… without establishing some kind of dictatorship?
[I didn’t have the time to post this on the other thread before it was locked. Reason why I’m creating this one. I hope I did it right, creating threads looks complicated.]
The reaction I wanted to post:
Hmm, I understand your point but wouldn’t doing this be counterproductive? Giving them reason? Making them look like a victim and us would-be dictators?
I mean a forum has rules, and if you break said rules, you get punished. Forums aren’t a democracy.
The real issue in my view, honestly, is that some users have been able to flaunt the rules for a long time unabated, while also not really contributing anything to the forums as a whole. Someone of the recent, shall we say - skirmishes - are a result of this being allowed to continue for so long.
Things aren’t occurring in a vacuum. Users like these have posts flagged by many regular users, which draws moderation, and are cautioned elsewhere (often DMs). It’s the flagging by many people that automatically hid their post initially.
They’ve been posting about censorship, social media, and society, across multiple threads that have little to do with the topic. If they repeatedly continue and lash out at those telling them to move on, as they seem to want to do, then yes they’ll be muted, and likely removed from the space. If they can’t take any instruction to tone it down or move on as anything but a blight to society and their person then what are we to do but that? They can’t just have free reign to get on the nerves of most others and push everyone out of the threads they inhabit.
Moderators sadly have to put up with some people thinking they’re dictators, but most understand that individual actions aren’t just isolated punishments.
Regular users were flagging his off-topic posts for days now - anonymously, because nobody wants negative attention like this right here. What did that led to? It led to him screaming “censorship” and stirring drama and writing about invisible oppressors. This is the order of cause-effect here. Guy tries to be above the rules and only pretends to be a victim to bystanders like you that have not red much of his posts and haven’t received any PMs from him…
Being a sunday/volunteer mod I decided to counter that narrative of invisible censorship by doing it in the open and giving him a stern warning - a warning I have even no privileges to act upon (not exactly a dictator).
I think people have taken my let’s have a community where we chat, about things build a fully rounded community a little too far. Let’s try and keep things civil. We are not here to debate politics religion or conspiracy theory’s.
The posts that were flagged were off topic and rightly flagged.
Let’s play nice peeps
Let me start this by saying “I come in peace”.
I said i’d take a little break from saying crazy things in these forums, but I don’t think if I make a post here it violates that promise to stop causing trouble, especially if I’m attempting to deescalate things and take my share of responsibility for all the “random crazed nonsense” I’ve been spewing.
I guess what I just wanted to attempt to do was give context, I know this probably won’t help anything, but I feel compelled to at least TRY to explain myself.
It’s a bit off putting to have a thread dedicated to you where everyone is nonchalantly referring to you as a crazy person and these people are the mods running the website 
I don’t have to tell you guys this, but America is a silly place. And it also happens to be the epicenter of where all the venture capital came from that turned Unity upside down. But it’s not JUST America that has craziness, I think it’s also those European speech rules that necessitated the migration to these forums in the first place! I could be wrong, maybe you guys are right, maybe I am crazy 
But for what it’s worth my perception of the world doesn’t come from online conspiracies. I’ve worked in this industry many years, in many teams, ranging from game studios to tech firms, to writing teams to art houses, again in America and to be specific, I’ve worked in some of the most politically charged places in this country for years on end. I can’t expect anyone to understand these dynamics.
I’m going to stop myself from getting to “conspiratorial” or from saying anything that could be construed as political, as again, I am truly tired of being a pain in the ass, and just causing grievances. Yes there is a lot of anger and rage in what people say online sometimes. But for many of us, we want to air problems because we want solutions.
No one here decided one day “You know what, I think i’m goinna S*(@ in the Unity’s discussions cheerios today and go out of their way to be a thorn in the side of this company or its community”.
Many of us are tied to this engine and being dragged down by very poor decisions and poor fiscal policy. Most simply screamed and left. I guess maybe I’m just a special kind of annoying and remained here screaming day after day. I did not choose for all of this to go down like this, or for me to be so closely linked to the chaos that I perceived to be pertinent to the Unity situation.
