It's been made plain by HTC via here and PM's that having a private forum in the squad forum area when there is no squad in existence in the game itself, isn't the purpose of "squad forums". Their house, their rules.
I think the issue of confusion and discord is that there have been many of these types of forums over the years, I was invited, unsolicited I might add, to 2 last year before the Abusement park ever happened. One day looking at the bbs, I said "wth is this 190 Gruppe and ZLA" thing? I clicked it. It said in a welcome message that I was voted on by members already there to be offered membership in this "private, moderated by the forum mods, not HTC, area". Ok, whatever.
These existed for years prior to me ever hearing about them, and I've posted nearly ever day since 1999, certainly have read here every day since the doors opened. Yet despite them being around for years, a few of them have been deleted in only the last few days. As I said, I had no idea they even existed for years, so I can understand how they slipped under the radar, but I can also see how some people may perceive their removal all in a quick time period to be based on what was being said in them, and not just their existence.
When the AP was shut down, the perception was that it was due to things being said there, and that it was unmoderated, essentially a place in HTC's house where customers could complain amongst themselves without HTC moderating anything. HTC explained that it was because Bluberry being PNG around here already, when his profile was deleted, so went the forum. That makes sense.. Another person then tried to start up the same sort of thing, but was told there is a policy that "squad forums without squads were not allowed". Again, HTC owns the place, regardless if customers pay them whatever, it's their business and responsibility, right, so if they enforce and clarify rules such as this as time goes by, again, that's their business.
190 Gruppe got zapped in the last 12 hours or so as well. Since there is no 190 Gruppe in the game, this tracks with HTC's policy.
What will be interesting to see, is if somebody, as Dolby said, starts a 32 person squad, and then has 2 or 3 wings attached to it like the Mega Squads of old, and then invites all these people into the squad forum, and the same type of environment exists in terms of topics and unmoderated posts. As I understand things as they sit right now, that should be within the rules. I guess where clarification could be made on the issue, is if private squad forums have to have discussions related only to squad type activities, or if they are considered "anything goes" areas, including critical posts about HTC and other squads and players. As much as I prefer a more "free speech" area, I do agree with others that this is HTC's place of business, and I can understand how things said, some of them by myself, despite being in private areas out of sight from the rest of the bbs and new customers, would still upset HTC. I do feel it's necessary to have clarification on that issue, as it is the heart of the matter IMO from the perspective of the 100 or so members of the private forums in question, before somebody follows Dolby's suggestion and starts a squad for this purpose. If that is against the spirit and intent of the squad forums, I for one would like to specifically know it, as like I said, as the rules stand right now, it isn't clear at all.
