Banned from AC forums, anyone have experienced this?

[Rui Santos]

< Mod Edit: Please be advised that it is in breach of RD ToS to use insulting or derogatory terms. Post cleaned.>

Hello all, i'm banned from AC forum for more than one month now. As an active member since the beggining and with more than 1000 messages i feel shocked with that kind of attitude from them. <snip>

Has this happened to anyone? I agree maybe that they should permanently ban you if you were kind of disrespectful or insult anyone, which was not the case. I got banned until now just because people were asking on forum for MP improvements (more than acceptable) and all i've done was quote a message <snip> and used a funny ironic image related to what he was saying THAT WAS CLEARLY A LIE!! From that moment on, as it was admitted by Lord Kunos himself, he went on a ban strike and several people were banned... until now.

Well, maybe i would accept a week suspension because now i know AC forums staff can't accept critics anymore (they're rich now) and became a dictatorial regime that can only be populated by fanboys or "yes" sheeps...

The image was this...

 

[Austin Ogonoski]

I got banned from commenting on their facebook because I kept asking when the new content would fix the multiplayer and shoddy physics. Buthurt much Kunos?

You just have an irrational vendetta against Kunos.

 

[Oscar Hardwick]

@Austin Ogonoski Or so anyone on their forums or facebook would have you think. Quite enjoy the physics after a recent update and the multiplayer whilst still naff is much better than it was when I was complaining on their facebook page about it.

 

[bigbawmcgraw]

I'd expect this thread to get a bit busier in the near future...
http://www.assettocorsa.net/forum/index.php?threads/forum-behaviour-and-moderation.29364/

For those already banned and can't follow the link, it's a message from Aristotelis.

Hello everybody.

We'd like to inform you that we have decided to start moderating the forum in a different manner. From today, we are going to be much more severe and start banning much faster and drastically, people that are posting constantly in a negative way, spamming on various threads with the usual requests, attacking other users making snobbish or humiliating comments and such.
Generally if you're trying hard to be a "smart arse", you're getting banned.

Here are our reasoning and motivations behind this choice:
We are trying to be close to the community, we love cars, we love modding, we love simracing and we love interacting with you. We do this job because we like it.
Nevertheless lately in this forum but also generally in the internet, it's a society issue, some people believe or like to attract attention to them, by trolling, spamming, constantly complaining and generally creating a toxic environment around them. We have users openly admitting they dislike AC and prefer other sims for whatever reason, which is fine, but still have more posts and are more active in this forum than elsewhere.
At the same time, users that are here to solve their real issues with the software, share experiences, share knowledge and generally you know, HAVE FUN, are getting overshadowed. In the end this is a game, a free time hobby and we should be enjoying it.

We don't know what job you guys do in real life, but we're pretty sure that whatever you do, no matter how good or bad you're doing it, it would be sad and demoralising having every single morning, the same bunch of people complaining constantly or trying to denigrate your job with non existent issues or ignorant remarks. If you don't like a restaurant, you don't go everyday outside the door complaining on the owner, you simply move on and go to another place.

Also, for those thinking "ok why don't you answer to those people and put them in their place"; it's easy to create noise with a 5 minute complaining post, you can see it all around internet with hoaxes and false science. It's difficult to debunk such remarks because it takes an hour of gathering data, validating and replying and then again in just 5 minutes someone will post again something ignorant to keep on complaining. On top of that, ignorant trolls always appear confident and full of themselves, while people actually working on the subject, have always doubts because they know that work and research is constantly ongoing. So it's not really possible to discuss when someone is pointing fingers everytime and you have to be as objective as possible trying to analyze every single thing knowing that there is not an absolute truth out there on such scientific matters and you're also trying to get better in your job by studying constantly.

Because of all the above, we believe that 99.9741% of the people that have bought this game, enjoying it or have some real issue with it and appreciate the fact that devs are easily reachable, should have the precedence over 1% of people that just like complaining or attracting attention by trying to be the first to post some absurdities so that others are forced to reply to them so that their thread stays on top. These 0.0259% people are going to be banned steadily from now on.
You might think my numbers are strange? We have more than 116000 users in the forum. We have banned 30 (thirty) people because of bad behaviour. Do the math.

Again let me underline that we don't have anything against constructive criticism, we don't have anything against people complaining about real issues and we don't have anything against people that are here to have a good time. We will protect all those people from those that are here to satisfy their ego's or personal vendetta. Act in the forums as you would act in real life where you follow simple social rules. Understand that software development and especially simulation takes time and is a tricky scientific problem to solve for actual engineers and scientists, let alone us... At the same time devs try to work and also reply to all you people. Be kind, respective, understand that we are not working specifically for you but we are offering a product, and most importantly follow social rules, have fun or get out.

 

[Cristian Haba]

Common sense seems alive and well... at least with the devs.

 

[Rui Santos]

They only banned 30 people in a universe of 116.000 users??? That's clearly a lie! I bet the list is far bigger! So i was banned after 1000 posts? What about lots of rookie people on forum that everyday were there insulting and criticizing the game? Are they still there? So that's very UNFAIR with people that were used to help and disagreeing in some things here and there...