What I will say is I can’t blame anyone for not having any frame of reference for thinking I’m one of those “crazed American lunatics”. And I also understand that on the world stage, my brand of crazy is not the most liked people regardless.
If it wasn’t for our problems Unity would be this fun piece of tech from Europe and everything would be dandy. But all that big money and corporatism from America messed everything up. And on top of that, we’re all hearing about all these crazy people who have all these conspiracies that are ruining this industry, and as it’s talked about oversees, we are not put in the best light. I can’t fault anyone for the lived experiences and data that they have available to them.
What’s wrong with all those silly Americans? We don’t have any of those problems here, what a bunch of crazies… And you’re right. I’m a bit jealous that you guys have no idea WTF i’m talking about, and that I look like a total crazy person, I understand that where you’re from it’s easy to see who the good guys are and who the crazy people are without too much craziness.
Others of you happen to be in this industry stateside, and so long as you’re in the right “crowd” I look even more crazy. But I won’t get into that right now 
I know what it’s like to think this way, because 5 years ago before all this craziness I thought very similarly and would react the exact same way to my posts.
All i’m going to say is things have gotten really crazy in this industry in this part of the world, and maybe if things start to change and more is revealed about how our industry has been operating between all this venture capital craziness and the rampant tribalism maybe some day you guys will see that I wasn’t that crazy after all… Or maybe I actually am totally nuts and i’m still just spewing more annoying BS i don’t even know any more
Have I gone overboard? Talked my mouth off for years and endlessly gone off my rocker attacking this invisible specter incessantly like a total unhinged weirdo? Yes I have, and I’m sorry you guys have had to witness this, because when I look at my own post history, even I cringe.
But you dedicate so much of your life to an industry, to an engine, and a community and you see it all go up in flames, and it can do weird things to your mind, especially when you’re years deep into a project and you feel like you have no where to escape and the building is on fire between all this nuttiness.
Anyway, I told myself I wouldn’t try to use this post to try to change any minds, or to throw more insanity out there.
I just wanted to say I get you guys think I’m crazy, and that it sucks that I have ruined this forum experience for many of you. I can’t expect any of you to understand, and if I take a step back, I can even see the good in what you guys are trying to do. I would do the same in your position, because the crap I spout here sounds totally crazy.
I guess that’s about it. I’ve more or less blathered all the things I wanted to say, and don’t really want to cause any more frustrations at my outbursts, it’s not your guys’ friggin’ problem to be blunt, but IMO it IS Unity’s problem, you’ve just had to bear witness to these incessant fits.
Unity and this industry will hopefully heal, and I feel at this point running my mouth here isn’t going to do any good, and just makes me look like a crazy person in front of those who have no way of knowing if anything I say has any validity.
So I think i’ll just leave this there. Sorry for going nuts on these forums, in my mind i’m fighting the good fight, but if everyone thinks you’re a nut, and just wants you gone, are you really making anything better?
Sorry again for the headaches. I’ll probably be posting in the coming days regarding the Unite function, but I promise to keep it “crazy free”, and to stop being a nuisance on these forums in general.
I think in time we may come to a better understanding of what Unity is, what this industry is and where it needs to go, but right now, people are all wound up with preconceived notions wondering WTF is happening.
Here’s hoping we can all get back to talking about cool Unity features and not worrying about that one crazy guy on the forums on some weird f*cking crusade ruining everything.
And i’ll be frank, I shouldn’t be all like “hey let’s all be chums” and all uplifting and crap at the end here. I understand I’ve been a total f*cking dick. I accept that, and again, sorry.
I’ll go so far to say that it won’t surprise me at all if this post gets flagged and removed, that’s fine, probably a little deserved. Just wanted to get this off my mind. It’s an unfortunate situation we’ve all been through and all suffered together in recent years. Hope things get better in the future and that this is a positive Unite.
