Board 8 > Fandom bans politics on GameFAQs (outside of Current Events)

(+) Yeah! (+)

It's only safe to talk about completely unpolitical games, like Helldivers 2.

It depends on what streamers you mention.

Now if it's Other M that's just an automatic ban.

TimmyQuivy posted... Hello all,

Just wanted to acknowledge we have been reading and gathering the feedback you provided. There have been a number of substantive questions the mod team has jumped in and answered, so thanks to them.

Overall, the main feedback weve received is that the decision to lock the Current Events board and generally prohibit explicitly political topics elsewhere is unpopular amongst a large percentage of commenters. I dont want to duck or run from that takeaway - this is something Fandom discussed and anticipated before making these changes. Ultimately, we will be standing by this decision because doing so aligns with how we operate other parts of our platform, and how we want GameFAQs to be positioned in broad gaming discourse.

I understand that many of you have been contributing to these topics for years and feel as though it has been productive and handled respectfully. We understand that legacy - the CE board is continuing precisely because for the most part, this opinion has been largely true. The CE board is continuing - if you were passionate about contributing there, you can continue to contribute there with the same engaged fellow members youve had.

These changes are about recognizing the internet has changed over the course of the last 20 years and setting the foundation for a better future - political discussion does not make sense as a core driver of conversations on a site dedicated to video games and gameplay. I dont believe if GameFAQs was to be started today, that political topics would be part of the structure of the site.

I do want to caution against some of the slippery slope arguments I have seen in the comments - many of these rules changes are in fact just formalizing informal policies that have existed here. I know, for instance, some of the worst political flame posts have been removed for trolling. Nor is this a precursor for us banning discussion about our identities and passions. Nor is this a sign that Fandom is trying to kill off GameFAQs. We are, after internal discussion and review, making a set of rule changes and board structural tweaks to address some long-standing concerns that have been brought to us. Nothing more, nothing less.

We will work harder to provide direct responses in a timely fashion and will create a part 2 of this topic linked here for any follow up questions or comments.

I dont want to duck or run from that takeaway - this is something Fandom discussed and anticipated before making these changes. Ultimately, we will be standing by this decision

Also we don't care about CE or it's legacy, we just don't understand why it affects us

Like, it doesn't matter what we would have said - they already made up their decision and just wasted everyone time with this "we value your feedback" bullshit

They seriously think CE is the only place anyone has ever discussed politics on this site

They somehow don't realize they didn't just buy a videogame site.

While I can't commit to anything at this moment beyond hoping moderation and the community becomes more positive overall. Ideally creating a more positive environment allows Fandom to invest more resources into it. Bringing back bounties for a few grand is cool, hypothetically speaking $300,000 is a lot cooler. Roughly 1,000 people online each day is a number but what if that was 10,000 with proper cross-linking, clean up, and things to do?

pork links

Also we don't care about CE or it's legacy, we just don't understand why it affects us

I'm pretty close to just busting out the pork links and having done with it

maybe a lueshi instead

after 23 years, this is my legacy

somehow fitting

Reading between the lines, I'm not sure the endgame for Fandom is eliminating the site, but rather eliminating *us* the users. They want a younger, "hipper," crowd, and they think that if they can "reorient" the site to be all about gaming they can do that. None of their recent changes will do that of course, since none of the boards where people discuss politics are visible to new users, but this was probably some order from a sales/management person that doesn't understand how the boards work. They just told someone to remove politics and this was the compromise result. People are trying to get a "why" out of DToast in that second Feedback topic, but he didn't come up with this idea and he didn't want it, so he's not going to be able to provide anything.

The reason why Fandom doesn't care about us ultimately isn't because they don't care about their customers (although I'm sure it's some of that.) It's that they don't even see us as customers.

The reason why Fandom doesn't care about us ultimately isn't because they don't care about their customers (although I'm sure it's some of that.) It's that they don't even see us as customers.

That's what this place is though? Or did my contribution page suddenly stop only covering video games?

They will do away with the boards soon enough. The content (FAQs and walkthroughs) are the only things worth anything to them. The message boards are like comments on a blog post, nobody really reads them. This is a wake up call.

That's what this place is though? Or did my contribution page suddenly stop only covering video games?

"political discussion does not make sense as a core driver of conversations on a site dedicated to video games and gameplay"

This is true, and people keep ignoring that forums and such that ban this stuff get less toxic overnight by default. I don't want GameFAQs turning into Twitter. There's a reason I come here and not there.

That's what this place is though? Or did my contribution page suddenly stop only covering video games?

I have become convinced that the only reason CE is at the forefront of this issue is its name, not its community

Unless GameFAQs changed the terms by which users submit content at some point, they don't own the content. The copyright belongs to the contributor.

worse than that Reg, CE is at the forefront of this issue because that's where a lot of are the mods come and where a lot of things get modded, partially because it's where a lot of people went to after the politics boards were killed.