Crying censorship is something I will always do whenever someone takes the position that the solution to someone saying something they disagree with is to shut them up. You can insult me all you want for "crying censorship", but I would rather have Citabria free to rant and rave and have child pornography via the internet accessible in public libraries, than have anybody decide what is okay to communicate.
If HTC takes the attitude that this board exists soley to promote their product and censor the hell out of everything that doesn't doesn't fit in with that concept (which they haven't in the past), it will become like the other fanboy message board of their competitor: virtually empty just like their arenas. Having people saturate their message board with posts that makes their community look unappealing to potential customers is probably bad for everyone involved. But simply censoring the posts does not solve the root problem: the type of community that makes those posts in the first place.
If the problem is only a few individuals, then banning them definitely solves the problem. But from my point of view, the problem seems to pervade a significant number of the posts made by a diverse range of people including many of the core customers of this product.
Is there really even a problem? Or is it just our perception that the board has become negative? Hasn't this board always been chock full of whiners, flamers, trolls, etc? Maybe we should all take what we read here with a lot of tongue in cheek humor and try as hard as possible not to post anything at all unless it will do something constructive or entertain somebody.
The HTC O-Club is simply the best place on the net for humor and debates. I have gotten many of my non-flight sim friends going there because it is so entertaining. Why can't the general discussion board be the same except for the focusing on AH itself?
I love this game and greatly appreciate the people that have given it to us. I am sorry that we the customers are so demanding that HTC employees' pride gets injured by the non-stop insults and criticisms. But as long as so many people are coming here and complaining, that should be a compliment itself since it means they are still obsessed with playing this game and striving to make it even better.
Maybe HTC should jack the price back up to $30 a month. I have finally finished school and can afford to be part of the exclusive community that was possible at that price.
Hey, there's an idea: paying customers wouldn't get banned for being offensive, their monthly fee goes up $15 each time they screw up so that they partially pay for the potential customers that they are costing HTC. Of course wealthier players with bad attitudes could compete to see who could rack up the highest subscription rate and non-subscribers would be subject to banning, especially if they just quit because of their astronomical monthly fee
For the record, while Citabria/Fester has demonstrated poor sportsmanship in the past, I didn't see what he said in that post that got him banned? Looked like a typical boring repetitive whine for plane x instead of plane y with numerous insults to anyone who said differently which has been a staple on this board since I have been here. I don't remember RAM or the people that constantly attacked him ever getting banned... and that whole thing was as negative as anything I have ever seen here.
Besides, having colorful characters that people despise can actually be a good marketing tool, look at what it has done for wrestling, football, basketball, and the US government.
