Why is it that I can no longer read any posts that have been flagged?
Is it because many of them have been unfairly flagged and some of us ask why it was flagged?
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Interesting thoughts thoughâŠ
I have had a few of my posts flagged by the âCommunityâ also.
What I thought was strange is that the flagging occurred only minutes after posting and I thought to myself⊠Flagged by the Community ? Or the âCommunityâ flagged it as not on topic or some other reason⊠and how in the world did the âCommunityâ have time to even see it and flag it that quickâŠ
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Pretty sure I understand what is happening here BUT âŠthe bottom line is âŠ
We still LOVE our MSFS !
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I get most of my info and post most frequently over at avsim.com as there is far less censorship over there and the mods are all a decent bunch. I donât really learn much here that I canât find on avsim where free speech and good informed discussion is allowed.
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Hi, I do not like to see flagged posts hidden entirely, in the past I could read those posts and many were not worthy of being flagged in the first place. Everyone should have a voice as if you ignore people that in itself is ignorance, of course there are some âtrollsâ who should have their posts flagged, we canât all live in harmony. But to hide all flagged posts is wrong and sends a bad message that you donât listen to your customers, please revert this issue.
Thank you.
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Hi, ok thank you, I would continue but there are bigger issues with the Sim than the forums posts to concentrate on 
Thank you
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I see three messages letting me know about my flagged posts. I was able to see one of them, and I deleted it. I canât see the other two. I would be happy to edit or delete them, but I canât access them.
And frankly, I donât recall having posted in those two threads, or even why I would. I suppose itâs possible, but because I canât see them, I canât do anything about them.
Sent with links
It is important to remember that AVSIM doesnât need to try to maintain an âEâ ESRB rating. Pretty much any company that has a title with E rating will police itâs forums to the standards of the rating. This is why MSFS forum is kind of like an elementary school library.
I dislike it too, and rarely use this forum much anymore. But I do understand why they do it this way.
To your point, AVSIM, or Flightsim.com etc are probably better resources for most people. I think the problem is that the MSFS forum presents itself as being a community forum like the others (at least on the surface), but is really run more like an official support forum.
I think if MS would be more clear about that up front thee would be less frustration. Sure, its a âcommunityâ, but its a community in the same way a courthouse is community; it serves the community, the community is welcome to file in to the building in an orderly fashion, and even speak. But if youâre off topic or you rant, the bailiff is going to escort you out.
So what it is not, is a fun place to hang out and chat about all things aviation, or simming. That is what the other websites are. And that is why Iâm rarely seen here anymore. But to be frank - those other sites can get toxic and tribal sometimes, and that is not in line with an E rating. And that is why this forum will never be the same as those.
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No difference from not having realistic aircraft failures.
MSAobo doesnât want those features in the game, because it may hurt the owners/designers of those planes.
Thatâs too bad. I want my flaps to fail, because I deployed them at too high of a speed.
Can I land a plane while on fire? I sure want to try.
Show us some aircraft damage on a bad landingâŠ
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I searched for this thread because I previously routinely used to choose to view flagged posts. Although there were often clear violations there were also often posts hidden that didnât have any clear violation and often had valid, even if unfavorable, points of view. Iâve been reading these forums for nearly a year and a half and while I fully support the need for rules and enforcement Iâve long ago concluded that there is excessive moderation here and rules are over-applied in many cases.
Itâs unfortunate that now readers are unable to make their own decisions on what they are prepared to see, and that now all moderation decisions are effectively hidden which prevents the community from having any insight at all as to whether the moderation process is being applied reasonably or not. This is a significant loss.
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I have had one past flagged and never found out why despite asking mods several times. Being flagged is to me serious because I try hard to do the right thing. I would rather it hidden until I can change it if I can reach a mod to find out what is wrong.
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The âEâ ratings have gotten out of hand exactly like so many âSocialâ issues âŠ
The breakup of society âŠ
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Who moderates the moderators? In other words, yes there is a code of conduct, yes we are told the mods base their decisions on this code of conduct, but what evidence is there that if presented with the exact same scenarios, moderators would make the same decisions? Without that data, how can we know that decisions being made regarding these posts are anything besides subjective?