 

[Chris]

Interesting...

They could simply save themselves a heck of a lot of time and effort by removing the chit chat section (which is where 99% of the loonies that Aristotelis is referring to appear from anyway), and instead use their forum for what it was actually designed for in the first place: bug reporting.

 

[William Levesque]

I think what they mean is they're banning people who rightfully criticise the game and the way it's developing... Got banned this morning, and last I know is that I got a warning for basically finding someone's joke funny.

How much do you guys bet that "trolls" who support AC and lick the devs ass constantly won't get anything ?

 

[Lily Starfox]

My 2 cents...
Banning people/deleting comments is useless.
Somebody is a smart arse or post something insulting?
Be strong and deal with it. Can't be bothered to deal with it? Ignore it.
End of the story.
I don't understand what the fuss is about.
And not just moderators, everybody should do the same.

"It's difficult to debunk such remarks because it takes an hour of gathering data, validating and replying and then again in just 5 minutes someone will post again something ignorant to keep on complaining." ===> ignore it. End of the story. Why do you "HAVE" to waste your time debunking something bogus?

"If you don't like a restaurant, you don't go everyday outside the door complaining on the owner, you simply move on and go to another place." ===> Same. YOU move on and ignore the insults.

The whole banning thing on the entire world wide web is actually quite disturbing.
It's quite similar to fascism, when you think about it.
Anyway, when you ignore trolls/retards, they eventually give up without you having to do anything.

 

[poet]

It's quite similar to fascism, when you think about it.

It's nothing even remotely like Fascism, but I'll save the political lecture.
It might be akin to totalitarianism, but that's a completely different thing to fascism.

But it remains their forums and their rules.
The internet means you're free to make your own place to share your wit and insights with the world, and they're free to allow or ban whoever they like. That's how freedom works.

 

[Lily Starfox]

Thanks for sparing us your lack of semantic knowledge.

 

[Dave R]

I think what they mean is they're banning people who rightfully criticise the game and the way it's developing... Got banned this morning, and last I know is that I got a warning for basically finding someone's joke funny.

How much do you guys bet that "trolls" who support AC and lick the devs ass constantly won't get anything ?

Its obvious they're feeling the pressure. Quite a lot of single player folks aren't happy and neither are the multiplayer folks and they're now letting that be known. Had the refund policy been in place when I bought AC, I'd have taken it, but instead have stuck with it and see little to no improvements over when I bought it.

 

[Rui Santos]

I'm not even a bit interested in belonging to the AC forums anymore, all i want and think it's fair as a CUSTOMER ONLY, it's to have the right to access the forum to read only or at least have some support if i have problems with the product i BOUGHT... all the rest and the way AC goes, etçª doesn't bother me anymore...

And if they're starting to ban people for criticism they'll start a big war with the customers and maybe they'll lose a lot of good ideas to implement in future or modders that could help develop the game. It's sad when you become rich and think you don't need people anymore... i just regret the inumerous times i've defended AC, those are usually the people who try to alert the devs what's going wrong with it...

Agree with Chris, they should ban you from the chit chat room and leave only the support to report errors or problems you may have...

 

[William Levesque]

Its obvious they're feeling the pressure. Quite a lot of single player folks aren't happy and neither are the multiplayer folks and they're now letting that be known. Had the refund policy been in place when I bought AC, I'd have taken it, but instead have stuck with it and see little to no improvements over when I bought it.

I've had the game since the tech demo, and it was actually really good. Especially since the console announce and the big dumps of content, quality lowered quite a bit, IMO. You can see that they're cutting corners. And the actual feel of the game isn't improving either. It's way easier now to do stupid stuff than it's ever been in the past...

 

[Radu Oros]

I've had the game since the tech demo, and it was actually really good. Especially since the console announce and the big dumps of content, quality lowered quite a bit, IMO. You can see that they're cutting corners. And the actual feel of the game isn't improving either. It's way easier now to do stupid stuff than it's ever been in the past...

Are you saying it was harder to drive in the beginning then how is now? Then I recommend to anyone to download an old version from late 2013 or early 2014 and compare to how the game is now in 1.4. Making statements from old memories sometimes can be tricky and get a flawed perception, without intention.


"What does Objective Criticism mean?" https://www.quora.com/What-does-Objective-Criticism-mean

Spoiler

Objective criticism is when you give your critique to someone/something but you remain objective while doing so. You don't get subjective at all. Which means you stick strictly to facts and offer no opinions whatsoever. For example, if someone wrote "2+2=5" you tell them that they are wrong and the answer is 4. You don't tell them they are stupid for getting it wrong, you just simply remain objective (stick to the facts) and keep all opinions to yourself. The idea of objective criticism is to help others by informing them of factual information instead of opinionated suggestions or thoughts.

I've never seen anyone in the AC forums to get banned for reporting issues, for pointing what's wrong in a certain physic parameter, or about some car, about sounds (here fonsecker was not objective at all), about graphics, etc.
But I've seen people being banned for being offensive, mocking someone or directly the game/devs or certain aspects from the game.

