Yes and how many times do those criticizing the product and dev practices start hurling personal insults at each other? It's usually the "fan boys" that start it all and get threads closed, and for good reason. Those that have praised the sim enough are brought on as Leaders with the power to hide posts immediately.

Edited January 13, 20224 yr by SubtotalGuide

50 minutes ago, charliearon said:

... this site and the other ones as a "benevolent dictatorship".  Otherwise, all hell can break loose!

There actually is no otherwise. There doesn't have to be a stated reason for how things are, ever. I am a member of another forum for entirely different subject matter, just not quite as long-lived as AVSIM. Some members behave as if controversial issues are solved by a hand-raising democracy of voters. Not so, so not so! You don't like the rules, then stay away. Full stop.  

It's all quite simple to me.  If you go to forums where there are commercial interests, such as the MSFS or Aerosoft forums, expect the moderators to have a bias towards supporting the product and shutting down negative threads - whether it is fair or not, it's just natural.

On more neutral forums like this, never mind the rules or whether it is a democracy or not, you have an expectation that the moderators will be more even handed.

I think here, 99% of times, they get it right to a high degree.  They give a holiday to those that are being offensive, and they close down useless rants, with a bit of sympathy to be lenient with those where is is obvious it is just frustration showing through (and lets face it, there has been a lot of frustration at times with this product).  They also seem wise in the main to those who go into threads to start trouble and get the threads closed down - there are a few here who try to do that, normally it's when someone raises a complaint; then it's like Asobo themselves show up to ridicule the complainers and close down any discussion!  

I find the MSFS forum to be useful for positive discussions and help from developers if you can overlook the negative threads being swept under the carpet, so it is useful, and it is the second forum I check after this one if I am having a problem with something.

If there is a general rule that I would like to see mutually agreed a bit more, outside of the typical forum rules, here or at the MSFS forum, it would be...  If someone has raised a positive thread, don't go in and rain on their parade - just have some restraint and leave it alone.
And likewise, if someone wants to let off some steam due to frustration, don't go in and pile on more pain by calling them a whinger or whiner, that's just cheap.  In both of these cases, the people who do it lack humility, but unfortunately they are normally the type that aren't bothered.

Edited January 13, 20224 yr by bobcat999

22 hours ago, Blueline308 said:

Don't forget that the few things that have been successfully fixed in this game were because of the 'rants' and 'negativity' that seems to nauseate some of you

My 3 year old grandaughter "rants" but that's because she is too young to know how to go about complaining objectively.

22 minutes ago, CarlosF said:

My 3 year old grandaughter "rants" but that's because she is too young to know how to go about complaining objectively.

Much like many chronologically ‘mature’ people here.

One good thing both the official forums and Avsim have is when some mods warn an ongoing thread to stay on track. This is really good.

On the official forum as soon as someone says something  like "Hi, in X-Plane 11 you can do this this and this -  can we have a similar function in MSFS?" it is at risk of becoming a fan.boi trigger. Good mods see this and I have seen them step in and say to stay on subject.

This sort of intervention keeps the thread open while giving people a heads up to not let it go downhill into "my sim is better than your sim" mud slinging.

Edited January 13, 20224 yr by ThrottleUp