Why Dissent being punished by Cryptic? No freedom to express discord HERE

crusader2007

Disturbing trend from those who wish to silence public opinion here in the forums. Yes, I know this is a private company and Cryptic can do whatever they want with your freedom.
At least in America, there is freedom to speak out if you do so without "insulting" others. Shouldn't that concept hold true still in any business practice since it owes it that much to their customers?

Threads like "I quit" were understood to be deemed "closed". Well I understand but still kind of baseless in their approach to do so. Some of us are not breaking any rules except to just state our opinions.

More disturbing since now words like "RAGE", "Forums on FIRE" and lately "DOOM" has been added to the list. Is this to give a false sense of...nothing to see guys...just move on or hide what the "real wounds" of the last patch brought to this MMO?

However, those now deemed to be closed down since "management" does not like the unintended messages?

Can we at least add the list of "incendiary" terms to the forum "rules" since most of us dont know what those terms are. You cannot silence dissent or discord for those of us who disagree with how things are being run here.

The last patch brought up the ugly side of cryptic's business plan and I admit as well some ugly postings but not ALL were that bad. Freedom of speech should not be sanctioned if done in a respectful manner. It sends the wrong signal to your playerbase. Does Cryptic actually need another black eye besides the fiasco from last week?


Not speaking for anyone but myself and the voices who are no longer here due to last week's patch disaster. Enough has been done that a vast number of friends and peers have abandoned this ship. Please don't add more wood to the fire.

Treat folks like human beings not just a mere data NUMBERs.

kristaswift

Watch out...you will be censored by the ALLmighty cryptic:D

prierin

Everybody should have a right to speak their mind, positive or negative, even in criticising or commenting on game/site/forums rules as long as they do so in a calm and respectful manner.

I can see troll or flame thread which serve no purpose other than to shake a fist being closed. Unfortunately, threads which fall prey to these flametrolls are also closed when they go severely off-topic.

But yes, I agree: players should have the right to post comments of any kind as long as they are respectful and follow the basics of the forum rules, whether they agree with those rules or not.

/Inb4close

onerats

Pretty much. In 3. 2. 1.

In all honesty though, I'll be surprised if I finish typing this message of support before this thread is closed.

Here goes..

/Signed

generalklang

deokkent wrote: »

Who da fuuuuuuu is making these decisions??? I swear, a 2 years old is at the helm of this sinking ship.

A reasonable question

tekehd

You have the right to speak and voice your opinion in any public forum. you do not have the right to speak and voice your opinion anywhere and anytime you want. Your right to speach does not trump the property rights of others, for example. You can protest outside a restaurant, if you go inside you can be arrested, as that is not a public forum, and your removal is not a suspension of any right you possessed.

potencethe1st

Lower your shields and surrender for assimilation, we will add your technological and cultural traits to our own.


Resistance is futile.

virusdancer

I see it as a failure of the public education system...the number of folks that create threads like this.

gr4v1t4r

virusdancer wrote: »

I see it as a failure of the public education system...the number of folks that create threads like this.

If the community mods didn't keep closing threads for no apparant reason, people wouldn't need to keep making the same threads over and over. There is trolling in some of them, and various forms of rage and doom, but there are also valid points being made, concerns voiced, and relevant issues being discussed as well. If the community mods did what their title implies, *moderating* the threads instead of just closing them, these forums would run a whole lot smoother. Of course, there's not many of them, but if they can't cope with the workload they should just recruit some new volunteer mods.

prierin

gr4v1t4r wrote: »

If the community mods didn't keep closing threads for no apparant reason, people wouldn't need to keep making the same threads over and over. There is trolling in some of them, and various forms of rage and doom, but there are also valid points being made, concerns voiced, and relevant issues being discussed as well. If the community mods did what their title implies, *moderating* the threads instead of just closing them, these forums would run a whole lot smoother. Of course, there's not many of them, but if they can't cope with the workload they should just recruit some new volunteer mods.

I take it you've never been a community mod for a F2P mmorpg before, ya?

Every thread they close, they post a final message stating exactly WHY the thread is being closed. Nothing is closed for ‘no apparent reason’, just reasons you do not agree with.

