[Sundraoi]

The staff has noticed this new way of voicing complaints/issues through PSA threads. I do understand you are trying to help players but we must remember not everyone plays the same. These PSAs that are cropping up seem to be more along the line of "this is how is should be done" when in actuality we have no set rules on how to use your HiPS, RP your sneaking, selling to merchants or any other way someone might RP/play differently than you think it should be.

With that in mind, the current PSA threads have been locked and will be edited for content and language. From this point on, ALL complaints, issues, ideas, etc need to be PMed to Sundraoi. I will look over each one, edit for content if needed and bring it before the staff for added information before posting a thread on it if we, the staff, feel it necessary.

Thank you
The Staff

[Balanor]

I am posting this as a reminder regarding our forum moderation policy. This post, published early last year, explains a practice I have believed in since Thay’s inception. I not only encourage, but request, all staff members follow this moderation practice as well. In particular, I first want to reiterate the opening section, and ask that all community members re-familiarize yourself with the background behind my decision regarding forum moderation:
 

As everyone can find by simply browsing almost any online forum, comments on news articles, and Facebook especially, it quickly becomes apparent that negativity breeds quickly on the internet. For NWN, it turns PW forums like this from being a place to share information and gather together with other like-minded individuals, to a place where problems with a person, feature, potential bug, or the PW as a whole are hung out for everyone to see. Even worse, transforming it to a place where people say things they would never think of saying to another person face-to-face.

Because of the negativity that persists on most internet forums, and because some people, when anonymous, enjoy fostering disagreement/discord on them rather than using them as a place for constructive conversations, I practice what I consider No-Negative Forum Moderation. By that I mean, whenever there are threads or posts that appear to be turning negative, that they already have more of a negative connotation than positive, or that they may cause more hard feelings or problems than they solve, they are removed from the public view on this forum.

 
In addition, I also want to repeat the final part of that post.
 

To be blunt; the administration of these forums and the Thay PW are not run by committee. We have all seen, time and again, the internet turn decent people into assholes. Because of that and the reasons stated initially, some of these public opportunities/debates that can encourage that transformation are limited here for the sake of all the volunteers (both staff and players) who choose to make the best of their gaming time in Thay.
If a thread or post of yours was removed, you may receive a PM about it and the reason why from someone on staff. If not, and you are wondering about it, reach out to our community representative to ask about its status.

In closing, I do realize that what is considered positive or negative is very subjective, but I try to follow common sense when determining if something is removed from public view or not, encourage the staff members here to do the same, and now ask all of you reading this to use your own common sense when posting here. I do take player and staff comments very seriously and will act on them, if I feel it is appropriate or necessary for the PW. But since this place is run and frequented by volunteers, some of who have given immense amounts of their time and effort to provide a PW option for you to play, this is where I draw the line as to what these volunteers deal with on the public forums.

 
The point of this post is to reiterate how these forums are handled is nothing new. It’s been this way since my PW prior to Thay went down in flames. Which occurred, in part, due to my naivety in allowing people to say anything they wanted to on the public forums which helped crush morale and drive good people away.

If anyone wishes to see a PW done differently, there are other options out there. Maybe you can find one where the server admins/team who, after spending the thousands of hours of their own time forming a PW and forums, still allows people on their forums to exercise all the free speech, name calling, flame wars, or all other general mayhem that ensues from letting anonymous people air all their grievances publicly with other anonymous people/things. If so - feel free to exercise your *privilege* (not your *right*) to do whatever you want on those forums.

But here is not that place.