I don't get it either. It's like those that don't know what's going on, assume they know better than those that do. That's what's been going on in 3 of these threads so far. At elast 3 people who are cock sure, in the face of information and facts, that those interested in what is going on are somehow wrong.

Also what counts as disagreement anyway?, because it sounds very ambigious as to what type of disagreements that can be made. Calling emulation piracy is certainly not called a "disagreement", it's stating something else entirely, and as such it does actually take the thread on emulation progress off topic. Idgaf what spin anyone tries, to those that "disagree" with emulation, taking priacy into a thread about emulation progress is in fact derailing it.

You can easily go "I disagree with emulation" and walk out the door you came in, but you'll also know that in saying the same line over and over (because we've had this so far in 3 other threads and oh my, it won't be the last either) isn't adding anything meaningful to the topic either. 

Literally all we've had so far in terms of talk is one group rabbling on about piracy, while the otehr just wants to talk about the levels of progression being made with certain emulators. That's it, that's all those people want. Talk of piracy at this point is just being used as  ameans to shut up the group who wants to talk about a subject that the other group wants to talk about.

Also that last part on moderating someone who talks about linking piracy, that's highly selective right there, because that fits perfectly with the side who dislikes piracy and sees emulation as piracy. It's not even balanced in a way to protect the thread topic on an emulator or it's progress, because the same people can just enter the same threads and tuter the same piracy talk over and over, then we call in the mods and those who filed the reports get banned...

We even have someone playing backseat mod already...

It reminds me of how PC threads were way back when. Basically, almost every PC thread had at least one post talking about how PC gaming was bad cause of piracy. And the mods hardly did anything and it went on. Eventually, after a few years with tons of whining and a few mod changes, the site caught up to what every other site had for years and that shitposting PC gaming is a bad thing.

And now, we have emulation being beat to the same drum. You have people like DF guys promoting emulation every sunday and not piracy. Microsoft, you know, the people who made Xbox got DF to reveal Scorpio. If Emulation was so bad, would a company like MS associate themselves with a channel that promotes it and has been promoting it for some time now...? And it's similar to many other sites which actually does something when piracy is not relevant to the discussion even if it is about emulation.

Sighh, time to wait the next few years so we can have a thread where we can talk about having an API improvement in an emulator without someone talking about piracy lul

That's an awfully elitist attitude right there. If the issue is that people don't understand you could try and explain things rather than suggesting they're just ignorant and are destroying threads...

But let's be honest, emulation is simply a grey area. No amount of "knowing what's going on" is going to change that. Emulation isn't necessarily piracy but it is definitely related and thus it's likely to be criticised for that.

Besides, if you feel that strongly that it's derailing threads, well there's always the option of simply ignoring it and just continuing to discuss the emulation instead.

Oh no, it's not about people who talk about linking piracy, it's about people who actually link to piracy. An example would be; If you post links to something illegal, for example a download link to a Persona 5 .iso file, or you're promoting the website that has the file... you're gonna' have a bad time. 

Hope that clears it up for you.

But I don't understand this. If the thread is about the improvements that an API makes in a game that is being emulated, how is piracy relevant to that? I can kinda get if it's a thread like, "Look at how amazing emulation is compared to regular consoles" but a thread about an API improvement having talks about piracy is not considered to be off-topic?

I don't get how piracy has anything to do with debating an API improvement...

This has been an interesting thread to read, and I know what it's linked to, so I'm going to leave my two cents here;

You are, of course, free to make threads about emulation and such, since as you've said, it's not against the rules, that is true. However, making a thread on a rather controversial topic and expecting only positive opinions and thoughts, without any disagreements, is just wishful thinking... it's like making a Donald Trump appreciation thread, it'd be impossible to NOT have opposing opinions clash within in.

Something that you've mentioned over and over, which I strongly disagree with, is that emulation and piracy are not related... in my opinion, and it would appear the opinion of others here too, emulation and piracy pretty much go hand in hand, talking about emulation will naturally, over a course of time, lead to talk of piracy. You're saying that people who talk about piracy in an emulation thread are going off topic, when it really isn't, it's just the other side of the coin... the emulation talk and "Look how much better we can make this game look and run!" stuff is the positive side of said coin, whereas the piracy talk is the negative.

Of course, not all emulation leads to piracy, and I was never trying to imply that... however, I do think it's safe to assume that the majority of, let's call it unofficial emulation (ie. Not backwards comparability or backed by the owners of the consoles you're emulating), is done by people who don't own the original products they're emulating, and have done so through means of piracy.

Where I am is somewhere in the middle of it all, although I do think I lean more towards piracy since that's how I've always seen the majority of emulation used for, rather than buying the games, people have downloaded them and used an emulator in order to play them.

I'm not going to call people out over emulation, either in a post or by making a thread about it, but I do think that if you have the right to make a thread about it, then people also have the right to debate it, whether it be in the same thread or its own, since as I've said, I do believe that you can't talk about one without the other coming up, and having a good ol' back and forth is a good thing, as long as you keep it civil.

Also just so you know, the mod team has heard you, it's been brought up in the mod chat, and the decision is this;
We are going to let things stay how they are. We won't be moderating emulation threads or people who disagree with the topic and bring up piracy within said threads, unless of course either the threads or individual posts include the promotion of piracy, and/or links to illegal downloads and/or sources.