lot of Orbx bashing going on in the unofficial Orbx forum here - a forum in which SpiritFlyer was an active participant and moderator - and I think that is what hcornea is referring to.

 

 

 

All part of the Flight Sim Forum Soap Opera that has been running for more years than I care to remember.

 

I agree with this. I am not a fan of Orbx moderating policy and it is heavy handed compared to other forums - but its their forum and they moderate and lock threads consistently. However, Orbx bashing in the unofficial forum is a bit over the top I agree, which I suspect puts the vast silent majority off. It is considered taboo to speak about P3D EULA etc but its almost a sport over there to criticise Orbx. This seems inconsistent with the rest of the Avsim forums.

 

That said I should add - that otherwise I find AVSIM to be the best moderated flightsim forum, especially with all the knowledge being shared all around. Thank you.

I agree with this. I am not a fan of Orbx moderating policy and it is heavy handed compared to other forums - but its their forum and they moderate and lock threads consistently. However, Orbx bashing in the unofficial forum is a bit over the top I agree, which I suspect puts the vast silent majority off. It is considered taboo to speak about P3D EULA etc but its almost a sport over there to criticise Orbx. This seems inconsistent with the rest of the Avsim forums.

 

That said I should add - that otherwise I find AVSIM to be the best moderated flightsim forum, especially with all the knowledge being shared all around. Thank you.

 

Name calling or personal attack should not have any places in any forums, having said that, I beg to differ about what you wrote, to me calling a spade a spade is NOT bashing a person or a company, you (some) may not like what is written about Orbx in the unofficial forum for your own reasons but as far as I know there is no lies there or false statements.

 

One has to understand that this Orbx unofficial forum you mentioned was born because of Orbx's own doing and NOT because of a mutiny by their members, I have to agree with one thing you said about Orbx, their forum their rules, same as here, Avsim's forum Avsim's rules and as far as I know the unofficial Orbx's forum mod. does not allow personal attack, bashing or lies about Orbx in the unofficial forum, and that is why I am not questioning Avsim's integrity in any of their forum.

Name calling or personal attack should not have any places in any forums, having said that, I beg to differ about what you wrote, to me calling a spade a spade is NOT bashing a person or a company, you (some) may not like what is written about Orbx in the unofficial forum for your own reasons but as far as I know there is no lies there or false statements

 

Hi Alain, I think there was some name calling going on and it stayed on the forum for some time - not sure if its still there. People were talking about some Orbx moderators being the slaves of one person and all that. I also think the obsession is unhealthy. It was embarrassing and left a bad taste after which I stuck to the main FSX forum. I assumed this may have had the same effect too on other people - because after a decent start the forum has become relatively inactive - despite the inconsistent shifting of threads from FSX to that forum. My point is that the atmosphere in that forum was negative. Let me put it this way - Orbx came off looking better in some instances because of the negativity in those threads. But I guess its a matter of perspective, and we'll have to agree to disagree. I should add I enjoy reading your posts Alain in Avsim.

 

That said I think we have gone OT, and again I must add, I think apart from Anderson, no one doubts Avsim's integrity, so all the admins and mods should not take it seriously. I agree with the other two posters that sometimes moderating is sometimes inconsistent - but that is a fact of life - different people, different perceptions - I would also most probably make the same decisions in the same position. Not something to lose sleep over.

Bit late with this (as usual), but wanted to speak my word of support. I won't pretend to be an active member of staff - all I do is write reviews now and then and thanks to a rather busy yar, not as many as I would have liked. Still, Avsim has been my FS home and I feel proud that my reviews are accepted for publication. I do see Avsim as the top website for FS talk, news and reviews and I'm happy to be a part of it. If somebody undermines the status and reputation of Avsim by making various claims without clear evidence, then that makes me angry, but it also makes me really sad. Angry because it is a disrespectful thing to do, sad because it reminds me of the fact that there are just too many humans that are indeed like that.

 

So Stephen, thanks for your post, and Robert, you too. Both insightful, well-written and informative posts.

Hi Alain, I think there was some name calling going on and it stayed on the forum for some time - not sure if its still there. People were talking about some Orbx moderators being the slaves of one person and all that. I also think the obsession is unhealthy. It was embarrassing and left a bad taste after which I stuck to the main FSX forum. I assumed this may have had the same effect too on other people - because after a decent start the forum has become relatively inactive - despite the inconsistent shifting of threads from FSX to that forum. My point is that the atmosphere in that forum was negative. Let me put it this way - Orbx came off looking better in some instances because of the negativity in those threads. But I guess its a matter of perspective, and we'll have to agree to disagree. I should add I enjoy reading your posts Alain in Avsim.

 

That said I think we have gone OT, and again I must add, I think apart from Anderson, no one doubts Avsim's integrity, so all the admins and mods should not take it seriously. I agree with the other two posters that sometimes moderating is sometimes inconsistent - but that is a fact of life - different people, different perceptions - I would also most probably make the same decisions in the same position. Not something to lose sleep over.

 

 

I may have missed that part but I'm sure Stephen took the right action, if, indeed, that was written, I myself would have wrote "chain of command" , never the less the word "slaves" in this context as no place there.

 

As we all agree in this forum Orbx as the best scenery for FSX so far, it's not all negative, the perception of negativity come from peoples who fell they got the shaft on a previous pre-paid deal and others who were banned for no good reasons, again calling a spade a spade may sometimes per perceived as negative.

 

As you said we will have to agree to disagree on this perticular subject.

 

Back to Avsim, to be honest if I had one complain to submit about something to be changed here in these forums it would be the quickness of some threads been locked, it may be just me and with all due respect I think some mod. were trigger happy sometimes, when a thread is getting interresting and if there is no name calling or bashing I do think that a good debate on a particular subject is healty and prone to some good laughter, but again, Avsim's forum Avsim's rules.

I think Stephen and Robert are right on the money with their posts. I agree it is the 5% that stand out all the time, but this is true with any organization.

 

It is always the less then 5% that ruin it for a School, Company, Law Enforcement Agency, Government Agency, they ruin it for the rest of the hard working people that put there lives into something. This is the reality of the world we live in. All it takes is one bad apple....

 

AVSIM has the best diplomacy on any Flight Forum and credit to the hard working volunteers on here for that one. I like to consider everyone on here a friend and treat them as such. Sometimes with debate but as long as that debate is in good spirits.

 

Cheers

Another thing, I've seen many potentially good forums spoilt not only by a few bad apple members, but also a few bad apple mods..

Some forum layouts could do with a bit of sprucing up too, they're far too sprawling..

 

Thank you all for your affirmation of AVSIM integrity. Sometimes we all need our friends to support us, and we thank each of you for doing so.

 

Kindest regards,