Cryptic is making the forums a nightmare for the mods by conducting themselves in a manner which incites flamewars and player angst. I feel bad for them really. It’s like trying to catch the wind.

deadspacex64

censoring the forums of negative posts has never worked for any mmo. it has only ever made things worse. a fact, watched it happen in multiple mmo's...don't these people even learn from their competitors? have any common sense? realize that there is more than just this forum where people talk about the game?

same mistakes repeated. cryptic truly is off in their own little world. it's been explained to them at least a hundred times either nicely and coherently or with insult and aggression, pleading, logical explanations etc.

it's common sense if nothing else for a business...you don't treat your customers like ****. you aren't as important as they are. without them you don't have a business.

then there's the 'it will all blow over they'll get used to it'.

here's a little clue cryptic if any of you happen to read this thread and this post...

not all of us are kids with short attention spans and shorter memories easily swayed by shinys (events) kids don't have the cash to spend on this game much less you seriously over estimate how many young players you even have that will just swallow the BS and keep playing and spending.

but...meh, can get through the cryptic ego wall, not sure why i even still try. they think they're gods, always right.

final note...if players can't vent here they WILL vent somewhere else...not that you understand what kind of damage that can do to your reputation since you seem to think these forums are the only place where the venting occurs. that's why censoring has never worked for any mmo or game.

this is the internet, no matter how draconian you run your forums you can't control every other medium of information exchange out there. and word of mouth/text can kill games. at least when they were venting here it was mostly silent to the rest of the net, pushing them is such an intelligent move cryptic. that's sarcasm btw, i realize you love being called intelligent so you might not have caught that i didn't mean it.

and ty white knights/fanbois...you've managed to stroke cryptics collective egos into thinking they can do no wrong. gg and you wonder why other more rational players hate your type.

adorenko

OP- well constructed post and I hope this stays on page one for quite some time.

meimeitoo

If you read one of bluegeek's latest 'closure' posts, you will learn they've given us quite a bit of leeway venting our anger. I myself tend to get, erm, 'mildly upset' about stuff too. :P So, I appreciate them having let us get some steam off. It was needed.

I generally abhor censorship; but mods must also simply do their job, of course, and keep discord within acceptable bounds. And I appreciate that too.

And those 300 secs?! I have the feeling it may just be a temporary thingy. And even if not, putting at least 5 minutes of thinking into our posts, could actually improve the quality of them. And, speaking strictly for myself, there's really nothing so important I have to impart on the world, that it can't wait another 5 minutes.

janus1975

meimeitoo wrote: »

If you read one of bluegeek's latest 'closure' posts, you will learn they've given us quite a bit of leeway venting our anger...

In which case, the next step is voting with our wallets... I've already decided to do that. Congratulations Cryptic, you "win" if you think that's what this is.

neoakiraii

I must be on a different forum, because if they did close, and delete every negative post, the forums would be empty, and I would be bored.


So I'm waiting to post, yeah got like 37 seconds, so How are you guys doing......now 19 seconds..............8 seconds...4 LOL!!

meimeitoo

janus1975 wrote: »

In which case, the next step is voting with our wallets... I've already decided to do that. Congratulations Cryptic, you "win" if you think that's what this is.

I'm still voting with my wallet too (over 'Specgate' primarily); doesn't mean the forums have to look like a cesspool all the time, though. I can protest with the best them, but even *I* tire of all the negativity.

Saw a post today, something innocuous about Intel powers, and I thought: "Yes, that is what I really want to see more of again: people talking Trek, instead of Trash."

gaevsman

People, you are overrereacting, yes there is some problems with DR, they are working on it, i remember the first time the STFs where modified, almost the same rage.

Nothing is perfect and some ideas that work great on paper does not translate well in RL, we are in a time of change and adjustment, am pretty sure they will work in some kind of compromise, BTW, didint get the 300 sec waiting time...

ladymyajha

virusdancer wrote: »

I see it as a failure of the public education system...the number of folks that create threads like this.

^this.

I don't always agree with virusdancer, but I so agree this time.

cidstorm

You know the system is broken when discussing it is against the rules.

ladymyajha

cidstorm wrote: »

You know the system is broken when discussing it is against the rules.

I think the bigger issue here isn't that they don't let us dissent, hell I've done a ton of dissent posts in the past couple of weeks, and haven't been censored.

The problem is that there are dozens of threads on the forums, each saying the exact same thing, but instead of the person saying it in a thread that was already created, they feel the need to express their opinion in their own seperate thread.

So hell yes the Community Managers should be closing down and consolidating threads in that case.

Then when the thread that is open inevitably devolves into a bunch of personal attacks between apologetics and haters, the community manager shuts it down as well.

So it amazes me that people feel that they're being censored, when if you did it properly in threads already created and didn't insult each other, it wouldn't get shut down.

neoakiraii

But I'm a snowflake, I need my own thread...I'm a Peacock, YOU GOTTA LET ME FLY!!!

zero2362

The ability to voice criticism of cryptic is an exploit that was unintended by the devs and therefore must be nerfed

gulberat

I am not so sure either that it is all dissent being punished. I have spoken my piece at GREAT length--rationally and without flaming--even expressed a decision to withdraw not just cash purchases but to exit the Zen economy completely, and not had anything I said censored.

