Bah, call it lie or massively misleading. It gives the only impression that the post was flagged by community, it is pure semantics that all mods and cms are counted in there. Even your link is clearly giving the one and only impression that a flagged post is flagged by other members of the community and common sense this means other USERs, not mods or CMs...

I'm not going to argue with this. If you want this changed, contact Discourse (the MSFS software) and have them change it:
https://www.discourse.org/

5 hours ago, Jancey27 said:

I'm not going to argue with this. If you want this changed, contact Discourse (the MSFS software) and have them change it:
https://www.discourse.org/

Does the Discourse software have a "bad word" algorithm or something more advanced, like an AI-driven parser that can flag problem posts?

1 hour ago, Mace said:

Does the Discourse software have a "bad word" algorithm

Yes, it does. And this list is extensive. However, the message sent to the user is different than what AnkH is posting about. Basically the message to the user is that your post is waiting for approval and won't be posted until a moderator reviews it.

On 1/25/2026 at 6:48 PM, Jancey27 said:

The word "community" means anyone using the forum (Admins, CM's, moderators or any user that is active on the forum)

Yes, that is really misleading.

I think most people would deem "community" in that context, to mean the user base.  A moderator hiding a post is an entirely different prospect.

I don't have a horse in this race as I just never use the official forum and don't even have a registration. The way it is organised just doesn't provide anything useful for me.  I view it very occasionally, purely when I've Googled something (Eg. "VL3 missing autopilot") and the official forum has come up in the search results.   

As a passing outsider, it's very clear that there is significant moderator overreach and excessive interference by moderators in there.  It's what happens when you give someone who wants power, even a tiny bit of power.   If you give a monkey some small stones, he will throw them at passers-by, whether they deserve it or not. 😄

Edited January 28Jan 28 by JYW

I actually had a post there with 7 likes in only 10 minutes or so which got "flagged by the community"... 

Its clearly their mods. 

Apparently there are real human moderators, but I would not be surprised if it is AI.  There's multiplayer games that have text chat and the AI moderation is hilariously random.  It will ban completely harmless things, while letting actual offensive things through.  I don't know if that's what is going on there, but MS is big on AI (as is every other tech company).  Companies are shoe horning AI into everything, regardless of whether it works or not.  They spent billions and it will be used.  

Regardless, I think people are tilting at windmills here.  A major corporation runs that forum, and what is or isn't on there is 100% up to them.  You can talk about "freedom" all you want, it really isn't relevant.  I doubt it is some personal power trip, but more the image of a massive corporation.  Public image is everything to these companies.  

I deal with big tech companies all the time, and they don't even like you emailing about a bug.  They will only talk to you on the phone, they don't want an electronic record of them even discussing an issue with their product.  Big corporations with big legal teams... I'd have more luck shouting at the sky trying to change the weather.  

Edited January 28Jan 28 by kerosene31

2 hours ago, kerosene31 said:

Regardless, I think people are tilting at windmills here.  A major corporation runs that forum, and what is or isn't on there is 100% up to them.  You can talk about "freedom" all you want, it really isn't relevant.  I doubt it is some personal power trip, but more the image of a massive corporation.  Public image is everything to these companies.  

Exactly this. 

The whole premise of this thread is slightly ludicrous. It's like the captain of a ship complaining about the weather....

15 minutes ago, DD_Arthur said:

Public image is everything to these companies.  

*November 2024 has entered the chat*

On 1/24/2026 at 11:56 AM, Jancey27 said:

As a retired 5 year moderator on the official MSFS Forums, I can see "most" points here. I was one of several moderators to try to get the Code of Conduct relaxed over the years. Moderators are end users of MSFS and will assist on escalating bugs in MSFS.

However, please keep in mind that all moderators have moderator guidelines issued by MS to uphold the Code of Conduct.

Bans/Silences are approved by MS and all CM's and some Asobo staff can view all messages and deleted posts by all users of the forum. Especially any messages sent by a moderator. 

Also, all your DM's on the forum can be read by MS/Asobo.

I see some posting on here where they were not banned. It's amazing how much is NOT said about why they were banned.