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Ok, but unless mods are communicating with each other regarding every single decision (btw, Iâm not saying thatâs the way it should be; that would be ridiculous), it still doesnât answer the question of how similarly decisions would be made across moderators regarding the same scenarios, particularly when they arenât talking to each other.
I would imagine there is a difference between âgray areaâ as it pertains to the code of conduct versus âgray areaâ as it pertains to difficult judgments of a particular moderator. The two arenât necessarily the same. A moderatorâs mind canât be considered a perfect proxy for the code of conduct.
It could be measured using several sample scenarios; it wouldnât be that hard to to. Then with the results, you could see in which areas modsâ approaches tend to differ and implement some sort of frame-of-reference training for those areas. At least then, when decisions are doubted or challenged, you can defend them with something more than âwe communicate with each other.â
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Something to look forward to I hope, thanks.
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Itâs going to take a little tap dancing for me to respond to this, so I hope the mods will allow a little latitude here.
I think that saying its âgotten out of handâ is a bit hyperbolic. Let me explain why I think so.
Signs on the door are nothing new. Back in the 1970âs youâd see the classic âNo shoes, No Shirt⊠No serviceâ. People were asked to maintain a standard of behavior while in that business. Did society collapse? No. Did the barefoot masses rise up in rage and demand service without shoes? No.
In fact society is dependant on members of society being able to behave in certain ways in certain places. If we say having rules about behavior is out of hand, then that means it is ok to sit in the back of a pre-school classroom and shout obscene remarks. Obviously, that wouldnât be ok (to most people).
ESRB âEâ is no different really than movie ratings. The product is intended to be appropriate for all ages, that is the rating that MS wants on the product, and MS has every right to insist that all of the forums MS can control adhere to that standard. Just like if you take your 6 year old kid to a âGâ movie, you would not expect it to have a graphic love scene in it. And if it did, probably everyone would go after the studio for not adhering to the standards. And theyâd be right to do so.
Outside of MSâs direct control, you can behave as you like. Avsim and others have their own standards, but they also have a sign on the door that tells you what the limits are, and their mods will silence you just the same if you exceed those standards.
Ultimately, a business owns its stuff (the software titles, and the community forum) so to that end, it is the same as private property. And being private means they have the authority to decide who can stay and who must go.
It is not the collapse of society, it is the maintenance of society. There are lots of places where people can go to express themselves without Microsoft telling them what is acceptable. But on Microsoftâs lawn, you follow Microsoftâs rules.
Hopefully I was able to get that said in a way that doesnât cause moderation.
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Nice that you can explain how you interpret and see things. We all appreciate that we can say how we see and interpret items that interest us.
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As far as the ESRBâŠor the Entertainment Software Rating Board as they prefer to be called. To some of us, It is just another self proclaimed regulatory board, another Non-Profit and SELF Regulating board providing some self created guidelines for others to follow. Another board that some companies like to embrace and others that care less what the board has to offer.
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For me, I feel the ESRB is a bit over rated and hopefully, not too biased. Thankfully, we are all entitled to our opinions and yours is just as important as mine.
Hello @CooganBear,
The bolded sction here is not accurate. As Jorg said in a recent Developer Livestream while discussing the Expert Series ATR 42-600 / 72-600, we would like to more accurately model aircraft and system failures to better match reality, but it is often the aircraft manufacturers themselves who stipulate that they do not want failures to their planes depicted in the sim.
Thanks,
MSFS Team
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I donât really think there is value in getting into what ESRB is internally. The point is that MS (and pretty much every other entertainment software dev) benefits from the rating system by avoiding angry parents, etc.
Now, Iâll agree with the argument that maybe parents ought to keep an eye on their kids themselves and then we wouldnât need a system like this, but that is an entirely different story and I think we all know that nobody takes responsibility for their own decisions anymore, which creates a need to do it for them.
No matter tho, MS chooses to participate in that system, and you choose to buy the product, so youâre bound to it for better or for worse. And forum posts arenât going to change that.
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The unfortunate issue with this flagging system is that anyone can flag a post and itâs immediately hidden, regardless of whether it warranted being flagged in the first place.
This is having a very bad effect on discussion topics and should be altered, or removed entirely. Report a post and let the moderators deal with it, donât let the few ruin the forums by flagging posts as is whatâs happening right now.
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