I do think, though, that Cryptic is having some serious problems in the crisis management and customer communications department, though, and is choosing the wrong solutions--solutions that make the problem worse instead of better. A bad appearance has been created by it and even though I am unwilling to ascribe it to malice, it's not at all a good thing that they are making decisions leading to the sorts of impressions seen in the OP.

I may think it's coming about differently but Cryptic has GOT to manage things better so even such perceptions wouldn't occur--because it oftentimes does not matter so much what is true as what is perceived and felt. And if people feel like they are being antagonized, it's not going to benefit anyone.

virusdancer

neoakiraii wrote: »

But I'm a snowflake, I need my own thread...I'm a Peacock, YOU GOTTA LET ME FLY!!!

IMHO, they should have given LTS playable peacocks instead of Talaxians...

ladymyajha wrote: »

^this.

I don't always agree with virusdancer, but I so agree this time.

Lies! Everybody agrees with me all the time...except me, sometimes I just don't agree with some of the things I say.

But yeah, it's one thing for folks to complain about censorship and it's another to break out the freedom of speech thing. It's such a fundamental misunderstanding of the concept, one is left to wonder if folks weren't invoking their 'freedom to sleep' during any of the classes that were covering freedom of speech.

jtmarsh

In the end you have no rights to freedom of speech when your on "my" lawn. My property! I can shut you up and kick you out of my property. Now that does not stop you from talking from the sidewalk. Further more I can invite you back to my yard and set new rules. But after a week change the rules again and kick you out.

Same with these forums & game. These forums and the game are Cryptics yard. You have only the rights they give you and they can change those rights "those rules" whenever they want. You don't like what they do in game like the dill grind or killing off sector patrols then you can move on. If you don't like forum rules or don't like that they censor you then again move on. Find a forum "stand outside there yard"and talk smack. Cryptic like other MMO games have TOS that are spelled out that in the end makes sure your "rights" don't trump the yard they own and you talk and play on.

deadspacex64

gaevsman wrote: »

People, you are overrereacting, yes there is some problems with DR, they are working on it, i remember the first time the STFs where modified, almost the same rage.

Nothing is perfect and some ideas that work great on paper does not translate well in RL, we are in a time of change and adjustment, am pretty sure they will work in some kind of compromise, BTW, didint get the 300 sec waiting time...

they aren't working on it, they are ignoring it. spec points yanked from people who didn't deserve it, elites at 2x and taking 5x longer than normals. in what world does that makes sense? run 5 normals get 3x the xp with less effort and time than running one elite.

hmmm, what else, t6 ships cost 3k, t5u's cost 3.2k. lack of comparable ships for romulans and kdf which is the same typical BS year after year. milk the whales eh?

and then there's the new perks for subs and lts...and you can't see exactly what that's for? aimed at people who spent a considerable amount of money trying to placate them.

massively increasing dil costs for everything since S7 and fewer dil rewards along with the same cap. oh, and they just lost probably quite a few dil farmers as well cause a farmers just a grinder and they were probably some of the people grinding tau dewa or anything else and then got called exploiters.

it's not just the bugs or glitches, it's the entire system. it's cryptic not having a clue even how their own in game economy runs. without farmers of dil, few people are going to be selling dil, and then only enough for an upgrade token or a t6 ship, after that they need it for themselves for upgrades and the rest of the stuff that costs tons. so that zen sitting on the exchange is going nowhere fast.

they didn't TRIBBLE up one thing, or 2 things...they made a fuster cluck that congress would be in awe of. and like congress...they take absolutely no responsibility and blame the players/people for their TRIBBLE ups.

cidstorm

ladymyajha wrote: »

I think the bigger issue here isn't that they don't let us dissent, hell I've done a ton of dissent posts in the past couple of weeks, and haven't been censored.

The problem is that there are dozens of threads on the forums, each saying the exact same thing, but instead of the person saying it in a thread that was already created, they feel the need to express their opinion in their own seperate thread.

So hell yes the Community Managers should be closing down and consolidating threads in that case.

Then when the thread that is open inevitably devolves into a bunch of personal attacks between apologetics and haters, the community manager shuts it down as well.

So it amazes me that people feel that they're being censored, when if you did it properly in threads already created and didn't insult each other, it wouldn't get shut down.

You missed the point of my post. Discussing modernism is in itself against the rules and that's a big indicator of how the forums are being run.

cptjhunter

Oh, well more time to drink beer between posts.

That always works out well.