Snaike:Because of the complete lack of forum moderation ( ie, letting drunken, profanity laced ramblings stand for more than 5 minutes while innocent, subtlely humourous threads are removed almost immediately) this is no longer a place in which I wish to participate.
I can certainly identify with everything you're saying. I'm utterly shocked by what has been unfolding in these forums over the last few hours. It's not as if this was the first weekend; it's been happening nearly every weekend, with almost the precise regularity of a Swiss watch.
I am just as dismayed as you are by what sometimes occurs here: the careless, wholesale deletion of meticulously written forum posts and even entire threads. This is happening all too frequently here, anonymously from the background, while there is no visible moderator presence in these forums. A similar issue is the unwarranted locking of some threads, while other threads, in dozens of redundant copies, are all left unlocked.
If there is an area where TWO is already miles and miles ahead of WGT, it's forum moderation. They have a bunch of people there, clearly identified as moderators, who wouldn't permit 1% of what we get to see here on a regular basis, especially the weekends. The transgressors would have been banned there on the spot.
Let's not blame anyone in particular at WGT; the fault is in the system. You just cannot engage in forum moderation perfunctorily, as a hastily disposed of "side job", next to your "main" duties. If anyone does that, they will bungle forum moderation terribly. They will leave things stand that cannot be tolerated, and will delete legitimate posts and threads. That's because you need time in order to judge, fairly, what is or isn't acceptable in a forum. If you're in a hurry, perpetually forced to make quick decisions, you will unavoidably bungle a moderator's job.
Now here I am, rationally arguing about an issue... But what will be the first thing I'll do after submitting this post? Yup, I'll make an offsite backup of it. That's because I have countless times experienced where any and all WGT forum posts/threads got deleted at random, for no reason given.
By the way: I've never heard a clear answer to the question, "Do these Report Abuse links work at all?" Because it seems to me they don't work.
These forums urgently need moderators clearly designated as such. If there are no resources within WGT to appoint staff to perform the duties, there are forum members who could perform the role. The obvious top candidate is Nivlac, a highly intelligent and capable person, and a universally admired and respected WGT figure. WGT, give the moderator's job to Nivlac, if there is no one on your staff to do the job visibly and non-anonymously on these pages. Everyone will thank you for that, and WGT.com will heave a collective sigh of relief.