Ironically if us awful ban happy Mods followed the rules to such a strict degree.

○   Backseat Moderating - You are not a moderator! Use the Report button or contact a moderator via PM if you see anything that needs attention

You would have been banned multiple times over by now.

I've already explained why I gave KLXVER two weeks as well, I also said if he were to apologise I would bring it down, but I have given him enough time to cooldown.

What do you want us to do about Leynos now? Are we turning this thread into a witch-hunt? Shall we go and retroactively permaban Leynos? We didn't even do that for the one user who made a thread so fucked it was nuked from the site by a site admin and let me tell you, some of us debated retroactively permabanning that user but we decided not to because it was felt that procedure was more important and the user must break a rule first. But it seems some of you are bloodthirsty for us to go and finish off Leynos.

Lets go permaban users based on public pressure! Yay!

Hardstuck would be gone too. Mods too ban happy, but go and ban these users.

Which is deflection.

A conservative was rude and got two weeks.

A liberal called for political genocide and got one week.  

I don't blame you for the deflection, given there isn't a defense. 

If it helps, I tried to come back but this KLXVER situation tells me all I need to know about who runs this place.  Enjoy Ryu.  

KLXVER was being an asshole, not just rude, but it was clear he was very upset and the two weeks is time to cooldown, I've literally already explained this, and that I will bring it down if he apologises, I even was about to NOT ban him at all for calling the Mods "fucking idiots" if he simply retracted it. Do you think Mods on other sites would be so forgiven at being called "Fucking idiots"? Lol.

It wasn't until I saw him attacking another user trying to debate him and then throwing my offer back in my face that I decided not to.

Also, I thought you wanted to hide Politics from your front page but here you are, continuing to bang on about it in this thread.

Back in 2020 you threatened to leave the site due to a disagreement.

Back in 2024 you left over a debate with Me & Pi-Guy, even though we didn't even moderate you at all.

This would be the 3rd time and counting now. I'm starting to feel like you only do these tantrum leaves to try to turn people against the Mods.

a - we use a progressive system. Someone who has been good for 5 years, and then says something terrible is taken less seriously than someone who is repeatedly telling users to fuck themselves.  

b - I also think the latter is more personal. I would care more about someone being a bully to several users than someone generically saying something terrible to the wind while being emotional. Some of the other mods might disagree with me, but I think I would have a hard time being quite so offended if someone generically said "kill all libs". 

c - personally I think if someone can be reasoned with, I prefer not to ban. Even if they say something really terrible. Then again, I'm a very naive person who thinks that racists and homophobes can just be reasoned with.  

I wonder what other site would put up with another user calling their mod team fucking idiots and be willing to forgive the user with a simple "My bad, I was upset" that was extended to KLXVER. And KXLVER isn't the only person who has been an asshole to the Mod team but has been looked over because most of us are thick skinned and take the insults, with that "Staff Abuse" rule, it is largely non-Mod staff we were trying to look out for with that, like Trunks who some people have been downright rude to him lately, but we still sometimes didn't even ban them.

You have a much more willing to be talked to like shit than most Mod teams on the internet, Lol. And I'm not even really defending myself here since my Moderation lately has been incredibly light, so much so that I question lately if I'm doing enough to be on the Mod team. But I will defend my Mod team with the amount of shit they happily take whilst others moan about them apparently being too strict.

Lets go through some of the 40 moderations over the past 12 months and see just how "omg so strict" the Mod team really is.

Is anyone willing to step up and defend XboxGreen? This user was only 1 month old and had already a dozen reports to his name, he had multiple users PMing the Mods about his behaviour. He was a troll in every topic of the Website and was highly suspected of being an alt. I know some people in this very thread who PM'd us about Xbox Green being an issue.

He straight up asked a user if they were retarded. Come the fuck on. No further explanation needed.

We about to act like half the site isn't at Hardstuck's throat and constantly demanding we ban him? (This isn't a comment on what I personally think of Hardstuck). If we went by general consensus, Hardstuck would already be permabanned.

