Sorry for any really shitty posts regarding Iwata. If I was on my computer, not at work or had the time I would go through with a fine tooth comb and take care of business.

Really upsetting to see people in our community be so disrespectful.

Yeah, really upsetting to see some of them people be such tactless and heartless assholes. 

Discussion shouldn't cease completely because of Iwata's death. If some people don't want to participate in "What's next?" type of threads then don't go into them.

If you can find me anything in the rules that those two threads are breaking I'll take a look at it again, but otherwise I can't help you. Someone important died, and that's not to be ignored, but the rules are still what they were , and they will be acted on accordingly.

Someone was banned for trolling in an article about Iwata's death, but those two threads are not trolling they are simply discussion and there's nothing in the rules that after someone dies you have to wait ____ days before you can move on from mourning and talk about the repercussions.

We all get this. It's still tactless and inconsiderate.

I've been seeing a lot of comments about this thread and another similar one.

I want to say that, personally, I was devastated by the news of Iwata-san's passing. He was a giant in the industry and someone whose sense of style, humor, and humility endeared him to millions of video game fans.

That being said, I cannot justify closing a thread because it's seen in some quarters as insensitive or callous. These threads, however poorly timed, do not break the rules. And until they do (or their creators request a lock) they will remain open.

I know this is a difficult time for many Nintendo fans, myself included. I know many of you want to pay tribute to this man who meant so much to the industry and to Nintendo. My advice is to honor Iwata-san by posting your thoughts and feelings and memories, and to avoid, whenever possible, the threads that you consider inappropriate and insensitive.

If you want me to just say the same thing but nicer (as Vek did) then sorry that's just not something I care to do.  I explained the situation and told you the mod staff's stance on it and why no action was taken, and what action you could take if any.   You were upset because you thought it wasn't appropriately timed and "too soon" but as I said we don't have a rule for that and the threads did not come off as being made simply to upset people (which is the only real means of defining flamebait vs. just a controversial thread) so there's no reason to lock it regardless of how upset it makes the community.

It's not about using my judgement or not, it's that I've used it and I don't agree with you.  I've read both OT's and while terse they are fine.  We don't have special forum rules because Iwata died, it's the exact same forum.  Some people will choose to spend the day looking at illustrations of Nintendo characters being sad, some will choose to spend the day discussing what this means for Nintendo's future and the future of the industry as a whole, neither is inherently wrong.  If you don't want to discuss those subjects just don't go in the thread.  

Talk all you want about how those threads are too soon (outside of those actual threads obviously), but Vek and I have looked over those threads and see nothing that requires changing or that we feel should be changed.  Moderators and the forum rules are only fair when consistent, and to remain consistent you can't bend the rules to your will just because you are sad.  They didn't make a thread about how Iwata sucked (which would be flamebait), they just made threads talking about a future without him which is a perfectly rational and reasonable thing to do.  

Spambot dead - Carl

I have two related questions for when the mod team has time. No rush, just something I've been curious about.

1.) How exactly does the mod team determine if a user is an alt account? Do you have some sort of software that cross-checks the entire forum for a certain IP address? Or do you actually need two accounts to compare? Or do you have another way of checking this? Sorry for my ignorance..never really understood how forums can figure this out.

2.) If I have a hunch that a certain user is an alt-account (based on posting frequency, knowledge of users/threads, etc.), is it acceptable to report the user? Or does the mod team prefer something more solid before having the user potentially wrongfully reported?

Thanks in advance, and sorry if this is the wrong place to post this.