Today, I came across this exchange on the Sonic Retro forum:
Naean (User): Ah nice, and yeah it’s rather a shame that logo has no transparency. Also, I feel like such a retard for not thinking to check the Inspect function.
NoNameAtAll (Moderator): Could you please remove the r-word verbiage? We don’t need to use that in 2026 anymore. Thanks.
Seeing the obvious issue with this, I left my thoughts:
Implying there was ever a ‘need’ to use the word before 2026. If you’re going to police other people’s language, then at least give a real reason.
My post ended up being deleted, with the following message:
The moderation decision was already resolved. Your rhetoric here is unnecessary, especially in such a busy topic and, as such, your post was removed from view.
This is, of course, a load of bollocks: whether “the decision was already resolved” is irrelevant, as I am not objecting to the decision that was made, but rather the moderator’s poor attempt at transparency. And ‘unnecessary’? Since when was holding moderation to a standard ‘unnecessary’?
Notably, this is almost the exact same reasoning that was given earlier, so it seems that the Sonic Retro administration’s official stance is that nobody is free to speak unless they arbitrarily deem it ‘necessary’ or ‘needed’.
Need I mention the double-standard that publicly chewing-out somebody “in such a busy topic” is somehow not considered a problem (even though it could have been done in private), but criticising said chewing-out is?
Speaking of double-standards – normally, when a post is considered troublesome, it is moved to a dedicated thread for ‘bad’ posts. Not my post, though: my post was completely erased. Not only was my objection so heinous to the administration that they decided intervention was necessary, but it was deemed so intolerable that nobody should be able to see it.
The next time somebody is censored and an incomprehensible reason is given, remember that the moderators are aware of it, they don’t care, and, if you object to it, you’re the problem and nobody should be able to see your dissent.
Power-tripping moderators can kiss my ass.