Fairly self explanatory, Lol.

Dude went on an absolute meltdown and attacked multiple users, including Nintendo fans, in an effort to defend Nintendo, then attacked the Mods. This same user straight up told CGI-Quality in a PM that he would pray for my soul when the apocalypse comes and heavily implied I was destined to burn in Hell. This user made a thread so fucked up it was erased from the site. This user was only still on the website because a Site Admin needed his help and saved him from his last permaban. If I was some "crazy ban happy mod" I would have permabanned him about 3 years ago. But I left his utterly unhinged rant about me in PM slide.

Spam.

This user was being a complete asshole to Trunks and guess what, I didn't ban him, I thread banned him (for 14 days at that), I only then banned him when he started editing the Mod note into some absolute shite but quite frankly I should have banned him for being an asshole to Trunks from the start because Trunks is one of the nicest users who doesn't deserve that shit and holds the site up.

This crackpot said he supported Russia's invasion of Ukraine. You want these users on VGChartz?

He accepted his ban.

He posted NSFW shit in the wrong area.

His ban was ultimately forgiven as a misunderstanding.

===

I could go on, but I want to play Borderlands 4 but if we're in agreement that this first batch of bans was justified, we're now down to 27. I could do more, but I'm starting to get into uncomfortable territory of talking critically about some users who are still active on the website. This first batch is mostly users no longer active on the site, permabanned or their moderations don't muster much criticism and are light (such as breaking the NSFW rule).

But I'm starting to feel like I'm being forced into this by a select few users seemingly wanting to grind their axe against the Mod team because they've had confrontations with them in the past and thus trying to pin the "VGChartz is dying" narrative on a supposedly "ban happy" mod team who have also been told they're not banning enough by other users. Fuck me, we can't win.

Folk make accusations about the Mod team but don't back up their points with any sources, when asked to clarify, they completely ignore it. Some of you just come across like you're desperately trying to turn the community against the Mod team and using this thread discussing VGChartz's decline to do it by trying to pin that on us.

A line was crossed and the majority are beyond angry, beyond upset, etc, to the point that things won't be going back to the same as they've been.

Politics discussion can be changed or dropped here, but it's not going to change moods overall because of politics effects from everywhere else.

To say that things have gotten way out of hand when it comes to everything, everywhere, would be a vast understatement to say the least.

People are done with the "new normal" and won't be putting up with it anymore. Until things go to back to normal, this mood will continue.

Actually, on that note, I’m curious: Why is “backseat moderating” reason to moderate somebody? It almost comes off to me as, “You are not allowed to voice your opinion against authority on this site. Otherwise, we have reason to ban you.” I feel like this is a good rule to have in place, but the wording is a little vague and thereby broad, creating the adverse effect of collecting people who I do not believe should be banned. (E.g. In a forum discussion problems and solutions for the forum, somebody questions the enforcement of a site rule, so as to potentially dig into a legitimate issue with the site.)

Also, FWIW while I do believe the mods can be a tad bit “ban happy” at times (e.g. When I stated how NS2 was showing up PS5, bursting out the gate with DKBananza and MKWorld), it is undeniable that the moderators here exercise a tremendous amount of self-control. With how I engaged in the political forums, for instance, it is shocking that I only ever received a temporary thread ban lol. We also have infamous users such as Hardstuck_Platinum who haven’t seen much any punishment despite being a crystal clear case of “trolling.” Now, do I think more people need be moderated? Well…with how small this site is, I’d say no. Unless you’re looking to accelerate the decline, I think mercy and grace should be exercised at all times. Plus, we are all human. We all make mistakes; sometimes we are just having a really bad day/week/month. I think forgiveness and second chances go a long way.

Also, there should be an option to (i) add more voting options to polls (max 20), (ii) allow for rank-based voting, and (iii) multi-selection. I just created a thread for “Winningest GotY 2025?” and felt quite limited in my options. If possible, I think these would make for very good additions. :)