Why do you defend the existence of a Support forum if you aren't going to remain objective about the problem you found or about the issue you encountered with running the game. Of course when we talk about cars and their behavior, necessity has that we answer in a more subjective manner, but there are constructive subjective reports and then there are flaming opinions. And apparently they don't see such attitudes fitting for a Support forum.

People didn't always get banned from Chit Chat forum, I think it wasn't that many at all, but there are also posts that lead to bans in the modding and game technical sections, and possibly in the suggestions too.

 

[yusupov]

heres the thread where william was banned, unbelievable...http://www.assettocorsa.net/forum/i...o-little-grip-when-sliding.29323/#post-603390 ...i expect virtua simulazioni guys will be gone in one way or another very soon (if theyre not already) since they have been quite open about any problems they encounter with AC.

re: WL, i know the mod says its due to general stuff, but all i ever saw was a posting style id describe as blunt...suddenly changing the rules to make everyone think very carefully about how they word criticism & then permabanning a guy bc you didnt like his 'attitude' before the change is crazy.

also, can banned people even read the forums?? this is probably an even bigger deal, since if not youre truly shutting people out from the community when u ban them.

 

[William Levesque]

Nope, I don't even have access to my private messages, and thus I have to go through Steam if I want to help out testing the Koenigsegg One:1 mod for example. They just ban you and don't even point out what post sealed the deal.

Anyway, apparently I have forums privilege back in mid January. So it's not definitive.

 

[burrito]

I expect virtua simulazioni guys will be gone in one way or another very soon (if theyre not already) since they have been quite open about any problems they encounter with AC

 

[Niki Đaković]

@ bANNEDguys: Maybe Kunos doesn't want AC to be the ultimately realistic as we all first had our impression about it. They want it easy and mediocre. Maybe instead of trying to force ur will of next level realism uppon Kunos you could instead appreciate AC for what it is. A game for guys who want to play a simulation, but also want to have an easy time doing so.

What if we understood how Kunos earned so much money that they changed their way to suit the Average Joe, who just wants to have an easy hour of fun while playing his 'simulation'. Surely a guy like that doesn't have enough time to find all of the games bugs and shortcomings as well as proper base to judge the games core. So let that guy have his fun and you go play something more realistic, because that is for you. You want more, so dig deeper and you'll find it, but not with Kunos.

That is my stand with the situation where AC now is and that is where they want to be for a very long time. Easy to play. And everything is compromised in order for it to be easy to play while still being a simulation. So that better be their image then, because in reality that is what they are and that is exactly what they want to be too. They don't want to be 1:1 representation of real life in any area of things. They wouldn't mind you telling them that if you feel doing so. However you trying to get them better, no that doesn't work. They still want to be a game. They're very rich. They're their own boss.

 

[Radu Oros]

Niki, can you or other car physics expert tell why AC is now easier compared to a year ago, and if that means is less realistic, in a technical way? For me, driving these cars didn't get easier, I am the average joe in terms of race craft and imo, it didn't get easier or more accessible in an unrealistic way. By the contrary.
But so far, your posts are the same as mine, no one managed to 'put on paper' if AC is unrealistic/simcade, or less realistic than it was during early access program, in 2013/14.

Lets look it from another prism, Kunos implemented some parameters that were pointed by Virtua Simulazioni modding group, and after that has been updated to the game, is the game less realistic now?

 

[Brandon Wright]

@ bANNEDguys: Maybe Kunos doesn't want AC to be the ultimately realistic as we all first had our impression about it. They want it easy and mediocre. Maybe instead of trying to force ur will of next level realism uppon Kunos you could instead appreciate AC for what it is. A game for guys who want to play a simulation, but also want to have an easy time doing so.

Sorry, but IMO that's rubbish. If they don't want it to be the ultimately realistic racing sim, then why is this on their website?

"NEXT GENERATION RACING SIMULATOR
Assetto Corsa features an advanced DirectX 11 graphics engine that recreates an immersive environment, dynamic lighthing and realistic materials and surfaces. The advanced physics engine is being designed to provide a very realistic driving experience, including features and aspects of real cars, never seen on any other racing simulator such as tyre flat spots, heat cycles including graining and blistering, very advanced aerodynamic simulation with active movable aerodynamics parts controlled in real time by telemetry input channels, hybrid systems with kers and energy recovery simulation. Extremely detailed with single player and multiplayer options, exclusive licensed cars reproduced with the best accuracy possible, thanks to the official cooperation of Car Manufacturers."

They toot their own horns about how realistic their tire model is, how accurate the physics/cars/tracks are, complain that people aren't appreciating the intricacies of hot lapping on the fancy tire model and laser scanned tracks, and label it as "your racing simulator", then they can be damn sure people are going to expect their product to be a fairly realistic sim, and justifiably so. If some people want an "easy time" with a racing game there are many, many, many options for that, AC does not need to become another one of those. In fact, it needs to be the opposite, it needs to be the one that finally brings a proper racing sim to the console masses, and they have the ability to do it if they don't water down their product.