Why is having an alt account unacceptable, in and of itself? I understand why using different accounts to get around a ban is unacceptable, but I don't see why simply having additional accounts is a problem.

I'm not asking about any specific case here. I'm just curious.

sorry pardon me? trolling microsoft is fine but if it happens to me im offended? Anyway you are wrong there is no good trolling...
On top of that spoilers are fine if those are locked within a thread, expecially if the thread is marked as spoiler, a person must be pretty stupid to click on a spoiler thread if they dont wanna be in the loop.

For one thing, it makes it harder to moderate in general.  The ban system is progressive and we also take into account people's general patterns.  Having an alt makes this harder to enforce.

In general though, I think it's just that the problems alts cause outweigh the benefits.  The main purpose people use alts is to do things they, for whatever reason, don't want to do on their main account. Generally, those things are things that are negative for the community.

So that's the main case against alts. And I don't really see much value in allowing them. 

doesn't matter halo actually has good gameplay and doesn't need to be carried by the story

Can you guys keep in mind that people can draw extreme conclusions about what motivates others to talk negative about the product they like or talk positive about the same?

It mostly results in a conversation with two people talking about completely different things and attempts to bring down eachothers character are made.

Suprisingly I kinda agree with Wizz thats why i warned Sales2066 awhile back being careful to reply to bait posts, seeing as the often heated replies are judged more harsely than the actual bait

edit: i dont wanna approve harsh replies(possibly with insults) but i get where these users are coming from

Don't y'all still use the TBR Google spreadsheet?

It's fairly easy to see the trends with specific users, and the TBR is there for you guys to keep a note of these users and the posts they repeatedly make.

If not, I'd highly advise you guys bring that back. Makes the job a lot easier.

The response, at least in large part, had nothing to do with the topic, or even really to the post at hand. At the very least it's derailing. I'm honestly kind of confused by Wizzz's comment, because the post they were replying to wasn't really shitting on any game (arguably it was shitting on metacritic). They weren't calling out a user for shitting on a game, they were calling out a user for their views on something completely unrelated. And, the posts went beyond simply disputing the views to the point where, at least I felt, they were actually an attack on the user themselves.

There were actually several reports for similar combative posts that have been reported that we have not acted on in other topics because in context we felt they were ok. Combative posts may be appropriate (although I think this one crossed the line anyway). But when they're in a place where they are completely unwarranted, that turns a borderline post into an easy call IMO.

Where something is posted is a factor that can be as important as what is actually posted.  A topic about the metacritic score of a particular game is not the place to pick a fight (which is what combative posts do) about another user's views on social issues that are completely unrelated to the game. Whether flaming was the best label is maybe debatable (not everything is going to fit neatly into one category), but users arguing about completely unrelated topics is something that's a negative for the forums, and something that has to be stopped.

The phenomena of the person who throws the second punch always getting caught is a real thing, and something that we discuss (as CGI mentioned making more frequent use of the TBR spreadsheet is something that will hopefully help), but in this case, I firmly stand by the decision. 

I'm not looking to complain here so much as to look for advice. I believe this is, in fact, my first visit to this thread so far if it helps put matters in perspective. Further perspective would be that let the record show I have never reported anyone for anything in my years of being here and have no intention of "calling out" or otherwise harming or embarrassing anyone here. I don't want to be seen as one of those annoying people who goes around complaining about everything or is looking to upset the order of things and make the lives of the people who run this site miserable or what have you. But it just seems like, in general, I wind up in some low-level form of trouble around here almost constantly and it's really starting to get discouraging. To that end, I'd like some advice on what, just in general, I can be doing differently in the future to avoid like half my threads getting closed and constantly being warned and threatened by the mod team both in private and in public for various reasons that seem small to me.

Here's an example from today: I was just threatened with a thread ban, which is no big deal (I'll just thread ban myself by not posting there or on the topic of the game in question anymore, problem solved), but it seems like I'm almost constantly getting warned or moderated in some way. Another example would be that earlier this last week, I got a private message from a moderator warning me against joking with a particular user because of said user's propensity to report things without justification...which seems more like the problem there is with him and not me, but I'm the one who gets warned to change my behavior anyway. No big deal, I just won't talk to that specific person anymore, problem solved. Another example would be that not terribly long ago, I promised people I would author a thread with my at-length thoughts about a particular game and 8 people up-voted the post where I made that promise. I later point blank asked the community if it would be okay to follow through and do so. Then I followed through and posted the thread and it was closed after one post. I put a lot of effort into that! I wrote 19 paragraphs and bore a lot of my soul and it just seemed like a lot to just be thrown away like that. It's just lots of little things like that that keep happening and keep happening and keep happening and keep happening and I keep having to impose more and more rules on myself to avoid getting in trouble and it's not even working. I'm starting to feel almost afraid to say anything anymore because it feels like I'm being gunned for; like large numbers of people are looking for ways to get rid of me and to which end are probably reporting me for all kinds of insignificant things and that's why I keep getting in trouble for small things that don't even always seem like they're really my fault at all, to tell you the honest truth.

Like I said, I'm not meaning to complain here, it just seems like these little things are now happening with a frequency that they don't on many other forums that I visit and I don't behave particularly differently anywhere except that I'm, if anything, maybe more cautious here because I know that I don't really fit in or belong; I have enough self-awareness to realize that. I know that I joke around, but that's just like part of how I make friends a lot of the time. I don't seriously mean to hurt anyone or ruin anyone's game or what have you if that's how it's coming across. Do I need to, just at a macro level, change that and try to focus on being more strictly serious when I visit here? Would that help? Am I too political in general; do I say too much that way and that's the root of the problem? Level with me! What can I be doing differently just in general going forward to avoid constantly being in trouble?

Your example from today isn't very good. There's been more warnings about TLoUII spoilers and where to post them than any game I can remember on this site. It's understandable the mods would be tired of having to still clean up posts from people who somehow miss them, especially when adding spoiler tags should be a common courtesy without the multiple warnings.