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Originally posted by jrscott

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Originally posted by Stradden

Hey Guys,

I feel the need to respond at this point. Not because I have been personally attacked a number of times, but because I appear not to have made the reasons clear.

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Seriously, not to suck up, but I think most of us know your job is very difficult.  You ALWAYS handle things gracefully, and for that you are to be commended.  SOE could take lessons from you on how to remain responsive and polite without appearing arrogant.

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Originally posted by Shayde
So what happened to the "You can talk ABOUT it, just not link it" rule?

If it creates too many posts, why not make an emu thread like the hate $OE thread?

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How about it?

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Originally posted by Stradden

Hey Guys,

I feel the need to respond at this point. Not because I have been personally attacked a number of times, but because I appear not to have made the reasons clear.

Yes, Emulator servers are a gray area. That is not the reason that the decision was made to disallow discussion of the EMU in question. I have asked that people not talk about it, because of the huge number of a) threads that were created on the same subject, clogging up the forum, and b) the fact that nearly every thread concerning the EMU contained flames and other rule violations.

The simple fact of the matter is that we had decided to allow conversation about the EMU. It progressed for some time before we were forced to remove the threads because of the rules that were being violated. The topic has become troll and flame bait. It was either take this stance, or be forced into a large number of bans.

I have said before and will say again: We have no intention of censoring anyone. However, we must remember that our rules are in place to make MMORPG.com a fun place for all of our members. When one single subject takes over a forum as well as encourages people to break the rules, it is reasonable to remove those posts. 

I would also like to say that who does or does not advertise with this site has absolutely no effect on the site's content or the decisions of the site's content Editors. We have, for example, run numerous articles that denounce the secondary market (even though, as was pointed out, we do have gold-seller advertising) here is the most recent of them. We have also given poor reviews to games that advertise with us. Likewise, advertisement does not effect decisions that are made regarding the forums.

I hope that this clears things up for people. I realize that there will be some who, for whatever reason, will disagree, but I felt that the reasons for this decision should be made clear in as up-front and honest a way as possible.

Cheers,

Jon "Stradden" Wood, Community Manager

Also, for those concerned with the virtual seller ads, there is a sticky for just that purpose:

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/67413

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Using your logic the entire discussion of star wars galaxies should have been locked a long time ago.  I for one would rather you excerise forum moderation on the rule violations then to blanketly ban a topic from discussion.   Your method dispite the noble intention of community relation will make posters and readers feel like they cannot discuss openly the games if a topic is at all controversial.  While EMU's operate in a grey area it is something for gamers to have honest conversations about the legality and consquences of gaming on an emu server.  I have seen some rather interesting posts about the experiences this community has had on other emu's.  I would never have had the oppurtunity to learn this if the moderation policy you're set to deploy was around a few weeks ago.

This site and others like it allow those of us displaced and kicked aside by SOE to gather and communicate about developments with our very loved star wars mmo.  For us the progress of the "duck" and what is occurring is important.  I don't track the ducks website.  I rely on other posters here to bring the news of what is happening.  Your stance will really hurt this reader who now faces the daunting task of finding another mmo source that allows a public forum and the posting of emu threads so I can figure out what is going on and the ongoing rumors.

Its a shame you are so ready to throw all that away because you dont want to moderate the topic.

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Originally posted by iskareot

Boy did some of the term "Freedom of Speech" take a major blow with this post.

I have to wonder if SOE has input on the forums here.

I mean really, what is so bad about talking about it in the first place?   There is only one issue - WORRY.

There would be no issue if nobody considered it a risk factor.   At least I know where they stand now.. I did not ever make a post about it but seeing someone say (Hey do NOT talk about somthing) is just not exactly cool.

Free Press and speach is pretty much going to be a thing of the past soon I think.

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Wow, you go out of town for the weekend and all kinds of hell breaks loose.  

So, no more discussion of Easterm Michigan, umm...ok.   One of the previous posters had a good point though stradden, if discussing Eastern Michigan University is illegal because it causes flames and rule breaking, to follow along with that line of thinking you would have to shut down the whole SWG forum (please dont do that ).

So just as a quick recap:  apparently this weekend there were some over the top EMU threads; the EMU devs came over and started bithcing (what about?); LA is somehow involved (huh?); and Juliio bitchslapped Smed for running away to belize with their lovechild.   What else did I miss?          

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Originally posted by Stradden
Hello,

It has come to my attention that there have been far too many threads regarding a specific Star Wars Galaxies EMU server. As you may or may not be aware, MMORPG.com does not condone the discussion of EMU servers, as they are, at best, a gray area.

As you may have noticed, our moderators have removed such threads from the forums. This is not because we wish to limit what you can talk about here, but rather that these discussions were causing a number of unnecessary headaches for our staff as they work to make MMORPG.com a plesant place for all of our members.

Continued discussion of this topic will result in warnings and/or bans, as approrpiate.

I apologise for any inconcenience this may have caused.

Sincerely,
Jon "Stradden" Wood, MMORPG.com Community Manager

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while i respect your intentions, i have to say, if you want to have a website based on respect and honesty, you should outlaw any discussion of the NGE.  it was developed and created in a fraudulent manner, its existence was denied in a fraudulent manner, then it was released in a fraudulent manner, and insults the intelligence and accomplishments of every true SWG player and/or fan.

other than this one issue, i believe you run a tight ship here and enjoy visiting often....

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Originally posted by Shayde
Selling currency in ANY videogame is NOT illegal.

Period.

Now it does break most companies EULA, which is a very weak contract between the gamer and the provider. At MOST you can get banned from playing the game.

To recap... Gold selling is NOT Illegal... just against company policy.

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