The most poorly moderated forums on the Internet.

I previously did something called "Internet Forum Reviews" which were my attempt to try to review Internet forums. It's difficult to review a forum if you're not part of the community (although that will also lend to some bias if you try to), so I decided to stop doing them. Instead, I'm doing a one-off of the most poorly moderated forums on the Internet.

I've been on Internet forums longer than some of you have been alive (true story), and back in the day, you had to have some functional level of intelligence to even post on them, let alone access them. Although the sites I frequented were mostly things related to video games, they had some pretty bright folks on it, and as a nine year old kid, it was interesting to meet all sorts of individuals who had similar interests. Now that the Internet is for everybody, we've let all sorts of people in who should be learning proper spelling and grammar rather than posting cat videos and how much they love or hate (insert popular thing here).

With any Internet forum comes moderators, aka the online equivalent to the yard duty people when you go out to have recess and play with your friends. Since they also happen to be human beings, they also happen to make mistakes. Guess who the rules are made by? Human beings, so they also have mistakes in them as well. Since human beings having flaws have always been true, there's nothing we can change about that. But since the Internet can be accessed by just about everyone (including people without intelligence), Internet forums has deteriorated from fairness into police states that would put a smile on Hitler's face.

Without further ado, here are some examples of the most poorly moderated forums on the Internet.

GameFAQs.com

This is probably the king of poorly moderated Internet forums. I've frequented their forums for eight years, contributed to some FAQs, and noticed some of the most blatant and downright bizarre abuses of power. Saying "this game sucks" will get you "modded" (I said that a game that was universally panned as a bad game sucked and got modded for "trolling"). What is being modded? If a moderator doesn't like what you're doing, you get modded. It doesn't even have to break the rules. You can even be modded for a post you deleted, which is also a testament to their bizarre abuses of power.

This guy has come clean about what goes on in the mod circle, and can probably explain things better than I can from the moderator perspective. But from my eight years on the website, I've been modded probably four times, namely because I visited the site at a time when I wasn't a somewhat complete asshole on the Internet (yes, there was a time when I was like that). I still visit GameFAQs but only to read FAQs and not so much post on the forums. I do this because expressing my opinion on something will most likely get me "modded" by people who, for the most part, twist the rules to suit their own viewpoints rather than enforce the rules that are usually available for all to read. The difference between good moderation and shitty moderation? Good moderation entails enforcement of the rules by the letter rather than by the spirit, and some flexibility based on the context (i.e. saying "I think X feature of this game is retarded" shouldn't be actionable, while "You're retarded for thinking what you think" warrants action).

The silver lining: The silver lining in the cloud is that GameFAQs is still largely a forum only kids will visit. The same kids that tell you online that they'll bang your mom and spew 99 million expletives per second as if they just found out how to curse.

Expectations for improvement: Very low. They just rope in more suckers with the promise of being an Internet forum moderator and thus having a position of power, while in reality it ranks somewhere between cleaning toilets and getting a C in remedial math.

World of Warcraft forums

Although the game isn't bad (I still fork over $15 a month to play daily), the forums are poorly moderated. I don't post much in the other forums. However, I like posting on my realm (Kil'jaeden) forum. Despite the large stream of morons on the forum, there are actually really cool people there that I've gotten to know over my three years on the server. I'm currently banned from the forum until February 2 for posting a thread with a joke title about a guild being bad, and talking about Borderlands 2. The reason? Harassment. Even if it was a joke, apparently having a sense of humor is harassment.

Now it's time for my Alex Jones-level conspiracy theory regarding my ban. The guild (which will go unnamed) in question is the largest guild on the server, but it also happens to be the worst. Multiple threads about them go up in the Kil'jaeden realm forums and most of them get deleted within a few hours because they mass report such threads. Bans are thus handed out and everyone goes home happy, right?

Wrong.

Threads about them continue to go up because they really are the worst guild on the server. To be fair, there are some cool people in that guild, but the douchebags hold the power. You might think one would want to repair their reputation as a result, but it's already sunk so far that it can be no longer libeled or slandered. For those who know your media law, you should know that someone or something cannot be libeled/slandered if their reputation in the community is so awful that it can be lowered no further. However, since the "rules" are so badly enforced, these threads go the way of the garbage bin and people get banned.

But do they really deserve the ban? Some would say this guild is abusing the "Report Post" feature, while others think the rules should never, ever be questioned. My personal opinion sways toward the former, because whoever thinks the latter is more of a sheep than they want to let everyone know. Everything that is reported isn't necessarily a violation of the rules, and what you find offensive isn't necessarily what everyone else finds offensive.

On to my theory: This guild and Blizzard have an under-the-table deal where any thread about them is instantly deleted and the people in question warned or banned. It may sound crazy, but there is an element to truth about it: a thread bashing another guild stayed up far longer. Maybe it's because the post wasn't reported as quickly, but also because other guilds don't give a fuck or have the manpower to go to the forums and mass report such posts. Plus, they're the largest guild, so that means more money than Blizzard, which also confirms something that is extremely true in real life: when money is involved, people don't give a fuck about anything else.

The silver lining: There are cool people on the forums. People I'd have a drink with IRL. It's not a bad place to be, but rather a place that suffers from poor and uneven enforcement of the rules.

Expectations for improvement: I'll be generous and say that there's a moderate expectation for improvement, especially if the moderators can see past the smoke and mirrors that people put up in an attempt to squeal on others who are allegedly "breaking the rules" rather than just seeing the obvious "I don't agree with this guy, so I'll just mass report him with my entire guild."

There are a lot of poorly moderated forums out there on the Internet, but these are probably the ones with the most traffic, so if you know any other forums that have poor moderation, let me know.