Myself and other moderators generally go over the warning limits of the Code of Conduct before escalating a ban on users.

If you have any questions, concerns, issues, contact the Microsoft Community Team here:
https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/welcome-to-the-public-forums/121637

To Note: One of the CM's has blocked DM's of which I disagree they block them. All CM's should be openly available to DM. That current CM is: Chewwy:
https://forums.flightsimulator.com/u/chewwy94
 

Sincerely,
Hester40MT (retired from the MSFS Forums)

Gotta keep it pretty blunt here....

You were ALL pretty terrible! As a whole your entire chemistry and collaboration as staff have played the part in running off the very heart beat and life of those forums. 

That place was thriving with so many knowledgeable generous passionate flight simmers the first 2 years. The overzealous moderation as a whole and flawed flagging system created a very tense "walk on eggshells" environment for users who genuinely possessed great intentions. The only staff member who actually carried out duties with any sort of compassion, discernment and rational was Jummivana and it appears toward the later era of the forums even that Community Manager started to appear mentally exhausted and jaded. It's hard not to feel this way when one has personally witnessed and enjoyed the first two bright years of the official forums. They were sprawling with life,ideas, and created friendship foundations. We've witnessed the downward spiral of these genuine enthusiastic flight simmers begin to take an exit on to greener pastures. Every section now feels lifeless and unfriendly, the general section is terrible with 500 page threads about absolutely nothing.

You all ruined a great thing honestly! That place was everything from 2020-2022 as all good things come to an end eventually. The core enthusiasm and pulse of that place were the very users you all discouraged from being able to express ideas and opinions. If creating a crappy soulless bot like Reddit environment was the goal of those forums, then congratulations the mission was surely accomplished! 

Thanks!

Edited January 30Jan 30 by blueshark747

Mentally exhausted and jaded is why we let the bots, that have the upper hand in the sanity / logic department, run the show.

Forum moderation is a mild form of torture IMO.

dd

 

That forum only create divisions; and nothing else; label forum users with 'titles' is not a good idea; as a result the forum has been abandoned.

4 hours ago, blueshark747 said:

Gotta keep it pretty blunt here....

You were ALL pretty terrible! As a whole your entire chemistry and collaboration as staff have played the part in running off the very heart beat and life of those forums. 

That place was thriving with so many knowledgeable generous passionate flight simmers the first 2 years. The overzealous moderation as a whole and flawed flagging system created a very tense "walk on eggshells" environment for users who genuinely possessed great intentions. The only staff member who actually carried out duties with any sort of compassion, discernment and rational was Jummivana and it appears toward the later era of the forums even that Community Manager started to appear mentally exhausted and jaded. It's hard not to feel this way when one has personally witnessed and enjoyed the first two bright years of the official forums. They were sprawling with life,ideas, and created friendship foundations. We've witnessed the downward spiral of these genuine enthusiastic flight simmers begin to take an exit on to greener pastures. Every section now feels lifeless and unfriendly, the general section is terrible with 500 page threads about absolutely nothing.

You all ruined a great thing honestly! That place was everything from 2020-2022 as all good things come to an end eventually. The core enthusiasm and pulse of that place were the very users you all discouraged from being able to express ideas and opinions. If creating a crappy soulless bot like Reddit environment was the goal of those forums, then congratulations the mission was surely accomplished! 

Thanks!

Very well said, there was a chap posting very detailed VR issues in the early days who got posts hidden (and banned IIRC) for no good reason whatsoever. His posts had no malicious intent, were always forthright with valid facts and examples yet the mod/s decided to silence him because it showed the product and platform of MSFS VR in a bad light (which it very much was), the trouble with MSFS mods is that they're not impartial in any way shape or form, never have been never will be and that is the problem.

I do wonder, why would someone ever want to be a volunteer mod there ? 

Are they aware that MS is a corporate with net worth estimated at over 3 trillion USD ? Pretty sure they can pay them. 

 

4 hours ago, NextGenSimmer said:

I do wonder, why would someone ever want to be a volunteer mod there ? 

Are they aware that MS is a corporate with net worth estimated at over 3 trillion USD ? Pretty sure they can pay them. 

 

The modern world !