There are no dictators here for those who stay on topic of Unity or at least game development. Simple stuff really. Want to fight a culture war → go on twitter. This is not the place for it. And people who bring it everywhere with them should rethink their behaviour online. Many of us are not Americans, first of all. Secondly, it doesn’t impact my life in any shape or form so I don’t want to see it shoved in my face in all online spaces where I visit. It’s a conflict that is blown way out of proportion and frankly ruins everything it touches.
To those outside of the states, I totally agree, and I regret you have had to suffer this bullsh%t. Ok, that was last post i’ll make in this thread, no matter how much I might want to post more.
Since the idea of censorship keeps being brought up it might help to read up on what freedom of speech actually protects because it doesn’t give someone the right to mouth off on just anything they want to. It doesn’t protect you on a forum run by a private company because it doesn’t actually apply to them. It only applies to government. Unity isn’t a government therefore it’s not censorship and it’s definitely not a dictatorship. To my knowledge (and ChatGPT’s) this is the same for every country’s freedom of speech.
all this talk about “censorship” and “freedoms” like we are in front of the Supreme Court of the United States is funny but just a lame diversion from both @Brach_Unity (as unity representative) and various volunteer moderators like @andrew-lukasik or @vertxxyz
the only truth is that you are removing any posts that have minimal criticism of unity in threads that are created by unity for feedback which is really something. I’m not going back years with examples, no need, I’ve had experienced this behavior in the new forum a couple of times in the past month
unity creates thread about feedback on what they can improve unity 2D, I tell you “make a game like you have tried with gigaya and find yourself what the issues with the engine are” nope, post removed. Random users like @spiney199 or @Ryiah and others (mentioning you because you have posted here) flags the posts, volunteer moderators show up and deletes, these admins like @Brach_Unity approves the behavior because they want their unpaid moderators, they don’t want to pay money for quality moderation with clear rules and honesty.
unity creates thread about “we sorry, we changed, we get back to the good days” I ask for clarification on the moderation which really got downhill when the disaster of last year happen, same behavior like above, deletes posts of being off topic.
do you think is normal that a random volunteer moderator shuts down the forum redesign feedback created by @Brach_Unity because “there is nothing else to talk about”? incredible
you can keep talking about this censorship like some abstract ideal. i know this really makes you really mad for some reason but my opinion is that starting with leonardP and going down on the ladder you should all get removed and unity should bring new people with fresh minds.
and really start punishing users that abuse the “flag posts” when they don’t agree with that person.
I’ve got invited here to posts by @andrew-lukasik let us see how much time this post remains live. and how you all like to quote some random text from this post then deletes it. then keep your post visible.
unity creates thread about feedback on what they can improve unity 2D, I tell you “make a game like you have tried with gigaya and find yourself what the issues with the engine are” nope, post removed.
For context here’s what the topic was:
And this was your reply:
When politely told what the topic was, how you could meaningfully contribute, and where you could choose to give the feedback you were ranting about, you then continued to argue about it. Such a mystery why your posts were flagged and removed, really must be censorship! No criticisms allowed!
If you can’t look at your behaviour and realise why it’s unacceptable then you’re beyond help.
You realise you’re the only person here who gets their posts removed on the regular?
There’s no mass censorship. Just one user who breaks the rules consistently on one hand, while believing they can’t do anything wrong on the other hand.
And you do realise paid moderators would be even more beholden to Unity’s whims? Even more of your posts would be removed in that case.
Tbf I fully support “make your own game” statement 
Cuz there are so much problems in a workflow that it is strange it is not fixed till this day and it all on the surface you need just open editor and start using it
Tbf x2 majority of this problems will be fixed in the next generation so…
And I appreciate you coming here, thank you for that. I can’t guarantee your post permanency, because I have no such power, but I’m very positive your post won’t be removed - and not because it isn’t criticizing Unity or this platform’s opaque moderation process - but because given post is on-topic and isn’t glaringly mean.
