New Forum Code of Conduct

[DebbieElla]

Hello everyone,

For a few months the Community team at Paradox, with the help of our volunteer Moderators, has been reworking the Community Code of Conduct, this document that explains the rules we expect everyone to follow on the forum. Our main focus is to ensure the forum is a safe and fun place for both you and our staff to interact and share your passion for our games. We believe that the forum is a cornerstone of Paradox Interactive’s community and we want to carry on the 20-year-long tradition of developers and players meeting on this platform. Right now, we see forumites leaving, new players avoiding the forum because they don’t feel welcome, developers interacting less and less with the community… We want to change things around and for that we chose to focus our efforts in fostering healthy behaviors on the forum to make sure everyone has an enjoyable experience, and ultimately increase participation. Together with the Community Code of Conduct we are updating our Sanction System to a 3-strikes approach. The rules are remaining roughly the same, but this new system will be less lenient towards repeated offenses (more details below).

It will surely take time, but we trust that these changes will have a positive impact on the forum’s environment. The updated Sanction System will be rolled-out shortly.

In details:
You can (and should!) read the updated Community Code of Conduct HERE. It provides you with clear expectations of the behaviors we welcome on the forum and how we want to interact with you. You will also find a list of Do’s and Don’ts that will help you navigate the behaviors and content prohibited. The Sanction System will now be divided into Minor Infractions and Major Infractions. To put it simply, Minor Infractions will lead to a warning, while Major Infractions will result in a suspension. However, repeated Minor Infractions will transform into a Major Infraction, and there is no more reset period. We give you 3 opportunities to learn from our feedback. At the third Major Infraction, we will consider that you aren’t interested in following our forum rules and it is better to part ways.

NOTE: With the change of Sanction System, it is possible that forum users that accumulated enough sanctions in the previous system automatically end up permanently banned. Do not worry, it is not our intention to retroactively update the sanction system. Our team will review the automatic bans manually to establish the situation and unban anyone that was wrongfully sanctioned because of the change. We understand that it is a major inconvenience and we did our best to limit the risks, but some will inevitably slip through the cracks of cases we didn’t think of and will get automatically banned. If you were banned from the forums and are not able to contact the moderation team, you can appeal the sanction by reaching out to this email: admin@paradoxinteractive.com

Please be patient, we are on it!

 

[DebbieElla]

Question: I've read the code of conduct. But what about jokes, memes, poems etc. as long as they are game-related?

If they are game-related, and don't break the rules in terms of content, then a funny meme or poem won't be an issue. It all comes down to context, and remembering that the tone of it might not translate well over text.

 

[DebbieElla]

Out of curiosity, does this apply to the staff, as well?

In general yes, everyone on the platform go by the same rules.

A number of strikes system vs an infraction based system will always be worse.
It's generally not a good idea to copy that from reddit.

Especially in the OT discussions and debates are normal and tend to get heated.
This will result in a lot of long time members getting banned in no time.


Holy moly. That is extreme.

Also with the retroactive conversion of infraction points how is a user to know how many strikes he currently has?
Especially since there were infraction points that did not expire.


Oh well.

OT currently has very experienced moderators who do a great job at handling the heated discussions there, I have full faith in their ability to balance the new conduct with the discussions that take place in OT. As mentioned, the rules have not been majorly changed, just streamlined.

If you have any questions about how many infractions you currently have, please reach out to me or a moderator and they can tell you privately.

 

[DebbieElla]

Two questions about the new code:
1)


What do you mean exactly by posting with lack of content?Does this apply to asking question to developers in dev diaries if the question is not developed enough?
2)

Does this mean that you can get completely locked out of your Paradox account and services(including your games)just for a forum infraction or this will only be in extreme cases?
Thanks for any replies about this.

1) No, it does not. But we want to discourage spammish comments like "first".

2) Of course not, this is only regarding the forum. Even if you get banned on the forum, you will still have access to your games.

 

[DebbieElla]

To clarify something I've seen asked a few times regarding certain symbols: this is not a comprehensive list and it often comes down to context.

In our experience, while historically many symbols can be seen as oppressive, some trigger negative behavior in our communities more often than others. We want to be strict with the ones we've identified as those triggering symbols, and leave ourselves room for moderating others. Suffice to say, no glorification of historical oppression will be allowed in our communities.

These are general guidelines for the whole forum, but some subforums (like OT) will still have room for moderation that fits within the context of that subforum.

 

[DebbieElla]

Two things:

We tried having warnings that timed out, it did not work. But to clarify: it's only major infractions or repeated minor infractions that will cause a ban. You will not be banned because you swear once, but you might get a temporary ban if you continue to swear even after being asked to stop.

As for the "no boycott" rule, it's not that complicated either. It's more about if someone is actively and purposefully trying to agitate other users to boycott as well, not someone writing "I don't like this game I won't buy the next one". As mentioned before, it's all about context and intent.

 

[DebbieElla]

is there a way to see your current strikes?

It's not public knowledge, but you can always PM me or a mod and they'll be able to inform you about your strikes.

 

[DebbieElla]

So i logged in with the expectation to agree to these terms, my paradox forums are getting a bit ''different''

Now don't get me wrong I like most of them, but these 3 are much.

• Do not comment on moderation decisions publicly.

like right now on this thread? i think if people have a concern they should have the right to discuss it. is that correct?

• Do not necropost, recreate closed threads.

