And by "nuked" I mean that a figurative nuclear weapon has been used where a smaller, conventional bomb could have done the trick. The moderation has suddenly become so rigid that I now fear even the slightest deviation from the topic of a thread-- as is what happens sometimes during a the free flow of communication-- is going to cause the topic to be locked. Previously, the moderation has been fine. The biggest issue we've had is the flame baiting vis a vis FSX (or other sims) vs. X-Plane, and Spiritflyer has been awesome at catching those problems and solving them.

 

Now, threads are getting locked and shuffled at the slightest hint that a topic is being deviated from, and it's really killing the atmosphere of the forums. I can appreciate and welcome the need for moderation, but is there a way to reign it in a little?

I've been looking at X-Plane's section recently, and I agree that its atmosphere has been killed and there's too much moderation. While I'm not bothered because I don't own X-Plane and don't use that forum, I do feel sad for the users who can't go off-topic just for a bit. I know I'd be bothered if this happened in the FSX and Flight forums.

its already starting to happen in the fsx section.

 

I wouldn't say so. In the X-Plane forum, all I see is moved and locked threads. The FSX forum feels better.

When Moderators are new to their mandate it takes time to come to equilibrium, but having a topic remain current and not rehashing a point ad infinitum is important so as to "keep it fresh".

 

Its a fine line but once it gets stale the resulting discussion is a dead end where the same opinions get repeated and clarified 65 times, once that happens its time to move on to a new topic anyway, a form of accord could be said to have formed within the group where most share the same opinion with others.

 

From what i read in the X-Plane forum that point had been reached, remaining on topic is a policy here , there are many reasons but most are easy to see in the PMDG forum where things got out of hand, discussions there needed to be refocused, the "carryover" is the same in X-Plane and the FSX forums, we will try to keep it on topic and in the right forum, it goes with the territory...

 

Chuck Jodry

Managing Editor

Avsim.com

Thanks for the response, Chuck. I guess my biggest concern is that X-Plane's community here is still burgeoning, and as a new convert myself, I fear that a heavy hand might stifle the growth of it. Public interests feeds developer curiosity. The more people are interested in what the platform has to offer, the more a developer may be interested in committing resources toward developing aircraft and scenery for it. I don't want to sound like I'm asking for preferential treatment on behalf of the X-Plane side of things, but when you compare the forum traffic between those forums and the ones for FSX and related addons (PMDG, et al), the population and activity are relatively miniscule.

 

If Avsim has received a ton of complaints saying "You know, N-topic in the X-Plane forums has grown really stale, and I wish it could be locked or moved", I could see the need to get rigid and make sure the forum users walk the line, but as far as I can tell, there doesn't seem to be a problem.

 

Believe me, I'd love to see the day that the X-Plane forum activity is so busy that more strict moderation is necessary, because that means the user-base is strengthening and making the platform attractive to third parties. Right now, though, it's still in the sprout stage, and excessive pruning just might cause it to wither.

Thank you gentlemen for expressing your concerns. The last thing anyone wants is for our best intentions to perhaps not have the desired outcomes. Your feedback is valued as a fundamental part of our community standards.

 

Kind regards,