This isn’t an accurate representation of what we do. We’re but maintainers, cleaners and doorkeepers here and you seem to have a low awareness of that. Everyone have their own private reasons for doing this but this is not some kind of corporate power fantasy role.
80% of what we do is reviewing flagged posts - most of which are AI spam bots trying to snick in ad links here. We very rarely remove posts from actual people (not on their own request). That being said, there was sudden uptake in said reports in recent weeks - all concerning just 2 forum users, interestingly enough.
This is a very good point. You have no idea what you ask for. Current system is opaque, possibly unfair and susceptible to misuse - yes x 3. But oh boi, just wait till the corporate cavalry comes with their fashionable KPIs and budgets to enforce them.
I’m one of the few because in the past year the rest got away, likely they have lower tolerance to the abuse and less time on their hand. Like I’ve explained to your friend above, constant abuse against users that have suggestions or concerns destroyed the community, and with that the client base. I recognize you as one of the users that is always first in this activity, it is amazing to me how unity let you do this (you and a couple of similar accounts like you), even after loosing most of their game developer base.
the mechanism of
I don’t know who is the other user you are talking about but there was no interruption in removal of my posts in the past 12 months (for the reasons I’ve already stated)
you are saying this “curios” “inexplicably” spike because unity decided to create this new forum, so I’m providing feedback on that, and they have decided to go back to the license as it was before the unity apocalypse happened, which is another big deal I’m providing feedback on.
so I’m not just randomly “troll around with no reason”, there is a new forum that has big issues, and new important unity announcements that I need clarification.
but nope, I get random users flagging posts and also random volunteer moderator that have issues in me asking question to unity a company that they do not work for.
in the past forum I’ve reported these types of scam and phishing attempts when I’ve encountered them, I don’t know why you think I’m against volunteer moderators doing this type of job. No one of you read my posts before you remove them? You have deleted a post where I was asking unity to pay you people for the work that you do here.
What I observe ‘online in general’, is a war against being helpful and kind, caused by the few who think it is acceptable to amplify the idea of criticism. People look for something or someone to criticise or dismantle.
To me community is about being in it together, being kind and helpful, whether you are a noob or an expert. Being quite a sensitive person myself, in some way I fear posting in general online in case I attract what is predictable for me. Not the best at translating what I mean, emotions always seem important too, but my intentions are well-meant.
I’m on one community that has ‘specific and explicit’ rules to be kind. Tell you what, it makes a real difference from ‘do your best to be kind’. It’s a choice! And anyone who breaks that rule is also given that choice in kindness, not just the ban button which inflames users to come back as alts with a vengeance!
No one’s getting abused. Most of the older users simply left because they didn’t like the functionality of the new forums and/or weren’t actively using Unity any longer. You’re the only one who gets their posts removed on the regular; very often in the past for peddling outright conspiracy theories and misinformation.
And Unity hasn’t lost most of its game developer base. The forums are still active - which only represent a very small portion of the overall user base - and plenty of constructive criticism goes on in threads. I like to spend my time here helping newer users, and it seems like the statistics show that: Unity Discussions
I have had to correct your very strange ideas on how Unity works on more than one occasion too.
your arrogance of claiming that you know everything that is going on is funny. claiming that you know what was my experience on this forum. amazing.
at the moment there is only one important concept I’m asking
other users, volunteer moderators, whatever. just move along and ignore my posts if you don’t agree with them or you don’t like me personally. this forum has the ignore functionality, use it.
I suggest you stop attempting to start pointless forum wars as it is your usual behavior.
Deal. What’s more, we will even arrange you an one-on-one communication with a very official Unity representative so they can hear out all your feedback immediately, unfiltered and straight from the source.
No time to waste. @Brach_Unity Sir, can you help us forward a word from this fine gentleman straight to the Unity headquarters? Please.
I’ll do my best … what was his question again ?