Well if a thread is locked and they have something relevant to add and they cant necropost (use an existing thread) so that means they'd have to recreate the thread, hard to see why that's an issue. If necro posting is not allowed for whatever reason why have the option to post on it in the first place. right?

• Do not call for boycotts and create petitions.

Thats a direct impeachment of free speech, isnt it? had to be posed as questions to not break any new rules right?

All three of these rules have been in effect for many years, so they are nothing new.

It is of course allowed to discuss and ask questions about the new rules in this thread. What is not allowed is to in a different thread complain about getting banned, or saying "moderator x did this" etc. If you have concerns about moderation you can always PM a mod or an admin about it (these are examples, it is not limited to this).

Necro-posting is generally to avoid people coming into an old thread posting about a bug that was fixed several months ago. If you have an issue, it's better to create a new thread if you can't find any current threads about it. And if a thread was closed or deleted due to breaking the rules, it is not allowed to recreate it.

And no, that's not a direct impeachment of free speech.

 

[DebbieElla]

Why is communism not banned at paradoxplaza? Does Paradox symphatize with communism and the russian, chinese and north korean regimes?
I won't buy anything from Paradox on Steam or paradoxplaza until this is satisfyingly answered.

As I've already stated in this thread:

This is not a comprehensive list and it often comes down to context. In our experience, while historically many symbols can be seen as oppressive, some trigger negative behavior in our communities more often than others. We want to be strict with the ones we've identified as those triggering symbols, and leave ourselves room for moderating others. Suffice to say, no glorification of historical oppression will be allowed in our communities.

 

[DebbieElla]

Yeah there should be a banner at the top that every user needs to click that they accept the new CCoC, we also featured it on one of the tiles when it came out, and it's at the bottom of the page under "Community Code of Conduct".

 

[DebbieElla]

I fully understand that (and also why) necro-posting in threads with past discussions or fixed bugs is unwanted (unnessesary heating of old discussions, outright confusion) and therefore not allowed in the CoC. However both the exact wording ( "Where possible, please avoid posting in threads that are reasonably old (6+ months) as they are likely to be outdated and/or irrelevant, especially when reporting a bug."), the technical ability to necro-post at all and a situation I find myself often into raise a question for me:

Is it under certain circumstances allowed to post in old thread? If yes, is the exception already included in the condition that says that the thread has to be "outdated or irrelevant" to "qualify" as necro-posting?

The personal reason why I'm asking is the following situation I'm running into from time to time: I report a bug, say for version 1.1 of the game (including a save). The bug report then gets no visible reaction from QA or developers - what may not necessarily implies that it hasn't been noticed (I could image the devs are too busy or it has been simply forgotten to bug-label it), but I can't rule out on the other hand that it slipped through between many others bug reports... But I don't not bump my thread (against forum rules and I understand why...). So time passes...patch 1.2 comes out, my bug is still there. Patch 1.3 comes, still there. Now I'm starting to ask myself...should I/can I provide a fresh example of my bug with savegame started with version 1.3? And if that is ok/helpful...how to do it best? Can/should I use my old post (which is or could be technically necro-posting, in case 6 months have passed) or is it better to start a new, 2nd thread (eventually linking to the first thread inside)? I feel uncomfortable with the second variant as well, as that maybe could be technically seen as spamming(?)

Thanks in advance for taking the time to explain the rules here to me, as it is really something that I over and over struggle with and I really would like to act correct in the formentioned situation

Hi!

It's always going to come down to context, nothing is ever completely clear-cut. That's why the rules are worded the way that they are. No-one should be banned just for necro-ing a thread, sometimes that happens. It mainly becomes an issue if it happens repeatedly. As for your example, I would recommend that IF it's gone several months and patches, so your original post is no longer relevant, I would make a new bug report (but feel free to mention that the bug has been seen in the earlier patches).

Just curious:

Who looks at America's Three Strikes justice system, and decides it's a good idea? By all means, have a system where if you break the rules 3 times you get banned, but naming a rule after a system where someone is spending their entire life in prison for stealing a doughnut is a bit too much imo.

It has nothing to do with the American justice system.

 

[DebbieElla]

As I've already stated multiple times in the thread:

This is not a comprehensive list and it often comes down to context. In our experience, while historically many symbols can be seen as oppressive, some trigger negative behavior in our communities more often than others. We want to be strict with the ones we've identified as those triggering symbols, and leave ourselves room for moderating others. Suffice to say, no glorification of historical oppression will be allowed in our communities.

 

[DebbieElla]

This is more of a suggestion than a question, but maybe consider including a ban on the use of "casual" as a perjorative? I often see posts where some issue with a game, pricing complaint, etc., is blamed by the poster on a nebulous horde of "casuals". It's use in this context is almost exclusively perjorative, and fosters a climate of elitism that can be hostile to new or less active players who nonetheless still use the forum. It also obstructs constructive debate and conversation by acting as a vague strawman on which anything and everything can be blamed. Thus, I would argue that the use of "casual" as a perjorative should be restricted under the "no personal attacks" or "no new-player bashing" rule.

This is definitely a case of needing context! Us in the mod team will usually infract someone if they are using the term "casual" in a pejorative way, if they are being really elitist or just general trolling, but it's a tricky word to moderate. But overall it is preeeetty much covered under the "no personal attacks", so if you feel we've missed dealing with it somewhere please feel free to report it to let us know and we can take a look.